Saturday, April 01, 2006

Suicide -- Personal and Political

"Suicide is painless. It brings on many changes. And I can take or leave it if I please." ~ theme from the movie M*A*S*H

I rushed to publish this post as quickly as possible because there was some speculation that I was contemplating suicide because of something I wrote in my previous post. I am not. Nor will I ever. But I wanted to post quickly so you would all know that I am still alive, kicking, and as full of vim and vinegar as ever.

Once, several years ago, I was enjoying dinner at Perkins with 3 friends. Me and another man, and two women. All friends. Not a double date. Just 4 friends who worked together having dinner together and chatting. Somehow the conversation turned to the subject of suicide. I was astonished to learn that all 3 of my friends present had either seriously contemplated, or had actually attempted suicide at least one time in their lives.

I never have. Perhaps that's because of the presence of Christ in my life. I live with hope. I am never hopeless, no matter the circumstances.

Never.

Now, back to business.

I trust President Bush, and I don't believe he would intentionally do anything to put this nation at risk. That is why I have to assume that he just has horrible advisors.

This whole guest worker program is just completely stupid. No matter how you spin it, it is amnesty. Period. It will open the floodgates to every alien that wants to come here illegally. It will only encourage them more.

Besides that, it won't work. It simply will not work. Illegal immigrants will not go through the necessary paperwork just to get legal. First of all, how many of these immigrants does anyone think, will pay any $1,000.00 fine? They are working for minimum or less than minimum wage, if they are working at all. They don't happen to have $1,000.00 just laying around to hand over to a government that doesn't enforce the existing immigration laws in the first place.

And if they did, why would they bother? There is an oft repeated expression that was originally meant to refer to out of wedlock sex, but it applies quite ably to this:

"Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"

Few will ever register for this guest worker program. They do not want to be legal. They only want to work here in the states because they can make a better living here than there.

It will fail. Miserably. It is a stupid plan, in my opinion.

I have an idea. The last real vacation I took was to Ixtapa. Mexico. It is a resort on the west coast of Mexico, near the center of the country. The nearest actual town is Zihuatanejo, the town that enjoyed a measure of notoriety in the film, "Shawshank Redemption". It is a beautiful place. It's average temperature is 85-90 all year round, and it rains often but only at night. It never rains in the daytime! There are wonderful restaurants and shops and hotels and the ocean is a deep aquamarine, teeming with large game fish. I, myself, caught an 8 1/2 foot sailfish there.

By the way, Zihuatenejo means "Land of brown skinned women". It is aptly named.

Here is my idea: they want to come here. I want to go there. Let's just trade countries. They can have the cold, the snow, the ice, and the pollution. We'll take the sun and the beach and the clean air.

See? Even uneducated bloggers such as myself can come up with a better plan than Bush's.

9 comments:

Gayle said...

You are a fighter, for sure!

I love your comment, "I trust President Bush." And yet, you realize he isn't perfect. No man or woman is. But you don't bash him and that's important. Some so-called conservatives are doing just that. You can disagree with him on certain issues without being disrespectful. I absolutely love that about you.

Okay, friend. I'm not worried about you anymore. As I said at the beginning of this comment: "You are a fighter." It's something I am pleased to know... more than you know! :)

Blessings!

Marie's Two Cents said...

I didnt see anything Humorous about that other post. Then again I am hormonal at the moment. If you ever do feel that low in your life you better e-mail me, give me your address so I can drive there, and so help me when I am done with you Suicide would be the BEST thing you could contemplate!

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

(2)Build the Darn Fence and start the guest worker program and start enforcing our laws dang it!

Let's make some jobs for those jobs that have been cut this year. :)


Hmmm.....maybe we could hire the illegals at cheap cost to build that darn fence? (^_~)

Gayle said...

Okay, now I'm starting to worry about you again. You haven't put up a new post and you haven't answered any of your comments. Where the heck are you?

Mark said...

What are you talking about, Gayle? This IS my new post! I am alive and well, and still feisty. As i said, I do not ever contemplate suicide. So get off that. Geeeez.

Lone Ranger said...

Point 1: I know swapping countries would be a good idea because I already thought of it.

Point 2: Never joke about relationships within earshot of a woman. You'll aways regret it.

Point 3: Let me see if I understand this -- you were "enjoying" dinner at Perkins??

Mark said...

Well, enjoying the conversation over what passes as dinner at Perkins

Tom said...

Perkins or Dennys - Same food, same prices. But at least Perkins has decent pie!

No President is perfect - they all goof up once in a while.

I'm almost resigned to the idea that this hairbrained immigration bill will be passed. Not happy about it at all.

Gayle said...

Well, at least you know I really care about you! :)

I worry about people when things like this happen. They can do strange things. So sue me!