Well, when I saw the U.S. Customs card that must be filled in by persons entering the United States, I couldn't believe that anybody would ask those questions and expect somebody to give honest answers to them. It just seemed like such a classic piece of governmental stupidity—first, that it exists, and second, that people are forced to fill it out. Somewhere, there's a whole government machinery that has to deal with the filled-out cards. It's so stupid. Since most of the people in the group were German, I know that when they came to the United States, they all had to fill these things out, and probably found it to be especially offensive.
From: Lewis Saul (July 15, 2002)
Subject: Original "Welcome to the United States"
Paul Hindemith's Melodrama (1944) for one voice and one instrument is
a setting of instructions from the United States Income Tax Form 1040.
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