Despite feeling well prepared I was still a touch nervous when I arrived for my naturalization interview today. Traffic was a bit heavy and I was freaking at my husband...ah we can't be late!!! We arrived and had to go through security and a metal detector. Charming irony in the symbolic land of freedom but we live in unpredictable times. The room was crowded with other future Americans like myself. And we waited. My name got called about an hour after my scheduled interview not shocking given the fact the number of people.
The actual interview was more low key that I expected. During the process the interviewing officer reviews the application and repeats certain questions primarily clarifying whether one has been or is a member of a communist or terrorist organization. I am very curious about whether anybody ever answers yes to those questions. He asked about where I worked and if the information I provided was accurate. I disclosed that I had a traffic ticket I forgot to include on the application and was prepared to show a copy of my driving record but he waved me off.
Then he asked me the civics questions. I was asked who becomes President if both the President and Vice President are unable to fill the role, how many Supreme Court justices there were, how many years a Senator serves, what he role of the cabinet is, what he purpose of the Declaration of Independence was and one other question I now forget. There are 100 potential questions and the computer just automatically generates them. Answer six correctly and you are deemed to be competent in civics and history. Obviously, like any potential applicant I knew the answers to all 100.
I have to be frank: all of the questions are fairly basic. The first time I went through them I got 90 correct and I am hardly a history expert. I had to write a few sentences in order to demonstrate comprehension of English and the ability to write in said language. We ended up chatting casually a few minutes and then he told me I was approved for an oath ceremony at a future date.
I walked out feeling elated. I was born in Canada not a country known to be particularly oppressive. I cannot imagine how somebody might feel after walking out to be told that exact news if they happen to hail from an authoritarian country where freedom of speech is not an ideal. Note that I said...."ideal", I am not naive. I have seen how freedom of expression and speech has been eroded over the last ten years.
Then a funny thing happened. We drove back to our small community outside of Memphis and Mr.undercovercalico said he wanted to stop off at our local public library. Our local public library is not actually a public library. It is run by a private corporation. The town we live in decided to get out of the library business and contract it out. Libraries are a cost in this era of austerity no longer apparently a public good.
While my spouse searched for a book about local history he fancied, I nabbed the latest John Le Carre novel and stumbled upon an interesting scene. An employee about my age was holding court discussing politics with two young male employees and a woman about my age (mid 40's old as dirt) and bashing the current administration. He said we were a "fascist country" being besieged by "political correctness".
So I dove in. I told him in a truly fascist authoritarian country we would likely not be able to have any political discussions that were critical of the government. He sputtered and retracted a bit. Then he told me he was a former teacher with a history degree and was merely trying to educate the young employees about civics. I asked him to name three Supreme court Justices. He protested telling I was throwing him "off guard". I told him that as a future American citizen I believed we could not possibly claim as a country to be a leading democracy if our citizens did not have ample knowledge of the working of our own system. I pontificated a bit too much about how we were obligated as members of a democratic Republic to know and impart civics to illustrate how much we actually valued our freedoms. I was probably fairly annoying. My husband rolled his eyes behind me. I felt that one, I did not have to look. We chatted in a polite manner about why America was in decline and disagreed but in an adult manner. He basically got tired of the conversation and ran away. One of the young men asked me what I did for a living and wanted to know if I was a teacher. I explained that while I thought teaching was a very honorable profession, that was a job beyond my abilities. Teachers are special people, I told him. Both young men opened up to me about their future hopes and dreams. One was in his first year of college and not sure what to major in the other one was trying to get on with the local police force and coping with a new baby. They were both sincere and pleasant and told me that they wanted to brush up a bit on history and civics and I told them I needed quite a bit of work in those areas myself.
The conversation attracted a small crowd of people. We all ended up wishing one another a good day and I left. I have a feeling the "fascism" dude who made a point of saying good-bye is not my new best friend.
I have never done anything like that: stepped in on a conversation with total strangers. I wasn't invited. But I felt compelled and I suspect I was feeling vaguely empowered by my future status as a citizen. It wasn't easy but liberal/progressive/leftists have as much right to the public sphere as conservatives. By the way "fascism guy" was no dummy,(I never assumed he was) he was able to recover and swear my initial question. I think he was shocked to be challenged in an assertive but basically polite manner. He had convinced himself somehow that anybody who disagreed with him was a demon commie puppy hater.
Bottom line: it can be done. I have nothing against being bipartisan and I have conservative friends who are quite bright, they aren't all frothing Beckians. But I am not going to silence myself either.