>>I'm sorry, but personally I do not feel that green card holders should be allowed to vote. I feel personally that that benefit should be afforded to U.S. citizens only. In what other country are non-citizens allowed to vote? I'm sure there must be some but that does not make it right. I realize that you pay taxes on your income but you also reap the benefits and services that paying those taxes provide (all except the right to vote). I do not think that anyone should be able to come to the U.S., work here and reap the benefits of being in the U.S. for free. U.S. citizens do not get that advantage. We pay too much in taxes ourselves as it is and will for as long as we earn income.
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>I'm not complaining about not being entitled to vote here - I'm not a citizen. I'm more **ed off at my own country for not allowing me to vote from here.
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>As for the complaint about representation - the point is that if a citizen, or a group thereof, have something to say about any law, they have a mechanism to do something about it. We don't, simply because there's absolutely nobody who's representing foreigners in this country. If there were only a few of us, no problem. But as you mentioned, there's a lot of chicken handlers out there. And yet any laws which concern this particular group of people are in the hands of a completely different group of people, with entirely different interests.
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>I accept this as a reality; this is something that happens in every country with a sufficient number of foreign workers (as it was the case in most of the West European countries during most of the XX century, and probably still is). So I'm taking the only way I think is fair: make the citizens aware of the situation of non-citizens, and hope it will cause some change in the future.
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>And, BTW, we're paying the same taxes - so "advantage" is the same. It comes from everybody's taxes, regardless of the citizenship status. OK, maybe I'm not paying property taxes because I didn't have the time to acquire any, but then INS has already made a substantial amount on me, so we're about equal there. And some of the benefits actually don't extend to foreigners - like chances to get a scholarship, for instance.

Dragan;

If you rent you are paying property taxes through your monthly rental charge. The owner does not pay such taxes out of the goodness of his heart.

My wife Katy, is from Peru and in a presidential election a few years ago she voted in San Francisco, California. Oh yes, she is still a Peruvian citizen and has a green card. Her choice has been not to become a United States citizen.

When President Marcos ran the Philippines and there was a presidential election, everyone from age 12 up had to vote or they would be put in prison. Certainly a twelve year old knows what democracy is about and can express it through his/her vote. It also helps when there is one candidate running for office.

Voting is a passive means and opportunity for the individual to revolt. The court, military or other means is sometimes used to decide the true outcome of an election. What the people want in a democracy means little or nothing except in some elections. When the smoke settles the bastards do as they please. If no one voted the bastards in power would still not get it right! :)

Tom