You may not be able to read the blog window in part 1 of this post, but I urge you to follow the link. In passing, the window is there because I have copyright permission to reprint the article in an i-frame. If you blog, please obey copyright law. (Unfortunately, my HTML scripting skills are non-existent.)
The article is an example of the xenophobia that has been growing in this country since the immigration situation began to be exploited in the early 1990’s for political purposes. This question was actually first raised during the Republican primaries, when some of the hard-core anti-immigration folk questioned Sen. McCain’s eligibility to run for the Presidency. Please note that no one questions Sen. McCain’s service and devotion to this country. Nor does anyone question that his parents were both natural-born citizens who were serving their country in the Panama Canal Zone, a zone controlled by USA law at that time.
No, it was simply enough that he was not born within the confines of the territorial United States. He is a foreigner, and foreigners cannot be our President. If this doctrine were to be enforced, it would mean that none of the children born while overseas to our diplomats, soldiers, sailors, airmen, merchant marine, Peace Corps volunteers, etc., would be allowed to run for President because they would be considered foreigners rather than “natural-born.” It could be said that Sen. Obama himself just missed being ineligible because Hawaii had not been a state that long when he was born.
Because of Sen. McCain’s situation, he has had not problem deflecting this type of xenophobia, nor have the courts had any problems in quickly dismissing such lawsuits. But, for those of us born overseas who are true foreigners, we are all too aware of how, at times, our citizenship seems to hang by a thread. One need only look back in history to see that Monrovia in Liberia was founded as a place of “return” for blacks that wanted to return to their home continent. Nor can I forget the John Birchers who were much more common when I was young than now. They would happily have sent me home. Nor am I unaware of the KKK, which sought to limit our expressions of citizenship with a reign of terror in the early to mid 20th century.
Yes, our native born xenophobes are trying to come back. But, this time, this time, they have failed.
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