Travel Light

(The above picture is messy…I don’t apologize.  Life is messy.  I was too lazy to straighten things up and get a picture with all my “essential” Marine travel stuff.)

The picture is most of the stuff I packed—minus the netbooks, cell phones, camera, and clothes I was wearing at the time.  That is what I thought I would need to survive in Thailand for an unknown amount of time.  My seabag was almost full and my assault pack was completely full.  I have bought an additional civilian bag, two suits, several shirts and some small things to bring home.

This is light for a short deployment.  I packed a few references (the red book in the photo is one), some paper and pens, clothes, and my netbook (which I had to replace).  I was lucky.  Several of my fellow officers had additional items to carry on their person to ensure they could fulfill their more tactical/operational billets. 

I bring this up because Marines pride themselves (ourselves?) on “First to Fight” and “doing more with less.”  The first requires the Marines to act with speed and be the nation’s Quick Reaction Force—always on call and always abel to react at the drop of a hat.  We have SOP (standard operating procedure) to ensure we can mobilize a body of Marines in a set amount of time—dependent on the size of unit and sustainability of the force.  The second is out of necessity.  The Marine Corps has the smallest budget of the four primary military services.  Of course, we’re also the smallest of the four.  To prove our continued worth—and not as a second land army—we need to show we are frugal and the baddest motherfuckers in the fight.

These two points of Marine Corps pride led me to pack my gear in less than three days and forgoing some things I needed—like a government laptop to do my work on.  Yeah, my own damn fault for not critically thinking.  I forgot a few items like soap.  Almost everyone that needed a government laptop had one.  I had to borrow to get the next best thing for access to my work account.

(Tent I was in.  A/C was behind me when I took the picture.  My table is the middle on the right.)

After two weeks here, I noticed that a MEB (Marine Expeditionary Brigade)  has a LOT of gear, especially an Air Combat unit.  Plenty of tents and air conditioners and wire—both barbed and internet.  The Marines need the internet to work properly!

(Air conditioning for the tent)

WTF!  Why?!?  We tracked movements without the large projector and tv and 15 computers before 2011.  We did all sorts of complicated sorties, operations, and conquests without technology, but when the Communications Officer cannot get internet up for everyone, he’s asked why he’s not Mission Capable. 

I’m blowing this out of proportion, but only somewhat.  We (the staff) spent plenty of time leading up to the beginning of the operation looking closely at what Comm problems we had bc we didn’t have enough internet access.  It wasn’t the largest or most important issue, but we spent time on it.  We function, but complain like bitchy teenagers that we can’t do everything we can in the Rear (at our home base) without sending an email to the person sitting 30 feet away.

The…lassitude(?)…laxness…prissiness of the Wing makes me wonder if the Ground-side is as paralyzed by such communication discomfort. 

I also look to the reality of the society and the times we live in.  Technology is required!  It isn’t a luxury that we admit we can live without.  Technology’s necessity is self-perpetuating.

(My table with the borrowed gov’t laptop, my netbook, gov’t landline and cell phone, my iPhone, and the rest of my reference which are under my cover and acting as a mouse pad.)

So, I’ve just contradicted myself.  On one side I’m complaining that “we don’t really need” technology to do our warfighting job.  And on the other I state that “we must have” technology.  

How I get here is by this baggage train of logic:

In Officer Candidate School, The Basic School, and Boot Camp we are taught how to fight without 21^st century tech.  Usually we learn using left over equipment dating back 30+ years.  In OCS and TBS (and I assume Boot Camp) we are told that what we experience in training was not the Real Marine Corps.  The implication is that things are different in the Fleet, if not completely the opposite.  We train with and without the tech to make sure we can do the job regardless of our tech capabilities.

But the experience I am having on a training exercise, which is suppose to train to reality—“Train the way we fight, Fight the way we train”—shows me that we rely heavily on our tech; so heavily that we are almost handicapping ourselves.  The exercise is not hindered or slowed much by our tech issues, but the comfort of connecting via email and other online medias is a sore point that should make our jobs more efficient.

(Nokia Thai cell phone, iPhone 4G, Lenovo netbook replacing the one I broke.)

I stated that technology’s necessity is self-perpetuating.  Once we have the piece of tech we don’t want to live without it.  That is how necessity becomes comfort—and yes, necessity can become comfort.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

The wheel is the best example.  Once we—as in humans—had the wheel to make moving larger and larger quantities of items from Point A to Point B, we never looked back.  We created a tool that served a simple function, whatever that original purpose was, and we’ve since found countless ways to use that same tool for other things.  Wheel barrows, tires, carts, gears, water wheels, Wheel of Fortune. 

Like the wheel, the phone has changed how we act, react, and plan.  Before the phone we actually wrote letters to people, we sent telegrams if absolutely necessary, or we sent messages by word of mouth.  In war, the messenger fell under the Communication Officer (if there was one).  The phone made long distance communication easier.  Instead of traveling hundreds of miles to get a love note delivered, we could pick up the phone and say “I love you.”  Instead of sending a teenage boy on horseback from HQ across a battlefield, hostile territory, and whatever other dangers, the Commander picks up a battle phone and speaks directly to his subordinate commanders.  We won’t be going back to sending a runner.

The small Nokia is basic.  At least that is how I would describe it now.  20 years ago it was a sophisticated piece of equipment that 12 years ago I said I’d never really need.  Yeah, I’m eating crow. 

The iPhone is complex.  Not in comparison to just the Nokia, but in comparison to the netbook.  The iPhone is a true pocket computer, and possibly the best tech toy I’ve owned.  I won’t use it as a cell phone because it is set up for Japan, not Thailand and I’m not ready to throw out the warranty Jailbreaking the phone.

The things my iPhone can do—the level of comfort it gives me—makes it frustrating for me to use the Thai cell phone.  Take that analogy and apply it to automobiles.  Go from a 2010 car with a/c, heat, power windows, keyless entry, cd/mp3/ipod player and GPS, to a horse drawn carriage.  That 30 mile commute, while comfortable and enjoyable in the 2010 vehicle, in 90 degree heat and humidity will be almost unbearable in a carriage.  You won’t do it everyday.  You’ve just lost the freedom to live outside the city you work in.  No more scenic or picturesque home.  Everyone wants the best they can get—well paying job and great living condition.  (For me that is good pay, enjoyable work, and having a backyard for the dog and trees for a hammock.)  I won’t step back to horse drawn carriages if it means choosing between good job and good home. 

Now, apply those same concepts to War and an effective military.  National security pushes for a powerful, efficient and effective military.  A powerful military is a tool used to ensure National policy and goals.  This is the good job in the city and great house in the suburbs.  Now, let’s add in the extra factor that if we don’t stay at our current level and keep improving, we will become ineffective to work in the city and live in the suburbs. 

I’d like to cite China for historical purposes.  One of the greatest empires way back whenever it was inventing paper and gunpowder, but it went stagnate for centuries allowing Europe to catch up and then surpass it leading to the subordination of China to the West.

The fact that we have tech means we will need tech and to keep getting better tech.  See the Army:  http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2010/May/Pages/ArmysiPhoneDreamsClashWithReality.aspx

So, to bring this back to the start and travel light.  If I didn’t have the tech, my seabag and assault pack would not have been enough for what my job entails—a mountain of references and knowledge.  But without access to that same tech, I am limited.  

Rescued by my iPhone

Last night I left the cybercafe after darkness fell.  And darkness fell in horror movie fashion.  I mean the kind where light is swallowed like little children by the tooth fairy monster.  This was the kind of darkness where you find a few body parts in the morning because the cheesy sci-fi horror movie monster had a snack before it went on to dine on some slutty, big breasted bimbo defended by her condescending, egocentric jock-boyfriend.  Too dark for Jeepers-Creepers, but not dark enough for Pitch Black.  Yet, dark enough to abuse similes and metaphors to horror movies.

I stepped outside the one story maintenance building that housed the Canteena, cybercafe, and maintenance center for the Exercise.  The building stands between the main road through the base and the flight line.  Until the exercise gets into full swing, this is the defacto headquarters building and houses the entertainment center while we are here. 

I would have thought a main road would be lit through the night.  Perhaps not equal to day light, but enough to see the existence of the road.  I couldn't see the main road 30 feet away or the foot bridge over the ditch 20 feet from where I stood.  I looked left and right and saw no street lights.  The light from the building was absorbed by the darkness within five feet of the source. 

Great.  A seven minute walk back to the barracks in near pitch black, over several ditchs, across several roads, through an orchard and a lightly wooded area and a neighborhood.  Flackbacks to TBS night land navigation came to mind--"I'm going to poke my eye out falling over a tree and bleed to death." 

Night land nav at TBS involved walking through heavily wooded terrain littered with deadfall, thorny bushes, rocks, steep hills, unexpected ditches and several creeks.  F-ing creeks, F-trees, F-ing thorny bushes, and Muther-F-ing deadfall. 

The heavily wooded part meant that the illuminatin from the half-moon was absolutely useless.  The only light I saw came from the glowy stuff on the compass and 299 cell phones or digital watches belonging to my fellow tormented TBS-ers.  I appreciated the moon only when I found my way to the dirt roads marking the borders of our little joyful playground.

On the first night tortured land-nav I wore my BCGs (Birth Control Glasses--yeah, no sex with those attraction enhancers) because we were told to where eye protection.  At the time I was without contacts, and that meant I wore the ballistic corrective lenses instead of my regular glasses.  Thank God for those BCGs.  On my last trip across the rolling wooded hills I found some deadfall.  Three steps into the forest and I landed face first into a broken tree branch.  The BCGs deflected my head from the branch.  At the time, I suspected, but I confirmed later when I saw the scratch, that if I had not had the BCGs on I would be operating right now without my left eye.  Night land-nav II saw those BCGs get lost, but only after preventing more damage.

Visions of night land-nav in my mind, because they offered a real possible outcome instead of my horror flick head trip, I took a deep breath and pulled out my iPhone activating my flash light app.  Yeah, my flash light app.  No night land-nav reinactments for me.  Thank you iPhone.

Christmas Midnight Mass

I know this is late, but life intercedes...and it took me a few days to write this particular post.  I am by no means religious.

"I survived another Catholic Christmas Midnight Mass at this church," my wife said once we got home at 1 a.m.  As a recovering Catholic, I agreed.  More interestingly, I realized I missed the Christmas Midnight Mass of childhood.  

The Mass we suffered through lacked the joy and celebration Christmas should have.  It is the birth of Christ, savior of all people, God's only son, His direct representative on Earth.  He has been born, Rejoice!  Damn it.  Don't play a melancholy dirge.

Instead of joyful the music was mournful at best, the ritual grudgingly routine, and the priest almost pathetically desperate in his attempts to stir emotion.  These faults in the Mass are not from a lack of faith or a desire to express that faith by the congregation, rather it is a lack of charisma to stir emotion and bring others to action in the actors of the Mass.  

The Music bears the greater burden.  It can set the tenor of the entire Mass before the priest even opens his mouth.  I have been to Churches that have the entire congregation singing along and enjoying the uncomfortable wooden pews, jumping to sing and hug fellow celebrants and actively listen to the priest.  And I've been to Churches that condemn life itself and force believers to mourn the faith they should be rejoicing in. Christ was Born and given by God to save us!  I'm not deep in my faith or an avid defender of Christianity, but my mother taught me to understand that God should be someone (something?  some entity?) to be happy about--not regretted or resented.  The before Mass music sounded almost hopeful for half a song, but slowly devolved into routine.   

The internal Mass songs can be stirring, if sung and played with joy and emotion; but this early morning, like most normal Sunday Masses I suspect, the words and notes were merely an inconvenient routine.  And to top it off, the leader of this morose troupe alternated between flat and sharp, hardly suffering a correct note--and I am next to talentless in pitch.

The priest tried hard.  He tried to engage the few children and the scattered congregation.  However, his thick accent hindered him and his own impatience with the children made him look condescending and trite.  He asked the children questions about Christmas lore, but failed to commit to the plan and work to elicit the answers he wanted.  Placing Santa Clause into a greater religious role than he probably ever had takes away from the themes he focused on later in the sermon.  He probably was trying to bring the children into the sermon but quickly lost their attention as he ignored their answers and offered little praise for their efforts.  At that time and through most of his sermon, he sacrificed the attention of the adults, who were more entertained by the antics of a two year old.  I do not remember what else the priest talked about, but I know the kid was funny and Santa brought gifts to Christ.

I say Christmas Lore, not to degenerate Christianity, but to describe the Christianization of Pagan beliefs and traditions.  Winter celebrations predated Christianity's entrance into the world.  Thanks to historians it is easy to prove that the early Church designed Christmas (or moved its celebration) to the Winter Solstice and to encourage conversions.  There are probably plenty more facts we could catalogue to support this, but we won't.

As a child, I remember Christmas Midnight Mass being fun to attend.  I looked forward to it and not just because gifts would be under the tree afterwards.  The Mass was a celebration, not a routine that must be suffered through to enjoy Christmas Day without guilt.  The Mass was an event to start Christmas Day.

Problem Solving

I have been the Legal Assistance Attorney, Officer-in-Charge, of my little kingdom for over 7 months now.  I even have business cards with gold-embosed print.  I've learned a lot (spread your hands as far apart as possible, then triple that) in the last 7 months.

Legal Assistance is the forgotten step-child of the Judge Advocate responsibilities.  Congress deemed this service important for our military, and it most definitely is.  Every knows about Prosecution and Defense, and most people know about the lawyers that provide legal guidance to decision makers (staff judge advocates),  both are absolute requirements to the functionality of the the Military and justice.  But no one really thinks about the lonely lawyers helping to prevent an eviction, stay a civil law suit, write letters for child support.  Yeah, I've got a big office, but that allows me to have my married clients talk to me about all the issues regarding their house in foreclosure, or for the going-to-get-a-divorce client with her three under-five-years-old children explain how the servicemember has not made life easy.

I like to explain my job as all the other random legal problems people run into: divorce, death, wills, child support, home-buying/selling...and my list doth go on.

As the Random Legal Problems Attorney, I'm often left to my own devices with rare supervision and plenty of legal woes.  I am the Capt Belt-Buckle of the SJA: Alone and Un-Afraid!  And I'm never at a loss of work or research gluing me to my overly large desk--my very own government constructed fighting hole.  I digress.  Research and Legal Woes: Google is the Best legal search tool I have--better than those two dominate legal search engines.  But even with Google, I do not find the Answers.  I only find law or facts or blocked websites.  That information I gather must then be translated into understandable stuff via analysis.  I have begun to MacGyver my own legal sounding board--when my supervision is too busy to answer my inquires.

In my "alone-and-unafraid" mentality in my legal kingdom, I've grown the practice of asking questions on everything, literally.  "Yes, I remember the answer the last seven times, but maybe common sense has struck in the three days since I last asked."  When I have a question that needs answering and I'm the man for the job--usually because it is my job--I've leaned on my fellow lonely legal assistance attorneys when the answer was not immediately available in my mind.  However, I had to stop that almost cold turkey when I realized I have 6 months more experience than my closest ally--Yeah, I'm his source of info now.  Wasn't method of getting answers either.

Now, to fill the knowledge and experience gap I lay everything down in an email to an attorney I trust--normally someone placed in the state of the issue.  Then I go through the facts, legal problems, and possible solutions that I've typed.  I just hammer away at the keys explaining my problem to whomever I planned to email.  At some point during the email I've found a path to follow or the answer itself .  So I print the email for my records and communicate with my client.

Travels of Book

Some time ago, for I do not have the exact date nor even a set of years, only some time before 1928 for sure, somewhere in Great Britain and probably on a wet and cold day, for it is always wet and cold in Great Britain, a book was created.  It was probably one of several thousands of books created by that factory on that day, in that month of that year.  The book is made of paper and a hard cover and a couple of color pictures.  The hard cover is a faded blue, maybe green with a picture of the Frog Prince and his princess.  It is titled Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Brothers Grimm.

The book flops open, offering no resistance because of a thoroughly broken spine, to reveal yellowing pages.  The color on the inside cover pages has spotted and faded over the passage of time.  In the upper right hand corner of the first page in careful script are owner and year: MargarET KAYLEY, XMAS 1928.

As the flattened book lays on my desk, it's stained pages scream a fascinating story.  When was the book really published?  When did the blue book of fairy tales become a gift?  Who gave it?  Who was Margaret Kayley?  How did her book travel from Great Britain to a flee market in Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, the southern part of the main island of Japan in 2010?

 Ward, Lock & Co, Limited published the book.  H.G., whoever that man is, wrote the preface detailing the task the Grimm Brothers undertook when collecting the Dutch and German fairy tales.  Butler & Tanner, Ltd, Frome and London printed the book, but in what year I do not know.

The information source (the internet) tells me that Ward, Lock & Co was swallowed by Orion Publishing or Octobus Publishing sometime ago, but Ward, Lock were publishing books back in 1854 and started on Fleet Street, London. 

How the lonely little book traveled from Great Britain to Japan is probably a good story.  Did it come immediately to some English family living in Japan to change hands during WWII and then again after the war and eventually travel the fllee market realm?  Or was it given to some family the British Isle to then travel the world at a later date?  Or was it within an American family's hands until someone brought it to Japan and left the book in a box for donations. 

Whatever the story, how a book travels around the world is always interesting.  What does this book say?

Hype

The Marine Corps is great at Hype. The Few, The Proud, The Marines.

The commercials and recruiting posters are all designed to create and reinforce the belief that the Marines are special and separate from the other armed services - a cut above the rest. We climb cliffs without support gear, march in Dress Blues with WWII rifles, and fight Lava Monsters with swords.

We are separate and different from the other services, I know that and so do my fellow Marines and the other services.

We are in that time of year, The Birthday Ball, where Marines around the world come together to celebrate our creation in a tavern. For Iwakuni, we hold our Ball in the gym. It is a far cry from the Gaylord Hotel just south of DC where the Commandant's Birthday Ball has been held. We make due. In fact the front entrance of the gym has been fitted with a faux Tun Tavern. Other Marines are in Afghanistan with MREs and dust.

I think what is most important are the preparations within the gym. Every community board has been covered with some quote someone has said about the Marine Corps throughout history. Each quote is a reinforcement of our initial indoctrination.

"The Marine Corps is special. It is better. It is unique. We are Marines!"

All of our history lessons are Marine successes and how the Marine Corps saved this or that battle. We create a mythological Corps that has never done any wrong. This itself is a problem. We are oppressed by our history, sometimes. We rarely allow room for mistake, of any kind, from our officers or our enlisted. Some of this, too, is from the general shift in society--a non-military civilian populace looking to control the perceived excesses of the military probably based in large part on Vietnam.

I think another problem that our Hype creates is an attraction to a certain of person. A person attracted to Action - the unthinking desire to just Do. This is probably part of why we have the highest court-martial rate of the five services and one of the higher vehicle/motorcycle/drinking death rates. Thrill-seekers and adrenaline junkies are our bread and butter, and not overly inclined to rigid discipline. Most work through this phase in their first tour and either become Marine leaders or productive members of civilian society.

The Marine Corps spends plenty of time trying, almost in vain it seems, to negate this unthinking desire to just act. We give countless briefs on drinking, driving, abuse, and generally "don't be a jackass". I probably sit through at least one a month. It is part of the Modern Day Marine Society - the Safety Stand-down Brief. On top of that, a large percent of Marine Corps training goes to being a thinking Marine.

I do not think it is a bad thing to attract such people drawn to Action. We need them. They are the men and women we want on that wall, we need them on that wall. And, Yes, I'm paraphrasing Jack Nicholson. They are the ones that will shoot back at our enemies before thinking.

We need to make sure that the Hype reinforces itself by highlighting the men and women that stood up in a hail of fire and took that hill. We need to reinforce the Hype to make sure that the current men and women know that others have done it and, perhaps, each of us can do it - that each of us can be a cut above the rest, that we are United States Marines.

Our Hype is a double-edged sword - both publicity and discipline. We attract people drawn to danger and we discipline them when they act recklessly.

Birthright Citizenship

Before reading anything I write, read this: E.J. Dionne Jr. - Is the GOP shedding a birthright?

At some point members of the GOP announced in the open that they doubt the decisions of their political ancestors. They questioned in public and in front of the media the merits of the first sentence of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside." http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html

Those words are incredibly important. When the Amendment was crafted it directed that EVERY slave IS an American citizen. It overturned and utterly rejected the unholy Dred Scott decision of 1857 that stated a slave--even born and living his or her entire life in the United States--was not and never would be a citizen. In the 1850s and the 1860s, the debate raged among the enfranchised--you know, those men, primarily Anglo-Saxon--about an important phrase in the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/

Lincoln spent years contemplating the meaning of "all men are created equal" and how that can hold true with slavery. He argued that for created equal means everyone must be at the same basic level--that every person born or naturalized in the United States has the rights of a citizen. He rejected the reasoning in the Dred Scott case for the belief that skin color was not the gauge for a person's ability to succeed or rule himself. He did not argue for complete social equality, just equality to citizenship. That is what Dred Scott was denied by the Supreme Court in 1857--the Rights and Privileges of citizenship.

When the 14th Amendment was crafted, it was meant to ensure that the former slaves were able to vote, own land, hold office, and sue in court. The three words "all persons born" prevented Southern whites from restricting citizenship by requiring Naturalization tests to obtain citizenship. The 14th Amendment is broader that slavery--it says "All persons" not all slaves. Every person in is a Citizen if born or Naturalized.

Racism ultimately prevented the successful exercise of these rights in the South for nearly 100 years, but gems of equality still prevailed. One example is the son of Chinese immigrants returning to the United States after visiting his parents in China. The incidents happened in 1894, a 21 year old American of Chinese decent returned to San Francisco, where he'd grown up and resided, from China. The customs agent refused him entry--because he was not one of the protected immigrants allowed under the Chinese Immigrant Act-- and refused to believe he was an American citizen born in San Francisco. The American of Chinese decent sued. The Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 1898. He was born in the United States and he is therefore entitled to the protections of a citizen, according to the 14th Amendment and English common law.

The problems I have with the Criticism of our "Birthright Citizenship" are the claims that illegal immigrants would purposefully come to the United States just to "drop" a child and then voluntarily leave, and what do we do when we strip the "Birthright Citizenship" from our Constitution.

I find it improbable that a mother would come to the United States for the sole purpose of having a child and then leaving. I can believe wanting to have a child in the United States and then staying to enjoy the benefits of living in our country. I can even believe that illegal immigrant parents would use their child's US citizenship to stay in the country. But leaving immediately after delivering just makes no sense to me. There is too much paperwork involved to get a passport and birth certificate. How does an illegal immigrant go into a passport office to request a passport for a child? I can see using the child later to get a visa to enter the country--which does happen and is encouraged for those illegal immigrants with American citizen children. But that process requires that they leave the United States and wait like everyone else. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Okay, say that the Birthright citizen is stripped from the Constitution, how is citizenship determined? That 1898 case explains that England common law has used the Birthplace as citizenship for nearly 500 years before the United States adopted the Constitution--which adopted English common law. The case explains an alternative--the Roman Standard. The Roman Standard bases citizenship on the parent's citizenship. So, those illegal immigrants would not be able to get American citizenship for their babies just by coming to the United States for birth.

But how does anyone in the United States have US citizenship. How far back do we go to strip Birthright citizenship. I know I'm a decedent of immigrants from Europe and the Caribbean. In fact, every person in the Western Hemisphere is a decedent of a Traveler--humans are not Native to this Hemisphere, no matter what you call the First People.

Okay, how about we draw the line at everyone from this day forth, that is standard for Amendments--no retroaction. I'm an American, my wife is American, our future children will be American. My good friend is Japanese and her husband is French they live in DC, their children will be not American even if born in DC. If their children are raised and live their entire lives in the United States, they will never be citizens, they will never know a homeland.

How do we then determine citizenship? Naturalization test. Why should my friend's future children be required to take a test when they've grown up learning and be indoctrinated into the American mindset when my future children would be the exact same? This sounds like discrimination based on national origin--something else prevented by the Constitution. Great conflicting parts of the Constitution. The later controls--bye-bye equal protection clause, also part of the 14th Amendment.

Why shouldn't we have all future children be required to take a naturalization test? Wait, we do--it is the indoctrination children receive in the American Education System--no matter how bad the education system. American History, Government, Economics, Math, Science, English, Literature, Foreign Languages, etc. All of our subjects--no matter how anti-American in design--are geared towards showing a difference between American and Non-American. By the time an American child reaches 18 most will never live in another country, most will never have the desire to leave to live in a different country. We are raised to believe we live in the shiny beacon of human society--that our Republican Democracy is the best form of government. Most Americans never seek citizenship to another country.

That is the real Naturalization test--whether a person seeks to become the citizen of another country. We are a nation of immigrants and we should encourage the children of immigrants to strengthen our country.