For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World

by Sasha Sagan

In his speech, given before the oath was taken, my dad told our new countrymen and countrywomen that the duty of an American is to question everything, especially authority, and to think independently. This is the very nature of democracy. As he and my mom had once written in an essay called “Real Patriots Ask Questions,” he said that patriotism is not about blind obedience but about finding ways to make the system better. So he had some amendments for the oath: 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 me, would be a gift that you can make your country. If an idea cannot stand up to scrutiny, it should be discarded. That’s the way of scientific discovery. And the pathway toward a more perfect union.