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George Mitchell
Presidential Medal of Freedom
George Mitchell: My mother was an immigrant from Lebanon to the United States. She came when she was 18 years old in 1920. My father was the orphaned son of immigrants to the United States from Ireland. My father never knew his parents. His mother died -- we're not sure -- either at or shortly after his birth, and he and all of his siblings were placed in orphanages in the Boston area. So my father grew up in an orphanage in Boston. He was then adopted by an elderly childless couple from Maine, who gave him the name of Mitchell. He moved to Maine, and there he met my mother and was married. My parents had no education. My mother couldn't read or write English. She worked nights in a textile mill. My father was a janitor at a local college in our hometown. But they were part of that generation of Americans who had a very deep commitment to the education of their children. They had, really, an exaggerated notion of the value of education. But their life's goal was to see to it that their children received the education that they never got, and in that, they were successful. They had five children, all of whom went on to graduate from college, and several of us have graduate degrees as well.
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George Mitchell
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The power I most enjoyed exercising was when I presided at naturalization ceremonies. They were what we would call citizenship ceremonies, where a group of people who had come from every part of the world, who had gone through the required procedures, gathered before me in a federal courtroom in Maine, and there I administered to them the oath of allegiance to the United States, and by the power vested in me under our Constitution and law, I made them Americans. It was always a very moving ceremony for me, because of my own personal experience, my mother having been an immigrant from Lebanon, and my father being the orphaned son of immigrants from Ireland, and I enjoyed very much those ceremonies. And after them, I made it a point to speak personally with each of the new citizens, individually or in family groups. I asked them where they came from, how they came, why they came. The stories were all inspiring. I wish that every American youngster had been with me to hear people talk about their experiences. Most of us are Americans by an accident of birth. Each of these people became an American by an act of free will, often at great risk and cost to themselves. Their answers were different, reflecting their different countries of origin. They literally came from every part of the world. But there were common themes, and they were best summarized by a young Asian man who, when I asked him why he came, replied in very slow and halting English, "I came," he said, "because here in America, everybody has a chance." And you think about the fact that a young man who had been an American for just a few minutes, who could barely speak English, was able to sum up the meaning of our country in a single sentence: In America, everybody has a chance. That is, of course, the distinguishing characteristic of the United States in all of human history, the first true meritocracy, the place where people can move forward, get ahead, whatever their background or family status, if they are willing to work hard and if they're lucky enough to get a good education. So, for me, that young Asian man's words stand out as a symbol of the meaning of our country. America is freedom and opportunity.
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Scott Momaday
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Scott Momaday: It means a great deal actually, and the reason it does has something to do with my being a Native American. I belong to a race of people, a society that has been oppressed. We, the Indians, have had a hard time, for a long time. We have had to endure a great deal, but the dream means as much to us as it does to anyone. You'll never find a greater patriot than an American Indian. It's not by accident that I, the member of the Gourd Dance society, go to Oklahoma to dance on the 4th of July, you know. It is not an accident that the greatest honor that can come to an American Indian in my generation is to serve in the Armed Forces. And the veterans who have given their lives are greatly honored by the Native people. So, the dream is very important to me, and it is, I think, to Native Americans in general.
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Greg Mortenson
Best-Selling Author, Three Cups of Tea
Greg Mortenson: When I first came back to the country of my birth, I was 15. I hadn't spent any time here. And so my first hour in high school, I got beaten up, and the kids put a garbage can over my head, and they started hitting me. And it was because I said, "I'm an African." And it was, as I mentioned, there was confusion about that. And it was very devastating. I wanted to run back to Africa, which I thought was my home at the time. But when I joined -- we were completely broke -- I was 17 years old, four days after high school. I joined the U.S. Army in '75. And it wasn't a popular time to go into the Army. It was right after the Vietnam War. And actually, it was in the Army where I met men and women from all across America, from the inner city, from ranches, from farms, from rural areas and urban areas and blacks and people of Hispanic descent. And I realized that this is a great country. And I saw people coming together. I also saw that there was dissension in the upper ranks about what happened in Vietnam. And that being an American, it's okay to be a patriot. I still get goose bumps when I sing the national anthem. But at the same time, I feel that it's very important that when we feel that our country is doing something, like in Iraq or something, that we can stand up and voice our opinion. And also to listen to the people.
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Greg Mortenson
Best-Selling Author, Three Cups of Tea
To be an American also is to be able to dream the ultimate dreams. This country is still the greatest place on earth. If somebody who can come from nowhere and be not afraid to have the biggest dream you could try and fulfill, and it could happen. It's also I think a country that we need to -- America really is not so much about being American, but we are a global community. We've come from all over the world, including the natives who first lived here. So we are pretty much a microcosm of the global community. And when we think of ourselves as Americans, I think it's important that we see ourselves as part of the whole global community. I think we also need to export our good values that we have as Americans. We are people of great generosity. We're people of courage. We're people of compassion. That's what people think of individual Americans as. We have that value. And I think when we're looking at policy, ultimately politics isn't going to change the world. It's people who are going to change the world. And it starts building relationships one at a time.
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