Proud to be an American: Area woman to take naturalization oath on Friday

FRIDAY WILL BE A HAPPY DAY: Canadian-born Margaret Amos, who serves as the Greene County Family Assistance Specialist at the National Guard Armory in Linton, will officially become an United States citizen in a 1 p.m. Friday ceremony at Indianapolis. (Greene County Daily World/Nick Schneider) [Order this photo]

Margaret Amos, who serves as the Greene County Family Assistance Specialist, has lived in the United States for the last 20 years. She works out an office at the Linton-based Indiana National Guard Armory and serves local families from all branches of service.

Even though she has close working relationship with military families, the Canadian-born resident of Spencer had never completed the naturalization process to become a United States citizen.

Friday, she will proudly recite the Pledge Allegiance to the Flag for the first time as a citizen.

Margaret admits that something was missing in her life and she always felt left out when election day rolled around.

The desire to be able to have her voice heard at the ballot box was really the prime reason she pursued the citizenship process earlier this year.

She passed the required written documents and oral examinations in early November and Friday will take part in a mass swearing in ceremony at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis along with about 175 other Hoosiers.

Margaret was born and raised in the Ontario province of Canada near Niagara Falls.

In August 1989, she married Raymond Amos, who works in the research and development department at Boston Scientific in Spencer.

However, it was December 1989 before she could join her husband legally on the U.S. side of the border in the Buffalo, New York area with a green card.

Years passed and Margaret says that she and her 24-year-old son, David, who is also Canadian-born, decided recently they were going to go through the naturalization process together.

David is a member of the Indiana National Guard and completed a one-year deployment to Iraq with the 76th Brigade last November with a unit based in Greencastle. He presently works for the National Guard Armory in Lebanon as a Supply Sergeant.

However, the law changed in 1991 and David isn't required to go through the process because he was adopted by Margaret's husband and is automatically a citizen.

"That was a little disappointing for me because I thought it would have been exciting and nice to do that together," she said.

She has three other children, Raymond Amos III, a 18-year-old freshman at Purdue University, 16-year-old Matthew and 6-year-old daughter, Hannah Rose.

When asked why being a U.S citizen is important to her, Margaret said, most of it has to do with voting.

"I went through all of these years and paid my taxes and our school board (Spencer-Owen Community Schools) started RIFing (Reduction in Force) all of these teachers. My daughter's kindergarten teacher was one of them who was being RIFed. Her statement to Mommy and Daddy was 'You guys have to fix this'. I'm looking at her as an alien and living in this country. I can't fix it, because I can't vote," Margaret explained. "I didn't think about it much before. I think I've become more patriotic being involved with the National Guard and seeing what these families sacrifice for our freedoms and rights."

She said the process to become a citizen is stressful, but worth the effort.

The first step for her was completing an application and submitting a check for $675 on March 25. A criminal background check and fingerprinting followed.

An interview was conducted Nov. 3.

"It is a one-on-one interview and then they do the civics test. I was really hoping for a written multiple choice test, but it was oral," she said.

The test was short -- only five or six questions, she admitted.

"She (the interview woman) did ask me who the governor of our state was. That was an easy one because being with the National Guard, I work for him," Margaret said with a chuckle. "There was one question about the rights of an American citizen and I said that was the jury duty."

Amos now sees herself become more involved in local politics.

"I think it is just a completion of being part of the country and just being able to have that right and the choice to have a voice in voting that is really important to me," Margaret said. "I think every American citizen who is able to vote, should be out voting and know who you are voting for. Now there is a whole new learning curve for me."

Amos said several local Guardsmen will attend Friday's event.

"They are very excited about it. I am no longer the foreigner at the office," she added with a laugh.