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Monday, 03 May 2010

Immigration: My Two Cents

With the passing of Arizona's controversial immigration bill basically legalizing racial profiling, immigration is more of a hot topic than ever. I don't pretend to know what the U.S. should do to control immigration. What I do know is that some Americans' prejudice and outrageous statements are making me more and more ashamed to live in this country.

When I watched the movie Farmingville for my Spanish class this semester, I spent the entire hour and a half clenching my fists and shaking my head. The movie details a small community on Long Island which drew a large illegal immigrant population and the community members' reactions to this situation.

Most of the members of this community were blinded by hate. They made claims such as "this is proof Mexico is trying to reconquer the United States!" and immediately assumed that all illegal immigrants were in the community to soil it with crime and assault. To them, the only solution was deportation.

I just want to kick these people in the face wish these people would put themselves in immigrants' shoes. Sure, not all of them are upstanding people, but neither are all Americans. Most of them are just here to support their families in a way they couldn't in their home countries. We take our freedom and comfort in the U.S. for granted all too often. Have a little empathy, your ancestors were most likely immigrants too. And in most places like Farmingville, the demand for their labor is present and satisfied by their work--it's an (imperfect) model that works. I think what it boils down to is that some people are petrified of change; we certainly saw that in the most recent presidential election when some Americans took it upon themselves to spread word that Barack Obama was a terrorist, using his middle name as weaponry.

The absolute worst part of the movie Farmingville? A group of people singing "God Bless America" when a provision for a work lot to help the immigrants was vetoed. If this ideology represents our true "god-blessed" America, I don't want to be any part of it.

Friday, 30 April 2010

Just do it

If you say you’re gonna do something, DO IT.
Nothing pisses me off more than people who waste other people’s time and energy. I already encountered three major examples of this since Tuesday.
1) On Tuesday, Commons sponsored s’mores in front of my building scheduled to start at 8:30. My roommate and I walk outside and they don’t even have a grill ready, let alone the s’more supplies. They’re standing around clueless, and finally get the fire going around 9, but still don’t have everything they need. After all that time, we didn’t even get s’mores because we had to go back inside to watch Glee at 9.
2) On Thursday in my psych class, a student brings up that grades for one of our assignments due forever ago still have not been posted, and we need to see these grades for our assignment due Tuesday. The professor goes, “oh yeah, we have the grades, we just need to post them, they’ll DEFINITELY be up today.” Here we are at 3:15 on FRIDAY, and they’re still not up. This isn’t the first time this has happened in this class either. He once told us our grades would be up one Tuesday, and they weren’t up until the following Tuesday.
3) Also on Thursday, another food-related issue came up. My roommate and I once again headed out to get free ice cream on the Washington quad from our honor society. The girl didn’t even show up AT ALL until 30 minutes after the specified start time, and came armed with melty ice cream. The best part? Her reason for being late: “hey yeah sorry, but like my sister is graduating and I wanted to go get graduation tickets with her.” NO! If you are the sole person responsible for something, you don’t do something else clearly knowing you will be late.
These incidents in themselves aren’t big deals, but it’s the attitudes surrounding them that supremely piss me off. Some guidelines for avoiding these situations:
1) If you are sponsoring an activity that requires some set-up, GET THERE BEFORE THE START TIME OF THE EVENT.
2) If you say you’re going to do something, DO IT. Otherwise don’t sign up for it or volunteer specific information.
3) Put yourself in everyone else’s shoes. If people are expecting s’mores at 8:30 or grades by Thursday, imagine how they feel before you take any action/don’t take action.
I am continually baffled by the fact that this is a concept so basic that people just can’t seem to follow through on.

Sunday, 03 January 2010

The Don'ts of Facebook

I really hate the way some people use Facebook. I honestly think that some people should be banned from it out of stupidity. Witnessing what some of my Facebook friends do just makes me shake my head, and the posts on lamebook.com has diminished my faith in humanity even more.

I will never be able to understand why people think it's okay to say things explicitly about certain people online that they would never say in real life. If you want to vent those feelings, talk to a friend. Write it down somewhere private. Facebook is not your personal diary. Badmouthing others in a public forum is rude, immature, and unprofessional, but most of all just pitiful. No one likes a crybaby. If you're really feeling tempted, just wait. Soon enough you'll (hopefully) realize that it's idiotic to post whatever you were going to say. Go for the cryptic song lyric if you really feel the urge to say something.

Also, I really hate couples who constantly bombard each other's walls with sexual insinuations and "I love you mwahmwahmawh CAN'T WAIT TO CUDDLE WITH YOU ALL NIGHT." We all know that you're calling, texting, and seeing your significant other in person. You can say those things then. Also, please do not post pictures of the two of you making out. As lame as it sounds it's true-- don't post anything you wouldn't want your grandmother to see.

Which brings me to my next point...pictures of partying. We've all heard the warnings (Media colloquium anyone?) that schools and employers check out Facebooks. Please set up some privacy parameters. It surprises me how many people I randomly click on that have completely open profiles with easily accessible evidence of underage drinking. Why even risk it? And furthermore, why do you only have pictures of you out and drinking anyway? Am I supposed to think you're really cool now?

Some brief final points since I'm running out of steam:
1) Use legible English on Facebook. I don't care if you don't capitalize beginnings of sentences or spell a few things wrong. But when I see posts like, "cnt wAit 2 go OuT 2mar hoLlLlaaaaaa lolz" I just want to hurt someone. And then I delete you off my newsfeed.
2) Don't use Facebook as a means to communicate important information to people close to you. It's fine to let acquaintances know you're pregnant through Facebook, but if you're having a baby, please tell your family, etc. before posting it.
3) Limit the frequency of your status updates to once a day at most. This isn't Twitter.