So it's been almost a month since I last updated this blog. I had an interesting spring break at the end of February and into early March. My mother planned a trip to Sanibel Island in Southwest Florida. We had an early morning flight so I had to wake up quite early to take the Light Rail to the airport. I got to BWI with time to spare and we eventually borded the plane.
Florida was disappointingly cold. For the first three days that we were there, the temperature hovered around 60F. It was really too cold to sit by the beach and also too cold to swim. What's the point in being in Florida if you can't swim! After our third day at the condo, we decided to move our flight to an earlier date and we headed home to Maine.
I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed being home. I enjoyed seeing my cats and hanging out with my family. It was nice to get a break from all the schoolwork/midterms.
The week after Spring Break, my friend Alex Rocci came to visit me at Loyola. She flew into BWI from Boston in the evening on a Wednesday. We did a lot of things despite the sub-par rainy weather. We took the Metro to the Inner Harbor and walked to the American Visionary Art Museum. This art museum showcases self-trained artists who haven't attended any sort of an art school. The theme was "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness". The exhibits focused on different aspets of our country's history ranging from slavery to the World War II. I really enjoyed it. On the third floor, there was an exhibit by an artist named Eugene Von Bruenchenhein. His painting were quite different and I really liked them. He also has free copies of his work online--a true artist wants their work to be distributed for free.
Here is a link to his work: http://www.vonbruenchenhein.com/
After Alex left, I had a really busy week filled with lots of meetings and schoolwork. I heard of an opportunity via email that there will be a large march on the Mall in Washington D.C. in favour of Immigration Reform this weekend. I immediately signed up and I will be going to D.C. with a group of students from activists throughout the country. I'll be going with some of the people that went to the Ignatian Family Teach-In/SOA in Georgia last fall. The idea of the march is to mobilize Congress and President Obama to choose Immigration as the next issue for reform.
I went to a seminar on campus that highlighted some of the issues surrounding immigration. The presenters included a religious nun, a professor from Chile, and a student who immigrated from Venezuela. The nun focused on El Salvador and the disgusting civil war that ravaged for years throughout the 80s-90s. The professor from Chile focused on his struggle to get resident status as his family moved to the United States. His father was a skilled engineer and had no problem attaining a work visa and the necessary paperwork to work in the States. The problem occurred when he wanted to bring his family with him. Until the paperwork for resident status went through (it took 5 years +/-) his wife and children could not work and had to pay the out of state tuition for his children at college. This is what is wrong with our system: even people who want to work and are earning a college degree cannot work legally, yet they still pay taxes. By the way, the majority of undocumented immigrants are not from Mexico or even Latin America. Rather the majority of undocumented immigrants are from Asia. Maybe we should try building a wall around the Pacific coast--not.
In my opinion a good comprehensive immigration reform bill would encompass three major themes: amnesty for all people currently living and working in the United States that has a clean criminal record, a path towards citizenship/resident status, a increase in the number and access to work visas for people who simply want to work in the States but don't necessarily want to live here.
Undocumented immigrants could come forward, pay a fine, get registered, and possibly become citizens/residents of our country. This truly is the American dream.
Anyways, that is all for now. I'll probably submit another entry on Sunday after the march in Washington D.C.
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