And so it seems to me that part of the duty of citizenship is not to be intimidated into conformity, to be skeptical. I wish that the oath of citizenship that you are about to take in the next few minutes included something like, “I promise to question everything my leaders tell me.” That would really be Jeffersonian. “I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make independent judgments.” And if these statements are not part of the oath, you can nevertheless make such promises. And such promises, it seems to
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