Some: Times

Navigating life through coffee, volunteering & laughter.

Recent Posts

  • drop & leave

    i entered the US with a visa in the Spring of 1984-i am legal resident & proud of the fact that i didn’t have to marry anyone or gawd forbid have anchor baby to stay in the US. my first encounter with an anchor baby was an au pair from Norway that i met in 1997 who stumbled into a wealthy family in Colorado and a man that later became her husband and a researcher. she had green card book with the simplest way to stay in the US and within months of marrying him became pregnant in order to seal the deal.

    a few senators have come out lately and talked about the drop and leave tactics that women from all nations are doing in order to have a baby with a US citizenship. i witnessed the my second anchor baby with a well educated couple from Europe having a child while he was here completing his thesis for his doctorate, yet in the end however they where not granted a work visa. which is the new norm; something i am very happy about. i think the 14th Amendment should be amended to say that a couple cannot have a baby within the US unless one of the parents is a US citizen.

    i have also read up on the fact that having a child if your paperwork is not in order doesn’t guarantee your stay in the US anymore. something i am happy ICE and Immigration has begun to take notice of. here’s an example of why having an anchor baby no longer works.

    The term “anchor baby” assumes that having a US citizen child confers immigration benefits on the parents and extended family. This is generally a false assumption, as immigration law does not allow a US citizen child to sponsor his/her parents until he/she turns 21. Once the child turns 18, immigration law also allows a US citizen child to sponsor his/her own siblings with a 15 to 23 year quota delay. Immigration law does not provide categories for any other relatives that would apply in this situation. In addition, if the parents are illegal immigrants, they are usually barred from immigration despite having a sponsor. wikipedia/anchor baby.

    i understand that the Hispanic population has taken grave advantage of the drop and leave and i think it will weaken Social Security as well as state welfare programs in all the States. as i work with the low-income through a charity i see this very often. i think it’s sad that a US citizenship has come down to a baby. being a US citizen should be just as hard to attain as it’s elsewhere in the world. in parts of Europe you have to apply for citizenship after your child has become a certain age. something i think the senate and congress should do here. i am proud of being a resident but am disheartened by this fad of citizenship given to a new born baby.

  • 1-800 Monogamous

    well, i am sitting in a quiet house as my husband had to take a business trip for a few days. i am listening to some old, but good A-ha. so retro i know but they have put out several albums since *take on me.*  guess, you’ll just have to check iTunes to see for yourself.

    anyway, back to my entry. first i love being married. single life seriously bites-boring dates, online dating. blah. it feels great to not have to deal with all the lines. the lack of trust. i could spend this entire entry just on that crap but i won’t.

    when i was single and because of my name-men would constantly imply that i would cheat on them or that sometime in the future i would do this. i am sorry-but it’s my name not a song. i can count on all my fingers and toes how many men in bars or on dates would begin by singing *Cecilia* i have on occasion tossed drinks in men’s faces and left because they wouldn’t stop singing.

    because of the constant bringing up of the song-has made me a stoic monogamous woman. maybe it’s the fact that if you actually think that of someone makes you a loser and douchebag. i have had temptations like all people have but i won’t because when i am with someone i am with that person. i have been told that i should be *open* and be poly. sorry-getting and std is not my idea of a good time.

    hence, this is why my oh so crappy ex boyfriends come up. i can count on 2 hands how many of them had issues with fidelity or who was cool enough to cheat on me. yet if they where called out on this fact it was my *problem* what? when you blame your partner for your infidelity that means you are the one that cheated.

    which is why i wrote about monogamy in this entry. doing yoga with a friend is not cheating. sorry. next. and by the way check yourself. because i am not the one with the loose mouth.

  • why unemployment is the new welfare

    when the markets came crashing down in late 07 and early 08-and the lines began to form at state unemployment offices i had hope that people wouldn’t become dependent on essential doing nothing for $1,200 a month. i have spoken to people that are either using it because they don’t want to be *paid* less than their unemployment checks or they have a false belief that the *dream* job still exists when in reality the economy is a considerably different place than it was 2 years ago.

    the other aspect i have heard is that people are unwilling to relocate in order to be employed.  there are several states that have the lowest unemployment but they’re not *trendy* or in a hip location. however, if you want to go East to New Hampshire or Vermont they have a low unemployment rate and North and South Dakota does as well.  i think the bigger picture is simply realizing that the location should no longer matter the income should mean more.

    i think that people that interviewed by the media that whine that they are going to lose their house or apartment because the extension has become a way of being irresponsible. i am expecting that there will be a new wave of homelessness in the US within the next the 6 months. i am expecting the places i volunteer will be flooded with a new client.

    i think unemployment is no better than disability at this point-i think reality will set in when people that have refused to look for work that is *below* their standards are greeted with General Assistance which is average check once-month $339 and food stamps which in most states doesn’t top $100 per-month. i have no pity for people that are living above their means on unemployment. if they are they need to recognize that their needs to be a shift in their life and corners need to be cut. because in the end it can mean being on the street or in a small apartment with assistance.

    the decision has already been made by the government now-it’ll be interesting to see how people handle this new found reality.