Do you know your neighbors?

How familiar are you with the person who lives next door to or above you? Down the street or down the hall? Across the street and kitty-corner from where you live?

Did they grew up in the town or city you both live in? Did you? Did they serve? Did you? Are they a U.S. citizen? Are you?

Are you sure?

Is the qualification “I was born here”? What if your parents weren’t? Did you come here legally? Are you white enough? Are you the right kind of Christian?

What if you’re not Christian? What if you’re something non-Abrahamic at all? Let’s pretend you’re a Sikh.

In fact, let’s pretend you are Bhagat Singh Thind.

So who are you? You’re Bhagat Singh Thind, born October 3rd, 1892 near Amritsar, Punjab in what is today modern day India. You come to the United States around just 20 years old and, just five years later, you’re recruited by the U.S. Army to fight in the Great War, the War to End All Wars, or as it has sadly become known, World War I.

Recruited in July, honorably discharged by December. Thank you for serving your country.

A week before your discharge, you receive your certificate of U.S. citizenship while wearing your U.S. Army uniform. Except, three days before your discharge, the federal government catches wind of the news and revokes it. After all, you’re a “Hindoo” (you’re not; you’re a Sikh) and not a “white man”, so no citizenship for you.

Thanks for nothing.

So you try again. You move from Washington to Oregon and you apply for citizenship around five months later. The federal official that revoked your citizenship the first time goes to the Oregon judge and tries to sabotage your chances.

The judge, taking into account your arguments for citizenship and your military record, grants you citizenship for the second time. Thank you for serving your country.

Not satisfied, the Bureau of Naturalization, who this whole time has been seemingly out to get you and refusing to let this be a precedent, appealed to the higher courts until landing before the Supreme Court.

Their task was to answer these two questions:

“Is a high caste Hindu of full Indian blood, born at Amritsar, Punjab, India, a white person within the meaning of Section 2169, Revised Statutes?”

(Again, you are Sikh.)

&

“Does the act of February 5, 1917 (39 Stat. L. 875, Section 3) disqualify from naturalization as citizens those Hindus, now barred by that act, who had lawfully entered the United States prior to the passage of said act?”

They find the answer to the first question is “No”, making the second question moot. You’re not white, so you cannot be naturalized. The Bureau of Nationalization strips you for a second time in 1926.

Thanks for nothing.

It wouldn’t be until the mid 1930s when Congress passed into law that all WWI veterans would be granted citizenship, regardless of race. For a third time, you seek citizenship.

This time, you finally get it. It’s the real thing, the Bureau of Nationalization isn’t breathing down your neck, and you are finally a U.S. citizen. Thank you for serving your country.

This all happened roughly 100 years ago, but the question of “what is a citizen” remains at large and, as was before, at the whim of the State. Bhagat Singh Thind was finally granted citizenship not because of a reversal of the Supreme Court’s decision, but because of a law by Congress that honored WWI veterans. Not goodwill, but a just reward for military service.

So what is a citizen? Is it someone who shows they are willing to die and kill for their country? Is it someone who won the “born under the right circumstances” lottery that did nothing otherwise to “earn” their citizenship? Is a citizen someone who pays taxes and nothing else? Is it who the State decides is worthy? Are you always going to just agree with what the State says?

If you take a step back, you might realize “Does any of that really matter?”. Someone like Bhagat Singh Thind, who served in the U.S. Army, had to jump through countless hoops to received that illustrious seal of approval from Uncle Sam. But if he was living next door to you, and he served your country, and he was shopping in the same stores and sent his kids to the same school. Would you care about his legal status? Or would you see him as your neighbor?

Bhagat Singh Thind was finally granted that citizenship as a thank you for serving in the Army during WWI. Not every immigrant in this country can or will put their life on the line for the whims of the U.S. government. Hell, there are people born in this country that won’t do that. Your commitment to the state apparatus nationwide shouldn’t matter in a local setting.

How committed are you to your neighbors? To me, that is the truest sense of community and belonging. The local stuff, the stuff that impacts you, matters far more than national narratives.

The United States Pirate Party preaches to anyone seeking office to “run locally” because “it is where the impact will be felt the most”. Service to your neighbors and community, where you rest your head at night, is a cause we champion. Our ideals are applied nationwide, but felt most locally.

The USPP also believes in the free movement of all Americans, from Greenland to Patagonia. We don’t believe the imaginary lines drawn on a map should be inhibiting of the people who share this great American continent.

So when people speak of “illegal immigrants” living in communities across the United States, it strikes me as ridiculous. Uncle Sam said my neighbor is illegal? Why? Didn’t come here the right way? Didn’t get your permission to cross an imaginary line and enter society as essentially a lower caste laborer?

If you are upset by the state narratives of “illegal immigration”, I ask you: what about them coming here bothers you? It doesn’t flatter you that they left everything behind to start a new life where you call home? Is it the taxes? You feel like your hard earned money is being taken and they somehow have it easy?

First of all, these migrants are all almost certainly renting. So the landlord would be paying taxes… with their money.

Second, if they aren’t paying income tax, is that because they aren’t receiving a check, since tax is automatically deducted? If they’re being paid income cash, who is to blame? Are they to blame for taking it, or do you point the figure at the business owner who gave a job to them and decided to pay them under the table.

That job wasn’t stolen, and certainly not by the immigrant. Can the so-called “job creator” really ever allow the jobs they create and give out to be “stolen”? Or did they willingly pay someone cheaper instead of someone in a position to demand more.

Do not let the State turn you against your neighbors when they are trying to live like you. Do not allow Uncle Sam to cause you to fail to see the humanity of your neighbors.

Don’t be terrorized and made fearful. They are human; they bleed like you.

As of writing, the United States of America has decided to unleash masked terrorists onto the streets of cities across the U.S. in order to corral and correct what it calls an “illegal immigrant problem”. This organization is named “ICE”.

Before continuing, I must affirm something to you, dear reader. Merriam-Webster defines “terrorism” as “the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion”. Further, they define “terror” as “violence or the threat of violence used as a weapon of intimidation or coercion”.

Now, dear reader, consider what ICE is doing. Simply ask: is ICE using violence or the threat of violence as a weapon of intimidation or coercion?

It was recently Halloween, and kids were unable to peacefully Trick-or-Treat in certain Chicagoland locations due to ICE harassment, including tear-gassing.

ICE, in their raids and targeting, has arrested “legal” citizens. They have arrested parents in front of their children. They have made arrests in South Shore, Chicago, in the middle of the night via a warrant-less raid and informed the residents they’d “only be released if they had no outstanding warrants”.

The State decides whether or not you’re upstanding and “worthy”. It doesn’t matter if you go through all the proper rigmarole or serve the country. It doesn’t matter if you think you’re white enough. The State is the final authority in the matter.

But you know better. You know your neighbors are good people just trying to make an honest living. You know the crime of “falsifying” is a common one. You’ve seen kids use fake addresses to get into better school districts. You’ve had friends of friends not change their ID, despite not living in a specific state full time and instead continuing to pay to that state. You know the system isn’t followed to a T by everybody.

You know, deep down, this entire thing is bullshit.

Uncle Sam is a fickle dude with some skeletons in his closet. These skeletons are, unfortunately, in the front yard. He can decide you’re unworthy of citizenship if he so chooses.

When Washington D.C. tells you from thousands of miles away to turn on your back on your neighbor because they’re “not a citizen”, I want you to remember that they are still your neighbor.

And to the volunteer officers of ICE: thanks for nothing.

uspirates.org/through-the-spyg…