HR 4437 Immigration

Immigration has been a defining part of our American heritage from the very moment of this nations birth. It is by having the courage to face the challenges of a blended society that has made us the great community of one people that we are today. Immigration is a topic that is entangled into almost every facet of our lives. The pool of talent that we have invited and assembled here from throughout the world has kept this nation strong and dynamic. With each new wave of immigrants we face the hopes and fears of those that came before us, challenges of culture and of commerce.
Within the context of the war on terror and economic insecurity we are poised to face another challenge of immigration policy. In order to stop the events of 9/11, the movements and plans of 19 men would have needed to be known and accounted for by our government. When we are told that as many as 12 million people live and work in this country everyday without any documentation or oversight it makes us nervous. Every day we see more jobs crossing our border leaving for other countries while everyday we see reports of the population of illegal immigrants expanding and this also makes us nervous. It is understandable that we would turn to our government and our representatives for a solution.
House Resolution 4437 passed the house of representatives last December. Now the time has come for the Senate to debate and act on the bill. With 262 pages of detail the bills provisions have caused divisions in both parties and confusion within the public at large. In the same way that the Patriot Act tried to solve all of our security needs in one giant and overreaching bill, HR 4437 seems to hope to do for immigration policy. Every change that is made will effect the entire system. This law can’t justly or effectively address the dynamic range of issues it needs to without doing unintended damage. There are things I like in this bill, things that would help us regain some control of our immigration system. However, many items in the bill are disturbing to me. The debate of which items have value and which will do more harms is far to broad and complicated for this short column. What I am certain of, is that the complex relationship we have with our immigrant history and heritage will not be put to rest by this one piece of aggressive legislation. I urge you to look into the details of this bill. Draw your own conclusions and become part of the debate. Indecision and fear helped make the Patriot Act law. I hope we will be more diligent with the crafting of this law and we can hold true to the dreams and ideals that make this country great.

Notice of Closing

March 21 was going to be a workday like any other. Up by 5 out the door by 6. I caught my carpool ride and was at the textile plant and clocked in by 7. The production floor was loud and hot as usual and I was pulling cloth out of my machine the way I had for more than a year. The morning went without incident, which made time linger on. I was bored and the hours moved by at a crawl. By lunchtime a rumor floated by that a class of new trainees had come in for orientation only to be sent home again without explanation. Strange, I thought if it was true, but we had been having rolling lay-offs since Thanksgiving. The last thing I thought we needed was new hires. At 2 in the afternoon the shift supervisor came by each station to announce a meeting at 2:30. Everyone was going. The meeting was held where Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners were held in years past. My friend called out in the excited tone that comes from realization “They’re shutting us down!”. The supervisor said nothing and walked away. My skin was cold now in the heat of the plant and my stomach took a twist. Rumor now hopped from one person to another like a fast game of tag, you’re it. Gallows humor prevailed for a while as we congratulated ourselves for being kicked out onto the street without a job. Offers of cheap homes and rented children were exchanged amongst people worried about how to pay for both.
2:30 came and it was time to make the long walk to the meeting area. We crossed an open courtyard, passed rows of empty cloth buckets. Back inside we filed in front of idle machinery and equipment knowing that it may never be used here again. Managers and office workers were spread along the path like breadcrumbs ushering us toward the inevitable as if we might bolt toward an exit and escape. We arrived in a giant storeroom filled with cotton bales. Humor was still attempted but it was no longer funny and the strain of forming a polite smile was more than most could muster. Silence settled on us like a heavy blanket and we waited. They asked us again and again to push forward and together to make it easier to hear. The bowstring of tension was being pulled tighter and tighter with each passing minute. I bent my knees and concentrated on taking breaths. To pass out now would not only be embarrassing but overly dramatic. Still, it was taking those in charge far too long to come out and say what they had to say.
A flush of warms waved over the crowd as the words “cease operations by August 20th” were read by the man in the tie speaking into the karaoke microphone. All other details had no value. Information would be handed out at the door as you leave and that was the end of it. We all went back to our duties as if nothing had changed. We made adjustments to our equipment and made inspections of folds of cloth like we had done everyday. For me it was back to a workday like any other I have had in the past year and a half. Others went back to duties performed for more than 12 years. From 3 o’clock until 7, we did our jobs and wondered about the future.

Just lost my Job

I found out today that the plant I work at is closing. I'm in a funk and still haven't processed it all yet. I should have something more articulate to say tomorrow. This is not the way I was planning to spend the next few weeks. Looking for jobs, making new plans and wondering what the future will hold.

Third Year in Iraq

This week marks the third year our forces have been fighting in Iraq. Public opinion has turned sharply against the handling of the war in recent months. As of 3/19 U.S. military casualties were at 2317 while the official number of wounded was posted by the DOD at 17004. These numbers are heavy in hearts and minds of Americans as we ponder what our role was in bringing the nation to this point. For the past three years we have pointed fingers as much that we believed before the war has turned out to be untrue. Some of us blame the President and his administration for lack of planning and a rush to action. Others have blamed congress for an over eager vote to support a popular President. Still others blame the international community for not supporting us after all the times we have supported other countries. If these questions could be answered easily we would not still be debating them. There are so many moving parts to the world that I am at a loss to know what finger I should point or where I should point it. So instead of pointing fingers I think it is time to confess. I am at least in part to blame for the difficult situation we now face in Iraq.
Although I strongly supported our military efforts in Afghanistan, I have from the beginning felt the invasion of Iraq to be a mistake. I felt it was a distraction from our efforts against Bin Laden and a simplistic solution to the tyrant of Baghdad. However, I never wrote my congressmen before the war. I didn’t sit in the rain with anti war protesters to make my voice heard. I never wrote this paper or any other to say I thought what we were doing was misguided and wrong. Instead I fretted and complained to my friends and pointed my finger at others I thought to be more powerful than I. Ultimately I sat back and did nothing to help my nation solve the problem of what action we should take in the world. When my armed forces needed my voice of descent the most they got nothing but my silence. I don’t know who is to blame for the state of the world today. What I do know is that I bear, at least in part, some responsibility. This is the burden we all share living in our democracy where free expression and descent is a right and a privilege paid for with the blood and tears of heroes.

Culture war cease fire

What would happen if we agreed to put aside the nations most contentious issues, if only for a moment? What if we could all agree to a cease-fire in the culture wars? Should we have prayers in class or hand out condoms at the door? We might argue these things until the end of time, but what opportunities to come together are being missed? There are several issues that I believe passionately about. Issues that because of my moral background and ethical beliefs I will never change my support for or view on. You have these issues as well. Do you agree with my worldview or are you passionately apposed? We all seem to have our feet firmly planted when it comes to cultural choices and ideas. This is why I propose a pause in the debate. I invite everyone to a white flag that we can come together under and discuss issues that we may have in common. People in positions of power have used our passionate moral debates against us. They have encouraged our discord to distract us from issues we might have otherwise come together on. People in the government, the media and the corporate world have profited from the cultural war we have been waging with ourselves. Pork barrel spending by our representatives at all levels has been masked with rhetoric about who supports our troops and who doesn’t. Corporations have sent money and jobs all over the globe while stuffing the government full of money to keep us arguing over gun control or jury award limits. We’ve been flooded with hours of content from numerous media sources, all beholden in some way to corporate sponsors and ownership. Far to often these media businesses have been all too eager to trade in hype and hyperbole instead of information and knowledge. We have all felt this pressure to keep apart and so we have kept apart. We have been separated into two camps of red and blue. There are real and important issues that put us squarely in one of these two camps. Still, many issues that go beyond red and blue, left and right. I challenge both sides to ponder these solvable problems first. We will all have plenty of time to debate with red faces and passion those issues we feel so strongly about. Meanwhile, issues that could have been addressed by us as a nation have been overlooked and opportunities for real reform are being missed.

New thoughts

Didn’t write yesterday because I got this crazy terrible headache. Never got a migraine before but I think this pain qualified. I got up in the morning and instantly regretted it. Finally passed by evening but I never did feel like stringing words together to create sentences.
I’ve been thinking about taking on more controversial subjects in my essays but I worry about two things. One is sounding like a just another opinionated jerk cramming his opinions down the throat of a public that is already over saturated with opinion articles. The other problem I have is simply the technical difficulty in expressing my sometimes complex justifications of my point of view. If I take on the issue of abortion I feel like I have to start by reviewing the whole history of reproductive behavior going back to the ancient Greek practice of leaving baby girls in jars on hilltops. By the time I’ve gotten to my point, you the reader has made an assumption of what my point is going to be, got so turned around by my long winded justifying that you forgot what the subject was or you’ve gotten board and have moved on to the next article. This is the John Kerry dilemma from the 2004 campaign. Ideas that take some explanation and exploration do not translate well into the red state blue state mindset of today’s public discourse. So whether you are from the state of red or the state of blue might I ask you to take a deep breath and follow me into an exploration of subjects that we are likely to pass over at the water cooler.

The Burden of Choice

I have a lot to do each day. Sure, I have to work, who doesn’t? I also have to sleep, eat, shower, etc. just like normal people do. Then there is all the TV I have to watch. Nightly news and weekly shows take hours of my time away every week. American Idol takes somewhere between 4 and 6 hours every week and I do have to watch. Otherwise, how will I be able to keep up with the conversation at work the next day? If I don’t spend this much time at the television I would have to rely on my own judgment as to what to wear and what to think. I would be lost in a world of other people that were “in the know”. So I add TV to my list of things I must do. Sleep, eat, shower, work and watch TV. Did I mention that I have the Internet? Why go to the beach if you aren’t going to do any surfing, right? I have 10 internet sites I visit every day, just to keep up with the ever expanding content and information the web offers. If I don’t, I feel like I’ve likely missed something terribly interesting, entertaining or both. And when someone says “did you get that email with the funny pictures of potato chips?” I want to be able to say yes. Yes I did. These things have to get done and have to be kept up with. I have to keep up with my magazine subscriptions as well. Trees are cut down, pulped, printed on and sent to my house every week. The newspaper twice a week and the Macon News is always grabbed during my obligatory weekly Wal Mart trip. The least I can do is take some time to examine the content printed on these ill-fated forests. When I add it all up, take the total amount of minutes in a day, I find my self without “free” time. Without “me” time. I feel left without time for friends or family. With so many things in my life to choose from, I find myself feeling like everything is a commitment and nothing is choice. If you are out there feeling this way too, might I suggest trying to make some choices before we all need to be committed.
That is the great challenge of the modern life. We are given so much to choose from we become frightened of choice. The ability to choose is a gift and a burden. Choice doesn’t make our lives easier. Choice makes our lives more interesting. To make a choice takes discernment. I choose Vanilla over Chocolate. When I make that choice I am giving up the opportunity to have the chocolate. I really enjoy chocolate. The question is can I eat the vanilla without being sad or upset that I’ve missed out on the flavor I have rejected? Far too often people are choosing not to make the choice. Eating both vanilla and chocolate. This is making us fat, not just in body, but in mind and spirit as well. Many people in the secular world are afraid of choosing a faith because it might not be the “right” one. We “channel surf” through dozens of cable channels not watching anything because we are afraid of not choosing the best show. We have to stop surfing and start choosing. We have to have the courage to choose poorly. If we make mistakes, we are often given opportunities to try something new. Other times we are left with regret for a choice rejected and lost from us forever, but to drift aimlessly from one thing to the next is far more dangerous. It leaves us disconnected from our lives and only obligated to it. By attempting to have everything we are left with the nagging feeling of having nothing and we risk missing out on everything the world has to offer.

Lay-off blues

I’ve been layed-off again for the 3rd week this year. The trouble with being told there isn’t work for you from one week to the next isn’t the financial. It is the emotional. I get partial compensation for being out of work from unemployment. I’m conservative enough in my spending that I can absorb the financial hit these weeks off cost my family. The hardship comes from the constant knot in my gut. Not knowing from one week to the next how much money will be in the bank. When I’m at work I worry about being sent home. When I’m home I worry that I’m not going to be able to go back to work. The uncertainty that my wife and I have been living with these past few months has far outweighed the monetary hardship. I find this far more exhausting than the work my job requires.

I work hard; I work smart, effective and efficient. A worker like me is not someone any business wants to leave idle. It gives me time to look for other possible forms of employment and to ponder how much my contributions are truly valued. If this goes on much longer my current employer will be left with workers with no other options but to stay and be jerked around by an uncertain schedule. Is this the work force they want? Is this a work force that can give them the quality and profit they are looking for? I don’t think so. Those making policy choices and schedules don’t look that far ahead. Immediate expenses are all that keep them from being hassled from the next layer of bureaucracy.

There is a tendency to claim that the American worker is under motivated and over paid compared to their foreign counterparts. The working class American has been blessed with economic advantages, others in the world can only dream of, for several generations. An argument can be made that many of us have grown complacent and feel entitled to a certain level of security and compensation that others in our positions do not share. At what point is it appropriate to begin to look at the managers and CEO’s as part of the problem? How motivated and efficient are they in doing their jobs? Some of these people get paid large salaries to solve problems in the manufacturing process. How many problems do you think they solve each year? How much profit do they bring to the company, dollar for dollar, by their work? Every day I work to put out product that adds to the businesses sales and ultimately to the continued existence and profits of the company. How many upper and middle managers can say the same? Many floor workers do just what they are told. They do just enough to get by without being scolded by the boss. Aren’t the motivations on the factory floor the same as in the office? How many managers believe that if the business looks good on paper, regardless of reality, that they have done their jobs? How many managers justify their lack of initiative with a diploma on the wall or a title on the door? I’m much easier to fire than a VP in charge of marketing, or a Supervisor in charge of “quality control”. For one thing my resume is not as interesting or as impressive and my job performance is much easily measured. Meanwhile, I sit at home and they sit in their office and I wonder how much longer I will be willing to carry the burden of the balanced bank sheet on my uneducated shoulders.

National Pi day?

I just found out that March 14th was national “Pi” day. The Greek letter Pi that is. An abstract number that helps us calculate the circumference of a circle. The numerical expression of pie is 3.14. Get it? 3/14, March 14th. Mathematicians are so funny. No wonder they have trouble getting dates. It’s hard not to giggle at the mental image of scientists and math geeks standing around Tuesday, eating pies, and laughing like Beavis every time someone says “This is real good pie.” I like math. I know how important it is that we have some understanding of the subject. I think it’s counter productive to try to make math cool, fun and hip. Math isn’t any of those things and it’s disingenuous to pretend that it is. It is what it is useful, valuable, and necessary. Part of the problem educators have today is competing with pop culture for the attention of their students. Too often they fall into the trap of a head to head battle with the latest MTV distraction for their hearts and minds. Math isn’t a temporary distraction from life’s problems and issues, it’s a tool one can use to solve the riddles and questions that life presents. Equations, Charts and Proofs have no chance against songs, shows and entertainers designed to titillate rather than educate. Titillating education isn’t a complete oxymoron but the energy we spend trying to make learning something it is not is time wasted. The Drivers Ed teacher doesn’t seem to have to sex-up his subject to keep students interested. This is because students know exactly the impact what they are learning will have in their lives. This is the challenge educators must address if they have any hope of teaching over the din of iPods and Text messages.

Practice Needed

Here's the thing. I have to get back into the practice of writing. Putting one sentence in front of the other to express not only a complete thought but an interesting one. That is the key difference between those that add content to the public discourse and those that add value. I want to be one of those adding value. To do this I need practice. I feel like I've been hitting nothing but sharp notes lately with no flow or impact. By the time I get to the point it is to late I've lost the readers interest. So if I haven't bored you, dear reader, to tears yet I hope to add some rhythm to my prose with a little bit of practice.