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JeepGuy79 wrote:If you risk your life for my freedom you deserve yours. Just my humble opinion.

I'm not saying they don't deserve it. I'm saying that there is a process that must be followed. There is a reason that they make you take the classes and pass a test, and has nothing to do with one's service—service which is commendable and for which I am grateful. The reason for the class and test is to make sure that new citizens are properly educated in our form of government and the responsibilities of citizenship. That is a good thing, and it should be encouraged instead of bypassed.

bizarrenormality wrote:

JJVP wrote:

He could have solved the problem at any time in the past 40 years by passing the written test like other immigrants.
He chose to be stubborn instead.

We have a Constitution by which we all agree to live, and upon which we frame our laws. When he enlisted, he took an oath to defend it......without exception. Although I am sympathetic to his plight, I agree with bizarrenormality. He's had 40 years to rectify this, and the legal mechanisms aren't, or at least weren't then, in place to make him an automatic citizen because he served. We either a live under the rule of law or we don't. What we DO know is that when we act just because it feels good, we get the nation we labor under today. He would be far from the first person who ever found himself in this position. If we make an allowance for him, then we have to make an allowance for everyone who thinks that the U.S. owes it to them. It is tempting to say, well then, lets pass a law making military service a substitution for taking the citizenship exam. And we could do that, if we wanted to. But, military service, for all of its basic goodness, is NOT a substitute for knowing the Constitution, knowing the past presidents, knowing how our system of government works, and all of the other stuff of which the written test guarantees that newly minted citizens will have at least a cursory understanding.

My answer would be: "I honor and respect your service to the nation, and I thank you for it. Now if you'll just take this quick test, we can confer citizenship on you."