January 20, 2009 was called as a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation by President Obama. See the full, short, text of the proclamation at whitehouse.gov.
All citizens–which means all of us living here, no matter our legal status–are called “to serve one another and common purpose of remaking this Nation”.
All Historic Present readers should be on board!
Not everyone who lives here is a citizen.
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But they are an American–see my About page.
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I read your about page, but I’m still sure I’m a British person who is a resident of the US, and therefor ineligible to call myself an American. In fact, I feel that to do so could land me in big trouble with the DHS for fraud, as much as if I would vote here illegally.
Still, I celebrate alongside the population of this great country and welcome our new President!
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It’s true you can’t vote as a citizen, and perform a few other services, but you can call yourself an American in my book! Those who respect our founding principles, and come to live in this country to support them, are Americans in spirit and desire, and well on the path to official papers if they like, but valuable to this nation even if they do not choose to become official citizens. If it were as easy to become a citizen today as it was before WWII, there wouldn’t be this unnecessary hurdle to official status.
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