Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The Supreme Court ruled against American Samoans who sought American citizenship at birth.  A law that was adopted in 1900 says that people born in American Samoa will be considered "nationals" who own allegiance to the U.S. but  are not citizens with the right to vote and hold public offices.  It seems to me that it is absurd to expect someone born in a U.S. territory and is expected allegiance to the U.S. but are not given citizenship.  This makes American Samoa more like a colony than a territory to me.  I was born in Hong Kong which was a British colony and I was not a British citizen and did not have the rights of a British citizen.  So it seems to me the American Samoans are in the same boat.  I did not feel loyal to Britain then and I don't know why the Samoans would feel loyal to the U.S.

So Trump thinks if he was president and did not let any Muslim in then these type of shootings would not happen.  When it was pointed out the shooter was born in the U.S., then he says that his parents would not have been here so he would not have been born here.  By that logic, we should not have allowed Tim McVeigh's parents in the country so he would not have been born here.  And we should have banned the parents of the guy who shot students at UC Santa Barbara a couple years ago.  The lists goes on and on and pretty soon we will have only Native Americans left!

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:52 AM

    I originally replied to your blog last night, but ended up screwing up saving my comments and didn't feel like re-typing everything.

    I wonder if Samoans feel like Americans in the first place. I've got to think that being so far away from the mainland that it is difficult to feel like a part of the country.

    It seems to me that Puerto Rico has more of an argument to become a state since it is so close.

    Did Hong Kong natives get to vote in British elections?

    -LBOAYM

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  2. I don't pretend to know how the Samoans think about America. My guess is that most like to stay where they are born. Some will want to live in a more modern world and thus dream about coming to America. If they are given citizenship at birth then they would be able to come to America and go back as they please. This is the situation with Puerto Rico. PR is not a state but were given exemption from the law governing territories. So Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and have U.S. passports. That is why the Samoans are asking for the same thing. I guess the Puerto Ricans have more political clout so they got Congress to given them the exemption.

    Both Puerto Rico and Samoa are probably economic losses for us. At one point they were deemed important to have given their locations. But I am not sure they are important today. But if we are going to keep them and accept them into the armed forces, then I don't see why they are not citizens.

    No, Hong Kong people did not get any voice in Britain. They got to vote for their city council but all the important decisions were made in London and executed by the governor appointed by the Queen. So it is like the situation today except it is Beijing who calls the shots. Toward the end of the colonial days there were a lot more rights given to the people of Hong Kong. It was pretty much a democracy ran by the last and very popular governor, Chris Patten. Well, except there was no self determination as Hong Kong was given back to China. So true democracy was short lived.

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