NYT: 'Silent raids' sweep illegal workers from jobs - U.S. news - The New York Times - msnbc.com

NYT: 'Silent raids' sweep illegal workers from jobs - U.S. news - The New York Times - msnbc.com

It's so unusual to have a smart and moral person as the President. In my lifetime I haven't seen the like. We have had Presidents who have come from humble beginnings and have achieved greatness. Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton certainly would come to mind. While both were brilliant they were duplicitous and ultimately their Presidencies suffered as did the nation. So we looked for persons who were humble and just like us or could pretend that they were President better than anyone finally culminating in last President who would've had trouble being a good Congressman. From Texas no less.

These silent raids of audits on employers of illegal aliens is just the latest example of the way this guy works. Quiet and smart. While the rest of the US politicians are in a stranglehold with one another and the pundits just sit on TV and analyze or I mean jack off, he is leading us to the promised land. But are we going to shut up our fucking mouths (and I'm talking to you liberals) or are we going to FUCKING HELP????!!!! It's bad enough that racists and other jack offs are going at him! Why are you doing the same??!!! And if you think your disgruntledness is more valid because you voted for him thing again.

Did you not remember who we had as our last President and the one before that and the one before that and the one before that and the one before that...!!!! I sure as fuck do and I'm so fucking sick of hearing about the how GAY community is not getting everything they were promised and that jobs that are getting created aren't the right kind of jobs and the oil oh the oil in the gulf and all the other bullshit that everyone fixates on. Hell Nigeria has had the same problem that the Gulf is having for years. Their costal waters are as dead as the Dead Sea but no one is going to help them because WE can't give up our cars and our demand for all things petroleum!!! Even when it may cause the unwanted suffering of millions both here and abroad we can't be bothered. And Wayne LaPierre don't forget your fucking gun when you go this Sunday CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That gun in church nonsense begs the question, "WHAT THE FUCK WOULD JESUS DO???"

But I digress...

But before I get back on track let me just say this. I'm especially bothered by the GAY leadership of our nation right now. There has been so much change for the good that has happened in the last 18 months for our community and you're bitching about that its not fast enough. How much got done say in the last, oh I don't know, ten thousand years?!!! And Hey GAY PEOPLE we in the trans community, you remember us, are used to waiting like our whole fucking lives to be whole. With all due respect you tell people your gay and you got a lot of shit ahead of you but when we tell people we're trans we're just getting started!!!

I could list President Obama's accomplishments but the biggest one is he has started real change. Real change like Health Care and Financial Reform and getting out of these Wars and stopping DADT and on and on so GET OFF OBAMA'S BACK!!!! He's trying like hell to do the right thing now we got it FINISH it. We all need to be quiet and smart. And that goes for me. So I'll shut up now and put away the dishes and WALK to church on Sunday!!

Marie Fairman

My Hero

Hero was his name.  I know it usually a girl's name but my Dad had named the mangy black cur who was my first dog and my first real friend Hero.  We lived in northern suburbs of Indianapolis.  It was not very populated when we first moved out there as a matter of fact we were in the only home built.  Over the next few years home’s were built and were always immediately occupied and pretty soon there was a whole neighborhood around us.  So Hero who moved with us from my Grandparent's was the defacto ruler of all dogs by claiming every bush and tree before other dogs with pedigrees and attitude even got their chance to make their mark.  Hero ran about the neighborhood free.  He accompanied my brother when he had a short lived paper route and everyone got to know the super sweet, tail constantly wagging pooch.  He was as much the neighborhood's dog as he was ours.

By the time I was his companion as I traveled along on my bike to see the sights of our neighborhood, Ralston Heights, he had seen it all before.  He was getting up in years and now was content to hanging around the house and survey his survey his kingdom from the stoop that led to the back of our house.  That’s where you find him usually sleeping more and more as old age was setting upon him.

On July Fourth in 1964 he had reached 16 years of age and though he was an American dog he had never liked the loud noises of Independence Day.  The neighborhood sounds of exploding cherry bombs, firecrackers, roman candle and their like always upset him.  But the fireworks we're quite legal for adults to purchase and would find themselves in the hands of their children every fourth.  That evening we went to a fireworks display at Riverside Park.  We left Hero alone in the backyard on the stoop that led to our back room and settled down to a comfortable nap as he awaited his pack’s return.

When we returned home from a totally lame fireworks display, Hero was not around the house and my Mother immediately worried about him.  My Dad assured her and me that we would find him lying on the stoop that led to our back room in the back yard when we awoke.  He had done this kind of thing for years and there was reason to think otherwise.

The next morning, we all awoke to a banging on our front door.  My Father answered it and talked with one of our neighbors for a brief bit and then turned to us with devastating news.  Out on the big road that led to our neighborhood there was the body of dog lying on the roadside.  My Mother stated to cry and so did I as Dad got in the car and traveled out to see if it was our Hero. 

In what seemed like forever Dad returned shortly.  He left the car in the driveway which was unusual because he always pulled it into the garage.  He got out of the car and slowly walked up to his sobbing family.  He told us that he had found Hero on the Big road and he was dead presumably hit by a vehicle.  He then told us that Hero was lying in a blanket in the back seat of our car.  I wanted to see him but Dad would not let me and my Mother held me back.  I turned into my Mother’s arms and dissolved into heaving tears.  Dad took Hero to the vet who would take care of Hero's final arrangements. 

My Mom stayed at home with her devastated little child.  I couldn't stop crying.  I couldn't believe how sudden life could be taken away.  I've never been able to wrap my head around that to this day.  I accept it now but it still leaves me utterly helpless at the capriciousness of death.

Over the next few days, we pieced together the last few hours of Hero's life.  After we left to watch the fireworks, a group of boys came by our yard where Hero was lying peacefully on the stoop to back room of the house.  They were armed with various LEGAL fireworks mentioned before, lit a few and threw them at our defenseless dog.  Hero sought shelter but there was none to be found in the yard and so he bolted out of our yard.  He ran through our neighborhood pursued by the pack of boys maintaining their assault on him.  He ran out of the safety of neighborhood and onto to the unfamiliar Big Road and was hit by some vehicle and was probably killed instantly.  We got this account from all our passive neighbors as they watched the tragic story unfold.  In all fairness to them, Hero was a street wise dog and all thought he would eventually evade his torturers.  But Hero was old and arthritic and could no longer make the quick turns and have sudden bursts of speed that had been his legend. His fate was sealed when he left our yard.

I wanted to post this today because this is the date I learned of the news.  Since that day, the July 4th weekend, no matter what I do, has always been tinged with melancholy as I remember my fallen friend.  Sure he was just a dog but to me he was my first and bestest friend.  

It was concluded by many that the boys had spooked him and Hero had run away in fear.  I can't imagine my loyal friend ever doing that.  Instead I always like to remember him leading the danger away from his pack and our home and then tragically given his life for us.  After all, his name was Hero.

Marie Fairman July 5^th, 2010

Looking for Work can be Bittersweet

My spouse and I are going Metro!!!  Our carbon footprint has just gone down considerably because we gave up our car and we're walking or taking mass transit to get to wherever we have to get too.  It's so liberating not to have that damn Prius anymore.  No it really is.  We didn't really want to give it up but sometimes you have to do what's best for yourself and the world.  Okay we do care about the world but we had to give up the Prius regardless.  It just so happens that Joy's (my spouse) work is right on a bus route and so is our apartment.  So we could give up the Prius and she could keep her job and I can get to my training and job interviews.

The main reason we gave up the car was that quite suddenly my unemployment stopped.  I came to find out that I was one of the million plus people who were being funded by the federal government.  With the Senate unable to pass the new funding suddenly it was gone.  Such is life.  I wouldn't want to live anywhere else but the United States and we don't have enough money to move anyway.

I'm not worried about us. We're blessed.  My spouse is working and loves her job and so many of our friends are helping us get through this. I am concerned that a new mindset is taking shape in our national dialogue.  Not helping the "least of these" is seen by many as the right thing to do.  I believe its because the meaning of the "least of these" has changed.  What use to mean a person or persons is now a number.  1.2 million unemployed.  Numbers have no feelings so you can ignore them.  When you're talking about 200 million plus in the work force and the number is less than half a per cent its easy to make a "tough" choice.

I believe that unemployment insurance is a good thing and I hope it will continue for those of us affected and those affected is a number that grows weekly.  But it must be accompanied by training and that training should be free. 

I waited a year for MS Office training at the Actors Fund.  It's fantastic.  It's a twelve week course that includes basic to third level training in Powerpoint, Word and Excel.  I'm through Powerpoint and am not quite halfway through Word with five weeks of Excel training to follow.  I've used these programs for years but I can't tell you how reaffirming and enlightening it is to finally have someone to show you how they really work.  And the training is free.  I had to wait a year because having a highly skilled experienced instructor teaching you a new skill set for free is really hard to find.  It shouldn't be.  

Members of Congress have also been saying that those of us on "unending" unemployment are unmotivated, lazy and one Freshman Democrat in Congress said that we're not looking for work because we're eating bonbons.  For the record, I have not eaten one bonbon during my entire recent unemployment.  If she had said that we're eating See's Dark Chocolate Truffles well...  But it does make going through these days sweeter.  Well bittersweeter.

Marie Fairman My Blog: GAY PLAYING STRAIGHT

Marie Fairman My Blog: GAY PLAYING STRAIGHT

GAY PLAYING STRAIGHT

In a recent article written by openly gay columnist Ramin Setoodeh, Mr. Setoodeh asked the question, "Can the public accept gay actors playing straight roles in theatre, television and film?"  He pointed out the Tony nominated performance in Promises, Promises of Sean Hayes and several other actors on TV and film.  Of Mr. Hayes's performance Mr Setoodeh wrote in part, "...his emotions often seem pale to the point of colorlessness...his relationship with his costar Kristin Chenoweth feels more like that of a younger brother than a would-be lover and protector."

Can the public accept gay actors playing straight roles in theatre, television and film?  My answer is a resounding yes. Most gay people have been playing straight in a much tougher venue for several Milena.  Life.  I'm sure Mr. Setoodeh has played this intolerable role and pulled it off quite well.  It is good to live in a time of revelation where many people can feel free to be themselves.  The LGBT community is enjoying the option to live openly as a person with gender variance.  I'm one of them as a transgendered person.  But with that openness comes consequences.  Not just the obvious backlash from the straight community often armed with their few Bible quotations but a more insidious and ultimately destructive force.  The shame of an openly gay person being gay.  I have seen this too many times in my life.  When LGBT individuals stand up and let the world know they are gay, they may find support in the LGBT community and close friends, but that is simply not enough.  

When you announce to the world such a statement you reject all you believed at one point to be true.  You can only live the new lie for so long without it affecting you.  You have stated that you are gay and proud to be so and I do not doubt for one moment that is what you believe.  But loving yourself, after stating this to the world, is hard to do especially when you have been told all your life that you can't.  Repeatedly I have seen gay people create a new persona that is not them but a protective shield from themselves.  When you are in this place of self loathing and self detachment you may say and do things that are destructive not only to yourself but also many others as well.  I fear that Ramin Setoodeh is suffering from this.  He is lashing out not at Sean Hayes or any other gay actor but himself.  Perez Hilton does the same.  Their words and actions are the manifestation of their own denial that they don't love themselves because they are gay and other gay people should suffer the same false notion about themselves.  

First of all, let's getting something straight and I know this to be true. God loves you as you are.  You are created by God as you are and there is nothing that can change that.  Accepting this is impossible for many gay people but it simply is the truth.  Once you know that it is true it doesn't matter what anyone says or does. You are allowed finally to love yourself.  Do you have to find a faith community to have this realization?  No. But you do need some people that can represent all orientations, station and status to reflect this for you to see your own worth.

Gay actors playing straight roles has been going on for the same time as gay people playing straight in real life.  I can't tell you how many thousands of times I have had to endure straight actors playing straight characters supposedly hopelessly and passionately in love with each other and simply failing with every syllable, kiss, embrace and other nuance of their lifeless interpretations.  As a director I have likewise known that one or both actors are gay and they have been viscerally real in their portrayals as straight lovers.  Perhaps the problem for Mr. Sedooteh is that knowing some performer is gay and  not being able to allow himself to see them as anything but gay.  That is sad but this will pass.

One of the magic qualities of performance, be it on stage, TV or film or whatever medium is coming, is that we as a audience watch it with our own prejudices and pre-concieved notions.  That contributes to our enjoying or being repulsed by it.  That's not going to go away or should it.  But when we allow ourselves to suspend disbelief and let ourselves get lost in the fiction that enfolds in front of us we can be rewarded with enchantment.  That alchemy is what elevates the rare performance to the exalted level of art.  

At some point (perhaps a near future generation) a child will know from the very moment of their own consciousness that they are what God has made and it is good.  We all will reflexively honor and respect this even in ourselves.  We must hasten that day.  Till then we need to get lost in the fiction.


With hope for healing in us all,


Marie Fairman

Insomnia? May I recommend Nova

I've had trouble sleeping most of my life. And when I have fallen asleep it is not always in the most appropriate setting.  I have drifted off while listing to a director give me notes after rehearsal (he didn't notice thanks to one of my fellow actors responding), in mid sentence as I sit at a restaurant eating, while sitting on a toilet and while cooking.  This last one was before I actually turned on the stove but still...dicey.  After I had my heart attack I was told I had to sleep with some consistency or I would..ah what was the word the Cardiologist used...oh yeah...die.

Now with a combination of a prescription and a good book, I can turn my brain off and fall asleep.  But sometimes I need a little more encouragement to bring me to the repose I so desire.  I choose not to turn to more drugs but instead a rather curious way to put myself in sweet slumber. I turn on an episode of Nova.

But how can that be you might ask?  Nova is one of the finest representations of non-fictional or reality television show ever produced anywhere. I unequivocally agree. The subject matter is always informative, timely yet timeless and so beautifully photographed that on a large HD screen it can take your breath away.  The content is presented in a well thought out and meticulous manner with attention to detail and accuracy that is unmatched. The viewer can follow seemingly incomprehensible, complex issues in a way that are accessible to even the most impenetrable among us.  They take you to another world the same way a great book can.  The one thing they don't do is intrude with off the subject commercials during the presentation. And that's when the miraculous happens.  I believe as the show continues uninterrupted, somewhere I find the portal to drift off to dreamland.  

The lack of commercials is the key most certainly.  Did you ever notice that the commercial blocks (especially on FOX!!!!!) are LOUD.  Sometimes much LOUDER and that's saying something if you're watching something like 24. You may dismiss it but its true.  All broadcast entities that have advertisement have the volume turned up to "11" during these breaks.  Any show, no matter what the genre, during the show's content, will have moments of stasis and some quiet however brief.  A 21st century commercial block has a thirtieth of a second between each ad, announcement or promo.  It is this random series of disturbances that I believe keeps me awake.  Even when its recorded and I'm whizzing past these pods of information, it's still a break and  my mind and body are engaged.  How can you sleep when you're blasted with, "ANIMATION DOMINATION!!!!! "

Nothing like that ever happens when I'm watching Nova.  Not even when the subject concerns CERN and its massive particle accelerator.  When watching Nova I am a passive participant and I have only to sit back and do nothing.  I relax and allow myself to be completely absorbed.  Put me in a bed with lots of pillows propping me up and securing my head and the mix is as effective as any prescription non-addicting (yeah right) sedative. If I watch it live it happens around 822pm and I make certain that the TV turns off before the show is over. If I do wake up I'm still embraced in that state of grace which assures a quick and certain return to blissful sleep.

This phenomenon started years ago with the hypnotic voice of George Page on Nature and the late Carl Sagan when he narrated his seminal series Cosmos.  About the third time he would repeat the phrase "Billions and billions of star stuff" I was snoring on the couch before the second "B".  I have never been able to remain conscious for a Nature episode that George Page has narrated.  Even the one on dogs.  

I now record Nova, Nature, Masterpiece Theatre etc. and when I can't sleep I find one of them on my "Do Not Delete" list, hit the play icon and they are my calming voice.  Sometimes they are such great shows I do become fully engaged and don't fall asleep until it's over (I'm finding this happening more and more with Jane Austen presentations [could be the estrogen]) but even then I am as a consequence in a serene state of mind.  My mind is thinking about the great show and it questions and issues and not fretting about all the myriad of things that are swirling in my head as I come to the end of a day. Instead I can drift off with images of the elusive Higgs particle, a skeletal representation of a cheetah and how they are built a certain way that enables them to catch the impala or what's up with Mr. Darcy?  Really?

Maybe it's just me and it won't work for you.  But I thought I would share with you this modality to unconsciousness.  Not only do I sleep but I believe I'm more informed on many subjects that have seemingly no consequence in my life.  But then again, you never know having the knowledge that we now know that 95% of the universe of made up of mostly dark energy and  some dark matter and we don't know what that is exactly nor have we really ever seen it, could help me when I'm doing say... my taxes.  It's nice to know that even the smartest and most learned people don't know things.  

So thank you PBS and viewers like you and me occasionally that bring such high quality shows that challenge my intellect (which is easy to do) and bring rest to this weary soul.  Ah Sleep.  The Sweet Escape (Gwen Stefani not withstanding).

Love is too Weak a Word

Several years ago I became a Lay Speaker with the Methodist Church.  Simply put it means I'm not a Minister but sometimes I act like one in church.  Shortly after I got my certificate which proves you're A Lay Speaker, the Senior Pastor of our Church, graciously allowed me to give a sermon.  It was not a complex subject I decided to preach about.  It was "Love is too Weak A Word".  I felt at the time (pre - George W. Bush's Presidency) that Love was not getting good press. 

For me, when Barack Obama was elected and then inaugurated as President I thought that at last love had triumphed.  Fear which leads to hate and destruction was to busy to notice that "Love Came to Town" and took over.  I will cherish those days as long as I live.  My Mother would have loved it as would've Dad but my Mother would've said that what she was witnessing was a miracle.  

It was a miracle for me as well.  I seen on TV hate (this time taking the form of racism) battling the overpowering forces of love in Selma, Montgomery, "I Have a Dream" and finally the Civil Rights Act.  And for a few years the flood gates broke open and their were anti-war protests, Woodstock, Women's liberation and finally the sexual revolution!  I am so glad I was in my late teens and my early twenties when that happened.  And then just as we got going - Watergate, Reagan, Bush the First and Clinton getting a blow job and lying about it.  I always thought that he should have been more clever with his lie. "Yes I had a blow job in the Oval Office but it was Hillary who gave it to me." No one would've believed that.

So Al Gore loses the election in the Supreme Court and we place a guy who you can have a beer with in the  Presidency.  May I point out here that President Obama can drink a beer as well as he demonstrated IN FRONT of cameras but I digress.  After Bush became President we have had 9/11 and 9/12 (I'll talk about that more in a second), two wars that are STILL going on and now we have the Tea Party.

Where is love in this?  It was there on 9/12.  The world would have done anything to help us heal and grieve.  But we were afraid and we eventually did what we as a human race has done for millennia - we went to war.  I didn't say anything against the invasion of Afghanistan.  I was mad and the enemy was not going to capitulate to a nation that would not fight.  In hindsight, I realized that if we had turned to love and ask the world to help it might have done so.  Perhaps terrorism could be eliminated by eliminating its root cause.  Suffering in poverty.  Pie in the sky?  Idealism to the extreme?  Perhaps.  But I would argue it was not taking of Berlin and that ended World War II in Europe it was the Marshall Plan.  For the first time in human history we restored our enemy.  President Lincoln had the same idea after the Civil War but it ended with his death.  "Charity to all with malice toward none."  Pie in the sky?  Just long overdue.  

I'm not writing this for anyone but myself.  No really.  I don't have a lot of followers.  But every day that I see fear leading to just plain stupidity and that leading to rationalizations that defy logic I am concerned that love is losing the media war.  That love is too weak a word.  

In tennis it means nothing and I find sometimes that is all it means to me.  Nothing.  But it is not nothing!!!  Why do you think there is so much vitriol on the air and on the Internet?  Love is stronger than any force in the Universe including Gravity and Dark Matter and Energy (you can't prove me wrong on those last three) and the only way some people feel they can fight it is to yell and tell lies and put fear in us.  And why?  Because those are all the things that love is not.  Love isn't is fearful, loud or ignorant.  It is patient and kind.  I must live my life in love.

That doesn't mean that I'm not in mortal danger?  No but who isn't?  The fact is that love has literally saved my life. If it wasn't for love I would be dead for more than two years now (long story but true).  Love works through us when we least expect it and when we do let it work through us the world changes. As fast as some would like?  No but we must, like love, be patient and kind.

I know for myself that love needs me to be its voice, its hands and its feet. And so that is why I write about love this day.  Love has given me the courage.  Love is not too weak a word.  I am.

Marie