I'm Ira Glass. Yeah, it's a little chilly. I'm so excited, man. This is the day. Yeah, this is the day. In a big hall on a pier in Portland, Maine, walls of windows looking out on the water, Abdi Nor, wearing a royal blue three-piece suit, American flag tie, American flag pin on his lapel.
Yes, yes, yes. I dressed up for this. I ordered this online. It arrived yesterday. This was recorded three weeks ago. Abdi and 45 others from 25 countries were becoming US citizens. And just before the ceremony started, Abdi was told that he will be leading the entire group at the end in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It's been a long journey to this moment for Abdi, starting in We did a whole episode of our show years ago, built around recordings that Abdi made during that difficult journey to America.
And today, to commemorate his new status as our fellow citizen, we thought we would replay that story with some updates at the end. If you've never heard of this, it sounds like the kind of thing that can't be real. But it's been around since the '90s, run by the United States government every year.
The original idea of it was to get a more varied group of immigrants from a diversity of countries into our country. The Trump administration has cut some of the eligible countries from the list, but the lottery is still operating.
