Fremont: Where bigotry can be your next door neighbor

Survive in America? Thats the question. Fremont wants them out. But why should they go? Because we cant move past our bigotry and misconceptions? Becuase they aren't Americans? Check this: Guatamalan Carlos Garcias holds the flag in a show of his affection for his adpotive country.

All the tension of the national immigration debate descended on Fremont, NE, yesterday as the town met in its series of three town councils to discuss whether or not the city should enact a ban on renting to and hiring illegal immigrants. I read the headline and just about shit my pants. I mean, I am slowly becoming accustomed to the inexperienced world view that most outside the limits of Lincoln and Omaha seem to cling to with all their force, but honestly: the middle ages are over and Fremont isn't that far outside the limits of what seem to be human decency.

Rundown: a ban was proposed that would severely punish anyone who harbored, hired, or gave housing to illegal aliens. A town split in two. Thankfully, human goodness won out in a debate that I am sure was highly based on misconceptions, with the mayor the city breaking the head-locked 4 to 4 city councilmen in opposition to the ban. The ban would have yanked city licensing and grants to any business that did not participate in an electronic verification of employees immigration status, and fined any landlord that housed illegal immigrants would be fined, as well as initiating a program that would require all renters, regardless of race, to buy a permit of occupancy that would verify their legal eligibility to be in the country.

People from the city lined up and took their turns at the microphone, going back and forth. It is reported that those in support of the ban (of whom it is reported wore t-shirts that said "where's the fence" and toted signs that read "Secure our borders") cited crime, disease and abuse of public assistance as reasons to push the ban through. I was surprised that loss of jobs wasn't on their list because that misconception is about as tenable as their evidence that illegal immigration spreads disease. WTF? Is this the middle ages? We have to be careful not to mix with those mexicans becuase they carry some kind of disease (on an ironic note, read the latest studies that are proving the numbers of Native Americans throughout the continent who surely saw our "great" ancestors as illegal immigrants were much larger than originally thought, and the disease that came from Europe was more anialating than first thought)? Why don't we just build a quarentine on the border and move in our bovine disease inspection headquarters so we can at least detect what diseases they have even when they are trying to get into this "blessed country" illegally. Sound ridiculous? Because it is. But still, people buy into these arguments that reduce humans (and ironically those who are trying to make a "better life" for themselves, a very "american" tenant.) to animals.

Somewhere we got lost in our own insecurities and the need to place blame on something that immigrants become nothing more than intruders who need to go and who threaten our conceptions. Somewhere we turned into bigots.

Clearing the air, please realize that most illegal immigrants work in job that Americans wont take becuase of our sense of WASP entitlement, and that 70% of the agriculutral industry depends on immigrants, and for salaries usually signifcantly less than those that would be paid to Americans. So be careful, Fremont, when you say you want an "illegal-immigrant-free community", because it might mean that you have look at the garden in your own fenced in back yard and secure your own produce to put dinner on the table. It would definatly mean that you would not have the rich cultural and intellectual experience of having others with worldly perspectives in your community, which is even more valuable in a place where most people don't have the means to get that experience themselves.

And maybe there wouldn't be such a high crime rate among immigrants if they were given the chance to become registered, and not just put on the backlog of papers and immigration appointments that is a long as heaven is grand, if there were assimilation programs where they could get plugged into culturally appropriate communities, if they were given some kind of chance and not to relegated to some ghetto where drugs and a life of crime is the only opportunity that awaits them (or heres an idea, if the government would invest in sustainable programs directed towards eliminating the ghettos all together). But that is too much to ask: include them? We want them out of our community, so instead of making it easier for them to become successful and fulfill the dreams for which they most likely came to this country, well, we are going to make it impossible for them to focus on anything other than surviving under the radar.

But above all these misconceptions, what makes me mad is the knee jerk reaction that is so dominant with this fucking government. Our borders need to be secure, WHAM! build a damn wall. Confirm everyone's perception of our bigotry. We need to make sure our national security is in order, WHAM! blow up half the Middle East. Make our absolute intolerance ring throughout the world. We need to make sure Americans can continue to live in their greedy, insatiable live-beyond-your-means lifestyles WHAM! cut interests rates every five months WHAM! make economic stimulis checks WHAM! pass emergency bills to bail out Americans who got in to far in over their heads. Continue to deny that we are a huge repression. We need to become more energy independent WHAM! drill in Alaska. Keep filling up folks, its still there. Continue with your life as normal, without restrictions or stings of regret. And unfortunately, these come from the top and when the people see government and the ignorance it employs to fix its own problems in a way that is only good for itself and for a short time, they too think it is okay to wish immigrants away, and to ask wheres the fence and to beleive that some stupid wall is the key to our security. These knee jerks don't allow for the dialouge that is needed to get anywhere with this complicated issues. In the reign of and absolutist government, its us against them, and the people see that and live that out to the letter: I am sure that some of you have just written this off as some liberal ranting, just what the government does. Its bad, its not for us, therefore it is wrong.

There was a group at Fremont that I think got it right. They passed out flyers that said "Build Fremont's future together". On the nose. Unfortunately, to work together we might need understand what it means to share a lawn with your neighbor, to live without a fence and not just always react knee jerkingly to be secure in our intolerance and our bigotry.I don't think many of us are ready for that, as my dear fellow Nebraskans so eloquently demonstrated.

Adjusment Reflections: On the clock

In his book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson comments on American efficiency and innefficiency. He raves about how impressed he was to receive free coffee and donuts on a casual trip to the post office, but was baffled by the same post office's inability to deliver mail when a small error in zip codes was committed (which when you think about it, one would wonder how we worked ourselves into dependency on a set of 5 numbers designated to a post office and our ability to think of towns and cities beyond postal codes may be a reflection of American individualism at its core).

The same kind of paradox is my daily life. Getting used to American perceptions of time is quite difficult after years of rooting out pesky habits like checking my watch and arriving on time or even a few minutes early, knowing that no one else would be there. Living on the hora panameña meant always leaving a 15 minute to hour buffer on any kind of meeting, arriving on time was at least 30 minutes after you said you would be there (or calling from your house with no intention of leaving for about 45 minutes and saying that you were on your way).

Not so in America. Buses come on schedule. Efficiency. They only come once every two hours. Inefficiency. Meetings start at the appointed time. Efficient. There is usually 10 to 15 minutes of pointless banter like "How are you?" (this one I can understand) and "Your wife's hemorrhoids?" (this is pushing it). Inefficient. Buildings and homes are torn down to build straighter, more direct roads. Efficiency. Nothing is done to make sure everyone can take advantage of said roads (aka, lower gas prices, easier financing options for those with limited credit, etc.) Inefficient. Work is set out, prioritized and handed out to employees. Efficient. Employees do what they want, in the order they want to do it. Inefficient. We plan our days in PDAs and iPods and Outlook and Palms. Efficient. We spend most of our time synchronizing our webcalanders, PDAs, Laptops, Servers and Personal Intergalactic Satellite Uplinks. Inefficient.

Another ambiguous American attribute (yeah for alliteration!).

Adjustment Reflections: America Walking

In his book, I am a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson dispares about how, in a situation where he could have walked from one store to a store just 50 meters away, the design of the area he was in actually prevented him from walking, and made driving a necessity, and how American's today consider walking the movement their heel makes when pressing down the gas pedal.

As a recent arrival from Panama, I am used to the gasps and looks of horror when people find out I walked home from my job every night. It is much the same here, when people find out that I live in the land of wide roads and asphalt pavement and do not have a car.

Some people ask how I survive, and I will admit there are some sacrifices, however these are compeltely outweighed by the benefits. Trips to Wal-Mart become highly coveted, but there is no dealing with living in suburb hell, with its cookie cutter neighborhood, carpeted houses (think about it: carpet is just disgusting...how many people's hair and skin cells and just general grossness has been ground into that shit?) and perfectly manicured lawns and five-mile drives to the nearest anything. And while taking public transportation is often seeing the "underbelly of American society", as a friend put it, surviving on foot, bike, and bus has this satisfying, self-sustaining boho kind of feel to it. You get to see certain people every day in their daily lives and ponder why they always sit with their head cocked to one side, or what unseen ventures they attend to every day when they get off at 27th and Superior. You get to see nature in its elements, exercise and feel like some Sierra Club member in the midst of raging traffic.

With all these benefits why do Americans drive everywhere? Are we lazy? Well, yes. But, deeper, it just shows the idea that luxury is commonplace here. To think that over 80% of the worlds vehicles are in this country, the fact that dishwashers come standard, and its not hard to see why we think that we shouldn't be exposed to any work or conditions that is unnecessary or gratuitous. So we have our fridges automatically dispense ice, cell phones dail numbers at the command of our voice, and cars carry us two to three blocks. All these are examples of things that, when considered, would not take a great deal of work or exertion on our parts. Walking to the TV to change the channel isn't a big a curse as we make it out to be. But they are the luxuries that we live with. And don't separate us from our luxuries. We might meet new people, see new things, become healthier, have a more positive outlook and overall generate less waste.

But here I sit, raving about the benefits of living a simple life while I am soaked, bread is soggy and my groceries are inundated because I had to walk home ten blocks in the pouring rain. Be careful what you ask for, I guess!

Adjustment Reflections: I just want a hamburger

In his book, I am a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson relays the store about how, when he first arrived, going to restaurants was quite a shock for him. I have been there.

I have gone to a few nice restaurants since I have been back, and for me, used to my solitary, into the fast food restaurant and out to be devouring food in front of the TV in five minutes routine of dining, I was excited to go out and actually sit at a sit-down restaurant. Arriving at the restaurant, apparently ever staff person whose path you cross was under military orders to greet you with their best Cheshire-cat grin, with at least three or four people adamantly welcoming you, apparently from their ears because their mouths were cranked open in so big a false grin that talking seemed entirely too laborious a task, if not an impossible one. Sitting down, the server whisks a jar of water to your table with the cheer a midwife must feel when delivering a new born baby to its mother's arms. After the ten minute obligatory introductions (Hello, my name is Jane and I am originally from Boston, but I came here to test my luck in the firefly catching industry, but decided that I needed some kind of education first, so I took this job to help offset the costs of my classes, living expenses and firefly catching equipment, because the university doesn't offer competitive scholarships in our department, and I will be your waiter tonight...), I just wanted to cut her off and order my hamburger before she even got the chance to ramble off tonight's specials and ask if this was my first time in the restaurant, what profession I dedicated my life to (what would have happened if I said truthfully, "unemployed") , if I had ever vacationed in Tahiti and to inform me that the kitchen staff would be around shortly to take requests of which traditional Irish jig I would like them to preform. When I do end her mid-sentence, she just smiles and says, "Ok, just a hamburger" and eventually accepts, smiling none the less, that I am a social inept, incapable of sharing anything about myself.

And even on the street, people seem to take an unhealthy interest in others' lives. People on the bus know at least one other rider and ask questions like "How's Rita, your second cousin twice removed?" One bus rider asked me what I had bought at Wal-Mart and looked confused when I didn't offer a show-and-tell.

It's all done with a smile, and I know that it is just a part of our culture, especially here in the Midwest, but sometimes I just want to catch them off-guard by saying "homicidal" when they smile at me in that "how are you?" questioning sort of way, and other times I want to put a sign on my book that says "I am reading this uninteresting article with a look of enthrallment so that you don't ask every detail of my life while we ride on this bus¨ just to get it across that if you don't really care to know (which you don't), don't ask. So pervasive is this attitude of ask-but-don't-really-care that even at my job, as I was editing a "Hello Handbook", a guide of sorts on American culture and academia in general that we offer for new international students at the University, I come across a tip that says (and I quote): "In the United States, people often say, 'Hi, How are you?' or 'How are you doing?' This is a polite phrase, like saying 'Hello' and is usually not meant as a question in which you would tell them all of your feelings for the day."

And I understand that people do genuinely want to hear "fine" and genuinely introduce themselves because it is more familiar, but I just want a hamburger. This familiarity leads to a feeling of warmth and June Cleaver-ish happiness, but it also leads to the falseness that many Americans have bought into that life always has to be happy, or at least happy enough that you want to share it with others, this falseness that covers anything bad. This is why it frustrates me. It's AMERICAN KITCH!!!

So here is my ambiguous ending, with no exortations, no rants, no positive encouragement, no clear opinions. I don't want to say that I have caved in and can comfortably smile, nod my head or say "hey" to every passer-by, but I don't want to discredit some people's genuine cheerfullness as cultural falsity. So in good adjusting fashion, I will end with that I just want a hamburger. As to my opinion, I will keep that to myself and you will just have to smile and accept it.

Adjustment Reflections: Junk Food Attitude

In his book, I am a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson raves about his excitement of the junk food he found available for pure ravishment when he returned from England. Having spent more than twenty years abroad, frozen pizzas, hot pockets, and smore flavored pop-tarts were all novelties for him. He ate it all, and at once, becuase it what everyone was doing and was the greatest thing.

I experienced the same when I came back from Panama, only with a modern twist. The junk food that so ravaged Bryson's digestive system (the temptation of so many new pleasures was just too much to resist) has now been replaced by the exact opposite: one runs the aisles of stores lined with "healthy options", "lite choices" and "energy booster that will taste good and still help get rid of that pesky cellulite". Flavored water now comes in "lite" and I wouldn't be surprised to hear someone say, "honey, this isn't low-fat toilet paper." Even McDonalds, not known or even meant to be slightly, the least bit, in the smallest fashion "healthy", now offers lite salad dressings, and salads that I don't even think most grazing animals would find appetizing. After much hustle and bustle to "healthen" their image, it would be no surprise to find that happy meal toy options now include two free hours of personal training, an appointment with Bob Greene, Oprah's miracle worker, or a entry ticket in a drawing for a treadmill (or more approriatly some more modern contraption that is a more effective calorie burner than those treadmills that are so 1990s.)

Not that these healthy options get to me. The thing is the attitude behind it. Are all these healthy options any healthier anyways? I mean, grocery stores fill their shelves with healthy options, but really, aren't they still frozen dinners? And Tyson's organic chicken breasts are still bigger than my head, and I don't think there are such things as Philistine chickens. Even Bob Green seems to have plumped up and changed his rhetoric to "its not how you look but how you feel." And lite water? I didn't think water had calories, but we have figured out not only how to pump it full of them, but then how to reduce all those calories to make it healthier than before, but still not as good as the real thing.

But disdain the person who buys regular soda. I mean, really, don't you know that soda is bad for your health. At least you are only coating your teeth with fake sugar when you drink lite soda. And you won't say it, but you know you judge that person who has the audacity to super size a combo or eats a chocolate bar for a snack, while you eat your power bars or Healthy Choice Devils Food Cake Cookies that has passed through just as many assembly lines.

And it doesn't stop at food. Stamp something "eco-friendly" and consumers will eat it up, even though the fraction ounce of plastic that was in the bottle is just pushed into the plastic celophane wrap around your Sam's Club cube of bottled water. Put "fair trade" on a bag of coffee and people will be willing to pay an extra three or four dollars on top of already-starbucks-highly-overpriced coffee, when the person who really made that cup of coffee will still just be making $3 a month.

I guess all this ruminating about junk food has just lead me to hope that people would make some real change, or at least not live in this lip-service to honorable causes just because they are the fad. Don't say your green because you bought the most expensive made-of-self-sustaining-cork coffee table. Don't say your healthy because you ate a lite Banquet dinner. Don't say you exercise because you walk to the car every morning and after work. Turn off your lights and your computer when you aren't home. Grow your own produce. Walk down the block.

And most of all, don't listen to those fad mongers telling you what to do to be green or to be healthy. :)