Revisiting the Constitution: Allow Naturalized Citizens to Be President

Assignment #4

Last week, millions of Americans recited these grand words: “All men are created equal.” Today, this glittering promise means far more than it meant in 1776. “Men” now includes “women,” and a black baby born today is the legal equal of a white baby. First-born children get no larger automatic inheritances than second-born kids, and America is fast approaching a time when those born gay have all the rights of those born straight.

But those American citizens who happen to have been born abroad to non-American parents — and who later choose to become “naturalized” American citizens — are not the full legal equals of those of us born in the U.S. True, naturalized Americans have always been allowed to serve as cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices, senators and governors. And at the founding, anyone already a citizen could be president, regardless of birthplace. (Alexander Hamilton, for example, though born in the West Indies, was fully eligible to serve as president under the Constitution he himself helped draft.) But modern-day naturalized citizens are barred from the presidency simply because they were born in the wrong place to the wrong parents.

    I choose this passage because I complete agree with the author. If the United States believes that all men are created equality, than why not make them equal for everything. Not just for the things that seem convenient. I personality think this idea that just because you are born into a country, you are automatically consider to be better and qualify for certain positions. If a child is brought to a new country as a toddler, how can he or she not feel as a born citizen to the country. the child was raised here for his entire life and does not know anything else besides the american culture.In addition, what if a "naturalized" born citizen does have any intentions about becoming the next secretary or the next president. Meanwhile this right is denied to someone else who is interested in completing this task simply because they were as the author says "born in the wrong place or to the wrong parents". In addition, the author also makes a good point when he mentions that America has always kept up to date with other issues like equal rights between men and women, so why not keep up to date with such an important issue that has been happening for a long time.