[lit-ideas] Re: What is the Purpose of a Pay Slip?
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:24:28 -0700
On Aug 12, 2007, at 9:58 AM, Judith Evans wrote:
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You didn't get Alfred burning the cakes and the Magna Carta, and Kings and Queens, and Agincourt, Bannockburn, Crecy, Dunkirk, all the way through to Zulus and the battle of Rorke's Drift? You didn't grow up with people stiffening like old soldiers remembering parades, when "Land of Hope and Glory" was sung on the last night of the proms? My generation was tasked with quizzes and essays on all that and so aspired to undo much of it; we were well versed in what we wanted to undo.
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No. History began at grammar school, really, with the Beaker Folk. By 'O' Level (I didn't do
'A" Level history) we'd done the Industrial Revolution in England and in Wales (there was almost
always a 'and in Wales') and reached, as I recall it, the Corn Laws/Potato Famine.
I have been working my way through the American pamphlet, noting the different tenor of questions from the British one. There is nothing in it about how to claim Social Security or unemployment benefits, and though history is clearly the theme, there's nothing about the W.P.A. or the Wobblies, the Spanish-American War, Henry Ford, Coca Cola, Jazz. Questions one to seven are about the American flag. Then there's a touchy bit about winning the battle of Yorktown with French help, and then we move swiftly on to identifying the first president and the current president and the current vice president.
Questions fifteen through thirty nine are about the constitution, and then we're back again to history, "Who said, 'Give me liberty or give me death'?" followed by "Name some countries that were our enemies during World War II." The answer to that one, BTW, is "Germany, Italy, Japan." I have no idea what happens if you say, "Romania," but I can guess. Then comes, "Who was martin Luther King, Jr.?"
The American equivalent of Alfred and the cakes creeps in with question fifty three, "What holiday was celebrated for the first time by American colonists?" Columbus Day is not the right answer. Neither is it, "Black History month."
Turning pages we return to the Declaration of Independence, the Star-Spangled banner (sung to the tune, "Anacreon in Heaven"), and "Who was president during the Civil War?" The Emancipation Proclamation follows and then more George Washington questions, more pilgrim questions and then one I know I won't be able to answer, "Name the amendments that guarantee or address voting rights." The answer? "The 15th, 19th, 24th and 26th amendments."
Bits about the white house and the capitol building, voting, sundries close the thing out. Sundries? "Name one of the purposes of the United Nations," and "Name one benefit of being a citizen of the United States." The right answer for that one is, "To obtain Federal government jobs, to travel with a U.S. passport, or to petition for close relatives to come to the United States to live." In other words, the benefit of being a U.S. Citizen is that you can help others to become U.S. Citizens; it's a pyramid scheme! My favorite sundry question? "What U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services form is used to apply for naturalized citizenship?" In other words, "Which form did you fill out before you arrived at this interview?"
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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