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Requirements to Be President or Vice President of the United States.

 This is from a blog post 11. October 2011. Somethings just never seem to change. Originally, this post was about the requirements to be President of the United States, but the requirements also cover the Vice President so I changed the blog title to reflect this. 

Normally, I don't write about hot button topics on the blog. I stay away from political and religious debates. I don't bait the bear with whether Heath is a better cowboy than Nick. However, the latest round of presidential candidate bull and the press reporting the stories has put a burr on my shirt tail.

I'm sick of the whining and finger pointing of candidates or their supporters bemoaning their opponent's ability to run for an office because they are not considered a good, practicing, member of a certain religion.  Excuse me?

Have you ,politicians, aspiring politicians, political supporters, members of the Press, and everyday citizens (just for good measure), bothered to read the Constitution? You know, the document that lays out the ground rules for the 3 branches of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial)? I realize that reading the original document in its beautiful English Roundhand script might prove difficult for some, but the document has been printed.

Article II, Section I of the Constitution deals with the requirements to run for the office of President of the United States. [ed: the requirements also apply to the office of Vice President of the United States]

 "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

Let's look at this line by line, shall we?

No Person except a natural born Citizen, that means you have to be born in the United States, and not just the 48 contiguous states, but Alaska and Hawaii are also bona fide states. At least that's what I learned in grade school, but I also learned that Pluto was the ninth planet in our solar system. Pluto seems to have lost favored planet status, but I'm pretty sure Alaska and Hawaii are still states.

That phrase Natural Born Citizen means your parents could have emigrated to the USA from Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. or Pluto.  If you were born in this country, you are automatically a citizen and you can become President of the United States even if your parents are citizens of another country or planet!

Let's continue. Or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President . The Constitution was adopted in 1787. Someone around at that time would now be some 224 years old, [ed: now 233 years old] so that ship has already sailed.

neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, You have to be 35 years or older. (And there is no cap on how old is too old) The 15th. Amendment to the Constitution granted male Citizens the privilege to vote regardless of race or color.  The 19th. Amendment to the Constitution extended this right to women. So as long as you are 35 years older or older, it doesn't matter whether you are male, female, blue, green, purple or any other color. You can be President of the United States.

and been fourteen Years a Resident  within the United States. Ok, this last statement may be a little fuzzy as it doesn't address whether your 14 year residency must be consecutive, or residency as an adult.

Let's recap.There are only 3 simple requirements to be President. You must be a natural born Citizen. You must be 35 years old or older, and you have had to reside in the United States for a period of 14 years. Period.

No where in the Constitution does it state you have to be a good, practicing member of a particular religion.

You don't even have to practice a religion. You aren't required to have diplomatic or previous political experience. Being a member of a certain race, color, or sexual orientation is not required. Being married to the opposite sex or same sex is not a requirement. These aspects of a person's background shouldn't even come into question!

And members of the Press? Shame on you for reporting the he said, he said, she said. When ridiculous issues of whether one is a member of a cult or not, arise, set the record straight and remind your readers or viewers that this is not a requirement to be president.

If you're in Washington, DC, you can visit the National Archives and you can see and read the original documents. Admission to the National Archives is free! If you can't travel to Washington, DC. you can visit The National Archives on line and can read the documents and download images of the documents yourself.

Maybe reading The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights, should also be a requirement to run for any political office.

Hope

I read this 1983 speech by Ursula K LeGuin on Susan Gaylord's blog. I was feeling lost and in the dark, but in the dark there is hope.

A Left-Handed Commencement Address
(Mills College, 1983)
Notice: this talk is not under copyright, and may be quoted or reprinted as a whole without obtaining permission, though I would appreciate being notified of reprintings.
My warm and cordial thanks to all who have written me to tell me they are using this talk in classrooms, sharing it on social media, or otherwise, and to thank me for it. I wish I could write each of you back, but I can only do it this way. Thank you!
— UKL

I want to thank the Mills College Class of ’83 for offering me a rare chance: to speak aloud in public in the language of women.
I know there are men graduating, and I don’t mean to exclude them, far from it. There is a Greek tragedy where the Greek says to the foreigner, “If you don’t understand Greek, please signify by nodding.” Anyhow, commencements are usually operated under the unspoken agreement that everybody graduating is either male or ought to be. That’s why we are all wearing these twelfth-century dresses that look so great on men and make women look either like a mushroom or a pregnant stork. Intellectual tradition is male. Public speaking is done in the public tongue, the national or tribal language; and the language of our tribe is the men’s language. Of course women learn it. We’re not dumb. If you can tell Margaret Thatcher from Ronald Reagan, or Indira Gandhi from General Somoza, by anything they say, tell me how. This is a man’s world, so it talks a man’s language. The words are all words of power. You’ve come a long way, baby, but no way is long enough. You can’t even get there by selling yourself out: because there is theirs, not yours.
Maybe we’ve had enough words of power and talk about the battle of life. Maybe we need some words of weakness. Instead of saying now that I hope you will all go forth from this ivory tower of college into the Real World and forge a triumphant career or at least help your husband to and keep our country strong and be a success in everything - instead of talking about power, what if I talked like a woman right here in public? It won’t sound right. It’s going to sound terrible. What if I said what I hope for you is first, if — only if — you want kids, I hope you have them. Not hordes of them. A couple, enough. I hope they’re beautiful. I hope you and they have enough to eat, and a place to be warm and clean in, and friends, and work you like doing. Well, is that what you went to college for? Is that all? What about success?
Success is somebody else’s failure. Success is the American Dream we can keep dreaming because most people in most places, including thirty million of ourselves, live wide awake in the terrible reality of poverty. No, I do not wish you success. I don’t even want to talk about it. I want to talk about failure.
Because you are human beings you are going to meet failure. You are going to meet disappointment, injustice, betrayal, and irreparable loss. You will find you’re weak where you thought yourself strong. You’ll work for possessions and then find they possess you. You will find yourself — as I know you already have — in dark places, alone, and afraid.
What I hope for you, for all my sisters and daughters, brothers and sons, is that you will be able to live there, in the dark place. To live in the place that our rationalizing culture of success denies, calling it a place of exile, uninhabitable, foreign.
Well, we’re already foreigners. Women as women are largely excluded from, alien to, the self-declared male norms of this society, where human beings are called Man, the only respectable god is male, the only direction is up. So that’s their country; let’s explore our own. I’m not talking about sex; that’s a whole other universe, where every man and woman is on their own. I’m talking about society, the so-called man’s world of institutionalized competition, aggression, violence, authority, and power. If we want to live as women, some separatism is forced upon us: Mills College is a wise embodiment of that separatism. The war-games world wasn’t made by us or for us; we can’t even breathe the air there without masks. And if you put the mask on you’ll have a hard time getting it off. So how about going on doing things our own way, as to some extent you did here at Mills? Not for men and the male power hierarchy — that’s their game. Not against men, either — that’s still playing by their rules. But with any men who are with us: that’s our game. Why should a free woman with a college education either fight Machoman or serve him? Why should she live her life on his terms?
Machoman is afraid of our terms, which are not all rational, positive, competitive, etc. And so he has taught us to despise and deny them. In our society, women have lived, and have been despised for living, the whole side of life that includes and takes responsibility for helplessness, weakness, and illness, for the irrational and the irreparable, for all that is obscure, passive, uncontrolled, animal, unclean — the valley of the shadow, the deep, the depths of life. All that the Warrior denies and refuses is left to us and the men who share it with us and therefore, like us, can’t play doctor, only nurse, can’t be warriors, only civilians, can’t be chiefs, only indians. Well so that is our country. The night side of our country. If there is a day side to it, high sierras, prairies of bright grass, we only know pioneers’ tales about it, we haven’t got there yet. We’re never going to get there by imitating Machoman. We are only going to get there by going our own way, by living there, by living through the night in our own country.
So what I hope for you is that you live there not as prisoners, ashamed of being women, consenting captives of a psychopathic social system, but as natives. That you will be at home there, keep house there, be your own mistress, with a room of your own. That you will do your work there, whatever you’re good at, art or science or tech or running a company or sweeping under the beds, and when they tell you that it’s second-class work because a woman is doing it, I hope you tell them to go to hell and while they’re going to give you equal pay for equal time. I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated. I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. And when you fail, and are defeated, and in pain, and in the dark, then I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are won, but where the future is. Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing — instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.
— UKL

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

In Disgrace by Betsey Pease Gutmann

Scottish Prayer

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

And the election. Amen. (not part of the original)

March Seasonal Tree

The decorations started out as a St. Patrick's Day and Easter tree, but things quickly got out of hand with all that is going on this March.

1st   Rabbit, rabbit. White rabbit. Because that's what you say on the first of the month. Meteorological Spring begins today. Hooray! Looks like March is coming in like a lamb. Hope it doesn't go out as a lion. And today is Super Tuesday. If you live in a state which holds the primary election today, get out and vote!

Both my classes at the museum are running. I'll be teaching calligraphy Wednesday nights and Thursday afternoons for the entire 5 weeks of the month.

9th There's a total solar eclipse taking place. You have to be in East Asia, South Asia and Australia in order to see it. But I bet it will have a full moon effect on the rest of us. Prepare for the crazies to come out of the woodwork

13th Spring Forward. Return to Daylight Savings Time.

13th - 19th. Himself and the Young One will be on Spring Break

14th Fly your Geek flag and celebrate Pi Day.

17th St. Patrick's Day and my dad's birthday. Dad would have been 97. Happy Birthday, Pal.

20th Vernal Equinox. Sun room weather can't be far behind.

27th Easter

NaNoJouMo - Day 6

A day or two late and a dollar short. What else is new?

For Election Day.

Amendment XV

Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.

Section 1

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude

Section 2

The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation

Amendment XIX

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

F. W. Acrylic Black ink, Gillotte 1068A nib, gouache, gesso, embellishments on Arches Text Wove.

No Excuses

If you don't vote, you can't whine on Wednesday.

Requirements to Be President of the United States

Normally, I don't write about hot button topics on the blog. I stay away from political and religious debates. I don't bait the bear with whether Heath is a better cowboy than Nick. However, the latest round of presidential candidate bull and the press reporting the stories has put a burr on my shirt tail.

I'm sick of the whining and finger pointing of candidates or their supporters bemoaning their opponent's ability to run for an office because they are not considered a good, practicing, member of a certain religion.  Excuse me?

Have you ,politicians, aspiring politicians, political supporters, members of the Press, and everyday citizens (just for good measure), bothered to read the Constitution? You know, the document that lays out the ground rules for the 3 branches of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial)? I realize that reading the original document in its beautiful English Roundhand script might prove difficult for some, but the document has been printed.

Article II, Section I of the Constitution deals with the requirements to run for the office of President of the United States.

 "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

Let's look at this line by line, shall we?

No Person except a natural born Citizen, that means you have to be born in the United States, and not just the 48 contiguous states, but Alaska and Hawaii are also bona fide states. At least that's what I learned in grade school, but I also learned that Pluto was the ninth planet in our solar system. Pluto seems to have lost favored planet status, but I'm pretty sure Alaska and Hawaii are still states.

That phrase Natural Born Citizen means your parents could have emigrated to the USA from Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. or Pluto.  If you were born in this country, you are automatically a citizen and you can become President of the United States even if your parents are citizens of another country or planet!

Let's continue. Or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President . The Constitution was adopted in 1787. Someone around at that time would now be some 224 years old, so that ship has already sailed.

neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, You have to be 35 years or older. (And there is no cap on how old is too old) The 15th. Amendment to the Constitution granted male Citizens the privilege to vote regardless of race or color.  The 19th. Amendment to the Constitution extended this right to women. So as long as you are 35 years older or older, it doesn't matter whether you are male, female, blue, green, purple or any other color. You can be President of the United States.

and been fourteen Years a Resident  within the United States. Ok, this last statement may be a little fuzzy as it doesn't address whether your 14 year residency must be consecutive, or residency as an adult.

Let's recap.There are only 3 simple requirements to be President. You must be a natural born Citizen. You must be 35 years old or older, and you have had to reside in the United States for a period of 14 years. Period.

No where in the Constitution does it state you have to be a good, practicing member of a particular religion.
You don't even have to practice a religion. You aren't required to have diplomatic or previous political experience. Being a member of a certain race, color, or sexual orientation is not required. Being married to the opposite sex or same sex is not a requirement. These aspects of a person's background shouldn't even come into question!

And members of the Press? Shame on you for reporting the he said, he said, she said. When ridiculous issues of whether one is a member of a cult or not, arise, set the record straight and remind your readers or viewers that this is not a requirement to be president.

If you're in Washington, DC, you can visit the National Archives and you can see and read the original documents. Admission to the National Archives is free! If you can't travel to Washington, DC. you can visit The National Archives on line and can read the documents and download images of the documents yourself.

Maybe reading The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights, should also be a requirement to run for any political office.