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Posts tagged Politics
Living the American Nightmare
Jul 28th
Meet the millions of immigrants who travel each year to our land for a better life- or Public Enemy #1, according to the state of Arizona.
I’m pretty sure a lot of people have heard about what’s going on in Arizona. If you haven’t do a quick Google search and fill yourself in nicely, with arguments with both sides, please. (I have included a couple of links below-not enough, just a few)
Now, I’ll continue.
It was on a plane to Miami that I came across a story on CNN that brought me to tears. It’s story of one family’s struggle to establish themselves as hard-working Americans, who out of fear of deportation, threats, and bankruptcy; they must now leave their home of almost twenty years. Now I don’t usually cry watching cable news (although Larry King is scary looking and Nancy Grace looks like a deranged shark out for blood a la “Jaws” style), but this story brought a twenty-year-old in mid-flight to sniffles. There’s something precious about the American Dream-the idea that you can work your way to a better life for you and your family. Hard work=success.
To me, that Dream is sacred-it’s what TRULY founded this country. Colonist came here to work, not to vacation, own mansions, or blow their earnings in a consumerist culture gone rabid. They came to work the ground, fight the unknown, and set up shop for their culture and Crown. Hell, immigrants nowadays just want a driver’s license and health insurance-such underachievers. Did I mention those predecessors also brought other humans to do the work for them, against their will? This is the stuff employee of the month was made for. I’ll stop the sarcasm for a moment…
Fair point...
In short, my point #1: our country was founded by workers. Not monarchs, popes, or invading tribes of Visigoths-your average European bloke trying to earn a couple of coins to send back to the wife and kids or to save up for a hand in marriage. The American Dream is that you can work yourself to a better situation. I believe that should be open to anyone who makes that pilgrimage; Pilgrims of all eras included.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
But one coastal landmass wasn’t enough. We claimed (i.e. stole) this territory from sea to shiny sea. We stole from natives and yes, our neighbors to the south once claimed California and a few bordering states their home turf. Well, it must have driven map makers in the president’s cabinet crazy that there was such unevenness in an otherwise pristine, yet unique shape of land mass. So it was taken from under the inhabitants’ feet, faster and far more violent than any eviction notice.
Whoops-you got your country in my state line!
Point #2: This land isn’t our land. History has shown that lands can change owners time and time again, sometimes faster than the average person changes clothes. What brings Americans together is not land, its commonality. It can be over sports, religion, politics, or even TV shows. I am from one state, you another, and our friend yet some other, but we all share some experience alike. With that we relate to one another. State lines can change, but we are a part of a United States of America.
Cut to more modern days. Birth Control and refrigerators were all the rage, and many Americans went to the Drive Ins to catch the latest double feature. But wait, make sure you file to bathrooms that are not only separated by sex, but segregated by race. Feeling uncomfortable, yet? It’s not the big bouffant on your head, it’s Jim Crow laws. In case you forgot, because chances are you weren’t born yet, second class citizenship was legally protected by our government as late as the late-sixties. There’s a whole slew of laws that segregated races from each other, some include colorfully named ordinances like the Asian Exclusion Act and Japanese American Internment. This country already has a beautifully long list of race-driven declarations; let’s leave them there. Stop adding discriminating legislation that only serves to hurt people and leave scars of resentment for generations after. That’s right-human beings. Not Marvin the Martian, E.T., or Chewbacca under the guise of “illegal immigrants,” these are people with families we’re talking about here. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (name drop!) won votes over claiming it was a safety measure against the drug cartels. Wow, way to stereotype here, just like when Southern politicians scared white voters to vote Jim Crow laws into rule lest black men marry their daughters. The scandal: scare tactics haven’t changed much in over a hundred years.
Hospitality, an American specialty.
Point # 3: Racist is Racist is Racist. Call it by any other name: protection, nationalism, or state pride-it is still the same. Manure is poop is crap. The first is merely a polite way to describe a fertilizer preference. Protection from criminal drug cartels is merely a logical mean of self preservation. Poop is the layman’s term for excrement and stereotyping immigrants to drug dealers is propaganda. Crap is the more vulgar of terms for the last two synonyms, and isolating and persecuting a group of people based on unsound evidence or suspicion is unjust in EVERY sense of the word. Case in point: it’s all bullshit to me.
There are now millions of modern-day pilgrims who won’t get the chance to make the memories or dare to dream lest they risk deportation. This recent law has effectively exterminated that chance for millions in Arizona. In its place, something much more sinister nature has set in. Embitter and betrayed, hundreds of thousands of people have packed their belongings and headed for the border of anywhere that doesn’t look like it would be America’s next top racist state. The political leaders won’t represent you, and the entities sent to serve and protect are now your hunters. I wish these kinds of terrors only stayed in “The Twilight Zone.”
Picture: Inappropriate
What we’ve created in Arizona is the American nightmare. Stigmatized for being different, persecuted for speaking another language. No matter how hard these people work, they will never have the chance to work themselves out of poverty, have social security, earn an education, or even the chance to enter the white collar workspace. We are creating a new segregation, a new slavery system.
It’s already happening. Immigrants without papers are forced to look for illegitimate jobs. They are exploited in their position, and there is nothing they can do about it. They can’t sue, because they’ll be reported. They can’t take it to their boss, because they will get deported. They can’t unionize in order to demand fair wages, because the company will report on their own workers and their families at home and merely recruit fresh blood from the border once more.
I don’t know about you, but I’d like my children to be proud of their heritage. I’m paraphrasing a BU Alum here, but I’d like my kids to live in a society where color didn’t matter. I’d like to road trip with my friends one day and not be asked to step out of the car because the last name on my license reads “Castillo.” I would like to see my father not get pulled aside while going through airport security because he shares the same last name and happens to be carrying a laptop. I would like to know that my mother does not always have to carry her U.S. passport while driving home from work. I’d like to see my sister have the same chance at a non-segregated school district where she would get the chance to interact with all kinds of people, regardless of their race or economic background.
The Grim Reaper of Millions of Dreams, Gov. Jan Brewer
Shame on the country that stood by and watched millions of lives ruined. Shame on the people who think by white-washing their communities, they can eradicate crime. Shame on Jan Brewer for turning on her legally registered Latino voters only to send them to a foreign country or to force them to carry legal documents at all times. Shame on law enforcement if they actually pull over drivers for the color of their skin or for picking on non-English speakers.
This shouldn’t be the old days of yesteryear. We have come so far in appreciating the value of a human life. Better health care, better work environment, and better of quality of living has progressed enormously within the past forty years. For some reason, racism still exists. Oh, the target’s changed through the years, from Russian-Americans wrongfully accused of Communism during the Cold War years to the post-9/11 persecution of American Muslims. By hiding the facts behind the mask of an ethnic stereotype boogie man, politicians and war mongers hide the human side to their struggles. Again, immigrants didn’t come to a country that despises foreigners for rest and relaxation. They come to work for their Dream, provide better for their families or to restart their lives in the land of opportunity. They are doing what the first pilgrims did, showing up un-announced to work for money.
One Nation, for us all?
People have got to start seeing illegal immigrants for who they really are: people. Just like us, with hopes, dreams, and families too. Only when society begins to re-humanize the people they are persecuting, can acceptance begin.
Until then, stand back and watch yet another episode in the American shit show.
Links
Roger Ebert’s take on another case of racism in Arizona: lightening kid’s faces on a school mural. What better way to tell kids we are all equal by purposefully altering the appearance of classmates. Also at the bottom is possibly one of the worst Fox News interviews I’ve ever heard- folks, that’s saying A LOT.
The Fed Gov. vs. The State of Arizona. If we want to make sure this kind of legalized discrimination stopped with the Civil Rights struggle in the ’60s, it needs to be stopped at the National level. Let’s keep this country free of hate for all.
Arizona Sheriff tells CNN, “It’s opening jobs for U.S. Citizens.” Meet Arizona’s Miss Congeniality 2010!
GOP Remarks on Immigration. It’s not as negative as you think.
Are You Offended?
May 12th
Are you offended by this ad?
If you are a young adult, should you be?
Tom Schaller wrote a post for the blog fivethirtyeight asking why we do not see an ad like this instead:
“Millions of elderly adults continue to drive on our roads, year after year, with nothing more than a periodic eye exam required to renew their licenses…better get yourself a safe car. The all-new Sonata, from Hyundai.”
Although the youth and the elderly are both at a high risk for car accidents, we do not see ads using fear of Senior Citizens being on the road to persuade people to buy safer cars. Schaller points out that if such an ad were made attacking Senior Citizens, Hyundai would immediately have to retract the ads to appease the elderly.
Is this disparity a result of youth having less political clout or could we mobilize to earn an apology from Hyundai if it was something we actually cared about?
I did not think anything of this ad before I read the post on fivethirtyeight and I think that there are better issues that youth could fight against other than discriminating ads. However, I think that a corporation not worrying about being politically correct towards one segment of the population makes a statement that they do not think we have clout. Does not caring about these types of ads correlate to not caring about important policy issues?
Do spaghetti trees care about abortion?
Apr 13th
The shooting of Dr. George Tiller by an anti-abortion activist last May made headlines nationwide. But many of us are too young to remember the series of abortion clinic bombings, arson and shootings that happened in 90′s that left seven people dead. One of these victims was Shannon E. Lowney.
Miss Lowney was a receptionist at the Planned Parenthood in Brookline, Massachusetts when a gunman opened fire and shot her on December 30, 1994. She was 25 years old.
An activist for women’s rights and healthcare, Miss Lowney was remembered by her family and friends as giving “freely of her talents and skills to help others.” To commemorate her, they planted a tree outside of BU’s School of Social Work with a small plaque underneath.
Two weeks ago that very tree made it into BU Today, but for a very different reason. As part of an April Fool’s joke someone decorated the tree with cooked pasta, and it became known as The Spaghetti Tree. (Pictured below)
Jeff Stein: On World Citizenship, Life, Anarchy, Politics, and Priorities
Apr 8th
by Nairika Murphy
It is hard to believe that in a mere 21 years, Jeff Stein has achieved something that some people four times his age are still grappling for: steadfast principles and a life of meaningful and fulfilling experiences that reflects those principles.
Jeff’s most recent action as true “global citizen?” How about creating his own non profit, for starters.
When the disastrous January 12th earthquake struck Haiti and we all pulled our hopes, prayers, donations and energy together, as one world, in an effort to support our close island neighbor, Jeff did more.
Within 24 hours of the natural disaster, Jeff had organized conference calls across the United States. In seven days, not only had he banded together a group of doctors, nurses, EMTs, anarchist street medics, and alternative medical practitioners, but Jeff had formed a registered, nonprofit organization and was in Haiti, treating the victims of the natural disaster.
Thomas Easley and BU student Jeff Stein (right), in Haiti. The two volunteers flew down to Haiti immediately preceding the January 12 earthquake disaster, to provide medical care to Haitian victims.
The first thing that impressed me about Jeff and Mutual Aid Disaster Relief in Haiti, was the urgency and spontaneity with which they responded to those in need – to strangers– and felt the necessity to drop everything and assist. Heck, I’ve seen people who can’t be bothered to help an elderly woman pick up dropped change or hold the door for someone at the post office.
The response among most of my friends was to make donations, attend benefits, show support. But is that really enough? Clearly from a developmental standpoint it is not. And from a moral standpoint? I would argue No.
When I asked Jeff about his own response, the choice to fly to Haiti, which seemed to be an exception rather than norm, he shrugged. “It’s how I’ve always lived my life – being spontaneous and doing things I want to do quickly.” As he began to extrapolate, I sensed that the main difference between his response and my own response to Haiti was priorities. I asked him if he agreed with me. “Yeah, it’s just a matter of priorities – school is a priority, but not the top one in my life.”
“Well, what is,” I asked. More >
If a tree falls in the ghetto, does it make a sound?
Apr 6th
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
I was never particularly interested in this debate. In fact it strikes me incredibly humancentric. It assumes that only people, who are outsiders to the forest, can be around to hear sounds. But the forest is full of animals, insects and other creatures. What about them? They are a constant presence in the woods, so there can be no debate of whether or not someone is there to hear the tree fall. Are they being ignored simply because they cannot speak up and participate in this discussion? Seems a little rude seeing as we are discussing their habitat.
Last month I spent my spring break volunteering in Detroit, Michigan and a similar question arose in my mind.
If a place is a labeled a ghetto, but no one is around to hear it, is it still a ghetto?
Oil: Blessing or Curse?
Feb 18th
Children watch as oil is “cleaned up”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/04/africa_polluting_nigeria/img/1.jpgWhile President Umaru Yar’Adua is out of the country for health reasons, acting Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan is trying to woo back oil companies. His new attempts draw attention to the stain oil is leaving in the Niger Delta.
About a third of Nigerian oil is stolen, either through corruption or redirection of pipelines. Oil is often stolen by gangs. Militants and political groups often explode pipes to disturb oil collection. Leaks are common because of poor infrastructure.
Leaky pipelines threaten the livelihoods of many Nigerians. Sometimes locals gather around a leaking pipe to collect oil for profit. Sometimes the pressure rises and the pipe explodes without warning. There has been no systematic recording of accidents and deaths related to leaks but they often injure local inhabitants who see oil as a way out of poverty.
Over 2.5 million barrels of oil have been leaked into the traditionally fertile land of the delta. These are only the recorded numbers – the reality is likely higher. Fish are dying, and where they can be found they are often too poisonous to eat. Nigerians are poisoned from the methane gas, and the water is undrinkable. Land is increasingly infertile.
In the distance Nigerians can see the oil burn. It is the only way oil spills are ever cleaned up.
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