A chance to vote, to live a freer lifestyle, to give sons and daughters better lives. Even as US unemployment rises toward 10 percent, 177 Greater Bostonians pledged allegiance to the flag at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester. They gave time-honored reasons and enthusiastically smiled in becoming our region's newest Americans. Scroll through to meet a few of them -- and see why they chose to become citizens.