Grim Reality, meet Hope June 11, 2008

The scene is quite grim- the country is in the midst of a recession; over one million homes are in foreclosure; rental prices have sky-rocketed; banks are not handing out loans like they used to; gas is making giant leaps toward the five dollar per gallon mark; car and truck manufacturers are closing down plants; tens of thousands of people have been laid-off; major issues, often deadly, have been found with products and medication manufactured in China; the country is littered with racism and intolerance; we are knee deep in a senseless war that most of us categorically disagree with; our family unit is in crisis, divorce rates are high, children are having sex younger and younger and at least one out of every four teenage girls in America has a sexually transmitted disease! Domestic violence, gang violence, teenage violence- they’ve all become a daily reality.

 

To make matters worse, our education system is in shambles.  Sure, theoretically speaking, every kid in America can attend a public school, but the education level at many of these schools is pathetic, it doesn’t even measure up to the levels of many poorer, so-called ‘developing’ countries.  And still they allow High School kids to pick their own classes! It’s ridiculous! I went to Middle School and High School in one of these ‘developing’ nations, (often referred to as a ‘third world country’ even if the term has become politically incorrect) and by the time I graduated I had studied World Literature, World Geography, World History, My own country’s Geography, My own country’s History, Art History, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geometry, Algebra II, Trigonometry, Calculus, I was 100% bilingual (verging on tri-lingual) and I could hold my own in a Current Events conversation.

 

At a family gathering recently we asked my 16 year-old cousin, who attends the second best public school in the country, if she knew what year Columbus discovered America- she had no idea. I thought she was kidding at first, but I quickly realized this was no joke, it was a sad reality. When we told her it was 1492, her answer was: “Oh, yeah, I forgot.” You don’t FORGET 1492. It should be embedded in your brain. I hate to tell you that she is in fact, an honor student.

 

So, is it really a surprise to anyone that in a country where our own president can’t pronounce the word ‘nuclear’, 20% of the population can not find the United States on a world map? In fact, Mr. Bush’s geographical skills are equally appalling; here’s a quote from a speech he gave in Sweden in 2001: “We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.” If you can’t catch the mistake in that quote, then I’m sorry to say, you too are a victim of this lack-luster education system.

 

It’s clear that the problems that face this nation are numerous and of great significance. And the only feasible answer that comes to mind is a complete and radical change in the system. Obviously the Bush and Republican ways aren’t working. We are in a terrible crisis and this nation’s problems have gotten completely out of hand.  The deciding factor to cast your vote in the general election this fall shouldn’t be whether someone is pro-choice or pro-life, let’s face it, a woman will ALWAYS be able to get an abortion if she wants one, so what the president’s personal philosophy is on the matter will make no difference. Cast your vote for change. Cast your vote for ending this inhumane war. Cast your vote for Stem Cell Research that may be able to cure you and your loved ones of future illness. Cast your vote for tolerance. Cast your vote for fresh ideas in the White House. They had their chance, they blew it – this time around, vote for CHANGE.

Travel highs become woes November 27, 2007

Can anyone relate to the following?

You go away, spend an amazing few days with the person you love, you’re on a great natural high, feeling loved, full of life, hopeful, relaxed, enjoying the ‘now’, positive about the future, all in all- your little holiday has gone wonderfully, every step of the way.

UNTIL YOU REACH THE AIRPORT. (Queue ominous music)

Before you even make it to the Check-In counter, you look up to one of the Arrival/Departure screens only to realize that your flight is very easy to spot because it is the only one that says CANCELLED in huge red letters.  Somehow, after drama, frustration, angst and perhaps in some cases some screaming and crying, you get re-routed to some other airport and are assured that you will make your connection.
Two things tend to happen at this point:
A. You miss that connection and then are stuck in some airport you hadn’t even planned to fly in to.
B. You arrive to this airport that you had no intention of flying in to, and you have plenty of time to make your connection but your connecting flight is delayed by one hour. Or so you think! (Queue EVIL LAUGHTER!)

You go get a bite to eat. You sit down, read the paper, relax. You use the bathroom. You buy some magazines and gum. You walk by an Arrivals/Departurtes screen only to realize that your departure time has been pushed back by another 30 minutes. Then fifteen minutes later, they push the time back by another 15 minutes. And then so on and so forth until finally you can’t even remember what time you were scheduled to fly out originally. And the most annoying part is they’re pushing it back in small increments. They should just have the cojones to tell you that your flight has been delayed by 4 hours. In which case people might phone a local friend to come visit, or step outside to have a smoke, or get into a cab and do some shopping. ANYTHING THEY DAMN WELL FEEL LIKE DOING. But this ridiculous way they have of delaying fight times in small increments as a means to keep you a prisoner at the airport is just WRONG.

So, you finally get on the plane. And, after the longest taxi time in the history of the world (“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, we are currently 37th in line for take-off”) you finally reach your destination. Exhausted. How do those people sleep on the plane? It’s so noisy and uncomfortable!

 You may be tired, but now you have to walk close to a mile to get to the Baggage Claim area. You arrive there, delirious because it’s so late it’s now officially “tomorrow”  only to realize that it may possibly be that your bags either A) Didn’t make the connection or B) Are literally going to be the last ones to come out.

You have your bags (or you don’t) and you wait (and wait and wait) for the shuttle to come pick you up to take you to your car. There goes another 40 minutes. You finally make it to your car, pay the over-priced parking fee, and drive, half asleep, thirty minutes to your home.

As you go to bed you realize that you only have three hours of sleep before you have to get up for work.

And so ends your amazing little holiday trip- in absolute exhaustion, anger and frustration.
Yet, you were the happiest person on Earth only 14 hours ago!
Thanks American Airlines. Thanks.

The “No-Spin Zone” is actually SPIN CITY. October 30, 2006

Bill O’Reilly epitomizes what is wrong with the United States: he’s narcissitic, opinionated, a “closet” Republican with extreme far right views, he lies, manipulates the truth, omits facts, invents statistics, is a racist, a loud mouth, and rides his high moral horse with his holier than thou attitude. (Hey Bill, we all heard of your 2004 sex scandal, who are you trying to fool?) He also believes in torturing alleged terrorists (alleged!) and profiling all Muslims. (ALL!) And don’t get me started on his immigration policy views, his opinion on the USA-Mexico border, or the fact that he criticizes the use of millions to help the poor and to help further education, because as he puts it: “the results do not match the effort.”  What is the solution Bill? Abandon the poor and end the public education system? Get a grip O’Reilly.

If you are able to stomach one or two episodes of “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox, which also happens to be the highest rated show of any of the news networks, you will quickly realize that he backs up arguments with bogus facts and statistics, and dismisses numbers that don’t fit in with his perceptions. He also frequently refuses to believe his guests- even when they cite a source.  When O’Reilly is faced with a factual statement that he is unable to rebut, he accuses his guest of stating an opinion. But worse of all,  after he’s proven incorrect, he constantly clutches at any straw (no matter how far fetched) rather than admit he is wrong.

It’s very sad that due to the era in which we live, a man like this has a nightly platform to voice his obnoxious views and hand out judgement. He tries to fool middle America into believing he is a common man speaking out against all the corruption commited by the liberal elites who, as he states it, ‘run the country’ from Hollywood to Washington.  He’s been quoted as saying: “We’re the only show from a working-class point of view. I understand working-class Americans. I’m as lower-middle class as they come.” Uhm, Bill, you make $20 million dollars a year. That isn’t lower-middle class. You grew up in a nice area of Long Island and went to private schools. How is that even in the same vicinity as working-class?

The biggest irony (and what people hate the most about O’Reilly) is his two-faced nature. Despite the fact that he attacks Hollywood liberals and Hillary Clinton (night after night after night) and that 95% of his views are obviously Republican right wing, he refuses to admit he’s a Republican and continues to maintain that he is an Independant.  There are two obvious reasons for his denying whence he comes from: If he admits that he is in fact a Republican it would ruin the show’s main premise of being tv’s ONLY “no-spin zone”, an oasis of sorts where facts and truth rule and there is no agenda. Also, if O’Reilly came out of the Republican closet it would be much harder for Fox to maintain that the network basically has no particular political ideology.

Bill O’Reilly defends himself by claiming that everyone “gets hammered” on his show and that he is equally tough on all guests. This is not true. Not even close. In all actuality it is almost always “liberals” that get hammered.  It’s almost impossible to find examples of O’Reilly attacking conservatives. In fact, after dissecting the Clinton administration with such fervor, he is suspiciously leninent and soft on Bush’s. When questioned on his conservative views and still having the audacity to call himself non-partisan, O’Reilly quickly answers with what seems like a rehearsed script of the few “liberal” political positions that he says he agrees with. Funny enough, these “liberal” views, generally turn out to be conservative views in disguise.

His show is right winged, it’s unfair, and he tells lies. Nightly. And scary enough: people are listening.  As a journalist he is supposed to be truthful and objective and fair to both sides of the issues at hand. His show far from being a “no-spin zone” is SPIN CITY. And many times his guests find it impossible to get their opinions across because he is rude, patronizing and loves soliloquies. Perhaps he should have been a Shakespearean actor and spared us “normal folk” the agony of being bombarded via tv, print and radio with  his manipulated, thoughtless, biased, often mid-evil views.