Airport Rant (Delayed Flight)

On Airport Security:

I feel like every time someone has to go through the horror that is airport security, Osama Bin Ladin is in a cave somewhere laughing his culo off. The terrorist act was not the bombing of the towers. No, it is the fact that we never got over it. It has been almost ten years now and we have gotten to the point where we are terrorizing 6 year-olds and fumbling men's junk. So, my question to you is this: Are we really safer now? Countless of Iraqi, American and Afghan lives later, do you feel any safer? Because going through airport security sure does not make me feel like we are winning Bush's war.

On Gas Prices:

I am personally offende whenever I have to fill up my tank. I mean, $3.89 per gallon? That's offensive. Most annoying of all, are all the other prices that go up because of gas prices, but will never again go down. My poor little Toyota which used to only cost $23 for a fill-up on a good day, now cost me a disgusting offensive $40+. And I know I have it really good compared to most people. But, jeez! I guess I could take up biking, but it is a mighty long way from my apartment to my parent's house (338 miles to be exact).

On Education Cuts:

I was utterly surprised a few weeks ago when I checked my financial aid award for next year. There was the usual: my Expected Financial Contribution was the same, the Cost of Attendance was as expected a whole lot more than the previous years. My financial aid award however had been slashed in half. And this is despite actually improving my grades and GPA significantly during the last two semesters. I gave the office of financial affairs a call, just to find out what I already knew. With budget cuts, the poor economy, there was no money to help students. With all the cuts, I wonder just how long before the government stops subsidizing education altogether. This is unfortunate because many people, including myself, are only able to afford a college education in great part due to the help from both the federal and state governments. Additionally, anyone who values democracy know the importante of an educated youth to the movement. But again, why would would anyone, in their right mind, not cut from education? It's such a waste of funds. China is going to own us in a few years anyway and no one likes an educated laborer.

Claude A. Rosier

I never thought my grandfather would die of natural causes. Apparently very few people did. As we called around to inform family and friends of his death, most people asked, “Who killed him,” rather than “how did he die.” I suppose I’m not surprised. Arrested in 1966 for his political views, my grandfather spent eleven years in prison, under both Papa Doc and Baby Doc. My mom was six years old when they took him away, my uncle Ilitch, a newborn. He was tortured and starved, but he lived to tell the world about it, publishing his memoir, Triangle de la Mort: Journal d’un Prisonnier Politique Haïtien 1966-1977, in 2003. Since his release, he has co-founded a non-profit organization for former political prisoners, friends and relatives of the disappeared, worked at L’Ecole Normale Supérieure in Haiti and tirelessly campaigned fought for human rights. This past January, upon the return of Baby Doc to Haiti, from exile, my grandfather and other former political prisoners officially pressed charges against the former dictator.

"The mistake of all dictators and apprentice dictators, despite the lessons of centuries of history, is their stubborn belief in violence as the best permanent solution to tame the masses.  If this were the case, Nero, Hitler, Mussolini, Duvalier, Prosper Avril, Cedras and all the others would have never known political failure. The masses, even those identified as backwards, can endure for a while the violence of others, but they always end up revolting and tearing to shreds the infernal machine that is dictatorship." - Claude Rosier

Ever since I could remember, everything I have done has been to please my grandfather. He was the one person in the world whom I loved without complexities and whose approval I always sought. He continuously encouraged me, giving me books, editing my poems and short stories, and fighting alongside me whenever I needed support. Although his death is a huge loss to our family, Haiti, and the global fight for human rights, I cannot say I am sad today. My grandfather did more in his lifetime for his fellow men and women then most people could ever do in several lifetimes. So no, I am not sad. Rather, I celebrate his life, his mission, and his legacy. I celebrate, for I know in my veins, flow the blood a hero. The many people he inspired will keep carry the torch. He will live through us, through me, through my life’s work and purpose. And as long as I live, I shall strive to make him proud.

"Your child's future was the first to go with budget cuts..."

Highlights of House GOP Budget Cuts:

--Cut around $60 billion from domestic programs, including education, environmental protection, and community services.

--Block money to implement President Obama's health care overhaul law.

--Bar federal funds for Planned Parenthood.

--Block federal aid to overseas groups that provide abortions or counsel women about them.

--Cut the Social Security Administration, which might force the agency to furlough workers.

--Prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing regulations curbing emissions of gases that cause global warming.

--Cut $747 million in food aid for poor pregnant women and women with children up to age 5, education.

                                                                        -- from The Associated Press

A Threat to Justice Everywhere

I am not sure why the strong insist on oppressing the weak. Tale as old as time. Whether it's in politics, business, religiously motivated, or militarily. Whether it's whites vs. blacks, men vs. women, adults vs. children, hetero vs. LGBTQ, liberals vs. conservatives, etc. The will of one or a few to acquire power always ends up tromping the rights and livelihood of the majority. And the world oftentimes sits back and pretends it is not happening, until it's too late. Maybe it's Darwinism - survival of the fittest - or maybe it's human nature. Either way, I do not know of any case when oppression has ever ended well for anyone. Dictators fall. Revolutions rise. Blood is shed. Lives are lost. No one wins. If only human beings would stop and open a history textbook; if only they would listen to their elders and learn about their history, world history, human history, maybe they would learn a thing or two about oppression, injustice, and hate. Maybe they would realize that there really is nothing to gain from it.

So tonight, heart goes out to the men and women around the world suffering from political and social oppression and fighting for their rights to be in: Egypt, Haiti, Tunisia, Israel/Palestine, Algeria, Yemen, Turkey, right here in the USA and elsewhere around the world. And to those of you reading this, remember, as Martin Luther King once said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."