Liberty

(10:00AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

with liberty and justice for all.

Saturday, July 4, 2009, the Statue of Liberty crown will be open again for the first time since 9/11.

There are 25 windows in the crown which symbolize gemstones

found on the earth and the heaven’s rays shining over the world.

The seven rays of the Statue’s crown represent the seven seas and continents of the world.

Seven in military become citizens on Liberty Island

Saturday, as the Statue of Liberty crown opens to the public for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, seven members of the U.S. armed forces will be sworn in as American citizens during a special naturalization ceremony on Liberty Island.

“We chose seven people because there are seven points in the crown of the Statue of Liberty – and who better to choose than those who are serving our country in the military,” said David Santos, spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The oath of allegiance will be administered to the seven – including an immigrant from El Salvador who graduated from Brentwood High School and later served in both Iraq and Afghanistan – by U.S. Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute. Then, all seven are expected to climb up the Statue’s crown escorted by a U.S. parks ranger.

All seven military members who are becoming U.S. citizens are doing so under the fast-track system, which allows immigrants to become naturalized citizens within a few months. They are among more than 47,000 immigrants who have served honorably in the military since Sept. 11, 2001 and then have become U.S. citizens under the special “fast-track” provisions.

Nice.

Liberty and justice for all.

Who’s up next?

uhm… no.

What about…

Dan Choi

Not exactly. Not yet anyway.

Let’s see…

Leonard Peltier

Not likely.

Well… some (sorta) good news for Walter Lara. He can stay another year.

When going through the very difficult task of finding a college that would accept an illegal alien; I realized that I never knew before that moment, that I was considered different than my classmates. My parents never told me about our situation, they wanted to keep it away from me so that I wouldn’t think less of myself than anybody else, and so that I would not worry. It has changed me deeply and I have developed a new respect for my parents, for all they have done for me to be in country and to have the opportunity for an education.

The laws of the land disallow me to have an education, but I continue to strive towards a full and complete education. With all the stress and anxiety I am feeling now, I look back and remember the pressure that my mom had to go through to take me to this country and I look forward to all the obstacles that I may encounter.

~Walter Lara

hmmmm. Good luck with that.

Well then.

Liberty.

I don’t think Schweitzer meant these guys.