October 19, 2010

Can we pass the test?

We're pleased to once again offer the writings of Lorraine Collins, whose columns are regularly published in the Black Hills Pioneer.  This time, she addresses an issue that we're hearing more about during this election season -- the U.S. Constitution.  Our thanks to Lorraine for sharing her work with us.  You may contact her at Collins1@rushmore.com
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There has been some talk lately about changing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that allows anybody born here to be a citizen of our country. Some people  worry about illegal immigrants coming here and giving birth to "anchor babies" so eventually, those infant citizens can grow up and then sponsor their parents for citizenship. This would take 21 years, as I understand it, but those who worry about immigration seem to fret a lot about the ramifications of "birthright citizenship".

Most other developed countries do have some additional requirement for citizenship, such as having been born to a citizen or permanent resident of that country, but I kind of hate to see us starting to dismantle the Constitution because of some current fears. Next thing you know, somebody will decide it's dangerous to have all that stuff in the Bill of Rights about freedom of religion and speech and assembly.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that some of my ancestors were born in America to parents who were immigrants from Europe but were not yet citizens. Their children were "first generation Americans." By now I'm a fourth generation American so I'm glad the birthright citizenship worked for my family.        

Those of us lucky enough to have been born here don't have to take any test to prove ourselves worthy of citizenship but what if we did? What if just being born here didn't entitle us to be Americans? What if we had to pass some kind of test? Could we pass?

Well, there's one way to find out. We can take the test required of everyone who applies for American citizenship. You can find the questions online, and I thought it might be fun to offer a few examples of the questions, so here they are.

            1. What are the first three words of the U.S. Constitution?
            2.What is one of the five rights guaranteed by the 1st Amendment?
            3. How many Amendments does the Constitution have?
            4.How many U.S. Senators and Representatives are in Congress?
            5, If both the president and the vice president cannot serve, who                  becomes the president?
            6. Who is the current Chief Justice of the United States?
            7. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
            8. What are the two longest rivers in the United States?
            9. When was the Constitution adopted?
          10. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?

Actually, it might be a good idea to sit down and take the citizenship test every now and then just to remember some of the history and geography that we may have forgotten since we were in school. Some recent studies have indicated that Americans tend to be woefully ignorant of history and current affairs.  Maybe that's why so many of us are willing to believe practically anything anybody tells us.

Pondering all this, I had another idea and came up with another quiz, in preparation for Election Day. Let's assume everyone can name the two candidates for governor on the ballot for the November election. But who are the two men running for Lt. Governor? What do we know about them?

Do we all know that there are three people running for Secretary of State? Can we name them? How about the candidates for State Auditor, Treasurer, Commissioner of School and Public Lands? What do we know about them and whether or not they'd be any good at the job? 

And what about the ballot issues this year---Amendments K and L, referred law 12 and initiated measure 13? These are the things we should know something about before we get to the voting booth. Luckily, sample ballots are available in several places including party headquarters, the court house and city hall. And there's almost a month before election day to study up.

Those of us who don't have to pass a test to become citizens still have to pass the citizenship test every couple of years in November. 



October 10, 2010

Why we can't ban or burn books anymore


Spearfish writer Lorraine Collins is a regular contributor to the Black Hills Pioneer newspaper, and we're delighted that she shares her column with us for Black Hills Monitor. She's touched upon a wide range of topics, and this time she writes about banning and burning books.  Please double check to ensure that this column is not banned in your community.  If it    isn't, please consider having it banned so that we might increase readership of Black Hills Monitor.   You may contact Lorraine at collins1@rushmore.com
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The September AARP bulletin, which I receive because I have been a member of the American Association of Retired Persons for some years now, has a list of books that have been banned at various times in America. This was published in honor of Banned Books Week beginning September 25th. It's always fun to read the list of famous and classic books that have been, or still are, banned in various libraries and schools in America.

For instance, there's the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. AARP says this was frequently censored from 1789 until early in the 20th century and sometimes "sanitized" by publishers so it could be used in schools. One problem is that it contains a very witty essay, "Advice to a young man on the choice of a mistress." I couldn't remember ever reading this but was able to find it online in a matter of moments.

 It should be noted that Franklin tells the young man he should get married, and explains marriage is the only way a man may be completely happy and successful. He says that wives and husbands help each other and offer different strengths and talents to achieve a good life. However, if the young man persists in his present attitude, Franklin advises him to seek out an older woman and explains why. At the end, he repeats his advice about getting married. I think it's an entertaining essay by one of our more interesting Founding Fathers.

My experience in finding this essay illustrates why banning books or burning them is quite a useless exercise these days. It can be a theatrical or symbolic act, pleasing somebody's ego or assuaging some citizen's concern, but it's pointless. The books, or excerpts from the books, reviews of the books, and directions about how to find the books are all over the Internet. And kids have access to computers.

Another fact about banning a book is illustrated by my searching for Ben Franklin's essay on line. When something is banned, it becomes more attractive, an object of curiosity, and generates a lot of interest among those who otherwise might not have paid much attention to it. In the old days when a book was "banned in Boston" it became a best seller.

The list of books that have been banned at some time and in some place in America includes many famous classics including Uncle Tom's Cabin, Dr. Zhivago, A Farewell to Arms and 1984. Those were regarded as too political. Books banned for having too much sex include Ulysses, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Lolita and Jaws. Those are probably the ones we've heard about the most because sex is sensational.

Darwin's On the Origin of Species has been banned as have books like the  Lord of the Rings trilogy because they were thought to be irreligious. Books in the Harry Potter series were burned in New Mexico and challenged in 19 states not only for being irreligious but because the books include rebellion against authority.

There is a long list of famous books that have been banned from time to time because somebody thought they were socially offensive. Oddly enough, this includes The Diary of Anne Frank and To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as The Scarlet Letter and Gone With The Wind. Some schools have banned several of Shakespeare's plays including King Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet.

Reading any list of banned and burned books causes me to shake my head in puzzlement. Sometimes I wonder if those offended by the books have actually read them, and what they fear about them. I do think it's fear that causes people or societies to ban books. They don't want to upset the status quo, or introduce new ideas, or explore social and political issues.

 However, I've always thought that ignorance is much more dangerous for society than information, whether we like the information or not. So in honor of Banned Book Week, I'd encourage us all to go get one and read it.

Lorraine Collins is a writer who lives in Spearfish. She can be reached at collins1@rushmore.com.

October 8, 2010

The demise of the Lawrence County Journal


It’s a bit of irony that the owner of the Lawrence County Journal would announce the immediate closure of the paper smack dab in the middle of National Newspaper Week.

Publisher Brad Slater of the Rapid City Journal, which owns the Lawrence County Journal, conceded Wednesday (10/6/10) that the move was “an extremely difficult choice to make."  As part of the move, offices in Spearfish, Newell, and Deadwood will be closed.  

The handwriting had been on the wall for quite some time.

We subscribed to the Lawrence County Journal a few years ago, but found the twice-a-week publication  a bit lacking in coverage of local and area issues.    Not surprisingly, occasional significant stories published by the Lawrence County Journal would frequently pop up in the Rapid City Journal – sometimes even with a photo.  The local Lawrence County Journal story would be more complete, and would frequently  include an abundance of photographs.  Often, it seemed to include more photos than real news.

In a climate where the internet has gone toe-to-toe with newspapers for advertising dollars, we’ve seen both circulation and ad revenues drop sharply for newspapers all across the country.

We cancelled our subscription some months ago, hoping there’d be enough area news splashing over into the Rapid City Journal that we wouldn’t miss the Lawrence County newspaper.

A short time later, the Lawrence County Journal decided to abandon its mid-week edition and shift to a Saturday edition only.

That was not a surprising move either. Nonetheless, we had to chuckle when a telemarketer tried to lure us back to the fold, telling me that she knew we were “busy” and that she knew that it can sometimes be difficult to find the time to read the paper.  “So we’ve consolidated our newspaper into a weekly,” she said, to make it more “convenient for readers to get their news in a single paper rather than two.”  I had to chuckle.

In their October 6th edition reporting the demise of the weekly Lawrence county paper, the Rapid City Journal noted that “Spearfish, Deadwood and other Lawrence County news will continue to appear in the Rapid City Journal.”

I turned the page to see a lot of ink telling about political cracker barrel forums conducted the night before in Rapid City.  There was nary a hint of the Lawrence County forum held the same evening at Black Hills State University.  So much for northern hills news coverage in the Black Hills.

Give me the phone number for the Black Hills Pioneer

It, too, is overpriced – but it’s now the only newspaper left providing any real coverage of Lawrence County.