An immigrant's reaction to Obama's plan

[BeyondGeography]

[stone space]

1. He hasn't seen his mother in 21 years.

Before I met my wife, her sister was sick, and she was debating whether or not to go back to see her.

Her employer bought her a one way ticket home, knowing that she would never be allowed to return to this country if she left, and that he would be losing his best employee forever.

She was ready to go, but canceled the trip when her sister died, and the ticket never got used.

My wife, during the years that she was undocumented, has been fortunate to find good employers who refused to discriminate against her even though the law allows and even requires such discrimination (and they, in turn, got a very good employee), but not being allowed for so many years to see her family was a great strain for her.

[stone space]

2. asdf

[asiliveandbreathe]

3. This President has just freed

so many people and allowed them to come out of the shadows. To think that so many human beings have been treated so poorly, it makes me weep for my country.

As our wonderful President Obama said, "this is NOT who we are" - my thought "he's not heavy, he's my brother"

[Cha]

4. Beautifully said, asiliveandbreathe!

[Moostache]

5. I wish it wasn't who we are....but it IS.

America has become something harsh and ugly, just as I feared 13 years ago.

The events of 9/11 set in motion the forces we are seeing in our politics and policies now.

We had a chance to react differently.
We had the world supporting us and willing to follow our lead, if we were rational.
We could have parlayed that good will into productive discussions and even compromises - there could be peace in the Middle East instead of endless war, there could be two states in Palestine and Israel, there could have been greater co-operation between Russia and the West, between China and the US, between all the people of good will.
We could have rectified our own disparities as well....between rich and poor, black and white, straight and gay, documented and non-documented.
We could have turned inward and REALLY examined our actions, our policies and our collateral damage across the world in the last 150 years. We could have become something worthy of the now ridiculous statement "greatest country on Earth".

We did none of that. We didn't even try ANY of it.
Instead, we started Orwell's vision of permanent war.
We built an Orwellian surveillance state.
We pit people against each other more so than any time since the Roman coliseum.
We pay bankers to steal from us and we jail people we work for us doing things no one else wants to do...

America sucks.
Full stop.

The fact is that the collective "we" ARE that cold-hearted, bigoted, angry, over-entitled id that runs amok with the GOP, the Tea Party and is enabled to represent "us" by the apathy and unwillingness to stand up to it from thos ewho abdicate the franchise.

Fuck this America. I hate this aberration of inhumanity and incivility. I loathe this temple of worshipping ignorance and greed while tearing into empathy and intelligence.

The faster this current incarnation of America ceases to exist, the better off we all will be.