I
now live in and am also a citizen of the United States, a country
that's made up of native born Americans and immigrants from every
country on the globe. Civilized countries like the United Kingdom and the United
States recognize the need to grant each others citizens the rights of dual
nationality and when I also became a citizen of the United States it
was like
getting married and mothers and motherlands will forever be what
they are. For me, walking away and not looking back was not an option.
Now
at the request of my
native American grand
daughter
Hillary Renz I pull aside the curtain and roll back the clock for
her to learn about the land and some of the people who were her ancestors
and the land and the dust that begat me, her grandfather; to find
out about my mystic utopia and my Shangri-La, as I recall
for her the
wonderful days of my youth when with carefree abandon I roamed
Scotland's hills and its beaches, I sailed the sea, I climbed the
cliffs at Earlsferry and where on a tiny island in the sea I found my special place.
The
United Kingdom is a conglomerate of nations that for political
reasons is comprised of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern
Ireland. Scottish law is different from English law and
there is no such thing as a Scottish or an English passport
although I hear that this may be about to change. Like it or
not all of the people who are part of this consortium are called
British. Scottish passport or not I've never felt that I was born
anything but Scottish and I believe this sentiment is shared by
most Scots. No doubt the same feeling for the land of their birth goes for
those who were born in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
We
all have seen the relatively authentic movie Braveheart
about the Scottish fight for independence and freedom and of how
for his effort the Scottish freedom fighter, William Wallace was
executed. Then as a warning to other not to emulate him, his
adversaries mutilated is body by chopping it into pieces that were displayed
around the country. True that savage act
happened hundreds of years ago and this is a different time
but lest we forget, at an early age, the "Scots,
wha hae wi' Wallace bled", story of Wallace's fight for freedom is
burned into the heart and the brain of every Scottish child.
An
enlightening book about medieval Scotland is "William
Wallace-- Champion of
Scotland." The author is Margaret Wallace. The
publisher of this book is Goblinshead of Musselburgh, Scotland.
Many of
the early immigrants to the colony that later became the United States were of
Scottish birth and these men and women played a large part in the
drafting of what became the constitution of the United States of
America as so declared on July the 4th in the year 1776.
One
Scotsman who inadvertently speeded up the process of the United States becoming
independent from Britain was Earlsferry's Lieutenant William Duddingston
who was the commander of His Majesty's ship HMS Gaspee. In 1772
the Gaspee was assigned to patrol duty in Narragansett Bay, Rhode
Island. By the lieutenant's overly zealous harassment of the
merchants, the colonists captured the Gaspee, set it on fire and
so destroyed His Majesty's ship. This event is considered to be the
colonists' first blow for freedom which four years later culminated in the 1776
Declaration of Independence. For reasons known only to the
Admiralty, Lieutenant Duddingston was later promoted to the rank of
Rear Admiral. He died on the 27th of October 1817 at his Chapel
Green home in Earlsferry, my home village. Another Scot of his era
and man of the sea was John Paul Jones who is recognized as being the father of the
United States Navy.
Today,
February
17th 2011, is my birthday.
The sun is shining,
a light snow is falling and the high country beckons.
