Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Hannah talks about the refugees

Since ISIS has taken responsibility for the recent terrorist attack in Paris, the United States has been pretty hot and bothered about whether or not to let Syrian refugees into the country. A lot of people are solidly against letting any of the refugees in, because they do not want a terrorist attack to take place on our soil. Others are suggesting that we only let the Christian Syrians in, because they're the only ones who can be trusted. I have also heard (well, seen on Facebook) people say that not a single person should be let in from another country because why the fuck are we going to give a potential terrorist shelter when we can't even get it together enough to take care of all of the homeless veterans on our streets? While all of these pretend to be solid arguments, I to would like to throw my hat into the proverbial ring, so here is how I feel about the whole deal:

 Oh my god, I am surrounded by idiots.

SERIOUSLY. People who are saying any of the above arguments (I am including everyone in this. Facebook friends, strangers, politicians, every single person) are so dumb I can't even deal with it. Have you all forgotten the history of the country you claim to love so goddamn much?! WE ARE A COUNTRY FOUNDED BY REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS. Unless your family is 100% Native American, you have absolutely no right to say anything bad about people from other countries coming to live here. I mean for fuck's sake. Everyone is bitching about these people coming over and taking our jobs and fucking up our lives, when that is exactly what we did! Except we put the icing on the cake by casually murdering the hell out of all of the Native Americans because we decided that we needed to own all of the things and they looked stupid. Again, unless you are 100% Native American with absolutely 0% European ancestry, you don't get to complain about other people coming into this country. My family came over here to escape some unpleasant shit, I'm sure yours did too. Why are we denying the Syrians that same luxury? "Oh sorry guy, my family got to come over here to escape death, but I'm going to need you to stay put because I am a mean person". Have you even seen the sign that is on the Statue of Liberty?! It welcomes everyone. It is a big old welcome mat to the United States of America. And before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, I feel the exact same way towards Mexican immigrants. I say when it comes to America, the more the merrier.

To the people who say that only Syrians who prove their christian faith can stay, Jesus would punch you in the face if he were here, because you are too goddamn dumb for words. Well maybe he wouldn't punch you, but he would be super disappointed in how you are choosing to show your faith. I am not religious, but I seem to remember a story of a couple trying to find a place to stay and being turned away several times before they finally had to go and have a baby in a barn. Or manger, whatever. That baby ended up being the son of God and everyone who turned them away ended up feeling pretty stupid. I know they weren't refugees, they were traveling for a census or something, but still. I'm also pretty sure there's something about how Jesus was pretty big on welcoming everyone to him like family, especially the people that nobody liked, like the whores and the lepers. "Oh but Christians don't commit large scale acts of violence". Ummm.....have you even heard of the Crusades? Christians went around murdering everyone they could find in the name of our Lord and Savior. It was not great. And if that's a little bit too much time for you to wrap your head around, let's hit up a little more recent history. Remember when the KKK was feeling real racist and feisty and started burning crosses in yards and beating the shit out of/murdering black people?!?!? They all said they were Christians, so get out of here with that fucked up logic. Christians can also be really mean and violent. Oh and another thing. A pretty significant amount of the people who live here have ancestors who came to this country so they could freely practice their religious beliefs without the fear of getting imprisoned or killed. Saying that only Christians can come into this country is like the exact opposite of that idea, ya big dumb dummies. And isn't there a golden rule of "do unto others as you would have others do unto you?" I forget the exact wording, but I know that its somewhere in that ballpark.

Another thing, because now I'm just on a roll. A lot of the people saying that we shouldn't let any of the refugees live here because they could be terrorists are the EXACT SAME PEOPLE who get 17 different types of flustered whenever anybody suggests reforming the gun control laws after someone goes and shoots up an elementary school or a movie theatre. "But you can't group all gun owners together!" they cry, clutching their rifles and shotguns to their chests as if they were their first born children, "there are some people who are just crazy! Do not punish us for the actions of one person!" MC-SCUSE ME, BUT ARE YOU LISTENING TO WHAT YOU JUST SAID?! You cannot generalize an entire group of people by claiming that they are all terrorists. That's fucking stupid. It is the exact same thing as saying that every 20 something year old white male who buys a gun is getting ready to go and shoot up a college campus. They're not. I know many 20 something year old males who are responsible gun owners who would never shoot up a shopping center. Not every person who comes from Syria or identifies as a Muslim is a terrorist. How would you feel if I told you that I didn't want you to be in my country because every single person who identifies as a Christian is a racist, bigoted asshole? You would feel bad, and your feelings would be hurt. Don't hurt people's feelings by being a bag of dicks, its not very christian of you. Don't make Jesus regret dying for your sins because you're an asshole.

Finally, there is the argument that the government needs to focus on fixing our internal issues before we go letting other people come to the dinner table. There are a shitload of people in this country who are homeless, and there are a shitload of military veterans that are not getting the care that they need and deserve. I am not arguing those two things, they are hard facts and they are not great. I completely agree that we need to help them, but I don't think helping these people and helping refugees are mutually exclusive. We can help all the people! "But Hannah, I don't want any unskilled refugees coming and taking the job from the hardworking American folks who deserve them!" Holy shit, do you even listen to yourself when you talk?! Who the fuck do you think lives in Syria? Its not backwoods Kentucky, it was a functioning country before all hell broke lose. Its not a flock of illiterate, dead beat dads coming to our country to take your jobs and avoid child support. There are doctors, lawyers, teachers, everyone you cold possibly think of coming over. Its not like a refugee is going to come over and punch you in the face before taking your paychecks. "They are pretty good at fighting riot police in Europe. Why can't they grow some balls and fight for their country like our ancestors did? We are refugeed out." That is something that a real live person said to me on Facebook. Ummm........there's a pretty big difference between standing up to riot police and a full fledged civil war that is backed by a crazy government. I don't know about you, but I don't have the balls to stand up to something like that. In the face of almost certain death, I would do my absolute best to get my family and I the hell out of there. People don't want to let refugees in because our tax dollars would go towards helping them instead of the veterans. Motherfucker, do you even know how taxes work?! A percentage of our taxes already goes towards foreign policy, immigration and amnesty, and another percentage goes towards veterans affairs. Well guess what, assholes, anything we do to help the underprivileged who are already living here is probably going to involve a tax raise of some sort, and that usually gets people just as pissed. You don't want to pay any more in taxes to help the refugees, but you also don't want to pay more to help the vets. So I don't really know what you want. Also, where was this huge desire to help the homeless a month ago? It wasn't there, you guys are just being butt holes.

Everybody has their opinions when it comes to stuff like this. That's fine. In fact, we're all so lucky to be able to express our opinions without fear of getting snatched from our beds in the middle of the night and murdered. We won the geographic lottery. Remember that and be thankful.







Friday, November 13, 2015

What does it mean to be nice?


I work with little kids almost all of the time, so obviously I ask them a lot of questions.  Most of the time I ask them about their favorite movies, favorite things to eat, or what they want to be when they grow up, but last week I asked all of the kids in my swimming lessons what they think it means to be nice. With today's news about the violent attacks in Paris, it seems like a good time to talk about being nice to each other. So here is a little bit of advice from a couple of kids about what it means to be a nice person.  

"Ummm......sometimes I help my mom with stuff". 
-Abigail, age 4

"Yeah, sometimes I clean the TV room for my mom". 
-Oliver, age 4 

"If someone wants to play with you, you should say yes. 
And if someone falls down, you should help them up". 
-Lucas, age 6

"You should say nice things to people. And if you see
someone who looks like they're bored, you 
should ask them to play". 
-Ramsay, age 6 

"IF YOU FALL DOWN, YOU SHOULD HELP SOMEONE UP". 
-Anderson, age 4

"Ummm.........not saying pee or poop to someone". 
-Sophia, age 3 

"Being nice is just saying nice things!" 
-Lola, age 4