Arizona Legislators Propose Loyalty Oath for Students

Via the Phoenix NewTimes, we learn that Arizona teenagers may soon have to intone the following if they want to graduate from (a public) high school:

I, (state your name), do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge these duties; so help me God. 

A separate bill will require students to say the Pledge of Allegiance—currently optional—each day unless a parent writes a letter to the school explaining that their kid hates Jesus or America or both.

In completely unrelated news, some Venezuelans chose to recite a rather more pointed loyalty oath earlier this month:

I swear by the Bolivarian constitution that I will defend the presidency of Comandante Chavez in the street with reason, with truth and with the strength and intelligence of a people who have been liberated from the yoke of the bourgeoisie.

Reason's own J.D. Tuccille disparages another creepy pledge from Marlboro Township, New Jersey, here.