Silly Elephants

       I find myself more and more amazed that Americans, especially those who support Arizona's new divisive law and refer to the “Own Bootstrap” theory, as well as those riled about higher taxes and depleting resources, are not more pro-immigration reform. It’s simple to me, really, because although it may be moral, it’s simply good business: 1) educating the population, irrespective of immigration status, will NOT turn our country into a “3rd world country”, because an education population is vibrant, entrepreneurial and resilient; 2) denying access to education will not cause “them” to leave, but instead need assistance and “burden” the system- pay now or pay later; 3) statistically speaking, "majority" US populations continue to decline while “non-white” populations continue to increase, so instead of a potential decrease to the tax base, why not embrace the opportunity for and INCREASE to the tax base, that is if “they” are allowed to work and pay taxes, 5) the threat to the “American way of life” is more likely when we have an uneducated population, an apartheid society, and one that forgets that its entire hystory is an immigrant one. A larger tax base, whole families (not split up by deportation), and engaged civic participants is good business—that should resonate with the Red and Blue states alike. So, it makes me wonder if it’s really not just about immigrating and being eligible for a driver’s license and social security number, if maybe it’s really about race and ethnicity, the elephant in the room.

Here in the northwest, a new border to me, I’m finding this elephant in many of the board rooms, conference rooms, and college and university offices I’ve been in.

I want to write poetry instead, work steadfastly to foster mathematicians and scientists, increase educational access, live (paint, play the guitar, make love, hopefully write more) eat fresh produce, shop large home improvement stores, and yet I see can’t stop seeing that four-legged beast always nearby. Can I turn it off, that sigh-seeing power to see the beast everywhere? I’m trying to find the poetic in what is unseen, unheard, like Thom Gunn:

What place is this

                       And what is it that broods
Barley beyond its own creation’s course
And not abstracted from it, not the Word,
But overlapping it like wet low clouds
the riveting images-their unstopped source,
its roar unheard from being always heard.*

For now, I will hope that our national need for decreasing the nation deficit and funding an almost broke government will motivate immigration reform, not that mushy stuff about human rights and not splitting families up, and such non-tax based silliness. Elephants in a rooms are silly enough.


(*From At the Centre” poem from the Molly Collection)

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America Now: Children of the Harvest

For thousands of children in America , summer means hard labor in the hot sun. They're migrant laborers working alongside their struggling parents on America 's farms. Dateline took its cameras and found a story of hardship, perserverence, and love.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38308025#38308025  

Oops They Did it Again...

I’m beginning to see that Seattle Police are a lot like the Border Patrol in Texas, specifically El Paso. They both seem to only acknowledge inappropriate incidents occurred once it’s been caught on video, and both seem to assault teens who “illegally cross,” and they both claim to be “threatened” and therefore resort to violent means. Both have polished professional spokespersons speak on their behalf and speak of investigations and inquiries and needing more evident before jumping to conclusions.

In both places, communities want change and authorities who conduct themselves with professionalism and trained in de-escalation techniques. In both situations, the victims are people of color. A Seattle office punched a young black teen in the face. A Border agent shot a brown teen for throwing a rock.

I remember when I first got here there was another case involving a Deputy Sheriff assaulting a teen in her cell because he claimed he felt threatening by the teen. He first claimed the teen assaulted him, but surveillance video revealed that in fact the officer wasn’t in the cell at all and that he was indeed the first to push, slam against the wall, punch, then slam the girl to the floor. The video reveals the threat was that she crossed her arms and kicked her shoe off. Check it out. By the way, she too is a young teen of color.

Indeed, this is why it is hard to feel safe when la placa drives by, when they turn up behind you, when you’re chillando at the park. Maybe this is why I have never ever said, “oh great, a peace officer is driving behind me and now I feel safe.” It’s usually a “chingado, did I do something wrong, is the music too loud, did I stop enough at the stop, or am I looking too Chicana today?”

When I’m in town and la jura is present, I tell my friend Luz or whomever is with me to not leave my side because in Seattle, la chota likes to kick Mexican piss out of brown people (even if they're not Mexican, apparently). I think the exact quote was “I’m going to kick the Mexican piss out of you homey. You feel me?” He was already handcuffed and on the floor. I'm sure he felt it. Being a Messican, not a Messican’t, and not wanting to deliver a “can’t we all just get along” speech before the media, swollen and bruised, a subsequent trial where no one is found guilty, I keep my distance from them, like I did with El Paso chotas and La Linea Keepers del paso del norte.

I’m more fascinated, however, with language, and not just because I’m a poet. That is, despite the many moves I’ve made, the many cities I’ve lived in and regions I’ve visited, people of color share more in common than not, and officials too. Words and phrases have meanings and semantic nuances, poetic liberties and leniency for exaggeration, but when you combine them with “reality” images, it's hard to find the words to justify authority’s use of power in the name of the law. Words of interest: escalation, felt threatened, trained to protect, paid leave pending an investigation, Urban League, Hispanic leaders, unjustified force, victims, injury, arrest, once again in the news, trouble, teens, no respect, youth, them, those people...back in the day, people knew their place...

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Police: Officer under review after punching incident caught on camera
By Gabriel Falcon, CNN
June 16, 2010 2:52 p.m. EDT
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/16/police.jaywalker/index.html?hpt=Sbin





Border Patrol bears increased criticism over death
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 9, 2010 8:32 p.m. EDT

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/09/mexico.border.shooting/index.html?iref=allsearch

Slick Oil, Slick Laws, Sick Cop Kicks... Musical Asprin

I’m trying not to feel jaded and angered by the drama happening in Seattle. But first, the video of police brutality and racist slur by the Seattle Police Department surfaces. Then we know the TV station that had the video held it for weeks, as the departments “urging.” (http://www.king5.com/video/raw/Watch-Seattle-PD-officer-stomps-suspect-uses-racial-comment-93140299.html )

Then Arizona passes it’s form of modern Apartheid. Now other states are jumping on the Pilgrim wagon and following the lead. Now, The Dream Act seems more and more like a dream than ever before. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052804319.html )

Then the world nastiest oil spill continues to sludge in the Mexican Gulf. (I can't even look at images anymore...)

Finally, North and South Korea are once again at the starting line for “who blinks first.” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052700642.html?wprss=rss_world/asia )

I’m trying not to feel blue, with the “rainier than usual” Seattle Spring, this week most days in the 50’s.

Instead I want to enjoy the few moments of fleeting sun, the bulbs that sprouted flowers in my front lawn, the FREE Common concert on the UW campus, which was surprisingly poorly advertised and even more poorly attended (a sign of a truly privileged institution: a top hip hop artist on a top class stage and great sound system, unlike the sound gear at the Showbox SODO, where NAS and Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley killed it).

I’d rather see the positive in having way too many Teriyaki places to choose from and not enough Mexican places where artificial yellow chesse isn’t added to everything, the good in June Graduation Ceremonies, and Tia and Amanda walk the stage, adding to the educated women of color pool, and the good in Jill Scott and Maxwell’s upcoming concert at KEY ARENA.

Yes, I have tickets, and I can’t wait to be in a shielded stadium, top notch R&B artists on a top class stage and great sound system, drowning out the police stompings, oil slicks, and constant drips down meandering drains out to the Puget Sound, where heavy metals and chemicals contaminate the water in a more subtle way.