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COMMUNITY
Stars in their eyes for
these new U.S. citizens
The night before, Muna Omar had
been too excited to sleep. “I was up al
most all night,” she said.
Saturday morning arrived as a bright,
sunny fall day. Omar gathered her chil
dren from their Doraville home and took
them to a small field on the banks of the
Chattahoochee River in Sandy Springs.
There, she joined 69 others who
had come from communities scattered
across Georgia and Alabama to take part
in a ceremony that lasted only about an
hour, but would change their lives and
the lives of their families.
As sunlight glinted on the river, geese
honked downstream, and dozens of smil
ing family members stood and watched,
these 70 people renounced their alle
giances to their former home countries
and became American citizens.
“I’m so happy,” said Omar, who was
born in Somalia and had lived a dozen
years in the U.S. “I’m new. It’s a very,
very big thing for me.”
On Sept. 28, the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services celebrated
National Public Lands Day by holding
its first naturalization ceremony at the
Chattahoochee River National Recre
ation Area. People from 35 countries,
from Bangladesh to Vietnam and
Laos to Liberia, became American cit
izens that morning.
Naturalization ceremonies usually
are held in government office build
ings, but immigration officials said
they hope the riverside gathering
would offer something different. “We
thought this was a change of atmo
sphere,” said Cheryl Johnson, section
manager for the Atlanta Field Office
of the citizenship and immigration
services. The park, she said, provid
ed “the view of the historic land [and]
that scenery here.”
Several of the soon-to-be new citi
zens, who sat on folding or stackable
chairs set up in a newly mowed field,
endorsed the park setting as they await
ed the start of the ceremony. “I like it,”
said Balvantkumar Prajapati, who was
born in India and now runs a store in
Rome, Ga. Segun Oshadige, born in Ni
ger, found the surroundings “calming.”
Occasionally, other park-goers jogged
by or walked dogs in the vicinity. A small
group launched a big rubber raft from
the boat ramp where the field touched
river. Deer wandered nearby in the for
est. “It’s not what I expected, but it’s
OK,” said Margaret Mungei, who was
born in Kenya and lives in Hoover, Ala.
Dora Blanco also was pleased. “It’s nice,
instead of the four walls of the building,”
she said. “We’re actually going to stay and
walk around the park afterwards.”
Blanco came to the U.S. from Mex
ico in 1994, when she was 9 years old.
She lived much of her life in the U.S.
in Whitfield County, and now lives in
Marietta with two young children of her
own. “It’s exciting,” she said of becom
ing a citizen. “It’s something I wasn’t go
ing to do, and
then came
my children.
... You almost
can’t believe
it’s real.”
Oshad
ige said he’s
lived in met
ro Atlanta for
30 years. He
makes his liv
ing driving a
cab. Becom
ing an Amer
ican citizen,
he said, “is the greatest thing that’s ever
happened to me.” He wanted to share in
freedom and to have “a say in the gov
ernment,” he said, “a voice.”
Omar said she wanted to be part
of the nation where her children were
born. They’re all citizens of the U.S. and
she wanted to be, too. “It’s my country,”
she said. “All my kids were born here.
I’m so happy. I’m one of them now.”
Asked why she left the country of her
birth behind, she waved off the ques-
JOE EARLE
others
Muna Omar.
in becoming a U.S. citizen at a
Chattahoochee River ceremony.
tion. “It was a war,” she said. “Killing
and doing bad stuff.” She made it clear
she’d rather talk about new beginnings
than the past.
During the ceremony, she was over
whelmed with emotion. At one point,
a recording of Lee Greenwood’s song,
“God Bless The U.S.A.,” played over the
loudspeakers. She sang along, then had
to stop to wipe away tears. Lensa, her
oldest daughter, quietly massaged her
mother’s shoulders.
After the ceremony, her children
crowded around her, laughing with her
and snapping photos with their smart
phones. All around them, families re
corded the moment with photographs
of smiling new citizens posing with their
new citizenship papers.
“It’s so great,” Omar said. “It’s unbe
lievable. It’s priceless.
“I feel like I have a place, like I have a
country. I feel like somebody now. It’s a
big day for me and my kids.”
She can sleep easier now.
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TOWN
JOE EARLE
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