Thursday, March 1, 2007

Today's quiz

No cheating, now: who can name the six people granted honorary US citizenship to date?

Part II: whose honorary citizenship is now being discussed, in the Congress and elsewhere?

10 comments:

german said...

i'll fail the quiz because of unspecific names but i will guess guys that are serving in Iraq that died. they were illegal immigrants that chose the path of the armed services to get citizenship.
reason they are being discussed because they left behind families that want benefits from being an american citizen.
i'll wait to find out of i am right before i continue and get into trouble.

moville said...

No, sorry, the list only has six people on it. I can list three as a sort of teaser: William Penn and his wife, and the Marquis de Lafayette

Hint: they don't seem to just give out honorary citizenship here.

Some of the Iraq dead you referred to were awarded citizenship posthumously, i think.

jodmeister said...

Raul Wallenberg
Winston Churchhill

blank on the last one

jodmeister said...

D@mn, I can't believe I drew blank on the last person. I cheated so I won't give it away here. And I'm all for the candidate for the 7th!

german said...

hmmm great humanatarians in the world that profoudly affected the world i pick ghandi. i even tried to find the story and couldn't

moville said...

Okay, I'll cough up the answer. William Penn and spouse, Marquis de Lafayette, Winnie Churchill(l946), Raoul Wallenberg(posthumously), and...Mother Teresa.

We are now discussing a posthumous granting of citizenship to Anne Frank, because her father sought a visa from the US for the family and failed to receive one. Some people believe this is too little and too late, covering up the fact that anti-Semites in the State Department and the Senate refused visas to thousands of European Jews, despite the obvious danger to them in occupied Europe.

german said...

not to be cruel but what does it matter? a lot of nations dropped the ball in the 30's. sadly i am not sure what anyone would have done differently since europe was so sympathetic to germany and the ww1 peace treaty. some more would have lived but it might have led to a quicker machine to start the insanity. remember the final solution didn't get rolling until 42. he might have started it prior to the war and i am not sure anyone would have been concerned sadly

moville said...

i basically agree...it would serve no particular good purpose save reminding everyone of that sad story, but it's not as if that's an unpopular book...i read it in grade school and it's still one of the most-read books for young students.

german said...

is it that well read in europe? i know germany is trying real hard to make a new law in europe concerning denial of the halocaust for the eu nations. I wonder if that is how we are trying to mend the fences with germany and help them get suport for this

moville said...

that's a good question, how widely it is read in Europe...i know it is one of the most-translated works of the past century, but whether it is as much a staple of elementary and middle-school curricula there as here, I just don't know. It would be interesting to find out.