Who is a Citizen Under the Constitution?

The current contretemps concerning who is a Citizen under our Constitution seems to be revolving around the term “anchor baby”, which is a way of referring to a child born on U.S. soil automatically being a citizen. Although that has long been our accepted policy, the Constitution is not crystal clear on this issue.

Since this topic is destined to dominate the news for a couple of days, at least, I thought it might be helpful to post the 2 places in the Constitution where Citizenship is mentioned. The first is from Article 1; while the second is from the 14^th Amendment, which seems to have become the “eye of the storm.”

I have synopsized the meaning of each quote from the Constitution in an effort to give them some historical context.

Article 1, Section 4:8 states “Congress shall have the Power to……Establish an Uniform Rule of Naturalization…”

This implies that Congress would be responsible for setting up a bureau to deal with the specifics of Immigration and Naturalization. Today we call that organization Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, as it is more commonly referred. At the time it was written many of our leading citizens; including some of the leading politicians of the time; were not born here; hence the need to define the term Citizen.

The 14^th Amendment states in Section 1; “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.

The point of contention here seems to rest not in the opening phrase that all persons born here are Citizens, but rather in the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The phrase was included as a way of addressing the issue of “Indians not taxed” in the 2^nd Section of the Amendment.

I hope that this information will prove helpful to the reader as the controversy rolls forward.

"I Yam What I Yam" - Popeye the Sailor (1933)

This cartoon is in very good shape! If Seymour Kneitel and William Henning were still with us today they would be amazed. They worked under the direction of Dave Fleischer on this one for Paramount. It’s filled with all of the stuff you’d expect in a Popeye cartoon; sight gags abound; and Olive gets to cry for help as she beats the crap out of some Indians.

Wimpy is on board for this adventure, looking for a hamburger, and as usual, causing some problems for Popeye, who always seems to be looking out for him. There is no real plot to this cartoon other than Popeye and Olive Oyl, along with Wimpy, are both in a lifeboat rowing; that is Olive and Wimpy are rowing; Popeye is busy singing about himself.

If you are a fan of the theme song; which was composed by composed by Sammy Lerner in 1933; then the opening lyrics will be of interest to you. It is slightly different than the usual version. And when the credits stop rolling it’s Popeye who does some of the singing. I still haven’t figured out why they used Bluto’s voice for the opening; he’s not even in this cartoon! One of the best versions of the song was recorded by Hoagy Carmichael. For years I thought he wrote it. As a matter of fact I think I even credited him with writing it incorrectly in a post a couple of years ago! Sorry, Sammy!

Politically correct types are herewith forewarned. This cartoon may be offensive to you, as it invokes the stereotypical American Indian of the 1930’s. But then again, everybody in this cartoon is a caricature of something. For instance, Olive Oyl is the man hungry woman representative of the “weaker sex.” Keep that in mind when you watch her beat the carp out of those Indians while calling for help.

For one of the best histories on the Popeye cartoons; and the original comic strip from which they derived; go to Wikipedia at the following link;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye

"A Brave Vessel" by Hobson Woodward (2006)

Here is a story which I apparently missed, and it’s a good one. One evening in 1611, Richard Strachey was sitting in a theater in England watching a play by William Shakespeare, a new one called “The Tempest”, when he began to recognize portions of the dialogue as being overly familiar. It should not have come as such a surprise, as Mr. Strachey had written those same words; or at least ones very close to it; when he had written home during a voyage to rescue the colonists at Jamestown, in Virginia, about 2 years earlier. He had also written about his experiences for a few small publications, which had undoubtedly crossed the eyes of the Great Bard.

Although Shakespeare’s play is an allegorical one, the island depicted in it is decidedly based upon the real island of Bermuda, the place Mr. Strachey found himself stranded when his vessel broke apart in a storm while headed to Jamestown. From that island the survivors were able to reach Virginia and in some measure keep the colony alive during the first few winters.

The Sea Venture was one of nine ships which set sail on a voyage to establish connections between Jamestown and England. During the voyage across, every obstacle that could befall a ship and her crew was visited upon these nine vessels. The Sea Venture, with a compliment of 153, all survived and found them- selves aground in Bermuda. From there, going directly west, they could make landfall near the colony of Jamestown. But first they would have to survive themselves, as well as repair their ship.

Author Hobson Woodson really got my attention with this story, which was unfamiliar to me. It delivers just the right hint of scandal, without compromising the accuracy of the real history. Had the Sea Venture failed in her mission, the history of the colonization of America might well have been written differently than it turned out. 

The book was released in 2006, and it sits in the “stacks”, apparently seldom read, of my local library. This is what I love most about libraries. You can wander the aisles and sometimes there is nothing there at all. But then; on another visit; a book which you passed by hundreds of times, catches your eye. 

And, for some odd reason or another; perhaps the cover, or the weather; you pick it up and take it home. That’s when you find something which enriches your life with some new found knowledge, seemingly unimportant in the past, but which you just couldn't live without knowing about now.

"Ishi - The Last Yahi" (1992)

Imagine being the last living person of your nationality, religion, or even just family. Now imagine having to hide in order to avoid being hunted down as a trophy. If you can possibly imagine these two scenarios successfully, then; and only then; will you fully understand the story of “Ishi – The Last Yahi”, which tells the story of an Indian named Ishi, who had fled into the foothills of California after the massacres of his fellow tribesmen in the 1860’s and 70’s.

With only a handful of warriors, their squaws, and scant supplies, the group chose to live in hiding rather than to surrender their age old customs for the white man’s world. For forty years, just as the Israelites had spent 40 years in the wilderness, Ishi and his fellow tribesmen were forced to survive in the foothills of California. Using all of their native skills they established a community, with leaders to make decisions and mete out justice, and hunters who provided the wild game on which they existed. They became a mythological presence; everyone knew they were out there; but no one had actually seen them.

And then, one day in 1911, Ishi, the last of the Yahi tribe, emerged from the wilderness half dead from starvation, to enter the white man’s world. After an initial stay in prison; there was simply no other way proposed to deal with him at the time; he was persuaded by anthropologist Alfred Kroeber to spend the last 4 years of his extraordinary life at the Museum of Anthropology in San Francisco, where he regaled visitors with his history of the Yahi people. He also told of his 40 years in exile, explaining how the tribe lived, and died in the wilderness, cut off from the life, and traditions, they had always known.

Fascinating in its detail; and with the use of photographs, some actual silent film footage, and even a rare voice recording of Yahi himself; this documentary film will make the viewer think long and hard about the foundation upon which America was built. “From sea to shining sea” takes on a whole new significance when confronted with the price paid by the people who were essentially victims of our policy of Manifest Destiny.

"Harlem" by Jonathan Gill

From the silver tipped wooden leg of Peter Stuyvesant, which was given to him as a reward by the East India Company for continuing to fight, even after his leg was shot off, to Jan Rodriquez, a Portuguese seaman who went to live with the Rockaway Indians, fathering the first mixed race child in America, this book will disavow all you think you know about the early Dutch in New Amsterdam. It will also give you a whole new perspective on Harlem, and it's journey on the way to becoming a bastion of African-American Culture in the early years of the 20th Century.

It is still too early in the year to proclaim this book as the must read for 2011, but this sweeping history of Harlem ,which rivals the scope of the 1999 release of Edwin Burrows' and Mike Wallace's "Gotham", will certainly be in the running.

From Henry Hudson's first step ashore at what is now 130th Street in Harlem (and you thought he went ashore at the Battery) to the Revolutionary War, when Harlem was a small village and considered the "country", through the War of 1812, the Civil War and right on through the 20th Century, each page will surprise you with the richness of the history you didn't know.

Some of the misconceptions that are righted in this fascinating book concern the Lower East Side. We all have this impression that the Marx Brothers, Rogers and Hart, and a host of other entertainment figures, came from the Lower East Side. Not true. The Marx Brothers, as well as Rogers and Hart, and Oscar Hammerstein all came from Harlem. Even the original Little Italy was located in Harlem.

The Manhattan Project, which had it's beginnings in a warehouse adjacent to Columbia University is also represented in this treasure trove of history. Carefully researched and well written, this book will entertain you on so many different levels, that I hardly know how to begin a coherent review. The history of the tenement, and how it came into being, is a rare look into the background of early urban real estate and the forces which drove it.

The Christmas Riot of 1901, which began when a group of white Irish youngsters attacked an old Negro drunk, who was then defended by a pasing white man, sparked the riots that re-drew the color line in Harlem. Prior to the riot, Harlem, like the rest of New York, was divided into ethnic neighorhoods. There were Irish, German, Spanish, Jewish and Italian areas, each with it's own set of rules and rituals. The Christmas Riot began the ethnic change, and also sparked a cultural revival of the local arts scene. This was the era of Langston Hughes and Du Bois; the so-called Harlem Renaissance. It is one of the most exciting portions of the book.

The narrative follows the history of Harlem from Henry Hudson through the present day and it's hopes for the future. Along the way you will be introduced to such luminaries as James Europe, the bandleader turned soldier in the First World War. He enlisted over 2,000 men from Harlem, forming them into the "Harlem Hellfighters", an all black group that included Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. This band of soldiers trained in the streets, with brooms in lieu of weapons. When they arrived in France they introduced the people to jazz before spending 191 days in the trenches, longer than any white battalion in the war, on either side. They were also the only regiment to continue to move forward during that time, never giving up one single foot of the ground that they fought so hard to gain. They even amassed an extraordinary 171 Croix de Guerre's and Legions of Merit.

Modernist painters, gangsters, politicians, criminals, prostitutes, actors and prize fighters are all represented in this fantastic compilation of what made Harlem the unique Mecca of African-American culture that it became, and continues to be.