Dude. Why do all of my favorite sci-fi writers have to be so batshit?

Quote:

Niven said a good way to help hospitals stem financial losses is to spread rumors in Spanish within the Latino community that emergency rooms are killing patients in order to harvest their organs for transplants.

“The problem [of hospitals going broke] is hugely exaggerated by illegal aliens who aren’t going to pay for anything anyway,” Niven said.

And Ringworld is one of my favorite novels, too. Sigh.

So.

I can't say enough horrible things about the recent immigration legislation. One thing of note: many Nazarene churches have ESL and other assistant programs for undocumented members of their congregations (using Nazarene's as an example because that's what I'm familiar with). Several people I've talked to have grown concerned that they could face jail time for doing so, and I know a couple people who have dropped out of working the programs because of it. Leaders, however, have all basically said a variation of "We must obey God rather than men" and have no intention of discontinuing the assistance, legislation or no.

The Haitian church that shares our building is pastored by a wonderful man who has overstayed his Visa. He feels that he needs to stay and continue to pastor, and the church is supporting him (both the local church and the denomination as a whole). In fact, the denomination provides lawyers free of charge to help people in those types of situations.

My mother is more het up about this than any other political issue in a while, much to the amusement of my father, a consummate cynic who doesn't get involved in politics. She's written to our senators--who both oppose the bill, thankfully--and has steadfastly said that she will continue to aid those in need, regardless of this bill. I'm so proud of her.

It amazes me that people who claim to be people of faith can be so unfeeling towards others. Selfishness and racism. I tried to communicate to a boy on campus that if he was in a position where he knew his life was in danger or that he couldn't feed his children, or any number of other real life circumstances, he'd sneak across the border, too. "God will provide," he told me. Well, sure. If you believe that America is this God-ordained, Christian nation that is continually blessed by Him...well...God has provided. America.

There are times I really hate where I live. Don't get me wrong, Marin is very nice. It's one of the nicer geographic locations, in my opinion. It's on the bay, but the temperaturesare usually pretty moderate. They did a good job building it up, so it has a very country natural feel. Lot's of trees, hills, etc. Plus, it's 15 minutes outside of San Francisco, so bonus.

My problem is with the people who live here.

Marin is expensive. Really expensive. Median home price is $900,000. The only reason we live here is because the church provides housing (my mother is the pastor). This is also a fairly liberal area. So most people living here are rich, white, and feel guilty for both. :) That's a terrible generalization, of course, but it's how I feel sometimes.

The problem with these rich white folks is that a good majority of the ones I've talked with or worked for are incredibly racist, but it's that insidious racism where they don't know they're racist, and would never admit to their privilege.

( I'll give you an example that pissed me off today. )