Citizenship
Citizenship is a status of a citizen with rights and duties, being a productive and active member of the society. Citizenship is a thread that connects all Americans. Citizenship is a nation bond by the shared values of freedom, liberty, and equality. Citizenship is gained by meeting the legal requirements of a National, State or Local government. Citizenship also means a citizen has the right to vote, hold government offices, and collect unemployment payments. Just because a person live in the country does not mean the person is a citizen of the country. Citizens who live in foreign countries are known as aliens. There are two ways to become a citizen of the United States by law or by birth. A citizen by birth would have to be born in the United States; you would have to be a Natural Born. If you are not a United States citizen you can be one by naturalization, becoming a U.S citizen by the constitution and law. Naturalized citizens will have all the rights of a natural born citizen, but you cannot be qualified as a president or vice president of the United States. All people born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state where they reside. In the fourteenth amendment it states that “No state shall make or enforce laws that shorten the privileges of citizens in the United States; nor shall the state punish any person’s life, liberty, or property without due to process of the law; nor deny to any person within the equal protection of the laws. It is important for citizens to have knowledge about the democracy and know how it works. Citizens strengthen and build the democracy. The democracy is nothing without citizen’s support and respect. Democracy needs the citizen’s ideas, needs, and views to elect officials. Citizens participate by making political decisions. In order to have a good democratic system, they would need the knowledge from good educated citizens.