It’s Not a Birthright
Birth-privilege is more like it.
Rights know no borders. Rights know no collectivization. They are inherent to the individual.
With this in mind, no one has a right, or lacks the right, to be an American citizen. Citizenship is a privilege.
But, most Americans have a revulsion to the concept of privilege.
“Privileged? Me? (insert mock modesty, eg: I’m grateful to live in a free country…) But I wouldn’t say I’m privileged!”
And we are right to have a distaste for privilege. It usually connotes someone receiving a favor based on political connections, rather than on merit.
So, we tend to reject institutions or legal structures dependent upon privilege rather than rights.
Unless it means taking away OUR privilege. Then we get angry. We fuss and holler. We are more protective of our privileges than we are of our rights. It’s what sets us apart from other people. It’s what makes us better than them.
To be an American citizen is indeed a blessing, but it should not be a privilege. Or, rather, Americans’ rights ought not to be protected by the state more than or less than the immigrants’. This much we have direct specific scripture to backup.
The best we can do is to make citizenship as little about privilege as possible, and as much about rights as possible.
In this structure, immigrants would be welcome, but neither they, nor anyone else, would have a justified claim on the life, liberty, or property of anyone else.
We would have to do away with welfare, social security, pro-marriage laws, drug prohibitions, foreign aid, foreign armed intervention, affirmative action, firearms restrictions, trade barriers, trade subsidies, corporate welfare, patents, public utilities, unemployment insurance, the federal reserve bank,
and all other institutions which base their decisions upon privilege.
Now, pick your pet issue. The one which you champion above all others. Who is privileged by your issue? Is it you? Is it someone you have compassion for? Most likely it is. I’d love to hear of counter-examples.
If we really want justice it requires an awful lot of courage and a strict adherence to protection of rights, and a steadfast renunciation of privilege.
Nathanael Snow
