ANDREAS ECONOMAKIS

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MUSSOLINI ON THE BAY BRIDGE

by Andreas Economakis

Spring, 1992.

Friday night.  I sit on the couch, swigging a beer and packing bong hits.  It’s the quickest way I know to unwind.  My brown VW Bug sits directly outside my Yosemite Ave. apartment, next to the Rasta’s Audi.

I hate the Rasta.  He’s been breaking my balls ever since I moved into the apartment. Dancing and swatting his legs, he constantly bitches about the fleas at the building’s entrance. Rasta blames my cats.  I argue with him that it’s an Oakland problem, that there’s no way my cats could accommodate so many fleas on their backs.

“It’s a Biblical plague, dude,” I keep telling him, “not the cats’ fault.”

“Rasclat!” he replies, annoyed.

The phone rings.  It’s my girlfriend.  She’s just finished her shift at UCSF’s hospital, in the city.  “You want to go to Katie’s party?” she asks.  I’m game.  I’m always game to get out of Oakland and back into San Francisco.

I drain the rest of my beer and get up.  I slide the bag of weed and my pipe into my leather jacket.  The door slams and I’m outside.  It’s a cool night, my breath visible in front of me.  I unlock the brown Bug.  She’s a good-looking Beetle.  She turns over on the second try and I start down Yosemite Avenue.

Not 20 meters from the apartment, the car totally dies.  Just like that.  Lights, motor, everything.  Dead as a doornail.  I peer out the window, down the dark, sleepy street.  I wait for the nuclear blast.  I’ve just seen a film where there is a nuclear war and all the electronic equipment the city dies, just like my car.  No.  There is no nuclear war in the Bay Area.  I get out and fiddle with the battery.  Nothing!  Shit!

I push the car into a parking space and stomp back home, my anger level rising, brewing. The fucking car is a lemon.  Of this I am now sure.   I first suspected the Bug was a dud right after buying it, on it’s maiden voyage over the Bay Bridge.  The exhaust fumes were so thick in the cabin that my girlfriend and I had to dangle our heads out the window, like a couple of German Shepherds.  I fixed the exhaust, but it somehow still leaked into the heating system.   We had to drive around without heat, frozen in our good-looking Beetle.  Now this.  I feel like pumping a bullet into the Bug.  But what good would that do?  The car is already dead.

Stewing, I wheel my 1981 Honda motorcycle out of the yard and fire her up.  The insurance has lapsed and my NY registration has just ended.  I will get all the paperwork squared away soon, once my girlfriend learns to drive and takes over the Bug.  Damn Bug.  I wonder if it’s a good idea to drive the bike without proper paperwork.  Just a quick jaunt into the city, I think.  Surely no one will see the tags.  Not tonight of all nights.

At the onramp to the Bridge, I’m still stewing about the Beetle: “I can’t believe that guy sold me a lemon, I can’t believe how gullible I was, I can’t believe….” My brain is boiling.   I’ve just passed Treasure Island when I notice the blue and red lights of a Highway Patrol car directly behind me.  The patrol car chirps and flashes.  Fuck!  My heart starts pounding.   I slow down.  How fast was I going?  I’m not sure.  The light on the speedometer is broken.  Shit!

I signal to pull over to the emergency lane.  The cop barks through his loudspeaker to not pull over, to continue to the first exit and pull off there.  This guy is a barker!

I slow down to about 30 miles per hour, and inch my way to the exit.  Surely the cop has seen my expired NY tags by now.  I’m sure he’s going to frisk me and find the weed and pipe.  I have to ditch my stash.  But how?  This Nazi is all over me.  Oh, man!

My breath smells like beer.  Why didn’t I eat a mint before leaving?  I’m going to get Breathalyzed.  This is it.  I’m going to jail.  Guaranteed….  My girlfriend will be left standing all alone in front of the hospital, my cats will starve to death in their flea-shack in Oakland, frantically scratching their backs as Rasta-dude dances and swats his legs out front.  This is all shaping up to be a lousy episode of “Cops.”

I pull off at the first exit, an abandoned little road in the industrial bayside district of downtown San Francisco, the Embarcadero.  Yikes!  This place is totally desolate.  The cop will kick my ass down here.  Or violate me.  Oh God, I just can’t handle dropping to all fours, 9mm cocked and pressed against the side of my head.  I’ll bite down if it comes to that.  He can shoot me for all I care.  I’ll bite down before he splatters my brains against the sidewalk, Hemingway style.  I’d like to see Officer John Wayne Bobbit explain that to his supervisors?   No, I won’t let this fascist debase me.

I pull over to the side of the abandoned street.  There is no one in sight.  I kick out the bike’s side-stand and get off, placing my helmet on the gas tank.  I’m trembling.  Assuming my most innocent look, I stick my hands in my jacket pockets.  I nervously finger the bag of weed and pipe, wondering if I should try and ditch them.  The cop will probably see me.  Maybe I should run. Just hightail it out of here.  No.  They always catch runners.

The cop sits in his patrol car, lights on, blinding me.  He’s probably running my plates.  Or maybe he’s unbuttoning his fly.

“Take your hands out of your pockets and keep them where I can see them!” he barks.

Swallowing stale spittle, I quickly comply.  This dude’s obviously into bondage.  Oh God… I try and calm myself by wondering what the slammer in San Francisco looks like.  I bet it’s filled with pothead filmmakers who got busted just like me.  If I’m lucky, I’ll soon be finding out.  Better the slammer with a bunch of baked Fellini experts than the Hemingway-meets-John Wayne Bobbit scenario.

I bounce back and forth on my legs, tense, waiting for the impending doom.  The patrol car door opens and the cop gets out.  Oh… my… God!  It’s Benito Mussolini!  The cop is a big, heavy, shaved-headed Italian-looking dude with leather boots that go up to his knees.  He’s wearing a shiny leather jacket and a pointy Gestapo hat.  This guy’s into leather!  He probably shaves his penis.

Hand on a huge black 9mm semi-automatic pistol, he practically goose-steps up to me.  I shrivel into my boxers.  Mussolini looks me up and down.  I stare at Il Duce, eyes wide with terror.

“Do you know how fast you were going?” he asks (don’t ever answer these or any other self incriminating questions).

“Um… Don’t really know….  65?” I cringe in reply.

“You were doing 93 on the Bridge. The speed limit is posted at 55.  License, registration and insurance,” he says.

“Oh, man,” I murmur, fishing my wallet out of my jean pocket.

Then, remarkably, something clicks.  Maybe it’s my survival instinct.  Or maybe it’s the cop’s 9mm pistol.  I start yammering, like Roberto Benigni on speed.  My yammer goes a little like this:

“Officer, my car just broke down in Oakland and I’m really late picking up my girlfriend at the hospital, and I couldn’t see the odometer on my bike, a bike that, believe you me, I would never had ridden because I don’t have current tags or insurance, I was just getting ready to do all that, but my car just broke down, and I’m really late to pick up my girlfriend, did I say she works in the emergency room at UCSF(?), and that damn lemon of a Beetle, isn’t there a lemon law(?), I’m really sorry and I’m just about having the lousiest day of my life and man-oh-man is my girlfriend going to be upset, did I mention that she works at the hospital (?), and that Bug, I got ripped off and…”

Il Duce stares at me, flashlight pointed at my face.  He has a grave expression.  He glances down at my license and chuckles the way cops chuckle when they have you by the balls and are toying with booking you or letting you go.  Or maybe it’s the “I’m getting ready to violate you with my baton” chuckle.  He’s probably heard my routine before.  He examines my license with his flashlight.  He’s stalling.  He’s obviously into terrorizing his victims before the S&M shit begins.

My heart is pounding like a jackhammer.  I flash forward and see my brains splattered on the sidewalk, leather-clad Il Duce curled up in a bloody fetal position next to his dismembered member, screaming into his radio for backup.  Serves him right, damn rapist of the people!

There’s an awkward silence.  The cop hands me back my license.  Amazingly, he tells me to slow down, get the bike registered and for God’s sake, update my insurance tomorrow.  I nod, speechlessly.  Mussolini swivels in his boots, walks back to his patrol car, gets in and squeals off. I stand in the dark, abandoned street, unbelieving.  Who would have thought that Mussolini is such a nice guy?

–Andreas Economakis

This piece is part of a collection of stories on blindness entitled: The Blindness of Life.

Andreas Economakis is a film director, writer and father of a curly-haired girl named after Anaïs Nin and Melina Mercouri. He considers Los Angeles, Athens and Nisyros his “home.”  Greek when in the USA and American when in Greece, Andreas regularly calls on his past as a bicycle messenger, cabinet resurfacer, maintenance mechanic,  airport shuttle driver,  alumni development fundraising researcher and  film production manager to avoid typical office jobs and the odd redneck spitball.

Copyright © 2010, Andreas Economakis. All rights reserved.

For more stories by Andreas Economakis click on the author’s name below.

GABRIELA BARRAGAN

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VALENTINE’S DAY

by Gabriela Barragan

A good friend of mine is a kindergarten teacher. Her stories on the kids are fascinating — their antics, their parents, their obsession with stickers, and most of all, their truth zingers. There’s no honesty more brutal, or deft, than the kind of skinned truth delivered by a 5-year-old not yet conditioned by social graces.

My friend, who loves her job and wouldn’t want any other, also hates Valentine’s Day with the kind of passion that, if harnessed, would be enough to shift a pair of tectonic plates. It’s the only holiday she wishes were banned from the school calendar. Not because of the holiday’s high sugar content, but because it always, always involves pain. She walks away from the day cursing Hallmark and drenched in pathos.

She’s explained it to me this way: 5-year-olds are in some ways exactly like adults. They may be smaller and wear cartoons on their clothes, and have an unnatural fondness for apple juice, but they still have feelings and emotions like grownups. They just aren’t as equipped or accustomed to managing their feelings and emotions like their more jaded adult counterparts.

[Quick side note. We all know grownups who never developed the emotional fiber to tackle any feeling more profound than fear, which might explain the mind-bending support for Sarah Palin. Could we also blame a case of stunted emotional growth on a long-ago Valentine’s Day involving a metaphorical heart stomped to metaphorical gore right over glitter-strewn carpet? My friend would answer with a resounding “Yes”.]

This is why when a 5-year-old has a crush, and the crush does not respond in kind (which, arguably can happen on any day of the year, but let’s face it: the likelihood skyrockets like a motherfracker* on February 14), said 5-year-old experiences the exact same kind of shattered-to-the-core heartbreak adults get drunk over, and adult poets get really drunk over. But, a heartbroken 5-year-old obviously can’t choose alcoholic obliteration, or a myriad of other vices drawing on the over-hyped Seven Deadly Sins, and sugar cookies don’t just make it all better. At least not right away.

So every year, among the paper hearts and associated craft provisions, my friend is on high alert for code red heartbreak: the kindergarten version. All she can do is offer kind words, a hug, and pray that any trauma profoundly felt is washed away by the pebbly sands of time. She knows, though, that kids can hold on to the memories of early heartbreak with a fierce tenacity that outlives childhood, roosts comfortably in adulthood, and then occasionally leaks out in one form or another after a few cocktails.

I don’t remember feeling wrecked as a kid by Valentine’s Day or unrequited love. I was one of the lucky ones; I was never heartbroken before I had braces. And if I broke some kid’s heart back in the day, I don’t remember. I do remember the heart-shaped, pastel-colored candies that tasted like a combination of mild, mint toothpaste and envelope glue. I remember red-foiled chocolate kisses, sugar cookies, heavily frosted cupcakes, the omnipresent red punch, and that washing baked goods down with that red punch resulted in a weird, unsavory aftertaste.

These days, my Mom is my standing Valentine. She has given me a card and chocolate ever since I could talk, even when I was in college, and even when I railed against the corporate greed of retailers. These days I also conveniently use the day to polish off a box of chocolates, generally in one sitting, and justify my sweet gluttony on the fact that I achieved it on a holiday.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

–Gabriela Barragan

*I don’t endorse use of the word “frack”; it’s just plain leotarded. But, my Mom might be reading this.

This piece first appeared at Gabriela Barragan’s blog, House of G, on Valentine’s Day, 2010.

Mad as Hell

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Peter Finch as Howard Beale, from the 1976 movie, "Network."

Mad as Hell
By John Unger Zussman

I wrote this essay in mid-2009 in a writing group where the day’s prompt was “anger.” In it I tried to capture the despair I felt about the state of the union and our lives. I wasn’t the only one.

Now, as we experience elation over the passage of the health care bill, and Democrats seem to have found their spine, I think it’s important to remember and respect that despair. The world has not fundamentally changed, and our momentary victory will only inflame those who believe that government’s sole job is to protect the privileged. So I post it now (with a few updates) to remind readers, and myself, that the battle is not won, but only just begun.

We are all Howard Beale these days, mad as hell and determined not to take it anymore. The pundits and politicians know this, they fan the flames, blowing our fury first this way, then that, like wheat before the wind. But my rage is constant. I am angry at arrogant Republicans who obstruct governance as though they were still in the majority, and at pathetic Democrats who govern as though they were still in the minority, who give away the store before they even start negotiating, and think passage of a watered-down health care bill, a massive giveaway to Big Pharma and Big Insurance, ought to earn them a Nobel Prize. I am furious at the “patriots” and teabaggers who value the flag over the Constitution, at the neocons who turned the country into a bankrupt war-mongering torturing cesspool of toxic waste and carbon emissions, from which only they and their cronies walked away unscathed, their pockets lined. And I am incensed at the cancers that those toxic wastes create, killing and maiming the people I love, and at the medical establishment that still offers no better solution than to cut, burn, and poison them. I fume at passing time and aging bodies and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and cholesterol. I am outraged at willful ignorance and anti-intellectualism and sanctimonious creationism; irate at commercials and reality shows and movies based on comic books; livid at unemployment and the stock market meltdown and real estate you can’t sell. And most of all I am angry that I have nowhere to put all this anger. Howard Beale was a goddamned prophet.

Copyright © 2010, John Unger Zussman. All rights reserved.

The End of Bipartisanship

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President Obama signs the health care bill on Tuesday. Photo: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images.

The End of Bipartisanship

If you listen to the Republican talking heads on cable news, bipartisanship just died. But the end of bipartisanship wasn’t last Sunday, or last week, or last month, or even last year. It was in 1991.

“In the spring of 1991, more than a year before the Democrats nominated Clinton, [House minority leader Newt] Gingrich was discussing long-term political strategy with a friend as they strolled around the Washington Monument at about six o’clock one morning. In a moment that he recalled vividly, Gingrich was seized by the conviction that the ‘next great offensive of the Left,’ as he put it, would be ‘socializing health care,’ because the Left, as he put it, was ‘gradually losing power on all other fronts, and they had to have an increase in the resources they controlled. We had to position ourselves in the fight before they got there or they might win….’

“Killing the Clinton reform was a critical means to achieving [control of Congress]. Had any part of the Clinton plan passed that Congress in any form, Gingrich and his closest conservative allies believed, their dreams for forging a militantly conservative future would ‘have been cooked,’ as a key Gingrich strategist later explained.”

— Haynes Johnson & David S. Broder, The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point. Little, Brown, 1996.

In other words, Gingrich decided he was against the Clinton health care plan in 1991 — more than two years before he knew what it would contain, and 18 months before Clinton even became president.  He foresaw that Clinton would be elected, that he would try to put forward a plan for reforming health care, and that, if passed, it would be popular enough to derail for years his goal of Republican control of government.  And he set himself to defeat it on that day, whatever its actual policies, because of partisan politics.

So Newt, please don’t whine to us that Obama should have been more bipartisan.  You closed the door on that option nineteen years ago.

–John Unger Zussman

Undocumented and Unafraid

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My Name is Gabriel and I am Undocumented

When I was I kid I used to practice holding my breath as a game. I would try to see how long I could last and then try to go even longer. One time I lasted a minute and a half; it felt as though a hammer was beating my lungs. I never imagined that I would be holding my breath for twenty years.

I was always aware of my status; even as a young boy my parents had told me about it. They explained their reasoning for coming here and what our goals and aspirations as a family were. So I grew up always knowing, however it was only until junior year in high school that I really understood the gravity of our situation. And with that understanding came a downward spiral during which I practically gave up all efforts in school; my reasoning was, why bother with all this work if it’s not going to amount to anything.

I managed to better my grades and keep my hopes up somewhat during my last year in school, and even flirted with the idea of applying to some universities; but without status and with no money, it was a difficult journey ahead. So, rather than begin my college studies with the rest of my peers, I proceeded to join the underground economy and with my share of odd jobs, save some money.

During that time I joined my father in community gatherings and forums to promote a bill allowing undocumented students to pay instate tuition. At these gatherings I spoke to families about the potential of our youth and the benefits of this bill; I talked about the difficult choices that an undocumented teen had to make when there was no means to gain access to higher education.

It wasn’t until a year after graduation that hope finally came in the form of AB 540, allowing me to enroll in a local community college.

While working fulltime and going to classes at night, I managed to transfer to a state university in 2005. One of my dreams having come true, I continued to work fulltime and go to school at night, focusing on school rather than any form of social life. On weekends it was either overtime or being in the library. What drove me was the somewhat naïve idea that once I graduated everything would somehow magically work itself out.
So the time passed, and in the winter of 2007 I graduated Cum Laude, with a degree in Industrial Engineering. Graduation was a bittersweet day. Having finished school and still being undocumented, I have no prospects other than to stay in the underground economy and let my degree lose value as the time passes.

Sure, I had met my goal and, facing difficult barriers, obtained a degree. But now what?

Being in my mid twenties I see all the time that has passed me by, and how a lot of it has been wasted by this constant worry that not having nine digits entails. I look at all the opportunities missed, the demeaning jobs, anger and despair, and realize that I don’t want undocumented kids just graduating from high school to go through that. I also look towards my future, or lack of, and feel the tugging of time as each year passes. To be a 30-year-old fast food worker is not something that I aspire to. I want to be able to finally breathe.

These are my reasons for fighting for the DREAM Act.

~Gabe, DREAMer from California
Check out my blog here: http://documenting-me.blogspot.com
 
 
We were so inspired by the DREAMers’ courage in coming out last week that we will continue to feature their stories through the end of March.  Please show your support by signing the petition to pass the DREAM Act.  Thank you.
 
 
 

Undocumented and Unafraid

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My Name is Ashley and I am Undocumented

The funny thing about my story is that my grandmother and mother were both green-card holders. Yet, here I am in a state of limbo status because the lawyer messed up. In the time it took for my mother to futilely navigate the immigration system, I had already overstayed my tourist visa and forgotten my native tongue. I thought of myself only as an American and was thoroughly disappointed and in a state of shock when I found that I couldn’t get a driver’s license. As I grew older, the barriers grew more formidable. I moved into a studio-size apartment with my family, checked vending machines for forgotten change, and somehow managed to finish my college education.

I graduated from a prestigious university without any form of institutional financial aid. I did, however, qualify for in-state tuition, without which I would not be the person I am today. To save money, I finished two majors in three years and received the highest honors given at my school. Throughout my college days, I was and still am an active member of the community. I led efforts to provide health service for the uninsured, tutored and mentored underserved youth, and volunteered at the free clinic. My status had provided me with unique insight into the struggles of the low income and underserved and with undying strength to help those in greater need.

Finally, I realized that my greatest desire in life was to pursue a career in medicine so that I could dedicate each day to directly helping those in need. I applied and was accepted into MD-PhD programs across the nation, placing me in the top ten percent of the student population. Yet, in a matter of days, my dreams would be destroyed. I am still out of status and unable to pursue dual degrees in medicine and research. Currently, I am still unsure whether or not I will be able to enroll in medical school. My elite pile of acceptances seems to dangle before me as dreams that are so close to reality and yet so far from my reach.

But I don’t deserve this. I had made no excuses on my application and told no lies. I was, instead, reviewed and accepted on my own academic and personal merits. These schools don’t even have a clue of what I’ve had to go through to get this far in my life. They offered me admission because I was well qualified for a spot in their entering class, because I had shown the potential to make great differences in the world of healthcare and scientific innovation. It is entirely their loss that they revoked the acceptances I had gained fair and square.

I hope this nation will not make the same mistake as these schools. We, the Dreamers, represent some of America’s most persevering and brightest youth. We have been tested by the most difficult challenges. Most of us have experienced days when we couldn’t afford to buy food for our family or painful incidents when we couldn’t afford medical help for our loved ones. Yet, with each challenge, we continue to overcome. We face these adversities head on and grow stronger in the process. And each day, we explore the limits of our potential as tested by the restrictions imposed on us because we hold faith that this country we love so dearly will one day recognize us and our efforts. We want nothing more than to contribute to the growth of this nation and, without a doubt, we have the potential to do so. All we need is the chance to grow.

Please pass the DREAM Act. All I ever wanted was to go to medical school, to spend the rest of my life giving back to the community, and to finally be an American.

~Ashley, DREAMer from California
 
We were so inspired by the DREAMers’ courage in coming out last week that we will continue to feature their stories through the end of March.  Please show your support by signing the petition to pass the DREAM Act.  Thank you.
 
 
 

SATURDAY POETRY SERIES PRESENTS: WALT WHITMAN

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SELECTION FROM THE PREFACE OF “LEAVES OF GRASS”

by Walt Whitman


This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality. (Annotated biography of Walt Whitman courtesy of Wikipedia.org.)

Editor’s Note: I was sent this excerpt from Leaves of Grass by two different people this past week, which to me was a sign that it needed to be shared with you. Walt Whitman is that rare example of a poet who is well known by name today. Recently Andrew Sullivan featured this same excerpt in The Atlantic. As previously featured in this series, Levis has made Walt Whitman the voice of their Freedom campaign. In his own time Whitman was controversial. Today his words are less so in comparison to what is the norm in the modern world. And still, Whitman is known, quoted, referenced, revered, and loved. My own introduction to Whitman was through the poets I am closest to. Ginsberg, Lorca, Spicer – to the poets who came after him, Whitman was a hero and mentor. Because of Whitman, not only was Whitman’s own timeless poetry written, but great poetry was written by those who followed.

Want to read more by and about Walt Whitman?
The Walt Whitman Archive
Poets.org
WaltWhitman.org

National Coming Out Week for Undocumented Youth

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My Name is Liz and I am Undocumented

I am afraid to tell my story; the consequences are immense, but silence is no longer an option.
 
My family immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico sixteen years ago on a visa. Throughout those years, my parents paid countless visits to lawyers and applied for residency three times. For various reasons, such as the 9/11 attack, all those residency applications were denied. We lost thousands of dollars and, worse, we lost hope.
 
Attending college was difficult; the application process for a non-resident was troublesome, but the financial difficulties were even greater. I could not apply for financial aid due to a lack of social security number. At the same time, I could not work to help my family out. Despite these obstacles, I am immensely proud that I was able to graduate college with a psychology degree.
 
After graduating, I still hoped to find a job that could sponsor me for a work visa, and I applied to dozens of jobs. All I wanted to do was help people. I had certified in nonprofit management in conjunction with my degree, and wanted to work in a nonprofit organization and help those in need. I received several job offers, but was quickly disillusioned when I found out they wouldn’t sponsor me. That is how I, a recent college graduate, ended up working as a receptionist making minimum wage for the next two years.
 
I later found out that a local school district sponsored teachers for work visas due to the great need in that profession. I started gaining hope again and joined an alternative certification program. I worked hard, used up all my hard earned savings, and applied for a teaching position. I accepted a job and worked there free of charge while I started my process for a work permit. By this time I was over 21, I had overstayed my previous visa, and my work permit was denied: in other words, undocumented. I was devastated and felt defeated. I did not get paid for the time I worked there and I was, once again, left without a job and without hope.
 
All the immigration lawyers I have encountered have given me the same advice; they say that my only option is to get married to a U.S. citizen. I do have a wonderful boyfriend, but do not want to rush into marriage for the wrong reasons. My situation becomes even more frustrating as I have an expired driver’s license that cannot be renewed, I am unemployed, and I am undocumented and living in fear. I avoid people so that I don’t have to answer their questions about what I am doing with my life. I am tired of lying and making up excuses so that I don’t have to see the judgment in their eyes. I am tired of hiding and living in fear. And I don’t want to be pressured into marriage and ruin a perfectly good relationship by rushing things just to get my papers. The DREAM Act would be the answer to my prayers. I don’t want to have my life on hold anymore; instead I want to live life and be free.
 
 ~Liz, DREAMer from Houston, TX
 
 
This is National Coming Out of the Shadows Week for undocumented youth, modeled on the LGBT strategy to raise awareness through disclosure of status.  If you are inspired by the DREAMers’ courage in coming out, you can help by supporting the DREAM Act.  Visit DreamActivist.org to learn more.
 

National Coming Out Week for Undocumented Youth

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National Coming Out Week for Undocumented Youth

By Dave Bennion

While most eyes are focused on the HCR debate right now, there is another high-stakes legislative issue waiting in the wings. For those whose families and communities are impacted by the problematic immigration system, immigration reform is as crucial as anything else on the Democratic agenda.

But right now, immigrants and advocates are wondering whether immigration reform is even on the agenda of Democrats in Congress and the White House, notwithstanding Candidate Obama’s promise to make immigration reform a top priority during his first year in office.

That’s why I was happy to see the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial about the DREAM Act last weekend.

Under the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, a path to citizenship would be provided to these children after they graduate from high school and enroll in college or the military for two years, steps that would help them become productive members of society.
Critics argue such action condones or encourages illegal immigration, but that’s a narrow-minded view of a much bigger problem. There are at least 12 million illegal immigrants who live and work in the United States. Since most are not returning to their homelands, this country must find a good way to move them to permanent-residency status.
Short of a comprehensive national policy on immigration, the DREAM Act bill provides lawmakers with an opportunity to pass one segment of the sweeping reform that’s needed.

President Obama had promised to take up immigration his first year in office. But with other issues on the table, in particular health-care reform and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he has been forced to delay tackling another divisive issue.. . .

Although many illegal immigrants work and pay taxes, giving their children a chance to attend college or serve in the military would help those families contribute more to the economy with better jobs and higher wages.

That’s no substitute for a new immigration policy that addresses the larger issues. But the DREAM Act can be a first step to put the children of illegal immigrants on the right path.

More and more people are coming around to the idea that passing the Dream Act would reinvigorate the immigrant rights movement and empower the best advocates of immigration reform, immigrants themselves. I believe the undocumented youth movement will be the core of any successful immigration reform effort.

Last Wednesday was National Coming Out Day for undocumented youth, modeled on the LGBT strategy to raise awareness through disclosure of status. From Mo at DreamActivist.org:

Your courage will open the way to having even more conversations about your immigration status. Sharing your stories will allow us, as a movement of undocumented youth, to grow, as we continue to learn to accept ourselves. By being more open we will begin replacing fear with courage and, ultimately, be united in our demands for change. You will be surprised how little other people know about the realities of being undocumented. People who know someone who is gay or lesbian are more likely to support equal rights for all gay and lesbian people- the same follows for people who know someone who is undocumented.

Gabe speaks from experience about the benefits of coming out:

Tania in Chicago came out to a Tribune reporter, which must have been nervewracking.

If seeing the courage of these undocumented activists inspires you like it does me, join Dream Act students and supporters in a march in support of comprehensive immigration reform and the Dream Act in D.C. on March 21st. There are buses traveling to D.C. from around the country–sign up for a seat here.

~Dave Bennion

[Cross-posted at Citizen Orange]

Practical Cats

Posted on by asitoughttobemagazine

We used to have two lovely cats, we scored them at Pets Unlimited back in 1993. Like the Eygptians, who first domesticated the feline 5,000 years ago, we had rodent issues: we co-resided our warehouse on Harrison St with a host of ridiculously bold mice. First we went to the SPCA and chose a nice short-haired kitten but we were identified from our hastily filled- out adoption forms as unsuitable caretakers. We were called into a small undecorated room where we sat one side of a table whilst an animal welfare expert explained why we were unfit to adopt a cat. The worker went straight to our stated reason for adoption: ‘pet & mouse-catcher’ I had honestly scrawled, she shook her head and looked at us with a mixture of disbelief and horror.

“We don’t adopt cats if they are going to be worked, we are very strict about that, we only let them go to loving homes.” I tried to explain that  we were going to love the cat and that there just happened to be mice at our place that I considered a cat would love to catch. The operative would not budge, she had identified us as cat-exploiters, and I suspected that in her zeal we would be put on the SPCA blacklist.

So onto Pets Unlimited, we had our story straight for this attempt at adoption; we were careful to make no mention of mice or any expectations of feline usefulness, we were just interested in fur to love. We’d only planned on getting one cat but when we saw a black and white boy and a tabby girl together and read their rather poignant sign, “Samy and Nigel would like to stay together,”  we empathized. The Pets Unlim worker had a way different vibe than the SPCA woman, he was so delighted that we’d take the two mogs together he gave us a two for one deal and didn’t even ask if we planned on making them work for their kibbles.

The mere presence of Samy and Nigel caused an immediate mass exodus of the genus rodentus from our apartment, a few days after the cats moved in I discovered a nest of dead baby mice in a bag of rye flour, Mama, I surmised, hadn’t been able to make it back.

Samy and Nigel accompanied us on our next seventeen years: they moved with us to the rat-infested wilds of West Marin, back to Sausalito and then here to Mount Davidson where they both now rest under the apple tree, enriching the back garden soil.  Samy died first: she stayed away one night and came back a day later looking pretty wretched, I made her a bed in the basement and she declined over the next couple of days, unable to drink or eat, I found her dead on the back stairs after the boys and I came home from supper at a neighbor’s house. I remember it was a full moon and I wrapped her up in an old blue baby blanket. One front leg was outstretched and impossible to reposition.  I knew the boys would want to see her so I arranged the blanket shawl-like and cradled her in my arms,

“She is smiling and waving goodbye!” said my littlest guy, and sure enough Samy’s slightly open mouth was not downturned and that rigor mortised leg was pretty gestural.

We’d always thought plump, neutered Samy was the dummy of the pair but after her demise we realized that she was the huntress. Nigel, always a bit of a misery, went into a decline, pissing indiscriminately and dozily watching mice eating his dry food from his vantage point in an African basket where he’d taken up residence. His kidneys were failing but as I had no spare cash for a euthanizing trip to a vet and couldn’t take up my Irish friend’s offer to kill him with a brick (like they used to on the farm) It was a long smelly death.

Unlike most cats, Nigel did not want to die alone, he spent a week on a pillow in an old laundry basket in the kitchen, mewling intermittently and didn’t seem happy to leave. Finally, I turned down the lights, lit candles, burned incense and chanted until he mewled his last.

Out of respect for the dead we didn’t want to replace these family members immediately and after the protracted unpleasantness of Nigel’s passing we were all happy to be a dog-only household for a while.

The incursionist  mice are barely held back by the ultra-sonic devices and they are scornful of any peanut butter bearing death device. I know not to say “mouser” at the shelter but now I have other ethical issues to work through: firstly, I don’t agree with micro-chipping. Not for cats or dogs, its just too Orwellian for me. I know many chipped critters and ostensibly they seem fine, but this is not a development that I want to endorse. I think a collar with a name and a phone number is sufficient identification for a house pet. My friends, particularly my cat lady pals, don’t understand my fears around the implants, but basically I imagine that humans will be next. Tracking devices for your children, tracking devices for felons and paedophiles, tracking devices for spouses?  Also this Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is relatively new and the studies on mice and rats have proved that the chips can stimulate tumors in surrounding tissue ( McGrath Jane, ‘How Pet Microchipping Works’ howstuffworks.com 2009)

I have spoken to all the major shelters in our area and have yet to find a shelter which doesn’t chip, in fact it’s the law for dogs in Oaktown!  The guy I spoke to on the phone at Pets Unlim last week was very surprised to hear my aversion to the chip, I felt like the last hippy in San Francisco when he said, “Nobody has ever asked me for an un-chipped cat, everybody loves the extra protection!” He wasn’t mean though, just incredulous, he emailed me a list of other shelters for me to try in search of a chip-less pet. No luck yet.

My online research has enlightened me to a lot of other relevant stuff about cats that is largely disquieting.

Take for example, the horrific statistics about the decimation of bird populations by felines. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that 150 million free-ranging cats (domesticated outdoor cats & feral) kill around 500 million birds a year.

An article in Aubudon Magazine by Ted Williams almost had me in tears at the hopelessness of controlling feral communities: the Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR) policy which maintains that feral communities can monitored and maintained is actually leading to “hyperpredation” where  well-fed feral kitties are hunting  already depressed mammal, bird and amphibian populations which is leading quickly to extinction of  various species. The cat lobby has so much more support that the bird-lovers that the writing is on the wall.

So outdoor cats are not PC, but any incoming cat, indoors or outdoors, is going to have issues with both Akira , our huge mutt, and feisty Leon, our  sausage-dog house-guest.  And then there is the cat litter to endure all over again. I don’t see myself following PETA’s advice to take a cat outside on a leash but I have to let go of my happy imaginings of  cats once again lounging in the long grass of the back yard or sunning themselves on our picnic table.

Leon spends a good half hour a day whimpering and growling in front of the oven and for now that’s gonna have to do.

–Billee Sharp