America, Land of the Free*

* If you thought (like I did) that Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor's parents emigrated from Puerto Rico to the US, you–like most every news network–would be wrong. They "moved" from there. Because they are US citizens, too. Or rather, they are US citizens without citizenship, since they cannot vote, though of course they're perfectly "welcome" to pay taxes, like you and me. The horrible 19th century racism that colonized the US Territories (Guam, American Samoa, etc.) while refusing their natives US citizenship due to their being "alien races" (no, really–that is the language!) persists today. Those inhabitants can fight in the US military for US "freedoms" but cannot vote and have no vote in congress.

I must confess I didn't know about this at all until I saw John Oliver's brilliant comedy segment! Lord help us for, a) carrying such blatant racism unto the 21st century, b) lying about that "land of the free" bit and c) forcing us to get such crucial information about our own nation not from civics class, but from a COMEDIAN! And a British one at that! (Though I see we did allow him to emigrate and even vote. But then he's not of an alien race, is he?)


We have got to turn this around right away. We've already embarrassed ourselves on the world stage enough! Let's do the right thing and let these people vote with us! Write to congress and ask for their full citizenship. Enough already of alien races!