A couple of weeks ago, after the march against HR 4437, I got into a discussion with a friend about illegal workers and my friend pointed out that the "jobs Americans won't do" rhetoric is ultimately the president's rhetoric and that protecting the current status of illegal immigrants in this country is comparable to protecting indentured servitude. After a brief back and forth about the issue, I had to tap out, because her points were good ones, and I really don't know enough about illegal immigration to properly argue.
Today, Tom Tomorrow's blog had a reprint of his thoughts on the issue of illegal immigration and the president's idea that the illegal immigrants are good for doing the job Americans won't do. Here's the post, in full. It summarizes my friend's points pretty well. In short, the president wants to give illegal immigrants a "temporary worker" status, which would allow them to work in this country without without application of U.S. labor laws to their status. So they'd still be overworked and desparately underpaid and the risk of deportation would only be lifted in the thinnest way. Put like that, I can't deny that's a problem. Certainly I could never advocate a new age of slavery in this country, nor could I advocate any law that allows corporations like Walmart to violate labor laws any more than they already do.
Still, there's something that bothers me about all of this. There were hundreds of thousands of people marching in the protest against HR 4437. These people weren't Bush supporters (the Bush=Nazi signs that some were carrying gave that away) and they weren't ignorant, well-meaning middle classers, either. These people were immigrants. Many of them, I'm certain, were illegal immigrants. Clearly there's a reason people come to this country illegally, despite the dangers and the shit working conditions. If I knew what that reason was, I'd write it here. The rhetoric of "opportunity" and "land of freedom" springs to mind, beaten into me as it was when I was a kid. Maybe the promise that their children will be American citizens, protected by our laws, if they're born on our soil.
On a deeper level, this isn't about illegal immigrants or immigrants, at all, but the American worker. It's about big corporations finding a loophole in American labor laws so they can pay their workers nothing and keep all the extra money for themselves. Clearly, the president's men shouldn't be allowed to exploit that loophole. But at the same time, the proposed wall around America to keep illegal immigrants out somehow doesn't seem right, either. Not because it would be ineffective (although it would) but because it misidentifies the threat to our working class. It isn't the Mexicans. It's the businesses and the corporations who abuse their workers because they know they can always find someone who will work for less. This practice isn't limited to illegal immigrants. Abuse of legal unskilled laborers is not as uncommon as we want to believe, and while there are laws in place to protect those laborers, the punishment for violating them is usually a slap-on-the-wrist fine.
Tom Tomorrow has a quote on his blog that sums up my thoughts on this issue nicely:
“Society is made up of groups, and as long as the smaller groups do not have the same rights and the same protection as others - I don’t care whether you call it capitalism or communism -it is not going to work. Somehow, the guys in power have to be reached by counterpower, or through a change in their hearts and minds, or change will not come.”- Cesar Chavez
The argument that the way to protect illegal immigrants from abuse by large corporations is to kick them out of the country and build a wall, and the suggestion that laws that make illegal immigration a more criminal offense is wrong, because it strips the rights of people who already have no power, while leaving intact the power of the people committing abuse. Until we turn our eyes inward and enforce already existing labor laws with real consequences, it won't matter if the worker is American or not. She will still be abused.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
V
Today started out so promising. The sun was shining, the air was cool but not cold, and that damp, earthen smell that signifies spring was in the air. Then the clouds rolled in. The day is still fighting for good weather--if this was a weather report, there'd be a bit of sun peaking out behind the cloud graphic--but it's not looking great.
I went and saw V for Vendetta with Mr. B last night. Here's Ain't it Cool News's review in full:
A few weeks ago, the British House of Commons passed a law banning the “glorification” of terrorism. This proposal is viewed as frighteningly broad, as the word “glorification” could have many interpretations and definitions. Obviously, this lack of clarity brings with it the potential for tremendous abuse of authority.
The timing of this measure is grimly ironic given the impending release of V FOR VENDETTA, an incendiary film that passionately renounces such lawmaking, and constantly reminds us that the obliteration of freedom – both personal and broad – tends to start in simple, subtle, and apparently well-intended ways.
At its heart, V FOR VENDETTA is not a terribly complicated story. It’s the journey of three characters. One towards vengeance, one towards awakening, as the third tries to understand the slipstream of destruction left in their wake – ultimately finding himself enlightened by the journeys of the other two. Save for a few twists and turns (which aren’t particularly twisty or turny), V’s plot is so simple that it hardly merits regurgitation:
In a totalitarian Britain, where asking questions equals dissent & citizenry/press know that their government has over-consolidated its power, an “every person” (Natalie Portman’s Evey) chances into a firestorm of dissidence unleashed by a man called “V” (voiced and performed by Hugo Weaving, although he is never seen.) Evey’s eyes are slowly opened to the truth about, and the dangers of, power. How easily it can be attained, and how fully it can misused. More importantly, she learns that the most potent word that can ever be spoken by anyone, anywhere, is a simple word with only two letters: “No.”
The movie is almost ridiculous in its simplistic structure. But “structure” isn’t what V FOR VENDETTA is about. It’s about essence, and meaning. V is very much an allegory for human events: The Nazis of yesterday, the insidious dangers facing our world today, and what our failure to recognize such patterns means for the world of tomorrow. Notions like the United States’ Patriot Act, Britain’s increased video surveillance of motorized traffic, America’s pre-knowledge of (and possible inaction towards) 9/11, and the movement to dilute the legal sanctity of homosexual relationships are all pointedly evoked. More subtle, but equally dangerous, trends are also touched upon (“If you’re not for the war in Iraq, then you don’t love our country!”); their dangers are vividly (and viscerally) illustrated here.
V FOR VENDETTA is far from perfect. The pacing in the film’s final quarter feels decidedly less urgent than the material that came before it, and the movie leaves are about ten jillion questions unanswered – some of which are better left unanswered. Despite such quirky shortcomings, V FOR VENDETTA is a frequently potent, consistently stirring film whose greatest impact rises not from the story it’s actually telling, but in its relationship to the world we live in. In the reality V FOR VENDETTA urges us to create, the film itself would probably never exist – because it would not need to exist. If only we were there, and if only that were so.
But in the here and now, V is a constantly chilling and sometimes humbling wake-up call. A rather brilliantly considered one at that: It’s certainly possible to argue the artistic merits of the film. But if one argues what the film is saying, then we effectively becoming one of the very people the film is warning us against…much like the dynamic forcibly created by V himself.
It’s challenging to accept that the ideas worth dying for are not always the ideas our governments tell us are worth dying for. It’s even more uncomfortable to swallow the notion that we, as a populous, are responsible for the actions of our government simply because we put The Powers That Be in office. “If you want to see who is responsible…” intones V, “Look no further than a mirror.”
After the movie, I looked in the mirror. I’m not sure I liked the person I saw – as a citizen, or as a father. This being said, my twelve year old understood this movie. He felt it. He got it.Maybe I didn’t do such a bad job after all. And, maybe there’s hope for us yet…
Alan Moore has this great way of using the superhero genre to comment on humanity. In The Watchmen, his heros are just as broken as the people they fight, and perhaps more so (the character Rorschach's back story actually fits the psychological profile of a lot of serial killers). If the lens were turned just slightly, we'd see them as monsters, or at the very least, desperate neurotics.
V uses its hero to ask the question "what is the difference between a freedon fighter and a terrorist?" And mostly its answer is "The direction of your lens." And though it was written 20 years ago, it has a startlingly poignant message about the times that we are in now--about what causes a populace to give up freedom to an increasingly dictatorial government, about the way fear can can be used to play upon our minds. Go see it. It won't disappoint.
Strange Dreams...
I've been fairly silent, I know, about The Strange Dreams of Nobody in Particular. Mostly this is because Shiny and I are still in the "writing and structure" phase of the project, where we write story after story and then arrange and rearrange them on a big whiteboard and try to see how the entire massive endeavor will look to someone who isn't us. Which is why I haven't had much to say. Writing about writing is a bit like dreaming about sleeping.
Suffice to say, the project is coming along. These days I alternate between thinking, "Oh good...we're right on track," and, "Oh God...we'll never get this thing off the ground! It's too big." And I think a lot of it depends on what time of day I happen to glance at the whiteboard.
One bit of good news is that Ed and Steve of ...i think not fame have agreed to write songs for the show. Those two can write a mean folk song. We had a preliminary meeting with them a couple of weeks ago, and it left me very excited.
Finally, speaking of Mr. B, he has a blog and has finally given me permission to put up a link in my sidebar. Which I will do right now.
I went and saw V for Vendetta with Mr. B last night. Here's Ain't it Cool News's review in full:
A few weeks ago, the British House of Commons passed a law banning the “glorification” of terrorism. This proposal is viewed as frighteningly broad, as the word “glorification” could have many interpretations and definitions. Obviously, this lack of clarity brings with it the potential for tremendous abuse of authority.
The timing of this measure is grimly ironic given the impending release of V FOR VENDETTA, an incendiary film that passionately renounces such lawmaking, and constantly reminds us that the obliteration of freedom – both personal and broad – tends to start in simple, subtle, and apparently well-intended ways.
At its heart, V FOR VENDETTA is not a terribly complicated story. It’s the journey of three characters. One towards vengeance, one towards awakening, as the third tries to understand the slipstream of destruction left in their wake – ultimately finding himself enlightened by the journeys of the other two. Save for a few twists and turns (which aren’t particularly twisty or turny), V’s plot is so simple that it hardly merits regurgitation:
In a totalitarian Britain, where asking questions equals dissent & citizenry/press know that their government has over-consolidated its power, an “every person” (Natalie Portman’s Evey) chances into a firestorm of dissidence unleashed by a man called “V” (voiced and performed by Hugo Weaving, although he is never seen.) Evey’s eyes are slowly opened to the truth about, and the dangers of, power. How easily it can be attained, and how fully it can misused. More importantly, she learns that the most potent word that can ever be spoken by anyone, anywhere, is a simple word with only two letters: “No.”
The movie is almost ridiculous in its simplistic structure. But “structure” isn’t what V FOR VENDETTA is about. It’s about essence, and meaning. V is very much an allegory for human events: The Nazis of yesterday, the insidious dangers facing our world today, and what our failure to recognize such patterns means for the world of tomorrow. Notions like the United States’ Patriot Act, Britain’s increased video surveillance of motorized traffic, America’s pre-knowledge of (and possible inaction towards) 9/11, and the movement to dilute the legal sanctity of homosexual relationships are all pointedly evoked. More subtle, but equally dangerous, trends are also touched upon (“If you’re not for the war in Iraq, then you don’t love our country!”); their dangers are vividly (and viscerally) illustrated here.
V FOR VENDETTA is far from perfect. The pacing in the film’s final quarter feels decidedly less urgent than the material that came before it, and the movie leaves are about ten jillion questions unanswered – some of which are better left unanswered. Despite such quirky shortcomings, V FOR VENDETTA is a frequently potent, consistently stirring film whose greatest impact rises not from the story it’s actually telling, but in its relationship to the world we live in. In the reality V FOR VENDETTA urges us to create, the film itself would probably never exist – because it would not need to exist. If only we were there, and if only that were so.
But in the here and now, V is a constantly chilling and sometimes humbling wake-up call. A rather brilliantly considered one at that: It’s certainly possible to argue the artistic merits of the film. But if one argues what the film is saying, then we effectively becoming one of the very people the film is warning us against…much like the dynamic forcibly created by V himself.
It’s challenging to accept that the ideas worth dying for are not always the ideas our governments tell us are worth dying for. It’s even more uncomfortable to swallow the notion that we, as a populous, are responsible for the actions of our government simply because we put The Powers That Be in office. “If you want to see who is responsible…” intones V, “Look no further than a mirror.”
After the movie, I looked in the mirror. I’m not sure I liked the person I saw – as a citizen, or as a father. This being said, my twelve year old understood this movie. He felt it. He got it.Maybe I didn’t do such a bad job after all. And, maybe there’s hope for us yet…
Alan Moore has this great way of using the superhero genre to comment on humanity. In The Watchmen, his heros are just as broken as the people they fight, and perhaps more so (the character Rorschach's back story actually fits the psychological profile of a lot of serial killers). If the lens were turned just slightly, we'd see them as monsters, or at the very least, desperate neurotics.
V uses its hero to ask the question "what is the difference between a freedon fighter and a terrorist?" And mostly its answer is "The direction of your lens." And though it was written 20 years ago, it has a startlingly poignant message about the times that we are in now--about what causes a populace to give up freedom to an increasingly dictatorial government, about the way fear can can be used to play upon our minds. Go see it. It won't disappoint.
Strange Dreams...
I've been fairly silent, I know, about The Strange Dreams of Nobody in Particular. Mostly this is because Shiny and I are still in the "writing and structure" phase of the project, where we write story after story and then arrange and rearrange them on a big whiteboard and try to see how the entire massive endeavor will look to someone who isn't us. Which is why I haven't had much to say. Writing about writing is a bit like dreaming about sleeping.
Suffice to say, the project is coming along. These days I alternate between thinking, "Oh good...we're right on track," and, "Oh God...we'll never get this thing off the ground! It's too big." And I think a lot of it depends on what time of day I happen to glance at the whiteboard.
One bit of good news is that Ed and Steve of ...i think not fame have agreed to write songs for the show. Those two can write a mean folk song. We had a preliminary meeting with them a couple of weeks ago, and it left me very excited.
Finally, speaking of Mr. B, he has a blog and has finally given me permission to put up a link in my sidebar. Which I will do right now.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Pi Day
So it turns out today is Pi Day, today being March 14, which can be written out as 3.14. Celebrations sort of unofficially start at 1:59 (3.14159) , but you can really celebrate all day if you want. Pi Day celebrations include indulging in anything that starts with the letters "pi". Presumably, this means you could dress as a pirate while drinking a pina colada and pining for your lost love. Pining doesn't make for a great celebration, though, so I recommend piling on top of some new love, instead.
Or you could just go the obvious route and eat a slice of pie. Make sure it's a square pi, though, because "the pie is sometimes square, due to the pronunciation of the equation area of a circle: πr2 (i.e. pie are squared)." Math geeks are so cool.
Or you could just go the obvious route and eat a slice of pie. Make sure it's a square pi, though, because "the pie is sometimes square, due to the pronunciation of the equation area of a circle: πr2 (i.e. pie are squared)." Math geeks are so cool.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Something Happening Here
This is the view from my office window right now:
If you can't see it, those are people down there as far as the eye can see. Thousands upon thousands of people, marching in opposition to HR 4437, an antiimigration law written, "To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for other purposes. " I don't know enough about the particulars of the law to comment on it (HR 4437 apparently restricts immigration rights and makes it a criminal act to employ an illegal immigrant), but as my boss pointed out, illegal immigrants are already deported. How much more illegal do we have to make it?
Still, there's something about the feeling of this much charged emotional energy in one place that is incredibly invigorating. It's palpable. You can feel it, even nine stories up, you can feel the crowd cheering, the drums. It really is amazing.
(thanks for Bogdan for the picture)
If you can't see it, those are people down there as far as the eye can see. Thousands upon thousands of people, marching in opposition to HR 4437, an antiimigration law written, "To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for other purposes. " I don't know enough about the particulars of the law to comment on it (HR 4437 apparently restricts immigration rights and makes it a criminal act to employ an illegal immigrant), but as my boss pointed out, illegal immigrants are already deported. How much more illegal do we have to make it?
Still, there's something about the feeling of this much charged emotional energy in one place that is incredibly invigorating. It's palpable. You can feel it, even nine stories up, you can feel the crowd cheering, the drums. It really is amazing.
(thanks for Bogdan for the picture)
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Out of Touch
Sweet Mama of Judah, I haven't written in a long time. Sorry about that. I've been busy with rehearsals (coming along nicely...I'm getting very fitt) and writing Strange Dreams... (also coming along quite nicely...we will have music in our show, thanks to Ed and Steve).
The big news of the past two weeks is that a story of mine has been accepted for publication. On paper and everything. My story "Every Little Farm Girl Knows How to Fix a Tractor" will appear in the inaugural issue of NY Tyrant magazine. At the moment, I'm working with one of their editors to pare down and tighten the story. Suffice to say, I'm excited.
And with that little bit of news, I'm off to a Strange Dreams... meeting.
The big news of the past two weeks is that a story of mine has been accepted for publication. On paper and everything. My story "Every Little Farm Girl Knows How to Fix a Tractor" will appear in the inaugural issue of NY Tyrant magazine. At the moment, I'm working with one of their editors to pare down and tighten the story. Suffice to say, I'm excited.
And with that little bit of news, I'm off to a Strange Dreams... meeting.
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