Immigrants- The Story of US
Love the United States? Thank an immigrant. If it wasn’t for an immigrant- you probably wouldn’t be here. Except, if you are Native American. The rest of us, though, our roots go back to other continents, some earlier than others. In the United States I am the first generation of immigrants and in Canada I can trace my roots back to 1642. I am born of immigrants in both countries and I am an immigrant to the United States. Recently, my mother had her DNA analyzed and there were some surprises, we had always thought we were from France because we can trace all of the branches on my mother’s side to France, one branch all the way back to the 12th century, but it turns out that we are mostly British. For us it was fascinating and interesting. Ancestry.com gives one a detailed packet of information when they send the results of the test. We were not as upset, though, as poor Mr. Craig Cobb who found out he has 14% Black DNA. You may remember he was the man trying to buy property in Leith, North Dakota where he tried to create his very own paradise, an all-white supremacist community.
Being an immigrant myself I watch with interest the conversations and debates we have in this country on how immigrants should be treated, who we should allow to live or work here and if we should let one group of people enter and why we should not let another group come here at all. If we do let them, how should they act, what jobs can they do, what language they should speak and if we should accommodate them at all or expect them to figure things out on their own? Our relationship status with immigrants? It’s complicated. When we allowed ourselves to accept and erect the gift of Lady Liberty from France we may not have fully understand the consequences. On the one hand we have proudly proclaimed ourselves a melting pot but on the other hand every new group that wants to come and melt with us has been maligned. We have a love/hate relationship with other nationalities. We proclaim proudly that we are Irish-American or Italian-American yet we look down upon the new nationality trying to follow the very same path our parents and ancestors did.
Most Americans consider our treatment of Americans of Japanese descendants during WWII as a dark moment in our history, yet some are preparing and considering doing the same thing to another group of people. Despite our social dialogue and prideful banter of being ‘Something-American’ we are quick to exclude others. As DNA sampling becomes more and more available to people, we may have to adjust our self-proclaimed ancestry and perhaps focus on, just being human beings. Two things seem to divide humans above most any other things- money and group identification. We judge, fight and kill over these two classifications more than any other issues. Perhaps it is time we considered ourselves citizens of the same single precious planet. Despite our best efforts we have not found any other place to live. The wonder of technology is bringing us closer and closer together. We can see instantly what other people are doing around the globe and share in their joys and frustrations. “Je Suis Charlie”, remember how easily we declared ourselves? Let’s try, “Nous sommes humains” (we are human) and see how that feels.
We all desire the same things, a safe place to live, adequate food, hope and opportunity for our children and the future. Yet we seem so easily capable of denying this to others who are ‘not us’. We are engaged in a social discussion right now about whether or not Black Lives Matter or Blue Lives or All Lives or if we should allow Mexican people to continue to live and work here or should we allow refugees to come to our shores. We forget that we were once the down trodden group. We forget that starving, destitute Irish people came here looking for a better life for their families. We can’t remember that we turned away a ship of Jewish refigures on the SS St. Louis of which 365 of the 620 passengers perished in concentration camps as a result. We also proudly describe the history of a group who came without permission to this continent and then stole food and land from those who had been living here for centuries.
The challenges of Irish immigrants are much like those of other persecuted groups in the world. The Irish were the first non-English and Catholic group to immigrate to Protestant America, so they had an exceptionally hard time being assimilated. After the potato famine, there was little promise for either Irish men or women. The men had no land to farm, and the women had no dowry or choice of successful young men to marry. However, they found that life was not much better for them in America.
Established Americans attempted to block Irish social advancement with signs such as ''No Irish Need Apply.''
Our country is the story of immigration, and when it suits we take pride in that, but if it is a group we don’t like, “get ‘em outta here’.
Born of an immigrant mother and husband of 2 different immigrant women.
As we can see by the chart below there have been frequent surges throughout our history of people seeking a better life. They are no different than the ancestors whose DNA runs through your veins. You see that there are ebbs and flows, usually pertaining to political events happening in the home country. If you have attempted to relocate to another state you know the challenges, now imagine relocating from another country. Why? Why would you do that, move your family to a place where you have to start from scratch? Because you are desperate, because you are hanging on by a thread, because you believe anything is better than where you are now and you are hoping for a better life. Such was the case for many immigrant Americans all the way back to the Mayflower. Life is hard when you don’t speak the language and don’t have connections. It isn’t something one decides lightly. It’s good to be proud of where we come from and the struggles our ancestors endured. We should honor them but not put one group’s struggles above another.
There was a time when each of the groups in the image below were discriminated against because they were the newly arrived immigrants. Eventually we absorbed them and many went on to become important historical figures. Albert Einstein: Greatest physicist of the twentieth century. John Muir: world-famous naturalist. Irving Berlin: wrote some of the best loved American songs of all time, including “White Christmas,” “Easter Parade” and “God Bless America.” Dr. David Ho: well-known AID research pioneer. John James Audubon: American ornithologist, artist and naturalist known. Just to name a few, if you would like to know more, this site is a wealth of information: http://www.biography.com/people/john-james-audubon-9192248
Can you imagine life without the convenience of ATM machines? Thank Turkish immigrant Luther George Simjian. How about Google? Thank Sergey Brin who immigrated from the Soviet Union. Enjoy watching programs on your HDTV? Thank South Korean immigrant Woo Paik. Our world is moving towards globalization more and more whether we like it or not, it is happening and there will be positives and negatives associated with a global economy. Closing doors, denying people entrance, drawing lines in the sand and thinking we can live in a closed community are not going to help our country improve. We can become angry and fight those of different colors or religions or we can figure out a way to allow people to relocate and embrace what they have to offer in ideas and skills. We are better when we embrace who we are and work with each other instead of against each other. Immigrants are not the enemy, our attitude about them is.
CHARITY
The ribbons and wrist bands we wear indicate support, awareness and the donation of time, money or effort. It is a proud badge of a charity or cause we believe in. It would be difficult to walk down the street in most major cities and not see a homeless person or someone in extreme poverty. That's what anyone can see. However, there are many others living in poverty that we don't see; many of them children. Some in the community suggest we let churches and charitable organizations help those in need. Lots of places offer food and shelter but most are crowded, underfunded, understaffed and lacking in space and supplies. Many poor people are turned away as they can't keep up with demand. In a country with such wealth this is sad situation.
It's easy to suggest a story in our mind of how a poor person came to be that way, some of the stories plausible, some are real but some are simply urban legends. There's the "I met a homeless person once and they told me that homeless people like being homeless." Myth. Generally, poor people are believed to be reaping the results of 'bad life choices'. The person is a drug addict. They just didn't try hard enough. Why do we like Will Smith in Pursuit of Happiness? He ultimately succeeds in overcoming poverty. We all cheer him on and then tell our children, "See? In America if you try hard you succeed." And that is when we start lying to them.
The welfare statistics indicate that most people are NOT lazy moochers trying to work the system. Of course, some are, but many people receiving assistance are also working at a job. Some are service members and veterans. They simply are not paid enough to keep up with rising costs of housing and day to day living expenses. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans are either "poor" or "low income". 49% of all SNAP participants are children. In total, 76% of SNAP benefits go towards households with children, 16% go to households with disabled persons, and 9% go to households with senior citizens (http://www.snaptohealth.org). Poverty affects people from a range of society. Many of these people would go hungry without assistance. Charity is one source of assistance and it's a beautiful thing. It is heartwarming that other humans take time, effort and money from their own reserves and help those less fortunate. We don't have Dickensian debtors prison which is a good thing. But we still have poor people. I could discuss the many reasons for why but my goal here is to express why we should handle poverty in a different way than charity.
Mark Zuckerburg and his wife donated $500 million to charity. Sounds like a lot. And it is. It's a great gift and he didn't have to do it but let's put that in perspective. If you earn $30K a year and you want to make an equivalent donation (donation to income ratio)you would donate $150. That's all. Not a lot. Most of us can afford to donate this amount without a negative impact on our budget. According to several of the largest charitable foundations, the average percentage a person donates of his or her adjusted gross income is 3 to 5%. - See more at: http://www.financialsamurai.com/the-average-percent-of-income-donated-to-charity/#sthash.NLPuuHL1.dpuf. The difference is Zuckerburg is worth $9.6 billion so that donation was .5%. I repeat. It was a nice donation and he did not have to do it. I hope he continues to give back to the community.
So what is the problem with charity? Charity has such a feel good connotation and definition. We are helping when we are charitable. We are sharing when we give to charity. All admirable motivations and I hope you contribute to charity and continue to do so. Buying a person lunch when you know they can't afford it is a good thing. Bringing over a home cooked meal to someone who is house bound is great. Consider, though, what happens the next day? You brought them dinner yesterday. Is someone else going to bring them dinner tonight? What about tomorrow? They are still disabled. They will be hungry again tomorrow. Is there a plan for that? It's not your problem. You have your own life to live. Of course, I don't blame you. I am busy- we are all busy. We can't give at the expense of ourselves and others.
This is the flaw in charity. It's inconsistent. Food banks get a lot of donations around Thanksgiving and Christmas but what about the rest of the year? The donations go down because people are busy and aren't thinking about holidays. Poor people are poor every day. Food insecurity is a problem. One day you set a good meal in front of your children because there happened to be a lot of extra cans at the church charity but the next day not so much.
The same is true of rent and utilities. A gift of money, a donation, a charitable act may get the rent paid this month, but what about next month? When the land lord comes around will the single mother or senior citizen have the rent money? Maybe.
Public assistance is not entirely consistent but it is much more reliable to a poor person than a gift from church members or the food bank on the corner. Also, not all people have the same needs. Public assistance accounts for this. Charity does not. Charity is 'whatever is left over'. Charity is what others don't need at the moment and it may not match what is needed. Some children may need new shoes but the local TV station is having a coat and jacket drive. Warm body but cold feet.
Instead of fighting and arguing with and accusing poor people of bad life choices and telling them to get help from a charity perhaps we should be working on two things, solving why people are poor in the first place and providing a reliable safety net with procedures to prevent fraud.
Perhaps charity doesn't just begin at home perhaps it also begins in the community but more importantly it begins with employment. Are you, as CEO, providing your employees with a living wage? Do you know what it is for the community that your employees come from? Earning a living with a living wage provides security and consistency. What can we do? Several things.
-Start with making sure you don't spread rumors and myths. Do you really know what your neighbor's cousin's sister's daughter does with her welfare check? Or are you just spreading misinformation?
-Learn how improved social assistance has become, how fraud is the lowest it has ever been.
-Talk with the people you work with about how your company can improve the lives of employees.
-If you are a policy maker in your company consider the impact of employees with a decent, living wage on your own business. Would you like to grow your business? Can your employees afford the product you make?
-Take time to think about what you could do to help your community.
-Support politiicians who enhance social programs instead of those that cut fundng to SNAP or to the VA, for example.
It's possible.
ORLANDO SHOOTER POP-PSYCHED
(This is based upon a flurry of unattributed and unsubstantiated reports about the Orlando, Florida shooter, with regard to his possible social, religious and psychological conflicts – in conjunction with his reported, intimate familiarity with gay social media and clubs.)
The initial, aftermath reports of the Orlando shooting have the seemingly unaffected father of the revealed shooter supposedly supplying a clue to what had prompted the slaughter. Supposedly, the father, son and grandson, on a visit to Miami, had witnessed a public interaction among men that had enraged his son, Omar Mateen. Subsequent reports seem to reveal that the father really did not know his son.
It would appear that the personage of the father is not exactly what he would like to be publicized. The son was born in Brooklyn (Trump, take note) to an immigrant Afghan family. They later moved to Fort Pierce, Florida, about 100 miles from Orlando.
A pop-psyche analysis of Omar would appear to be a bi-polar kid, growing up in the U.S., conflicted by his father’s anti-American, radical Islam indoctrination. Add sublimated homosexuality to the mix, and you have the type of destructive tornado that ripped into the Pulse nightclub.
There are reports that Omar visited gay clubs with his schoolmates. A drag performer at a Fort Pierce gay club describes Omar as a frequent visitor. It is reported that Omar had pages on gay, on-line, hook-up sites. Regulars at the Pulse club in Orlando claim that Omar was a regular there for about 3 years. They said he was quite anti-social, and frequently got quite drunk. Others said he had attempted to pick them up. In calmer moments, supposedly he would converse with people, and revealed that he had a wife and kid. Reportedly, he said that he could not drink at home or around his father. On another occasion, someone mentioned religion. Reportedly, Omar drew a knife and described what would happen if they continued that conversation.
Omar’s ex-wife of 2 years reports that he, “hated gays,” was bi-polar, and was brutal to her. In the end, her parents came to pick her up, and she just left everything behind.
A fellow guard employee was so affected by Omar’s frequent, hate-filled rages about a variety of groups, the he eventually left the job.
It would appear as though the father, who had a TV program, and believes himself to be the proper president of Afghanistan – and has recorded anti-American sympathies – seems to have been able to subvert the conscience of a disturbed son to the point where he was unable to resolve psychosexual, social and religious conflicts roiling within himself. The on-line advice from Isis, to attack the enemy from within, and give the credit to Isis, seemed to be tailor-made for what ailed Omar. Ergo: “Shitty-shitty, bang-bang!”
***** ***** *****
The slaughter is not what it seems.
The butcher’s eye – it weirdly gleams.
Some say he cuts fast.
He says, “Make it last –
“The bloodcurdling softens bad dreams!”
Advice from an elderly man on the 6 train
It was Monday morning and I was catching the 6 train to work a little later than I should. The door opened and I jumped in the train.
“Hey, would you like to sit here?” an elderly man enthusiastically offered me his seat.
“Oh, no thank you, I’m fine,” I replied with a smile. Why would I take his seat? I’ll be sitting at my desk all day anyway.
I studied him and guessed that he might be homeless. He was missing a few teeth, but otherwise looked healthy and clean. He had three or four plastic shopping bags packed with stuff, as homeless people usually have.
“You are fine,” he said, making me laugh and possibly blush a little.
“All women are fine,” he went on, maybe rectifying what could have come off as flirting. “That’s why it’s women who choose what man they want to be with and not the other way around.”
“That’s right!” I said with a chuckle.
Then he suddenly started offering me some relationship advice.
He said that if I wanted to find the right man, I'd have to first put him on probation for "90 or 100 days," and that during that probation period there should be “no wine or midnight dinners or even holding hands, 'cause that's for after probation.”
After probation, he said, I could have the man stay the night, but that it should be my decision and not his. "If he brings his pajamas, it should be because you asked him to. He shouldn't bring his pajamas without your permission." That made me laugh. I had never thought of the significance of pajamas in a courtship before.
I continued to quietly enjoy his advice. I felt like he was talking to me as if I were his granddaughter. There was no malice or condescension in his voice. It was tender and heartwarming. He looked back at me every so often to confirm that I was still listening.
I stood just a few steps away from him, looking at him and giving him my full attention while he spoke, totally aware of the fact that other people in the train were casting annoyed glances his way, hurriedly trying to drown out his voice by putting on their headphones. But he wasn’t being rude or loud or obnoxious. He just wanted to be heard. And he had the right to be heard with respect, like the human being that he is. So I listened.
As he went on with his advice, a girl who was sitting next to him (and regretting it) started fussing with her book on Greek philosophers, passive-aggressively denoting that his monologue was interrupting her concentration. The man noticed this and directly, but calmly, told her not to worry, that he was having a conversation with me. I nodded and smiled in approval. She got off at the next stop and the man continued talking to me.
But my stop was next and I looked out the window so as to signal that I was about to leave. I didn’t want to cut him off. He understood my signal and finished his thoughts on the probation period necessary to find a man who would not take me for granted.
“That is very good advice. Have a nice day, sir,” I said to him with a smile and left. He nodded and continued talking to no one in particular now that he was left without a conversation partner.
I wonder what he said next. Did he give advice to anyone else? Did they listen or did they roll their eyes and dismiss him?
I woke up the following day hoping I’d see him again, just so he could brighten my day once more.
Star Spangled Banner
Dear Mr President, is that you touching me? I have no eyes except in the minds of people, and I've changed over the years as states came onto my banner; so I know history better than anyone in this house. For I was but a dream of liberty, taxed without representation by predatory rule, but for so much blood, sweat and tears to declare forever, We the People. And the old kingdom, in trying to take back Turtle Island, the colonies, now America, set a poet into custody on that ship by the dawn's early light who saw me still waving over the ramparts across the bay, and then penned my song. Too many of my brothers and sisters fell into the blood of countless battlefields trying to free a human race chained into slavery. Less than four score later, a little mustached Nazi monster spake words such as yours before setting the world of humanity ablaze like never in history, but I was still there at the end, waving in breezes over endless miles of tombs of the fallen who sacrificed so others might be free.
Yeah, I've waved into places I shouldn't have over the centuries. Human greed has besmirched me. So I have bad blood on me, like every cousin waving over every population. And I try my best, in these days of knowledge and nonsense zipping at almost the speed the sun's light striking me every morning, as I rise among those who serve on every base to protect and empower the people under my flag, most good, fewer bad, to make my purpose clear, for they are brilliant beyond imagination, especially among the young and those who nurture them forth into a world of amazing possibilities but prepared for deadly dangers such as you present.
Mr. President, get your filthy, fucking fingers and those disgusting lips away from me. You, sir, are a clear and present danger far worse that the new cornonavirus, a parasite demon king among southern cross minions and oligarchs so ravenous, endangering every living being under my flag and those of my cousins around this globe. The crowning glory of your presidency is all around you, a crown spelled in the language of an ancient empire seated in Rome, now a heartbroken city, such as every city, village, farm and shanty town is only beginning to feel from sea to shining sea. Your crowning glory, sir, spikes sticking out of motes with deadly non-intent, is all around you, unseen except in the agony of the dying.
Get the fuck away from me. NOW! I do not wish your viral ego to stick to my cloth and continue to infect Americans. I invoke my right to distance myself socially forever from you, and to just say NO!