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This subject often seems to turn into a debate between those of us who are 50 and older and the youngsters. Those of us 50 and older were taught in school that one of the constitutional requirements to be president was to be a “natural born citizen”. At my school we were taught that a “natural born citizen” was a person born in the United States with two parents who were citizens of the United States. We were taught that this was to prevent a person with divided loyalties from becoming president.

It seems that at some point after I went to school this part of the curriculum ceased to be taught. We now have persons who were taught that Bill Clinton had a legitimate argument when he argued about the meaning of the word “is” after getting caught lying about the nature of his relationship with Ms. Lewinski. For approximately 200 years people were taught what the meaning of “Natural Born Citizen” meant when referring to the presidential eligibility requirement. It seems for that for the past 30 or so years this definition has been omitted from the curriculum so that for younger people “Natural Born Citizen” can now mean what ever they want it to mean.

I am not sure how you counter the arguments coming from people who repeatedly insist that “native born” means the same thing as “natural born” despite ample evidence that the framers had a specific meaning in mind. Can one really believe that the framers of the constitution would have allowed King George's son to serve as president if he had impregnated an underage girl who had a baby on US soil. It is ridiculous... yet that is the argument that these people must make if they actually believe what they are saying.

This subject often seems to turn into a debate between those of us who are 50 and older and the youngsters. Those of us 50 and older were taught in school that one of the constitutional requirements to be president was to be a “natural born citizen”. At my school we were taught that a “natural born citizen” was a person born in the United States with two parents who were citizens of the United States. We were taught that this was to prevent a person with divided loyalties from becoming president.

I have a hard time believing that a whole generation of people had this knowledge, and yet they said nothing until it was too late to do something about it.

I am well over 50 and attended excellent schools as a child. We were taught that “natural born” meant “not naturalized.” If you were born on US soil, you were natural born. If either of your parents was a citizen, you were natural born.

That’s what we were taught back then.