This Latina Wonders…

By Silvia Uribe.

As I was channel surfing in an impossible task of finding something interesting on TV, I saw an advertisement for the upcoming show “Celebrity Rehab”, in which we will all have the dubious pleasure of watching some “famous” people (although I’m not sure who all of them are) going through the pain and suffering of getting rid of their addictions. I also learned that some of them, not having the strength to refrain themselves from being doped, will be using “on the air”. Of course, the show will air during prime time.

I WANT TO PUKE! The simple idea seems to me not only depressing, but also immoral. I wonder what kind of society have we become that we allow the media to not only show this kind of human misery to our kids, but also to profit from it?

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I can’t stop wondering about the wall that is being built on our southern border. “Protective” walls are actually not a new idea. The idea has been put into practice a few times in the past. The oldest and most famous being, the wall of China built in 221 B.C. This magnificent wall (with over 4,000 miles) protected the newly formed empire from their enemies. If we think about it, we’ll see that it also isolated China from progress, at a huge cost to its people. More recently, the Berlin Wall (96 miles) was built in 1961 and it caused the same isolation and lack of progress, for that matter. Walls have been, slowly but surely, either physically or symbolically torn down.

Today, countries are coming together. Political, commercial, and financial ties are being promoted all over the world. Many believe that globalization is well on its way. Building a wall now seems not only a decrepit measure, but also a perilous one, considering past results. I wonder… the U.S. didn’t get the memo?

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It is hard to understand why, at this point in time, democrats are seriously thinking about Barrack Obama as a potential presidential candidate. Today our internal affairs are less than stable, and as soon as Bush leaves office, our country will have to face major problems such as financial (billions of dollars in debt), political (due to the present administration’s mistakes, cover-ups, and concessions), and social (immigration, health care, social security, just to name a few). Our nation’s international relations with several countries are tense, to say the least (especially with the Arab world), and our image in the rest of the globe is not even close to a decorous one.

Sure, Obama is nice, likable, and smart person. I was impressed with him when I saw him at the Democratic State Convention in San Diego. He is an awesome public speaker, and his campaign PR is amazing, but is this enough? Of course not! The cold fact is that he is not ripe enough. There is no way around it; he lacks the experience needed to lead this country, especially in light of the aforementioned difficulties. Just because Oprah supports his campaign (as she does books and other trivial items) doesn’t mean that we need to stop utilizing our analytical capacities. I wonder, how reality blind, and celebrity feverish can we afford to be at this juncture?

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This is a follow up to a previous article I wrote about DL’s for all Drivers. A few of my good Republican friends, always concerned about keeping me well informed, went out of their way to send me the articles about how, due to “public pressure”, the New York governor decided to back down on his decision to issue Drivers Licenses to undocumented immigrants. I can’t avoid wondering whether the pressure came from those citizens who don’t bother to vote? or from those who don’t know the REAL issues that our country faces? Or, could it be pure political pressure at its best, instead?

At some point it will have to happen, the question is how long is it going to take, and at what social price?

Silvia Uribe is a freelance writer with a Latino perspective.

Cross-posted at Edhat.com