Living in America

Just got home from seeing Margaret Cho's live performance, and I loved it.  Her show is probably not for everyone, like those who may take offense at any sensitive topics.  It helps to at least understand gay humor if you're not a member of the community.  Her take on the South in particular was just hilarious.  I can't wait to see how she and Louie do on Dancing with the Stars.  But part of her show deals with immigrants, and how their view of living in America is different from that of persons who are native born.

That reminded me of a piece I heard on the BBC radio news earlier today of a young Muslim man living in Virginia.  The story focused on the "Islamaphobia" that has developed in the U.S. since September 11, 2001.  Eid al-Fitr, the feast ending the fasting of Ramadan, was celebrated yesterday.   The parents of the young man who was interviewed are immigrants from Egypt.  He said that no matter how bad things might be for Muslims right now in America, even with the polls right now showing such widespread prejudice toward Muslims, America is still the very best place in the world for Muslims to live and practice their faith.  He said we have laws to protect people, and we have the FBI that will investigate hate crimes.  Other countries do not (certainly not Egypt).

And I've seen what happens firsthand in a country where there is no protection against the discrimination of people on the basis of their perceived ethnic group, although it could have just as easily been their religion.  Ultimately, if the laws go unenforced over a long enough period of time, power will be assumed by the group in charge, who will attempt to eradicate the minority group.  The discrimination starts out small, then grows as it is rationalized (they are not really people, they are animals -- see their tails?), until it gets so far out of hand that no one noticed when the line was crossed that people started getting massacred -- frequently in the name of a greater good, and sometimes even in the name of God.

So I am very grateful to be Living in America -- the land of the free and the home of the brave.  And I'm very grateful to all those people who believe it is important to have laws and make certain they are enforced on an equal basis.  For that system of law to work we have to have people who write the laws, people who interpret the laws, people who enforce the laws, and people who punish lawbreakers.  That's a lot of people to be grateful for -- including some that society usually looks down on, like legislators and lawyers.  But it's also the people that don't always get a lot of publicity -- like the case managers for the judges, the court reporters and docket clerks and the bailiffs in the courtrooms.  Then there are not only police officers but dispatchers, traffic signal technicians, mechanics working on police cruisers, and lab technicians.

Today my gratitude goes to being so fortunate for having been born in the USA.  I don't have to worry that my head will be chopped off -- literally -- because of my religious beliefs (or lack thereof) or how they may differ from my king, or my boss (if I had one).  I am not forced to be taxed a certain percentage of my income to the Establishment Church, but I may donate to the temple or church of my choice if I so desire (and it is tax-exempt).  My occupation was not selected for me -- thank goodness -- but rather, I got to make my own mistakes until I stumbled into the right fit finally.

Best of all, I'm grateful for the butt that I'm going to get to snuggle up against tonight.  I've really missed it.