I need a magic wand if I'm going to continue living in this country
Every once in awhile I get beat over the head with the reality of life in America. I don't know, maybe it's as bad everywhere else, or maybe not. But I don't like what I see, and everytime I'm forced to see more, I like it less.
Today's source of irritation comes from
solarbird, whose mood is angry:
' "For terrorists, travel documents are like weapons," Chertoff said. "We do have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses reflect the identity of the person who's presenting it." Read Mr. Chertoff's commentary real carefully there, will you? "Travel documents are like weapons." Relocating without government authority is a bomb waiting to go off. '
She has a lot more to say, very thoughtful, well-written, so if you want to change your mood to angry, go read ...
And maybe I wouldn't be so freaked out about it if I weren't a minority. Well, no, my skin's not dark -- but my kids' skin is. And I'm a lesbian, we all know how much the imbecilic conservatives like us immoral people. And I'm fat. I learned this week that one can get fined by one's employer if overweight. (Rumour's had it for months that one could ... 'potentially' ... be fired for being fat, or for smoking.)
Never mind that by far, the most frequently advertised coping mechanism for stress is eating. Just watch TV for an hour while trying to follow Weight Watchers if you don't believe me. I think smoking once might have surpassed bad eating habits as the number one commercial topic; it took a huge legal movement to change that.
So, never mind that probably the single biggest stressor in my life has been trying to cope with nonhetersexuality for 40+ years in a society where the price for that can be death (hey, I spent my formative sexual years -- 13 to 23 -- 25 miles from Matthew Shepard's last stand). The second biggest stressor has been the interplay of health care, insurance, and work. I had one employer "write me up" when Eldest Child was a toddler, for being absent too often. Or how about the stress of having my partner get laid off by our hero Pawlenty's great budget rescue (thousands of state workers were laid off) and not being able to provide health insurance like any normal married person?
What does all that have to do with Internal Passports? Well, who the hell do you think will issue them? The conservative government. What electronic data do you think they will attach to them? Marital status is really likely to be on there. Of course your height, weight, and eye color will be recorded. And if you can't travel, rent, get employment without one, what do you think that will start to mean?
Is a small monetary fine such a big deal, you ask?
Is carrying yet another ID card a big deal?
Yes, when the insanely paranoid control freak currently in charge of this country wants to tell me how to live my life, what to eat, where I can live, who to live ... yes, it's a big deal.
Today's source of irritation comes from
solarbird, whose mood is angry:
' "For terrorists, travel documents are like weapons," Chertoff said. "We do have a right and an obligation to see that those licenses reflect the identity of the person who's presenting it." Read Mr. Chertoff's commentary real carefully there, will you? "Travel documents are like weapons." Relocating without government authority is a bomb waiting to go off. '
She has a lot more to say, very thoughtful, well-written, so if you want to change your mood to angry, go read ...
And maybe I wouldn't be so freaked out about it if I weren't a minority. Well, no, my skin's not dark -- but my kids' skin is. And I'm a lesbian, we all know how much the imbecilic conservatives like us immoral people. And I'm fat. I learned this week that one can get fined by one's employer if overweight. (Rumour's had it for months that one could ... 'potentially' ... be fired for being fat, or for smoking.)
Never mind that by far, the most frequently advertised coping mechanism for stress is eating. Just watch TV for an hour while trying to follow Weight Watchers if you don't believe me. I think smoking once might have surpassed bad eating habits as the number one commercial topic; it took a huge legal movement to change that.
So, never mind that probably the single biggest stressor in my life has been trying to cope with nonhetersexuality for 40+ years in a society where the price for that can be death (hey, I spent my formative sexual years -- 13 to 23 -- 25 miles from Matthew Shepard's last stand). The second biggest stressor has been the interplay of health care, insurance, and work. I had one employer "write me up" when Eldest Child was a toddler, for being absent too often. Or how about the stress of having my partner get laid off by our hero Pawlenty's great budget rescue (thousands of state workers were laid off) and not being able to provide health insurance like any normal married person?
What does all that have to do with Internal Passports? Well, who the hell do you think will issue them? The conservative government. What electronic data do you think they will attach to them? Marital status is really likely to be on there. Of course your height, weight, and eye color will be recorded. And if you can't travel, rent, get employment without one, what do you think that will start to mean?
Is a small monetary fine such a big deal, you ask?
Is carrying yet another ID card a big deal?
Yes, when the insanely paranoid control freak currently in charge of this country wants to tell me how to live my life, what to eat, where I can live, who to live ... yes, it's a big deal.