Down but not out

I was reading the editorial in today's Daily News and the accompanying comment from a reader. John Macone, the editor, proposes that Hillary Clinton is down but far from being out and the reader has disputed that assertion.

I usually stay away from talking politics, except within my family. Therein lurk two of the most politically astute people known to man, my sister (the one who lives in Malden) and my brother (who lives in Gloucester).

The reason I shy away from speaking publicly is because *gasp* I am not a citizen of the United States and I cannot vote. So I'm going to bitch about immigration policy instead. ha, ha, gotcha.

My mother and I came to the US when I was 7 years old. I have lived here since I was 7 years old. I went through the US public school system from second grade to my graduation from the University of Michigan. Plus a year of graduate school, also at Michigan.

I stand when the National Anthem is played and I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America at all those municipal meetings. I mean it, too, or I would not do it. How could I not be considered an American?

Because of immigration policy, I did not become a naturalized citizen when my mother became one, even though I was still a minor when she did so. When I reached age 18 - the age at which I could apply for citizenship myself - there was a war going on to which I was very opposed. I was never really a radical in the extreme sense, but I have to admit that back then I resented that I had to apply for citizenship to a country where I had, by then, lived for 11 years as a minor child.

It was also because it was so expensive to do so, you see. Everything always comes down to money. I may be long on astute myself, but I am also long on stubborn; and frequently I am short on common sense relating to matters having to do with my own best interests. Not to mention resentful.

I also did not want to give up my British citizenship, which back then you had to do.

I have worked here since I was 18 years old and yet I still get frantic calls from my mother every once in a while telling me that Bush is going to cut off my benefits, that I contributed to, if I don't become a citizen.

I could move to any European country that is in the EC and work there, and receive free health and unemployment benefits there (the latter for which I am not eligible for here) but I choose to stay here. Where I grew up. The land I identify with the most, on most every important level.

So, with all that, it did not do me any good to work for that Kuwaiti-owned business I talked about a few posts back. Men, you see, would come from Kuwait to work there, bring their wives, and as soon as they produced a male child (who, by virtue of being born here was an instant citizen) they would go back to Kuwait.

I often wonder about why they did that, especially after Sept. 11, 2001. That handful of Kuwaiti nationals, all boys (they don't worry about the girls), now growing up in Kuwait - who also hold US citizenship.

Their parents sneered at this country (I received less of their disdain by virtue of my not being a citizen). In some cases, rightfully so. Some of the Americans working in the company sneered as well. That's another post.

But those little boys ... what about those little Kuwaiti/American boys? Is it an evil plot or simple common sense for them to be citizens of the most powerful country on the globe?
_______________
I agree with at least the spirit of Macone's editorial, by the way. I don't think Clinton should drop out of the race, no matter how long it drags on. It's a lesson in sociology from which we all can benefit. But I'm an Obama girl, if the word "girl" can be applied to someone of my advanced years.

That's also another post - the one in which I describe how, unlike Obama, I grew up being so white when I, too, have a parent who is not caucasian. Talk about a teaser!