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Qualities of a Good Citizen: Characteristics and Examples

• Categories: Citizenship

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Published: Sep 12, 2023

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Table of contents

Introduction, responsibility: a pillar of good citizenship, respect: fostering harmony and unity, active participation: the engine of change, examples of good citizenship.

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Good Citizenship Essay: How To Be A Good Citizen

Everyone is a part of some community, society, city, and country . Most people live for themselves. They consider their desires and goals the major issue. So, such people take care about their happiness and fortune. Citizenship means the position or status of being a citizen of a particular country . Don’t you think that such a status requires from a person to follow some rules? Many people ignore this notion. However, it does not mean that they do right. Indeed, people have to obey particular rules that have been set in a country that they live. If he/she wants to be a useful member of a city, he/she has to perform qualities of a good citizen essay well as much as the best essay writing service does its job.

Good citizenship definition . We will talk about them in Essay On Citizenship. It is a huge field of spheres where a person can be useful . In the Bible it is said that people have to pray for rulers. Actually, it is a bright act of good citizenship. A person must be interested in what is going on in his country. If he does not agree with the acts of a ruler or if a ruler is very cruel or unfaithful, he has to pray for him. So, if the Scripture calls us to be active members of society, we have to be them. Read essay on Christianity on this page: https://findwritingservice.com/blog/christianity-essay-christian-beliefs

Definition of good citizenship not only means to follow rules. It means to perform duties and regulations. Most of them are based on a simple system of what is right and wrong. It is a policy of our conscience. To what extent we can sacrifice our time and ourselves in the name of social benefit. It was not a mistake that in a previous paragraph we have mentioned that most people take care about their lives. They do not think about a neighbor which is the main condition of a good citizenship .

It is also mentioned in the Bible that a person has to love the one who is near as much as he loves himself. Is there anything wrong with it? These words are just wonderful. While doing this, people may improve their living. They could live in a perfect world. Ironically but truly is a notion – read the Bible and be happy. By the way, check our excellent Essay On Religion .

Good citizenship is a wide spectrum of interesting and useful things which will make your life in a society better and a country where you live in prosperous.

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Citizenship E ssay And How To Be A Good Citizen

We have already told you that it concerns many questions and deeds. For this reason, the list would be rather big.

1. Be a good student . To be useful for society you have to gain an excellent education. Learn smart at school. It will give you a proper basement for choosing another step which is a college or university. Learning is vital. You have to make proper decisions in future. Education will help you to be informed and to be armed with necessary knowledge. It will give you the understanding of everything which is going on around. If you need an article on high school or college life, we can make it quickly and very professionally. If you say this, “I want pay someone to do my essay for fee”, our writers will do it.

2. Always be a hard worker . Education is only the beginning of the further process which is called working. While working hard, you contribute to the well-being of society . It does not matter whether you are a lawyer or a teacher, a baker or a bus driver. All this is a part of everyday life of your country. Your duty is to perform your function well. Check essay on hard work here: https://findwritingservice.com/blog/hard-work-essay-examples-and-tips

3. Stay informed . Watch news, check news channels on YouTube. Read newspapers and magazines which reflect the life of people that surround you. Usually such issues inform people about significant changes, movements, and events. It is important to know what people in your country think , how they react, what makes them angry or happy.

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4. Help community, if you have spare time. It is extremely good idea to spend it on helping others. Nowadays one can do it in many ways. Do you have homeless people whom you see every day? They do not have money, home, or even clothes. Help them. Come and share your food with them. Buy a warm coat, if it is winter. Prepare hot tea and sandwiches or buy presents for them. There are many organizations which need money or other materials. You can donate books to a local library, for instance. Our company also serves as a good example. We help students who always need written papers. Often we here such words as, “ Do my assignment for me in an extra hurry .”

5. Make a gift of your blood . Blood transfusion is a vital process. A huge amount of people need this help. It is a real charity, more real than money donating. You can literally save the life of someone if give your blood. By the way, it is very good for your health.

6. Be trained . It means that you may help people in case of emergency. There are some basic trainings which a good citizen must know . Nobody expects to face danger but it is better to be aware of necessary emergency trainings.

7. Give a job . You can do it, if hire someone to clean your house. Do it at least once in a month. You will help people. It is a huge contribution to economy of a country. There are shelters where people seek job. Call them and find someone who will trim your lawn. You can easily give additional job to one of our writers, if say, “ Take my online class for me online .”

8. Take care of yourself . You must be healthy, if you want stay a good citizen. It is impossible to perform all the duties without staying healthy. Check the doctor, consume good food and necessary supplements . Have a good sleep and enough rest. Find out what is traditional American food in Popular American Foods Paper .

9. Take part in voting . It is an integral part of being a good citizen. This is a must thing to do. While staying neutral, you remain useless . Your voice is necessary. Let it be heard.

10. Do cleaning . We are talking about cleaning which you can do outdoors. If you see litter, you can pick it up and throw in a proper place. Use gloves to protect yourself. It is a nice example and contribution.

11. Save water . Water scarcity is one of the main problems nowadays. Conserve it and do not overuse water like most people do. It is a vital resource.

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12. Be polite . It is a very simple duty and highly necessary. People often get depressed and a light which you can reflect may improve their mood and productivity. Smile and laugh, be open and sincere.

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What is Citizenship?

This essay will define and explore the concept of citizenship. It will discuss its legal, social, and political dimensions, the rights and responsibilities it entails, and how it varies across different nations and cultures. Additionally, PapersOwl presents more free essays samples linked to Citizenship.

How it works

Citizenship can be described as a state of belonging to a particular nationality or country, where one can practice his or her constitutional rights within the country’s jurisdiction. However, citizenship requires more than the sense of belonging to a particular country. It entails several values, roles and responsibilities of a citizen and requires one’s commitment to his or her nationality. This paper will study citizenship and what it means for one to be a good citizen to his or her country.

It will also highlight the roles and responsibilities of a citizen in nation-building and what values good citizenship requires.

Various nations have different structures with regards to their citizenship in different social contexts. However, many structures are similar to others in several aspects. Birth the most assured way of becoming a citizen of a nation. Naturalization and registration can also enable one to be entitled a citizenship of a nation. In the modern day society, one can choose to have a dual citizenship, whereby he or she is recognized by two different nations as its citizen or one can also choose to commit his energy and tie to one nation. Many nations have similar conditions of obtaining citizenship by naturalization and registration. Therefore, it is crucial to note that one cannot obtain a country’s citizenship without some additional values being taken into considerations. One’s contribution to that particular country might be considered at times.

The main value of citizenship is creating positive impacts towards the development of one’s country. It entails engaging in unified activities with other people of the same nationality in an attempt to create a better society, (Sweet, 2006.) However, explanations on citizenship often take a socio-political course. In simple terms, the value of citizenship is closely attached to both social and political responsibilities, (Isin and Turner, 2002.) There are several social and political values that constitute to good citizenship. Many of these values are however dominated by both social and political virtues.

The first value of good citizenship is one’s concern about the welfare of other people, (Davies, Gregory and Riley, 2002.) This is one general point from which other points can be obtained. In simple terms, a good citizen should observe high standards of morals in social life, (Davies, Gregory and Riley, 2002.) An individual being concerned about others means that one will neither get involved nor advocate for violence in cases when there are two or more parties which seem to differ in ideologies. This value further calls for personal involvement in promoting peace and harmony. It also advocates in active participation in social welfares and organizations that champion for equal rights and equal treatment.

A good citizen should be patriotic in nature. However, the term patriotic may attract other definitions but in this case it is used to mean one’s commitment towards in serving his country. Patriotism is a crucial element of good citizenship, (Davies, Gregory and Riley, 2002.) In many cases, patriotism has been explained as the willingness of one to give up all, including his or her life for the sake of his or her country. However, many logical arguments are not often considered in this case. Instead of one being willing to die for his or her country, it could be prudent if patriotism could be seen as the willingness of one to live in order to offer his or her unlimited contribution in nation building. Some citizens often commit large-scale assaults on foreign nations and see their acts as patriotic acts due to this misconception.

Active participation in socio-political activities is also a value in good citizenship, (Konttinen, 2009.) Though, not all socio-political activities amount to good citizenship. For example, fighting particular groups in an attempt to secure political interest is not a sign of good citizenship. A good example of both social and political activities that can amount to good citizenship is voting. Voting is a constitutional right that enables one’s voice to be heard in electing leaders that will represent the interest of the voter. Voting is another way of creating order in a country whereby one’s participation in the exercise enables the establishment of a body that will ensure the peace is upheld and the state of affairs conducted in an orderly manner. Good citizenship creates can be a driving force behind the quest for justice, a matter that calls for the unity of purpose, (Sweet, 2006.)

The purpose of citizenship in a society varies from different social contexts, (Isin and Turner, 2002.) According to Isin and Turner, (2002), citizenship creates a sense of solidarity in the society. It enables the society to come up with a common goal and work in a unified way towards its realization. In simple terms, it helps the society to have a central focus or a common goal. Secondly, citizenship is important in the society as it gives an individual a sense of belonging. In this way, an individual is capable of feeling secure and accomplished as opposed to the feeling of stateless persons, who do not officially belong to a country and have no one to present their grievances to.

The world is slowly turning into a small village with several events unfolding in the world of technology. The world is no longer a vast spherical ball where movement from the East to the West could take long periods of time. This calls for a world citizenship plan, where all people can work in unity towards achieving common goals. This can be ensured by establishing a sovereign force that can effectively execute this plan, (Sweet, 2006.) It is hard to imagine what will be the impact of a united people committed to a common course of making the world a better place for anyone. Many environmental-friendly achievements can be made if the global population unifies its focus to this matter. However, that is almost impossible in the current setting where several groups have all established their own focus. A global unified focus can only be achieved by global citizenship and therefore, global governments should come up with a unified structure on World citizenship in order to create a better world for the quickly upcoming generations.

In conclusion, citizenship is an aspect that entails a variety of values, roles and responsibilities that are meant to hasten the economic growth of the nation. Its unifying nature should be taken advantage of and establish global citizenship in order to unite the world, considering the fact that many attempts have been made. Global citizenship can be helpful in eradicating major environmental problems by establishing a central focus in dealing with these issues. It will also be helpful in unity the global population and hence create a unity of purpose that can help a lot in pursuing issues of concern.

Davies, I., Gregory, I., & Riley, S. (2002). Good citizenship and educational provision. Routledge.

Isin, E. F., & Turner, B. S. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of citizenship .

Konttinen, A. (Ed.). (2009). Civic mind and good citizenship. University of Tampere.

Sweet, M. E. (2006). Cosmopolitanism: World citizenship and the imagination.

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Where to Apply

When applying in person  for a passport, provide primary evidence of U.S. citizenship :

• The type of evidence you provide depends if you were born in the United States or born outside the United States. 
• If you cannot provide primary evidence, provide secondary evidence.
• Find examples of citizenship evidence on this page.

Tips for submitting your citizenship evidence

• Submit your evidence of U.S. citizenship and a photocopy of the front (and back, if there is printed information).
• Photocopies must be: clear and easy to read, on white 8.5”x11” standard paper, black and white, and single sided.
• If you don’t have the original copy of a document, get a replacement from the office which issued the document. The document must have the official seal or stamp of the office which issued it.  
• Provide a second copy (sometimes called a "certified copy") of your citizenship evidence if you do not want to submit a photocopy of it. We will keep the second copy.
• It may take longer to get your passport if you don't submit your document and a photocopy of it. 
• You cannot submit an electronic or mobile birth certificate.

Examples of Primary Citizenship Evidence

I was born in the united states.

• Issued by the city, county, or state of birth
• Lists applicant’s full name, date of birth, and place of birth
• Lists parent(s)’ full names
• Has the signature of the city, county, or state registrar
• Has the date filed with registrar's office (must be within one year of birth)
• Has the seal or stamp  of the city, county, or state which issued it
• Full validity means the document is or was valid for 10 years for adults and 5 years for children under 16.

Make sure your birth certificate looks like our sample image:

I was born outside the United States

• Full validity means the document is/was valid for 10 years for adults and 5 years for children under 16.
• Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certification of Birth
• Certificate of Naturalization 
• Certificate of Citizenship

Examples of Secondary Citizenship Evidence

You must submit:

• A delayed birth certificate or a Letter of No Record, and
• Early public records or documents

Delayed birth certificate (filed more than 1 year after birth)

• List of the records or documents used to create it (example: early public records)
• Signature of the birth attendant or an affidavit signed by the parent(s)
• If your delayed U.S. birth certificate does not include these items, submit it with early public records or documents.

Letter of No Record

• Be issued by the state
• Have the applicant’s name and date of birth
• List the birth years searched
• Include a statement that no birth certificate is on file
• An early public record or document, or 
• One early public record/document and one early private record/document with  Form DS-10: Birth Affadavit .

Early public or private records/documents

• These documents are from the first five years of an applicant's life.
• Records should include the applicant’s full name, date of birth, and place of birth. 
• Baptism certificate
• Hospital birth certificate (often shows baby’s footprints)
• U.S. Census record
• Early school records
• Family Bible record
• Doctor's records of post-natal care
• Form DS-10: Birth Affadavit
• Foreign language documents should include a professional English translation. 
• The translator must provide a notarized letter about the accuracy of the translation and their ability to translate the document.
• We will return your document(s) by mail in a separate package from your passport.

I became a U.S. citizen at birth

If you were born outside the United States and got U.S. citizenship through your U.S. citizen parent(s), submit:

• Your foreign birth certificate listing your parent(s)
• Your parent(s)’ evidence of U.S. citizenship
• Your parents' marriage certificate (if your parents were married)
• A statement from your parents that details when and where they lived in the United States and abroad before your birth.

Please see  U.S. Citizenship Laws & Policy  for more information.

I became a U.S. citizen through my parent who naturalized or through the Child Citizenship Act of 2000

If you were born outside the United States and got U.S. citizenship through the naturalization of your parent(s), submit:

• Evidence of your parent’s U.S. citizenship such as a U.S. birth certificate, Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), or naturalization certificate
• Permanent Resident Card/Green Card
• Foreign passport with the original I-551 visa entry stamp
• Your parents' marriage certificate (if your parents were married when you legally entered the U.S. and before your 18th birthday) 
• Documentation of legal custody when you entered the United States, if your parents were not married at that time. If your parents divorced after you entered the United States, provide documentation of legal custody at the time of your parent’s naturalization 
• Evidence that you resided in the United States in the legal and physical custody of your U.S. citizen parent 
• Evidence of your legitimation (if your parents were not married at the time of your birth). Legitimation means a father – whose child was born when he was not married – establishes a full legal relationship to his child. Establishing this relationship gives the father the same rights and obligations as if his child had been born while married to the child’s mother.
• Your parents' marriage certificate dated after your birth
• Certified court order of legitimation 

U.S. Citizenship through Adoption

If you were born outside the United States and got your citizenship after you were adopted, please see our  Child Citizenship Act webpage  for more information.

Request a File Search

You may request a file search instead of submitting evidence of U.S. citizenship if:

• You got a U.S. passport or Consular Report of Birth Abroad in the past, and
• You cannot submit it with your application

The file search fee is $150 and charged as part of the application fee which you pay to the U.S. Department of State. Please complete the  Request for a File Search  and include it with your application.

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Background Essay: Rights, Equality, and Citizenship

Directions:

Keep these discussion questions in mind as you read the background essay, making marginal notes as desired. Respond to the reflection and analysis questions at the end of the essay.

Discussion Questions

• Is suffrage a right or a privilege?
• Is suffrage necessary for a person to be considered a citizen?
• Is legal equality necessary for liberty?
• Can a person be free if not equal under the law?

Introduction

What is equality? What is the connection between equality and citizenship? The principle of equality means that all individuals have the same status regarding their claim to natural rights and treatment before the law. Our definition of citizenship has expanded throughout American history, most often through claims to our natural equality. The story of women’s suffrage is an example of the patience, determination, and sacrifice necessary to carry out long term change within a constitutional order. The word, suffrage, meaning “the right to vote,” originated with the Latin suffragium, meaning “a vote cast in an assembly, or influence given in support of a candidate.”

The Declaration of Independence asserts as a self-evident truth that all people were created equal. Something “self-evident” is a plain truth that does not need to be proven through reasoned deduction from other principles. It is apparent immediately (or self-evident) to any reasonable observer that there are no natural differences among people which give one person or group of people (such as kings and queens) the power to rule over others without their consent. All have equal rights and dignity.

In his Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690), as part of an argument against slavery, English philosopher John Locke theorized that all people are born free: “The natural liberty of man [human beings] is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man [humans], but to have only the law of nature for his rule.”

Almost a century later, Samuel Adams quoted Locke regarding the natural liberty of man, agreeing that all people are created equally free; there are no natural rulers.

Equality and Natural Rights

Further, the Declaration asserts that it was “self-evident” that human beings were “endowed by their Creator” with certain rights. In the Founders’ view, since rights come from God, the creator of our human nature, an individual’s natural rights could be neither given nor taken away. They are, to use the Declaration’s word, unalienable

The term “natural” here refers to human nature. Natural rights are those rights humans have at birth, including life, liberty, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, and others. No person or government can “give” an individual these rights; they are part of what it means to be human. One can know natural rights are natural because they can all be exercised without requiring anything from others. Natural rights are sometimes called negative rights for this reason. They are also called inherent rights because they inhere in humanity: they are an essential characteristic of human nature.

Painting depicting Thomas Jefferson and his fellow committee members presenting their draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Second Continental Congress. Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull, 1819. United States Capitol.

“Nobody Can Give More Power Than He Has Himself”

The assertion of inherent rights remains the foundation for the principle of equality. In the same argument against slavery, Locke reasoned:

“This freedom from absolute, arbitrary power, is so necessary to, and closely joined with a man’s preservation, that he cannot part with it…for a man, not having the power of his own life, cannot, by compact, or his own consent, enslave himself to any one, nor put himself under the absolute, arbitrary power of another, to take away his life, when he pleases. Nobody can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power over it.”

In other words, Locke maintained, individual lives and the rights that flow from human nature belong to the Creator

Again, Adams echoes Locke in The Rights of the Colonists (1772):

“It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or any number of men, at the entering into society, to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights; when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defense of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are Life, Liberty, and Property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate [make void] such renunciation. The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.”

Because humans are born with inherent rights, these rights are the same under any political system. An unjust government— including a tyrannical majority—may abuse or abridge the people’s inherent rights, but can never remove them, since these rights are essential to human nature.

But not all rights are inherent. Political rights, for example, may vary through times and places, because, unlike natural rights, they are given by government. Many political rights, including voting and serving on juries, have been expanded to more groups of people throughout American history through claims to natural and inherent equality. Although people use the term “rights” to refer to them, these rights conferred by civil society could more accurately be considered privileges—abilities that can be justly given or denied by government under certain conditions. For example, a driver’s license will be granted if a person passes a driving test, but can be revoked for drunk driving or too many accidents. A person can lose the ability to serve on a jury and to vote if convicted of a felony. People have inherent rights by nature, but must have permission in order to exercise a privilege.

Samuel Adams by John Singleton Copley, about 1772; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The U.S. Constitution

The Declaration asserted two more principles that were self-evident: that in order to secure our rights, “governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and that when a government repeatedly abuses the peoples’ rights, the people have the power and the duty to “alter or abolish” it and create a new government that will better protect their rights and ensure their safety and happiness.

After a time under the Articles of Confederation, many observers recognized the need for a more powerful central government, giving rise to a convention of the states in 1787. The resulting new Constitution’s opening lines “We the people…ordain and establish this Constitution” outlined a government of limited powers, recognizing the sovereignty of the individual and protecting the natural right of the people to govern themselves.

With this right to self-government come many responsibilities. In fact, it could be argued that citizenship is more about responsibilities than about rights. Individuals are free to make choices about their government and direct their own lives within a system that guarantees the equal right (and responsibility) of others to do the same. The Constitution reflects the sovereignty of the individual, by limiting the national government to certain enumerated powers, leaving everything else to the states and to the people.

Theory vs. Practice

Despite the bold proclamation, the principle of equality was not meaningfully reflected in the lives of all people during the early republic. Enslaved persons and Native Americans were unable to exercise their inherent rights and were not afforded political rights. The Constitution sanctioned slavery both explicitly and implicitly: it gave Congress the power to ban the international slave trade, but mandated a 20-year waiting period before doing so. The Constitution also allowed slave states to count three-fifths of their enslaved population toward the calculation of those states’ representation in Congress. Though this compromise prevented slave states from having even greater power (they had wanted to count their entire slave populations), the policy tolerated the practice of owning and trading in human beings. Though many of the leading Founders were convinced of the evils and injustices of slavery, they did not end it in their lifetimes.

Women also lacked legal equality. Enslaved women and Native American women were denied all of their rights. Among white women, and depending on varying state laws, widows had some political rights and could own property, but married white women had no legal status at all under the traditional doctrine of coverture. The English jurist William Blackstone explained this doctrine in 1765. Through marriage, husband and wife become one person under the law: “the  very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband; under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs everything.”

The Constitution left voting requirements to the states, and so states could adopt different policies. Some states did away with property requirements but still required voters to be taxpayers. Some states required a tax to vote, or a poll tax. Vermont became the first state to grant universal male suffrage in 1777. New Jersey allowed property-owning white women and free African Americans to vote for a short time before that right was revoked in 1807.

Extending Equality

The Founding generation did not perfectly live out its ideal of equality. However, it provided a foundation for greater expansion of liberty through time. Through sustained effort and commitment over time, Americans have persistently appealed to Founding documents and their root principles to insist on changes that gradually recognized and protected both natural and civil rights.

The women’s suffrage movement provides a model for implementing social and legal change to better align institutions with principles of liberty, justice, and equality. The pathway for change was long. Seventy-two years passed between the Declaration of Independence assertion of self-evident and equal natural rights and the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, where women planned to “discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman.” In most parts of America in 1848 it was considered improper—even illegal—for women to speak in public meetings. Now they were convening one. It took another seventytwo years of struggle for women to achieve a constitutional amendment—the Nineteenth in 1920—protecting their right to vote, and guaranteeing their opportunity to participate more fully in the political process.

The Constitution contains the means to institute the meaningful changes required to bring it more in line with the governing principles on which it was founded. One of these methods is the amendment process, which is slow but effective. Reformers committed to equality and justice endured hardship and sacrifice to implement the amendment process to end slavery, and to grant the vote to black men, women, and people ages 18-21. Other methods of aligning the law with these principles, particularly equality, result from the system of checks and balances. The Supreme Court in 1954 checked the power of majorities in states when it ruled segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Congress has also invoked its enumerated powers to protect legal equality with laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Appeals to equality continue today as Americans debate the meaning of the principle as it applies to undocumented immigrants, the unborn, LGBTQ community members, disabled people, and many others.

REFLECTION AND ANALYSIS QUESTIONS

• On what basis did John Locke and Samuel Adams claim that slavery was unjust?
• List four truths the Declaration of Independence asserts are self-evident.
• What is a natural right?
• Should voting be considered a right or a privilege? Explain your choice.
• Do you agree with Locke that there are limits to what we can consent to? Does consent make any action good? Explain why or why not
• Some say that natural rights do not exist because so many governments have abused them throughout history. (Indeed, the Founders argued that the British King and Parliament were abusing theirs.) They say that if a right cannot be exercised effectively, it does not exist. Evaluate this assertion.
• The Founding generation did not fully live out its ideal of equality. Which ideals do people fail to live up to in modern times?
• Principles: equality, republican/representative government, popular sovereignty, federalism,inalienable rights
• Virtues: perseverance, contribution, moderation, resourcefulness, courage, respect, justice

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What Are the Qualifications to Be President of the United States?

By: Dave Roos

Published: May 31, 2024

When the United States Constitution was being drafted and ratified, the Founders debated over what qualifications to impose on the nation’s highest offices. Some delegates argued that members of Congress shouldn’t be debtors or foreign-born. Others insisted that all federal officers should be landowners. A few believed there should be almost no qualifications or restrictions on who holds a federal office—that the voters should decide who is best equipped.

In the end, the framers of the Constitution chose to include just three qualifications for the office of U.S. president. They’re laid out in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 :

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Unlike European aristocracies, where only wealthy landed gentlemen could rule, America’s Constitution imposed no financial requirements or religious tests on who was fit for office.

“In the ratifying conventions, there were people who said, ‘You mean somebody who is poor, or somebody who is not a Christian, or somebody who doesn’t hold any land can become president of the United States?’ It was a little bizarre to think that anyone could serve,” says Derek Muller, an election law professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. “The notion was that these were some bare minimums. They expected that the people who voted—or the electors who voted for president—would exercise their judgment about who had the appropriate qualifications.”

Basic Qualifications: Age, Citizenship and Residency

According to the Constitution, there are just three basic qualifications for being president:

• Age: The person must be at least 35 years old
• Citizenship : The person must be a “natural born citizen” (meaning they were born to American parents and did not become a citizen through the naturalization process)
• Residency: The person has lived in the U.S. at least 14 years

At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the Founders debated the minimum age for federal officers, with George Mason proposing 25 for members of the House and James Wilson arguing that there shouldn’t be any age restrictions at all. James Madison , in his minutes of the Convention, reported Wilson saying, “There was no more reason for incapacitating youth than age , when the requisite qualifications were found.”

In the end, the Founders settled on three different minimum ages: 25 for the House, 30 for the Senate and 35 for the presidency (and vice presidency). Muller says the president’s minimum age must be met by Inauguration Day . A 34-year-old could be elected president in November of an election year, but they’d need to turn 35 before January 20 to take office.

The Founders universally supported a citizenship requirement, and there wouldn’t have been any confusion about what it meant to be a “natural born” citizen. That language was common in 18th-century British law, which recognized all children born to British parents as “natural-born subjects,” even if they were born outside the British Empire.

Note that the framers were careful to include the clause “​​at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution,” to waive the “natural-born” requirement for prominent delegates like Robert Morris and James Wilson, who were born to British parents outside of the American Colonies (England and Scotland respectively).

The president is the only federal officer who is required to have lived in the U.S. a specific number of years. (House members and Senators only have to be residents of the states they represent.) In explaining the logic of the Founders, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote that the 14-year residency ensured that “the people may have a full opportunity to know [the candidate’s] character and merits, and that he may have mingled in the duties, and felt the interests, and understood the principles, and nourished the attachments, belonging to every citizen in a republican government.”

Impeachment and Conviction

Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution states that a president or other federal officials can be impeached and removed from office if convicted (by Congress) of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

Only three U.S. presidents have been impeached—Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump (twice)—but none was convicted and removed. If they had been convicted, though, could they run again for president and serve another term?

The short answer is “no.” Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 of the Constitution states (in part): “ Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States .”

However, Constitutional scholars debate the scope of the impeachment disqualification clause. To the Framers, the phrase “any Office … under the United States” did not apply to any state positions, so an impeached and convicted president could still hold any state position, says Seth Barrett Tillman, an American law professor at the Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology in Ireland.

Some scholars, including Tillman, believe that the impeachment disqualification clause only applies to appointed positions, not elected office. According to that reading of the Constitution—which Tillman admits is a minority—an impeached and convicted president could be re-elected to the White House. It would ultimately be up to the Supreme Court to decide.

Two More Disqualifications: Term Limits and Insurrection

Muller says that the Constitution mentions two other situations in which people would be disqualified or barred from being president. Both are found in constitutional amendments.

The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, formally imposed a two-term limit on U.S. presidents. Starting with George Washington , all American presidents stepped down after two terms (if re-elected). That custom was broken by Franklin D. Roosevelt , who was re-elected to historic third and fourth terms in 1940 and 1944, as America was embroiled in World War II .

Legislators passed the 22nd Amendment to prevent future presidents from trying to beat FDR’s record of 12 years in office. That’s why former presidents who served two full terms are disqualified from serving again. (Interestingly, the wording of the 22nd Amendment says that no person can be “elected” more than twice for president, but it doesn’t explicitly prevent a former two-term president from ascending to a third term via the vice presidency.)

The Constitution’s only other disqualification for the presidency came in 1868, in the wake of the Civil War , when lawmakers sought to prevent former Confederate officers from occupying seats in the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Lawmakers successfully employed Section 3 in the 1860s to prevent former Confederates from blocking Reconstruction legislation. But by 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant was under pressure to lift the ban on former Confederates, which he did—with the General Amnesty Act of 1872. After that, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment sat on the shelf for nearly 150 years.

Criminal Convictions and Jail Sentences are Not Disqualifiers

When it comes to eligibility for the nation’s highest office, the founding document makes no mention of the issue of criminal convictions. Nothing prevents a person convicted of multiple felonies or other criminal charges from becoming president.

“The Constitution does not list those things out,” says Muller. “Voters can certainly take that into consideration, but that’s a different matter from saying that you’re barred from holding office.”

Technically, there’s nothing in the Constitution or its amendments that says a president couldn’t perform their duties from prison, either. In the 1920 presidential election, the socialist candidate Eugene Debs ran his campaign from a federal prison in Georgia, where he was serving a 10-year sentence for sedition. Debs ran as "Convict No. 9653” and won 3.5 percent of the vote .

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The Indian Citizenship Act at 100 Years Old

• Heritage Unbound

Guest Essay. One hundred years ago, on June 2, 1924, the United States government conferred citizenship on Native American people by passing the Snyder Act, also known as the Indian Citizenship Act. Prior to that time, Native Americans had been explicitly denied citizenship—first in the United States Constitution and, later, through the 14 th  Amendment. However, while the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 ensured that all Native Americans born within the United States had citizenship, the Act failed to fulfill the promise of citizenship because Native Americans were not also granted voting rights. It would be decades before all 50 states granted Native American citizens the right to vote. And even today, due to the inequities that Native Americans endure when accessing registration, early voting, and Election Day polling places, the promise of full citizenship remains broken.

While the 15 th  Amendment declared that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race, many states were able to find other ways to deny Native American people the vote—residence on a reservation, tribal enrollment status, taxation, and incompetency were all used by states as reasons to disenfranchise Native people. One tragic outcome was that thousands of Native American veterans— including American Indian Code Talkers returning from World War II— found themselves prohibited from participating in basic civil liberties in the nation that they had risked their lives to protect.

[In commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, during the month of June, Native News Online is publish  guest essays to provide our readers with various perspectives from prominent Native Americans on the subject. Today's was written by the Native American Rights Fund.]

In reality, Native voting rights often have come about only because of extensive advocacy and litigation by Native American individuals, organizations, and Tribal Nations. Native voters have had to fight (sometimes repeatedly) to have their voices heard. So, on this 100 th  anniversary, we reflect on 100 years of Native American efforts to fully realize their citizenship and obtain equal access to their freedom to vote. We also honor 100 years of Native American citizens working tirelessly to make things better for future generations.

100 Years of Fighting for the Freedom to Vote

Native voters have had to fight for the enforcement of their civil rights since the moment that they were granted citizenship 100 years ago. To that end, since its founding in 1970, NARF has undertaken high-impact cases that will ensure equal and fair access to voting for Native American citizens. Repeatedly we have encountered voting rights abuses against Native Americans in Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, and other states with significant Native American populations.

NARF’s legal work protecting Native voting rights is part of a long history of persistence across Indian Country to obtain and protect Native civil rights. Using the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and various sections of the Voting Rights Act, Native American voters have filed dozens of lawsuits to gain access to elections and to have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. A 2008 review of voting rights cases involving Native Americans and Alaska Natives as plaintiffs identified 74 cases, filed in 15 states. Tellingly, the Native plaintiffs won over 90% of cases- they lost only four of these cases, obtained partial success in two, and secured victories or successful settlements in the remaining 68 cases. That is an impressive record of success, often based upon dismal facts.

Why do Native people have to litigate for their right to vote? Because state governments repeatedly pass legislation to prevent Native American voter participation. State laws that  directly  restricted Native voter participation were on the books as recently as 1957. In more recent years, voting restrictions have expanded from direct denial of voting rights to the dilution of voting rights and indirect (but effective) impediments that capitalize on systemic inequities. Given their lack of representation, Native Americans continue to see gross disparities in services and infrastructure—things like transportation, broadband, and home addressing. These disparities can be exploited as barriers to registering to vote, voting, and having votes counted.

Today, 100 years after the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, Native people still are forced to litigate for their right to vote. Tragically, states continue passing legislation that prevents Native people from voting in federal and state elections. For example, in Montana, the state legislature passed the Montana Ballot Interference Prevention Act in 2018. The law restricted ballot collection, which is used heavily in isolated rural Native communities. The Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes of Fort Peck, Blackfeet Nation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, Crow Tribe, and Fort Belknap Indian Community, Western Native Voice, and Montana Native Vote challenged the law in court. In 2020, the court ruled in the case,  Western Native Voice v. Stapleton , that blocking ballot collection was unconstitutional and does not serve the state due to the detrimental impacts on Native voters. Incredibly, mere months after that ruling, the Montana state legislature again restricted ballot collection. Tribes and Native get-out-the-vote organizations in Montana were forced to return to court yet again to protect the rights of Native voters from anti-Native election-related laws. The court found again that the voting restrictions were unconstitutional. However, it begs the question: how many times should Native voters have to go to court to protect their freedom to vote?

Meanwhile, in 2022, the Spirit Lake Tribe, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, and several voters filed a lawsuit challenging North Dakota’s state legislative map as unlawfully diluting the voting rights of Native Americans. The U.S. District Court for North Dakota determined that the districts in question were not legal under the Voting Rights Act and ordered a legal and fair map to be adopted. Rather than working to adopt a legal map and ensuring that all voters in North Dakota could be heard, the state’s Attorney General poured more resources into appealing the decision and is advancing legal theories challenging the right of Native litigants to be able to bring cases under the Voting Rights Act at all. That case’s appeal, and the radical attempt to block private plaintiffs from accessing the Voting Rights Act’s protections, is still under consideration in the higher courts.

 Obviously, these voting restrictions reflect persistent racism and bigotry, but there also is a pragmatic reason for disenfranchisement. A fully enfranchised Native electorate is powerful. In many parts of the United States, Native voters could change the outcome of elections. Native Americans are poised to sway local, state, and federal elections. They make up key voting blocks in states like Arizona, Alaska, Nevada, Montana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, to name a few. Voting restrictions that target these communities can greatly influence electoral outcomes.

  Democracy is Native

Ironically, despite not having full access to enfranchisement and the privileges of citizenship, Native Americans have contributed greatly to this nation’s democratic fabric. In fact, Native American cultures heavily influenced the development of early American democracy. Well before the founding of the United States, even before the arrival of the earliest European explorers and colonists, some of the region’s Indigenous Peoples had federalist systems of government. When the delegates of the United States’ 1787 Constitutional Convention met, many of them were well-familiar with federalism-in-action through their contacts with Indigenous governments. Famously, Benjamin Franklin cited the structure and strength of the Iroquois Confederacy as an organization the colonies could emulate as they formed their new union.

Democracy is Native and NARF is committed to protecting it. The obstacles faced by Native voters are unreasonable and unfair and rob them of their collective political power. The fundamental promise of American democracy, of Native American democracy, is that everyone can participate and effectuate change. One hundred years ago, Native American were promised citizenship and all the benefits thereof. We fight every day in courts and congress across the United States to hold governments accountable and honor that promise.

Learn more about ongoing efforts to assert and protect the Native vote at  vote.narf.org.

Join us in celebrating 100 years of Native citizenship. On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, granting Native Americans US citizenship, a pivotal moment in their quest for equality. This year marks its centennial, inspiring our special project, "Heritage Unbound: Native American Citizenship at 100," celebrating their journey with stories of resilience, struggle, and triumph. Your donations fuel initiatives like these, ensuring our coverage and projects honoring Native American heritage thrive. Your donations fuel initiatives like these, ensuring our coverage and projects honoring Native American heritage thrive.

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Guest Essay

A Chill Has Fallen Over Jews in Publishing

By James Kirchick

Mr. Kirchick is a contributing writer to Tablet magazine, a writer at large for Air Mail and the author of “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington.”

This month, an account on X with the handle @moyurireads and 360 followers published a link to a color-coded spreadsheet classifying nearly 200 writers according to their views on the “genocide” in Gaza. Titled “Is Your Fav Author a Zionist?,” it reads like a cross between Tiger Beat and “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

The novelist Emily St. John Mandel, the author of “Station Eleven” and “Sea of Tranquility,” earned a red “pro-Israel/Zionist” classification because, according to the list’s creator, she “travels to Israel frequently talks favorably about it.” Simply for posting a link to the Israeli chapter of the Red Cross, the novelist Kristin Hannah was deemed a “Zionist,” as was the author Gabrielle Zevin for delivering a book talk to Hadassah, a Jewish women’s organization. Needless to say, the creator of the list — whose post on X announcing it garnered over a million views within a few days — encourages readers to boycott any works produced by “Zionists.”

The spreadsheet is but the crudest example of the virulently anti-Israel — and increasingly antisemitic — sentiment that has been coursing through the literary world since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7. Much of it revolves around the charge of genocide and seeks to punish Zionists and anyone else who refuses to explicitly denounce the Jewish state for allegedly committing said crime. Since a large majority of American Jews (80 percent of whom, according to a 2020 poll , said that caring about Israel is an important or essential part of their Judaism) are Zionists, to accuse all Zionists of complicity in genocide is to anathematize a core component of Jewish identity.

Over the past several months, a litmus test has emerged across wide swaths of the literary world effectively excluding Jews from full participation unless they denounce Israel. This phenomenon has been unfolding in progressive spaces (academia, politics, cultural organizations) for quite some time. That it has now hit the rarefied, highbrow realm of publishing — where Jewish Americans have made enormous contributions and the vitality of which depends on intellectual pluralism and free expression — is particularly alarming.

As is always and everywhere the case, this growing antisemitism is concomitant with a rising illiberalism. Rarely, if ever, do writers express unanimity on a contentious political issue. We’re a naturally argumentative bunch who — at least in theory — answer only to our own consciences.

To compel them to express support or disapproval for a cause is one of the cruelest things a society can do to writers, whose role is to tell society what they believe, regardless of how popular the message may be. The drawing up of lists, in particular, is a tactic with a long and ignominious history, employed by the enemies of literature — and liberty — on both the left and the right. But the problem goes much deeper than a tyro blacklist targeting “Zionists.”

One of the greatest mass delusions of the 21st century is the belief that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians. This grotesque moral inversion — in which a genocidal terrorist organization that instigated a war with Israel by committing the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is absolved of responsibility while the victim of Hamas’s attack is charged with perpetrating the worst crime known to man — began taking shape before Israel even launched its ground invasion of Gaza.

A charitable description of those imputing genocidal motivations to Israel is that they are ignorant, essentially believing the word to mean “large numbers of civilian casualties.” (Here it’s worth noting that the United Nations, to little notice, has significantly lowered its estimate of the number of women and children killed in Gaza.) For others, accusing Israel of genocide is an emotional outlet for expressing outrage at such a horrific loss of life. A third, more pessimistic, characterization of the ubiquitous genocide canard is that it is only the latest iteration of the ancient antisemitic blood libel, which held that Jews murdered gentile children in order to use their blood for religious rituals.

College students and professional activists using overheated and imprecise language to convey their strongly held beliefs is hardly uncommon, and much of the intemperate language being directed at Israel and its Zionist supporters can be attributed to the hyperbole that increasingly characterizes our political discourse. What should worry us more is when people who have dedicated their lives to the written word manipulate language for a political end, one that is stigmatizing Jews.

Nine days after the Oct. 7 attack, the popular website Literary Hub began publishing what has since become a near-daily torrent of agitprop invective against what it describes as the “rogue ethnostate” of Israel, which it routinely accuses of committing genocide. In March, after a mass resignation of its staff members , the literary magazine Guernica retracted a personal essay by a left-wing Israeli woman about her experience volunteering to drive Palestinian children to Israel for medical treatment. In her resignation letter, one of the magazine’s co-publishers denounced the piece as “a hand-wringing apologia for Zionism and the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

Whereas antisemitism in the literary world used to lurk in the shadows, according to the Jewish Book Council’s chief executive, Naomi Firestone-Teeter, since Oct. 7, it has become increasingly overt. “The fact that people have felt so proud and open about it is a different beast entirely,” she said. One of the most disturbing developments in this regard has been the frequency and contempt with which the word “Zionist” is now spit from people’s mouths in the United States.

Until relatively recently, the use of “Zionist” as a slur was most commonly confined to Soviet and Arab propagandists, who spent decades trying to render the word the moral equivalent of “Nazi.” Today many progressives use the word in similar fashion, making no distinction between a Zionist who supports a two-state solution (which, presumably, most Jews in the overwhelmingly liberal literary world do) and one who believes in a “Greater Israel” encompassing the entirety of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And while anyone can be a Zionist, I’ve found in my 20 years of reporting on antisemitism that many Jews essentially hear “Jew” when someone shouts “Zionist" at them.

The corruption of the words “genocide” and “Zionist” lies at the root of the controversy threatening to unravel PEN America, the storied writers’ organization. As with many a literary contretemps, it involves a cascade of open letters. In February a missive that gained almost 1,500 signatures was published demanding that PEN “wake up from its own silent, tepid, neither-here-nor-there, self-congratulatory middle of the road and take an actual stand against an actual genocide.” The dozens of statements PEN had issued by that time calling attention to the plight of writers in Gaza (who the letter, without citing evidence, claimed had been “targeted” by Israel for assassination) were insufficient. “We demand PEN America release an official statement” about the writers killed in Gaza the letter read, “and name their murderer: Israel, a Zionist colonial state funded by the U.S. government.”

On March 20, PEN acceded to the ultimatum that it endorse the call for a cease-fire. But that did not satiate its critics.

Last month, in advance of PEN’s annual literary awards ceremony, nearly half of the nominated writers withdrew from the competition. A subset of those writers then released another open letter , declaring, “Among writers of conscience, there is no disagreement. There is fact and fiction. The fact is that Israel is leading a genocide of the Palestinian people.” They accused PEN of “normalizing genocide,” denounced PEN for its “platforming of Zionists” and, most shamefully, called for the resignation of its Jewish chief executive, Suzanne Nossel, on account of her “longstanding commitments to Zionism.”

Along with eight other past presidents of PEN, Salman Rushdie signed a letter in defense of the organization , an intervention that earned him an “unclear” rating on the anti-Zionist blacklist. (He has braved far worse from Islamist zealots and their Western apologists.) PEN ultimately canceled both the awards ceremony and subsequent World Voices Festival.

Dissatisfaction with PEN’s purported lack of indignation over the deaths of Palestinian writers is a fig leaf. Where were the efforts by those now decrying PEN to protest the complete absence of freedom of expression that has characterized the Gaza Strip under 17 years of Hamas rule?

The real objectives behind the cynical weaponization of the word “genocide” and the authoritarian insistence that anyone who disagrees with it is an enabler of one are to shut down debate, defame dissenters and impose a rigid orthodoxy throughout the publishing world. It is a naked attempt to impose an ideological litmus test on anyone hoping to join the republic of letters — a litmus test that the vast majority of Jews would fail.

A campaign of intimidation, the sort of thing that happens to the dissident writers in closed societies whom PEN regularly champions, is afoot to pressure writers into toeing this new party line. PEN’s current president, Jenny Finney Boylan, recently said that she had heard from “many, many authors who do not agree with those withdrawing from PEN events and who do not wish to withdraw from our events themselves but are afraid of the consequences if they speak up.”

Compelling speech — which is ultimately what PEN’s critics are demanding of it — is the tactic of commissars, not writers in a free society. Censorship, thought policing and bullying are antithetical to the spirit of literature, which is best understood as an intimate conversation between the author and individual readers.

PEN’s detractors aren’t helping the Palestinian people with their whitewashing of Hamas. They’re engaged in a hostile takeover of a noble organization committed to the defense of free expression in order to advance a sectarian and bigoted political agenda.

Neil Gaiman, Taylor Jenkins-Reid, Ms. Mandel and other hugely successful authors need not worry that being denounced as a Zionist will hurt their careers. But the blacklists and the boycotts do not really target them. The actual targets of this crusade are lesser-known authors, budding novelists, aspiring poets and creative writing students — largely but not exclusively Jewish — who can feel a change in the air.

“I do now definitely have concern as a Jewish author — two years working on a novel that has absolutely nothing to do with Jews in any way, just because it says ‘National Jewish Book Award winner’ in my bio — that it may change the way readers see the work,” said a Jewish creative writing professor and novelist who spoke to me on the condition of being quoted anonymously.

No longer is being on the receiving end of a review bomb the worst fate that can befall a Jewish writer exploring Jewish themes; even getting such a book published is becoming increasingly difficult. “It’s very clear you have to have real courage to acquire and publish proudly Jewish voices and books about being Jewish,” a prominent literary agent told me. “When you are seen as genocidal, a moral insult to humanity because you believe in Israel’s right to exist, you are now seen as deserving of being canceled.”

There’s a distasteful irony in a literary community that has gone to the barricades fighting book “bans” now rallying to boycott authors based on their ethnoreligious identity. For a growing set of writers, declaring one’s belief that the world’s only Jewish state is a genocidal entity whose dismantlement is necessary for the advancement of humankind is a political fashion statement, a bauble one parades around in order to signify being on the right team. As was Stalinism for an earlier generation of left-wing literary intellectuals, so is antisemitism becoming the avant-garde.

James Kirchick is a contributing writer to Tablet magazine, a writer at large for Air Mail and the author of “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington.”

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Book reviews in brief: Cloistered: My Years as a Nun; Old Istanbul & Other Essays; One Small Step

Searing memoir that endures; an author in pursuit of answers to profound questions; and complexity of life for the birmingham irish.

Catherine Coldstream sought the consolation of a monastic life.

Cloistered: My Years as a Nun by Catherine Coldstream (Chatto & Windus, £20)

Catherine Coldstream’s choice to become a nun (and in a cloistered, mostly silent community at that) appears a most unlikely one as she came from an artistic, academic, non-Catholic background. But a traumatic home life, the death of her beloved father and break-up of her family caused her to seek the consolation of the monastic life. And she loved it for a time: the isolation, peace, silence, contemplation and closeness to nature. But it soured due to cliques, a schism and a power struggle in which she found herself turned upon and even violently attacked. Eventually she took flight — from the monastery, she’s keen to point out, but not from her religious faith. A beautifully written, achingly honest devotional memoir that will live long in the memory.

Old Istanbul & Other Essays by Gerard McCarthy (Irish Pages Press, €28)

This is travelogue with a difference, full of philosophical musings and insights of a thoughtful author on a quest for answers to profound questions. For example, in Istanbul, “the world is wider than any subjective interpretation of it” with “each perspective part of the human story”; in Jerusalem, he refers to “the human drama that has drawn the children of Abraham together in conflict across the generations”; in Cordoba: “In an ideal world, cultural boundaries should be permeable membranes through which the human spirit would flow.” In Granada, he asks “how does one live one’s life?”; he thought, amid the cacophony, “to listen out for a tone, and to follow it, would be the height one could hope for”. The first book of a gifted writer sadly recently deceased.

One Small Step by Michael Flavin (Vulpine Press, £10.99)

The narrator, Danny, is a 10-year-old boy from a Northern Irish Catholic family living in Birmingham, far away from “the Troubles”. Fascinated with science fiction, he wants to be an astronaut and writes stories of space travel with himself as hero. But the terrible pub bombings upend his life. A visitor from Northern Ireland stays in his home in the bombings’ aftermath, leading to the break-up of Danny’s family, unmooring the direction of his life. Characters and dialogue are credible and the 10-year-old’s perspective is mostly well maintained until a friend’s sparking his interest in Che Guevara leads to meditations on the techniques of guerrilla warfare that seem too mature for one so young. Nevertheless, the complexity of life for the Birmingham Irish is well conveyed.

IN THIS SECTION

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• USCIS Policy Manual- Volume 12, Part H, Chapter 3, U.S. Citizens at Birth (INA 301 and 309) ; Chapter 4, Automatic Acquisition of Citizenship after Birth (INA 320)    
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