Random things about myself

So this fad to list "25 random things" has been going on for a while. The other day, I took the time to actually read some of them and found them really enjoyable. So to reciprocate, below are some very personal statements about myself. Please do take the time to read and enjoy them.

1. I feel blessed that so many friends have tagged me in notes, and blessed in general to have the friends I do. I appreciate you all thinking of me, even if it's just for a brief moment.
2. I am consciously trying to incorporate the words "bless" and "pray" into my life. I always hated these words because of the right-wing, but they are beautiful words and I intend to reclaim them.
3. I am working on being more creative. This is having the amusing side effect of making me more vocal with my opinions.
4. I confess that I am addicted to reading. I stopped for one week and had serious withdraw.
5. I care about, and am good at, too many things. While I am loathe to complain about it (I don't want to appear arrogant or unappreciative), it makes it really difficult for me to figure out what I want to do and where I want to go. For example, right now I'm debating between being a lawyer, a farmer, or an acupuncturist. Sigh.
6. I get really stressed when people try to demean my (gay) marriage. But at the same time, I think about the enormous strides that have been made with regard to gay rights, and realize that my stresses pale in comparison. I will proudly continue to inform and educate people.
7. I have always avoided being trendy at all costs. Ironically, this makes me just as beholden to trends. I realized this as a teen, and have since been trying to shake myself of this.
8. I have met great people in my fraternity and love many of them. At the same time, I find myself questioning the relevancy of such organizations in this day and age.
9. I have always considered myself an introvert and been proud of this fact. However, I have to acknowledge that life has turned me into an extrovert...!
10. The glass is not half empty. It's not even half full. It's completely full. Half with air, half with water.
11. I think that punning shows a love (and mastery) of language. It is a lost and unappreciated art form this day and age.
12. I am very aware of sentences ending in prepositions and misuse of adverbs. However, I also recognize that English is a living language and is allowed to evolve. (BUT NOT WITH THE WORD CHILLAX, WALLESKA!!!)
13. I love to travel, yet I love to be at home. I may never reconcile this.
14. I feel that Seattle is the most amazing place ever. I love it so much. It feels like heaven. But I also know that my life is here (on the east coast), and therefore cannot live in heaven during this life. It feels strangely appropriate.
15. I am deeply spiritual, traditional, and enjoy hierarchy. To this end, I worry that if I wasn't gay, I would have become a right-wing nut in the military.
16. Two driving emotions in my life have been avoiding shame, and avoiding disappointing others. I'm trying to acknowledge this, and let go of it.
17. I never had a father figure growing up. I long for one, but also realize that I am too much my own person at this point to ever allow someone to fill that role for me.
18. I believe that we are in a huge paradigm shift for our species. Peak Oil. Economic contraction (not just a recession or a depression, but contraction). Food insecurity. Community breakdowns. Lack of personal responsibility. I fear and hope for the future.
19. I have never smoked or done drugs, though I do enjoy a drink or two.
20. I am so much in love with my husband. I can see us old, gray and wrinkled together.
21. I am very aware of time. If I ever had a superpower, I would want the ability to manipulate time. Not travel through time, mind you! ... just the ability to create localized distortions in the flow of time. (ie, plant a seed and make it grow into a tree in an instant)
22. I have grown food in my backyard for two years now and love it. I want more land so I can have a mini-cow and chickens.
23. I think in systems. I always look at how connected / interconnected things are. I am hyper aware of how my personal choices can sustain many unsustainable systems and try to make my choices responsibly (buying local food, supporting independent businesses, etc). (See 18)
24. I adopt the persona of a wacky, harmless jokester. I feel this allows me to bring up things in a non-threatening half-joking manner. At the same time, I feel it hinders me from being taken very seriously.
25. There is a world I've been creating in my head since I was in high school. I call it Path. It has cities, cultures, wars, histories, magic and gods. I've used this world as a setting in a few roleplaying games, and am now attempting to do some writing about this world.
26. I can see both sides of every argument and sometimes debunk my own points in an argument. Ironically, instead of making me wishy-washy, I feel it has given me very strong convictions. I make informed choices based on equal examination from both sides. I also believe I am a very good teacher / communicator because of this.

Well, I would up with 26. I hope you learned and / or understand some things about me a little better. Thanks for reading this, and I hope you are all well.

Illegal Immigration

Today I got a forward from a relative of mine. I believe this relative was well meaning, but there was such malice and fear behind the forward, I could not help but to respond. The forward read something like this:

You think the war in Iraq is to blame for our budget problems (and hence our economic problems)? No, it's the fault of illegal immigrants. We're spending billions of tax payer dollars on them. Here's a list of 14 items proving it. Contact your legislators so we can kick them out!

Now, I agree that there are a lot of problems with illegal immigration in this country, but my relative's forward did nothing but vilify the immigrants. So I responded with a list of my own. Here it is:

1. Calling people "illegal immigrants" hides their humanity. You forget they are also human beings, people like you and me. I am going to refer to them as people, not illegal immigrants.
   
2. We did have a push for immigration reform a few years back. Unfortunately many (but not all) Republicans blocked its passing.
3. A lot of people are leaving the horrible economic conditions in their home communities with the hope and promise that there are jobs here in America.
4. Many (not all) of these horrible economic conditions are caused by political instability and policies of globalization. It is now widely understood that much of the political instability in developing nations during the past century came from US government backing dictators and coups. (Read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" or "Shock Doctrine" if you don't believe me)
   
5. These people would not have jobs here in America in the first place if legal Americans didn't hire them.
6. Legal Americans are hiring them because, as employers, they don't have to pay taxes on them (hence the tax burden gets shifted onto the rest of us - ie, the cause of some of those figures the forward lists).
7. To not vilify only the employers, I'd like to point out that many legal Americans would not WANT these jobs, working incredibly (and possibly illegally) long hours at pesticide laden fields, multinational big box warehouses, or in meat processing facilities.
8. Horrible, unsanitary and dangerous jobs like these would not exist at all if consumers cared about more than buying the cheapest item on the shelf. Think about that next time you bite into a beautiful, store-bought strawberry. Try to imagine who picked it.
   
9. Finally, as much as it sucks that our government spends a lot of money on illegal immigration, I would rather have my government spending money within the country to try and fix our internal problems, than spending it halfway across to world to kill people.

We are all connected in this globalized world. Think about the consequences of your actions and the consequences of your spending choices. And in the worlds on one wise man, "Cast not the first stone."

Growth

Capitalism needs to expand to survive. Capitalist economies were first set up during the Colonial Era. Companies took resources from around the world and made a profit off of them. This ended when governments were established around the globe. However, free market policies turn governments into the next resource to exploit. The intent is to hollow out governments so they only exist to collect taxes and manage contacts. Contract out health care. Create vouchers for private schools instead of having public schools. Hire mercenaries instead of using our own military.

Without continued expansion, capitalism starts collapsing. We all saw it with the stock market this fall. One horrible day spirals into another horrible day, which continues the trend. Capitalism is a positive feedback loop: growth creates more growth, decline creates a further decline. And in nature, there is only one thing that following a positive feedback loop: cancer.

The ultimate problem here is that we live on a finite world with finite resources. Markets can't grow forever. The planet has been exploited. Governments are being exploited. I can only guess at what next the market will go after in its continuing quest to expand.