U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Reads Declaration of Independence in Patriotic Orient Ceremony

ORIENT, NY - In a moving show of patriotism and pride, the Orient community welcomed United States Associate Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Sunday, to read the Declaration of Independence in a time-honored tradition.

The reading of the Declaration of Independence took place at the seventh annual Heritage Day parade and celebration hosted by Oysterponds Historical Society.

John Holzapfel, president of the Oysterponds Historical Society, said he simply wrote a letter to Sotomayor, asking her to partipate. "Here's the outcome."

Holzapfel began the ceremony, which took place on the steps of the Old Point School House, thanking the many who pledged their lives to the creation of the new nation, the United States of America.

Augustus and Lucretia Griffin, early settlers in Orient, were instrumental in chronicling the hamlet's early history, he said. Augustus, born in 1797, died at 99 years old, and kept journals for decades, voting for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

He read portions of Griffin's journals to the rapt crowd.

The tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence aloud in Orient to mark July 4 goes back 200 years, Holzapfel said

Justice Sotomayor, who began the reading and was followed by children and dignitaries including Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, said the nation's forebearers, with the Declaration of Independence, paved the road for "a more perfection union."

The document, however speaks about "all men being created equal," but added that initially it was "only some men — and no women."

She detailed the long fight for equality for all. "We weren't born a perfect union," Sotomayor said. "We have to continue working at making this a more perfect union."

When she read the historic Declaration, Sotomayor, the first Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic heritage, the first Latina, the third female justice, and its twelfth Roman Catholic justice, said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men — and today, all women —are created equal."

Rabbi Gadi Capela of Congregation's Congregation Tifereth Israel also spoke, remembering Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who died Saturday. For many ears, Rabbi Capela sat behind Wiesel at a New York synagogue, both helping on high holidays to wash the hands of high priests. Only in the United States, he said, could "people who couldn't be more people" be so united.

He quoted Wiesel, saying, "The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference."

Rabbi Capela reminded the crowd that there is "one law, one Constitution for everyone" in the United States and said the "United States means exactly that — unity. Uniting people who are different."

The ceremony was followed by a celebration in Poquatuck Park with music, food, games and the winners of the bike decorating contest.