Now this is customer service!
GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, a Christian nation, land of the free and home of the brave.
How may I help you?
Press '1' for English.
Press '2' to disconnect until you learn to speak English
And remember only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ
And the American Soldier.
One died for your soul,
The other for your freedom.
If you agree. Keep it going2012 IS COMINGA Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!I'M 100% for PASSING THIS ON!!!Let’s Take a stand!!!Borders: Closed...Language: English only...Culture: Constitution and the Bill of Rights!!!Drug Free: Make a drug screen mandatory for anyone on welfare and/or food stamps!NO freebies to Non-Citizens!We the People are comingOnly 86% will send this on.“Should be a 100%”. What will you do?
Now... being the liberal atheist intellectual that I am, I took offense to this on many, many levels. I've written a response to my mother, and if this came from *ANYONE* else, I wouldn't have hesitated to blast them off the internet for forwarding me this piece of shit. However, because it's my mother, I've chosen my words carefully and I've toned down the harshness of my response.
Actually, there is no official language defined in the United States constitution, and this nation was founded on the belief that everyone should be free to worship who and what they want, without fear or persecution and without the government forcing a religion on the people. As I recall, that was why the first pilgrims left England to begin with. They did not want the government telling them what religion they had to practice. I would also like to dispute the statement about how Jesus and our Soldiers are the only people who died for their people... almost every religion has martyr figures, and every nation has armies who fight for them. We are not special in that regard.
The idea that a nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves is ridiculous. It breeds a government of shepherds. People who can't or wont take care of themselves need people to care for them. So, we have our 'entitlement' programs, i.e. the social safety net. Government sponsored healthcare is an extension of that. It boggles my mind that the GOP have convinced the American people that having free health care is a bad thing. When a flock of sheep has a sick sheep, does the shepherd sit back and wait for the sheep to take care of itself? No, he goes and finds a vet. Our government is just trying to do the same. Let me continue this analogy and see where I can take it... Shepherds provide food, protection, medical care, and land to their herds. In return, they take the wool of those sheep, which they then sell to make money, which they use to provide those services to their flock, and so on. The shepherd makes a profit and grows his wealth, and the sheep live happy contented lives. The shepherd in this analogy is our government, his wealth is the economy, and the sheep are us, just so we are clear. So, what would you call someone that leaves the sheep to fend for themselves when they are sick or old, or who strips away the protections that keeps the *real* wolves at bay? What would you call a politician who is trying to strip those kinds of protections away from the American public? Protections like the EPA, federal regulations that prohibit big oil companies from drilling unsafely for oil in the middle of fishing grounds, and the rules of Wall-street that keep our money safe and keep the credit card companies from charging 30% interest on their cards? Anyway, I getting off on a tangent here... back to the point...
Oh, before I go on, I would like to point out how utterly stupid it is to make the statement 'a nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves' in the same email where a picture of Jesus Christ Holding a Sheep is used to represent his compassion for all his people... Whoever wrote this email should really put more thought into the imagery they want to evoke before hitting that Send button... just saying.
I'm trying not to get to political or religious with my rant, so let me continue on with the 'points' raised in the original email...
Borders: Closed. Really? This nation was founded on immigration, and some of the smartest folks I've worked with have been internationals. 95% of my master's class students are all from India. The real shame is that when they are done with school, most of them will go back to India because they aren't allowed to stay here. So, we educate them, we subsidize them, we care for them, then kick them out when they finally get to the point that they can contribute to American society. Brilliant! Of course, the original statement is not aimed at grad students, it's aimed at the unwashed masses coming up from Mexico as undocumented workers. I ask you, honestly... who's more to blame there? The Mexican workers who are trying to escape the drug wars on the Mexico borders, or the Americans who are hiring them, under the table, paying them less than minimum wage and not paying any taxes on that work? Do you think these immigrants would keep coming up here if they couldn't get work?
Language: English Only. Already addressed this, but let me go on to say that people who can't think past our own borders are destined to live small, isolationist lives. Just wait until China becomes the world's largest economy and tell me how you feel about this 1 language policy then...
Culture: Constitution and Bill of Rights. What the hell does this even mean? Furthermore, how does trying to force religion on people jive with that "Freedom of Religion" thing protected in those 2 documents?
Drug Free: Make drug tests mandatory for welfare/food-stamps. Totally agree with this one. However, this will lead to hardships for the children of drug addicts who live on welfare and food stamps. As such, if a person can't make enough money to support themselves and their family, but are still coming up positive on drug tests and so can't get welfare, I think the state should come in and rescue those children from that environment On the other hand, I'm also in favor of legalizing marijuana. Legalize it, tax the shit out of it, and you solve so many problems. As long as it's still cheaper to buy it legal than it is to buy the illegal weed coming up from Mexico, it will be a huge revenue source for the country.
No Freebies to Non-Americans. There are laws on the books now about this, most of which are being challenged in state and federal courts. In fact, I just heard an article about this on NPR last night. There are several religious organizations, right here in Alabama, who are fighting the new immigration law that the state passed last year. This new law makes it a felony to aid or support any illegal immigrant. So, if a church sees a starving Mexican family living under a bridge near their church, it is illegal for that church to give them food or shelter. These churches are (rightly) fighting that in court, because they recognize how unchristianlike it is to deny help to people who need it. Since this email brought him into it, I feel justified in asking the question... Would Jesus ask to see your papers before handing you a loaf of bread, or giving you shelter from the elements, or to cure their sicknesses?
I've long said that the immigration system here is broken, but not for the reasons the GOP espouse. Instead of kicking the workers out, we should offer a quicker and easier path to legalization. Bring these people into the system. Get them to pay taxes. Then go after the people who hire them *against the law* and bring them in line too. I wrote a rather lengthy opinion piece on this last year, in fact... solving several of the immigration and welfare problems at the same time. http://bit.ly/cAvpkO Does that make me a socialist? Maybe. Maybe you should look up the definition of that word before you bandy it about like an insult.
As someone who takes her social security checks every month, and who hired undocumented workers regularly when we lived in California, I'm completely baffled how you can sign on to this kind of crap, mother.
I'm afraid that my reply is still too harsh. I also need a better conclusion to it. Anyway, I'm just putting this out there so I can get a feel for how this reads, before I officially piss off my mother. Again...
Crash
