Americans as a group don’t really know their history or their heritage. Ask them who one of the Founding Fathers were and they might tell you, Mark Zuckerberg. He may as well be because Facebook now serves as the nation’s media channel.

Nowhere is our American lack of awareness about who we are more obvious than when we start talking about the Constitution. I doubt few would know more than one or two of the constitutional amendments, and what they relate to. Most would probably get the First Amendment—freedom of speech. Maybe the Second, and guns—actually, it’s “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms…”

Get beyond the second one and it’s the Wild, Wild West, however.

Take the 14^th Amendment. That’s the one that addresses many aspects of citizenship and the rights of citizens. Section 1 of the amendment reads, “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.” Continue reading →