[Leica] Citizenship

[kididdoc at cox.net (Steve Barbour)]

congratulations to you Tina,  and your 
son-in-law... I welcome him to the most organized, 
efficient, and streamlined  country between Mexico 
and Canada.... my wife went through the same thing 
a couple of years ago....

Steve

Tina Manley wrote:

> At 05:09 PM 7/15/2004 -0700, you wrote:
> 
>> Cameras are allowed, and are welcome.
> 
> 
> I'm back from the citizenship ceremony.  They took my Leicas away at the 
> door.  I had to walk through a metal detector built into the doorway of 
> the new courthouse (which my knees didn't set off), they took away all 
> cameras and cell phones and put everything else on a conveyor belt that 
> went through an x-ray machine.  Then they asked for photo IDs which, of 
> course, were in whatever we sent through the x-ray machine. Everybody 
> was complaining but the security guy just said "I'm following orders."  
> We got upstairs to the first organization point - there were 77 people 
> being sworn in and all of their relatives.  After about an hour they 
> announced that the judge had decided we could have our cameras after all 
> so there was a mad stampede back downstairs to get our cameras, which 
> they let us pick up without showing any identification and without 
> putting through the x-ray machine.  I had a large camera bag with two 
> Leicas and a Bessa-L.  We all trooped back upstairs and they took the 
> prospective citizens into the courtroom on the third floor.  After 15 
> minutes they said the relatives could go up, too.  The only catch was 
> that the courtroom was already full - not even any standing room.  We 
> all managed to squeeze and crowd together so that everybody fit in the 
> room but there was no opportunity to take any photos.  We had my 3 year 
> old grandaughter and 5 month old grandson who came for their father's 
> naturalization but the whole process lasted more than three hours and 
> they were both exhausted and cranky and had to be carried out.  I'm sure 
> it was a beautiful ceremony if we could have seen or heard it!  There 
> were people there from 33 different countries.  There was a very 
> Christian invocation by a Baptist preacher.  I wonder what impression 
> that made on the new citizens who had to study the constitution and 
> learn about separation of church and state.  I won't be posting any 
> photos from the ceremony since I'm sure I only got the backs of heads.
> 
> Tina
> 
> 
> Tina Manley, ASMP
> www.tinamanley.com
> 
> 
> http://www.pdiphotos.com
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> http://www.newscom.com
> http://www.americanphotojournalist.com
> 
> 
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