[Magdalen] Naturalization Ceremony

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

​
On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 9:33 AM, ROGER STOKES <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com
> wrote:

> I think these developments are part of a move to boost a sense of
> identification with the country you are becoming a citizen of.  There has
> also been a move in this direction with formal citizenship ceremonies in
> the UK. I think it's no coincidence this has started after the recognition
> of home-grown terrorism and the need for people to realize that the enemy
> is no longer necessarily "out there" and visible as such but may well be in
> the next apartment or behind you in the check-out line.
> Roger

​​
​I am taken back in memory to the time in the very early fifties​ when
schools routinely were expected to put on shows to demonstrate that the
kids had accomplished something, I suppose.  I know we kids were very proud
that we were able to put together such things, and our parents were also.

One year we all got together for the finale and sang a musical setting for
a poem which I now will remember forever. I don't remember anything else
about our pageant, but I suspect someone read the rest of the poem. Since
my own ancestors came here because where they had been they could not live,
it moves me to the point where it is almost impossible for me to talk about
it without getting choked up. The poet who wrote it had a number of
accomplishments under her belt. She had become reconnected to her own
Jewish roots, and had done a lot of work for people coming to this
country.  She wrote the poem as a modest effort to help raise funds for the
statue the French people had given to us.  All we needed to do was raise
money for the pedestal.  She wrote a sonnet.  Most of her other work is
forgotten; that sonnet has assured her a place in American history.  She
was aware of a new definition of country that had developed, and she
contrasted this new statue with a statue of some fame in Europe -- one of
the original seven wonders of the world until it got knocked down many
years before. At the time she wrote her work, there was no tradition about
the Statue of Liberty, for it did not yet exist, and yet, with her
prophetic eye, she saw clearly what it was later on to mean, both to
immigrants, and to those who love the better natures of our land.

This is the piece she wrote:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175887#poem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Colossus

We didn't sound like this, but it was the Berlin setting that we sang:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrWZDC6etJ8

​It sort of follows the words of Origen, as he responded to Celsus: "The
poor are said to be the rag, tag and bobtail of humanity. But Jesus does
not leave them that way. Out of material you would have thrown away as
useless, he fashions people of strength, giving them back their
self-respect, enabling them to stand on their feet, and look God in the
eye. They were cowed, cringing, broken things. But the Son has set them
free!”"​


James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy