Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

I recieved yet another email from dear old dad today. You'll notice that this is a common theme - I get them a lot, we don't always see eye to eye, and when I respond to them, I risk putting him out with the thought that it's a personal attack...so often I just comment here instead, to promote peace in the family. It's usually for my personal benefit, anyway, as I like to explore the topic and qualify/quantify why I have my initial opinion (and even, sometimes, to change that initial opinion after some reflection on it). This email happened to tie into a post I'd intended to make for some time, so here we go.

Anyhow, back to the email...this one showed a photo of Teddy Roosevelt, and a quote he apparently gave in 1907 regarding immigration, cultural assimilation, and discrimination.

Here's the quote:

In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

Now, I agree with his sentiment for the most part...but there are a few issues, which I'll enumerate:

1) English isn't currently this country's official language, nor was it at the time Roosevelt made the comment...in fact, it's never actually been the official language - always just an assumed language based on the fact that our founding charter was written in English. We don't have an official language. We should. Without a declared standard, the responsibility of providing translations to any language imaginable falls on the government and the people. "I don't speak English, and I need this in Swahili...accomodate me". That's expensive, unnecessary, and ultimately serves to deteriorate our own cultural unity by reinforcing (or at least not removing) unnecessary cultural barriers. You should speak the language of the country you're moving to...except...we don't have a standard language - it's all good!

2) Roosevelt seemed a little over-critical of retaining cultural self-identification. Perhaps that was not the intent, and the short format of this quote is simply working against it in this regard...I'll give the benefit of the doubt, but I'll also comment. I don't really have an issue with someone identifying with their cultural heritage. Without the fusion of so many world cultures, we wouldn't have the interesting variety we have in this country today (and I couldn't get good Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Ethiopian, Indian, Italian, or German food like I can today). Diversity forces us to take a good hard look at our own ways, and sometimes we find them lacking when compared to how someone else is doing it. We're not the best at everything, but if import something that's better, and assimilate that into OUR culture, we're all better for it. So long as immigrants recognize that's now their heritage and no longer their cultural identity, and don't segregate themselves into ethnic communities, I'm good with having Italian Grandmas.

Now, I do feel like we've got a border security issue in this country today, and I feel like there's some relatively easy steps we can (and should) be taking to resolve that issue. Allow me to lay it out for you:

1) Mandate English as the national language. All legislation, government forms, standardized testing, etc. will be provided in English, and it will be the responsibility of the non-English-speaker to obtain translation, if necessary.

2) Offer free or low-cost English Language education for residents and new immigrants that don't speak enough English to get by. To be clear, I feel that someone moving here from another country that doesn't speak English *should* take the responsibility of learning it (and paying for that education) on their own...but I also feel that it deteriorates cultural cohesion too much for society to not "pick up the slack" for those that can't/won't/don't take on the responsibilty themselves.

3) Secure the borders. This means both Mexico and Canada...if we're going to be serious about halting illegal immigration and border security, we need to make sure we're not just cracking down on the ones that look and talk different from us (or hav ethe misfortune of being born in a 3rd-world country and don't know a useful industrialized trade).

4) Stop the system of only issuing set allotments of immigration visas to other countries. This system results in lotteries in most countries were there's more demand for immigration papers than there is supply. It's a built-in system for discrimination before someone can even get here, and it kills any argument that anyone tries to make about "you should have come here legally" if there's any chance that someone can actually work within the system and be rejected without legitimate cause. DO issue a visa to anyone that applies, pending reasonable background and health checks. If I lived in squalor with no real opportunities to improve my lot in life in my country of origin, I'm certain wouldn't take the government's rejection as the final word on the matter, either...and I'd be trying to cross that border illegally, too.

5) Allow a brief amnesty period for anyone living in the country to apply for citizenship even if they arrived illegally (provided that the illegal immigration is their only major legal offense...don't reject them for a speeding ticket or misdemeanor offense). It's not realistic to think that someone here illegally will leave for 6 months and come back to become legal (as is currently the requirement in order for an illegal immigrant to gain legal status...and it's still not a guarantee that they will actually get issued a visa). It's just not going to happen - would you pack up your family and go back to El Salvador for 6 months to apply for citizenship if you'd been living here for the past 20 years and were largely integrated into society, had your kids in a decent American school, had a decent job, etc? Especially if there was any chance that you might be rejected once you got there?

6) Issue a Federal ID to all citizens and legal resident aliens. Take fingerprints at the time of issuance, and maintain a central federal electronic database for lookups so that the person holding the card can be biometrically verified very quickly. If you're here after the amnesty period without a valid Federal ID issued to you, and you get caught, your next stop is INS to determine your country of origin for deportation. This also more-or-less fixes the issue of identity theft.

Clean up your mess

I get emails forwarded along to me every now and again from my dad...Some are jokes about "old geezers" (which he apparently considers himself to be), while others often take the form of contrasting aspects of modern life against the ideallic norms of yesteryear. I think he sees them through the rose-colored filter of time, and forwards them along for others that he thinks would appreciate the nostalgia in a well-meaning manner...but I can't help but find myself looking at the deeper intent and meaning contained within them sometimes.

I received one such example just today:

How Wasteful the Older Generation Was...

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine
Every time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers because they didn't have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a hankerchief, not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you.
When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?

At first, this seems wistful and innocent - see, look, the old lady really *IS* green. Just look at the way things used to be. But then I got to thinking about it...

I'm certainly not an over-the-top environmentalist - I'm still guilty of using the plastic grocery bags myself, I recently traded in my 35MPG compact car for a 17MPG mid-size truck, and I have a 35-mile commute twice-a-day - but I do sympathize with the whole green movement. I accept the volumes of independant research that suggests we're having a negative impact on our environment. More importantly, though, I believe it's a fallicy to think that the prevention of a negative environmental impact is the only reason we shouldn't clean up our collective act. The thing is, though, rather than emphasizing some of the "ways it once was" as potential models for modern society to (re-)emulate, I get the distinct feeling that this story is saying "hey, don't blame me/us for this mess".

"Back in my day" seems to be describing depression era through postwar America...up until the mid-late 50s. And it's absolutely right that "back in her day" we didn't have the throw-away society that became the norm later...stuff did get reused, repaired, and built & maintained for longevity - not for the sake of the environment, but for the sake of the bottom dollar. It was cheaper to keep something working than to replace it.

Then plastics manufacturing (and later, electronics manufacturing) became cheap, and people realized that convenience sells...and for the last 40-60 years, we moved away from the "built to last" philosophy to the "throw it out and get another" philosophy. At the same time, we went form 1-car single income families to 2+ car dual-income families, and we all had to own our own piece of America (with a sizeable backyard), which led to the Urban Sprawl issues we have today, and is a big part of why we drive 5 miles to the grocery store, rather than walking 2 blocks. So yeah, I can believe that "back in my day" was pretty (unintentionally) Green earlier in her life...but I'd bet she also took advantage of the modern conveniences and wasteful excess that came later, too...clearly she's still using those plastic bags, for instance (which I am also guilty of).

"Green" isn't a blame game, though, pointing an accusitive finger at those who came before and saying "clean up your mess", and it isn't about making our lives more difficult...the modern environmentalist movement attempts to get people to look critically at their own behavior and realize where they're being wasteful, to realize the degree of impact it has when aggregated out across the entire populace, and to look for ways they can reduce their own negative contribution to that impact. They espouse ideas like buying locally-grown produce in-season instead of produce that was shipped from halfway across the country (or globe)...or using longer-lasting and lower-consumption flourescent bulbs in place of incandescants...or promoting the insfrastructure for more economical mass-transit systems as replacements for much of our day-to-day driving...or backing research into ways to not only end not only our foreign oil dependance, but also our long-running practice of pouring pollutants and greenhouse gasses into the air we breathe. Stuff like "we walked 2 blocks to the grocery store instead of driving", for instance, is right up their alley (along with reducing Urban Sprawl to make it more feasible), as is washing out and reusing bottles (or, worst case, reclaiming the material through recycling instead of making new material). As for the technology (like the TV), well, I really wouldn't be surprised if my 37" LED-backlit LCD TV actually draws less power than the old 7" vaccum-tube equipped black-and-white CRT console that was used "back in her day", and the simple reality is that hand-washing clothes, while eco-friendly, isn't a realistic expectation in an era where both parents need to hold down a full-time job. But electricity usage would essentially become a non-issue for environmentalists if we were using clean and renewable power (like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric) exclusively.

Having unwittingly done the right thing "back in my day" doesn't excuse you from doing the right thing now, and it certainly doesn't invalidate the point that bringing a reusable shopping bag to the store is indeed more environmentally friendly than using and throwing out a disposable grocery bag every time you shop.

Can individuals be jerks in the way they present their message sometimes? Absolutely...but poor presentation doesn't invalidate the message, even if it may make it harder to swallow.

Welcome

Hello, my name is Doug, and I have a love/hate relationship with American democracy.

I hate the politics we've all becoming increasingly familar with...the stuff you see on CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News: partisanship, uncompromising rigidness, laxed moral fortitude, hipocracy, and the increasing weight of special interests. I hate closed-mindedness, political apathy, and making decisions based by historical precedence or percieved expectation. I hate seeing peoples' actions and words taken out of their intended context and used to further agendas.

There's things we do right, though, to be sure, and the fact that laws can be created, changed, and repealed, and that we all have a voice in the process, is chief among those things. I love learning *why* a person has their opinion on a given political topic, and not just what that opinion is.

I tend to be a "big picture" type of thinker (and I love real world analogies). To me, your political outlook is much like planning a roadtrip...If you have a clear destination, the details can be made to fit into place. When I start planning my trips, I'm much more interested in where I'm going and what routes will get me there fastest than I am about what exit I'll be stopping at to have lunch on day 3. I think with politics we often get caught up too much in the details about how hard it is to do a thing, and we lose track of our final destination of why we *should* do that thing.

I'm brewing up some topics I want to touch on soon. I don't presume to think this will be interesting reading for anyone, or that anyone will ever even read it...but I intend to write it nevertheless, if only to have it to refer back to later.