Article February 28, 2000 Issue

Down with apathy

Active citizenship

By Judith Haugan Ryan

One day when my husband went to get a haircut, he discovered a party in progress at the barber shop. His barber was celebrating his newly acquired citizenship with coworkers and customers. When my husband told me about his barber's joy at becoming a citizen of the United States, it prompted me to think that maybe we all should be celebrating and participating in our citizenship, no matter what country we call home.

While different countries provide different levels of opportunity for participation, we all can bring a spiritual outlook to our responsibilities on behalf of our particular nation.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of this magazine, commented on citizenship in a sermon she wrote for a Sunday service held on the Fourth of July in the late 1800s. She wrote: "The Pilgrims came to establish a nation in true freedom, in the rights of conscience.

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