PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2022

f illed words that often surround conversations regarding citizenship, immigrants and legal immigration. As a result, your responsibilities as citizens, my responsibility as a citizen, are as important today as each generation that came before us – maybe more important – as you are called upon to do your part to build this nation. This divisiveness is not new to America. At times in our history, those that want America to be only as they wish it to be come out and shout, and when they don’t think they are being heard, they shout louder. They challenge all the qualities associated with America in the way that we treat each other – with fairness, tolerance, compassion, equality, civility and freedom – the qualities that likely inspired you to come here in the first place. These shouters are as old as America itself. President Lincoln once said in response that he was opposed to that which degrades a person, any person. How simple is that? What can we learn from Lincoln, and from our grandparents, and from our parents, and from each other? To honestly accept our responsibilities as citizens and to never abuse the privileges we are afforded from the fact of our citizenship. No group may be more qualified than you to do so. Today you are an affirmation of what America is and will continue to be. I welcome you today as citizens of the United States. You honor us with your decision. I thank you for doing so as you and I – we, the people of the United States, holding the Office of Citizen – continue to strengthen the fabric of America and continue to live, and love, the promise of America. Out of many, one.

laborers, constructionworkers, builders and carpenters; in small business as management; in investments, in pharmacy, in insurance, in education, in medicine, in law and in many other professions. All as proud Americans. The fourth child of my grandparents was my father, George Shadid. With only an eighth-grade education, Dad became a Peoria police officer for 23 years, sheriff of Peoria County for 17 years, and an Illinois state senator for 13 years. For six of those years in the Illinois Senate, Dad sat next to – and became friends with – a Harvard Law School educated gentleman and future president of the United States: Barack Obama. Only in America? Yes. As those immigrant grandparents of mine look down on me today, they see a grandson presiding over this ceremony as a United States District Judge, administering the same oath to you that my grandfather took 92 years ago, in 1930. And they see this certificate, the same that you will receive today, that I display inmy office as a daily reminder of the decision they made for a better life for themselves and their family. Could they have imagined what we would become? No. But they could imagine that we would follow the path they charted and do our part to build a nation. If my grandfather were here today, he would say to me that no matter the law I’ve learned, or the books I’ve read,

or the titles I have obtained, I already hold the highest office in the land: the Office of Citizen. That is their story. My story. The story of my uncles and aunts and cousins. You have your own stories. They may be different in how you came here but they are similar in why you came here, and they are the same as to the hopes and dreams you have for yourselves and your families. Some of you came as children. Some you came as adults. You each share a common spirit, a spirit that has found its way here from every place on the globe, coming as individuals and in groups, bringing your traditions and cultures. Becoming a citizen has never been restricted to those of special privilege, or status, or physical likeness or language, but based on the ideal of self government, liberty and justice, equal rights and equal opportunity, which has renewed and strengthened America for more than two centuries. And while we all look different and come from different places, the one story we all share is this: Pride in your family is the same in every country. Pride in your children is the same in every country. Pride in yourselves is the same in every country. Having said that, let me finish with this: For thepast 11 years, I havepresided over naturalization ceremonies with positive and hopeful remarks. Today is no different except that I recognize the divisive, demeaning and hate

James E. Shadid is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. He is based in Peoria

NOVEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 31