This is not a Social Club, but a Nation -- Let's Run it that Way

Forgive me, but is citizenship just a matter of entitlement -- we being entitled and the immigrant not? Just asking. Just wondering. 

I have a friend who was not born here, coming instead from (I believe) a Scandinavian country. He has worked, same as you and I, paid income and sales taxes, same as you and I, owned a home and paid property taxes, same as you and I. He is honest, civic minded, law abiding, and legally here.

Paid his dues, so to speak. Earned his keep.

But he wasn't born here. We view that as reason to make him jump through hoops before granting him citizenship. No such requirement for us -- no citizenship test -- but since he wasn't born here, dang as heck if we are going to let him vote and be a citizen unless he passes through our little test.

We who were born here claim entitlement. We don't have to take the naturalization test. We don't have to do anything, but we quite expect it of others. It does not matter that they pay their taxes, and that someone once said, "Taxation without representation is tyranny." See, that was an old Revolutionary War slogan and it doesn't apply today.

Fair enough?

This is not a social club, but a nation. Ours is not a club for the privileged, but a nation for everyone who lives on our shores. The basic rights of man, including the right to vote, should be extended to all who live here. 

Sending people through processes just to be processing them is better known as bureaucracy. Well, what of this? If we have rules and laws that are unnecessary then those rules and laws should be done away with. Haven't we often said that that government which governs least, governs best?

We're cool with us not having to stop by the naturalization office on our way to the polls, but we think it is even cooler that we can require it of them. Why? They were born in a different land, but that does not make them lesser members of society. What are they? Second-class people?

I admire my friend for standing up for what I feel is right by refusing to go through all the hoops just because government wants to keep a thumb on him. He could make the effort and become a citizen. To us, it is his choice and his own fault if he doesn't apply for citizenship. But I do not see it that way. The details of why he doesn't are his to know, not mine. Maybe it's rebellion against a government that sends him through a wringer, so to speak, when that is entirely unnecessary. Maybe it is because he, like all of us, becomes intimidated by tasks at times. Small things become big. But the truth might be, it isn't as easy as we believe it is. It isn't as easy as just going down and saying, "I want to be a citizen," and we say, "Okay, here you go. You're a citizen." Instead, we say, "You've got to pass this test, first. Have you studied?" So, a few immigrants (perhaps only a few) say, "Oh, for Heaven's sake; you keep your citizenship. I don't need it that bad." Then, while they want to vote, they never get around to registering. They have a mental block keeping them from doing something that we think should be easy.

What is easy is to judge another person when we shouldn't.  What is easy is to make someone else do something when you are not willing to do it yourself.