The concept of earning ones citizenship

The Concept of Earning One’s Citizenship
Citizenship is defined as a being a citizen or a person owing allegiance to and entitled to the protection of a sovereign state. Citizen preferred for one owing allegiance to a state in which sovereign power is retained by the people and sharing in the political rights of those people. The concept of which in one of its earliest was given to us by the Romans, who had just began to understand the importance of a populace contributing to the decisions of its own fate. Modern American citizenship as we know it today was defined for us in the constitution of this nation by the founding fathers. Citizenship as they had envisioned it even back then was not free, but came with a price. A citizen was expected to carry out certain civic duties and responsibilities such as the defense of the republic, participating in state and local government, and voting on affairs of the nation as a whole. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” Given all the communication technology; receiving and sending information has never been easier, however civic involvement is at one if its lowest points in the past 100 years. Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote of her husband, that Theodore Roosevelt taught by precept and example that men owed something at all times, whether in peace or in war, for the privilege of citizenship and that the burden rest equally on rich and poor. He said that, no matter what conditions existed, the blame lay no more heavily on the politician and his machine controlling city, state, or nation, than on the shoulders of the average citizen who concerned himself so little with his government that he allowed men to stay in power in spite of his dissatisfaction because he was too indifferent to exert himself to get better men in office. In order to maintain such a jewel of democracy, a new superior breed of citizen is required, one that has stepped forward and reached out to carry the torch of freedom and guard it from those that would seek to extinguish it. He or she must wear his or her citizenship like a badge of honor. For citizenship to be so greatly prized it must be earned. One should have to make great sacrifices in order to be awarded the status quo of a class that steers and maintains the republic for the greate...

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... “Democracy and the Public Service” Oxford University Press 1968

The scope of this book is to tie in “protected” non-electoral public service with being responsive to the public, and operating in a manner compatible with a democratic society. It explains how public service is the last industry to grow and take advantage of the increasing knowledge of every generation of workers’ and changing advances in regards to technological, and social concepts. Noteworthy: this book looks at the problem from both the publics and the public servants point of view.

Eleanor Roosevelt “Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education” Pictorial Review, April 1930: 4,94,97 Reprinted Online. Internet. Available http://newdeal.feri.org/er/er19.htm 4 oct. 2002

Eleanor writes to us about the problems she saw already manifesting in the civil populace of her time. She provides us with insights and lessons from her husband and his political career. Her ideas and concerns are not that far removed from the quotes that evolved in the hearts and minds of our countries great theologists.

Bolie Williams IV “Robert A. Heinlein” 7 August 2001 Online. Internet. Available 4 oct. 2002