I bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution not the king. I am an immigrant, and I still choose America…

Derek Maul

The textbooks I used when teaching American history broke down settlement and immigration into manageable general categories. The quest for gold was associated with Spain, the investment in trade with France and the search for religious freedom with England.

Then the story of how 13 colonies clinging to the east coast became 50 states from sea to shining sea also employed sweeping generalizations to communicate the big picture in terms of culture and politics and economics and the movement of peoples. It is easier to teach wagon trains and the Pony Express than the eradication of native populations, to talk about the Statue of Liberty than working conditions for immigrant laborers, about MLK than Jim Crow, and about Rosie the Riveter than the post-war push to put women “back in their place” (an idea that still has traction today).

We have almost 250 years of this “Great Experiment” in democracy to understand and none of the huge generalizations do much to help. But what truly boggles my mind is the fact that I have been here now for one-fifth of it and, as of today, forty years as a citizen!

February 15, 1985 I stood in the Federal Courthouse in Pensacola and – along with 40 people from probably 20 different nations – made promises as a newly minted citizen of the USA. I did not vow to support any individual or political party or even president, but I did say that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…

I think that is an important distinction to remember today, on my 40th birthday as an American.

I became a citizen for many reasons, including the fact that I felt like I already was an American and I needed to formalize what had already transpired in my heart. But also – and this is extremely important – I chose to become part of a nation that:

• builds up, not tears down,
• does rather than undoes,
• hopes and believes in place of creating uncertainty and doubt,
• is rooted in vision not division,
• is imaginative rather than repressive
• is invested not in retribution but contribution… and solution and Constitution…

I bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution not the king.

I am an immigrant, and I still choose America – DEREK