Visitors from another corner of the universe looking for an inhabitable planet in our galaxy might very well choose earth. While it might take a while for the visitors to realize that pet dogs and cats are not superior beings served by humans, eventually they would realize that humans, though confused and fallible, comprise the species that at least thinks and acts as if we are in charge here on earth.
They might be somewhat reluctant to adopt human character traits, but once they decide to fit in, they might choose the USA as the logical strategic choice for situating themselves. There are many other attractive locations and cultures around the world, but the good old USA may still be the place where space aliens can make the best possible way of life for themselves on earth.
Imagine the space aliens assessing the potential suitability of life on earth, while hovering in space just outside the reach of detection by our primitive technology. How will they have decided where to make their homes?
They will have noticed that the U.S. is inclusive and allows more non-citizens to enter across its borders and become citizens each earth calendar year than all the other nations on the planet combined.
It also would be noticeable to the visitors from outer space that in addition to 1.5 million legal immigrants each year there is now a virtually constant flow of earthlings from other nations who are allowed in the millions to cross into the territory of the U.S. without being admitted through ports of entry. We assume that they will be interested in finding out some way to become citizens of the U.S. without the inconvenience of admitting that they come from another planet.
They will have noticed that those who enter the U.S. without permission under the laws are treated more fairly than U.S. citizens would be treated in the nations that the borders violators came from before entering the USA unlawfully. No doubt the newcomers from space also would notice and be reassured about their own prospects, knowing that border violators have more freedom and opportunity in the U.S. than most people had in their place of origin.
At the same time the space visitors will observe that non-citizens who sneak into the U.S. can get away with it and even get jobs or send their kids to public schools, but border violators do not have the same legal and political status with the full and equal rights and privileges as U.S. citizens. Those who are allowed to stay and work become a socially subordinated and in most cases subservient class, ruled by a class of U.S. citizens with superior rights who benefit from exploitation of the legally inferior status of border violators. While some border violators and their progeny are able to gain U.S. citizenship and join the first class citizens, most are not.
The more astute space aliens also would take note of the extraordinary situation for Puerto Rico, a territory within U.S. borders and home to 3.7 million U.S. citizens. They’ll notice that Puerto Rico has a demographic profile comparable to Hawaii and other small states. But it will be easy for the aliens in the spaceship to see that in Puerto Rico, the U.S. citizens are in an inferior class compared to U.S. citizens in Hawaii and 49 other political subdivisions of the U.S. called “states.”
The space pioneers may find it perverse that the denial of rights to U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico in the election of national leaders, consent to laws and equal protection of law gives U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico an inferior status comparable to that of illegal immigrants in the 50 states.
Even more ironic if not confusing for the space ship occupants, millions of U.S. citizens in the states have a common language and subculture called “Latino,” “Hispanic,” “Mexican,” “Cuban” and “Puerto Rican,” and enjoy the same opportunity and rights as all U.S. citizens. The U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico are the only “Hispanic” or “Latino” people denied full equal rights enjoyed by all other U.S. citizens in the Spanish speaking cultures of the USA.
If requested to give an explanation for why these anomalies were not being corrected, an insightful political officer on the crew no doubt would report that in earth calendar year 2012 the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico had conducted a lawful ritual for individuals collectively to give consent as citizens to law and government. The ship’s inter-galactic cross cultural analyst surely would add that consent to “territory” status with inferior citizenship had been withdrawn in the 2012 vote, while equal citizenship by becoming a state, with equal rights enjoyed by citizens in the states, had been approved.
Upon hearing that the national government had approved another ritual of government by consent to enable Puerto Rico to confirm the results of the 2012 vote, the aliens perhaps were satisfied that all was in good order. But then when told the government of Puerto Rico had not agreed to allow the people to have a vote recognized by the national government, we can imagine the captain of the spaceship looked at the rest of the crew and said
“How weird is that?”
To which the political officer, hoping to win the admiration of the captain and crew for his insightfulness, would respond,
“Captain, while its population of U.S. citizens seem friendly and have acculturated to U.S. society without losing their local ethnic identification, values and mores, and while its natural climate is ideal for habitation, it is suggested that we enter the U.S. from airspace above a state on the union, so that upon integrating into the political culture of the USA we have the equal rights that are optimal to success and happiness on earth, and that we are not restricted in our social condition and opportunities by the inferior status of U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico, compared to Puerto Ricans in the states.”
Instantly recognizing the rectitude of the political officer’s recommendation, the captain would almost certainly respond, “You took the words right out of my mouth. That is exactly what I had already decided before you said it. I was just hesitating because those white sand beaches with those earthling women walking by the sea seem to warrant further observation.”
So you see, earthlings and creatures from outer space are not all that different. That captain would no doubt end up as an NBC news anchor in Miami, taking frequent weekend trips to Puerto Rico but not willing to live there unless and until it becomes a state with equal rights!
This post was originally written in English and may be being auto-translated by Google.
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