Just announced: President George W. Bush will be the featured speaker at Monticello’s 46th annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony on July 4. He bumped the previously scheduled speaker for the event, Ken Burns.
The security detail that Bush brings with him will certainly guarantee a headache for everyone involved. Monticello is still working out the details.
"A presidential visit involves some logistical challenges we haven’t figured out yet," says Monticello spokesman Wayne Mogielnicki. Some of those challenges could be the protestors Bush—one of the most unpopular presidents in history—inevitably invites on his travels.
Bring the ruckus: Bush and his security detail
will hit Monticello on July 4.
"We will be in consultations with the White House advance team and Secret Service who do this all the time," Mogielnicki says about handling protestors.
Seventy-five people from 30 different counties will be sworn in as U.S. citizens. In the 45 years of the event, more than 3,000 people have taken the oath of citizenship at the event. Last year’s featured speaker was actor Sam Waterston of "Law & Order" fame.
There’s little word on why Bush, coming up on his eighth July 4 celebration as president, suddenly expressed an interest in attending.
"We have a standing invitation to the President of the United States to attend the naturalization ceremony at Monticello," Mogielnicki says, "and he accepted."
The 46th annual ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10am. It will be free and open to the public—or as open as these things get when a sitting head of state is in attendance.
So what happened to Burns?
"He graciously deferred to President Bush," says Mogielnicki. "We will invite him at a later date."