Letters to the editor: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009

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No excuse Recently I had the opportunity to review the citizenship application procedure for immigrants to become American citizens. As I was going over the "civics test” portion of the application, it occurred to me that many Americans would fail this test and that in 13 years of public school, four years of college and now one year of law school, I’ve never taken a single mandatory civics class. It was only about five years ago that I sat down and read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence in their entireties. How can that be?

Is it any wonder that our leaders so casually dismiss the Constitution or that their constituents allow it to happen? Nobody knows what it says! The Constitution is 4,418 words (excluding amendments). The Declaration of Independence is 1,330 words. In 13 years of public school in Oklahoma, is there any excuse for every graduate not to know those 5,748 words by heart? When more fourth-graders recognize Ronald McDonald than Thomas Jefferson, our educational approach has a fundamental problem.

At a time when we’re debating whether to torture suspects, whether the government can usurp private industries and whether we can fight wars without declaring them, we have no excuse to remain ignorant of the 1,330 words that changed the course of human events or the 4,418 words that founded the most powerful nation the world has seen.

Adam Bates, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Bates is a second-year law student at the University of Michigan. He recently was an intern at the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.