the question of immigration

i am pretty sure i've written about the dream act before, and about the fierce rhetoric against immigration and immigrants in particularly, but the whole thing still makes no sense to me. unless it's racism. and maybe it is?

statistics show that immigrants are an economic boon in and of themselves. immigrants create mini economies within their communities, with its consumers' demands for clothing, food, transportation, and entertainment. most immigrants work hard, pay taxes, and absorb fewer government resources than their american-born neighbors. and most are all about family, instilling values that mirror the american dream: that if they work hard, they will be rewarded with a better life than their parents lived, and leave for their children a life even better.

there's no denying that there are problems with crime, truancy, and drugs within immigrant communities, but probably no more so than within the communities of the american born. i mean, i live in missouri, the methamphetamine capital of the country, and i'll bet that there aren't a whole lot of immigrants here - relatively speaking i mean. but unlike natural born american criminals, immigrants as a whole are criminalized for the acts of their few. is it that they are an easy target for our need to blame someone else for our woes as a country?

thing is, america _is_ a nation of immigrants. folks of all color, religion, and background have been building this country since its very first days, and will be what makes or breaks america's standing as the world's 'it' place. so why do we hate them so? why do we rally against those who are here and try with all our might to keep out those others who want to be here? what else but not wanting more people who aren't like us infiltrating our borders?

~k

the hidden pieces of new

i changed my blog layout for the first time (sans an experimental phase i went through when we first went live). i haven't been feeling the old scroll look lately. it just doesn't fit anymore. like so many things that made me me yesterday.

my life is so different today than it was three months ago. i know: duh. but it isn't just the general scenery change, it's that i feel lighter. like i guess one might feel when they finally escape a life that didn't fit anymore.

there will always be a special place for los angeles in my heart, but it's the last place on earth i'd want to be. and whilst i am going to love every single second of living in the district, explore her every inch, wander far from her beaten path, and savor the rich flavors of the neighborhood i now call home, this isn't where i belong either.

i belong in the middle of the country. them's my people, and that's where i want to spend my days as a bona-fide-ish grown up (i mean, some people are never _really_ meant to be "old"). i dunno if it's the timing, the people in my life, if it's because i've truly been granted an escape and with it a fresh start, or if it's all of the above, but i have never felt more at peace with where i am and where i'm going.

~k

the bill

a-ha, my political commentating hiatus has ended (at least for the moment). the bill of which i write is none other than the famously partisan healthcare act. as well as the compromising and horse trading going on over on the floor of the senate. the bending over backward to reach some kind of consensus on the _reform_ being pushed like a two-ton brick by the white house. the one that, as far from perfect as it might be, is still the first step in a very long journey toward a single payer system (which is the only one that will satiate the far left).

what i don't understand is the outrage over the concessions being made. hello people, we can't even all get along and agree on everything within our little latte-drinking circles of liberal elitism. how can we expect that contentious bunch of incompetent fucktards on the hill to reach even a version of perfection, without letting them begin by taking the baby steps their feeble minds can handle?

yes, the bill stands without a public option. so fucking what. let's make healthcare affordable, force everyone to buy in (with subsidies when necessary), monetarily fine them if they skirt the system (like we do with car insurance), and see (let's just see) if the market can work itself out.

in theory, with more people putting money into the insurance pool, and fewer people demanding emergency services for a cold-gone-pneumonia, costs should go down. we're doing away with discrimination against pre-existing conditions, and putting some regulatory controls in place (1,000-pages worth) to help keep the costs down.

and if it doesn't work, we get to point our 'i told you so' fingers in the faces of the free-market zealots who fought for the freedom of unregulated corporate greed to chase after coffers filled with american tax dollars (and a whole lotta yuan). and we get a good bounce of momentum closer to single payer.

on top of the good dose of what's already annoying about our political process, we got front row seats to the senate taking it up the ass by big pharma. maybe that's a better place to direct some of the populist anti-senate rage. maybe it's time we call bullshit on big lobby sellouts, by finding new senators and congresspersons. we've got some elections coming up next year. demand change with the power of your vote, like you did when you voted for the guy who can't do it all by himself.

but remember that ours is a system set up to find compromise, and is the politics in which we must operate. it has always been this slow, painful, and methodical, and likely always will be. democracy is hard, and a constant work in progress. we will many times make mistakes, get it wrong the first time, or just plain ole fuck up.

for some perspective: in november of 1772, sam adams convened a group of 21 american rebels in boston, during which they agreed to reach out to neighboring communities to see if there was enough consensus to demand England grant the colonies the right to self-rule. Our Declaration of Independence wasn't signed until 4 july 1776. and it was a long and hard road, fraught with endless and circular debate, stress, compromises, slow communication, and bombs bursting in air.

this bill might not be perfect, but as confuscious mighta one day muttered, 'a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.' so let us embrace our first step in healthcare reform, and start working on the second instead of wasting all this energy throwing in the towel because we didn't get our way with the first.

~k