On Oct. 16, I attended a naturalization hearing conducted by U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry. One of the attorneys I work with, Antonio Lordi, became a United States citizen that day. Antonio's father arrived from Italy so that he could attend his son's citizenship ceremony.

I had attended a couple of these hearings many years ago when I worked with an immigration attorney, but I had forgotten how inspirational and emotional the hearings are. I think EVERY natural-born citizen should attend at least one naturalization hearing in his or her adult life.

There were people from all over the world -- India, China, Russia, Canada, Italy, Romania, Iraq, South Africa, Kenya, England, Israel, Brazil, Ukraine and many other countries. They ranged in age from about 18 to about 80 (really). All with a story.

A young woman from Brazil was asked to speak. She was Gisele Barreto Fetterman, wife of the mayor of Braddock.

With emotion in her voice, she spoke about her grandmother's dream of the United States and how she remembers as a child her grandmother would say the United States was a fair country and it was a safe country, unlike the things they saw in their own country every day.

She told them you could live in the United States without fearing the government. She said one day her mother came home from her "coveted job" working as a hospital nutritionist and told them to pack lightly. That began their journey to the United States.

When they arrived, they were cold and had very little. She talked about hard work, sacrifice and how she became an honor student and some other things that led up to her becoming a United States citizen today. And, that she had finally realized her grandmother's dream.

It made me realize that each person in that room had a story and many of them had made huge sacrifices to obtain what we were fortunate enough to be born into. Looking around the room, you could see the pride on each face as they pledged their allegiance to and became a naturalized citizen of the United States and received their coveted miniature flag.

It made me think about how all of our ancestors must have felt when they first arrived here. I have a lot of respect for the people who work hard to legally immigrate to the United States.

Antonio was given a brochure about our elected officials and was surprised that the salary was listed for each official. Here we have the right to know these things about our government officials, but it is another little thing we often take for granted.

Our country may be far from perfect, but we are so very lucky to live where we have the freedom to discuss what we like and complain about the things we believe are wrong. And the privilege we have to vote in an effort to make things better.

Antonio thanked me for attending the hearing in support of his accomplishment, but I think it is me who should thank Antonio for the opportunity I had to remember how lucky I am to be an American.

So, congratulations, Antonio, and thank you!

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