Sunday, July 04, 1999
Local voices on citizenship
• Nathaniel Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals judge, was general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the 1960s.
“The struggle that has made this country stand out like a beacon has been the insistence on the part of racial minorities, especially blacks, to struggle for the right to vote,” he said. “It was driven by an unquenchable thirst to be treated as equal citizens. People died in the struggle to gain the right to vote for all people. But you find a cynicism engulfing too many black voters and keeping them away today. They do not know the tremendous sacrifices made by blacks to obtain and preserve the right to vote.
“I was in South Africa in 1994 and saw people stand in line for hours to vote. Then I came home to indifference.”
• Bobbie Sterne is a Charterite and former Cincinnati mayor who ended her 26-year run on Cincinnati City Council last year.
“I'm a little concerned that people don't seem to value citizenship,” said Ms. Sterne, who was a military nurse in a mobile hospital unit in France during World War II. “We hear a lot of criticism of the government. And while we certainly have a long way to go, we certainly are trying to protect the rights of people.
“On the Fourth of July, I'm thinking we've been lulled into thinking that voting is something no one could take away from us. I still think about what people did to preserve (the nation and American freedom). I don't think people value our government. They are critical of it, but they don't see any personal obligation to make it better.”
• Fernando Poppe is director of Hispanic Ministry for the Diocese of Covington. He is a permanent resident who came to the United States three years ago as a missionary with the Society for the Lady of the Most Holy Trinity from his native La Paz, Bolivia. He intends to become a U.S. citizen.
“I have many reasons to become a citizen,” said Mr. Poppe, whose wife and the youngest of their three children will move here this month from Houston. “If I am a citizen, I can do more work for Hispanic people and all people. I love the moral values in this country and want to work for the conservation of these values and against drug and sexual abuse. We need to return to American ideals. I ask God to save America.”
• Ernest Barbeau is executive director of the International Family Resource Center, formerly the local office of Travelers Aid International.
“The Congress contaminated the noble concept of citizenship two years ago by passing legislation that said you had to be a citizen to access public services,” he said. “Becoming a citizen is now an economic decision for many people. It's no longer based on a conscious decision of wanting to participate in shaping what the country will be.”
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