The bezoar of the web,
Darien's weblog!
Friday, February 07, 2003
Do you miss the good ol' days as much as I do? Sitting in my apartment swatting crickets just doesn't do it. When will Homo Sapiens realize that increased beain size *does* mean a happier life? The Neanderthals had one; the whales have one and look at how much fun *they* have. Maybe the extra mass can convince them that the rest does more harm than good.
Maybe we do need a return to traditional family values. Personally I think we started to go wrong when we thought that *agriculture* would somehow solve all our problems.
But even so sitting around in my cave swatting moths and crickets just isn't like the old days. I need some proto-human contact.
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Male Pakistani citizens who are over the age of 16 and who are visiting the United States on visitors' visas and student visas are required to undergo Special Registration with the INS between 1/13 and 2/21. As of February 5, this requirement applies to citizens of 25 countries. All males required to undergo Special Registration must appear in person before an INS agent to be photographed, fingerprinted, and interviewed. (Of special note on the form used are spaces for "credit card number" and long series of questions about the name, address, and phone number of the registrant's parents.) All those required to undergo Special Registration must appear periodically in person at a designated INS office to demonstrate that they have been following their stated travel plans. (The INS recommends that you bring hotel and restaurant receipts, postmarked letters, and utility bills. "Be creative", the INS manual says.) Special Registration is an irreversible process.
There is a fair amount of confusion about who is required to register and who isn't, even among law enforcement agencies. It has been reported that United States citizens of Pakistani descent have been required to present their identification to police officers in New York City.
Many non-citizens, who may or may not be required to apper for Special Registration, are fleeing the United States; many are seeking political asylum in Canada. Recently, due to the overwhelming numbers of refugees appearing at entry ports on the United States/Canadian border, Candian immigration officers have been instructed to set individual hearings for applicants, often weeks in the future, and then to escort the applicants back across the border to the United States. (This is in contravention of Canadian law that requires that hearings be scheduled only if and when the applicant is expected to be able to appear for their hearing.)
Once they're back in the United States, these refugees are often detained by the INS, for various reasons--some may have been in the United States illegally; for some their legal status is in administrative process; for others their sudden exit and re-entry itself may be cause for detention. In many of these cases, the refugee is detained until they can post a cash bond. Many Pakistani families in the United States have no idea where their husbands and fathers are, or have no money to post bond for their return even if they do know. Needless to say, they won't be appearing in Canada for their asylum hearings either.
In a Pakistani neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, the streets have become almost deserted. Pakistani professionals, shopkeepers, and store owners are fleeing the United States rather than appear for Special Registration. Even those who aren't required to undergo Special Registration are leaving rather than risk the possibility of drawing attention to themselves or to their families.
The Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York City was given as a gift to the United States by the people of France in recognition of the friendship between the two nations that was established during the American Revolution. It was dedicated on October 28, 1886. When President Grover Cleveland accepted the statue on that date he said, in part: "We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected." In 1984 the United Nations designated the Statue of Liberty a "World Heritage Site".
The tablet cradled in the left arm of Liberty reads, "July 4, 1776" in Roman numerals. The seven rays of the crown that Liberty wears represent the seven seas and seven continents of the world.
The following sonnet was written by Emma Lazarus on November 2, 1883 as part of a fund-raising effort to build the pedestal on which Liberty would stand; it is now displayed on a bronze plaque at the base of the statue:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Until further notice, visitors cannot enter the Statue of Liberty, or visit its pedestal, its crown, or its museum.
Here are some other inscriptions around the base of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island:
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Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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Liberty is the air America breathes . . . In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms . . . freedom of speech and expression . . . freedom of worship . . . freedom from want . . . freedom from fear .
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
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I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.
WOODROW WILSON
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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
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For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
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The freedom and happiness of man . . . are the sole objects of all legitimate government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
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Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
LEVITICUS, XXV, 10.
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/archives
