OUR SOLDIERS ARE DYING TO BE CITIZENS.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
When he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1959, Jose Olivares pledged allegiance to the United States of America UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The name of this country. The United States, now thirty-one in number, are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, even though the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. wasn't his country of citizenship. Mexico was. Olivares was here on a permanent visa, working and taking care of his ailing mother living in the city of San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. . But Uncle Sam Uncle Sam, name used to designate the U.S. government. The term arose in the War of 1812 and seems at first to have been used derisively by those opposed to the war. Possibly it was an expansion of the letters "U.S. said it needed him, so Olivares raised his right hand and served. After basic and advanced training, he was shipped to Germany for 15 months in the Third Armored
Jose came home in 1961 and married, raised three children, worked hard to support his family, and retired a few years ago in Panorama City on a modest pension. He's lived 55 of his 68 years in this country. He's never applied for citizenship, figuring serving in the U.S. armed forces, raising a family, paying his taxes, and being a stand-up stand·up or stand-up adj. 1. Standing erect; upright: a standup collar. 2. Taken, done, or used while standing: a standup supper; a standup bar. guy made him all the good citizen he needed to be. A piece of paper wasn't going to change that. ``I was raising my kids, thinking about them, not myself,'' Olivares said. But recently, with the government's move to award citizenship to foreign- born legal residents serving in the Iraq war Iraq War: see under Persian Gulf Wars. Iraq War or Second Persian Gulf War Brief conflict in 2003 between Iraq and a combined force of troops largely from the U.S. and Great Britain; and a subsequent U.S. , Olivares and other former GIs who are not citizens are asking, ``Hey, what about me?'' Why should they not get the same military break, and not have to take the much longer civilian route to citizenship - pay $300, wait five years, and go through the interviewing and testing process? They served the country, too. A lot of their buddies didn't come home. ``There are a lot of Hispanic names on that Vietnam memorial wall, and many of them were not citizens,'' said Jesse Morales, past district commander of both American Legion American Legion, national association of male and female war veterans, founded (1919) in Paris. Membership is open to veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts in Los Angeles. ``More than a third of the men who died in Vietnam were of Hispanic origin. Even posthumously, none of them were granted citizenship. And nobody's talking about it.'' At the funeral last week of Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, a Guatemalan immigrant killed last month in the Iraq fighting, Cardinal Roger Mahony said what was on a lot of people's minds: ``They should not have to wait until they are dead and brought home in a casket to be awarded citizenship.'' On Wednesday, Mahony sought and received the unanimous backing of the Los Angeles City Council  The Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles, California, United States. to join him in asking President Bush to make citizens of all immigrants who have served in the U.S. armed forces. Mahony's right, of course. And so is Olivares. No matter what your nationality, if you're here legally, and take an oath to serve and fight for this country, the least the country can do in return is make you a citizen. Can you imagine the goodwill, Olivares and Morales ask, if symbolically the government reached out to the families of those thousands of Hispanic names on that Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vietnam Veterans Memorial, war memorial in Washington, D.C., built 1982. Designed by the American sculptor and architect Maya Ying Lin, it is a sloping, V-shaped, 493-ft (150-m) wall of highly polished black granite that descends 10 feet (3. wall who were killed in action, and made them citizens posthumously? At their funerals, we gave their families folded flags and our thanks. Why not citizenship, too? ``If only so it can help heal some wounds and have their families feel better about this country,'' Olivares said. ``Feel like maybe it now cares enough to notice.'' The good news is someone is noticing. In a resolution sponsored by state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Fresno, the California Legislature unanimously voted to approve the resolution asking Congress to grant citizenship to all immigrants who served honorably in the armed forces. ``As far as I'm concerned, when you raised your right hand to serve and bear arms for this country, you became a citizen,'' Florez said Wednesday, adding that there are many Filipino veterans in his district who deserve citizenship, also. Now it's up to Congress and President Bush to do the right thing. Listen to Olivares, Morales and Florez. Grant citizenship to all our immigrant veterans who pledged allegiance to this country and served honorably. |
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