Lafayette, You Have Arrived

Jesse Walker | July 23, 2002

You'd think that between the fighting abroad, the terror at home, the collapsing stock market , and the ongoing investigation of institutionalized corporate fraud , there wouldn't be much time to sweat the small stuff. But it's a big world, with plenty of concerns to go around: Literal-minded tabloid hacks can damn Steve Earle for the crime of writing interesting songs, devotees of the paranormal can ponder the mystery of Argentine cattle mutilations, and Congress, having effectively ceded its war powers to the executive branch, can at last find the time to make the Marquis de Lafayette an honorary U.S. citizen.

To repeat: Lafayette, who died 168 years ago, is now an American citizen--or will be, once the president has signed the bill. It's unclear when that will happen, but the Revolutionary War hero can presumably wait a few more weeks for his green card. Then he'll be free to haunt American houses without fear of deportation, to enjoy the remaining protections of the Bill of Rights, and perhaps to marry a foreign ghost who'd like to settle in this land.

With the State Department now putting a clamp on Saudi visas , a question arises: Are the executive and the legislature working at cross purposes? Will we stem the tide of Arabs entering our country only to open ourselves to an unchecked wave of the undead? Tune in later--if not for answers, then for another small distraction from the news of the world.