Marita Schine pledges allegiance

Author: Eric Bartolloti

It is important for United States citizens to exercise their citizenship. Paying taxes, jury duty, and the selective service are all great ways to keep this gift strong and supple, but the Bowflex® 9000 of citizenry would have to be voting, a workout so fabulous that it could not help but captivate German citizen Marita Schine, current co-head of Brainerd Commons. But just as one cannot buy powerful home fitness equipment on a whim, one also cannot go down to the local elementary school gymnasium and vote on a whim. There is a process.

Marita Schine had been living in the United States for nearly twenty years with her husband, American citizen Robert Schine, before she heard the United States voting process calling her. The first call came in November 2000 while Marita Schine was living in Israel. Such an outside view dramatized the already dramatic dramatics of the election drama, prompting Schine to remark, as she now remembers, "We can't even choose a leader!" Schine resolved to succeed where the United States ballot process and half of the eligible voting body had failed (the approximate amount of people who did not vote at all, though completely in line with historic trends).

The second call came soon after, when former Chief UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter visited Middlebury. Ritter delivered a powerful critique of the Bush administration's recent policies in Iraq, but the critique that interested Schine was Ritter's frank analysis of America's voters. He denounced their laziness and desire for spoon-fed politics when they should be engaging and informing themselves as active participants. Schine would identify with this message, "no pain, no voting" in the coming trials of securing United States citizenship, and thus the power to vote.

In addition to obtaining this new citizenship, Schine wanted to retain her old one with Germany due to family reasons, travel reasons, and any of the other thousands of reasons why any person would want to stay connected to such a great country. While Germany allows dual-citizenship, it is verboten to anyone without a "compelling reason" (usually an economic reason). Being able to vote in another country, even a country of permanent residence, does not qualify as a "compelling reason."

But Schine rallied and, wielding an economic loophole wide enough to lasso the entire German bureaucracy, squeaked out permission from her government to pursue United States citizenship with zero sacrifice of her Germanity. The loophole? Schine argued that if her husband were to die, the resulting taxes on the inherited property would cripple her finances (the United States government doesn't like it when foreigners own its land, and only allows it if it receives some juicy tax compensation).

With Germany's blessing, Marita tackled the United States Naturalization process piece by piece. The first two components, the proof of residence and proof of English fluency, were a piece of cake for Schine. The $675 application landed as a surprise blow, but the ten page whopper would prove a good buy, if for no other reason than the hilarity of the YES/NO questions, including zingers like, "Have you ever been a member of or in any way associated (either directly or indirectly) with the Communist party?" and "Have you ever been a habitual drunkard?" After that, a test on basic United States Civics, a test exploding with key terms like "The Three Branches," "Separation of Power" and "Checks and Balances," and positively dripping with nostalgia for any decent middle school social studies textbook.

The final step was a ceremony for speaking and signing the "Oath of Allegiance to The United States of America", a flowery piece of writing overgrown with powerful statements, the following one causing Schine distress: "I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty." She wondered how the United States could allow people dual citizenship, yet require them to swear to that statement (in a courtroom, no less). Fortunately, Schine was allowed to drop that phrase while speaking the oath, but, as she admits today, "I had to sign it even though it didn't make any sense." Despite this, Schine enjoyed the ceremony and the United States citizenship she had won (along with eighteen other countries represented in the ceremony).

It may seem puzzling that the only United States citizens required to give the grand Oath to The United States are those from outside the country. There are many who seek the right to vote like Schine, and through their stories one will always reach this conclusion: the citizenships of native-born Americans are getting a lot less exercise. But this native group need not despair, for all they need to do is follow the examples of Scott Ritter, who reminds us not to "just vote" but to vote hard, and to vote smart. If that's not enough of a workout, well, no one's stopping you from looking up The Oath of Allegiance and swearing to it on your own time, are they?