My thoughts on your thoughts: 9/11

I'm starting to feel slightly disgruntled at the way some people are approaching the subject of the ten year anniversary of 9/11.

I see so many people referring to it as the "worst act of terrorism ever committed", or the "greatest tragedy" - a lot of superlatives being thrown around, when it should have been a moment that opened our eyes to the fact that the United States is just as vulnerable and just as flawed as the rest of the world.
September 11, 2001 was a tragedy, but to call it the greatest tragedy just because it happened to us and not someone else for once, is selfish and ignorant.
On September 11, 2001, there were 2982 deaths due to terrorist attacks - the largest death toll to ever befall our country due to a single incident, which is something completely true.

One of the widely agreed-upon definitions of terrorism is premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets, which also includes another act: genocide. State sponsored terrorism. So, what other tragedies now constitute terrorism.

The first and most obvious is the Jewish Holocaust, which lasted four years. The lowest estimated death toll is about 4.2 million. That means there was an average of at least about 2,900 deaths per day for four years.
In the Rwandan genocide of 1994, there is an estimated death toll of about 800,000 over the course of 100 days. That's an average of about 8,000 deaths per day for over three months.

And finally, something I've read a lot about and talk alot about, though it is a daily average which doesn't seem like much in comparison to the numbers above: during the Philippines' fight for independence from the United States, which lasted about 13 years in reality, though the official war only lasted for three, there was a total of about 1,520,000 Filipinos killed by Americans, an average of about 300 deaths per day. American General Jacob H. Smith ordered his men to "kill everyone over the age of ten" and turn the island into a "howling wilderness".

This is not meant to belittle what people must feel about the events of 9/11, but the date should be one to also recognize that in order to live in a safer more peaceful world means not turning a blind eye to what happens in the rest of the world.

A DREAM Act Rooted in Reality

Most readers of my blog are aware of the fact that I was a vocal critic of the DREAM Act. However, out of Christmas spirit, I wanted to write a blog that would help the DREAM movement rather than say only what I think is wrong with the legislation they are supporting.

Locally, there is still a great deal of rattle about the DREAM Act's failure to pass in Senate, and what the movement's next move should be. In particular, a great deal of online communities have been trying to strategize how to continue pressuring legislators and keep the DREAM Act fresh in their minds.

However, the harsh reality is that leaving the DREAM Act as is would make it highly unlikely to be seen again for a vote anytime soon. That being said, an immigration bill that puts aside demographic pinpointing and votegrabbing and takes a pragmatic approach is more likely to be able to garner support from both sides of the aisle. Just an example, I've written a sample of what a pragmatic, nonsensationalized DREAM Act would look like - I do not necessarily like the requirements or think they are the ones which would gain the most public support, but I do think that the changes would help the DREAM Act pass.

Lessons Learned: Where the DREAM Act Movement Went Wrong

For those among us who did not watch the C-SPan coverage of the DREAM Act cloture vote this morning, especially those of us on the West Coast who may have had a hard time being up early on a Saturday, the results were a 55-41 vote, with the DREAM Act falling five votes short of success.

Those of you who follow my blog will know that I have been a staunch critic of the DREAM Act, though not of immigration in general. I do believe that maintaining the influx and efflux of people is part of what will pull the United States out of its slump. However, should the DREAM Act come up for a vote again any time soon, there have been some important lessons in this failure:

DREAM Debunked: The Source of my Skepticism

First of all, I would like to thank those with whom I have been able to disagree with respectfully. I have, however, received a handful of threatening and less than eloquent responses (if we qualify the term "handful" with hands the size of frying pans.)

I understand that a lot of people who disagree with the DREAM Act are roaring ideologues, spouting charged nativist chants such as "No Amnesty!" and "America for Americans!". I am not one of them. What I am, however, is a skeptic. I am not against immigration, but I am against the DREAM Act because I feel that it was poorly constructed in the rush to have legislation of its kind introduced and passed, and I cannot see it as being pragmatic or effective legislation because of what it lacks.

DREAM Act: In Folly Ripe, In Reason Rotten

In my previous blogs, I have made points that appeal mostly to people who already disagree with the DREAM Act. The general response I have received otherwise is "You have valid points, but the principle of the DREAM Act trumps these things." So, I would now like to approach this issue from a different angle.

Beyond the hunger strikes and the trite chants of "No human is illegal", is the DREAM Act likely to live up to its supporters' expectations when put into practice?

DREAM Act: A Compilation of Editorials

As most people who I've spoken to know, I have a lot of opinions about the DREAM Act, which is currently still up in the air. As such, I felt that it would be helpful for people who have not kept up with the legislation quite as much to compile some editorials both for and against it. Below, find a collection of some helpful editorials I have looked up, with a quote from each. Whichever side of the issue you are on, I think it is important to have a balanced view. I would also like to take the opportunity to plug my earlier blog post with my own opinion on the issue, which you can read either by scrolling down if you are accessing my main blog page, or by clicking here.

(This listing will be updated as I find more articles, so check back periodically. Also, if you have an editorial you have written or felt strongly about, send it my way!)

FOR:

"If you knew that by passing legislation to allow 2.1 million American students to pursue higher education or military service, our government could collect $3.6 trillion over the next 40 years, would you do it?"
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45524.html

"This law allows students to pay in-state tuition in the public university system if they have attended a California high school for three years and have graduated. That means students like Arthur and Rodrigo are exempt from more expensive nonresident tuition."
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/17/3190948/dream-act-should-be-the-law-of.html

"Sure, there are other priorities, such as extending tax cuts and unemployment insurance. But there always are. Only squeaky wheels get the oil, and the squeak among Hispanics is getting loud and angry."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/18/AR2010111803068.html

"The DREAM Act promises a pathway to citizenship if these young people enroll in higher education or commit themselves to military service -- in short, to give back to America more than we expect native-born American citizens to do. And, for what it's worth, these youth want to do it."
http://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2010/11/why-we-need-the-dream-act-and-what-you-can-do-steve-lis-story.html

"If the bill, known as the Dream Act, does not pass before a more conservative Congress takes power in January, it is unlikely to pass for years to come."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dream-act-20101128,0,5057601.story?track=rss

Even if they lack the right papers, the young people who would benefit from the DREAM Act are unquestionably American.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/28/3214064/dream-act-holds-promise-of-economic.html

Coming from a family of simple means, there is no one stepping up to pay for his college. He is an illegal immigrant not by choice but by virtue of transport - his parents brought him here.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/88691977.html


AGAINST:
"...its prognosis for the future might be better if citizenship were reserved for those who earned it through true sacrifice or public works rather than giving it away to anyone willing to spend a couple of years in college building his or her own résumé or skills."
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/fix-the-dream-act-so-it-can-work-937572.html

"Under no circumstances must the DREAM act for Illegal Immigrants become law. This unwise and foolish plan can and must be stopped now before it destroys our country."
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-11-23/news/bs-ed-dream-act-20101123_1_dream-act-lame-duck-illegal-immigrants

"The real victims are the children of illegal immigrants. However, it doesn't change the fact that their parents knowingly broke the law when migrating to the United States. The DREAM Act is putting a band-aid over a bigger issue on immigration."
http://media.www.sdcitytimes.com/media/storage/paper1083/news/2010/10/26/Opinion/The-Dream.Act.Con.Dream.Act.Could.Become.A.Nightmare-3950052.shtml

"Many people are under the false impression the Dream Act would grant citizenship to children born here of illegal immigrant parents. But such children are, at present, automatic U.S. citizens at birth. Instead, the Dream Act would grant legal status to immigrants younger than 36 who arrived in the U.S. as children, have lived here for five years, and are currently either in college or serving in the military."
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/harry-s-dreaming-103606819.html?ref=819

"Six years after their legalization, amnestied aliens can apply for citizenship and petition to bring relatives, including the “seed” criminals (their parents who brought them here illegally), to the United States. This makes the effective size of the amnesty much larger."
http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_dcdc5082-acc7-11df-b9c0-001cc4c03286.html


Unfortunately, Americans are excluded from the benefits of these bills but they will be expected to foot the tax bill and incur some other penalties.
http://www.bloggersbase.com/politics-and-opinions/dream-act-could-become-nightmare-for-us-taxpayers-and-students/

ILLEGAL ALIEN advocates are pressuring the government to grant them amnesty, and Liberals are happily going along with their request!
http://www.rightsidenews.com/2010112112147/us/homeland-security/dream-act-will-equal-nightmare-for-american-taxpayers.html

If I can D.R.E.A.M...

The DREAM Act is something that I have been thinking about a lot, after first hearing about it pre-news hype. While I feel that anything that encourages pursuing an education is a step in the right direction, I have come to the conclusion that the DREAM Act is not what we need.

In essence, the DREAM Act will allow undocumented immigrants the ability to pursue an education or military service as an avenue towards citizenship. The highly politicized name in and of itself makes me feel wary - while the intentions are admirable, the manipulative aspect of the name makes me cringe. It automatically wants to attribute stigma to anyone who disagrees with it:

"You're against the DREAM Act?"

"You want to kill the DREAM?!"

It's a little bit hypocritical to tout adages about freedom and equality, and at the same time try to stigmatize anyone who disgrees with you.

I also think the wording of the legislation itself is somewhat vague, and leaves a lot of room for corruption in its enforcement. There's a lot of room for paperwork to be lost or unaccounted for. Even if the intention is right, enforcing the DREAM Act could get messy, because something like this is unprecendented, and leaving it up to the states instead of creating federal regulation does not seem to be realistic.

My biggest peeve with the legislation, however, is the fact that while the United States does need to improve its educational system, there is something about the DREAM Act that our economy does not need: further concentrating the population of individuals with postsecondary education within the United States.

I don't think that it has evaded anyone's notice that the American economy and job market are going through a low point - and a great deal of this is due to the outsourcing of menial labor and manufacturing jobs to less developed nations where the labor can be contracted for cheap. Meanwhile, "underemployment" is becoming widespread in the United States, a circumstance which requires educated individuals to take jobs that require less than their education level in order to have jobs at all.

Allowing more people to be educated in the United States and to stay here will only exacerbate this conditon - more educated individuals becomind citizens and staying in the United States means more people competing for jobs which are already few and far between. Passage of the DREAM Act will discourage immigrants from pursuing an education in their home countries and these countries, especially in the developing world, will continue to be looked to as simply sources of cheap labor.

What is needed for a worldwide economic recovery is a worldwide effort to improve educational standards, not merely shepherding all of the educated individuals into the United States. If the Asian nations where American companies outsource the majority of their labor were to transition to countries in which more individuals were more educated, that labor would not be as cheap, and those jobs could be brought back to the United States. Concentrating postsecondary degrees in the United States as the DREAM Act would do, however, would have the opposite effect.

While I recognize that the DREAM Act is a valuable contribution to the people to whom it applies, I also feel that it only puts a bandaid over the problem the world economy faces. If we want to keep up this system of having a global economy, we have to think on a global scale.

Reaction to the Johannes Mehserle Sentencing

Alright. I've been super busy lately, but it's been a big topic of discussion lately how the Johannes Mehserle sentencing went down, and I want to put my two cents in on the subject as well.

1. I am by no means saying that Oscar Grant's character is or should have been on trial in this situation, but my initial emotional reaction was that if he was a wholesome family man that loved his daughter the way his supporters are touting, why wasn't he spending New Years at home with his family, instead of being out with his boys that night?

2. Johannes Mehserle messed up. He did something stupid, and he didn't think - but this isn't so much a strike against him personally as it is a strike against BART police training, if anything. When you're in law enforcement and you're in a delicate situation, you don't hesitate. Hesitating when things could potentially become dangerous could cost your fellow officers and plenty of innocent bystanders their lives, especially when an altercation is occurring in a public place.

3. For people saying that Mehserle's "I thought it was my taser" excuse is flimsy -- have you ever worked any sort of military or law enforcement? Have you ever worked the night shift on New Year's? I have no doubt that the police spent the entire night dealing with rowdy, unruly BART riders and partygoers, probably in the thousands. By the late hour that the call was made leading to the apprehension of Oscar Grant and his friends, I can imagine how tired frazzled all of the officers must have been. They probably didn't have many people able to relieve them on duty, because everyone able to work was already working, and plenty of them probably put in for time off because it was a holiday and they wanted to spend it with their families (see #1).

4. More of an addition to the previous point, it was New Years, and Mehserle was probably dealing with more than his share of belligerent, unruly partygoers under the influence of drugs and alcohol - and Oscar Grant was one of them, according to most accounts. This even includes accounts by Oscar Grant's supporters.

5. As a "person of color", I do not want to be represented by Oscar Grant. I don't want to put him on a pedestal as the next MLK because if this was a case of Martin Luther King Jr. being apprehended on a train platform by racist police officers, he would have let them slap the cuffs on him with his head held high. Oscar Grant isn't a martyr for the new wave of the civil rights movement. There are plenty of white men who do equally knuckleheaded crap (excuse the language) as Oscar Grant was doing, and no one would have objected to a gun being pulled on a "drunk wigger actin' a fool" in the same way they have to Oscar Grant.

What's the Word?

What frustrates me, even though I have wholeheartedly practiced it all my life and still do, is that Christians, more than anyone, adopt a holier-than-thou attitude when most Christians are not particularly well-versed in their OWN Scriptures.

Most Christians, myself included, do not even speak the language our Scriptures were written in: Hebrew and Aramaic.

Many Jews read the Torah in Hebrew. Many Muslims read the Quran in Arabic.Christians read TRANSLATIONS of our Bible. In English. And who translated these Bibles? How can Christians preach that their knowledge and their faith is superior than another when they haven't even REALLY read their own Scripture?

I don't mean this in any way to say I am disowning my religion, but to say that I am secure enough in my faith that I can practice it without feeling compelled to marginalize anyone else's.

Cordoba House: My Thoughts

I know I've already mentioned it, but my perspective about the mosque at Ground Zero goes something like this:

I know a lot of people who practice Islam who also know and care much more about the U.S., its history, and its security than some Christians. I know Muslims who are educated, socially aware and politically active, ten times more than a lot of Christians and so-called patriots. They suffered from 9/11 - discrimination, harassment, and abuse.

I do not by any means belittle the loss of 9/11 victims and their families, but Muslim Americans - and they ARE Americans - are not excluded from that category. What about the Muslim families who never so much as spoke a a word against America and merely wanted to live free as our Constitution promises, only to have torches taken to their businesses and bricks thrown through their windows?

Adolf Hitler was raised a Catholic, most of the Nazi leadership was Catholic. So based on the same logic as refusing to allow Cordoba House to be built near Ground Zero, if people were consistent, there would be no houses of Catholic worship near any place of patriotic significance to America. I am a Catholic and an American, and I am sure that if someone tried to take away my place of worship because of the actions of a group of extremists that do not represent me, and that I do not relate to in any way, people would be up in arms to fight for my rights.

In Memoriam of Howard Zinn (1922-2010)

I just needed to post a blog in memoriam of Howard Zinn, historian and political activist, who today passed away at age 87.

I was first introduced to "A People's History of the United States" when I was in high school. Ever since then, I've used the things I learned in his book to critically analyze the messages presented in the political science and history classes I've taken, and to broaden my understanding of the images we are brought to believe in our education and exposure to messages regarding the state of the society around us.

In honor of a well-educated visionary, I'm going to recommend a few books that everyone should read, in the spirit of Howard Zinn's critical perspective.

"A People's History of the United States: 1492 - Present" (Howard Zinn)
"Lies My Teacher Told Me" (James W. Loewen)
"Guns, Germs, & Steel" (Jared Diamond)
"Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (Paulo Freire)

Forget the Little People!

This is just going to be a quick blog - I know I haven't done much blogging lately, but life is busy. Being enrolled in two schools and taking public transportation to both reduces me-time considerably.

In any case, I woke up this morning to see (on Twitter, no less) that the spending limits for corporate spending in political campaigns outlined partially in, I think, was the McCain-Feingold Act, though it's been a while since I studied it in AP Government in high school, so I might be a bit rusty on that one.

From what I understand of the recent Supreme Court decision, corporation and labor unions are now able to use their own personal funds to finance political campaigns. With corporations now entering the picture in a tangible and Supreme Court-sanctioned manner, it seems fairly evident that if it wasn't hard enough to do in the first place, this is now an immense blow to the possibility of a rags-to-riches, Cinderella-story political victory.

While I'm fairly sure these groups are still unable to contribute directly to candidates themselves (which would be an even larger can of worms), the ability to produce whatever political issue advertisements during campaign season, and therein the ability to play up wedge issues during this critical period, is just as dangerous.

This move, as I've said already on Twitter, is a move towards drawing an uncrossable line between who is able to effectively participate in politics, and who is forced to simply observe.

At Odds: Religion and Social Change?

First of all, before I get down to business, I know this is sort of an unusual opinion in some circles. I'm a person of very mixed political tendencies - some issues I lean left, others I lean right. I believe strongly in women's rights, but I am also strongly pro-life and a deeply devout Christian.

I don't know what got me started in thinking about this - but living in and around San Francisco, you see a lot of protests. Some of them, you agree with, but others, you find distasteful.
What I don't understand is why there is such a rift between political activism and being devoutly religious. I know a lot of devout Christians - good, educated, moral people - who are unequivocally, completely against political activism, saying that it's too liberal, too radical - a lot of heavily loaded adjectives.

Lately, I've been doing some thinking, and I came to ask myself - how can you believe in Jesus Christ and hate political activism? There are time, admittedly, when activism goes out of line, but to think of it as something negative in every case? To simply hate all cases of protest, because it is protest?

Jesus Christ, for those who choose to believe in him either as a historical or a religious figure, was a political activist. Think about it - even reading the Bible will tell you so.

Jesus Christ stood up to the existing, oppresive secular and nonsecular powers of his time, advocating a movement towards positive social change. Biblical figures - Moses, Joseph, and I'm sure Christian with a background with the Bible could name dozens more - were activists.

Not every form of protest, in my opinion, is justified - when protest escalates into violence, when innocent and undeserving people are hurt, then it becomes different. But people who raise valid, important, controversial and at times disconcerting dialogues in the name of social change shouldn't be shunned or frowned upon by devoutly religious colleagues.

Perhaps the terminology of a radical social scientist and a devout Christian may differ at times - but in many cases, isn't the goal still leaving in the same direction of positive social change?

Facebook: The New Partner in Crime

Okay. Before you read this, you might want to check out the news story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/nyregion/12facebook.html

Long story short, kid gets arrested for armed robbery, but says he was elsewhere, and uses the fact that his Facebook status was updated at the time of the robbery as "evidence" in support of his alibi.

A Facebook Status used as an alibi in court - since when is that admissible evidence? And they imply it would have taken "criminal genius" for a kid to have asked someone else to update their Facebook status at a certain time?

Criminal genius, my foot. I know some braindead kids who ask their friends and roomies to update their Facebook status so it looks like they're home where they're really out cheating with their girlfriends. It takes ZERO brainpower whatsoever to come up with something like that.\

If that's admissible evidence in an actual courtroom, I actually feel REALLY bad for people in this country. This is actually really sad - it's not my place to judge whether or not this person's guilty or innocent, but it makes a big statement about the incompetency of the people in charge of civil systems nowadays. I only hope that things like this don't become a trend - not only is it unreasonable, it's dangerous.

UPDATE - Typhoon Ondoy

Just an update, even if you guys are tired of hearing. I don't think we can stress enough how important it is to care about your fellow man (not just in the Philippines, but anywhere else.)

The death toll is confirmed at 140 and rising, people are still waiting on food, medicine, and other kinds of humanitarian aid.

Just passing the word - there are a lot of people out there who are trying to take advantage of others' misfortune in the Philippines by pretending to represent charitable organizations, asking for donations, and pocketing the money for themselves.

This is despicable. I'd like to come face to face with more of these people and punch them myself.

Please, please take the time to confirm that you are donating to a legitimate organization. Here are some for those of us in the States, from a consolidated list I found online...

Philippine National Red Cross - http://www.redcross.org.ph/

CALIFORNIA

Island Pacific Supermarket (Panorama City, CA) - Drop off center
Stanford PASU - Contact AV David ( avhdavid@stanford.edu)
Erly's Sheer Beauty (Donation Boxes) - 133 Hickey Blvd., So. San Francisco (meidelacruz@yahoo.com)
Gerry's Grill - 31005 Courthouse Dr., Union City, CA
Gawad Kalinga (Berkeley, CA) - Drop off at Credit Union for Berkeley Students at Lower Sproul Berkeley, CA -OR- mail in your donations x/o Gabriel Catapang at 2729 Dwight Way Apt 104, Berkeley, CA 94704

Filipino Community Center - 4681 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94112

Liwanag Kultural Center - Hillside Park Clubhouse 222 Lausanne Ave. Daly City‎, CA‎ 94014 (Mondays 3:30-6:00; Tuesdays 3:30-6:00; Wednesdays 3:30-8:00; Thursdays 3:30-6:00)

OTHER AREAS
Arizona
Benefit Car Wash in Phoenix, AZ - Oct. 3, location TBD (www.twitter.com/floodcarwash)

New York
Pandayan Center (New York, NY) - Drop-off Center at Pandayan Center, 406 W40th St. Between 9th & 10th Aves

New Jersey
Sinugba Cafe (Drop Offs) – 561 Westside Ave. Jersey City, NJ 07304
Casa Victoria – 691 Newark Ave. Jersey City, NJ 07306-2803

You can send CASH through Metro Bank acct. 3 189 14540 1 For BAYAN’s “BALSA” (Bayanihan Alay sa Sambayanan)

Other Contacts:
(201)621-3156-Yves Nibungco
(917)476-7855- Nick Cordero

If anyone has any upcoming fundraising events - LEGITIMATE EVENTS ONLY! Leave a comment, send me an email, or if we know one another personally, give me a call.

Typhoon Ondoy

I know I haven't blogged in a while - life has been SO hectic lately, most of blogs that have gone up at all have been about my personal life, which can consequently be viewed on at http://vickifyme.tumblr.com/ .

Anyway, this blog will be slightly brief and comes with the promise that I will try to be an active current events blogger again sometime soon.

For those of you not up to date with current events in the Philippines, the country has just been hit by a devastating typhoon yesterday. The rains have flooded out entire towns, and the death toll when all is said and done is projected to be over 100, with tens of thousands of others displaced from their homes.

The following is the site for the Philippine National Red Cross - a lot of people are struggling. Even as I'm typing this, many are still missing, or stranded on the rooftops on their homes which are almost completely submerged in water.

http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/wtd.aspx

This is a photo taken of Cainta, Rizal - and this isn't even the worst of the flooding.

Salamat, President Cory.

Corazon Cojuangco Aquino
1933-2009

Early this morning (Phils. time), former president "Cory" Aquino passed away. I'm really not sure why this feels like it's affecting me so personally. While I've spent so much time in the Philippines and have always identified myself more as Filipino than as American, I'm not a Filipino citizen and I never have been.

I think what makes me feel so deeply about this is what she stood for - for "People Power," for perseverance, and for respect for humanity. These things are important to me, they're things I try to embody.

I'm not sure if they made a point of mentioning it for mere symbolism, but Boy Abunda stated that they had been praying the rosary when she passed on, and were on the fifth sorrowful mystery, the Crucifixion.

I'm not one to take religion lightly, and I rarely try to preach about anything unless it's in an appropriate venue. I think what this means for the Filipino community in the Philippines and everywhere, however, is that it's time for us all to take up our own crosses, to be relentless in pursuit of what is kind and what is right, and in healing wounds even though we may not be the ones who inflict them.

Wow. I'm actually about to cry typing this - I usually don't get emotional while blogging, it's usually just me being harsh and analytical. It's just sad to think of the loss of someone who is such a figurehead for things I believe so strongly in.

"Critical Care"?

Alright - so for those of you who don't know this about me, I subscribe to a lot of newsletters to keep myself up to date with what a lot of political groups, PACs, and such are saying to their supporters. Always good to know both sides. Anyway, today I receive a newsletter from Planned Parenthood which literally made me roll my eyes.


Click [here] for full-sized to read the excerpt.

Reproductive health is important, make no mistake of that. I applaud people who recognize those issues. But one part of this passage, I find completely laughable and frankly embarrassing.

"We're going to make sure that the millions of Americans who rely on Planned Parenthood for critical care like cervical cancer screenings, breast exams, immunizations, and contraception always have a place to turn. "

Now, the medical definition of "critical care" is along the lines of "specialized care of patients whose conditions are life-threatening and who require comprehensive care and constant monitoring, usually in intensive care units." If you don't believe me, see [here], [here], and [here].

Cancer screenings? Maybe. Breast exams? Maybe.

But contraception? Critical care? Are you serious?

Let's make no mistake of it, I'm a pro-lifer - but that's not what this is about. This is about the fact that Planned Parenthood is supposed to be a medically credible group, and they blatantly misuse medical terms in addressing their political supporters. This is about misrepresenting their cause - critical care refers to the care of people who are in immediate danger of death, and that is not the case for many of the people who seek contraception at Planned Parenthood.

Frankly, I'm a little bit disgusted.

N. Korea - US journalists to spend 12 years in labor camp

North Korea sentences two US journalists to 12 years in jail

I've just caught word about the sentencing of Laura Ling and Euna Lee - two Bay Area based journalists - to 12 years in a North Korean labor camp. Now, I'd like to say that this blog is an unbiased analysis...

...but then I'd be lying.

Of course I have a vehement emotional response to this. For a long time, journalism was my calling. It was what I wanted to spend my life doing - not this overcommercialized, cheap shot news reporting, but real human stories. That's exactly what these women were doing, and look what happened to them for it.

Ling and Lee were arrested on the Chinese end of a bordertown between China and North Korea for collecting footage of North Korean refugees crossing the Tumen River.

Now, I understand - you can say that they were breaking the law in North Korea with how they entered the country, though some reports dispute this. There's disagreement between whether or not they entered North Korean territory. And I understand this isn't the American legal system where one is innocent until proven guilty, so I know that there are cultural disparities in the way I regard this judgment. I don't consider it my place to judge the rightness or wrongness of the North Korean legal system.

But the fact that these two women were sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp for unspecified crimes for taking on a task that I deeply and genuinely respect hurts me. I can't find another word for it. It doesn't just bother me, it doesn't vex me, it doesn't confuse me - it hurts me.

Word is North Korea is holding these journalists as bargaining chips for more concessions regarding their nuclear tests. I know, this is going to sound wishy-washy and idealistic, but I feel such deep disappointment that people are still willing to stoop so low.

I hope that these women are released on humanitarian grounds - and even moreso, I hope that the Obama administration puts its money where its mouth is and makes a statement by action that people are not pawns in a game of chess between national leaders.

More Power to You, Brittany McComb

First of all, the story can be found here, so you can familiarize yourselves more with it before I give my take.

I'm absolutely disgusted by the fact that they cut off her microphone. At first I had my doubts - when I first read the article, I thought that maybe the valedictorian, Brittany McComb, whose speech was cut off was making a speech about how sinners should go to hell, or something equally as judgmental.

That was absolutely not the case.

Her speech was wonderfully meaningful from what we are able to heard from the video, and is simply talking about something that gave meaning to her life and to her efforts - and it clearly, it paid off. She's the class valedictorian - that in and of itself should garner some respect. She's an educated individual who wanted to share with her fellow graduates her own individual inspiration. She wasn't forcing them to agree. She wasn't even asking them to agree. She was simply saying that in her on personal experience, it was finding her faith that made her efforts seem meaningful.

Even if you disagree with her, at least have some respect for her as an individual - be happy that she found something to motivate her, instead of being some deadbeat with no motivation and no goals.