参考自网，作者山石。 胡适先生是否关注这段话， 以及这段话的出处都并不是完全确定的。
托马斯杰佛逊， 以起草文案的神力著称的美国第三任总统，最著名的作品无非是美国立国宣言，《独立宣言The Declaration of Independence》。然而这段话却与无神论天体物理学家Carl Sagan所言。“他差不多是美国传统教徒最讨厌的几个人之一了，当然在非教徒看来，赛根确实是个值得大书一笔的人物，他是很提倡独立思考的。”
原文是 And so it seems to me that part of the duty of citizenship is not to be intimidated into conformity, to be skeptical. I wish that the oath of citizenship that you are about to take in the next few minutes included something like, ‘I promise to question everything my leaders tell me.’ That would really be Jeffersonian. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make independent promises, it seems to me, would be a gift that you can make your country.
这段话反映了美国人民民主，平等， 独立思考权的主张。在美国建国初期，基督教体系支持下是受到反对的。
和中国中小学生一样，美国的孩子们也是受到爱国主义教育的。 美国人所谓的自由平等， 也是在他们心中响当当的民族主义化的。这段pledge, 宣言 基本上每日趁集都会念， 潜在影响可想而知 I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 和中学生生行为规范比起来， 也不相上下。
