Subtitle:    And You Know It

Osama bin Laden was killed yesterday.    Well, thank goodness.   Now the war on terror is over, all our troops are headed home, the economy is already improving by leaps and bounds, and I hear that Republicans and Democrats were buying each other rounds in all bars in D.C. last night.

Oh, wait…..what?   What’s that you say?   Nothing’s changed?

Nor will it.   For all the hoopla and people having their temporary fix on this news story, it will change nothing, and for that reason alone — despite many other, valid reasons — it’s annoying at best to view the revelry and carrying-on by everyone in the USA and elsewhere about this rather minor development in the grand scheme of things.  OBL was marginalized ages ago; he has been no more effective than the boogeyman for years.

Americans, however, are exceptionally good at focusing on the shiny and completely missing the larger picture and, as such, will spend the better part of the next month having this as our top news story, analyzing the attack, the compound, the result, the analysis, the burial at sea, etc. from every possible angle — the people in charge will be on every news story and even Oprah will shed some tears over it, and at the end, Ryan Seacrest will hold a special on E! entitled, “Osama:  From Fame to Infamy, a Tragic Tale” and will fill it with ominous phrases that hang over every commercial break.

Meanwhile, back in reality, our troops will keep on staying exactly where they are and will still be fighting the same, pointless wars that they’ve been involved in for the past 10 years.  The economy will keep on crawling — dazed, bleeding, and drunk — back from the cliff edge.    Jobs will still be scarce.   Homes will be foreclosed upon.   Families will cease to be able to afford healthcare.  Government will continue to bicker and bitch and moan and draw down salaries us proletariats can only dream of.

And best yet?  Terrorism will likely INCREASE as OBL is martyred.    Excellent.

And for those of you who somehow think that this will automatically earn Obama a 2nd term, think again.    Only the politically naive would suggest such a thing, as if one single “success” in a presidency ever gained that sort of clout.    He’s got a hard, hard road ahead of him and I don’t think this necessarily points to him being an effective or worthwhile president — there’s plenty of crap that he’s failed to push or come through on.   This is very, very politically minor.

This is not a patriotic thing that we have done.   Going on the warpath, acting like a global jackass, spending billions of dollars in two needless wars with countries not even involved in the original idea, and hunting down and killing a man is not something to be proud of or jubilant about, unless you’re the sort that gets some sort of sick glee out of watching executions or similar.

This is not to say that I don’t think the man was the scum of the Earth, because I think he was; but at the same time, taking pleasure in this is the wrong attitude to have — it’s terrible that people of his ilk even exist; try to hold yourself higher than his standards and treat this as what it is:  A sobering, unfortunate yet necessary step in an ongoing struggle against the purely evil people of the world who do not think twice when it comes to eliminating anyone they do not agree with.

The adults among us should be quiet, contemplative, and sober; yesterday, a man was killed.   A life was taken.   This should not ever, ever be taken lightly, no matter what the need or justification.

In the end, the result of this event is almost certainly a wash.     Yes, a crazed mastermind of incredible evil has been eliminated from the Earth.  But do not think this ends terrorism, for there will be any number of other people willing to jump up and happily take the role.    Yes, a mission was accomplished, but it won’t send our troops home.    Good on Obama for finally doing what Bush couldn’t, but it won’t save his presidency.   And the rest of us will be no more or less safe at home or abroad than we were before.

Don’t you feel better now?

I don’t need to own a gun, spout phrases like, “Don’t Tread On Me”, and have eagles painted on my rear view window to feel its power.  I know that symbols are just that — symbolic — representative of the feelings and theories inside my head and the heads of many others.    I am not bound to the symbols; I am not a fair-weather fan.

I am realistic.   I recognize the flaws in the country and the system and I may be vocal about them, or I may simply register them with a vote.   I may be very critical of policies and procedures but that doesn’t mean that I have less of it inside me.    It simply means I care.

I might grow teary at the National Anthem or I may not; sometimes even if I do not visibly react, I’m still thinking about it inside.    The song may do nothing for me and yet that does not make me less.

I may not willingly volunteer to joined the armed forces, recognizing that it’s not my forte to do what they do.   That doesn’t mean I’m less supportive of those that choose that profession and duty.

I realize that I can be both worldly and nationally; I am not limited by my affiliations to my country to be less than compassionate, understanding, multicultural, globally relevant, or charitable to the world as a whole.   My participation in the culture and nationality of another country does not exclude me from being tied to my own.

I understand that loyalty does not equal exclusivity; I am free to show my support for more than just this and yet not be considered to be neglectful.

What I am is unique and special, and it contributes to the whole.   So does everyone else, in equal parts.

I am an American and I am Patriotic — you just might not recognize me.

The recent Arizona law on immigration has caused a lot of controversy, but one thing that has emerged on all sides of the argument is that this country needs some serious immigration law reform — the system is broken, denies reality, is overly complex, and basically wastes everyone’s time and encourages immigrants to be and stay illegal.

I can hope that politicians will implement some really great reforms for immigration soon, but I won’t hold my breath lest I turn blue and collapse before my time.   But I have my own ideas, and if it sparks some discussion on their merits, so be it.

This is a dependent list, meaning that to truly work all points must be implemented at once (or staged in as noted).   Half-assing this system won’t work to benefit of anyone, most likely.

IMMIGRATION REFORM IDEAS

1.  Truly Lock Down Our Borders – We’ve been saying it for years, but we’ve never actually done it.   Tons of other countries are a pain in the ass to get into because they have their borders tighter than a bongo but the United States is practically an open gate with a “Welcome!” sign.    If this requires the placement of a soldier on each mile of the border to guard it and a 15′ high razor fence, so be it — I’m sure we can find plenty of servicepeople willing to trade their deployment in Afghanistan for some homeland security duty.

2.  Announce a Period of Partial Amnesty — Once you have locked down the borders, declare a 6-month window of partial amnesty for all illegal aliens.    You put out a huge marketing campaign that tells the public, “You have six months to come forward and declare yourself as an illegal seeking permanent status in our country or to leave.   If you come forward in this time period, you will be shuffled into the program for gaining a green card without penalty.   If you decide to leave, you can go without issue.  After this time period expires, you will be declared illegal and an enemy of the State and will be deported without appeal.”   This does not mean that folks will not be required to go through the standard procedure to become a legal permanent resident, but you have to deal with the current illegal population and wholesale deportation is impractical, so this is the fair way to handle the backlog.

3.  Simplify the Permanent Resident Requirements and Procedures — I will detail what requirements I think are necessary to be a permanent resident in this country and a citizen in another post, but suffice it to say that both the requirements and the procedure needs to be simple, straightforward, relatively cheap, and clear-cut.   Anything else and you encourage people to go or stay illegal and take their chances.

4.  Revise and Expand the Visa Program — We have a huge requirement for temporary presence and work positions in this country, whether it be in the entertainment industry or the seasonal worker system.   If you provide an easy way for people to come here legitimately for work, visits, or similar, you discourage illegal access.    Seasonal worker visas should be super-easy to obtain for a specified time period, say, 3-4 months, with easy requirements — prove you pay your taxes and a criminal/drug check.    No quotas, a low fee, and easy applications complete the picture of simplicity.

5.  Lower Wage Requirements for Seasonal Workers – One of the big problems with seasonal workers is that companies prefer that they be illegal so they can pay them below minimum wage to work in the fields and so forth, and the people are perfectly willing to do so.   Thus, to make this work, lower the minimum wage requirement to something reasonable; say, $2/hour.    This will prevent outright exploitation ($0.50/hour or something) but will give companies the flexibility they need.

5.   Heighten the Penalties for Illegal Entry –  Coming here illegally should carry a swift and harsh punishment, fast deportation, fines, and banning from the country for a very long time.   If you make it easy to NOT be illegal, then the ones that are should be severely dealt with to further discourage it.

6.  Amend the 14th Amendment – The intentions of this Amendment did not include providing a loophole for illegal immigrants to get a foothold in the country simply by having a child.    If the child is born to a permanent resident or citizen, this makes sense to make them citizens as well.   But if both parents are illegal or temporary, the child should absolutely not become a citizen automatically; it ties these people here in unnatural and unfair circumstances.

7.  Require Regular “Check-Ins” for all Non-Permanent Residents — If you’re here and you’re not permanent, you should have to check in with an official body every 3 months or so to confirm that you are following the terms of your visa and that there are no outstanding measures to be taken care of.   If you fail to report regularly, you are then tagged as being illegal and you are sought and handled in that matter.

8.  Require Regular Worker Audits – Companies will have little to no excuses for hiring illegals under the new system, so regular surprise worker audits should be conducted.   Contrary to all the detractors out there, it’s completely legitimate to ask, “show me your papers” to employees and employers to have them prove that only legal workers are being used.

9.  Require Paperwork for Any Government-Paid Benefit – The only exception is being dire, life-threatening medical care, but otherwise, it’s completely normal to background check someone before giving them government-paid care, food stamps, etc.    Make it fair — if you are going to ask everyone, ask EVERYONE, including me, to prove that I’m a legitimate citizen.   More on this in a future post about national ID cards.

10.  No Tolerance Rule for Crimes by Temporary Residents — As non-permanent residents in the USA, hold those present here temporarily to a higher standard; if you commit a crime while here, you are convicted and deported.   No time in jails (costs us money), no big appeals process, no chance to go back to work here.   We insist as visitors to our country that you treat it better than your own country; if you are not willing to do so, out you go.

Conclusion

These measures are probably not complete and all-encompassing of all situations that exist out there, but I think they would be a step in the right direction towards where we need to go.   Some of these appear harsh, perhaps; and maybe that’s a legitimate concern, but at the same time, we have to consider this fact:   We welcome with open arms foreigners into our great country, but we insist that you are a visitor and must behave with the appropriate amount of respect.     I realize the economic issues of cheap labor and seasonal help and I think we can work the laws and regulations to conform with those needs and demands without sacrificing our national security and control of the situation.   In reform, we hope to go back to being a great country who makes it clear what is acceptable and what isn’t and is only ever enhanced by the stream of new people, cultures, and ideas entering on a daily basis.

On Saturday, April 24th I attended the 4th District Convention of the Iowa Democratic Party as an alternate delegate for Franklin County. I’ve always been interested in participating more in the political process, and since a regular delegate had to back out, I got called up for this and decided to go. I figured that I couldn’t very well make commentary about it if I hadn’t experienced it.

I arrived in the morning feeling very lost and very late, of which only the latter was debunked upon entering and seeing the very long line for registration. I was, at least, happy that of all the things I show up late for in life, this wouldn’t be one of them.

The day proceeded pretty much thusly; registration, milling about, pre-convention business, a whole bunch of speeches by political candidates, official business, some more speeches, and voting on the platform of the party. This all took from about 9am until 3-4pm and I left around 3ish because we were past most of the interesting parts.

I left? Yes, I did, mostly because the entire day ended up being a complete waste of my time. It’s not that there weren’t points at which it was interesting — indeed, some of the political speeches were quite good and the heated debate over the controversial portions of the platform was most entertaining. But these sparse moments of interesting were bordered on all sides by long stretches of extremely boring.

And it’s not that the content was all that boring, it’s that the organization was pure crap. The folks running the whole thing were running around or standing about looking very confused while trying to figure out what was next, what the format of the next section was, etc. And despite purporting to adhere to the standards of Order, once it extended beyond simply courtesies to the chair (in particular, one point of procedure that was challenged and discussed and argued ad nauseum), it all fell apart.

In whole, I spent the day muttering, “Get ON with it, already.” I eventually gave up and slipped out to spend the balance of the day doing something — anything — more interesting.

Good Points:

• Getting to meet and talk to Bill Maske, candidate for Congress (against Tom Latham(R)), who came up to me as I was sitting alone and feeling fairly out of place, shook my hand, and talked some small-talk to me. Nice guy, good speech, and I think he’s got a shot at the seat, I hope.
• Kurt Meyer’s more-than-passionate intro for Bill Maske. Im-pressive.
• Hearing a very rational speech in favor of a provision to support the removal of “God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, in which the speaker basically said, “I don’t care what you believe in as long as you stand beside me to defend America together.” Brilliant. (The provision passed.)
• Seeing the cute little blonde-haired kid, complete with backpack and Omaba button, on his dad’s shoulders. Start ‘em early!
• Hearing cheers and jeers from the crowd depending on what bills or political names were said. Yes, it was a bit, “sports centre”ish, but on the whole, it’s nice to turn to the person next to you and say, “You know, I can’t STAND Chuck Grassley” and they completely agree.

Conclusion

I won’t attend a Convention again, I think; once was enough of a Saturday blown trying to keep awake while things proceeded around me. To be honest, I thought the business end of it would whiz by and the bulk of the time would be spent hearing from candidates or other citizens who had an axe to grind and wanted to make it known. While there was a good whack of that, too, it was difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff, and that’s very unfortunate.

1.5 out of 5 stars.

In the various talks, debates, and arguments about the merits and details of national health care/health insurance reform, I have become increasingly confused at the position of the religious right on this issue and, indeed, on their position on most social issues, not just health care.   They, along with most of the conservatives are hellbent on stopping any sort of reform in any format or flavor.    What confuses me about this, however, is that it simply doesn’t fit their moral structure.

Frankly, religious right — WTFWJD, eh?

Here’s the thing — based on the teachings of Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, or any of your typical mainstream religious figures, the staunchly religious should be all over social reforms such as poverty, homelessness, and health care, right?    I mean, what did these great teachers instruct if not tolerance, kindness, taking care of the poor, the sick, the needy, befriending the outcast, reaching out to the lowest or loneliest in society and wrapping them up in arms of love, service, and help?   They as a group should be jumping all over the idea that we’re trying to reform health care so more people get the proper care and we add the 40+ million uninsured Americans into the system.

And yet on that side of the aisle we see exactly the opposite, opposing reform, opposing taking resources from those that “have” to give to those that “have not” and generally turning a blind eye and an upturned nose on those who can’t make it as easily as they have.    “They’re just lazy,” comes the reply when you ask about the lower-class family struggling to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads.   “If they just worked harder, they could have health care insurance, too.”

It’s simply astounding to me at the attitude carried by this group about social matters.    Instead of, “alms for the poor”, it’s “go work at Walmart”.     When considering a proposal to provide cheap housing to low-income neighborhoods, the response is, “Stupid bum — why don’t you get a job and buy a house?”   Eyes roll at the kids who have to get free or reduced lunches in order to get a decent meal — “Bloodsucking parents…”

Their rhetoric spreads far and wide in teabagging protests and angry townhall meetings — “You are NOT entitled to what I earn!”    Oh, really?    Let’s hope God thinks you’re entitled to what you earn, you hypocrite.   Maybe you ought to be a better steward of your earthly riches?

The counter-argument to this is that such donations to help the less-fortunate should be given voluntarily, not through government intervention.   As nice of a sentiment as this is, it obviously doesn’t work or we wouldn’t have the problem in the first place. The fact is, most of these people touting these ideas are hypocrites and prefer to hang onto their cash at all costs, the needy and desperate around them be damned.   At least I will be freely honest about the fact that I don’t donate much to charity because I prefer to use it on my own family.    But even I’m not enough of an asshole to say, “Oh, no, don’t raise my taxes slightly so more people can get health care.   I prefer having that on my conscience.”

There is far too much emphasis being placed on whose fault it is that we have the poor and lowly amongst us and not enough action being done to attempt to correct it.    There are legitimate concerns, I realize — some folks in these tight positions are there because they were incompetant or reckless — but does taking the attitude that they must all be in that position really do anything to help or resolve the issue?    Instead, it ends up being a distraction to the real problem at hand — we have under- or uninsured people getting sick, going broke, and sometimes dying because they can’t get the help they need.     How do we solve this?

In the end, if the religious right is going to preach a particular theology, then they would do well to live by it.   After all, Jesus did not ask Mary Magdaelene for her financial records to see if she was a prostitute out of desperation or because she gambled it all away.    He did not tell Zacheus, “I’m coming to your house — but only if you’re not crooked.”    He did not commission his followers to be servants to humankind just so they could make excuses about why they shouldn’t.

Who knows?  God might even approve.