That's No Moon: March 2006

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

The Human Side Of Immigration

I've checked out of sick bay and returned to the bridge. To be less dorky, I'm finally beginning to break the grip of the cold/flu that has kicked my ass for over a week. I'm glad to have the energy to do something besides drag myself to and from work. So, on that note...

I never (well, hardly ever) claim to have all the answers and the immigration issue is no different. I see valid reasoning on both sides of the argument. My maternal grandparents emmigrated from Ecuador and ,sixty-some years later, are still proud that they became American citizens. In a way I find undocumented workers disrespectful to my grandparents and all others who did it "the right way" . As always, the answer lies somewhere in between the two extreme sides of the argument. I know that we can't leave things as they are, but I also know it doesn't do much good to round up all the "illegals", toss them out and build a heavily armed moat. However, I will leave the problem solving to deeper thinkers than I. I want to talk about what I feel has been missing from most of the punditry, commentary, expertise, etc on this debate: Compassion.

I believe Chris mentioned it briefly in his post and a Washington Post columnist wrote about it today, but other than that I haven't seen much mention of the fact that the people we are talking about are just that: people. Most of the millions of undocumented workers who risk everything to even reach the States are decent hard-working people. They are simply trying to carve out a better life for themselves. While it is true that they can be a burden to the system, we musn't forget that these folks are humans, not some statistics to be manipulated. They have hopes, dreams and fears like the rest of us. They also have a stronger work ethic and kinder manner than a lot of US citizens I know.

I have worked closely with both Mexican and Chinese immigrants in the past. Most of them left their families for years at a time so they could earn higher wages. I've often heard one side of a tearful phone conversation as these guys spoke briefly with their faraway families. (I never understood much of the Chinese conversations, but you could get the gist.) I know that most of the guys worked long hours, lived in crowded apartments and and sent the bulk of their paycheck home. I don't think I would have the balls to leave my family, travel across an ocean or a dangerous desert just to work some crappy job. I respect them for that. I also always enjoyed talking and joking with them and listening to some of their stories of home. I think it helps to dig a little deeper and get some more of the story. Like a homeless person or a drug addict, these workers are not two-dimensional stereotypes. Now I'm not saying I'm going to throw money at every panhandler(far from it), but it doesn't mean I can't volunteer at a shelter or help a homeless guy get a warm meal in the dead of winter. Likewise with the undocumented workers; we must look a little deeper and convey our respect and dignity for these people who are looking to improve their lot.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

This Is How Much I Love My Wife...

I love my wife so much that I, despite my better judgment, the 40 degree temps and howling winds, I stood in line outside with her for 35 minutes today. What for, you ask? Was it for concert tickets? A movie opening, perhaps? No, we joined the legion of morons standing in line to buy ice cream at the Grand Opening of the Coldstone Creamery in Salisbury. Amanda heard the ice cream was great and I'm always game for a sundae, so we rode up there to investigate. I wanted to make a u-turn as soon as I saw the line extending into the parking lot, but Amanda (whose patience is exponentially greater than mine) convinced me to stay. I couldn't believe how long the line was. I doubt the grand opening of a library or a museum would have attracted so much attention. So yes, in the time it took us to make our way through the line to place our order we COULD HAVE DRIVEN TO THE COLDSTONE CREAMERY IN OCEAN CITY and gotten our ice cream there.

But, surely Bryan, it was worth the wait wasn't it? After all, Coldstone Creamery has the greatest ice cream in all the land.

Riiiiiiiight. The fine folks at Coldstone could have won me over had the product lived up to advance billing. Alas, it did not. We had two different people make our cones(or waffle bowls or whatever the heck they call them), so we compared notes when we got to the register. Even though we ordered the same size, Amanda had at least twice as much ice cream as I did. (And it wasn't like she was overloaded, mine was woefully inadequate. ) But, like Killer likes to point out, society has become more accepting of incompetence so I kept my mouth shut. (My gut won't exactly miss the extra scoop anyway.) Then came the cherry-on-top of our trip: The total bill, even with our promotional buy one, get one free coupon, was $7.07. Which means one of two things-either the cashier didn't apply the discount properly or I PAID $7 FOR AN ICE CREAM CONE!

Finally, I would like to say that I am very fortunate that my life is going so well that this is the kind of thing that I bitch about. I know many people have real problems. I may in fact be the world's youngest curmudgeon. I simply wanted to point out that today I was King of the Morons.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Rest in Peace? Not If They Have Anything To Say About It.

I had seen news stories about the Westboro Baptist Church protesting soldiers' funerals before, but a news story this morning made me take a closer look. This Kansas group, spewing hateful words in the name of Christianity, is despicable. Basically they say soldiers' deaths and even 9/11 are payback from God because America is decaying morally(specifically by embracing homosexuality).

A sample of the signs you might see at their protests outside soldiers' funerals:
"Thank God for Dead Soldiers"
"Thank God for IEDs"
"Pope in Hell"
"America is Doomed"

Classy, huh? Now, I've got a lot of problems with these cranks, but my main beef is that they are doing this at the soldiers' funerals. The families have the right to grieve peacefully and lay their loved ones to rest without having to hear and see this crap. No matter what your beliefs are regarding the war in Iraq, the US military and America in general, I think we can all agree that these soldiers earn our support in life and deserve our respect in death for giving their lives in service to our country. (As a side note, I have always been grateful to those who serve voluntarily, in wartime and peace, so that I don't have to.)

Secondly, I can't stand the way these Kansas assholes use religion as a reason to be hateful and intolerant. One blogger I read said it simply and quite correctly when they called them a religious group masquerading as a hate group. I know surveying my family and friends that I would find quite a range of opinions on religion and, likely, on homosexuality. I imagine my beliefs fall somewhere in the middle of that scale. (For the record, I consider myself more religious and faithful than my church attendance record would indicate and it doesn't bother me one bit if someone is gay.) Anyway, my rant is losing steam. I just want to say that I don't think the loving, caring God I believe in really wants to kill young soldiers just because America is morally corrupt or whatever these Westboro Baptists are saying. If you are even remotely interested in this please click the link and then play the video that accompanies the news story so that you can get a feel for these nutjobs.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Bad Sport Hat Trick

Here's three gems, just in time for National Sportsmanship Day:

-Tony Skinn, a George Mason hoops player, punched a Hofstra player right in the ballbag during Sunday's game. Nice.

-I love good hockey fight, but this probably crosses some sort of line. Evgeny Artyukhin of the Lightning ripped off the helmet of Ottawa's Antoine Vermette during a fight and proceeded to beat Vermette with his own helmet. If anyone has seen video of this please point me in the right direction; it has to funny as hell.

-A French man is on trial for spiking the OJ and water of his daughter's tennis opponents with a powerful anxiety drug to make them sluggish. He is accused in 27 cases including the tragic death of one opponent who passed out at the wheel of his car, crashed and died after being drugged.

I was trying to think of some commentary to follow-up with, but I think these speak for themselves.

Monday, March 06, 2006

A Few Notes From The Week That Was:

- Tough break(literally) for the Carolina Hurricanes. Erik Cole, their second leading scorer and a high energy guy, has suffered a fractured bone in his neck and will miss the rest of the regular season and maybe beyond. It will be interesting to see if Carolina can continue to hold the league's best record without one of their big guns.

- Saw a pretty funny Miller Lite commercial where men run around mistaking falling rain for beer. The really funny part, of course, is the fact that Miller Lite is making fun of watered down light beers. Hey, I love Miller Lite, but it's no dark beer.

-One would think that Dancing With the Stars would have broken me of the reality TV habit, but no. This week I've become addicted to "Deal or No Deal? ". You know, the game show that NBC will run into the ground like ABC did to "Millionaire"? That's right, I'm still a loser.

-Natalie Portman, hot even with the short hair, was pretty funny on SNL this week. Check out her rap video/interview. While you're there check out the "Chronicles" and "Young Chuck Norris" videos, too. All very funny. http://www .nbc.com/Video/

Maximus Bryanus

Which action hero would you be?

This is kind of a fun quiz. My action hero alter ego is Maximus from Gladiator. Thanks to Steve for tuning me into the Quiz. Steve has a cool site, www.digitalreign.org. He has some funny insights and lots of awesome photos.
Check it out.