Ohayo Gozaimasu.
Watashi wa Middletown, Rhode Island no Steve Fagan desu.
On behalf of all of the teachers here, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the government, school system and people of Ito City, for this opportunity to spend one week in your city, to learn about your schools, experience your culture and share in your lives.
We come from many different states and teach many different subjects, ranging in levels from pre-kindergarten to senior high school. However, we come to your city with one mission: to take what we see and do here and then bring this experience to our classrooms and our schools, as well as spread this information throughout our community. We come to learn, so that we can teach, to our part of the world, all of the wonderful things that the people of Ito City will have shared with us.
This day is a day of new beginnings; a day that brings the advent of change in the lives of 19 American teachers, teachers who will leave Ito City next week as different people. By granting us this opportunity, we will become of one mind, with one common goal: to become good will ambassadors for your city, your country, your culture and your people. For this gift, we say with all of our heart “Domo arigato gozaimasu!”
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I also gave a “Proclamation of Friendship” from the people of Middletown to the people of Ito City. It reads as follows:
“Whereas the government of Japan, through the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program, has generously bestowed upon Stephen George Fagan, A Middletown, Rhode Island resident and Middletown High School Teacher, a scholarship to learn about the culture, educational system, government and industry of Japan, so as to disseminate his experience in his classroom, our schools and our community, and
Whereas: The Town Council of the Town of Middletown, Rhode Island recognizes the commonalities between Ito City, Mr. Fagan’s host city, and the Town of Middletown, in as much as both are ocean costal communities with a brisk summer tourist population, yet still possess a positive sense of local identity and community throughout the year, and
Whereas: We are currently presented with a unique opportunity to express our mutual respect and friendship in this global setting, with the intent of promoting mutual appreciation for each other as one step in promoting world peace and harmony.
Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved: That the Town of Middletown, Rhode Island, on behalf of the people of Middletown, does hereby declare in this Proclamation of Friendship, that from this day forward, Middletown extends the hand of friendship to the people of Ito City. In Witness Whereof, We have hereunto set our hands and caused the seal of the Town of Middletown to be affixed this 8th Day of June A. D. 2006.”
The proclamation has been signed by all seven members of the Middletown Town Council.
