Entries from April 2006 ↓
April 11th, 2006 — Politics, The Blogosphere
April 11th, 2006 — Politics, Rants
A jumble of thoughts and emotions have been running through my head for days now on this immigration issue and I had hoped to be able to sit down and compose a thoughtful essay on the topic. Alas, my emotions have gotten the best of me and they are all coming out now in pretty much of a rant.
First off, let’s get the terminology correct. They are “undocumented workers” not illegal aliens. The overwhelming majority of foreign nationals that come here, do so to work, not freeload, and they lack proper documentation to get in.
Why? Because the U.S. government has placed restrictions on the number of immigrants that can come in from certain countries. Which countries? Primarily nations in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Hmmm…anything look suspicious to you? If we were talking about immigrants from, say WHITE COUNTRIES, would anyone be using the term “illegal aliens?” I think not. And this is the underlying point of this debate.
White America is afraid of all those Black, Brown and Yellow-skinned people taking over the nation. Plain and simple. “Illegal immigrant” and “illegal alien” is this year’s code word for “those other people we need to fear” just the way “urban” and “inner city” have always been code words for “those US born Black people we need to fear.”
What pisses me off are the number of Black folks who just don’t seem to get this. WAKE THE FUCK UP! The draconian immigration reforms being proposed in Congress are not ones we need to embrace. They were not proposed for our benefit at all. Don’t be suckered into thinking you will be at all protected if they become law. It’s just another way to divide and conquer the “colored” people.
The other very obvious truth about the timing of this debate is that it is yet another strategy by the Right to divert people’s attention from the failed policies of the Bush administration. This is an election year. This president has a 36% approval rating. The Republican controlled Congress has a 30% approval rating. Indications are the Democrats may actually win back control in this November’s elections.
Having made a shambles of Iraq with no exit plan, driven up the federal deficit to record heights, and had scandal after scandal after scandal plague this administration, THEY DON’T WANT US TO TALK ABOUT ANY OF THAT! So, they created a bill and an unnecessary debate about immigration. This is a smokescreen issue, a ploy to divide the country along racial and ideological lines, galvanize their conservative voting base and maintain control of Congress. CAN’T YOU SEE THIS!?!?
The ONLY illegal immigrants who have ever come to these shores came when Europeans arrived. The same folks who claimed to “discover” a land that already had indigenous people living and thriving on it, drove those same indigenous people off the land by waging war and spreading disease, then created governments and a system of laws to justify their illegal land grab. Did Columbus or the Pilgrims get Green Cards? How dare their descendents call anybody illegal!
This country would close up tighter than an asshole on a cold toilet seat if all the undocumented workers were sent back to their home countries. The food we eat from the time it is picked to the time it reaches either our grocery store or our dinner table at a restaurant, has been touched many times by immigrant hands. Remove those folks and you starve. As a result of whatever is left of the domestic textile industry in America, we have clothes on our back. A plethora of necessary and largely unseen tasks are done by undocumented workers that are essential to the daily functioning of this country.
But the argument that “these people are stealing jobs from Americans” is pure bullshit. They are mostly doing jobs native born Americans have long ago decided they no longer want to do. Immigrants are willing to take on the work Americans deem beneath them. How many Americans do you know willing to pick vegetables in the hot sun or bus tables at restaurants for minimum wage?
Corporate America has shipped the good-paying low skilled jobs overseas. Blame them for the loss of your jobs.
Undocumented workers have come to this country for the same reason as every other ethnic group that didn’t arrive in shackles, to make a better living for themselves and their families. Plain and simple.
IF unbalanced US trade policies and World Bank debt service didn’t keep most Latin, Asian and African nations well below the poverty level, perhaps these folks would have something to look forward to in their home countries. But the US is the richest nation on the planet and the jobs are here. How well could you live on $100 a year?
The level of overt racism and abject stupidity being expressed by those in favor of building fences and shipping people back has me ready to kill. OPEN YOUR FUCKING BRAINS PEOPLE!
Rant not quite off. Approach carefully.
April 10th, 2006 — Family
When the last of the elders is gone, then we become the elders.
That line was uttered on an episode of The Sopranos a few seasons back and has always stuck in my head.
This weekend I learned that my uncle Maurice, my father’s sole surviving sibling, passed away down in Texas. He died four months to the day after my father. There are no more living members from that branch of the family tree.
I did not know my uncle very well. My dad had a somewhat strained relationship with his family. When he left Dallas, first to go to college and later to serve during World War II, he never really looked back. I met my paternal grandparents and his brothers and sister when I was very young, but have little recollection of those meetings and had only minimal contact as I grew up. If you believe in a hereafter, then the entire family has been joined together again, somewhere.
In contrast, I have always known members of my mother’s family, even distant cousins, and can with a little help even draw the family tree of my maternal grandfather’s family.
Despite not having a close connection to dad’s kin, there is now a strange sense of loss in knowing that an entire segment of my ancestry no longer walks the earth. My brothers and I, and the nephews and niece of two of them, are now the only direct descendents who carry the family name. There are cousins descended from grand uncles and aunts I never met, living somewhere, but I have no relationship with them. This latest passing closes a door that never really opened and I find myself reacting to the fact that I don’t know where I came from, paternally-speaking, and now may never know.
April 9th, 2006 — Politics
I received the following in an email this evening. It is presented here for information purposes and should not necessarily be considered an endorsement. I added the links. — Bernie
Good day to you, friend. I hope you and yours are well.
As you may know by now, I am a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, in Brooklyn, New York’s 10th Congressional District. And I need YOUR help.
I am running against an incumbent, Congressman Ed Towns, who has been in office for 24 years, yet has one of the worst voting and attendance records on Capitol Hill, has only one major piece of legislation tied to his name after 12 two year terms. Moreover, Mr. Towns has brought little to our community here in Brooklyn in spite of soaring crime rates, increased violence and gang activity, HIV and AIDS numbers which are higher than many parts of the U.S., and a growing divide between poor and middle class residents. Indeed, Mr. Towns is reflective of outdated and unreliable leadership, leadership that lacks real vision and clear plans for the people, all people.
Without a doubt Brooklyn, New York is very symbolic of America at large…we are racially and ethnically diverse, we have both working class and middle class people, we are a people of many faiths, many opinions, and many dreams, and we, like the rest of America, deserve far better leadership than we have had for the past several years. Supporting me is also supporting the kind of Brooklyn, the kind of America, we want to see in the 21st century.
While our neighborhoods have become more diverse and more vibrant, the challenge to make all of the residents stakeholders has not changed. I have been active at the community level for two decades. I’m working to bring parity to our classrooms so that all our children are learning the same material. You won’t find many candidates in New York nor across America that have done more work with young and older males in regards to anti violence and anti domestic violence initiatives. My tour of the devastation in Louisiana prompted me to create a campaign called Katrina on the Ground that sent over 700 college students to the Gulf Coast region during their March 2006 Spring Break. I do this work by collaborating with good and dedicated people. I am able to harness the resources and talents of those within our community as well as those with expertise that may be elsewhere. I want to solve problems by offering solutions, not rhetoric followed by empty promises. Imagine what we can accomplish when you help to send me to Congress!
Furthermore, I am absolutely committed to doing the work in the areas of community wide development, accessible and affordable healthcare, and job training for young people, especially those in inner city environments most vulnerable to a life of crime and stiff jail sentencing policies. And because I personally am a product of a single parent household, of fatherlessness, of the kind of poverty, violence, and despair that inflicts so many neighborhoods in America, I have concrete ideas to deal with these multiple challenges.
Again, I need YOUR help to get elected. Please make a donation of $2100, $1000, $500, $250, $100, $50, $25. Even $10 would make a difference. And please note that $2100 is the maximum amount allowable under Federal law to my campaign.
You can make a check payable to
Friends of Kevin Powell
P.O. Box 24810
Brooklyn, NY 11202-4810
Or you can visit my website at www.kevinpowell2006.org to make a contribution via Pay Pal.
IF you have already made a donation, PLEASE NOTE that you can donate again, as long as your total contributions do not surpass $2100.
I thank you very kindly for your time, and God bless you and your family.
Respectfully,
KEVIN POWELL
Candidate for the United States House of Representatives
10th Congressional District, Brooklyn, New York
April 8th, 2006 — Friends, Music, The Blogosphere
Oakland-based blogger and fellow jazz aficionado James Knox is gracing the Big Apple with his presence this weekend. While he and I have known each other via the Internet for years, this was our first face-to-face, and it was a pleasure to finally make the acquaintance.
Readers of his site know he regularly writes about the world of jazz. As that is also one of my passions, we made plans to catch the late, late, late show featuring drummer Louis Hayes and the Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band, who were performing at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. Dizzy’s is a part of Jazz at Lincoln Center, one of several beautiful new spaces devoted exclusively to jazz at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.
After dinner at a quiet little Italian eateria I’ve come to know along Restaurant Row, both of us apparently observing the meatless Friday rule (he of the salmon, me of the red snapper), we walked off dinner for 13 blocks on our way to the club.
Rolling with a recognized name in jazz criticism—although he’s quick to deny it—has its perks. A relationship with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, a member of the band, got us Table #1 right down front, where we saw a wonderful show. In addition to Hayes and Pelt, Vincent Herring was on sax, Anthony Wonsey on piano, Gerald Cannon on bass and Paula West, who also greeted James warmly, was the featured vocalist.
I’m sure when he returns home he’ll have a more detailed review of the evening’s program, including photos, but as far as this reviewer is concerned, it was just a joy to see artists who love their work, enjoy each other’s company (Herring and Pelt seemed to be sharing an inside joke the whole show), and who give the audience a great show in the process. It’s just a pisser that here are more great talents who are not household names or who don’t have big recording contracts, while other far less talented beings in other musical genres “get paid” by putting out crap. But I digress.
Some of my fellow NYC bloggers are scheduled to hook up for brunch in Brooklyn on Sunday and treat our west coast visitor to more east coast hospitality. I’m sure there will be pictures and stories on other sites soon.