Keeping Y'All in Da Immigration Loop-Da-Loop

It's been a couple of weeks, and I haven't really said anything in a while.  Mostly, I'm avoiding blogging it because I'll Blommit all over the keyboard, blooking up chunks of emotional ranting that will spiral into non-cohesive bullspunk and end up as angry gibberish dancing across the screen.  It'd be like I was typing out the works of Ms. Shakespeare, using the Widget Font. 

So, there is a culmination going on this weekend.  It's a big deal, but after a long time of fretting and basically going through the death grief cycle of anger, depression, bargaining, acceptance and so on, I've rebounded. We are more focused and positive.  We aren't looking right at our noses.  We're looking forward.  While details aren't going to be out to the masses yet on what's up this weekend, just know it's another step toward the ultimate goal, and we will make this one, just like we've made the rest.  Those of you who do know what's we're up to - ALL the positive vibes you can muster are happily and greedily accepted. 

In related news, all of this is not amounting to nothing.  Confused?  You should be.  What I mean is, all of this fighting the good fight, standing up for what's right, arguing for Equality for EVERYONE, within no one religion, race, sex, or choice being allowed to squelch any others - that will continue WITH A VENGEANCE.  

HOW?


We Will Fight With Our Kitten Armies!

Look for progress on the newly updated site for http://www.uafawatch.com/.  Look for us to be in the fray at political events.  Look for us to be championing the cause for those who just cannot do so for themselves.  Look for us to use sensible arguments, proof, and logic to counter bias, hatred and ill will.  Help us in this.

 I hate broaching this, or beating the poor, mange-ridden decomposing horse, but I'm going to remind everyone that on this site above this post is a Donation button through Paypal that is labeled "Dept of Defense". If anyone can, or knows anyone who can spare a couple of dollars using this to help with this cause, it's appreciated.  We know it's rough out there right now.  We're living it right next to you.  We want to continue to be here to fight. 

Prepare Yourself - The DADT Rant

My “Run Lola Run” Approach to the Current Political and Societal Conundrums in this Life.

I wish I was a princess/with armies at her hand
I wish I was a ruler/who'd make them understand
- Run Lola Run, “Running One”

Lately, I feel like I am fighting against an invisible wall – one I can’t get through, and yet I feel insane fighting against it because most others are on the other side, watching me flail around while they either sit still doing nothing or fight against me. This line from Running One sums up how I feel about it pretty well. I’ll try to link the song soon.

Every person in this country (and others who have a vested interest) is being affected by the myriad of causes, bills, laws, and controversies currently evolving and devolving around us. I am completely disgusted by most of it. I am finding such a duality in this country. We claim to be this land of the free – then we limit the freedoms afforded to the very people both living in and defending the country. I am currently on a rant about DADT’s failed repeal.

I can sum up my position a bit better in a reply to a blog poster I encountered on Rachel Maddow’s blog.

The comment I was responding to:
“If gays want to serve their country and they are loyal to the US Military, they should understand what disruption they would cause and serve without projecting their sexual preferences. It's being done now and it works”
My Response:
How exactly is this working? Heterosexual soldiers fight for their country, and their pay and benefits extend to their family. If they should perish, their families are respectfully told and given death benefits. Homosexual soldiers fight every day beside them, in no less danger, but they cannot share the benefits with their family. If they die in the same manner, no one is respectfully told, and the spouse gets no death benefit - not even the benefit of their pain and loss being recognized by this great country they were fighting for. I am sad that they have to feel so much less of a person while devoting their lives to the very same country. This is simple inequality and bias. It's not onstitutional.
And your argument is about showers? If all rules are plain and apply - no fraternizing, no sex, and no harassment among any soldiers - then I do not see the issue. It applies to everyone. If the rules are followed, there no problems other than the ones some self righteous and self important soldier might make for themselves in their own mind.

For the Full article and video, plus all the fun and not-so-fun comments: http://bit.ly/ciK8sV


There are such bigger issues inside the smaller ones, and my fear – my true, roaring fear is that this world is becoming unknown to me. What made sense once is gone, and logic is out the window. We’re all becoming pawns for other people’s agendas, and I’m learning that these other people are idiots and assholes. Time in this world is limited, and we need to do the best we can for everyone in it. I’m losing patience with intolerance. I am tired of people screaming that Gays can’t get equal (or “special”, as some call them) rights, because then people would be getting married to farm animals and aliens. Farm animals? C'mon! Lemme tell you, I sometimes wonder if it’d be easier to marry an alien but immigration has taught me otherwise! ;) Stop equating consensual love to bestiality or sex with an unwilling – unknowing - unable to protest animal. When someone tells you to "Go fuck a goat!" it's just slang for "Fuck off!" so please, if you are taking it literally, walk away from the poor thing. Why can’t we focus on what makes us all happy, and allow everyone to experience it. Historically, we’ve overcome the exact same bias of letting interracial couples marry, foreign people of different cultures marry, and people of opposing religions marry. So far, the world did not explode, and it has only expanded our human capacity for compassion and understanding, not to mention love. How is this any different? It’s not. So pull yer heads from yer arseholes and let’s focus on harder things – like how to get gum out of your hair or candle wax out of your mom’s favorite tablecloth after a family dinner!

A Letter to a Senator

Dear Senator Gillibrand:

I would first like to thank you for your positions on...well, almost everything frankly! You are willing to stand up for those without a voice, to stand strong in the face of adversity and ignorant tirades, and to stick at it when it seems that all is lost. For these reasons, you have my staunch admiration and support.

With that said, I would like to encourage you to support the Uniting American Families Act (S.1328). I understand that at this point in a very polar-opposite nation, that it may not make the cut for the comprehensive immigration reform battle, and while I find it disappointing, it is not a shock. That said, I would love to hear that you have chosen to become a co-sponsor of that act, supporting those of us who have no legal recourse in a broken system. Even as a standalone act, my partner and I would have a greater chance of staying together than we do now.

Barbara and I have been together for 5 years, and civil unioned (although I personally say married) for 2 months. I left my native Britain to be here with her, finding any legal means necessary. I started on an F1 visa, which then merged into the F1-OPT. I was lucky enough in this economy to find a sponsoring job in my field, and am currently on an H-1B visa. If the Uniting American Families Act were passed, we would not have had to jump through these hoops, and she could simply have sponsored me to be here with her in the same way that any other, heterosexual couple in love can.

As it stands now, I live in fear that I may lose my job, thus losing my visa status and being ripped away from the family that we have built. For this reason, I am going to Ethiopia to work as a contractor for the World Bank in the hopes that, when I return, it will be on an L1 visa (don't you just love the alphabet soup of the immigration system? I'm unfortunately more familiar with it than I would like), with the aim of expediting my Green Card process, and eradicating my fears that I could be deported at the drop of a hat, or even at my company's whim.

That last paragraph boils down to a very confusing sentence: in order to be in this country with my family, I am traveling to a third world country, because it's easier than staying here and hoping for the best.

Again, I urge you. If this issue comes across your desk in the near future, I hope you will think of me and my family, and help us stay together. Please.

With my respect,
Lisa (One half of SheSquared)