Tommy Chong Quotes
Well I don't know, I might have lost my citizenship, I don't think you can lose your citizenship though.
James, Gary. "Gary James' Interview With Tommy Chong." Classic Bands, www.classicbands.com/TommyChongInterview.html.
Various elements of the 14th amendment were being debated. Language referred to “citizens” but many of the abolitionists and reconstructionists were concerned that the slavery forces in the Southern states would not provide protections to the Negro and the grounds that the were not citizens. As long as the states could define who was and was not a citizen, any of the equal protection clauses of the proposed 14TH Amendment could be evaded. Senator Howard then proposed this language which was accepted and became part of the Amendment. In modern times this particular clause was more relevant to the debate about immigration than to civil rights but originally the clause was included to make sure that Blacks would be citizens.
I was born here. My children were born here. What the hell do I have to do to be called an American?
A Boston newspaper referred to Kennedy as "an Irishman." Until the latter part of the 20th century, there was an ugly, anti-Irish dimension to the national scene that was every bit as ugly as the other ethnic hatreds like anti-Semitism. The Irish like the early Jews had six strikes against them. They were foreigners. They were not Christian Protestants, they were poor, they did not know the American culture, they spoke English with a distinct accent, and they were the lowest of the lower classes. Even rich Irish like Kennedy were looked down upon and when his son ran for President he had to overcome a still significant block of anti-Irish Americans.
The 14th Amendment made the Black slaves and their families all citizens as most people know, but it had two other important aspects. It prohibited the individual states from deciding who who was and was not a citizen of the country and the state. In addition, it guaranteed that anyone born in the United States was a citizen regardless of the status of his parents—citizens or not, illegal immigrants or legal.
Thomas B. Kin Chong is a Canadian-American actor, writer, director, musician, cannabis rights activist and comedian. He is known for his marijuana-themed Cheech & Chong comedy albums and movies with Cheech Marin, as well as playing the character Leo on Fox's That '70s Show. He became a naturalized United States citizen in the late 1980s.
