Text 17064, 100 rader
Skriven 2014-07-26 19:51:06 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 17016 av TIM RICHARDSON (1:123/140)
Ärende: Citizenship
===================
Hello Tim,

 DD>>>> I have lived permanently in this country for 34 years. I am not
 DD>>>> Australian.

 DD>> I am not a citizen of Australia, I do not have voting rights here. I do
 DD>> have the right to pay taxes here however.

 LL>> What is a citizen?  If not a citizen of Australia, then a citizen of
 LL>> what?

 LL>> Cajuns were exiled from their home and never allowed to return.

 TR> Lofaso was born here in the US, but likes to pretend his `Cajun-hood'
 TR> makes hi a citizen of some other country. He's confused (at best).

Who is an American, and who is not?  Is there a difference between
being a "citizen of the United States" and simply being an "American"?
In my case, I am "Cajun" rather than "American" as there is no such
animal as "Cajun American" or "Cajun-American".

 LL>> What exactly is a citizen?

 LL>> Can you tell me?

 LL>> Does anybody really know, or care?

 TR> Lofaso knows very well what a `citizen' is.

Citizenship - an objective boundary that separates Americans from
non-Americans.

What is this "objective boundary"?

Whatever each individual in America views it as being.

Look at it this way.  In our lifetimes how many Americans do we
meet in person?  Very few.  Only an extremely small percentage of
Americans.  As individuals, we are free to imagine who the American
people are.  And this imagination of ours creates stereotypes.

So what is our stereotype of the "true American"?

For most Americcans, the "true American" is -

* native born
* English speaking
* Christian
* white

I am not viewed as being any of those things.

So what does that make me?

If not a "true American", then what am I?

 LL>> Personally, I think this whole idea of citizenship
 LL>> and national sovereignty is total bunk'em.

 TR> If that were really true...Lofaso would officially renounce his
 TR> American citizenship, and `repatriate' to whatever country
 TR> he thought he was a `citizen' of.

It is not a matter of what I think.  The bottom line is that
those who do not fit the stereotype of an American are marginalized
and never fully accepted as being part of the American people.

 LL>>> I have lived permanently in this country my entire life.
 LL>>> I am not American.

 TR> If he was born here, he's an American.

I have been called a "foreigner" (and worse) by many Americans
in public places due to myself not fitting their stereotype image
of what a "true American" is or ought to be.

 DD>> Do you have voting rights in USA? Wouldn't that make you a USAmerican by
 DD>> nationality?

 LL>> I am Cajun.  Cajuns were here first, before Americans arrived to claim
 LL>> this land as their own.

 TR> America bought the area Lofaso pretends isn't `America' from the French
 TR> when Thomas Jefferson was president, and it became United States territory
 TR> on July 4th 1803.

 TR> Lofaso is an American citizen. Of course...if he seriously takes the stand
 TR> that he's `not'...let him officially announce that he hereby renounces his
 TR> citizenship of the United States, and declares himself a citizen of some
 TR> other nation, or claims to be stateless. Thereby exposing himself to
formal
 TR> deportation.

Deport me to where?  My own country of Louisiana?  What a farce
that would be!

--Lee

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