The quote above is from an interesting story in the LA Times of a potential faculty member for Cal State who was fired for not signing a loyalty oath initially developed to weed out commies from the university system in those enlightened 1950s. Before making your own mind up, here’s the text:
From the California Constitution:
“I, ______, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.”
The faculty member wanted to add an addendum to the effect that as a Quaker, she was a pacifist, and the interpretation of defending needed clarification. Unlike some other universities in CA, employees are not given this option. Wendy Gonaver, the faculty member concerned, was due to teach a course on protecting the constitution ( you could not make this stuff up, right?)
The reader reaction is quite intense on the paper’s site, but I just can’t quite figure out how the Al Qaeda member gets through, unless one assumes such a person would not care. Indeed, the most telling line in the report is a quote from Gonaver that the only people that fail to get hired as a result of this oath are those who ‘take it seriously’.