[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] Sounds good to me ;)

[Jeme A Brelin]

On Tue, 18 Jun 2002, Craighead, Scot D wrote:
> It is a slap in their face because they did go through all the BS
> required to become citizens the right way.  Now we give someone else
> the same reward for cheating.

First, I'd like to point out that you admit that the stuff required of a
pesron to become a U.S. Citizen is BS.  I'm the sort of person that
encourages others to support removing BS from law.

Second, the simple fact that these people are able to receive the
so-called rewards shows that they are NOT rewards for citizenship, they
are simply services offered to all residents.  The rewards of citizenship
are a U.S. passport and equal protection under the law.  Non-citizen
residents do not get those rewards.

> I did not say they need to give up their culture, only that they must
> learn ours.

I think the point we're all trying to make is that there is no "ours".  
There is yours and that might even be mine, to some extent (though we
belong to distinct and rapidly diverging sub-cultures).  But there is no
culture that can be said to be "ours" as a nation.  I point very quickly
to the legal citizens who live as migrant farm workers, the Pennsylvania
Dutch, the Louisianna Creole, and San Francisco Chinese.  Their cultures
are as much "American" as yours or mine.  They are as old and as rich and
as unique to this part of the world.

And the best way to prevent special protection of a few (at the expense of
others, always) is to provide equal protection for all.

J.
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     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
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