Tea at Trianon: New Citizens

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

New Citizens

I admire the people who made sacrifices to become citizens LEGALLY just like my grandmother Magdalena. They respect our country and its laws. From Fox News:

At a naturalization ceremony in New Hampshire, 102 people hailing from 48 different countries became citizens before an audience that included the state’s two senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, and Gov. Chris Sununu. In New York, Karina Borbon, who arrived in the U.S. from the Dominican Republic ten years ago, explained how it felt to realize her dream. “I am so excited…It was a long journey but finally, I did it,” Borbon, 32, told the New York Daily News. “Now I have become a part of the nation. I want to help my community and help the people become citizens, too.” (Read more.)