On the Issue of Social Problems - Immigration

  Turn your radio on this week to just about any radio station and you will hear someone screaming about Mexicans. That’s right, Mexicans. The word has become a synonym for all other illegal foreigners in this country. You will hear irresponsible talk show hosts call them “locusts that need to be taken care of” or “puss in our midst,” and the reference to their children as “anchor babies.” The word “patriot” always follows in justification of their remarks.

     I called one these programs today, only to be told that they have no problem with people like me, who have been here legally for almost two decades. The fault in their argument, however, is that for the first seven and a half years, before I became legal, I was just like all other illegal aliens you will meet anywhere in the country. According to the national chant, both my older children should be referred to as “anchor babies”.

  There lies the beginning of a huge problem: the criminalization of an entire group of people, since we have decided to make the issue so impersonal by making it about borders and laws. Yes, there are laws in this country that forbids people to come here on a visa and stay, like I did, or to just cross the border in search of a better life like, the Mexicans do. However, after allowing millions of people to settle and form families here, it is no longer reasonable to call for the government to simply round all of them up and send them back to wherever they came from. It is rarely that simple when it involves fathers, mothers, children and communities. It is never a good idea to join in the chant without thinking about the ramifications and the social problems it seeds for many years to come.

  We support our arguments by stating the law over and over again, and we feel justified. But what has become of the laws which stated that black people could not sit in the front seats on buses, or that they should not be allowed to vote or join the military? Do we as a nation feel that we should revisit this notion once again? Or we are finally in accord that humans are humans, no matter the color of their skins? The Germans passed many laws leading to the Second World War, one by one transforming a law-abiding community into criminals to be despised and blamed for all the economic problems of early 1930s Germany. Do we as a nation believe they were justified?

  One of the most telling questions humans pose has to do with one's placement in times of tragedy. Where were you when President Kennedy was assassinated? Where were you at 9 a.m. on September 11th? That’s how we define who we are, by where we stand when a visible line defines good and evil. When we talk about Hitler, we all say that if given the chance, we would kill him to prevent the demise of so many Jewish souls; but that is easily said now that we have all the facts. We know how differently we would treat the Japanese community during the Second World War, and we are all certain that as German natives, we would have had the fortitude to do the right thing and at least save the children.

  I have felt angry and embarrassed ever since I learned about the Holocaust and Slavery. It shaped me into a person who does not have much confidence in humans as a group, for in my eyes evolution always comes with the suffering of a few courageous and charismatic souls. They alone fight our battles and teach their disciples the importance of empathy and humanity. The problem always comes a few years down the road when the leaders die, and the disciples forget that it is their responsibility to pass on the knowledge to a new generation. When we forget our past, we begin once again chanting about a new group of people.

  So we have come full circle. You accuse us of being unpatriotic, and you think in return we are calling you a racist. For all of you misguided people out there who feel absolutely white, I will explain to you in simple terms why the rest of us are fighting you so hard. We as a human race chanted loudly about Jews, right before marching them into gas chambers and ovens and in fact, there are still some of us trying to convince the rest of the world that it never happened. We dragged black people across the ocean in chains, and after years of servitude we paid them back by dragging them from their homes- to the despair of their children- and we hanged them off trees because we knew that we could. We could not send the blacks back to Africa-or keep them from claiming their rights, because one black man stood up and said: “I have a dream...”

  We, the human race, have damaged the black community to such an extent that we were able to convince them that they do not belong here at all, that in fact they are not Americans; they are African- Americans. Even though the majority of blacks in this country have never been to Africa, nor can they afford the air fare to visit. We knew then that we could get away with it, because the rest of us would say nothing. We all had mortgages and social ladders to climb, just like today. We are busy chanting about Mexicans and Muslims, while all gay man and woman in this country have their noses pressed against their television sets, for they know they are next. Sometimes I feel funny for having to pay a psychologist to help me to get rid of, among other things, the unjustified anger and shame I feel about our lock of humanity when considering the Holocaust and Slavery. I am sure the majority of teenagers around the world, upon learning our human history, ask the same question: how could we ever? Sometimes I almost feel better until you people start chanting again.

  So there it is. We today chant about Mexicans just like the extreme Muslims chant about America, and of course China, North Korea, Iran and other countries join in with their own chant. It might surprise you to know that we think you are absolutely right about the social and economical impact of an open border, and that we know that this problem has to be addressed with no further delays. What make us different from you is that we do not apologize for liking the people while acknowledging the problem. We don't call them names and we respect their children, for history has shown us how silly is the notion that they are any different from the rest of us. Shame on all of you “patriots” who think otherwise, for we are still known worldwide as “the land of the free.” You should know that we agree with you on the need to close our borders; it is your “chant” we dislike. It is your hateful chant we are afraid of.

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On the Issue of Social Problems - Education

     We can go any place in the world, and we will discover human beings behaving completely different than we do. We understand that as the precise definition of culture. Despite all our differences throughout the world, there are two constants: poverty and violence. We instinctively understand that these problems are rooted in a lack of a proper education, and derive from the abuse of alcohol and drugs.

     At the root of any problem there is always an organism affected by and in reaction to that problem, so if we are to understand these issues, it seems necessary to take some time to talk about people. The malignancies that afflict our society are all directly related to people's self esteem and poor education. Our school system is further dividing our society into two very distinct categories: the "haves" and the "have-nots."  Much blame for all social ailments has been placed on the shoulders of the less fortunate-but it is the boutique educators that bare sole responsibility for the lightless beacon they are setting for our children. 

     Among the improvements they have designed to solve the education problem, nothing infuriates me more than the new trend, in certain schools, of interviewing children before accepting them. This is a policy we should revise at once. It's a doctrine aimed at extremely superficial and bored individuals, who are likely unaware that the whole principle in this type of selection process is rooted on social darwinism. 

     The policy is aimed at our insecurities and our constant need for self affirmation. Advertisers practice these principles daily and bombard us with ads, designed to sell us everything from tires, to perfumes and acne products. Schools are now using the same principles against unsuspecting parents, pitting them against one another, preying on their insecurities and exploiting their sense of self worth, while ignoring the welfare of the children in the community.

We all think our children are special; and that it is because they are. It's         necessary to recognize their importance, while providing them with an education and enough room that allows them to discover what talent they will contribute to our society. Unfortunately, parenting is luck of the draw, and there are parents who feel better if their children are considered more special than the Joneses.  Preying on someone’s insecurity wouldn't be so detrimental if they were selling shoes or computers, but they are not. They are vouching to be educators, which implies an eminent ability to discern right from wrong, and an overwhelming desire to educate. 

     It is imperative that educators understand the importance of what they are doing and that they be qualified. The growth rate of the population and its weight on the public school system should never be the sole motivation to open a new school. Being an educator requires that you are on the forefront of issues pertaining to the well being of our society. 

     Society should shun any school practicing a philosophy of interviewing children before accepting them. Educators be mindful of the moral dilemma we'll face in the future in regards to genetic research. As of now, they use parental affluence and children's personality traits to base their decisions on admission. In their ignorance, these so-called educators fail to realize that they are paving the road for a society that pre-screens children for generic anomalies before entering them into a particular school. This is not an intellectual leap; it's a natural progression. Their actions are nothing but a barbaric practice, and a preamble to what’s to come. 

     It is a privilege to educate, and educators need to understand that they are the ones applying to teach a new generation of thinkers-not the other way around. When they label  and dismiss children at such a young age, they are doing a disservice to all the other children at their school, because they are denying them of sharing their utmost quality: their uniqueness. They are also abdicating of their responsibility to educate. 

     Through their disturbing interview process, they are telling the children they reject that it is not acceptable to be who they are. It is morally reprehensible to deny a child, whether of his or her uniqueness, or to deny them of an education anywhere. But most importantly, it is criminal to sit in judgment of a child, refusing in the end to validate his or her humanity.

CARLOS

My child asked me today,

what a poem was

and I told him.

Perhaps,

in a state of happiness

for his interest

in such an important art form,

I betrayed thousands of years of verse,

and killed so many poets.

So I went searching

and found it all too confusing.

Why, I ask, does the poet

make his verses so impenetrable,

why does he make it so elusive?

I felt sad and small,

that my child waited,

while ignorance wrapped me tight,

like a heavy visible cloak.

And I did what others do

when they don’t know:

I told him of how busy I was.

My child became a teenager:

resilient, smart and unable

to allow a parent

a safe retreat anywhere.

When he met a poet,

he called me at once:

a poem, Carlos told him,

is nothing but a beautiful box,

with life inside.

Maria Auxiliadora

Mother, thank you for the gift of life. Rest in Peace.

Trains

I will go by train

it doesn’t matter

where

the tracks will sing

the tick tack of time

passing

rivers, mountains,

small villages,

and lonely houses,

kissing the tracks

at precise distances.

I will go by train

it doesn’t matter

where

as long as it’s not here

where you know me

and I know you

and all is so common

place

we eat,

we sleep

we see the years mounting.

On these tracks,

I will go far from here,

where you are

where I am

where we share

the desire to forget

ourselves

in landscapes,

running alongside the tracks. 

I’ll wave

goodbye

I promise to write

to send a gift,

a token of the ones who left,

right or wrong

in the pursuit of happiness.

                                                  

Ernest

Ernestly tell me,
how do you ride a bull
in these days of dying virtues?
When every boy is taught to be a girl,
and every girl is forgotten
in her sexuality.

A day
when we no longer make any noise,
a day of peace.
A day
when the structures around us
squeeze us into a shapeless form.

We are building men
who acquiesce to all,
tongues tied to every dime
they will ever make.

Bullfighters
inside a ring,
timidly holding their white cape,
reasoning with the beast.

Sunset

It is necessary to remember.... 

to remember the sorrows,

to remember the victories,

to remember the deceased...

In our short walk

through this world,

every single memory

confirms our existence.

They say that 

knowledge

is the only thing

that can’t be taken away from us:

rubbish.

I don’t know who they are,

but they are all unimportant:

the bankers, the judges, the royals,

hiding behind walls,

ears pressed against 

exquisite wallpapers

pretending desperately not to hear 

the footsteps approaching,

full of fears, full of despair

forged into majestic cufflinks. 

She will come for you,

she will come for me,

and this knowledge 

we ought not to remember.

Our memories

will only be preserved

by our imagination

in the buildings we leave behind;

the necessary windmills,

the parks, the bike paths,

a simple pencil.....

and let’s not forget

to plant a tree.                                                                                                           

Our legacy

is all the tangible and material;

not the love we once had,

not even the love in our hearts.

Love is the blessing,

a gift we must possess

to allow us to hold hands,

to walk on the beach,

to watch sunsets,

and not see ourselves

witnessing darkness come,

rehearsing the inevitable,

full of contentment, full of joy, full of life.