My Country Tis of Thee

Last Friday, during a grueling physical torture session, my therapist mentioned that he had heard that some California high school students were sent home on Cinco de Mayo for wearing American flag shirts to school. It came up because every Friday I wear the same shirt-an American flag shirt, to show support for out troops. A lot of stuff was going on so I didn’t actually get to follow up on it until today, when I watched a video clip on CNN about the incident. 

The high school where this occurred is something like 40% Hispanic and the principle felt that the student’s (White)  choice to wear the Stars and Bars on that particular day was incendiary and asked the students to turn their shirts inside out or face suspension. 3 of the 4 students chose to leave school in protest of  being asked to hide their pride in their colors. Maybe it was a bit over the top, but it seems to me that the principle making a big deal out of it has been even more explosive.

I’m not usually the type of person who makes waves or tries to draw any attention to myself and as a parent, would have probably advised my kids not to make trouble. We also live in the South and still proudly wear the rebel flag without a whole lot of concern about who we may or may not offend. And that is the bottom line….The principle felt that those shirts, on such a huge Mexican holiday would be offensive. And when people are offended tensions mount and well, we all know what happens after that.

This is not the first time American’s have been asked to tone down their pride and put the flags away. Shortly after 9/11, when American pride was at it’s peak, our flag was everywhere. There was a very strong concern that lapel pins might be offensive to the Arabs in America that many were asked to quit wearing them. So a standard was set, do whatever it takes not to offend non-Americans, even if it means limiting the freedoms American’s are entitled to under the constitution.

This is only serving one purpose. Our country is more divided now than it ever has been. American’s a quickly becoming second class citizens in our own country. On 9/11, Arabs hijacked planes and destroyed our sense of security, yet, my 75 yr old mother is almost strip searched at the airport trying to fly from Florida to Virginia. If only Arabs were scrutinized they might be offended by racial profiling, so we have to scrutinize everyone. It’s only fair. Bullshit, it’s not racial profiling, it’s statistics. Plain and simple. Statistics show that Arabs hijack planes and fly them into buildings in the United States. Not 75 yr old grandmothers. So don’t target the grandmothers, target the fucking Arabs.

Arizona just passed a law that gave law enforcers the right to request proof of residency and the nation is in a uproar. California (detect a pattern) has voted to boycott Arizona. Yep, the whole state. Lets dissect this….Arizona borders Mexico. Arizona has a large number of illegal crossing and a large illegal immigrant population….Statistics show that Arizona is a good place to start getting a handle on the influx of illegal immigrants flooding our system. Aside from shooting all Mexicans in Arizona, law enforcement officers having the right to ask for proof of legal residence is a good start.

Our country has the most lenient policies on illegal immigration in the world. In some countries it’s permissible to shoot your sorry ass for sneaking over the border and people (probably illegal's) in this  country are up in arms over simply being ask to provide proof that they’re here legally. Oh give me a break and get over yourself. If you are so fucking offended by it go the fuck back home. Send me pictures of the happy reception you get back there.

As for me and my Friday shirt, thanks to leap years it’s a really long time before Cinco de Mayo fall on a Friday, but next year, I think I’ll buy a new shirt for Thursday.

Just Not Blog Material

I read several blogs and follow a couple religiously and I enjoy them immensely. Some people have such a way with words that they can make the most mundane events of daily life worth reading. I am just not one of those people. I don’t have the ability to put my boring, same old same old life into entertaining words.

My average day consist of a 6am wake up call. Snooze button x2 and then up and moving. Get dressed, grab necessities of the day, cell phone, iPod and smokes. If there is coffee take some if not some will be waiting for me at work. I’m usually out the door by 6:30-6:35. I take the same route to work everyday, see some of the same cars everyday. Seeing those same cars lets me know we’re all on time. I pull into the complex, dodge the same people everyday and work my way to my parking space. As I head into my office I extinguish the second smoke of the day, wave good morning to the guys and head inside.

Once inside, I have a few minutes before I can clock in. 6:53-7:07 is clock in time. Say good morning to my male counterpart (who makes the first pot of coffee) turn on my computer, get coffee if I didn’t bring any. Usually the Admin wonders by and good morning are exchanged while I enter my password to get the day started. When I hear the Admin clock in I am reminded that I left my ID card in the car so I go retrieve it and clock in. Let the day begin. For the next few minutes the rest of the office slowly trickles in and clocks in and more good morning are exchanged. During this time I’m usually catching up on the news that I’ve missed while I was sleeping. CNN, NBC-2, New-Press start me off and then AutoCAD and GIS begin the work.

My work consist of drawing plan and profiles of swale repairs in AutoCAD or adding swale repair elevations in GIS. I call this grown up educated coloring. I work in Public Works for city government. When I first started with the city I worked outside in swale restoration, tree trimming, pot hole repair, road shoulder repair, trash pickup and then my education came into play and I was promoted to CAD Operator/Design Specialist. Grown up, educated, coloring. Now I work inside with all the political bullshit. Many of my days are spent with my iPod on so I don’t have to hear all the stuff that’s going on. I go outside more than I should to smoke and I drink way2much coffee but I am a productive member of the city’s staff.

At 3pm my workday is essentially over. I finish up my coloring, rinse the coffee pot and my cup. Scan the most recent headlines and wait for the clock to read 3:23. Yes, I am a clock watcher, an 8 and skate. Out the door, dodging the same guys, home the same route. At 4:30 I go to pick up my significant other, who also works for the city, but 8-5 in a different department. I sit outside and wave and speak to her coworkers until she comes out and then it’s time for the recap of her day. She has much more stuff going on each day since she works in a customer service division than I do coloring.

That’s it. That’s my day. There may be a few variations but for the most part that’s it in a nutshell. Home life doesn’t vary much either. Monday nights we spend yelling at the TV during city council meetings. Right now, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are focused on American Idol. Thursdays=Survivor and Fridays are whatever. There is always the same what do you want for dinner discussion and ignoring the dogs constant barking and whining while waiting for the 6:15 feed time. Then 10:00-10:30 get ready for bed routine. Sleep and start all over again at 6am.

Weekends are lazy. Take this weekend for example. We have a walk thru on Wednesday by the property management company and there is so much stuff that needs to be done, but I can’t seem to come up with any motivation to do it. I see it all around me, but that’s it. I hate people coming into my house. I don’t even invite my friends over. Now I have to allow people in who are actually going to care what it looks like. I can’t stand it. It is completely stressing me out to the point of wanting to crawl in bed, pull the covers up and hiding until it’s over.

There is just nothing worthy in my day to put into a blog.