The year I turned 30 years old, my boyfriend asked me one day why I had never applied for my citizenship. I thought it an odd question at the time because I had never really considered it before. Growing up in California where my German parents brought my sister and I as babies, the only thing that distinguished me from the other kids in my class was the fact the I had a green card. In every other respect, I really felt I already was American.
But he had planted the seed and a year later I began the process of becoming an American citizen. Looking back now, I'm almost embarrassed at how casual I was about applying, even going so far as dismissing the notion of "taking the oath of allegiance" in much the same way I would a trip to the DMV.
Nonetheless, I took my oath on March 12, 2000 at the New York Federal Courthouse in Manhattan. For those unfamiliar with the wording of the oath you might be surprised by a few things. First of all, you actually have to renounce your allegiance to the country you used to be a citizen of, and while I never had any emotional ties to Canada, it struck me for the first time the finality of what I was doing. (I know, it sounds completely ridiculous but I hadn't given it much thought). In fact when you finished taking the oath someone came around to collect your green card and your passport. Second, you are asked to defend the Constitution against all enemies, which included bearing arms on behalf of the United States when required to do so. Yes. Imagine that. Being asked by the country you had dispassionately lived in as a visitor all of your life, to now kill and possibly be killed. It was a sobering thought indeed (and certainly nothing natural born citizens are ever formally asked to do).
After successfully completing the naturalization oath, I was now officially an American citizen. (I can vote now!) I registered as a Democrat because I wanted to vote for Hillary as my Senator, and Al Gore for President. I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. during the 2000 Election night marathon waiting for the results and finally went to bed like the rest of us never expecting what was to follow. 38 excruciating days of incompetence, iniquity, and anguish, watching the Democracy I swore 8 months before to defend being hijacked by well-connected political hacks.
The inauguration of George W. Bush followed, my apathetic friends, family, and co-workers threw their hands up in the air and retreated back into their lives, but I couldn't let it go. For the next couple of years I read everything that was written about that election and distilled George Bush's presidency, in my mind, as the apogee of political corruption.
Another election rolled around, and after having survived September 11th as a New Yorker, I had to endure the hubris of Bush & Co. descend upon my wounded city with their craven 911 exploitation tour. I worked a few blocks from Madison Square Garden where they were having their convention and lived about 15 blocks south. For the duration of the convention, I walked past the blockades and police in riot gear separating New Yorkers from obliviously giddy Republican delegates. Swathed in a bevy of obnoxious Anti-Kerry paraphernalia, they laughed and lauded Bush's illegitimate Presidency all the way to another stolen victory.
Having sworn off politics after the 2000 election fraud, I had not watched the DNC that year but somehow stumbled on a you tube video of a certain keynote speaker. I think critics of President Obama would say that is when I drank the "koolaid". Call it what you will, but listening to him tell his story did give me hope again.
Which brings me to the reason why I am finally writing my first diary after reading and commenting on The Daily Kos for over a year now. I ran across this Obama Ad and it reduced me, literally, to tears. We cannot lose this election by a mere 537 votes. We must do all we can to GOTV. We must remind everyone to participate in that most fundamental right to protect and defend our voice by being active in the process. We must remember what happened in the 2000 election and vow to never let it happen again. Please, share this powerful Obama Ad with as many people as you know and lets GOTV!!!