I Live in This Country?

Today is, more so than not to most people, the continuation of a well-appreciated 3 day weekend. (I did not get today off, in case you were wondering) But what I am wondering is, how many people take a moment to remember and reflect on the man who brought about this holiday? I don't, really. Not in the past. The only reason I did today was due to a Fresh Air piece interviewing Michelle Alexander about her most recent book, which now is next on my list of things to read. In short, she brings forth the idea that the contemporary American incarceration system and its so-called "War On Drugs" campaign is but a redesign of the despicable Jim Crow Laws that existed before the Civil Rights era. Bold argument right? She made sense. Disturbingly and unfortunately enough, what she had to say made complete sense.

Listening to her made me think about why we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr with a national holiday in our time. Do we, as Americans, think we've made leaps and bounds in terms of achieving racial equality? The breakthroughs that occurred during the Civil Rights era were, no doubt, a big step towards gaining equality in the US. But on the other hand, it also merely made explicit racial discrimination illegal while bringing forth new and disguised ways to continue racially discriminatory practices and keep in place a system that has severely disenfranchised African Americans since they were brought here on a boat centuries ago. What's the meaning behind this holiday, then? Why erect a monument honoring Dr King in our nation's capitol? It's almost like saying, well...we haven't achieved your dream yet, and we don't know when we will, or if we ever will, but for the sake of formality we'll put you next to these other monuments representing people and historical events dotting our kids' history textbooks. Just because it seems like the natural thing to do. Not to undermine or belittle the progress that has been made--because we have come a long way--but I think oftentimes we are caught in the misguided hubris of progress. Just because restaurants no longer put up signs prohibiting 'coloreds' means we've made progress? Progress is not progress when a disproportionate number of members from the same racial group continue to be entrapped in a system that allows no way out of a life of drugs, crime, and violence. And apparently, there is no way to move forward when there are idiots like this barring the road.

Real Life Beats Shakespeare's Tragic Irony

"The key to a happier world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities."--The Dalai Lama

How appropriate I came across this quote as I recently read a story about a little girl in China being hit by two trucks and having no less than 18 people heartlessly passing by her before a scrap peddler lady pulled her off the street.

This tragic story demonstrates the ills of humans on so many levels.
1) How are you going to pass a completely helpless human being, without a soul in sight to help her, and pretend like you didn't even see them? She's paralyzed, lying in the middle of the street. She...was...fucking...run...over. By a truck. A two year old. What if it was your kid? Would you pay attention then?
2) How are you going to sit behind your computer, like the asshole coward you are, and post shit things like this woman only saved the child because she wanted to gain financially from doing it? WOW, masters of cynicism, where are you? You guys have got the act down, perfect 10. Don't hide like a coward behind a computer screen posting disgusting comments like that. Not only would you never, NEVER have the balls to commit a courageous act like that, you probably don't have balls, period. They probably were cut off and shoved into your mouth and that's why you're so bitter.
3) When did it become human nature to do a cost-benefit analysis before helping someone desperately in need?

Some arguments have been brought in that I think are just bullshit.
1) Lack of a "good samaritan" law that protects rescuers, because in China there have been incidents where people passing by tried to help old ladies who had fallen and then later got sued because the victim accused them of causing the injury. Because of these incidents people in China are hesitant to help others in need for fear they might get their asses sued.
2) This utilitarian culture that has been pervasive in China since the onset of economic reforms. Values that teach people to pursue pure material gain and take on a utilitarian mindset. Everything is cost-benefit. There is no such thing as altruism. In fact, it's considered a sign of weakness.
I don't deny the two are complicating factors. But when it comes down to it, I can't imagine any mentality as an alternative to instinctively wanting to help a person you see who desperately, unequivocally, absolutely needs your help. If they don't get your help, they will die. If that's not enough for you to intervene, then what is? Don't give bullshit reasons. Either do the right thing, or don't. This is a basic decision that should appeal to your conscience if you are HUMAN. Not if you are Chinese or American. If. you. are. human.

Wow, shit. New low. My faith in humankind to do the most basic, decent thing like save a badly injured, helpless 2 year old toddler can't even be satisfied. Each time I think I discover the rock bottom of the dark side of humankind, nope. It has this ever-expanding quality, like the universe. Just...shit.

The Incredible Shrinking Middle Class and Lost Gen-Ys

 

I saw these pictures on my FB newsfeed by two different friends.
 
I finished reading Robert Reich's Aftershock. The main issue he addresses in this book has been on my mind lately, as I watch what's been happening politically and economically in this country. It's a good read that provides an overlooked perspective on why the American economy sucks right now. I'm going to do the book a disservice by giving this overly simple summary, but basically the gist of the argument is that this economic mess was not created by Americans living beyond their means because they had unbridled access to credit (this part I might partially have to disagree with), but because of the widening socioeconomic inequality that has been going on in this country for the past few decades. For the average American worker, wages have increased little, even flatlining, while productivity in the workplace has increased due largely to improvements in technology. Increased productivity benefits CEOs and the companies they run, but not necessarily American workers for the reason stated above. In order to fulfill higher costs of living and counter stagnant wages, Americans spend more time working. Unchanging wages+higher costs of living=Americans saving less to buy a middle class lifestyle. Credit plays a role in this by making things seem more affordable and by creating an illusion of wealth. In 2008 when housing prices began to first level out, then decline, many Americans came to realize they were screwed because families had refinanced their homes in order to gain access to more credit. So now not only did they have mortgage debt, they had consumer debt. And for many people, the most valuable asset--their house--was now worth much, much less. But this entire dynamic is a symptom of the true root of our economic problems, and not the cause. The cause is a set of policies that have come to favor the rich while ignoring, even putting the middle and lower classes, at an economic disadvantage.

We seem to be a society favoring patterns of divergence, and by that I mean not only has our political system come under stress from two increasingly divided ideological camps that have less and less to agree on, our society is splitting off into two groups of haves and have-nots. We resemble an hourglass--the rich people at the top are becoming richer, the poor people at the bottom becoming poorer, and the middle class moving into one of these two categories. Unfortunately, moving downward seems to be a more likely scenario.

The American dream is a joke. I'm very disturbed to see how increasingly difficult it has become for people to make a decent living in this country. We work longer hours, but more and more people hate their jobs. It's almost an anomaly nowadays to find someone who can tolerate their job, let alone like it. We are an anti-middle class country. Look at all this backlash against the public sector and unions. Unions are organizations that are supposed to provide protection to the average working man, yet we allow politicians to dismantle them. Private sector employees shouldn't be looking at the public sector and complaining that people in this sector have overly robust benefits. The private sector should be demanding these types of benefits. We can't have what they have, so they shouldn't have it? Politicians are trying to eliminate social programs where the middle class are the largest group of recipients and prolonging regressive tax policies, like the estate tax, which benefit wealthy Americans. (Reich) Big companies like Procter and Gamble are beginning to develop products and marketing strategies aimed at the upper class because it realizes the middle class--traditionally the most voracious consumers of their products--cannot afford to spend anymore. I'm not lying. This was published in a Wall Street Journal special report, which I didn't read because I would have had to pay for it.

Doesn't this make you shake your head? I think it's wrong to think that as long as you're doing ok then you shouldn't be discontent. It's very dangerous to live in an inequitable society. Countries with high levels of inequality are often the most unstable and violent. This is not about altruism. Even thinking about it in the most self-interested terms, you can't enjoy your own wealth when you're constantly fearful about the angry poor. They will break down your doors, revolt, and cause massive instability. So even if you don't care about the have-nots--maybe you even feel they deserve to be where they are--be discontent. Be discontent that you live in a society where the poor are severely disenfranchised and downtrodden, and the rich live unflinchingly, unsympathetically, in their own little champagne and yacht-filled bubble. If you are the only one well off, then what does it matter? 

It's tough to be optimistic, living in a society like this. I try to tell myself it's not hard to be happy, but I guess you can only be happy if your own situation is good and you ignore much of whatever else is going on around you. I'm worried for my generation. We're lost on so many levels, and I think in the long run this economic downturn is going to hit us most adversely. When the debt piles up to a point where we can't not pay it back anymore. When we won't be able to access the sad safety net we call Social Security because we spent our tax dollars paying for the Baby Boomer generation to use it and have nothing left for ourselves. When living with our parents is no longer an option and we're dissatisfied with where we are in life, thinking we would be much bigger than what we've become.

I don't really know what the fix-all to all this is. There probably isn't one. But I can't stop thinking about it.

I Am Troy Davis

I'm very disturbed and disappointed at the outcome of Troy Davis' case. It was all I could think about yesterday. I don't think it would have been so significant to me had I not TA'ed for a law in film class last semester. Yes, of all places, a law in film course was where I first learned the details of the US's innocent-until-proven guilty criminal justice model. If I hadn't been in that class, I would have read the Troy Davis case and probably even felt that he ought to die, so justice could be served for the victim and his family. But in that class, I heard a defense lawyer speak and one point he made really stuck with me. It was in response to a student asking him whether he felt guilty for defending people that he knew deep inside were probably guilty as hell. He reacted by saying that when it came to his job, the first thing he thought about were his twin sons. What if one day, sitting in that defendant's seat, was one of his sons? He would want his son to be tried in a justice system that sought to unconditionally protect the innocent, even if it meant letting a few guilty ones go. I had never thought about that before. What if someone was in the wrong place, at the wrong time and all the facts of the case were stacked against them? Maybe he's guilty? Maybe not? If I were that person and knew that I was truly innocent, I would find some comfort in knowing that proving my innocence was not an insurmountable task. I would have hope that even though the circumstances pointed toward guilt, there would be an opportunity within the system to clear my name.

Which is why I am so sorry that the justice system has failed Troy Davis. Because if it can fail him, it can fail anyone. Unless you have money, then you can reverse the situation and make guilt look like innocence. But many of us don't have that type of resource. If our justice system can let someone like Casey Anthony go due to lack of evidence to convict her, why weren't all these factors debunking Troy Davis' "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt" enough to save him?

The Danger of Ignorance

Whoever said ignorance is bliss was...ignorant. No, seriously. The other day I was reading a very sad and disgusting story about a white teenager who deliberately ran over a black man with his car, killing him. This is the story. I try to stay away from reading the comments sections when I read news stories because oftentimes I don't agree with what people say and it just wastes my time as I sit there in disbelief that people can be so obtuse. For some reason I decided to scroll down and read, and I think I found some of the deluded Americans who would vote for the Tea Party and cause a ruckus about Obama not being born in the US (see old entry addressing birthers aka idiots). Here is one example by 'Henridelagarrigue':

"Born in Hawaii?!?!?!? Paper can be generated to say anything you want it to. 2 days after the election, his own grandmother said he was born in Kenya. She was quickly whisked back to Kenya and mysteriously died 2 days later..."

What the freak. People in this forum were proudly pointing at themselves, stating they TRULY believed in this Obama not being born in the US bullshit.

Ok, but anyway, I digress. What I really couldn't believe was that so many of these people did not think this was a racially motivated hate crime, as indicated in this post by 'jason':

"Good thing your not on the jury. You already know this was meant to terrorize a community huh? Ok,who needs evaluation of such unimportant issues as the facts and evidence. Sickening. A 19 year old terrorist trying to terrorize an entire community through a fight in a parking lot,ummm ok. And that should be weighed into the charges? Wow, why even bother with a trial huh? But cause the dude was white and victim black he's already guilty huh? Amazing. And what community was this 19 year old attacking?I guess you fill that in for us. Reverse racism buddy."

Does he think the law was created to serve everyone equally? The legal system was born in an era where the social norm was to own slaves and count black people as 3/5 of a person. People who think the US has become a colorblind nation are living in in some sort of self-created utopia. Are we living in the same country?? How can you not understand that the black man was murdered because of his skin color? Some people take issue with race being mentioned in the crime. Why? Are they uncomfortable about having to face the cold, hard, ugly truth? Or are they genuinely blind to the deep legacy of racism that continues to exist in this country?

Wake up, people. We still live in a society where your worth and potential for success is largely determined by stereotypes and the color of your skin. Ignorance is going to be the downfall of this so-called "great nation." By the time Americans open their eyes, if they ever do, we will have realized the crumbling of our society was brought about by none other than ourselves.

Was It Really That Surprising?

I can't believe it. Once again, the American legal system amazes me with the hypocrisy it possesses. Like clockwork, everything seems to be flip-flopped to the point where guilt is innocence, justice is injustice, and the clearer things are supposed to be, the more people become blinded.

Just look at these variables and you can probably predict the outcome of future criminal cases:
Sex of defense
Race of defense
Socioeconomic status of defense
Jury selection process
If ever you hear the term, 'cannot be absolutely proven,' or some variant of it, raise an eyebrow.

Isn't the point of a functioning legal system to serve justice? In this entire process, no one seemed to think about Caylee Anthony.