Hello:
WHY would we tell the world how GREAT our FREEDOMS are, but ONLY if you LIVE in the right place? If our freedoms are, indeed, so GREAT, how does it HARM us, if we give them out to every PERSON??? WHY do we covet them??
excon
Citizenship should mean something.
We have to distinguish very clearly between human rights (that apply to everyone) and citizen rights. We also have to clearly distinguish between rights and privileges. For example, residency is a citizen's right but a non citizen's privilege. A right can only be taken by due process of law. A privilege can be taken for any reason or no reason.
One person's right is another person's obligation. The right to private property is the obligation not to steal. The right to life is the obligation not to kill etc etc. We therefore have to be very careful about what rights we give non citizens, or we'll find ourselves having obligations that are not in the national interest.
It's citizens that elected the government to do their will and act in their interests. Non citizens just don't count. Subordinating them to non citizens is treason.
We've had this discussion before and you choose to ignore the facts. The preamble to the Constitution starts out with "We the People of the United States". (Yes, contrary to what you want to believe the preamble IS part of the Constitution.) That first sentence defines the meaning of the word People for the entire document as being "of the United States"; or in other words, Citizens.
As to Rights . . . no where does the Constitution summarily deny non-citizens the Rights Constitutionally conveyed to US citizens. In fact, one of the things that makes this country great is that non-citizens are automatically privileged to enjoy many, if not all of the same Rights enjoyed by US citizens. (Some of those Rights are even granted to all persons irrespective of citizenship.) But it does not guarantee many of those Rights to non-citizens so they can be revoked individually or en-mass without extraordinary measure as FDR did with the Japanese community back in the 1940's (which was a violation of the Rights of any US citizens of Japanese descent, but not of Japanese nationals yet to be granted citizenship) . To suspend Rights for US citizens protected by the Constitution a much higher bar must be cleared which is the declaration of Martial Law as Lincoln did during the Civil War.
You're the one that obviously had to go to Google, Cap. I actually paid attention in school and read history.
As to that wave of immigration back in the mid to late 1800's, the one heralded by that plaque on Lady Liberty's base . . . the United States was just recovering from the bloodiest war in US history and expanding westward at the same time. The US needed that increase in population to re-populate from the war and to provide the blood, sweat and tears to expand westward; a LOT more jobs open than strong backs to fill them. These days, with an estimated unemployment rate of from somewhere between 25-million to 93-million we don't need any more immigrants at the moment. Can't help it that you're not smart enough to understand that.
Hello again, Red:
We have had this conversation.. But, I have a different question.. I understand your position.. Some people can be DENIED rights. But, IF those rights are SOO great, and they're wonderful to have, and it costs you NOTHING to give them away, WHY would you wanna KEEP somebody from having them???
excon
Rights extend to all human beings, in my opinion. The Declaration of Independence certainly held the same...
