When I See That Flag, I Know Who I Am: Flags and Rights to Citizenship
This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend. The great American flag was flying high
in nearly everyone’s front yard and, of course, regularly at the banks,
McDonald’s, and other places. I
returned from Jordan to find that a flag of my country was not on everyone’s
license plate or in his or her car, or how a picture of the beloved ruler was
in everyone’s car or business establishment. In Jordan, there were copies of the Jordanian flag or HRM
King Abdullah II everywhere in sight.
Yet, I noticed that if any Missourian had a flag, it wasn’t
necessarily Missouri’s flag or the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, which has become a
symbol of the Tea Party, but the U.S. flag. State rights are important, but what has united us all –
Americans – was our right to citizenship.
Yet, that struggle for citizenship continues for many immigrants to the
U.S., some who have worked, studied and lived in the U.S. for most of their
lives.
What does it mean to be a citizen? To Jordanians it was their long lineage of their people
living in that land called to Jordan, or to the adoption by the Jordanian
government of Palestinian civilians after the multiple Israeli-Arab wars. To be Jordanian meant also that if you
were born in Jordan, then you would receive Jordanian citizenship or had a
father of Jordanian descent so you could receive citizenship. But not if your mother was Jordanian –
mothers cannot pass citizenship onto their children if they marry a
non-Jordanian. The struggle
continues for equal rights.
To Americans, the topic of citizenship is also complex. The
immigration debate has become a very controversial topic with little reform in
recent years, only brewing stricter state immigration laws. The Supreme Court will revisit the strict
Arizona immigration law, creating a precedent for other state immigration
laws.
To those without citizenship, they exist in ‘no man’s
land’. Doesn’t the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights declare each individual, including children, the
right to nationality and citizenship?
This fight does not only exist for undocumented immigrants in the U.S.,
but also for Palestinians in the Middle East, those civilians split between two
Sudans, and other places.
I feel that as Americans, we are more connected to each
other rather than divided by state lines.
In the time leading up to the American Revolution and afterwards, the thirteen
colonies that became the first thirteen states were separate territories that
were newly forming what became as the United States of America. The first version of a flag
representing the Union was hoisted during the American Revolution in Boston in
1776, and then the Continental Congress created an official national flag in 1777
with thirteen red and white stripes and thirteen stars. In addition, a woman, Betsy Ross,
supposedly crafted the first version of the American flag before Congress did
in 1776.[1] There is more in common between people
of different states than what divides us. When there was a division, the American Civil War occurred to
eradicate that division. Now it’s
Congress’s and state governments’ jobs to communicate on issues pertaining to
individual states or to the entire union.
So now I ask you, “What does it mean to be a citizen?” There
are logistics of citizenship like voting, legal rights, etc., but I believe
that it means you also have a duty to your country. Let’s give back to our country and the world that we call our
nations and our home, and let’s create a world where one day every person can
claim citizenship in the state they choose.
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