<p>Nancy Holten, 42, is a liberal Dutch vegan and animal rights activist. This week, her neighbors refused to grant her a passport simply because she was too annoying.</p>
<p>Under Swiss law, citizenship is granted by towns and regions rather than by the central government. Residents of Gipf-Oberfrick voted 206 to 144 to reject Nancy&rsquo;s application for citizenship despite the fact that she speaks fluent Swiss and has lived in the country since she was a child.</p>
<p>Tanja Suter, a local politician, says Nancy has a &ldquo;big mouth.&rdquo; She does not deserve a passport &ldquo;if she irritates us and does not respect our traditions.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Nancy has aggressively pushed to do away with cowbells &ndash; a Swiss tradition &ndash; because the sound they make &ldquo;is comparable with a pneumatic drill.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The bells&hellip;are especially heavy&rdquo; and can cause &ldquo;friction and burns&rdquo; on a cow&rsquo;s neck, she says.  ;</p>
<p>Nancy has also campaigned against pig racing, hunting, and loud church bells. &ldquo;I think I spoke my mind too often, and I say it out too loud,&rdquo; admits Nancy.</p>
<p>This week&rsquo;s vote is the second time Nancy&rsquo;s passport application has been rejected. The case will move up to the regional government, which has the ability to overrule the vote. ;</p>
<p>Switzerland has some of the most stringent citizenship laws in the world, and being born there does not always grant children of immigrants the right to a Swiss passport. ;</p>
<p><strong>I would like to link Nancy&rsquo;s story to America&rsquo;s current immigration challenge. ;</strong></p>
<p>In Switzerland, locals have the ability to reject a person&rsquo;s citizenship just because he or she does something they don&rsquo;t like. In this case, she challenged several Swiss traditions. If there are people doing things that annoy or offend us &ndash; like enslaving women and supporting radicals &ndash; why should we let them live here? ;</p>
<p>Racism is when you dislike someone strictly because of his or her race. Nancy wasn&rsquo;t rejected because of her Dutch heritage, but because of her annoying behavior. ;</p>
<p>Practicing religion in a way that is against our laws and constitution is also a behavior, so should we not have the right to close our doors to people who act in this way?</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> The point is it is our country, we don&#8217;t have to let people in if we don&#8217;t want to.</p>