Friday, April 28, 2006

What would Jesus boycott?

It's fairly quiet here in Lettuceland, on this day devoted to shutting down the country's economy to show the flexed muscle of undocumented workers. The usual recess yells waft over from the charter school across the street. Underneath my lofty perch, a yellow Stanley Steemer van is pumping vacuum power to clean the apartment across the parking lot. The carpet cleaners are obviously Hispanic and obviously not taking the day off. Traffic seems normal; the difference is that the sirens which screech intermittently every other day are conspiculously absent. I've not noticed a swell of students from the high school two blocks away jubilantly cutting class and yelling "Mex-i-co! Mex-i-co!" as they did several weeks ago, but the day is still young. Haven't been down yet to see if the Mexican restaurant next door opened for the day. If it's closed, I might leave a note saying I'll never eat there again. (Then again, I haven't eaten there in five years because they have incredibly lousy service and I had Montezuma's Revenge for dessert last time.)

In our city, the demonstrations will take place in the almost-exclusively Hispanic east side. Talk about serenading the choir! That'll really get our attention! Since I'm miles from there, I won't be hearing a thing. Another case of the people agreeing with you already being there.

I am pondering what the Christian attitude and response to all this should be. So far I've not fully developed a personal theology on the balance between loving one's neighbor as oneself, and rendering unto Caeser the things that are Caeser's. The same Bible which admonishes the Israelites to be kind to the aliens among them, also called him who would enter the sheepfold another way aside from the gate a thief and robber. We must have law and secure borders. We also must be humane and kind. Mercy and truth must meet together; righteousness and justice must kiss each other.

Somehow.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

What Americans won't do

According to the top-ranked man in the United States, there are jobs Americans just won't deign to. Apparently, such things as landscaping, construction, agriculture, hotel services, office administration, housecleaning, plumbing, child care, retail sales, and the like are suddenly considered beneath our dignity. We hear that only the 12-20 million or so persons in this country illegally, who fill up the bulk of said job vacancies, are willing to do the Hard Stuff. That established, so we are told, we must move to give privileged status to undocumented workers in appreciation of their relieving us of such servile, mundane tasks.

To think or do otherwise is to be ungrateful, uncompassionate, racist--and who wants that stigma?

I live in Salinas, California. Probably no other city in the USA has a higher concentration of residents lacking documentation. Local services strain under the load of caring for all these needy non-citizens. I will not say that many of them don't work hard. Of course they do. I understand, too, that there are those desperately seeking something better for themselves and their children than the unbearably corrupt, hopelessly dirty pits of despair they left behind in Mexico and other places.

However, there are many jobs here for which I, a native-born, intelligent, willing American would be disqualified for one reason only: I am not fluent in Spanish. Even fast food joints favor Spanish speakers. Often, employers prefer people whose ability to communicate in the supposed language of the country in which they reside is sketchy at best; while otherwise willing applicants, as well or better qualified in other areas, are passed over because they don't speak Spanish. This is required not only get employment, but keep it. A couple of summers ago, I took an intensive Spanish introduction class just for my own enrichment. I was amazed at how many participants were in the program, until I was informed by one glum fellow student that he, like most of them, were teachers there under coercion from the school district. How many times is this story repeated in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and other states?

What Americans won't do, seemingly, is the difficult task of maintaining our borders, enforcing our laws, requiring the learning of our language, and holding our elected officials to their promises of defending our Constitution.

Politicians are obviously less concerned with the likes of the average American than the delicious Twofer offered by the current move to make mass illegals into mass quasi-citizens with a swoop of the Presidential hand: the prospect of a permanent servant underclass is too strong to pass up for the greedy on the right side of the aisle, the succulent plum of millions of easily manipulated new voters too enticing for the Left.

Meanwhile, Americans will do whatever needs done. We just need to stop being told that because we don't speak a different language, or want more than $3.75 an hour, we can't do them.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Not buying it

The White House wants a sweeping "we're not calling it amnesty" program to settle the invas-uh, immigration problem. The usual roundup of shrill leftists Democrats wants the same. Strange bedfellows, these.

Could it be they each have their own agenda? Could it be they're all being less than honest about their true motives? Nah.

Republicans could never be selfish and avaricious enough to want all the dirt cheap labor they can get to keep their money mills churning, now could they? After all, we need a new underclass in this country to do "all the hard jobs Americans won't do" (read: "...all the stuff we don't want to pay Americans a decent wage to do, and by the way it sure is nice to not worry about that Social Security thing cutting into one's portfolio".)

And Democrats could never be supremely power-hungry enough to wax all Emma Lazarus merely to have one more easily manipulated populace at their beck and call. Oh me oh my, no. They're all in it because they care so much. It's all about virtue, compassion, motherpie and applehood. Getting their butts whooped in national elections has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

And I, my friends, am taking flight from The Eyrie to take up residence at the royal palace in Monte Carlo--once my Powerball ship comes in, I win the Pulitzer Prize for blogging, and I wake up weighing 125 lbs.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

I heart breathing

Okay, today at 1:15 PDT I have an appointment with my MD to begin finding out why I can no longer walk one flight of stairs up to The Eyrie, or even a straight block, without getting winded and gasping for breath. This, on top of the interesting eye thingies, worries the doctor--and no one wants their doctor worried. I asked him what could be causing all this. His answer? "Lots of things, and none of them are good." Gulp.

Not that I'm overcome with fear. If Heaven is before me, and I know it is one day, hey--at least I never ever have to wear pantyhose again! Or have somebody rush their car through the crosswalk while I'm in it! Or be a captive audience to a loud, boring cell phone conversation at the table next to ours in a restaurant! Or read horrible things in the news which vex my soul!

It isn't the thought of leaving which bugs me. It's all the stuff leading up to the leaving.

Sure puts a new perspective on a lot of things. Or should I say, brings into focus the one I should have had all along.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

HE IS RISEN (shortest blog entry ever)

No other reason for Christianity to exist.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Video Gem of the month

In a world way past semblance of control, most of the time all I want is a nice, comfy, dry cave to in which to hide (one with a hot spot would be nice.) Occasionally I take a break from the general mayhem without and retreat into mindless levity. This is one such time.

Join me, if you will, and partake of my April pick for Video Gem of the Month--and don't forget, it's simarils this time around.

Hobbit Folk Rock
Watch it now on StupidVideos!

Friday, April 07, 2006

Eye of the storm

Still don't know what's causing the lightning flashes and strange floaters. Doc couldn't see any obvious retinal tears or displacement, which is encouraging. Sighs of relief, however, are premature, since that means we still don't know just what it is. Theories dangle before me, but nothing that explains everything. So now I'm in monitoring status, meaning I have to keep track of the symptoms and report back to the optometrist as soon as something changes. If it doesn't aright itself soon, I will be referred to a specialist.

Thanks for the prayers.