Immigration Reform: Saving American Politics

Immigration reform has the potential to save American politics.

Both the debate going on in America regarding immigration, and the reform bill itself are re-energizing U.S. politics in a transformative manner.

In the past year, thousands of people who have never been involved in politics have taken to the streets to demand for immigration reform. Restaurants closed, streets were blocked off, and businesses shortened their hours, all so that people in America could have their voices heard. Similarly, even anti-immigrant groups are strongly engaging themselves in the democratic process: going to the streets, writing their congressmen, and uniting together.



Everyone is affected.

For the past five years, the Iraq War has dominated our political minds. The war has depleted our economy, divided our nation (and our world), and created an atmosphere of cynicism. Although the beginning of the war saw many protests, these marches were largely ignored by politicians as a bunch of anti-war hippies who were looking to re-create the Vietnam era. Now, the Iraq War has become an inevitable disaster with no foreseeable end in sight.

That said, it would be easy to give up on American democracy today. But thank god for immigration reform.

I had the chance to hear Illinois Governor Blagojevich at a rally to mostly Hispanic immigrants this past weekend. At the rally, I had the same feeling I had in Pretoria, South Africa where I attended an event for National Women’s Day which turned into a grand celebration of freedom. Ditto the event in Santiago, Chile which honored the end of Chilean dictatorship. This rally reminded me of being in the midst of a youthful democracy.

Young democracies have the passion, hope and optimism that bring people out to the polls and choose inspiring candidates. Although they may not have the adequate institutions that a long-lived democracy has, it has the key to any democratic society: wide-spread, mass participation.

If the immigration reform does in fact pass, an estimated 12 million immigrants will join the U.S. political process. Not to mention all of the already documented immigrants who will be further encouraged to get involved in the political process. Not to mention all of the anti-immigrant activists who have been given a new cause to fight against. Not to mention various other minority groups that can ride some of this political steam.

At Governor Blagojevich’s rally, the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights brought their Mobile Action Campaign, which focuses on bringing electoral politics to the immigrant community of Illinois. The ICIRR sets up computers at mass political events, and encourages participants to write their congressmen and legislators. The ICIRR assists with all of the logistics. For most of these people, it is the first time they have ever had any influence in U.S. politics.

People care again.

But immigrants are not the only ones who have been re-inspired to get involved in American democracy. Even my Grandma cares. She recently emailed me, “This whole undocumented immigrant situation is sad. Everyone's ancestors were immigrants, documented & un. They should leave these people alone. Who should I write to? With what comments?” Seriously, my grandma wants to get involved!

But immigration reform also affects our institutionalized democracy. Our policy makers in Washington are directly affected. My friend who works for a Senator in Washington, told me that her phones were ringing off the hook when the immigration reform deal was announced. For the next few days.

Senator John McCain, who hasn’t raised a vote in the Senate in weeks, escaped the presidential campaign to announce the reform. For the first time yet, presidential candidates have actually had to take a stand for their beliefs on immigration, issuing statements, amendments, and potential votes that may even set them apart from candidates in their own party. This has not happened with the Iraq War, health care, or other social issues.

Immigration reform has the potential to bring a whole new kind of politics not only to Washington, but to America as a whole. It will bring a young new group of people energized in the political process, and it can help align the institutions in Washington with what is happening on the ground.

Al Gore writes in his soon-to-be-released book that “reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions” and that the country’s public discourse has become “less focused and clear, less reasoned.” As Michiko Kakutani assesses Gore’s book, she writes that “he diagnose [s] the ailing condition of America as a participatory democracy — low voter turnout, rampant voter cynicism, an often ill-informed electorate, political campaigns dominated by 30-second television ads, and an increasingly conglomerate-controlled media landscape.”

The immigration reform debate and potential legislation is already changing this.

I’ve been trying to think of ways to “American Idol-icize” U.S. politics—make politics as entertaining, widespread, and accessible as the TV show (more people vote for American Idol than they do for the United States presidency). The immigration debate and subsequent legislation may do just that.

Let's Play Ball!

A friend once told me an interesting story. When she was in high school, her teacher showed the class an aerial map of a major city. The map designated distinct ethnic groups in different colors. On the map, a large ethnic group lived in a big portion of the southern side of the city, with very little other groups. A large immigrant group lived on the west, along with distinct patches of a few others. The majority population lived in the North. The map showed a city that was incredibly segregated, with a significant amount of diversity, but almost no integration.

The teacher then asked the class what city they thought it was.

"Johannesburg," one student replied, as this was during the time of apartheid.

"Jerusalem," another student answered, remembering the intense schism between Jews and Palestinians.

A third student mentioned Delhi, because the class had just learned about the caste system in India.

"You are all wrong," said the teacher. "It is your very own Chicago.

The students could not believe it, but it was true.

------

This discussion clearly leads us to America’s pastime: baseball.

America's pastime can still bring out the best—and worst, of our country. Today, interleague play begins, reminding us that winter is over, climate change still has a ways to go before it destroys a good game, and Americans still care more about a silly sport than they do about the war in Iraq.

And ironically, a professional baseball team can tell us a lot about our cities and states. Take the Yankees: striving to be perfect, and willing to spend anything to get there and be dominant. Sounds like New York to me. The Minnesota Twins: a smart team which grows homegrown talent that comes back to impress its fans, but has had trouble breaking through in the playoffs recently. A little like Minneapolis: a city that is “up there,” but still often considered flyover country by many. The Milwaukee Brewers: their name says it all. Kansas City: they have a team?

And that brings us to Chicago, which has two teams. The Chicago White Sox head up the Red Line this afternoon to take on their inner-city rivals, the Cubs at Wrigley Field. The trash-talking has begun, those adorning different jerseys jaw throughout the city, and the wind has even picked up to remind us that we do live in the Windy City, regardless of who we cheer for.

But while Chicago has two teams, they could very well have two distinct cities as well, differentiated by the geographic—and thus ethnic, socioeconomic, and racial differences that set the Cubs and the White Sox apart. The South Side versus the North Side. Black versus white. Developed versus underdeveloped. Yuppie versus blue collar. Highly publicized versus the forgotten. And we could go on and on…

Clearly this is oversimplifying the issue, and the complexities of Chicago run far deeper than a black and white divide. But the city has yet to merge the differences between the North and the South sides, and it remains incredibly segregated, just like the aerial map that the teacher alluded to in my introductory story.

Take the education system. This year, 27 Chicago Public School students have been killed. 20 out of the 27 students attended school on the South Side, whereas only 5 on the North Side (2 attended school on the divide). The Chicago Public Schools remain very segregated, especially when you exclude magnet schools. In many ways, the South Side remains a different world from the rest of Chicago, as these deaths show. Gang violence is more common, schools under perform, and poverty is a much larger problem.

When somebody tells me that Mayor Daley is doing great things for the city of Chicago, I ask them, “Which Chicago?”

Yesterday I went to a baseball game between two CPS high school teams. It was played on a neutral field, near downtown, but one team was fully Hispanic, while the other was all African American. It was great to see parents coming out to support their children, and how a game of baseball could bring communities together.

But during the whole game, I could not stop thinking about how it was two teams—albeit ethnic groups—against each other. Like in any game, the fans rallied around their particular team, the teammates supported one another on their own team, and people had a good time. But there was little, if no interaction between the two teams.

And this represents Chicago as a whole today. The Windy City is abuzz with the White Sox-Cubs rivalry, and finally fans from both sides are integrated in the same space. But as I overheard a Cubs fan saying today, “I just hope I don’t have to sit next to a Sox Fan!”

Med School Motivation

I met a beautiful girl the other day. Cool, smart, great smile, finishing up her second year of med school. Perfect for me.

She’s getting married in two weeks.

I kind of expected it, and in fact was very happy for her. We were chatting at a party with a few other friends, and we started laughing when she told us about the guy she was marrying. Third year med student, good-looking, hard worker, go-getter. Perfect couple. Power couple; all of the good ones seem to marry each other!

A friend, who is a teacher at the Chicago Public Schools, and I laughed about how the doctors were marrying each other. “What the hell, I need my rich doctor!” I joked as we admitted to ourselves that we would have to end up with one another, living a life with salaries that amounted to the doctors’ income tax refund. Oh well, at least we would be happy.

But this recent trend of higher income professionals marrying one another is actually one of the contributors to the rising inequality of the past 20 years. In her great analysis of this phenomenon, Annie Murphy Paul wrote in the New York Times Magazine a few months ago, “Once, it was commonplace for doctors to marry nurses and executives to marry secretaries. Now the wedding pages are stocked with matched sets, men and women who share a tax bracket and even an alma mater.” This prompted economist Gary Burtless’s 2003 analysis which found that a rising correlation of husband-and-wife earnings accounted for 13 percent of the considerable growth in economic inequality between 1979 and 1996.

Another buddy of mine joined our conversation, and we mentioned to him that our friend was getting married. He quickly commented, “Nice! You have such great child-bearing hips.” She smacked him.

I laughed at my friend’s irreverence, wondering if we were really in 2007. I then asked the soon-to-be doctor what kind of doctor she wanted to be when she was all done with school. “Oh, I don’t want to practice medicine. It’s not conducive to raising a family,” she replied. So what do you want to do? “Go into business, or something,” She responded.

What?!! I agree, that being a doctor may not be conducive to being a mother (although I think there are definitely ways to still be a great mother and doctor), and am very sympathetic to these feelings she has. But why are you going to med school then? To meet your husband? And to just casually brush off med school already…?

I know tons of kids who have dreams of being doctors. They enter college, put themselves through pre-med misery, and slave for hours over the MCATs. Because they want to be doctors so they can practice medicine. And they still may not get into med school. I still think being a physician is one of the few true “careers” left, where you can make a life of being a doctor. And to have someone who really doesn’t care about the profession simply do it to do it bothers me, especially when we are in desperate need of passionate doctors.

I admit that I don’t know her true motivation for going to med school, so I may be completely wrong. And I don’t know the pressures that she may have upon her. And I do not know what its like to have the pressures of making a career and being a mother. Plus, I guess this phenomenon is true of any profession out there, and America is a free country. She can do what she wants.

And I suppose she does have great child-bearing hips.

My grandmother thinks that women should not be in med school, because they take a spot of a male doctor. I disagree with her. But med school students, who already know that they will not be doctors, take the place of much-needed physicians.

Northwestern Assault: Bridging the Gap

I am extremely saddened and upset about last night’s news that a 22-year old woman was sexually assaulted two blocks from Northwestern University. This hit close to home. Not only because I lived within blocks from this assault for two years and attended Northwestern, but also because it reminds me that no matter where you are in the world, it may not be safe.

But this event shows that we as part of the Northwestern community must move beyond viewing Northwestern as a bubble—the safe, elite, academic world that does not exist in connection with its immediate surroundings.

Most Northwestern students have walked through this neighborhood several times, either drunk or sober, without paying any attention to what’s around. For many of us, the only time we even noticed our Evanston neighbors was when we pissed on their lawns—clearly not truly noticing them at all. When students heard Evanston residents complain about the disrespect of college students, the overwhelming response was always, “What did you expect? You are living right next to a college campus. Don’t move here if you don’t like it.”

Northwestern is a bubble, and we like it that way. But this sexual assault highlights a larger problem that is true of Northwestern and many elite colleges across our country: isolationism and unwillingness to be part of the surrounding community.

The Duke lacrosse case is an extreme example of the dangers of a college remaining too isolated from its surrounding community. In this case Duke, the elite university, was immediately placed in direct opposition to the city of Durham when a woman accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her. An us-versus-them attitude took hold in the city itself, but also across the world where those following the story took sides. The results of the case are now infamous, as the accuser’s allegations failed to prove that a rape took place, but the divisiveness between the school and the community have yet to be healed.

It takes a major story like the Duke lacrosse case or the Northwestern sexual assault to highlight these divisions, but it will take a much longer and sustained effort by the schools and surrounding communities to bridge the gap.

But bridge the gap we must.

Fostering a closer relationship between a college and its surrounding community not only will help prevent these incidents from occurring in the future, but also to educate the students of what is actually happening around them. Another world exists out there!

And communities will certainly benefit by having the college students and institutions engage them: by enhancing research, adding valuable resources, and offering an intellectual atmosphere (and I could go on and on).

Bridging the gap between colleges and their surrounding community may not directly stop rapes and violence. We still need better policing, provide women with the proper resources, and even create more campus housing. But it will awaken us to the realities of the real world, which happens to be only a few blocks away.

Engagement of the Disengaged

The recent news that 6 men have been arrested in a terror plot against Fort Dix, a military base in the United States is certainly discouraging and potentially dangerous. The men are Muslim, had Jihadist influence, and are immigrants from various parts of the world. Because of these factors, this event has immediately been framed as part of “The War on Terror” by the American media, law enforcement officials, and politicians.

For example, United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie commented, “This is a new brand of terrorism where a small cell of people can bring enormous devastation.” J. P. Weiss, special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Philadelphia office added: “We had a group that was forming a platoon to take on an army. They identified their target, they did their reconnaissance. They had maps. And they were in the process of buying weapons. Luckily, we were able to stop that.”

Clearly, we are at war.

But wait. As the story unfolds, it becomes more and more clear that these 6 people had no foreign connections to Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization. Tony Snow acknowledged this at a press conference this morning. In fact, they had been in the United States for quite some time, and went to public school in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

To me, Cherry Hill sounds a lot like Littleton, Colorado, where 2 students are infamous for their attack on Columbine High School. In fact, the tapes of the alleged attackers sound very similar to the tapes released of Seung-Hui Cho: angry (specifically towards American society), isolated, and strange. But the Columbine attack and the Virginia Tech “massacre” were not framed within “The War on Terror,” although many may argue that school shootings are a scary form of domestic terrorism.

Nonetheless, whether we are talking about foreign terrorists or domestic school killers, both share a common feature: they are disengaged from their surrounding society and will do whatever it takes to harm it. This is clearly a challenge that needs to be addressed, but it does not fit within the current context of “The War on Terror.”

Framing our challenges solely in the context of “The War on Terror” does not address the crux of the problem of which we are talking: disengagement from American society.

Instead let us start a new mission: “Engagement of the Disengaged.”

A little conversation, please?

I called a high school college counselor today to notify her of a scholarship opportunity. She proceeded to tell me her school’s procedure for scholarships: 1) they post it on some website, 2) Students are expected to come into the office to pick up applications if they are interested, 3) They have copies of applications in the office (behind some door).

I asked her if they would like a representative from the scholarship organization to speak to her students, and she said no. I asked her if she would distribute the applications to the proper students (the students who would be most interested and were certainly eligible), and she told me "that's not what we do here." I asked her if the foundation could send applications to students or make sure they get them, same answer.

I then asked her if she has ever talked to her students and if she cares about them, and she responded "I'm underpaid." Just kidding, I did not go there. But I could imagine the answer as I frustratingly hung up the phone.

God bless the Online Revolution. Google has become our legos, while Youtube is our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Entertainment that becomes so much a part of our lives, that it is no longer merely entertainment. It is a way of life (as I sit here and write on my blog). Not only is it the way we do things, but it is the way things are done.

For some people.

We are becoming too reliant on the web for explanations, and much too often simply refer others to “the website.” Many people have a simple question that would take 45 minutes to find on the FAQ section of the website. But most importantly, many people—and I use students at lower-achieving high schools (like the one I called) as an example—simply do not seek out information on a website, especially when they have no clue that information exists there. People need face to face communication, and they need others to reach out to. They also need to reach out to others, and learn the proper ways to do so.

The web can be a great means to an ends—a helpful tool to get somewhere—but it is not the only means, and it is certainly not the ends itself.

Ishmael Beah, Child Soldiers, and Us

Meet Ishmael Beah. Sierra Leonean, American, political science major, humanist, hip-hop lover, witty, funny, good-looking, one of the guys. Oh, and he also used to be a child soldier. Now he is the author of the book, A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier.” It is definitely a book worth reading, to gain an inside understanding of what it’s like to live in the thick of a civil war, and then end up fighting in it.

Beah brings a personal dimension to war, which is often overlooked by the structural problems of the world and of the incredible violence that is reported. When I typically think about soldiers in a war, the following questions quickly pop to the top of my head: Who is he fighting for? Who is he fighting against? Why is he fighting? Then I think about the reasons for the war: Is it for money? Nationalism? Religion? Tribalism? All of these questions are important.

But Beah transcends these questions and brings war to a very simple level. Beah fights because he was placed in a war-torn circumstance. He doesn’t fight for money, or for his country. Not for diamonds or for his tribe. He fights because that is what he had to do to survive at that particular moment. When reading this book, I got the sense that Beah could have been anybody.

I had the chance to recently hear Beah speak. In the discussion that followed, a professor in the audience commented that we had child soldiers in the United States, but that they go by the name of Vicelords, Crips, Bloods, GDs, etc. He was right. And they are just normal kids like all of us.

Which brings me to a funny story that sums all this up. When I went to hear Beah speak, I jumped on the elevator and a beautiful girl walked in after me. We began talking, and we immediately hit it off; we were both going to hear Beah speak. After the discussion, we began speaking again. She asked me what I do, and then she told me that she was an actress. My face dropped. She even said to me, “I am so glad I met you.” This was my lucky day. Finally, we were waiting outside the elevators in one of those awkward “how do we say goodbye moments” and Beah walked by. Beah got on the elevator, and asked her, “You coming?” (They had obviously known each other, or had planned to go out afterwards). The elevator closed and I was left there alone.

Not only is he a normal man like all of us. But he is a stud too.

One Acre Fund

The One Acre Fund (www.oneacrefund.org) supports local farmers in Africa by providing the essential materials and education to farm successfully in Africa. They subsequently assist with finding a market for the farmers’ crops. In a community in which families are harmed by perpetual hunger, the One Acre Fund empowers the chronically hungry to pull themselves out of poverty. While the One Acre Fund is a non-profit organization, it uses a business model to invest in the families it supports. It sets itself apart from microfinance institutions because it does not hold the families in debt. Instead, it takes a cut of the profits from each harvest and reinvests into other harvests. If a harvest fails, the family is not left in debt; if the harvest succeeds, farmers and the One Acre Fund both benefit. This will create a completely sustainable model in the long term.

Sounds great on paper, right? So how is the One Acre Fund able to succeed with a foreign business model in the local community politics of Africa? According to Youn, “We have actually had a very easy time with local political leaders. This is primarily because we have a contact in the area who grew up in the area and basically went to high school with half the political leadership in the area. We always look for links like this, and will continue to try to find those “key connectors,” and so far have not had any issues.” That said, this promises to be a considerable challenge as the One Acre Fund expands to other communities, and must deal with the political struggles of corruption that plague Kenya as a whole, especially at the local level.

A mixed view of Kellogg

Someone told me once that there are only two values that are true of all cultures—incest with one’s mother is wrong, and it is essential to bury or dispose of the dead in some honorable way. Let’s add another: when you are done lifting weights at a gym, put your weights back on the rack. My professor in college has traveled everywhere in the world—the Caucasus, everywhere in Africa, Latin America, Australia, and everywhere else—and he said that in all those places, people clean up after themselves at the gym by re-racking their weights. One exception: at Northwestern University, where the Kellogg students leave their weights on the floor for the people who lift after them to clean up.

This is always how I’ve viewed Kellogg students: too arrogant and into themselves to feel they need to clean up after themselves. But over the past year, I have been extremely impressed with Kellogg's willingness to make a difference in the Chicago community and in the world. At the Illinois Education Foundation’s (www.iledfoundation.org), mentoring program, there are 8 Kellogg grads serving as mentors. Yesterday I had the chance to attend the Town Hall meeting of an incredible organization, the One Acre Fund (www.oneacrefund.org), founded by Kellogg alum Andrew Youn. Their Board of Directors consists of all Kellogg students, and their investment council is predominantly Kellogg grads as well. Impressive.

Welcome to Universalism is Dead?

This blog is inspired by the most challenging and pressing question of our time: where do the global and the local interact?

We are not in a grand clash of civilizations as Samuel Huntington would lead us to believe, nor in a fight of good versus evil as many of our leaders suggest. This is not us versus them. While Thomas Friedman argues that the world is flat, at the same time, the world has never been so rocky. Instead, we are in an era where the local affects the global, and vice versa, like never before.

Global warming, terrorism, poverty, and globalization are all global phenomena, yet they affect local communities and cultures in a dangerous way. Similarly, terrorism no longer terrorizes only its immediate victims, greenhouse emissions do not pollute simply its direct atmosphere, and poverty does not just threaten the poverty-stricken individuals.

Just after the Cold War, it seemed our world was undergoing a swift move towards universalism: a social, political, and cultural—albeit global—order which could be conceived as being true in all possible contexts without creating a contradiction. Democracy won out, the free market globalized, human rights gained momentum, and it was up to the leaders of our nations to push these universal values forward. Clearly, it was not that simple, and framing these issues in this context does no good today. Instead, today’s world poses a stunning predicament: Is Universalism dead?

This blog will explore global issues, which play out in our local communities. It will investigate local activity, which can not be understood without a global understanding. Most importantly, it will grapple with the global and local phenomena that can not be clearly defined as either or.

In third grade, my teacher tried to drill the motto “Think globally, act locally” into the minds of my classmates and myself. It didn’t make sense to me then. But today, you can’t do one without the other.