Posted on 12/30/2003 5:57:06 AM PST by SJackson
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:50:43 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
"Every day I wake up and find more things about America that I love," says a woman rescued from Saudi kidnappers.
Don't try to sell Sarah Saga on a "McJobs America." Only a year ago this 24-year-old California-born woman was trapped in Saudi Arabia, where she had been taken at age six by her Saudi father in violation of a U.S. custody order. By contrast, the dawn of 2004 finds Miss Saga reunited with her mother, attending Fresno City College and supporting herself by working at the local McDonald's.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Here's the sense it makes: If a one-time American "chooses to make another life overseas," that person should not be able to just return when convenient and say "Oh, yeah, by the way, I've had a passel of kids, and now they all want to be 'Americans'!"
Being an American involves responsibilities as well as rights. And one of those responsibilities involves actually living here.
I'd agree. I certainly think voting rights, at least local, should be lost to those voluntarily living permanently overseas, though that gets to be a hard call to make in lots of instances.
In any case, that's not what's happening here. Sara's an American citizen who was kidnapped at age 6, (by her father-it's a crime) and taken to Saudi Arabia, and has managed to return to the US only after extreme effort. There's no choice involved here for her or her children. Clearly the "physical-presence" test would apply in very few cases.
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