“The presidency is not about an individual’s color or gender it’s about accepting the humanity in this country equally.” -GSerna
This thought came to me the other day after watching all the news reports about the republican debates and hearing them go at it with each other. I thought to myself it’s not about the promises they make about turning this country around it’s their understanding of Humanity that I am concerned with.
We have become complacent with the candidate that will promise the most and do a convincing job of it each time they speak.
We hear that they will create more jobs, applause!
We hear that they will reform health care, applause!
We hear that they will bring jobs back to America, applause!
We hear that they will reform immigration, applause!
We hear that they will…..
After all of that and more we feel like that is exactly what we wanted to hear and we go to sleep feeling better about ourselves for having participated in a Democracy. I’m all for political participation but believing what is being promised to me is not what I do because if the promises were true 10% of the time we would be in a better place right now.
Let’s pick apart each of the above, let’s start with jobs. Why is it that so many jobs leave the USA? Is it that others are better at building or creating items? Maybe they have a better work ethic than we do? Well it’s not that what, it is this thing called Capitalism and the power it brings to corporations to make as much money as they can. Some of you might say ‘but that’s a good thing!’ and I’m sure it is for those that are receiving our money. It would be different if there was responsibility within that “ism” and as we know today there isn’t.
So back to the lack of jobs, the reason jobs go overseas is simply because the wage is much lower in other countries then what it is here in the USA. Some shows like 30 ROCK and Will and Grace have done shows were a character damns the “little brown hands” that stitched a garment because it was such a good job. Many companies do employ child labor indirectly overseas because they just pick a factory somewhere and rarely go and do surprise visits to ensure that they are holding up to a standard. So why don’t we make our own garments in the USA? Mostly because the cost of labor is high and in our system of Capitalism, as it functions today, that is a big NO-NO. Never pay your labor too much the controllable cost should always be as low as possible. This is not to say that people shouldn’t get paid well but how is it that we have found ourselves in a place where we are complaining about high cost of items in a store but wish we had the job that made some of those products and would expect a well to do salary as well? I’ve heard people say “I’d love a job like that but hell they going to have to pay me good!” And there’s nothing wrong with that people should be paid a livable wage and as a society we should learn to live within our means. To have the freedom to create an opportunity to make more is one of the things we cherish about our society and that’s great but when we complain that an item at Walmart is not on clearance yet and you hold back is just unforgiving.
I’ve heard people complain about a loaf of bread that cost $2.29 saying they can get it cheaper somewhere else and I think to myself ‘do you realize that what you waste in gas to get to that other place out weights the cents that you think you might save at another store?’ People usually don’t. So we are being taken advantage of when it comes to Jobs because these mega corporations know that as a society we are WILLING to spend as long as it comes cheap and fast.
Health care has been on the table so much that I doubt there is much room on it left that hasn’t been changed and the horrible thing about it is that it has a lot to do with what I just wrote about jobs. Everyone needs to get paid and get paid very well and the pharmaceuticals are the big bully on the block because they make it seem as if they care about people but what they really care about is their pocket books. What ends up happening is that people get twisted when we speak of Universal health care and only since President Obama mentioned it the issue became a “Socialist” idea. The fact that the USA took over Iraq and the USA was the administrator for Iraq in its rebuilding and created Universal health care for the people of Iraq so amazing! It’s good for Iraq and bad for America? The answer is yes because pharmaceutical companies do not have a hold on Iraq as they do here. So until we deal with this issue we will NOT have a health care reform policy the way ANY presidential candidate has promised.
Back to jobs….well it’s pretty much as the above in creating jobs because to think that a president has the power to tell or even suggest a company to abandon its cheap labor force overseas is ridiculous. So why do we believe them when they say it?
Immigration has been a hot topic since the Native Brothers and Sisters saw a bunch of people hop off a boat with weird clothing and hats. The idea that we can speak on immigration without addressing hate is unreal. I do mean hate because that is how it has been expressed by the people that feel that they are affected by it the most. What the people on the other side of the argument say is ‘have you read your history?’ and most people might say that the pilgrims was a long time ago so let it go. What people don’t realize is that immigration was an issue that Mexico had with the USA before the USA had an issue with Mexico.
The entire South West of the USA was Mexican territory and people will say that the USA won it fair and square and I will not debate the issue because the history is clear on it that it was NOT won fair and square….Mexico allowed immigration into its territory freely until the America settlers wanted to break off a piece of land that was already sovereign to the Republic of Mexico. Well Mexico did what any other country would do, they ended all immigration into its territory but that was not going to be respected by many. Here’s what Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his book about Thomas H. Benton during those times:
“…Westerners honestly believed themselves to be indeed created the heirs of the Earth, or at least of much of it as was known by the name of North America, and were prepared to struggle stoutly for the immediate possession of their heritage.”
That is a loaded statement because it is justifying the actions that took place in taking away sovereign land from another country based on what a group of people thought about themselves and how a government followed them into the West in their support. Could you imagine if the Mexican government supported and followed Mexicans onto what is now US territory based on a belief of a group of Mexicans that the South West of the USA is their heritage? In terms of history this wasn’t that long ago so those feelings are still fresh in people’s minds and hearts. So as we would like to think about immigration reform there are many obstacles to overcome and at some point someone needs to raise their hand and say ‘OK people it’s obvious this is messed up in almost every point that we look at it how do we reconcile our boarders?’ or something like that….
Now, you may be asking what all of this has to do with violence and youth, it has EVERYTHING to do with it! The lack of jobs creates stress in whole communities that lack local opportunities of employment and that stress leads to health problems. Those health problems need to be addressed but not everyone can afford Good medical attention. As they hear about bringing jobs back they are given false hope because no one is dragging a corporation back to the USA for the sake of hiring someone local at a livable wage. As for the immigration issue, people that live in poverty and are born here feel as if they need to compete against foreign nationals that are “taking away” jobs that could have been for them and they don’t realize that it is more about that job not paying a lot and putting the foreign nationals at risk in many ways then it is about them taking the jobs away from them. No one is going to hire a US national at below minimum wage with no health benefits and work them 7 days with no breaks or lunches sometimes…it’s twisted from every corner you look at it.
How do we create change that we haven’t seen before? I truly believe that the youth of our society has the answer in their hands as a vote and in their minds as a voice with a vote. The 26th amendment had its first push by non-other than President Nixon and on July 7th 1971 it became official that the voting minimum age would be 18. The debate started back in WWII because men being enlisted felt like they were being told to die for a country but you cannot vote in your country until the age of 21 and these same men were being drafted at 18. So the feeling was that if they were old enough to die for their country they should be old enough to vote in their country and they are right! The argument started up again during the Vietnam War and it was changed and so we find ourselves today with military recruits in our High Schools and ROTC programs as well basically getting minors to think about the military as soon as they get out of HS. If we allow that then we should allow a 16 year old to vote in elections. They may not be risking their lives on a front line on foreign soil but many decisions that are being made now is putting their future lives at risk of no health care, no social security, etc…
We as a society currently prosecute minors as adults when they commit crimes that would normally be committed by an adult. Sometimes they are sentenced to Life in prison with no chance of parole and other times they are let out by the time the reach their adult legal age depending on the crime. When they do come home they might not know how to act as an appropriate adult in a society that is expecting them to not act as a child but all they knew from the outside was their childhood.
It is complicated but I think that as we have seen our society become increasingly intelligent at younger ages I believe it is time again to question if the voting age should be brought to the age of 16. If you don’t believe they are ready I suggest you go to a school and ask to sit with a group of 16 year old youth and ask them about their families and about life and you’ll quickly forget that they only have 40mins to talk to you because they are HS students that need to move on to their next class…
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
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