What’s inside your passport?

Passports we all need them, especially if you’re from the United States traveling down to our glorious sea and Rocky Point beaches (although passports cards work as well). Maybe in the past, you’ve thumbed through the pages to remember a good trip and examine a smudged stamp from an exotic destination. I would imagine that not since 1918, or perhaps 9/11, have so few stamps been inked into passport pages during this pandemic year.

If you’re like me, I am dreaming of acquiring more stamps. Lately, international traveling (except to Rocky Point) has been slow, but I am game to go out and see the world as soon as possible. A few more stamps mean a few more awesome vacation memories.

But when is the last time you’ve looked inside your U. S. Passport?

Here are 7 trivia questions about what is inside your passport. Answers down below.

  1. Multiple Choice which of the following pictures are inside your passport?
  2. A palm tree and a picture of a rocky point of land, much like Whale Hill in Puerto Peñasco.
  3. A picture of the White House.
  4. A picture of the United States Capital.
  5. Multiple Choice which of the following quotes are inside your passport?
  6. Give me liberty or give me death. Patrick Henry
  7. We send thanks to all the animal Life in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We are glad they are still here, and we hope it will all be so. Excerpt from Thanksgiving address: Mohawk version.
  8. God Bless America.
  9. True or False, this quote is inside your passport: Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds…to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation. Ellison S. Onizuka.
  10. True or False Is this picture inside your passport? A grizzly bear with a salmon in its mouth.
  11. Yes or No? Does your passport have a picture of a Saguaro Cactus and desert scene: Saguaros which are native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and the Mexican state of Sonora.  
  12. Is there a computer chip in your passport?
  13. Do you need a passport to go to the moon?

So, hopefully you noted your answers. Let’s see if you are a super genius or not.

Before I provide the answers, here are a few more fun facts about the U.S. Passport. There are 13 quotes in the current passport (regular size), 25 quotes (in the expanded version) which was unveiled in 2007, known as the “American Icon” design. Since passports are only valid for ten years, this is the passport all U.S. citizens are carrying.

Out of the thirteen quotes, twelve are from men. In the expanded version, 24 out of 25, are from men. I was at least hoping for a little balance since it was created in 2007, but unfortunately only one quote from a woman exists. It is a good one however, but I have never heard of, Anna Julia Cooper. Upon online research I discovered Cooper was born into slavery in 1858, earned numerous degrees including a Ph.D., worked as a teacher and principal, lived to the age of 105, and sadly died months before the Civil Rights Act was signed. Her quote, “The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or sect, a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.”

There are a variety of pictures (mainly to help with counterfeiting) which include, a grizzly bear with some salmon in his mouth, a totem pole, a palm tree with a rocky point of land, a saguaro desert scene, Mount Rushmore, cowboys and bison, a lighthouse and clipper ship, Liberty Bell, bald eagle, farmer and oxen, a riverboat, a steam train, Statue of Liberty, and snow-covered mountains. Awesome, that our Sonoran Desert and a picture that resembles Puerto Peñasco is included! Look, I think you’ll agree.

And, yes, you are carrying around a chip. The emblem on the front, a circle surrounded by two parallel bars, is the international symbol that the passport contains a computer chip. And no, you do not need a passport currently to go to the moon.

Answers 1. A. 2. B 3. Yes 4. True 5. True 6. Yes. 7 No

Unfortunately, I don’t have space in this article to include all the wonderful quotes, you can read them next time you are waiting in line for the border, but here are a few quotes that are worth mentioning:

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America. Dwight D. Eisenhower

For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say “farewell.” Is a new world coming? We welcome it-and we will bend it to the hopes of man.

Lyndon B Johnson

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time. Thomas Jefferson