How to get a U.S. passport? In her blog entitled “Blue passport blues”, Ninotchka Rosca laughs off the displeasures she experienced in the process of possessing one, including her formal interview with an INS officer.
I appreciate the crafty humor the writer has used throughout her delivery. Who knows, that may have been her primary intent: to laugh in relief of the obstacles she has just overcome; to laugh at those who set puny benchmarks in their pursuit of loftier ideals, such as validity and respect; to laugh at us whose feelings she has provoked. But, for words that prick even lightly on matters of national pride and love of country, I throw back to Ninotchka her own utterance of sublime understanding: “Humor is not an option.”
“Smug in what I thought was an appointment, I headed straight for the front door and was promptly sent back to the end of the line.”Miss Rosca concludes her funny narration with a serious sentiment. Upon the arrival of her blue passport, she expresses her “unbearable sadness” parting with her old green one.
“Have you ever been a prostitute? Not yet.”
“Lord, that’s just nostalgia. And it’s incorrect. Here, let me at it; I’ll tell you what’s true and not; I’ll correct my dossier.”
“I’d been a foot soldier in its struggle for validity and respect. The blue one, the most prized passport in the world, I’d acquired through a process I could only charitably call half-demented. Reality disappoints, truly.”The author has certainly captured her readers’ attention, striking a nerve among many, eliciting sympathy from some, and prompting others to either downplay the emotions she has stirred or call for pragmatism.
“Stop your pretensions…denounce your citizenship if you are really disappointed.”Ninotchka’s expression of remorse suggests her gaining U.S. citizenship seems wholly inconsequential in relation to the process that has taken her there. There are those in this and past generations who have faced far more numerous and graver annoyances than which Ninotchka has experienced, all in pursuit of that singular distinction of acquiring that blue passport and all that it represents. Hence, the strong reactions she has elicited.
“You shouldn’t have naturalized then if getting a blue passport has no meaning to you.
“Sorry to say but you don’t belong to America.”
“Geez people, you are all so grim and determined and you take US citizenship so seriously!! It’s not a religion, you know! And by the way, there’s such a thing as ‘sarcasm’, ‘humor’, and ‘irony’ in writing.”
“Miss the green. Get it back. Apply for dual citizenship. No drama. I promise.”
I appreciate the crafty humor the writer has used throughout her delivery. Who knows, that may have been her primary intent: to laugh in relief of the obstacles she has just overcome; to laugh at those who set puny benchmarks in their pursuit of loftier ideals, such as validity and respect; to laugh at us whose feelings she has provoked. But, for words that prick even lightly on matters of national pride and love of country, I throw back to Ninotchka her own utterance of sublime understanding: “Humor is not an option.”
I don't know whether I have a candle at this funeral or not, but as a US-born person with many loved ones who've been through the naturalization process, I totally 'got' her. If the process for becoming a citizen required of people something other than infinite patience, then I would agree with her critics. But from what I can tell there are no requirements to demonstrate thoughtfulness, ingenuity, kindness or generosity, solely an ability to put up with the glacial pace and maddening INS bureacrats. If this is the test, who wouldn't feel some remorse for leaving their green for blue? I, for one, got it.
Posted by: Michael R | 08/14/2009 at 10:30 PM