Border Wars

Calhoun’s Can(n)ons for April 30, 2010

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.
                         Thomas Pynchon

Well, it’s now official. Arizona has lost its marbles. First, due to budget considerations, they closed highway rest stops so if you’re driving through Arizona and you have to pee, you’d better bring a can. Then they passed a new law that could effectively result in making it illegal to Walk While Mexican. So, Mexico – Mexico? – yes, Mexico, the same travel destination that is regularly the target of American travel advisories due to drug war shootouts and kidnappings and murders – has issued its own travel advisory warning Mexican tourists heading for Arizona that they may well get stopped and harassed, so they’d better keep their passports handy. Especially if they actually look, er, “illegal.”

Then other American organizations, city councils and various other politicos piled on, calling for a boycott of Arizona, which could cause real damage in a state whose current shaky economic health relies heavily on tourist dollars. (And all those “illegals” working in the tourist hotel/restaurant industry.) All of which was accompanied by the usual Maximum Righteous Outrage, which plays so well on TV and talk radio. And, naturally, the whole insane mess will head directly for the courts since it appears to violate some of our most cherished myths and mixes up state and federal authority concerning immigration laws.

All of which came about because this country refuses to get honest about what it’s been doing for years – which is running businesses on the backs of illegal immigrants because its cheaper to do so – no union wages, no health insurance, no pesky disability insurance, no income tax – just work “off the books” with unverified workers as much as possible. Higher profits for the business, cheaper products for the consumer, and the well-to-do get a Don’t Ask/ Don’t Tell gardener and nanny without having to worry about paying SSI taxes. So, everybody’s happy, right?

Well, no. When you live a lie, it’s impossible not to keep running into problems. Unless you reinstate a system of slavery or keep your illegal, off-the-books workers hooked into chain gangs housed in guarded compounds, each illegal worker will be joined by family. Now, instead of one single employee, your community suddenly has a wife and children. And children need educating, paid for by taxpayers. And families need health care which, if not covered by the employer, has to come from the taxpayers as well.

Multiply that a few million times and concentrate the numbers into a small geographical area (like Arizona) and you’ve got problems. It’s no coincidence that it was Arizona that passed this law, not North Dakota. North Dakota does not have a large influx of “illegal Canadians” putting a strain on public coffers and social services.

Toss in good old basic racism, which only complicates the issue further by making it an issue nearly impossible to discuss honestly without an ugly subtext, and you end up with a mess. And there’s nothing politicos love more than a mess they can demagogue.

Over the years our congresspeople have earnestly asserted that “Something Must Be Done,” while quickly tabling the “Something” because our dirty little secret is this: Our economy needs and wants and hires and relies on the very people we scapegoat and demagogue when times get tough or when politicians need an “issue” to stir up voters.

So, before any of this can be fixed, this country has to get honest about the role “illegal immigrants” play in keeping this country’s economy afloat. We could certainly try some version of the funny movie, “A Day Without Mexicans,” and see what happens. In an aging country filled with Baby Boomers who are rapidly losing the ability to pick their own lettuce, slaughter and dress their own chickens, mow their lawns, bus their own dishes or get services in a nursing home, the results of such a boycott would be interesting.

Or we could pass a federal law making it mandatory for every citizen to carry tamper-proof “papers” at all times. Then spend gazillions to beef up INS agents and start raiding businesses all over the country to frog march all the CEO’s who are employing these illegals right to prison and all the illegals right to the border. That’d solve the problem, but would empty out our farms and factories and slaughterhouses and hotels and restaurants and nursing homes and hospitals and gardens and construction sites.

Or we can get honest and admit that we need and like the benefits “illegal” low-wage workers bring to our way of life, then sit down to honestly figure out a fair and just way to deal with the liabilities such a wink-nudge system brings with it.

Or we can all just drive to Phoenix and get out of our car and walk around wearing “illegal-looking shoes” and a big sombrero and see what happens.

Your Sunday Reading

Spent a few days in Fresno visting my sister, with plans to visit Yosemite, which didn't happen on account of rain, rain, rain, rain, and all the dogs had to hang around in her laundry room grumbling and staring out at the wet yard, "It's wet, it's wet, I'm bored, can we go home now?"  So, o.k, I'm now home, the dogs can run around in the back yard until Tuesday when it's supposed to rain some more, and I'm trying to play catch up. 

In the meantime, over at http://fourstory.org/cuba/ the Four Story site's doing a whole section on Cuba.  Very interesting.  The site has a gaggle of really great writers, (who are actually paid for their work -- unhead of on the Web), including my friend from Jr. High, Donna Schoenkopf and her daughter, Rebecca, who is a seriously funny writer (the "Commie Girl" column for the OC (Orange County) Weekly and LA Citybeat, whose work has been gathered into a seriously funny  book, "Commie Girl in the OC.")  So, check it out.  You can sign up at the site (http://fourstory.org/) for updates as they're posted, which is very helpful since you'll then get an email saying there's a new piece posted and can toodle over to the site to read it.  Lots of great writers, lots of good reading.  I've also linked the site if you'll check my links in the sidebar to the right.

And starting at 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. if you're mooning around with nothing on the schedule, come down to Santa Rosa Park (on Santa Rosa Ave - Hwy 1 near Sierra Vista Hopsital) in SLOTown for SLO Dog's annual "Dog Days in the Park," featuring all kinds of events like flyball, GCG, Junior Handling exhibitons, booths and etc.  The Mighty Finn McCool and another greyhound will be at the GAC (Greyhound Adoption Center) booth as the "poster children" of the racing set.  Finn loves these gigs.  He's convinced that everyone in the park came out just to see him.  As well they should.  After all, he's The Mighty Finn McCool!  What's not to love?

Your Sunday Musing

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.

Mary Wilson Little, quoted in The Toronto Star

War Zone

Calhoun’s Can(n)ons for April 16, 2010

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
Thornton Wilder

Yes, it’s a teaspoon. And there’s the ocean. Or in this case, an ocean of sand. In the backyard. After the heavy winter rains. And flooding. And not only an ocean of sand but huge berms and trenches running higgly-piggedly across the yard, all earthworks hastily thrown up during a particularly long series of winter downpours to channel the growing flood waters away from the house. And pavers to move and a breezeway to re-grade, and piles of faux concrete cobblestones to re-arrange.

And now that the ground’s dried a bit and the shrubs and bushes are waking up and insisting their way up into the sky, it’s time to set the yard right again. With a small shovel that’s looking more and more like a teaspoon. And with fine powder sand – for every shovel-full taken out of the ground, half a shovel-full falls back in -- it’s a task that even Sisyphus wouldn’t want. “Hunh, this job’s like carrying milk in a sieve. Gimme my rock back.”

The dogs are no help. Amidst the hastily thrown up lumps and humps and trenches and berms, they’ve added their own gleeful Big Stupid Useless Holes Dug For No Reason, except the sheer joy of digging vast useless holes. And the path of one of the trenches parallels the serpentine, banked running track pounded into the sand by the dogs completing their morning and evening Zoomies – a race in and out and around the raised flower beds with thundering paws pounding out a banked racing track. A mini- Indianapolis 500, canine style. Smoothing and flattening the Zoomie track would be as useless as King Canute commanding the ocean to retreat. Two or three evening gallops later and it would be back in place. No use running counter when you have dogs operating as landscape architects.

After a few hours, the worst of the mess has been put right. The largest trenches are smoothed to swales, the sneaky weeds are pulled and the general disorder has been neatened up. And it becomes clearer than ever, I am no longer 40. Aw, who am I kidding? I’m not even 60 any more, as the back knows. Knees, too.

Time to head for the yellow Adirondack chair for a sit-down. To my right, the shaggy rough trunks of the great grape vine serpentine along the fence above the concrete retaining wall, soft green fuzzy buds popping out along its waving vines. Soon the fence will be canopied with a thick profusion of leaves. Under the vines the relentless giant Four O’Clocks have once again poked their green snouts above the sand. Nothing short of a direct nuclear strike can stop those plants. But best of all, the vitex trifolia purpurea, the lovely Arabian Lilac bushes that I thought had been killed by the winter frosts are alive and awake and busy refilling their branches with those lovely olive-green and lavender leaves.

In a winter war zone, it’s a heartening sign that once again spring is here and the race for summer can begin. With luck, the bees will return again to hum among the lavender plants. Already I see crows flying overhead with long strings of nesting material in their beaks. And at least one battling hummingbird has returned to check out the feeder and look around for a mate. Even the dogs are starting to laze around on the now warming sand, flopping down with huge sighs as if their long legs suddenly could no longer support them.

No doubt resting up so they can undo all my work. But I guess it’s a fair deal: They get their exercise digging great big useless holes in the ground and I get my exercise filling them back in. On a nice spring day, even Sisyphus might say, “Good enough. Gimme a shovel.”

Welcome to SLO (Lifetime Employment) County?

Tribune headline: "Wilcox hired by SLO County Employees Association," noting that Gail Wilcox who, you will recall, was fired as Assistant County Administrator for canoodling with her negotiating opposite during contract negotiations, and other general "dumbth" carryings on with her Supervisor, County CEO Dave Edge. The same Wilcox who then sued Edge and the County for sexual harassment. And now she's hired by SLOCEA, the county's largest employee association on a contract basis (at will, one hopes?), to "conduct a job classification and compensation survey." Notes the Tribune, quoting Kim Daniels, general manager of the San Luis Obispo County Employees Association, "Who better?" . . . " adding that they got Wilcox for a good price in 'a steal of a deal.'"

A steal of a deal. What is it with SLO County, anyway? Has this place turned into the County where screw-ups are guaranteed lifetime employment? I can think of more than several former county mucky-mucks who were fired for a variety of Walking While Stupid violations, only to see them recycled into CSD jobs or other public employments.

Maybe that's it. SLOTown is "green" and heavily into recycling? Get fired for stupidities in one government job but instead of putting a paper bag on the head and skulking out of town, here in SLO County, your particular screw-up is NOT an employment problem. A little shuffling here and there and some other (lower level) government job will snap you up as a "steal of a deal."

Eternal employment. Yep, it's heaven here, alright.

Oh, NOW You Figure It Out?

The New York Times reports that the Vatican has finally gotten around to spelling out "for the first time that it now strongly urges bishops to report abuse cases to civil authorities if required by local law."

Urges? Strongly urges? Not demands? Requires? Directs? Mandates? Just "strongly urges?" Well, O.K. But then the guideline states that "civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed." "Should?" How's about "must." Or something like, "All Catholic priests will now be considered -- like doctors and teachers -- mandatory reporters of suspected abuse?"

And what's with only having to report abuse if required by local law? Does anyone know of a place where local law allows child abuse to go unreported?

Well, maybe the new ruling will make things more clear, even if the new rules are a dollar short and about 100 years too short.