Illegals, aliens, undocumented workers ... whatever

Recently, The Fresno Bee published a seven-day series focusing on issues surrounding illegal immigration in a portion of California. As a hot topic in California and across the nation, it's not surprising it was front page news. What was surprising was the angry response from readers -- so angry one reader called for a boycott and started a social media campaign.
What about, you ask? They want the newspaper and news media in general to stop using the terms "illegal aliens" and "illegal immigrants" in favor of "undocumented worker" or "undocumented immigrant." To them, the word illegal is the new N-word and is dehumanizing. Show me your papers!
Are you serious?  To me that's like calling a criminal "someone who wronged." The word illegal is in no way related to the N-word, it is simply what they are -- illegal.
This isn't some people being politically correct (which I occasionally have difficulty understanding) but being manipulative, trying to change the focus in the immigration debate from the important to the absurd. You can label them whatever you want but it doesn't change the fact that they use money that belongs to Americans who pay their taxes, go to work and contribute to society. They are bankrupting America!
By trying to change the focus, these people are wasting time and energy that politicians could use to solve a big problem that's not going to change whether you call them illegals or visitors or guests or extraterrestrials.
Hold your horses if you think I believe we should round them all up and send them back like this is the Wild West. No. The ones who are here should be made citizens if they are law abiding and have a job so they pay taxes, contribute and are punished if they commit a crime, etc. Get them to learn some English and join the melting pot that is America.
We need the government to finish the debate and make some decisions, because the problem is only getting worse and these angry readers aren't helping anyone.

Are you the Keymaster?

I came across a sentence tonight from the Douglas Adams series, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," that caused me to feel more uncomfortable than usual.

"He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it."

Perhaps I've eagerly watched one too many Science Channel shows about the end of the world, aliens and space the final frontier, but what do we know? Our lives could be illusions.

What if ... your life is a dream and when your day comes to meet your Maker and you close your eyes a final time to "die," you wake up in a different life -- as the other sex or a different animal in the same year as your death and on the same planet, etc. ... or in the future or past ... or on a different planet ... or in an alternate dimension ... Your mind will be erased and you can try again, possibly getting it right this time. Your memories will cause deja vu occasionally but you won't know the secret behind the foggy confusion.

The universe is too big and complex for this to be so simple.

Go outside on a clear night and look at the stars -- that does the trick to knock me down a couple pegs and remind me I am an insignificant life form, living like a rat in a cage -- and so are you.

What if we are characters in a computer game with some one or some thing at the keyboard, pressing keys like pulling strings on a marionette. My life is boring when compared with the plot to most computer games, but, plot aside, the game would sell if people (or whatever is playing) know they are controlling a breathing, living human life.

The game is virtual reality but if humans knew this, they would take advantage, so we are left out of the loop and instead someone is at the helm ...

Bah humbug

After writing a feature story on Hanukkah and discovering it's not about eight crazy nights of presents and dreidels but celebrating religious freedom and a revolution, my thoughts turned to the holidays.

The holidays – the “season” from late November to the New Year -- have turned into a stressful, monstrous jerk.

Take Thanksgiving – instead of pilgrims sitting at a wooden table with Native Americans sharing a meal with fresh maize in the middle of a beautiful, vibrant forest (which I doubt happened but whatever) and celebrating the harvest from Mother Earth and diversity, the holiday is devoted to gluttony and Black Friday specials.

One or two unlucky saps stuck in a kitchen for hours, cooking fat laden foods so their family can shove it down their throats and watch a football game or parade. Do people consider what they are thankful for longer than the seconds it takes to think of something after someone (often the “jerk”) says “let's go around the table and say what we're thankful for” and they blurt out a generic response because they're more focused on digging into a 2,000+ calorie feeding and unbuttoning their pants later (or maybe they planned and are donning their “fat” pants) and vegetate? Does anyone feel “thankful” that day? Not forced thankfulness that is focused on for seconds, while everyone around the table says why they're thankful, hopefully not “stealing” you're answer.

It's sad when you need a national holiday to remind you once a year to be thankful.

Take Christmas – which starts earlier and earlier every year (even Christmas in July). Most people obsessed with Christmas celebration aren't practicing Christians (the holiday is supposed to be about Jesus after all), so the whole thing reminds me of gay people wanting to get married in a church. Why do you want to get married in a place where your lifestyle is considered evil? Why do you want to celebrate a holiday you don't believe? These people believe, instead, in their homes covered in blinding bulbs and plastic reindeer, in Santa Claus, miracles and snowmen. They believe in knickknacks, plum pudding, mistletoe and Christmas songs. But what about Jesus? This is not a sermon. It's hilarious that Christmas evolved into a worship of money, gifts, food and a fat old man instead of a Christian holiday. As for me, I believe in Willie from "Bad Santa."

Excess clouds the mind and takes the focus away from the roots of the holiday – togetherness and love -- and, instead, the spotlight shines on buying gifts at a crowded shopping mall you can't afford on Black Friday for people and family, most of whom you don't even like, or waiting until the day before Christmas to make a mad dash on your laptop and pay about $50 in express shipping charges. It's about gaining 15 pounds in your gut after overloading on green bean casserole, Christmas cookies, pumpkin pie and dead bird, and running around like a chicken with its head cut off and not enjoying the moments ... no wonder people drink so much from late November, throughout the merry month of December, and especially on New Year's (after they realize their resolutions from last year were forgotten after half a month and will be again).

I'm not Scrooge or the grim reaper coming to snatch your holiday bliss. I want people, including myself, to slow down. It's hard with commercials and advertisements rudely staring at you nonstop, and the deep set need to provide for your family, but just shut up.

I am not advocating locking yourself in your home, disconnecting from the world and hibernating until after Jan.1, when the annual Apocalypse ends. I don't want you to go against what you believe.

Simply your holidays. Quit filling moments with your loved ones by Googling on your laptop (stuff you wouldn't have Googled in the first place if you didn't have your finger on the pulse of the Internet 24/7) or texting on your Blackberry. Instead of being swept away to the land of holiday food, decorations, fancy clothes, parties, gifts, and using your "good" china ... focus on the people, the memories, the conversations and moments you share with your relations (like it or not) and the ones you love. Don't worry about buying the perfect present or baking the perfect turkey or hosting the perfect holiday party because, if you do, you'll miss it – you'll miss life, and any way, these holidays have become so consumer driven. Fight back! Take your holidays back from Hallmark, retail stores and Black Friday bargains and don't look at your empty wallet or embarrassing credit debt, that's not going to be important when you're 6 feet under.

Getting felt up at the airport

John Tyner and the Transportation Security Administration.

A man got prissy when his groin was patted for weapons before he was to board a plane -- which some still consider a luxury. He feels he was “sexually assaulted” by the “government” (aka Big Brother is watching and also feeling you up) which was like a mating call to the media. He was quickly thrust into the spotlight like a piece of sizzling bacon to all the coach potatoes glued to nighttime news shows, in turn causing a mass hysteria about our rights as Americans.

Does this fellow honestly think these rules were instigated so hard working tax payers could cop a feel and violate his rights? Boo hoo.

Does no one remember Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab – the “Christmas Day bomber” -- who concealed plastic explosives in his underwear? The holidays are approaching and for glutenous, self-absorbed Americans this means overeating, going gift shopping and trying to pretend you like your family.

For people trying to kill Americans, this means “jackpot.” People will be traveling to visit family, preoccupied with gift buying, gaining weight from holiday overeating – which has become as accepted as the Freshman 15 -- going to uncomfortable holiday work parties, and sending greeting cards with pictures of their family smiling in a leaf filled backyard, pretending they are so happy long enough for the flash, along with a detailed letter about how wonderful their lives are and what little Johnny did at school this year and just how fantastic life is ...

These terrorists are becoming more creative and the government needs to do what they can to stop their creative juices from flowing into dead Americans. If that means when I fly somewhere I'm going to be felt up by some dick-in-a-box, then OK. It's not humiliating or a violation if it's happening to everyone else in line.

If being felt up means that my flight is going to be safer and it won't blow up and end my life – then go right ahead, touch me!

Anonymous

With such anonymity on the Internet, people are free to spew ideas and feelings all over the world wide web and smack in the face of authors. Boo ya! They don't need to feel the eyes of their audience or the tension or awkwardness thick enough you could cut it with a knife. They don't even identify themselves. They comment, rant and come unglued. Let it all out and it's all better like having a good cry.
This anonymity turns cowards into outspoken pioneers. These harsh comments, which would otherwise be left scribbled on tear-soaked pages in a journal or used as fuel for an angered inner or outer monologue, are released, exorcised like demons.
These anonymous authors, who don't leave contact information, create hurt feelings, frustration, damaged egos and heated discussions. They are safe to say whatever they desire because there is no filter -- the filter that halts people before they press send on that e-mail they typed for 30 minutes or press send on a cell phone. That hesitation ... do I really want to do this? Should I just let this go? They take a deep breath and remind themselves why they are sending this e-mail or calling this person, maybe have the reasons jotted down on a piece of paper. They look at the send button and a wave of nervousness rushes over them.
This filter keeps people from being rash. It is crucial and keeps a-holes from being bigger a-holes and keeps the entire a-hole population down.
Anonymous egomaniacs quickly press send or enter because there are no consequences. They sit in their underwear on a Friday night eating out of a gallon size container of cookies and creme Turkey Hill and comment on websites and blogs, anywhere, petting their cats before they find another victim. Or send anonymous letters or leave anonymous voicemail without their name or phone number, all so they feel tough and heroic.
The filter is present with secondary sources of communication, such as e-mail, but weakened because a person can slowly compose a message, wording it just so, without face-to-face awkwardness, without nervously watching for a response. How cutting edge! Look how far we've come grandpa!
Anonymity should be illegal. How many people would still send that rant they composed, without giving their words or emotions a second thought, if they knew they would be identified?
People who send these rants don't want a response. They don't want to hear the other side, they want that exhilaration, that "well I sure told them what's what!" Big man with the guts! Let's all fawn over how tough he is because Americans love the bad ass, the man or woman who will do all the things they wish they could -- act out all those thoughts and fantasises they've silenced over the years like screaming at their boss or that guy who cut in front of them in line, or that loudmouth in the back of the movie theatre who feels the need to comment on every f-ing thing.
I'm sure good could come out of anonymous letters or messages but why let all these a-holes get by for a few shy heroes?
In "real" life, not found on the Internet, people need to stand up for themselves when situations happen, not days later in an e-mail or on a voicemail. Those loud people walking down the street cat calling or that woman in the grocery store who said, "look at that tall white girl. Good God she sure is tall." Not many people respond to these speech crimes and when they do it's only brief. Keep on walking and keep your head down, don't make eye contact. Are we afraid if we say something these people will attack us?
All those bullies in schools across America picking on kids who won't or can't fight back. Why not call them out on the spot? I got picked on because I happen to be the size of an Amazon, among other reasons. How I wish I would have responded to the taunts with, "So did that comment make you feel better about yourself? Make you feel all tough and glorious?" What would they have said to that?

Shut your mouth

I would love for everyone, including myself, to lose the ability to communicate for a week – a day would not be adequate for permanent change. People need to move past the exciting feelings associated with the newfangled and move towards negative emotions that come when they feel they will never communicate again -- fear, stress, worry as to why this happened, will it ever end ... With negative emotions comes the urge and fuel to change.

This week will include no talking, no sign language or e-mail, blogging, twitter, text or phone ... nothing. People communicate too much, especially talking.

There is an urgency and uneasiness with talking. We can't be silent. Not the urge to speak but also the confusion from others when we are quiet. Not speaking is seen as negative, attributed to anger or sadness.

When we spend time with someone or a group, it is human nature to speak. Silences make people uneasy, nervous. Is it because we can't read minds?

Speaking makes me nervous. Talking too much makes me nervous. People are constantly judging – looks, actions, posture, movement, speech. Since I can't be invisible, I want to take speech away.

I will not say something that might offend or be taken the “wrong way.” I will not say anything.

What will happen then? Will people learn and change or will they be thrilled to have communication back that they forget the emotions they encountered during the week? It's easy to forget and to return to routine, much easier than making lasting change.

Fanatics are liars

They're loud, emotional and unwavering in their beliefs. At an appropriate place or not (when is it ever appropriate?), from their mouths will spew “how it is” and “what's going on” locally, nationally and internationally like a garden hose. Instead of "I think ... " or "In my opinion ... ," they speak the ultimate truth. “You need to do this ... “ or “This Senator so-and-so is a liar because ... “ The world is flat, the Bible should be followed literally, you're a bad person because ... , I'm right, you're wrong, vote Democrat, vote Republican, if you mix Pop Rocks and Coke and drink it your stomach will explode!

I zone out until they catch me and break their blabbering to ask me a question like a pop quiz! Pay attention to me, I'm telling you ground breaking truth!

How do they find time to be so ridiculous? I hardly have enough mental juice to power me through the workday and life. Try to put in an eight-hour day (working or not, at least I look like I am) and wake up early and move fast enough in the morning – eat breakfast, take a shower, put on clothes, put on make-up, pack a lunch – to get to work on time, where I try to get work done while also handling anything else – family calls to catch up or have me “lend an ear” to a situation, eating normally (even though those f-sticks bring in pizza and cookies and brownies all the time – I can hear the sweet goodness calling me -- the sound as soft as the hum of a copy machine ... eat me, one bite won't hurt, you deserve it, you've had a long day, make up for it at the gym ... if I even go). But I digress.

These fanatics believe in huge issues one way or the other and it rules their existence -- it boggles my mind. They are brainwashed by the media or someone else or they are a believer in anything that pops into their head.

I don't believe in absolutes so it's odd that something is 100 percent anything. What the hell do I know? Can you think of anything you are fanatical about? It's always the fanatics who don't believe they are fanatics ...

The media turns these wackos into instant celebrities, following their moves and turning gossip or news into front page headlines – these narrow-minded, bigoted and judgmental fanatics want the spotlight, they need it, they feed on it like a drug addict. That should be another drug addiction – celebrity. The show “Celebrity Rehab” should help celebrities get over their egos, but it would be extremely difficult.

Fanatics never change their opinion, no matter what you do or say -- abortion protesters and hot ticket items, like subjects you should not discuss in mixed company or with extended family if want to keep from being a total jerk and making everyone uncomfortable in an already uncomfortable situation. Politics, war, abortion, racism, religion – where opinions are mostly black and white.

Although they are complicated topics with layers and circumstances, people are mostly one way or the other and ready to scream their heads off about their stance. Or is it mostly the media, presenting us with these nut-bars and shoving them in our face when, honestly, there are only a handful of them?

Everyone is scared. Like diet fads, everyone wants an easy solution to these hot topics and the fat stuck to their waistlines. Work out and eat healthy? Nonsense! Take this pill. Weigh options and be comfortable with unknowns? No way! Believe this!

Are these people truly fanatical? No. They are lying to you and to themselves, either subliminally or on purpose, which is sad because they harm others by doing this, their children and those who are easily moved. They are scared shitless. Instead of weighing options and being comfortable with not knowing, instead of believing everyone is entitled to an opinion, they feel safer with extremes, with black or white. The Bible is truth. Follow the Bible completely and you go to Heaven. Don't and you go to hell. It's that easy folks!

What happens when you die? Does your body stay here and your soul go somewhere else? Is there a soul? Does your mind click off like turning off the TV? Game over. Thanks for playing!

It's scary to think about this and similar topics but even if I am pushed to believe something specific, I will always know, in the back corner of my thoughts, that I don't know. I don't know anything and neither do you.

Truth and gossip

Every person is guilty of gossiping or at least entertaining gossip at least once, if not 100 times. The old, “he said, she said” saying will always be relevant. Life can be like a game of telephone – you start out with a statement and end with something contrary, if not on an entirely different topic altogether.

However, slow your mind and think about information and how you find out if it is false or true – if you even do that instead of accepting it right away.

You could have 100 people witness a situation, and have 100 different opinions and reactions. The mind is influenced by so much, including past experiences – whether you remember them or not -- values, morals, current environment and emotions, and prejudices -- whether people acknowledge them or not. The mind is also going full speed ahead captain! without much time to pause before you're late for work, a meeting, a social engagement, trying to get 7-8 hours of sleep or 30 minutes of exercise ... Then if you don't get enough sleep, your mind is muddled. No one said life was easy – if they did, they're selling something.

Also, people are quick to believe, whether it be speech or written information. There are many portals to information (too many) – newspapers, magazines, TV, the Internet, DVDs, CDs -- that leave the author removed, if not totally absent, and able to say or write whatever they want, however they want. Then there is always word-of-mouth, the most potent, where people take friends and acquaintances for being ultimate holders of total truth.

It reminds me of learning how to do “research” in high school. My teacher said that we needed to gather information from various sources that are “reputable.” I.e., you're writing about World War II and want to use information from a recognized encyclopedia instead of a homemade website that Joe Smith put together in his basement during commercial breaks from a marathon of “The Young & The Restless.”

What is reputable these days? So many people rely on specific sources for information – not because they believe it's necessarily reputable but because they are given “what they want to hear” and are allowed to exist in their narrow-minded world – mostly done subliminally.

Did you hear that commercials may become shorter to compete with the low attention spans of Americans? Why do you think that is? Do we all have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)? I don't think so (even though that's what people want to believe when they can't “pay attention” so they can get a magic pill and be “cured” -- another rant for another day). Americans have so much stimuli coming at them (example: portals of information listed above), even from people lacking the ability to shut their mouths, keep their opinions to themselves and go about their business (I'm one to talk ... ), that we have learned to tune things out.

We are tuning out the world because it's too much stimuli for our minds to filter. We are turning our brains on keyword auto-pilot – your mind perks up with it hears or reads something that perks your interest. It's like having a radio station turned on in the background while you work and only listening when the conversation or song is something you enjoy or something that is of interest.

So, if we are tuning out the world, only listening to things of interest, how are we ever going to know what is true? Do people even want to know what is true? Could you ever know what is true?

What is your news source? Is it bias? Really, is it bias or not? Does it lean one way or the other? And I'm not trying to start some liberal Fox News rant. I'm talking about considering whether or not the information you seek to use to make decisions and use as justification for your moral compass is true or is what you want to believe. As they say, “tell em what he wants to hear.” It's a slippery slope.

It's like when you go to buy something that's a “big ticket item,” like a car. Would you go to some slippery car dealership and listen to whatever the car salesman tells you (knowing full well they work on commission) or would you “do your homework?” Most people will say they do their homework, maybe using Consumer Reports or a company like CarMax. So, why do you do this when you are spending money (greed is another rant for another day also) but not when you are learning about a situation or news item or anything else?

People, in general, are quick to speak or act but not to consider the ramifications or the impression their action may give to others. So, if we believe this, why would you believe everything and anything?

What is truth? Is it what happened or is it what we want to believe?

The human mind is a complicated thing – everyone has filters for seeing the world with biases and emotions. Life is just one big game of “he said, she said” as people try to get more money and “find” happiness.