What? The Huffington Post? But I thought they were supposed to be the good guys. They're good as long as you cow tow to their Spanish Inquisition tactics when you have something to say about one of their articles. I suppose at this point you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about?
It all started this morning when I got up and checked the front page of the Huffington Post to see that Newt Gingrich may not have the money to actually run for President (Wow Newt- way to show you have fiscal management skills). In addition to this interesting headline was another one directly involving my congressional critter, Darrell Issa. Those of you who know me better know I have a plethora of pet names for him, including Darrell Issa-hole and Darrell the Douche. However, now the company he founded and is still on the board of directors apparently hasn't been paying the tariffs on the products they are having manufactured in China. Of course I, never at a loss for the written word, wrote the following comment:
"As one of Sir Douche-a-lot's constituents, I can't tell you how corrupt this guy is. In addition, he outsourced thousands of jobs in his district to China. Furthermore, if you go to the web page, it will claim that the products are made in the U.S.A!!! Why would anyone vote for this guy?"
Unfortunately, my comment never got published (which has become a daily occurrence for me- at least one or several of my comments will not be published with no explanation). However, with this one I pressed it up. I wrote them a note asking for the explanation why it was denied. I received a response from Stephanie H., User Support Specialist, Huffington Publications. This was Stephanie's reply:
"This particular comment is unacceptable because you use the pejorative nickname of 'Sir Douche-a-Lot' to refer to Rep. Issa. This name calling is unacceptable and does not contribute to the dialog. If you were to resubmit it with his name or anything other than insulting name calling, the comment would likely be approved."
Now I could understand if I used profanity and even if I name called another reader, but referring to a public figure in a satirical way? Really? What gets me most about this is that the Huffington Post makes money off of First Amendment rights and yet denies those same rights to other people!! In addition, if I were someone like Bill Maher or Jon Stewart and used this name, they would have printed it. This is selective censorship coming from a company that calls itself a "communications" company. In my book this makes them not very much different from Fox News.
And if you look at my comment I call Darrell Issa corrupt. But they aren't upset about that name, but rather the name Sir Douche-a-lot! That's like going to a movie and seeing a woman get killed and being upset because you saw her breast. Seriously? I was starting to think that the Huffington Post was a credible news organization after being fairly skeptical about it for a year or so now. Now I find this!
A credible news organization would realize that the point of the comment was very important- namely that this guy is no good and doesn't really give two hoots about his district, constituents or even the integrity of the position he holds. I hope that everyone will keep that in mind before linking to any of their stories. Arianna, is this what AOL has done to you?
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Reflections on Safety vs. Freedom
I have long maintained that democracy died in America on January 20, 2001- the day George W. Bush assumed the office of President of the United States of America, even though the people had voted in Al Gore as President. 9/11 gave Bush the excuse he needed to begin destroying the Constitution. Aided by the traitorous media outlet known as Fox News, a propaganda spin capitalizing on the fears of an undereducated and self absorbed population the Patriot Act was passed as a knee jerk reaction to keep you and me "safe." Since then the erosion of the power of individual human beings in our "free" society has continued to be hacked away by Orwellian type crises after crisis. Yet how much danger were we really ever in and how necessary are all these precautions?
I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of 9/11. Somewhere around 3,000 innocent Americans died that day (that we know of) and to my knowledge, it is the worst terrorist attack in history. However, I would like to put 3,000 lives in perspective here: those lives constituted less than 1/2 or 1% of New York City's entire population. As for the entire population of the U.S., that amount wouldn't even be enough to register as a negligible amount. Most terrorist attacks take out, at most, a few dozen people. Our chances of getting killed in a car crash are astronomically greater.
Now according to the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 2010 over 600 million passengers flew on airplanes. While this is a raw number of bodies in seats on any given flight (and realize that some people are on more than one flight and travel more than once per year) if we divide that number by 365 days, we get 1,724,705 people flying per day. A pure raw guess on my part would be that roughly 1/3 of those people would be double counted, so with my adjustment I would say that the actual number would be closer to 1,149,803 individuals flying on any given day in the U.S. who are subjected to the abuse of power that our government is perpetrating on us in the name of "safety."
Michigan has passed a law saying that a person's smart phone can be seized during a routine traffic stop so that all of their locations during the past year can be reviewed and that information used against them in a court of law. And today I read that the sheriff in Crown Point Indiana has said that if they need to conduct random house searches without a warrant, they will.
At what point to do we recognize that we are throwing away our precious freedom for a miniscule threat? This is akin to trying to earn one's income by playing the lottery every week. Or tearing down the house in order to kill a spider.
Things get even more macabre when we look at the private security corporations that have all but replaced our military. Private mercenary armies stockpiled with enough munitions to kill every man woman and child in the state of New York and who have no allegiance to our country. We've paid these companies the equivalent of the GDP of some small countries which gives them more power. When they go into a place and wage their own terrorist attacks, they take out tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people. Should they decide to turn on us then what? As our government facilitates these people, they grow more powerful. They become a military arm for the corporations. Should they want to stage a coup, they could do it and we wouldn't even know. Maybe they already have.
I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of 9/11. Somewhere around 3,000 innocent Americans died that day (that we know of) and to my knowledge, it is the worst terrorist attack in history. However, I would like to put 3,000 lives in perspective here: those lives constituted less than 1/2 or 1% of New York City's entire population. As for the entire population of the U.S., that amount wouldn't even be enough to register as a negligible amount. Most terrorist attacks take out, at most, a few dozen people. Our chances of getting killed in a car crash are astronomically greater.
Now according to the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) Bureau of Transportation Statistics in 2010 over 600 million passengers flew on airplanes. While this is a raw number of bodies in seats on any given flight (and realize that some people are on more than one flight and travel more than once per year) if we divide that number by 365 days, we get 1,724,705 people flying per day. A pure raw guess on my part would be that roughly 1/3 of those people would be double counted, so with my adjustment I would say that the actual number would be closer to 1,149,803 individuals flying on any given day in the U.S. who are subjected to the abuse of power that our government is perpetrating on us in the name of "safety."
Michigan has passed a law saying that a person's smart phone can be seized during a routine traffic stop so that all of their locations during the past year can be reviewed and that information used against them in a court of law. And today I read that the sheriff in Crown Point Indiana has said that if they need to conduct random house searches without a warrant, they will.
At what point to do we recognize that we are throwing away our precious freedom for a miniscule threat? This is akin to trying to earn one's income by playing the lottery every week. Or tearing down the house in order to kill a spider.
Things get even more macabre when we look at the private security corporations that have all but replaced our military. Private mercenary armies stockpiled with enough munitions to kill every man woman and child in the state of New York and who have no allegiance to our country. We've paid these companies the equivalent of the GDP of some small countries which gives them more power. When they go into a place and wage their own terrorist attacks, they take out tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people. Should they decide to turn on us then what? As our government facilitates these people, they grow more powerful. They become a military arm for the corporations. Should they want to stage a coup, they could do it and we wouldn't even know. Maybe they already have.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Barack Obama the Telenovela.
I was first introduced to Barack Obama when he announced his candidacy for president. I wish I could tell you that it was love at first sight- but alas- my political affections lay with his opponent, Hilary Clinton. Through the campaign, and the turmoil of her struggle of gender versus race, I found myself becoming more and more attracted to the tall man who spoke with such eloquence. I knew very little about him, but was sworn to hate him for what he was putting my lady through. But still...
It started innocently enough. The stolen speech viewed when none of my Hilary friends were watching. The quickening of my heart when he spoke of healthcare reform. But true to my word, I stuck with my lady to the end. And when she pledged her loyalty to Mr. Obama, I was both saddened and at the same time overjoyed. At last, I could openly profess my love for the black man.
The campaign was such a lovely and innocent time of courting. He wooed me with promises of healthcare and ending our involvement with Iraq. I knew, this was the man that would hold my heart for the next 8 years. Every once in awhile he would he would surprise me with a gem- repeal DADT or strengthen environmental protection. I was truly smitten with this man and couldn't wait to give myself completely to him on election day.
I remember that second Tuesday so well. It started with nervous anticipation, but slowly built into a crescendo of excitement, culminating in an explosion of joy when John McCain conceded the race. I didn't think things could get much higher but then he appeared on stage and spoke. He spoke of hope and change and I marveled at the things his tongue could do. At the end of the night, I collapsed in a heaving mass of ecstasy eagerly anticipating the festivities of the coming weeks when my love would give himself completely to me.
On January 20, 2010 our union became complete, when the man that I so passionately loved, swore an oath of loyalty. Our vows became complete. For better or worse, we were promised to each other for at least the next 4 years.
The passion of the first year never waned. Day after Day, my love would deliver me to new heights as he stealthily applied stimulus in ways I never imagined possible. But still, he could only do so much. When he announced that we were pregnant with a healthcare bill, I was over the moon!!
But unfortunately, our love wasn't safe. Marauders from Fox News and conservative talk radio were stalking us and our unborn baby. They were relentless with their talk of death panels and medical nightmares. But in the end, our love persevered, and our baby was born. Unfortunately, the raping and pillaging of the bill had taken its toll and the poor thing was severely underweight and vulnerable. That's when the fighting started.
I would remind him that he promised me a single payer baby. And he would counter that it was better than no baby. By the later part of 2010 things were strained between us. We were still spending trillions in Iraq and unemployment was still close to 10%. Stimulus just wasn't having the same effect on me as it used to. Then he delivered unto me a healthy child-- the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. It was a beautiful bill and I hoped that this baby would at least bring my love to his senses and he would now pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq.
But then the 2010 election happened. Something changed in him. He was no longer talking about hope and change, but rather, he began talking about cutting spending and when I asked him point blank about the Bush Tax cuts, he amazed me by hesitating. He had never hesitated with me before, but now he was. More and more frequently he was coming home with conservative stench all over him. But then he did it. He did it in public and he did it without a care for me. He slunk behind closed doors with Boehner and his band of pimps and emerged with the Bush Tax Cuts on his arm. I couldn't believe that he would throw everything we had away for tax cuts!! I began packing my bags. There was no hope for our love anymore. Not if he could betray me like that. Not with Bush. I could forgive him anything but that.
He begged me to stay by extending unemployment benefits. He reminded me that we had a sick healthcare bill together that needed us. In the end I decided to stay for the sake of the senate. They were the innocent ones who needed us to stay together if there was any hope of a reconciliation it would come from them. Today my president and I have a strained civility that is shows the scars hard times. Oh every once in awhile he woes me with talk of peace and I really think he was listening when I told him that I didn't want Libya to turn into another Iraq. In the end, I suppose time will tell whether or not our love will last four more years and he would once again have me mind, body and soul if he would just get rid of those tax cuts. But I'm not holding my breathe.
It started innocently enough. The stolen speech viewed when none of my Hilary friends were watching. The quickening of my heart when he spoke of healthcare reform. But true to my word, I stuck with my lady to the end. And when she pledged her loyalty to Mr. Obama, I was both saddened and at the same time overjoyed. At last, I could openly profess my love for the black man.
The campaign was such a lovely and innocent time of courting. He wooed me with promises of healthcare and ending our involvement with Iraq. I knew, this was the man that would hold my heart for the next 8 years. Every once in awhile he would he would surprise me with a gem- repeal DADT or strengthen environmental protection. I was truly smitten with this man and couldn't wait to give myself completely to him on election day.
I remember that second Tuesday so well. It started with nervous anticipation, but slowly built into a crescendo of excitement, culminating in an explosion of joy when John McCain conceded the race. I didn't think things could get much higher but then he appeared on stage and spoke. He spoke of hope and change and I marveled at the things his tongue could do. At the end of the night, I collapsed in a heaving mass of ecstasy eagerly anticipating the festivities of the coming weeks when my love would give himself completely to me.
On January 20, 2010 our union became complete, when the man that I so passionately loved, swore an oath of loyalty. Our vows became complete. For better or worse, we were promised to each other for at least the next 4 years.
The passion of the first year never waned. Day after Day, my love would deliver me to new heights as he stealthily applied stimulus in ways I never imagined possible. But still, he could only do so much. When he announced that we were pregnant with a healthcare bill, I was over the moon!!
But unfortunately, our love wasn't safe. Marauders from Fox News and conservative talk radio were stalking us and our unborn baby. They were relentless with their talk of death panels and medical nightmares. But in the end, our love persevered, and our baby was born. Unfortunately, the raping and pillaging of the bill had taken its toll and the poor thing was severely underweight and vulnerable. That's when the fighting started.
I would remind him that he promised me a single payer baby. And he would counter that it was better than no baby. By the later part of 2010 things were strained between us. We were still spending trillions in Iraq and unemployment was still close to 10%. Stimulus just wasn't having the same effect on me as it used to. Then he delivered unto me a healthy child-- the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. It was a beautiful bill and I hoped that this baby would at least bring my love to his senses and he would now pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq.
But then the 2010 election happened. Something changed in him. He was no longer talking about hope and change, but rather, he began talking about cutting spending and when I asked him point blank about the Bush Tax cuts, he amazed me by hesitating. He had never hesitated with me before, but now he was. More and more frequently he was coming home with conservative stench all over him. But then he did it. He did it in public and he did it without a care for me. He slunk behind closed doors with Boehner and his band of pimps and emerged with the Bush Tax Cuts on his arm. I couldn't believe that he would throw everything we had away for tax cuts!! I began packing my bags. There was no hope for our love anymore. Not if he could betray me like that. Not with Bush. I could forgive him anything but that.
He begged me to stay by extending unemployment benefits. He reminded me that we had a sick healthcare bill together that needed us. In the end I decided to stay for the sake of the senate. They were the innocent ones who needed us to stay together if there was any hope of a reconciliation it would come from them. Today my president and I have a strained civility that is shows the scars hard times. Oh every once in awhile he woes me with talk of peace and I really think he was listening when I told him that I didn't want Libya to turn into another Iraq. In the end, I suppose time will tell whether or not our love will last four more years and he would once again have me mind, body and soul if he would just get rid of those tax cuts. But I'm not holding my breathe.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Reflections on Voting
For me voting is an honor. I think about all my female ancestors who never were allowed to vote and I feel humbled that I have been entrusted with that right. I think about all the women in third world countries whose voices are suppressed everyday because they are not afforded the opportunity to vote. I think about my sons and the example I want to set for them, the example I want them to look for in a partner.
And lastly, I think about myself. My beliefs, my values, my intellect all are voiced and enacted by filling out a single form once a year. It is the one time in my life when I can shout out with the loudest voice that I matter, that I inspire and I can do it without saying a word.
I vote in every election because I can. Next Tuesday millions of Americans will be showing their respect and honor for our country and the millions of men and women who have died to give us all this honor. Millions of Americans already have already taken their place in history by voicing their opinion of the way they want their government to run.
To be sure, this election is not an easy one. Because of the ruling by the Supreme Court earlier this year in the Citizens United decision, our entire system of democracy is threatened by PAC ad that have very little to do with informing us about what's best for us, but rather, fooling us into voting for what's best for them. That means that every one of us have a duty to inform ourselves about the candidates and the issues. Nothing and no one on the ballot is too small to be ignored this year.
I realize that what I'm asking is not easy or pleasant for most people. We work hard all day long and at the end of the day, we really don't want to have to do RESEARCH on what's really true and who's really best. What I suggest is that you get some of your friends together that live near you and divide the candidates and initiatives up and each research a few. Then get together to discuss and make your decision. If you don't have any friends, call the local headquarters of all political parties and ask for their recommendations. Be sure to ask WHY they recommend a certain person or initiative. They will gladly give you reasons why.
If enough of us do this and commit to doing it year after year, then we the people can render the Citizens United case irrelevant. If we can unseat a very strong incumbent who has spent millions on his/her campaign (personally I hope it will be Darrell Issa) then we can send a message that will ring out all over the country that our votes cannot be bought. That our elected representatives need to do more to start representing us and not their parties or their donors. We can preserve the America that so many have fought and died for. An America that we can be proud to leave for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
And lastly, I think about myself. My beliefs, my values, my intellect all are voiced and enacted by filling out a single form once a year. It is the one time in my life when I can shout out with the loudest voice that I matter, that I inspire and I can do it without saying a word.
I vote in every election because I can. Next Tuesday millions of Americans will be showing their respect and honor for our country and the millions of men and women who have died to give us all this honor. Millions of Americans already have already taken their place in history by voicing their opinion of the way they want their government to run.
To be sure, this election is not an easy one. Because of the ruling by the Supreme Court earlier this year in the Citizens United decision, our entire system of democracy is threatened by PAC ad that have very little to do with informing us about what's best for us, but rather, fooling us into voting for what's best for them. That means that every one of us have a duty to inform ourselves about the candidates and the issues. Nothing and no one on the ballot is too small to be ignored this year.
I realize that what I'm asking is not easy or pleasant for most people. We work hard all day long and at the end of the day, we really don't want to have to do RESEARCH on what's really true and who's really best. What I suggest is that you get some of your friends together that live near you and divide the candidates and initiatives up and each research a few. Then get together to discuss and make your decision. If you don't have any friends, call the local headquarters of all political parties and ask for their recommendations. Be sure to ask WHY they recommend a certain person or initiative. They will gladly give you reasons why.
If enough of us do this and commit to doing it year after year, then we the people can render the Citizens United case irrelevant. If we can unseat a very strong incumbent who has spent millions on his/her campaign (personally I hope it will be Darrell Issa) then we can send a message that will ring out all over the country that our votes cannot be bought. That our elected representatives need to do more to start representing us and not their parties or their donors. We can preserve the America that so many have fought and died for. An America that we can be proud to leave for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Reflections on Religion
Religion fascinates me. For much of my life I have been a "spiritual" person. For much of my life a belief in something out there has sustained me. And for much of my life, I've been subject to being beaten over the head (literally and figuratively) by bad followers of good religions. My brothers and I were raised to believe in a sort of "Santa God" who would grant your every wish if you were good enough (and of course our parents told us that being good enough was doing everything they said without question- considering that one of these things was getting beaten with a belt and NOT crying- it was virtually impossible to be good enough). But if you slipped up even once you were going to hell and God couldn't wait to send you there. I know it's crazy to hear that now, but when you are a child and it's your parents are telling you this, you believe it.
In college I was exposed to the abstract thinking of philosophy and had found my match. A place where no thought was taboo. A discipline that not only welcomed my "weird" thinking (which we now call "outside the box" thinking) but praised it. Although I was going to a Jesuit college (yay Loyola Marymount) I was encouraged to learn about different religions and schools of thought. I suddenly realized that perhaps Christianity wasn't the best religion out there for me. Or if it was, perhaps there were things I could get from these other religions that would help me to be a better person, to understand things differently.
I won't go into my complete religious history and all the ins and outs (that's for another blog) but I will say that I have come around to the atheist side of things. For many monotheists I know this sounds like an empty existence, however, for me, it really has enhanced my life. I am able to take something from all the world's religions and incorporate them into my existence for the express purpose of being a better person.
As a result the patchwork of my spiritual quilt is made up of the strongest and the most beautiful pieces of the religions the world has to offer. If it were a work of art, it would far surpass the Mona Lisa and the Sistine Chapel. I don't need a deity or an afterlife to make this happen either.
Freeing myself from the confines of religion, has liberated me. The biggest question I get asked by religious people is "aren't you afraid of what happens in the afterlife"? And the answer is "no." I know that if there were a universal God, there would be only one religion that would have been there from the beginning. I also know that an all loving deity would be more concerned with being a good person that its own ego. Believing in an invisible and unavailable God would not be a mandate. In addition, the idea an all powerful. all knowing God were to get so angry at a person for not believing is what is somewhat of a logical anomaly. What I mean is, anger comes from fear, and fear comes from weakness. Therefore an angry God is a weak God and if God is angry at me, then that means that I must be a threat to God in some way which means that I am stronger than God which means that even if the original premise were true, God probably wouldn't have the power to send me to an eternity of damnation anyway. So the answer is, no. I'm not afraid of the afterlife.
And really, it's been my experience that the people who judge other people for not believing exactly as they do are the same ones whom I mentioned above- the ones that are bad people in good religions. The fact of the matter is that there is more empirical evidence to support that God doesn't exist than supports the idea that God does exist. A good religious person acknowledges the fact that belief is hard for rational people to accept. A good religious person acknowledges that they too have their own doubts, but that they believe anyway.
Religion should make it easier for a person to be good, not easier for a person to be forgiven. I'm not slamming the idea of forgiveness, as I think its a really good concept. However, I've noticed that bad religious people tend to only forgive themselves. Good religious people forgive before its even asked for. Good religious people have a really well balanced life. Their spirituality enhances their day to day existence and helps them to be happy.
Bad religious people seem to be angry all the time. They are easily offended by everything. It never ceases to amaze me the number of Christians who fall into this category. They are offended by a bad word or even the hint of sex. The way I see it, if my Lord and Savior were nailed to a cross and left to die, and I got offended by anything less than that, I would be letting those little things have more significance to me than that sacrifice. That sacrifice should be the most offensive thing to me. These little things can't and shouldn't hurt me. But then, that's probably why I wasn't a very good Christian.
In college I was exposed to the abstract thinking of philosophy and had found my match. A place where no thought was taboo. A discipline that not only welcomed my "weird" thinking (which we now call "outside the box" thinking) but praised it. Although I was going to a Jesuit college (yay Loyola Marymount) I was encouraged to learn about different religions and schools of thought. I suddenly realized that perhaps Christianity wasn't the best religion out there for me. Or if it was, perhaps there were things I could get from these other religions that would help me to be a better person, to understand things differently.
I won't go into my complete religious history and all the ins and outs (that's for another blog) but I will say that I have come around to the atheist side of things. For many monotheists I know this sounds like an empty existence, however, for me, it really has enhanced my life. I am able to take something from all the world's religions and incorporate them into my existence for the express purpose of being a better person.
As a result the patchwork of my spiritual quilt is made up of the strongest and the most beautiful pieces of the religions the world has to offer. If it were a work of art, it would far surpass the Mona Lisa and the Sistine Chapel. I don't need a deity or an afterlife to make this happen either.
Freeing myself from the confines of religion, has liberated me. The biggest question I get asked by religious people is "aren't you afraid of what happens in the afterlife"? And the answer is "no." I know that if there were a universal God, there would be only one religion that would have been there from the beginning. I also know that an all loving deity would be more concerned with being a good person that its own ego. Believing in an invisible and unavailable God would not be a mandate. In addition, the idea an all powerful. all knowing God were to get so angry at a person for not believing is what is somewhat of a logical anomaly. What I mean is, anger comes from fear, and fear comes from weakness. Therefore an angry God is a weak God and if God is angry at me, then that means that I must be a threat to God in some way which means that I am stronger than God which means that even if the original premise were true, God probably wouldn't have the power to send me to an eternity of damnation anyway. So the answer is, no. I'm not afraid of the afterlife.
And really, it's been my experience that the people who judge other people for not believing exactly as they do are the same ones whom I mentioned above- the ones that are bad people in good religions. The fact of the matter is that there is more empirical evidence to support that God doesn't exist than supports the idea that God does exist. A good religious person acknowledges the fact that belief is hard for rational people to accept. A good religious person acknowledges that they too have their own doubts, but that they believe anyway.
Religion should make it easier for a person to be good, not easier for a person to be forgiven. I'm not slamming the idea of forgiveness, as I think its a really good concept. However, I've noticed that bad religious people tend to only forgive themselves. Good religious people forgive before its even asked for. Good religious people have a really well balanced life. Their spirituality enhances their day to day existence and helps them to be happy.
Bad religious people seem to be angry all the time. They are easily offended by everything. It never ceases to amaze me the number of Christians who fall into this category. They are offended by a bad word or even the hint of sex. The way I see it, if my Lord and Savior were nailed to a cross and left to die, and I got offended by anything less than that, I would be letting those little things have more significance to me than that sacrifice. That sacrifice should be the most offensive thing to me. These little things can't and shouldn't hurt me. But then, that's probably why I wasn't a very good Christian.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Reflections on Bullying
Recently, there has been much made about bullying and the teenagers who have killed themselves as a result of school bullying. Here's my story:
I am not gay and my bullying did not occur at exclusively at school, but in my home. I was the youngest of 3 children and the only girl. I was told every day of my life by my parents and, to a lesser extent, my brothers that I was worthless and never going to amount to anything. I was called fat and ugly and my father used to say that I was everything he hated in a person. On top of that was the physical abuse. While there was teasing and a certain amount of bullying at school, it seemed like nothing in comparison to what I got at home every day of my life. When I called the police after a beating, they asked what I did to deserve it. When I told my teachers exactly who it was that gave me the black eye they told me to tell my father that I was too old for spankings and left it at that. I spent much of my teenage years just trying to find someone to love me. I thought I found that someone when I was 16 years-old. A 20 year-old man whom after we had dated for about 2 weeks told me that if I didn't sleep with him he was going to have to find someone more mature. I gave in. It was my first time. I will never forget the flood of empty despair that washed over me when my "best friend" told me four weeks later that she and this man were in fact "seeing" each other and were going to go to the prom together. Seeing that this was verification of what my parents had told me my whole life, that no one could ever love me and only foreseeing a future filled with desolation, I swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. I did this in front of this "best friend" who was spending the night. The next morning she got up and went to school as if nothing had happened. To her credit, she called my mother the next morning to see if I was there. My mother then went to see if I had stayed home found me barely breathing. My heart stopped beating just as they got me into the Emergency Room and for 3 days I had a machine breathing for me until the drugs wore off.
Even while I was taking the sleeping pills, I knew that I really didn't want to die. But I knew that I couldn't live that way anymore. Things HAD to change or I would rather be dead. My parents didn't get me therapy and just wanted the whole thing to go away. And while things hadn't changed that much at home, I had changed after that incident. I realized that I wasn't the loser, but rather the people around me were. I realized that I really didn't want to die and in fact I wanted to LIVE more than ever. I realized that even though my family tormented me, in their own way, they did love me and actually didn't want me to die.
About two years later I moved out of my parents house and began liberating myself from the emotional brambles that had shaped my ideas about myself.
In the 30 years since that horrific time, I have grown into the stable, secure and intelligent woman I am today. It was not easy and it was not by myself. I went through several years of therapy and have had the support of a wonderful husband and amazing and outstanding children. The thought that had I succeeded that night and not survived that these incredible human beings would not be here today, fills me with stunned humility and even a bit of shame.
I am here today and I have broken the cycle of abuse and torment that I was raised with. I have made peace with both of my parents and understand that all the horrible things they did to me growing up were really things they wanted to do to themselves and really had very little to do with me. This is often the case with bullies. What they do to their victims is what they really think about themselves.
Do I regret my suicide attempt? Absolutely. I now realize that there are other ways to deal with these situations. I now realize that NO situation is worth killing yourself over. However, I do understand the hopelessness that teenagers feel when life comes at them full force. And while I'm not gay, I can relate to the gay teen who feels as if this is who they are and that won't change, therefore the world won't change.
I have a message for you. It will change. It does change and it will do so while you stay you. You are loved and you are lovable, and anyone that tells you any different is the real loser. YOU are a winner because you know who you are. The people who try to tell you differently know they are losers and are trying to bring you down with them. Don't go there. They don't have the courage to stand up for themselves like you do. You remind them how puny and pathetic their existence is.
Whether it's in your home or at your school- there is so much more to life than what you are feeling right now. If you haven't watched Joel Burns You Tube video please do so now (click the words). I recommend this for everyone. It doesn't matter how old you are, whether you are gay or straight this video is a must see. If you are contemplating suicide, please tell someone who loves you. If they don't listen or don't take you seriously, tell someone else and keep telling people until someone listens. It will get better. I promise.
I am not gay and my bullying did not occur at exclusively at school, but in my home. I was the youngest of 3 children and the only girl. I was told every day of my life by my parents and, to a lesser extent, my brothers that I was worthless and never going to amount to anything. I was called fat and ugly and my father used to say that I was everything he hated in a person. On top of that was the physical abuse. While there was teasing and a certain amount of bullying at school, it seemed like nothing in comparison to what I got at home every day of my life. When I called the police after a beating, they asked what I did to deserve it. When I told my teachers exactly who it was that gave me the black eye they told me to tell my father that I was too old for spankings and left it at that. I spent much of my teenage years just trying to find someone to love me. I thought I found that someone when I was 16 years-old. A 20 year-old man whom after we had dated for about 2 weeks told me that if I didn't sleep with him he was going to have to find someone more mature. I gave in. It was my first time. I will never forget the flood of empty despair that washed over me when my "best friend" told me four weeks later that she and this man were in fact "seeing" each other and were going to go to the prom together. Seeing that this was verification of what my parents had told me my whole life, that no one could ever love me and only foreseeing a future filled with desolation, I swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. I did this in front of this "best friend" who was spending the night. The next morning she got up and went to school as if nothing had happened. To her credit, she called my mother the next morning to see if I was there. My mother then went to see if I had stayed home found me barely breathing. My heart stopped beating just as they got me into the Emergency Room and for 3 days I had a machine breathing for me until the drugs wore off.
Even while I was taking the sleeping pills, I knew that I really didn't want to die. But I knew that I couldn't live that way anymore. Things HAD to change or I would rather be dead. My parents didn't get me therapy and just wanted the whole thing to go away. And while things hadn't changed that much at home, I had changed after that incident. I realized that I wasn't the loser, but rather the people around me were. I realized that I really didn't want to die and in fact I wanted to LIVE more than ever. I realized that even though my family tormented me, in their own way, they did love me and actually didn't want me to die.
About two years later I moved out of my parents house and began liberating myself from the emotional brambles that had shaped my ideas about myself.
In the 30 years since that horrific time, I have grown into the stable, secure and intelligent woman I am today. It was not easy and it was not by myself. I went through several years of therapy and have had the support of a wonderful husband and amazing and outstanding children. The thought that had I succeeded that night and not survived that these incredible human beings would not be here today, fills me with stunned humility and even a bit of shame.
I am here today and I have broken the cycle of abuse and torment that I was raised with. I have made peace with both of my parents and understand that all the horrible things they did to me growing up were really things they wanted to do to themselves and really had very little to do with me. This is often the case with bullies. What they do to their victims is what they really think about themselves.
Do I regret my suicide attempt? Absolutely. I now realize that there are other ways to deal with these situations. I now realize that NO situation is worth killing yourself over. However, I do understand the hopelessness that teenagers feel when life comes at them full force. And while I'm not gay, I can relate to the gay teen who feels as if this is who they are and that won't change, therefore the world won't change.
I have a message for you. It will change. It does change and it will do so while you stay you. You are loved and you are lovable, and anyone that tells you any different is the real loser. YOU are a winner because you know who you are. The people who try to tell you differently know they are losers and are trying to bring you down with them. Don't go there. They don't have the courage to stand up for themselves like you do. You remind them how puny and pathetic their existence is.
Whether it's in your home or at your school- there is so much more to life than what you are feeling right now. If you haven't watched Joel Burns You Tube video please do so now (click the words). I recommend this for everyone. It doesn't matter how old you are, whether you are gay or straight this video is a must see. If you are contemplating suicide, please tell someone who loves you. If they don't listen or don't take you seriously, tell someone else and keep telling people until someone listens. It will get better. I promise.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Perspective on Illegal Immigration
It never ceases to amaze me how people are so willing to blame their woes on the weakest group. In the U.S. today that group is the "illegal alien." If we are being more precise about it, we are talking about the people who are in our country that speak Spanish. Most people assume that they are here illegally and while that isn't always the case, often it is. People who are anti-illegal immigrant (and from now on I will call them "xenophobes") are often citing how much they cost our country by taking advantage of our wonderful social programs we offer here in the U.S. Most xenophobes are conservative (although that's not always the case) and uneducated (and that's usually the case). Many of them support Arizona's law S.B. 1070 and favor deporting all illegal aliens back to where they came from. When questioning these people the vast majority of them cite the economics of the problem as their main impetus for why they favor this solution over others. So I decided to do a little research of my own.
First I need to state that generally speaking, I don't like anecdotal evidence, but because this is first hand to me, I will use it as I haven't seen any statistics on this. My husband's uncle is in law enforcement in Tucson, Arizona. His job is to accompany deportees back to Mexico and make sure they are deported according to the terms of American Immigration Law. When a judge has ruled that a person is to be deported, Uncle Tommy goes to pick them up at the courthouse, takes them to Tucson International Airport and purchases a round trip ticket for himself and a one way ticket for the deportee. The ticket for the deportee alone costs $1200. That is just in transportation costs alone. According to the U.S. Census- there are approximately 12 million people in this country who would qualify for deportation. If we were to take 12 million and multiply it by $1200, we would be talking about a cost of $14.4 Billion in transportation costs alone. And mind you, that is for one of the shortest trips possible from -Tucson to Mexico. That cost would no doubt go up if deporting from any other state or to any other country. It's a very conservative estimate and doesn't take into account the costs associated with rounding these people up and prosecuting them.
The economic absurdity of this solution becomes even clearer when you take a closer look at how much illegal aliens really cost us. According to fairus.org- an anti-illegal immigrant website, illegal immigrants cost the U.S. $29 Billion in what they utilize in social programs. These programs include education, healthcare and entitlement programs.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the annual cost in 2006-07 of public education in the U.S. was $562.3 billion. According to the Tax Policy Center, the U.S. spends over $600 Billion on healthcare. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The U.S. spend $708 Billion on Social Security and $482 Billion on Safety Net programs for the poor (what some people call "entitlement programs). When you add all of these programs together you get a total budget of
$2,352,300,000,000 or $2.352 Trillion. When you divide that number by the $29 billion of these budgets that go toward benefits for undocumented workers you find that only 1.2% of the Federal budget goes towards programs that benefit them (and since the majority of that number is for education- in the long run it benefits us too). That means that although undocumented workers make up 3% of the population they are actually UNDER utilizing these services for their proportion of the population, which means that they actually cost the U.S. less than its citizens do. In addition, this doesn't take into account that often these people do pay into they system when they use false ids to get gainful and legitimate employment.
And these are just the economic facts. This doesn't take into account the human factor involved. The vast majority of these people are hard working, honest people that are just trying to escape poverty and starvation in their own countries. The few violent criminals that sneak over the border with them give the whole lot a bad name, and truly, deportation for those few is a must, regardless of the cost. Even the staunchest advocate of SB 1070 agrees that the goal here is to do what's best for America and deporting honest hard working people is not the answer.
So what is the solution? Simple. Just go back to the immigration policy of the late 19th century. That is, allow anyone to come here to work legally, provided that they are able to work, don't have a communicable disease and do not have a criminal background. People won't need to sneak over the border. They will then be able to cross over and obtain a work visa. They will be paid what every American gets paid, therefore removing the incentive employers have to hire them in the first place, and then they will pay taxes on those wages. In fact, I would be willing to bet they would be glad to pay an additional tax just for the privilege of
working here.
Many Americans get adamant about allowing these people to become citizens. However, this is something I do NOT understand. We can make the criteria for citizenship the same criteria for the model citizen. For example, we could require that they learn to speak, read and write English; they have good credit, have never been arrested, have never been on a public assistance program, have lived here for a set number of years, et cetera
First I need to state that generally speaking, I don't like anecdotal evidence, but because this is first hand to me, I will use it as I haven't seen any statistics on this. My husband's uncle is in law enforcement in Tucson, Arizona. His job is to accompany deportees back to Mexico and make sure they are deported according to the terms of American Immigration Law. When a judge has ruled that a person is to be deported, Uncle Tommy goes to pick them up at the courthouse, takes them to Tucson International Airport and purchases a round trip ticket for himself and a one way ticket for the deportee. The ticket for the deportee alone costs $1200. That is just in transportation costs alone. According to the U.S. Census- there are approximately 12 million people in this country who would qualify for deportation. If we were to take 12 million and multiply it by $1200, we would be talking about a cost of $14.4 Billion in transportation costs alone. And mind you, that is for one of the shortest trips possible from -Tucson to Mexico. That cost would no doubt go up if deporting from any other state or to any other country. It's a very conservative estimate and doesn't take into account the costs associated with rounding these people up and prosecuting them.
The economic absurdity of this solution becomes even clearer when you take a closer look at how much illegal aliens really cost us. According to fairus.org- an anti-illegal immigrant website, illegal immigrants cost the U.S. $29 Billion in what they utilize in social programs. These programs include education, healthcare and entitlement programs.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the annual cost in 2006-07 of public education in the U.S. was $562.3 billion. According to the Tax Policy Center, the U.S. spends over $600 Billion on healthcare. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The U.S. spend $708 Billion on Social Security and $482 Billion on Safety Net programs for the poor (what some people call "entitlement programs). When you add all of these programs together you get a total budget of
$2,352,300,000,000 or $2.352 Trillion. When you divide that number by the $29 billion of these budgets that go toward benefits for undocumented workers you find that only 1.2% of the Federal budget goes towards programs that benefit them (and since the majority of that number is for education- in the long run it benefits us too). That means that although undocumented workers make up 3% of the population they are actually UNDER utilizing these services for their proportion of the population, which means that they actually cost the U.S. less than its citizens do. In addition, this doesn't take into account that often these people do pay into they system when they use false ids to get gainful and legitimate employment.
And these are just the economic facts. This doesn't take into account the human factor involved. The vast majority of these people are hard working, honest people that are just trying to escape poverty and starvation in their own countries. The few violent criminals that sneak over the border with them give the whole lot a bad name, and truly, deportation for those few is a must, regardless of the cost. Even the staunchest advocate of SB 1070 agrees that the goal here is to do what's best for America and deporting honest hard working people is not the answer.
So what is the solution? Simple. Just go back to the immigration policy of the late 19th century. That is, allow anyone to come here to work legally, provided that they are able to work, don't have a communicable disease and do not have a criminal background. People won't need to sneak over the border. They will then be able to cross over and obtain a work visa. They will be paid what every American gets paid, therefore removing the incentive employers have to hire them in the first place, and then they will pay taxes on those wages. In fact, I would be willing to bet they would be glad to pay an additional tax just for the privilege of
working here.
Many Americans get adamant about allowing these people to become citizens. However, this is something I do NOT understand. We can make the criteria for citizenship the same criteria for the model citizen. For example, we could require that they learn to speak, read and write English; they have good credit, have never been arrested, have never been on a public assistance program, have lived here for a set number of years, et cetera
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