Like Lancaster County's newest citizens, we must take seriously our civic duties — including voting [editorial]

THE ISSUE

"More than 96,000 voting-age adults have become naturalized citizens in Pennsylvania since the 2020 election, according to September estimates from the National Partnership for New Americans," LNP | LancasterOnline's Jaxon White reported last Sunday. "In a swing state like Pennsylvania, where the last two presidential election results have come down to less than 100,000 votes, its 19 electoral votes could go to whichever candidate does the best job of winning over those new voters."

The photo atop this editorial represents, to us, everything that is great about Lancaster County and our nation.

The promise the photo conveys. The diversity. The solemnity with which 22 people from 14 countries, together at the Lancaster County Courthouse, recently pledged an oath of allegiance to the United States. Their quiet joy in earning the right to call themselves Americans.

They became citizens at a time of fierce political polarization in their new country. But still they raised their right hands and pledged to "support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

We welcome them to our community. We're rooting for their success.

We'd like to think that if this nation's founders could see the photo, they'd be gratified to know that people still view this nation as an aspiration.

As historian Jill Lepore has written , "The United States was founded as an asylum and a refuge: a sanctuary. This was a form of patriotism. Thomas Paine in 'Common Sense' called America 'an asylum for mankind.' "

We share that view of our nation. So did President Ronald Reagan who, in his farewell address in 1989 , offered his vision of the United States as a "shining city on a hill," "built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace. ... And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here."

We found it interesting that after the recent naturalization ceremony in Lancaster, the new Americans were greeted outside the courthouse by volunteers from the Republican Committee of Lancaster County. As LNP | LancasterOnline's White reported, the volunteers handed the new citizens voter registration paperwork and mail-in ballot request forms printed in English and Spanish. Pamphlets promoting the GOP and its slate of candidates running in this year's election were also available.

And yet the Republican presidential nominee and vice presidential nominee have been describing immigrants in derogatory and dangerous terms. Some of their vilest language has been directed at Haitians with legal status in Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Washington County, in southwestern Pennsylvania. Republicans may insist that they favor legal immigration, but hateful rhetoric harms all immigrants, no matter their status.

We must firmly reject that kind of toxic politicking. And we should consider following the example of our newest citizens, who had to learn basic American civics to pass a citizenship test .

It may seem unimportant to know how many voting members there are in the U.S. House of Representatives, or to be able to define the "rule of law" and name the "supreme law of the land," or to be able to list the freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment and the powers of the federal government. But knowing the fundamentals of civics can remind us that we have a stake in this nation's governance. It can remind us of just how imperative it is to vote.

As White reported, "The importance of voting had been drilled into the new citizens." Lancaster County Judge Jeffery Wright, "in his welcoming speech, urged them to register ahead of this year's election, saying they now have a 'responsibility' to participate in their country's democracy." (Oct. 21 is the last day to register to vote before the Nov. 5 election.)

Those of us who were born into citizenship have that same responsibility.

Elizabethtown College student Ma Jennah Kennedy, 24, told LNP | LancasterOnline that she applied for citizenship to be able to vote. She came to the United States from Liberia in 2010. She is studying to become a physician's assistant.

To register to vote in Pennsylvania, a person must be a citizen for at least one month before an election. The citizenship ceremony in which Kennedy took part was Sept. 13, so she will be set.

Laila Martín García, a Harrisburg-based field director for the National Partnership for New Americans, said new citizens don't constitute a single voting bloc and don't all care about the same issues. Originally from Spain, she will vote in her first U.S. presidential election Nov. 5.

She said new citizens should feel "really empowered" to vote this year because their ballots will be important in deciding the presidential contest.

We all should feel this way. Democracy is in our hands. Let's protect it by voting Nov. 5 for leaders who will stand up for it — for true patriots who will do as new citizens pledge to do: Defend our Constitution.