JAMAICAN AMERICAN

1982 ... 2005 ... Jamaican American

by Wilmot Max Ramsay

     Tuesday, September 27, 2005, the commencement of the 23rd anniversary of Wilmot Max Ramsay Week, my honorary Week in Boston, Massachusetts, marked my inauguration at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts, as US Citizen at approximately 12:40 pm.  The coincidence, to me, of these two celebrations, no doubt, was ordained in the stars!  I first came to the United States of America in the summer of 1982 when I visited my father, Charles Adolphus Ramsay, a US citizen.  I was 20 years old then and, by right, the youngest elected representative, a parish councillor, in my native Jamaica.  On an invitation from Boston Councillor Bruce C. Bolling, later council president of the Boston City Council, I attended ceremonies at City Hall and was officially welcomed to Boston, Massachusetts, and indeed the United States of America.  It was by this gesture of friendship, on a resolution by Councillor Bolling and on behalf of "all the councillors" of the City of Boston that I accepted the proclamation "of September 27th through October 3rd, (as) Wilmot "Max" Ramsay Week."  The City of Boston celebrated its 350th anniversary two years earlier, in 1980, and Kevin H. White was mayor.  A Book For Boston was a mayoral gift presented to me and future Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn was a councillor.

     Twenty-three years later, in the fall of 2005, I become a citizen of this great nation, the United States of America, as I celebrate the honor of the Week conferred me by the Boston City Council.  Steven Kim, a military-man-in-training and a fellow University of Massachusetts Boston colleague accompanied me to the patriotic event.  Also, I noted with care that the City of Boston held its primary election on Tuesday, September 27, 2005.  In 1982, actor-turned-governor-turned 40th President of the United States, Ronald W. Reagan and Nancy Reagan occupied the White House.  During the Reagan years, I had the pleasure of welcoming then Vice President, later President George H. W. Bush and Mrs. Barbara Bush to my native Jamaica.  This official state visit by the Bushes was in the fall of 1983.  My assessment is that: this vast country of the United States has, for centuries, fostered a myriad of connections in the area of foreign relations which remains true today during the tenure of President George W. Bush, son of the former President Bush.  The networking of these relations, over time, can become worthwhile to our country, the United States.  In an age when terrorist acts are directed and carried out against the United States and our interests, the creation of Homeland Security, the parent body for Citizenship and Immigration, therefore, is a bold and far reaching plan for the protection, preservation and continued promotion of the American nation.  It is, therefore, our duty as citizens to embrace and enforce the tenets of Homeland Security.  By so doing, we will have exercised our true citizenship; first to our country; second, to ourselves and finally, to our fellow citizens.  This plan also means  that our educated citizenry, among them our universities, ought to foster an atmosphere conducive to the unity of our people.  It is the training from these crucibles of education that will help to shape the course of the United States.  In short, our schools should be responsible enough to teach a dedicated patriotism.

Cambridge, Mass.,
Thursday, September 29, 2005.