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I'm a native-born American, writing about several Western European friends who've been resident in NY for many years. They've become U.S. citizens, mainly for legal and practical reasons. For example, they want to vote here. But in no way have they given up their loyalty to the U.K., France, Sweden, etc.

This suggests to me that citizenship today is becoming fluid. These people are duals. They maintain their loyalty or passion for their native country, but are invested in the U.S. at the same time.

I suspect this same reasoning applies to the illegal aliens living here from Latin America.

It's interesting that most of the people you're interviewing have gotten their citizenship for "practical" reasons, such as having an American passport makes it easier to travel. I'm not sure what to think of that. But it would be interesting to compare the reasons of today's immigrants with those who got their citizenship in the early to mid 20th century. Were the reasons different back then? My grandparents were immigrants during the early 20th century, and in conversations with them, they became citizens because they wanted to become Americans, vote, become part of this country in some way. So far, what I'm hearing is very different than that. Interesting.

Come on -- native born snobs. The Magic Kindom is the American Dream. Were our greenhorn ancestors any different? I doubt it.

I just spoke to Brian Lehrer this morning. It really made my day.

I want to thank the producers for taking my call.

Few days before I became an American last year, I wrote the essay, On Becoming an American.

It is publihsed here:

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rudolf-ogoo-okonkwo/on-becoming-an-american-3.html

I hope you can let your readers read it and see in greater details what it felt like and why.

Thank you again for a wonderful program.

Rudolf