Moving thread from IMHO to Great Debates.
It’s email glurge. Although it doesn’t have the million exclamation marks or creative spellings that hallmark those illustrious messages, email glurge it remains.
If he failed to register for the Selective Service by his 26th birthday he’s permanently ineligable for naturalization. The same is true for all male undocumented immigrants.
He shouldn’t complain, there are nearly **200 countries ** and **49 states **that I can’t vote in! This guy, whoever he is, seems like kind of a tool. Would he let me vote in London if I moved there for a few weeks?
Also, if I non-citizen were to get drafted, couldn’t they just go home?
You’d think after the war of 1812, we’d have learned our lesson about telling the Brits to mind their own business.
Unfortunately, it appears that it’s impossible to tell if he registered or if he didn’t, since Daniel Berrigan burned any records that may have existed.
Not true unless there’s been a change in this aspect of the law that I’m unaware of. (I’m quite willing to concede my error if it is, in fact, an error.) I had many, many male immigrants who’s paperwork I helped file that were far past the age of 26. They had to declare under penalty of perjury that they were unaware that they were required to register with the Selective Service. I don’t recall any case of a male looking to naturalize where failing to register was a bar to naturalization.
I am a green card-holder also, and would like to be able to vote. However, to become a citizen one has to swear to a bunch of things incuding the following:
Although I can keep my British citizenship, for me to swear to the above on oath would be a lie. While I am sure that many (most?) people who apply for citizenship go along with this lie, I am struggling with it. I have the forms all filled in but unsent, because I cannot bring myself to lie under oath in order to achieve citizenship.
I live in the US and have no intention of leaving. I will support the US, but not to the extent of giving up all allegiance to Britain. So don’t just glibly say “apply to become a citizen” if you want to vote; it is not such a simple decision.
No, he shouldn’t be able to vote, nor should I (nineteen, green card.) But the notion of forcing Selective Service on immigrants (me) is actively ridiculous and offensive to their (my) national loyalties.
Guess you’ll be giving up that green card then, right? Our country, our rules.
The David Byrne email gets a big :rolleyes: from me.
Apologies. I didn’t mean to imply that it was false, though that’s certainly a common trait with email glurge. I mean that it’s a bulk email sent out attempting to persuade people a certain way that will make people who agree with it stamp their feet and say “hell yeah!” while everyone else is mostly uninterested.
How does “our country, our rules” make a law any less stupid or offensive? And why would my disagreement with a law induce me to give up my green card?
Again, Byrne is not British.
Is Byrne eligible to vote in British elections? And did he do so in 2005?
Scottish/British…same thing.
OW! OW! Stop that, I was only kidding…OW!
What is his citizenship then? He’s obviously not an American citizen, even though he’s lived in the United States most of his life (since he was eight). He was born in the United Kingdom (Scotland to be precise). He also lived in Canada from the ages of two to eight but somehow I don’t feel a pre-schooler was applying for citizenship. Byrne’s former wife was an American citizen, so he could have gotten American citizenship from her but apparently didn’t. (And to confuse matters further, his wife Adelle Lutz might conceivably have been a Japanese citizen also - she was born in Japan to a Japanese mother.)
And, IIRC, he was too young to have a ‘draft record’ when the Berrigan burning took place.
FTR, since Make Believe Mambo, David Byrne can do no wrong, so I will overlook this, but not on political grounds. I forgive him because of this:
I go along with those who don’t see what Byrne is complaining about. After all, I was in a comparable position myself at one point in the past. As an American citizen who was living in Canada for several years I was not allowed to vote in Canadian elections. Of course it did not occur to me to complain – if I wanted to vote that much I would have started the process of obtaining Canadian citizenship.
Ed
Why would that be slapworthy? Scottish is a subset of British, Scotland being part of the island of Great Britain. Calling a Scot English would be incorrect and possibly offensive, but British != English.