Going through some old chaotic files (why the adjective—all of my files are chaotic by now), I happened to stumble across my grandfather’s immigration “declaration of intention” form from 1911, the first formal step to becoming a citizen. (His immigration status actually got held up for several years because his residence for several years in Manila, even though an American-managed protectorate at the time, somehow didn’t qualify as U.S. territory for immigration purposes. Or so a letter in the file says.)
Anyway, cast your eye down to the bottom of the form, where applicants have to attest:
“I am not an anarchist; I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy. . .”
Think how much trouble we and other nations might avoid if we still used this oath, and enforced it.
Meanwhile, happy new year everybody! At least one person had a worse year than Kamala Harris:
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