American Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities Listed in a Brochure in 1955

One of the proud moments in my life was the day when I became a naturalized American citizen, following a long journey of four years which included tons of paperwork, interviews, expensive fees I could barely afford, and many trips to the Immigration office at a time when I was a mom, a wife, a daughter, and a student.

I was not lucky to be born in the United States, but I became a naturalized American as soon as the authorities allowed a legal immigrant from a communist country to become one. I was properly vetted, vaccinated, employed, checked for communicable diseases, studied America’s history, its founding documents, and underwent at least three hours of interrogation to make sure that I was not a communist. It was a bit strange, I admit, since I fled communism.

Things have changed since I became a citizen. Immigration laws are no longer respected or followed, politicians keep telling us that laws are “broken,” winking to each other, allowing any flotsam and jetsam of the third world to walk unimpeded across the southern border, and thousands and thousands are flown and dropped into small, conservative communities in the dead of night, carrying U.S. or U.N. debit cards, Medicaid insurance cards, and brand-new cell phones. American citizens are even asked to donate as much as they can for the settlement and care of unvetted and unvaccinated illegals dropped overnight into their midst to increase the voting rolls for the Democrat Party.

A naturalization brochure from 1955 came across my desk recently. Published in 1955 as document M-76 by the Department of Justice, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, it is titled “Welcome to the New Citizen on the occasion of Naturalization.”

Printed in blue are the words to The Star-Spangled Banner, written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, a Baltimore lawyer, during the bombardment of Fort McHenry and adopted by Congress as the National Anthem in 1931.

Today, the woke leftist America objects to our National Anthem as an outdated, bellicose statement. They are trying to change it to reflect their values, just as they are changing everything else remotely connected to our history that offends them. The easily triggered left is running the country into the ground and destroying our history, replacing it with their manufactured version of past events and persons.

The 1955 brochure also contains a brief congratulatory letter from President Dwight D. Eisenhower who welcomed the new citizens “to a new way of life with rights and privileges, blessings which include a solemn responsibility – the duty to help maintain and advance the principles and ideals upon which our Republic was founded and built.”

Today the meaning of our Constitutional Republic has been lost in the leftist narrative swamp of their brand of democracy, complaining about our “outdated” founding documents that must be replaced by their woke ideals of Marxism and collectivism.

The 1955 brochure contains the words to America’s Creed. William Tyler Page, the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, wrote America’s Creed in 1917 which was accepted by the House on behalf of the American People on April 3, 1918.

“I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the People, by the People, for the People, whose just powers are derived from the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign nation of many sovereign states; a perfect union, one and inseparable, established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.”

William Tyler Page would be saddened by the state of politics today as American citizens are being governed by a political class so powerful that their powers are no longer derived from the governed. He would be disappointed to see what is happening to our country’s sovereignty on the southern border which is overrun by millions of illegals from around the world, breaking our laws and signing up for welfare and the voting rolls.

None of our founding documents mention the latest leftist buzzword, “equity,” equality of outcomes, the latest demands from the American Marxist contingent.

The founding documents of our country are written in cursive handwriting which is no longer taught in schools. American students cannot read their country’s original founding documents anymore. The decision to stop teaching cursive handwriting came from educators in America and around the world, even though research has proven that cursive handwriting develops certain parts of the brain, enabling memory and further learning. Frontiers | The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults | Psychology (frontiersin.org)

J. M Swing, Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, wrote in the 1955 brochure about the Meaning of American Citizenship:

“Today you have become a citizen of the United States of America. You are no longer an Englishman, a Frenchman, an Italian, a Pole. Neither are you a hyphenated-American – a Polish-American, an Italian-American. You are no longer a subject of the government. Henceforth, you are an integral part of this Government – a freeman – a Citizen of the United States of America.”

J. M. Swing might also be disappointed to see that in 2022, American citizens who were lucky to have been born on American soil, have become strongly hyphenated, polarized, and divided by skin color and ethnicity, and have become subjects of their powerful governments.

Frances Cavanah and Lloyd E. Smith outlined the rights and privileges of an American citizen in the same 1955 immigration brochure:

1.      Think freely as a unique person. Today unfortunately “groupthink” is highly encouraged in the main stream media. In the vein of collectivism, uniqueness is seen as selfish and undemocratic.

2.      I may speak or write as I please if it does not interfere with the rights of others. Today you may speak and write if the left allows you a venue in the mass media, and the technocracy elites allow you to be seen or heard on social media platforms.

3.      Exercise the right to vote. You vote but, as soon as you leave the voting booth, your vote may be nullified by a person voting illegally.

4.      I have the right to choose my work. You may choose your work today if your views and resume are acceptable to those doing the hiring.

5.      I have the right to improve myself through hard work and education. Higher education today has become a joke as universities are now bastions of leftist Marxist groupthink. No diverse thinkers need apply and no divergent opinions are allowed.

6.      I have the right to a prompt trial by jury if I should be accused of a crime. I wonder if those labeled “insurrectionists” have had their days in court yet.

7.      I have equal rights with others when seeking justice in the courts. Do we really have equal rights today in the courts?

8.      I can share in the benefits of many natural resources of my country.

9.      I can educate my children in free schools. They are tuition-free for those who do not pay property taxes which fund public schools. Schools and universities are controlled by a leftist cabal of teachers, administrators, and professors indoctrinated in America’s colleges of education and now even colleges of arts and sciences.

10.  I have the right to worship in the religion of my choice. Have you really been free to worship in church in the last two years during the forced lockdowns? How many churches and priests were fined and arrested for holding church services?

11.  I have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We can hope and pray for this right, but we have had a lot of unhappy, broke, and bankrupt Americans in the last two years, unable to pursue their dreams due to government lockdowns and unconstitutional mandates. We have experienced at the hands of our federal, state, and local governments, home detention, forced masking, vaccine mandates, election fraud, food and necessities shortages, supply chain disruptions, school closures for extended periods of time, censorship, and forced small businesses and church closures.

The duties of an American citizen were outlined in the 1955 brochure as follows:

1.      Obey the country’s laws. Currently, the socialist Democrats only obey the laws they like and approve of. The rest of us obey the laws.

2.      It is our duty to vote so that our government may truly represent the will of the people. Unfortunately, the leftist wing that runs big cities allows illegal citizens of other countries to vote thus diluting and destroying the votes and the will of the rest of the American voters.

3.      Keep informed on the honesty and ability of candidates for public office. It makes no difference that we know how dishonest some candidates and politicians are, they suffer no consequences, and they are well-funded by donations from the leftist elites who run the country.

4.      Correct injustice through voting. Seldom injustices are corrected through voting anymore since the advent of the electronic voting system which is easy to manipulate and hack.

5.      Pay taxes. The middle class is heavily taxed and so are individuals in the upper class. The rest have little skin in the taxation game.

6.      Serve on juries when called upon.

7.      Hold a public office for the efficient functioning of government. Is our government truly functioning efficiently when you look at the trillions of dollars in debt that has been accumulated in the last five years?

8.      Defend our country if necessary.

9.      Unite in times of crisis and support our government.

10.  Respect our national flag. How many Americans have desecrated our flag, burned it, stepped on it, and destroyed it? How many Americans were forbidden to fly the American flag and were fined by homeowners’ associations (HOAs) and municipalities under the excuse that it offended others?

The goals listed in the citizenship brochure from 67 years ago are majestic and admirable. We should all strive to be better citizens, whether natural born or naturalized.

Those of us, who were not lucky to be born in this country but were lucky enough to be able to immigrate here legally, support this country and its opportunity to succeed guaranteed to everyone. We do not support the woke equality of outcomes. The collectivist idea of “equity” has never worked, and it is never going to work except by coercion and oppression.

To me, my naturalized citizenship carries with it the highest privilege and the highest responsibility to conduct the oath taken on the day when I became a proud American. Freedom is never free, and we must cherish it and protect it from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

 

What Are Leftist Women Lacking?

Aside from good morals, proper behavior, appropriate dress, and proper language around their children, what else are these leftist women lacking?  American women have more respect and freedoms than most women in the world.  But these marchers are unhinged, enraged, and deranged because their favorite Maoista lost the election. So they’ve turned our nation’s capital into a bizarre spectacle of hatred and petulant intolerance, verbally attacking the rest of the country who disagrees with them.

Did they march for women who are truly disrespected and treated like animals, beaten, abused, and traded as slaves in Islamic countries today? The answer is no.  The testimony of a woman in a court of law is worth only half of a man’s testimony.  Women are genitally mutilated in childhood and stoned to death for adultery. If they are raped, they can be sentenced to death while the rapist goes free.

According to the Daily Caller, “Linda Sarsour, one of the organizers behind Saturday’s Women March, being held in Washington, D.C., was recently spotted at a large Muslim convention in Chicago posing for pictures with an accused financier for Hamas, the terrorist group.” http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/21/womens-march-organizer-recently-met-ex-hamas-operative-has-family-ties-to-terror-group/

Active on Twitter, Sarsour supports Sharia Law across America.  “If you are still paying interest then Sharia Law hasn’t taken over America.” www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/01/figrues-organizer-dc-womens-march-linda-sarsour-pro-sharia-law-ties-hamas/

In other countries women cover themselves in huge black tents. They claim, it is their choice to dress this way, but if they don’t, they are beaten, stoned, beheaded, or hanged.  Apparently the libs, who marched through D.C. this Saturday, were more incensed about what President Trump might do to their freedom of choice.  What would they do, should he take the funding away from their favorite abortionist, Planned Parenthood?  After all, it is their right to kill their own babies but don’t you dare infringe on the spotted owl’s habitat.

The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, the heroine of many in Hollywood, established this organization on October 16, 1916, in order to eliminate what she thought were “inferior races.” She referred to them as “human weeds.” Sanger is the eugenicist that leftist women venerate, the promoter of "More children from the fit, less from the unfit."

The marchers were demanding equal pay, an economic impossibility. Have these irrational marchers ever sat in an economics class? Equality in pay is hindered by many factors having to do with our genetic makeup and our investment in human capital. Are you equally qualified? Do you have equal work experience? Are you equally educated? Are you equally professional? Are you equally dedicated? Are you equally gifted? Are you equally intelligent? Are you equally talented? And who gets to decide?

When it comes to military service and physical ability, no matter how many miles a female jogs every day or how much muscle bulking protein or steroids she takes, women are not physically equal to men.

Leftist women marched through D.C., proclaiming their tree-hugging support for the environment and their belief in man-made climate change, yet they left the streets heavily littered with garbage, to be cleaned up by sanitation workers at taxpayer expense.

One of my former students shared her hubby’s brilliant explanation of the mentality of these women who graduate with a high degree of Marxist indoctrination: “When you send your kids to Caesar every day for education, don’t be surprised when Romans come home.”

A very wise young woman said, “So, I guess because so many women showed ‘solidarity’ and marched, we should never see one injustice ever again. Our rights have been restored! Hooray! So glad those ridiculous vagina hats changed everyone’s minds and hearts about women.”

The pro-abortion women march excluded pro-life groups. One such pro-life organization, Students for Life of America, took the lead in the parade, and jumped in front of some of the protesters.

 A meme recently seen on Facebook pretty much expressed what the rest of the country’s women think:

“I was part of the 30 million women march in November. We marched into voting booths across the country and elected Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America.”

To answer my own question, these marchers lacked nothing; they were there to attack President Trump. They don’t accept him and are afraid that Roe v. Wade will be overturned during his administration and the funding of Planned Parenthood will be cut. They want the slaughter of innocent babies to continue in order to protect their vicious and ungodly “choice.”

Communist child rearing

My earliest and happiest childhood memories take me to my grandparents country house in the summer. I spent the first seven years of my life with my maternal grandparents. When I started first grade, I only saw them in the summer. They were my de facto mom and dad. My parents would come visit me on Sundays. I always felt abandoned each time they left. There was a deep sorrow rooted within my soul that I could not shake until I was fifteen years old. Grandparents had to step in and help raise a child until first grade as there was no such thing as day care or baby sitter under communism. People had to fend for themselves the best way they could. Some children were locked in by their mothers who had to go grocery shopping, others were tended by older siblings. I often wondered what would have happened to me if the apartment caught fire and I could not escape since I was locked in and our apartment was on the fifth floor of our building, with no fire escape? The locks were so primitive that only a key could open the door from the inside or from the outside. It was never customary to see mothers carry their babies with them shopping or on vacation. Chidren were always left home with other relatives. Newborns were never shown to the world for months for fear that they may get sick or get the "evil eye." Superstitious moms believed that someone with blue or green eyes could stare at their babies and cast a spell of ill fortune on the child which may result in death. Many children were hurt from lack of proper supervision, burns, scaldings, falls, cuts, electrocutions, and bruises. There was some weak accountability but, generally, a person's life was worth very little. I was an only child and mom did not have many choices. People who had lots of children usually left them with the eldest child who served as a surrogate parent. There was no law frowning on such practices nor child protective services who really cared about the welfare of children in general. Only when the population was not multiplying fast enough, did the communist party step in and offered stipends to mothers - a form of welfare to stay home and have babies. The more babies, the higher the stipend. Once a mom passed six children, she was considered hero of the communist regime and given an actual medal with lots of fanfare to make sure other women emulated her fecundity role. Since there was no birth control and no possibility of any legal abortion, women would have back alley abortions and often die of severe bleeding or septic infections. Those who gave birth and could not afford to literally feed their children, the government would step in and raise the child in the many orphanages that were designed to raise and educate the dictator's civilian army. Ironically, such a baby, raised to become a civilian army machine, given up by a woman who had been raped, eventually became part of the firing squad who executed the dictator Ceausescu and his wife Elena. Nobody knows which of the soldiers had the real bullets, but it is ironic, that one of his henchmen may have been his ultimate demise, a victim of its own draconian birth policies. I lost a dear friend to a self-induced abortion. Laila was an architecture student and could not afford to feed another human being but did not want to give the baby away. She was 21 years old when she died of septic infection. Hospitals were forbidden to give medical help to anyone who had life and death injuries from botched abortions.
Women who chose to have babies and worked were rewarded by being given weeks and months of maternity leave, before and after a baby was born. For the first three years of a baby's life, each mother had generous full paid leave if a baby was ill. Some women took advantage of the system and pretended that their babies were sick in order to stay home and receive full pay. There was a cottage industry of dishonest pediatricians who wrote and sold excuses to justify the mothers' absence from work. It was a disgrace and it crated a class of cheaters who were a drain on the rest of society.
Country people had more children because they needed help in the fields. They had an easier life since they raised their own food and did not have to wait for the government handouts or meager salaries.
The government did not fuss much over the welfare of children except in the initial stages of adoption by childless couples. The process of adoption was quite arduous but the regime lost interest shortly after a baby was placed and a few visits were made to the new home. Abuse or even cases of murder by adoptive parents were seldom investigated thoroughly, the guilty seldom went to jail, or actually served harsh sentences. Life in general was expendable. People were more likely to do hard time for their political views or sexual orientation than for taking an innocent life. Investigations were quite commonly botched, files misplaced, evidence lost, or never collected in the first place. This made the job of a judge quite impossible. Not that they were that honest to begin with, they were stooges for the government and thus bought and bribed.
When a child made it to the first grade, life had not been that easy. Parents managed to scrounge enough money to buy supplies for school and the government provided the textbooks and free communist indoctrination. Everything taught was by rote memorization since labs were too expensive to provide experiments for various chemistry, biology, or physics classes and visuals or films did not exist. Concepts were illustrated on paper, if you understood it fine, if not, too bad. Students did not have calculators, they were provided with an abacus in first grade. All mathematical calculations had to be done with pen and paper.
Children were spanked by their parents and the law allowed teachers and administrators to spank as well. There was no breakfast or lunch at school. The daily schedule ran for elementary kids from 7 a.m. - 12 p.m. and for high schoolers from 1-6 p.m. There were no school buses and kids had to learn to walk to school in groups without parental supervision. Parents brought them to school every day the first week, after that, they were on their own. There were no kidnappings since nobody wanted the responsibility of feeding and housing another human being when they could barely afford to feed themselves. I remember walking past a cemetery while in high school. It was very unsettling returning home in the dark and letting the imagination run wild while passing by the cemetery. Needless to say, I never walked home, I ran. Few people owned cars and if they did, gasoline was so expensive, $9-10/gallon, that cars were kept mostly in the garage as a crown jewel. Owners would wash and polish them with so much love and care every weekend. Once a month, or every so many months, the car was driven a few short miles to grandma's house or to the nearest park for a picnick with "mititei" (a type of local sausage) and beer. Children were seldom invited on such outings. If the family could afford to dine in a restaurant once a year (a real luxury), children were again not invited. Baptisms, weddings, and burials were different, the children became the central part. Their youthful presence and joy inspired hope.
The government decreed that each child had to be vaccinated in school and the school nurse implemented this mandate with the same needles and syringes that were boiled every morning. Kids succumbed to hepatitis and childhood diseases that were preventable but untreated due to lack of medication, poor sterilization, or doctor care. Doctors and hospital visits were free but actually getting treatment was a different story. Everything was so rationed that the doctor/patient ratio was quite high. One doctor had to treat thousands and thousands of patients. There were not enough hours in the day to see everyone who needed immediate attention. I was one child of many who fell through the cracks and suffered needlessly. My mild childhood scoliosis was treated with three months of exercise instead of an expensive corset which the government refused to approve. To this day I have constant back pain.
By contrast, the children of communist party elite had the best schools, best food, free vacations paid by the regime, best medical care, drugs that were not available to the rest of us, day care, kindergartens, automatic admission to college, and assured visas to study or visit abroad. Their parents bought favors with hard currency, usually U.S. dollars, confiscated from political dissidents or by selling assets or art objects from the patrimony of the country. Every communist member who was part of the regime was above the law and lived a life of luxury, deception, and theft - the ultimate example of redistribution of wealth.