A Civics Class

If you did not suffer through a Civics class while you attended high school, you would be forgiven if you did not know:

• That the birthday of the United States of America is July 4^th, 1776
• That our national flag has 50 stars, that they are white on a blue background, and that there are 50 stars because there are currently 50 states in the union
• That our national flag has 13 stripes, that they alternate white and red, and that 13 is the number of the original colonies
• That the federal government has three branches, that they are the legislative, the executive and the judicial
• That the legislative branch is called Congress, that it consists of a Senate and a House of Representatives, that it is the most important of the three co-equal branches, that senators serve 6-year terms, that House members serve 2-year terms
• That the executive branch is led by the president, who serves 4-year terms, limited to two terms
• That the Judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court, with nine justices serving life terms limited only by death, retirement, or impeachment
• That the name of the president is Joe Biden (a fact, not my opinion), that the name of the Vice President is Kamala Harris, that the name of the Speaker of the House is Kevin McCarthy, that the name of the Senate's Majority Leader is Chuck Schumer, that the name of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is John G. Roberts, Jr.
• That you have to be at least eighteen years of age to legally vote
• (You would be forgiven if you did not know) the capital of your state, the name of your state’s governor, the name of one of your state’s senators, the name of your House member, or the name of your city’s mayor
• That neither Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Elon Musk may serve as president under our Constitution as they are not natural born citizens
• That the first words of the U.S. Constitution are "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
• That the U.S. Constitution (and all its amendments) is the supreme law of the land
• That the U.S. Constitution can be amended (altered, changed), that there are currently 27 amendments to the Constitution, that the first ten of these amendments are called the Bill of Rights
• That the Bill of Rights, and nearly all the other amendments, guarantee rights to the people even if the majority, represented by Congress, would like to limit them
• That the first and most important of the amendments to the Bill of Rights reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  Which means, for starters, that the United States of America is NOT a Christian nation, and that majority Christians have no special powers to limit the rights of Roman Catholics (who are the first Christians), Jews, Muslims, Satan worshippers, the unaffiliated, or atheists
• That citizens have rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution or its amendments or anywhere else under the law
• That the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, was fought over the right of states to allow white citizens to own slaves, and that President Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address
• That Franklin Delano Roosevelt was our president during the Great Depression and the Second World War
• And you would be forgiven if you did not know that 62% of your fellow Americans (Americans by dint of birth) cannot pass the same (Citizenship) test that foreign-born persons must pass to become citizens of the United States, that most native-born Americans know less about our history, our government, and our founding documents than folks who choose to become American citizens

Which brings me, finally, to the point that I have made more than once on this blog: if you did not already know most of what you just read and you are American-born, you should be embarrassed; and if you can’t pass (60% is a passing grade) the exact same Citizenship test that your neighbor Sven from Sweden had to pass to become a US citizen, stay away from the voting booth come Election Day.  Leave the job of choosing who will represent us in the halls of power to those who know what it means to be an American.  Or, better yet, fix your ignorance of your own country, its founding documents and its institutions.  Please!