Are we being too sensitive and becoming desensitized?

Work sent me overseas to a Latin American country and some of my co-workers called all men Pedro. It was a joke and nobody really cared. But that got me thinking, if they did that at home in the US, people would be offended, even if there were not Latinos. This got me wondering, is the effort to not offend anybody going too far, to the point of being silly? Are we so vulnerable that anything can hurt us?

In my friend’s child soccer team, there are no goalies; no body wins or loses. I understand and agree that the game is supposed to be fun, and that US society tends to be extremely competitive, but trying to shield children from the experience of loosing a game may give them a false sense of entitlement and deny them the opportunity of learning how to lose; which frankly is as important as learning how to win.

We walk around on egg shells trying so hard not to hurt anybody’s feelings. Could it be that by not being exposed to disappointment and pain that we are creating children and adults with no empathy? Do you think a bully would do what they do if they had gone through something similar?

I see kids videotaping themselves hitting others, doing flash mobs of theft and other unimaginable things with no regard for consequences. If you don’t learn early on the consequences for your actions, than you may think there are none.

Can we be honest with each other and just let somebody know when their behavior crossed the line. How about if we have the conversations instead of trying so hard that we don’t say anything meaningful anymore.

Dealing with more loss

Recently we said goodbye to my father in law. He was such a great guy, I miss him dearly. He died of lung cancer, a word for people out there, if you smoke STOP!! if you don’t, don’t start. He used to smoke in his youth.

I was blessed to have him in my life. I fell in love with him from the beginning. I always felt comfortable around him. He was the kind of person that could lift you up regardless of the mood you were in. He was funny, affectionate, caring and always had a smile, even near the end.

He was a great father, husband, friend, and will be greatly missed.

With love wherever you are 😉

Immigrants are the source of pollution

There is an anti-immigrant group that claims that immigrants legal or illegal that come to the US are the source of global warming…wow

According to this group ALL immigrants come from less developed countries where they would produce less carbon emissions, once they move to here they incease their emissions.

Would it be that we eat too many beans??

 

  

Here are some of their findings: 

• If the 482 million ton increase in global CO2 emissions caused by immigration to the United States were a separate country, it would rank 10th in the world in emissions.
• The impact of immigration to the United States on global emissions is equal to approximately 5 percent of the increase in annual world-wide CO2 emissions since 1980.
• The estimated CO2 emissions of the average immigrant (legal or illegal) in the United States, are 18 percent less than those of the average native-born American.However, immigrants in the United States produce an estimated four times more CO2 in the United States as they would have in their countries of origin.U.S. immigrants produce an estimated 637 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually — equal to Great Britain and Sweden combined.
• The estimated 637 tons of CO2 U.S. immigrants produce annually is 482 million tons more than they would have produced had they remained in their home countries.

Here you can find the Center for immigration Studies

So they want to stop immigration and maybe send people back to reduce global warming.

That got me thinking, if the native-born generate more emissions than the immigrants, what if instead of sending the immigrants back to their countries of origin we send the native-born to those countries where they would produce less emissions. Would that solve global warming?

Do Immigrants have any rights?

This question came to mind after I heard what happened to Ed

Ed is a US Citizen naturalized (he was born somewhere else) he has black skin and a very thick Spanish accent. He and his family play a dominoes tournament when ever they get together. This time they set two tables in their front yard. While they were playing an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) truck stopped  by and detained them. They did not resist, the asked to show their citizenship papers, that where inside the house, but they were denied.

The immigration officers said no, and kept putting them in the truck or van. A very hot neighbor showed up and flirted with the ICE officers and asked if she could go with one of them into the house and get the men’s papers. One of them finally agreed, they saw the citizenship papers and they were let go.

 What would have happened if the hot girl had not showed up, they most likely would still be in the detention center, waiting to go in front of a judge, wasting tax payers money. 

There was a case of a California man deported to Mexico, he was mentally challenged and was lost in Mexico for weeks. A Man from Minesotta was almost deported to Russia, a place where he had never been and did not speak the language.

I read on a newspaper article that if you are detained by ICE you have no rights to make a phone call or call a lawyer until they see fit. You are presumed illegal until proven otherwise.

I was reading in the government immigration page that naturalized citizens have the same rights as US born citizen, but the foreign born citizens may be stripped from their citizenship. (granted that you have to commit a serious crime or treason, but who determines that?)

The point I am trying to make is, that there seems to be no middle ground. People are detained, deported and then asked questions. I fear that a lot of people would be caught in this black and white system, and the gray cases will be turned black and dealt with as criminals.

I want someone to tell me do immigrants have any rights? If you know please tell me.

Taking things for granted

I find it interesting how we start appreciating people and things when we don’t have them anymore.

I used to live in a city surrounded by mountains, a beautiful luscious green valley. We had two seasons, rainy/spring and dry/summer, both warm. When you have gorgeous skies everyday, you soon start ignoring them. I sometimes wondered why people did not dress for the weather, and soon enough I realized the weather was never a factor.

I believe that weather and geography affect the culture and moods of people. I guess it is easy to be optimistic when the sun is out there everyday smiling at you and saying everything is going to be okay.

I come from a worry free; tomorrow will be another day culture. The earth is rich and fertile; wherever a seed falls a tree grows. There is almost no plan for the future concern, there is little grudge holding, at least not for long. Memory is short term. This can be good, but also very bad.

 There is a group of protected indigenous people that live as they did before colonization, and you can see that state of mind reflected in their way of life. They are semi nomadic, the only crops they plant take several months to come out, so they plant them and move on, they live somewhere else plant the crops and leave, in the next place they’ll find the crops ready to use. Their time orientation is focus in today with little planning.

 If you see communities that live in climates where seasons change, they are forced to plan for the future in order to survive. That is reflected in their way of life to this day. They find inventive ways of preserving goods for the winter. They dry and cure meats. They need to create clothing for protection from the elements. The needs shape their behavior and mindset. 

One thing that I miss a lot is the ocean. It used to be half an hour away. Clear waters of warm, white sandy beaches that extended for miles on end. The last time I went to my former home, my husband and I booked our flights so that we could spend the day in Miami, and go to the beach. It was great, as soon as the plane landed, we ran to the beach and the first thing we both did was breath in that ocean. I have been to the beach in the shores of Lake Michigan, it is beautiful and you could be fooled by the fresh water beaches, but there is nothing like the ocean. We didn’t realize we missed it so much until we were there. The waters of Florida are still too cold for my taste.

 

 After spending four to five month of winter, you can really appreciate spring. You can go outside breath in the blue sky and recharge with the sun’s energy. You start coming to life, just like those little blooms that are shooting out of the defrosted ground and the energy pouring out of the emerald green of the grass. All of the sudden the gray starts disappearing, pushed aside by the blossoming colors and smells that awake something inside, that is longing to come out.

 The days have started to get longer; the birds’ melodies carry in the new day. The trees are blooming; soon there will be flowers everywhere.

 Spring is a new beginning, brings hope, everything is coming back to life. It is full of promise…enjoy it, do not take it for granted.

Alien clarification… on Dumb questions post

Recently I wrote a post called Dumb questions people ask me. Some people asked me to do Dumb questions part 2, while thinking about it I received a comment that stated that “the ‘country’ is not ignorant”, so I felt I needed to clarify.

I don’t think the country is ignorant, I do not think that the people who asked the questions are stupid, they are miss informed. Judging the entire country by the actions of a few is ridiculous to me. That got me thinking that this would be like saying that because some white people are racist, therefore all whites are racist, or that because there are Black men in jail for committing crimes I should be afraid of all Black men, or that because there are some Mexican gangs I should assume that all Latinos are in gangs.

Then I realized that some people think like that, BIG, humongous generalizations that really don’t apply to the group, but just to a few. That helped me understand this person and where he/she was coming from. I have to thank him or her, for helping me figure this out. It helps me understand why when any of the other Latinas in my office says something I get in trouble too. We are like the Borg, sharing the same brain…;)

I think ignorance can be found everywhere and anywhere, no country, religion, race, or social group has the exclusive on either knowledge or ignorance. My posting had the attempt to be amusing and maybe to make people check their own assumptions, but never to try to make “the country” look stupid. I think nobody can accomplish that task, there is enough proof to the contrary.

Only thinking of oneself or LOCAL, seems narrow minded to me. One of the purposes of my blog is to open a mind, if only a sliver, to the views from the other side. Help people see how the other thinks or views the world.

I think than I am no better than you and you are no better than me, we are the same but different and learning about each other is enriching, makes us better.

Immigration Nation

Caption: Immigration nation. They speak funny. They look different. They don’t behave like us. Excellent! New Zealand need immigrants more than ever.

This is a different take on immigration from Idealog a business magazine from New Zealand you can find their article here  

The beauty of winter

  

 Winter is beautiful, yes it is cold, but there are so many changes that happen during winter, that I am always in awe of nature.

I like when it snows, after the roads have been cleaned up, the view is wonderful. I live in an area surrounded by fields, “the boonies” I’ve been told. In the winter, these fields that during the summer are golden by the corn or different shades of green from different crops, turn white, a crisp white a quiet white. You can see for miles, and it all looks so peaceful and clean. The sun rays reflected in that white, like feeding of the energy of the snow.

I usually take back roads to go to work, I could go to the highway, but then what is the fun in that? I get to drive by these wonderful fields and watch the birds huddled together in the power lines. There are some woods along the way, and it is a spectacle to see the snow and ice deposited in the limbs of the naked trees.  

Of course driving on the snow is another story altogether, especially if it is falling. I have had scary experiences when I can’t see a thing, or when my car won’t stop… Or the mess with the slush or the black ice.

I said I wanted the seasons, so I won’t complain; I actually enjoy most of it. The shoveling, the snow blower, snowball wars, sledding, it is just fun.

 It is so nice to sit inside with a warm cup of tea or chocolate watching the snow fall from the warmth of my home and family.

Proof of Alieness

I have a confession to make; I have never had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich… I know, that is all the proof you needed to know that I am an alien.

When the subject comes up, people look at me with that look that tells me that my cover has been blown. They already knew I was different, but now they know…how different.

When some people found out that I had never tried one they came up with all kinds of suggestions on how ‘my first time’ should be. The time, place, type of bread, flavor of jelly and even should it be jelly, jam or preserves?  There were many arguments among the experts about what should be the best approach.

 To tell you the truth, I feel a little bit grossed out by the idea. Don’t get me wrong; even though I did not grow up with it, I love peanut butter. I have had it with bread, crackers, candy, ice cream and even shakes. I also like jellies, jams and preserves, but putting them together seems odd.I know I will eventually have to take the ‘big leap’ and do it, but I am not ready just yet.

Race, what about the people in the middle?

 The Racial dynamics is this society are fascinating to me. I have taken classes to understand the how, why and the how long.  I have to explain that I come from a culture of mestizos, where we are all a mix of something and we see skin color as a physical characteristic, like height and weight, and not as a racial difference. I know this is difficult to grasp for some people who have lived all their lives with race as first and foremost distinguishing trait of their lives. 

When I moved here I thought racism was a thing of the past, a part of history. Obviously I was very wrong…  I was asked by an African American woman “how do you people segregate yourselves” I just said “we don’t”, why should we? I did not understand. I have learned that in this society you are assigned or you have to choose a faction. I have been assigned that I am Latina, coming from Latinamerica, which was not too farfetched for me. What I did not know is that it came with a set of characteristics and expectations assigned to me, some of which I can’t and will not accept. And thinking about this I wondered, what about those people in the middle. I have met people that come from interracial couples, and often times they are forced to assume only one of their two or more ancestries. I wonder if it is part of our need to categorize the world and put people into classifications with their own set of stereotypes and rules. 

Chappell’s race draft is a great satiric example of this, enjoy!!

The video is above

Why do they have to choose a side? Can anybody tell me that?