Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!yale!husc6!panda!genrad!decvax!cca!mirror!misc!inmet!janw
From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Freedom of faith
Message-ID: <117200208@inmet>
Date: Sat, 4-Oct-86 17:50:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.117200208
Posted: Sat Oct  4 17:50:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 09:52:42 EDT
References: <1581@cwruecmp.UUCP>
Lines: 38
Nf-ID: #R:cwruecmp.UUCP:-158100:inmet:117200208:000:1638
Nf-From: inmet.UUCP!janw    Oct  4 17:50:00 1986


[sundar r iyengar: sundar@cwruecmp.UUCP ]
>Granted that Communism is "despicable", I'd still think  that  if
>someone  wanted  to believe in it, he/she should have the freedom
>to do so.

Of course they should.

>I recently had to fill up a visa application.  Under section in
>which the introductory sentence reads as,  "A visa may not be issued to
>persons who are within specific categories defined by law as inadmissible
>to the Uniter States...", one of the categories listed is "[persons] who
>are or have been members of certain organizations including Communist
>organizations and those affiliated therewith;".

I, too, had to fill these forms; there was something  else  about
*anarchism*,  for  Pete's (Kropotkin's) sake! Probably included
when McKinley was killed. Also about having ever engaged  in  sex
for sale.

Granted that the restriction is silly (anyone at all dangerous
would lie; *former* Communists aren't Communists etc.) -
it does *not* violate the principle you stated above.

One is free to be a Communist; one is not free to enter the USA.
I happen to object to this last restriction; I think free
immigration would benefit both the nation and the world immensely;
but it is a *different* question.

> I am not a Communist but why should anybody care if I am?

Your friends would probably care... But I agree. From the  stand-
point  of  *national interests* - Communism isn't the enemy - the
Soviet Union is. From the standpoint of *human freedom*,  Commun-
ism is a danger; but restricting freedom is a lousy way  to  protect
it.  In any case, questionnaire forms like this achieve nothing.

		Jan Wasilewsky