at the seattle center we attend the twenty eighth annual two thousand and twelve naturalization welcome to the twenty eighth annual naturalization ceremony ceremony produced by the ethnic heritage council seattle center and the united states citizenship and immigration services and many thanks to two thousand twelve major sponsor bank of america and all of its sponsors for making this event possible i also want to thank and i hope you won't hear to the green one concert band director by william planing colors at this time please stand for the presentation of the colors in recognition of this momentous day we've been joined by many local dignitaries and i just want to take a couple of minutes to them are u s senator maria cantwell washington state secretary of state samar washington state senator  honorary consul of germany walker family i have to say mayor mike mckeon and privilege moderating this event at the honor of saying a few personal remarks at the beginning and first just welcome everybody and their friends and family to this event we're at a wonderful place seattle center which belongs to all of you and in which we celebrate all of the cultures of this great city and country so just another thank you robert now i'm the director of seattle i five hundred twenty five individuals from eighty two countries will be sworn in today as u s citizens and it's i know that  were difficult situations at home and you all chose this country and this region but most of all this country because of its promise and opportunity and if i asked the people on the stage behind me and if i asked the people in the audience they all can point to somewhere in their family history or even perhaps themselves when they had to make a momentous choice to make a move from someplace that's familiar to someplace new to strike out on their own to make a new life you know in my family background it's my great grandparents and my grandparents my father is that children  good afternoon it does work fifty years ago we were out on the world to seattle as part of the century twenty one world's fair right on the site of the day we welcome you to the united states of america as part of our democratic process fifty years ago we hope a six month celebration of hope but yet on the road map today we are in the midst of a six month celebration called the next fifty that is the map to the heart of our community fifty years ago on may first one nine hundred sixty two we held the first naturalization ceremony on these grounds today we hold the twenty eighth consecutive naturalization ceremony yes you have fifty years ago we were inspired by  e please welcome washington state attorney general is an honor to be here with you today as the attorney general of our great day there is no better day for such a celebration of citizenship than our independence day the fourth of july because celebrating our citizenship we works saving money to bring his brothers and a sister over from ireland to join him and together they moved to the midwest where they bought land and began farming land which remained a kind of family even to this day the journey and your journey represent the very best of our country built on hope and diversity and hard work where all people from all cultures around our world can come together in the land of the free  one nation with liberty and justice for all each of your journeys also shines as a beacon of hope for people around the world seeking freedom and democracy in their homelands and pursuing their own dreams of peace and prosperity and living your new lives as american citizens i hope you will cherish your freedoms and liberties every day and use your status as citizens of a free country to spread this message of peace and hope to people in all parts of the world i also encourage you to always look for new opportunities to better our country by sharing your traditions your culture that your heritage within your community it is this great mix  culture and diversity that strengthens the fabric of our society and enriches the lives of all of us as americans for all of us being american comes with great responsibility to preserve our way of life we must together on our civic duty the only certain way that we can guarantee our own liberty is to participate in our democracy and work together to preserve our government of the people by the people and for the people please keep in the forefront of your mind that the american government is your government longs to you so please they make sure that your voice boyce's are always heard your active participation is the only way to ensure that your government  serving you and your loved ones well and that is always then will always be the key to the american dream again thank you for the great honor of joining you here today best wishes to you for a wonderful and prosperous future congratulations on your citizenship and happy independence  this country this premised on the notion that do do citizens well register to vote i will participate in the process the other ones were a register and then you'll be able to vote as we move into we have a primary coming up on august seventh and we have a general election in november and you will get information if you struggle blish we can provide you information in your native language and we definitely want you to participate and you're very lucky our first election in the state of washington it's going to be a very exciting  three open seats for united states house of representatives so it's just going to be a very exciting and interesting election and luck to you this is going to be your first one so please register please bot duty as a citizen united states and i want to congratulate you on this day when you become citizens of this great nation thank you very much it's all the new immigrants variously i am an immigrant i've been a refugee i've been a displaced person i've been without papers i've been a refugee camp i have been an orphan i have been i have all of you so i'm not going to make a big deal out of it because you're not either you all have a story every single one of you has a story and i do that because it means so much to me to come to this country and have the opportunity and forget your hardships but do not forget why you came here you cannot forget that and you must not you must tell your children and grandchildren your story and your friends and even your enemies was there anyway it's very important that you remember that and hang on to your song and your dances and your food and whatever it takes to remember where you come from because you know it's huge it's a very big country and it's very easy to get lost as a family i'm from croatia we formed a dance group and so they're going to keep our tradition and my mom died last november but she would still be so proud of us because we got an invitation to perform at the library of congress this in two weeks and at the kennedy center she would be so proud because everything we're in every morning with god bless america and the i can't fit it into a anyway god bless you all thank you very much you know the american way we must business is business now i have to thank our sponsors so that was my personal message to call it  in your program those are our phone number and our address we're located here in the center and if you need any help to connect with other of your own ethnic groups other ethnic groups put on a festival whatever please give us a c seattle office of arts and cultural affairs were delighted because they help us put this together as well and it's an actual person dave a lot of money question to my god bless her universe the last foundation and you can stand up to jen if you want to get old post number one to marry some legion thank them for the little flags and just general the part they're just fabulous the national society daughters of american revolution rainier chapter thank you so much for your support and also supported by seattle foundation the canonical and the late terry healy thank you very much for giving your time to has been my high had to really to do this because each year this i sit up here on the stage i look at the group of people here and i think about who is on the money today and i day watching the lips and hearing the places without comprehending a single thing that was going on in school that's where he started he served in the united states army received a degree in architecture from university of washington and agreed electrical engineering from seattle pacific university and then became an engineer for book microsoft he looked packard and the boeing company because of the political turmoil of his native country under a military dictatorship wench only seems now to be cracking with the release of such she to go around the world and show a different face for burma that they're trying to get rid of that dictatorship refugees from burma began to settle in the united states and simon twenty twenty assisted them with language and job skills to create community empowerment was social and educational activities simon formed the coalition for refugees from burma and the northwest communities of burma to promote unity among these ethnic groups remember there's one hundred and thirty five different groups in burma so i would also work with  to creep future leaders last year we organized a free summer camp for refugee students to study humorous math rom of physical education and computers paying for funeral expenses tutoring high school students opening is home to refugees are only so home of simon's acts of tireless commitment that have benefited one of our most vulnerable societies simon  grateful to the united states of america or for giving my family and other refugees home i must thank my parents higher than they have sacrificed and given to me we're going to announce the candidates by country what i almost said earlier was hanging on to your culture and bringing it here with you as you become a new status and so what we're going to do is i am going to best country by country where people come from el salvador eight candidates australia and now we get to the well we've been waiting for i'd like to introduce a course on the district director district twenty united states citizenship and immigration services to get all who will conduct the admissions of candidates to citizenship great pleasure to introduce the honorable richard thomas judge of the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit your honor i'm here today as the representative of the department of homeland security office of citizenship and immigration services u s the i host citizenship ceremonies just like this one across the country to celebrate our independence day it's in the spirit of this evan the pen that our nation welcome generations of immigrants such as yourself and candidates who will soon have the important responsibilities as america's newest medicine to be active into your community to debate and voice your opinion to vote and we heard and to shape america's future and now judge thomas and i present you two motions for your consideration the first as a motion to grant fifty nine name change the titian and the second is to admit the five hundred twenty five candidates we have today for citizenship and each of these candidates has been found to be a good moral character attached to the principles of the constitution and eligible for citizenship and every other respect i request you to  learn more about the twenty ninth naturalization ceremony occurring at the seattle center on thursday july fourth from approximately eleven am to approximately one pm at ethnic heritage council dot org please visit my archive page at seattle community media dot org slash node slash two six five five eight slash list shows well my website is being updated or shoot me an email and i'll send you the link and as always thank you for watching 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