As we all know, this city has been at the forefront of our minds, in light of recent events. This isn’t a post about what’s happening there. This is a post about what to take from the current state of things, to build a better future.
What’s Happening
In the U.S., for just over a year continuously, we have had a fascist and a small party of loyal extremists take over much of our Federal government. Immigration enforcement is the eggshell that another step of this takeover is hiding in, and it’s cracking in Minnesota. It’s all coming out. They’re trying to control what we obviously don’t want them to, and members of our nation are fighting back with their voices and lives and homes.
Focus of Author
I write these posts to lay current events or ways our cities and civilizations are set up all out on the table. My focus in life is my future career in civil engineering, city planning, landscape design, and similar related fields (I’m currently studying to be an engineer). The philosophies I follow in my career-planning are natural environmental preservation, improving resident health, and improving resident happiness. With no shortcuts.
For this topic, my focus is also on where I even want to start building things up.
What It Reveals
Above all else, I think this situation calls into question how important it is that one really stays here. Not because of the danger and unrest from protests, but because of what it means to be a resident. A worker, and a taxpayer.
I’ve been told I see things differently in this regard. And I’ve been told that I only think this way, that one can just leave all their problems behind, because I’m young. But that’s not what I’m saying, nor what I want to talk about, because while it is true that I’m young and free to go places I desire, there’s more to my reasoning than that. It’s not about the negative, it’s about the positive, that is… It’s not about difficulty leaving my home, everything I’ve ever known. It’s about what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I might not have many readers right now, but to whoever does get here, I’d like for you to think of things this way too. Regardless of your age. Let me remind you what it’s like to see the world with fresh eyes.
This unrest given to us from our Federal government reveals things about the nature, the everlasting personality, of our country in a way that is hard to ignore. We were taught about the atrocities both domestic and international (Trail of Tears, general Imperialism as some examples) that our nation built its wealth, power, and happiness on. But now we see there’s no end to them: Our federal government is turning against us with force. Lying to us (AI images from the white house, etc.), everything.
To me, this unrest is just another reminder of what I already know. That America as an entity that acts upon the world, or as a government and empire and military unit and economic center, hasn’t… obviously, been treating humans or the Earth with respect and care during its endeavors.
And what do I care? I care, because as a citizen and resident, no matter how much I fight against the unrest while I’m still here, if I stay past my college years, I’m going to be building the infrastructure that allows this government to exist, whether I like it or not. Even if it’s mostly for the average person, in my field of civil engineering (public sector). I will be making neutral things: Buildings, transportation channels, bridges, etc., but even if one in 100, or one in 1000 or even one in a million people who use these neutral feats of engineering are using this infrastructure to more easily hurt my fellow resident or citizen of the United States, then what am I building? My job becomes not only complacency, but a crucial piece of a bad government’s plan.
Whoever you are, I need you to look at the work you are doing with your life, and figure out if it’s worth it to do it here. This beyond extremist section of the Republican party has already hijacked much of our government, many of our financial resources (our federal tax dollars) being redirected towards their cause. Our state tax dollars too, when you look at who pays for the roads they terrorize, the transit networks they block (cars or otherwise) using ICE. Hijacking our quality of education, too, with the “changes” to the federal DoE, education that states such as New York where I’m from have poured lots of our own money into. The things we built, being financially taken away. Public broadcasted media crashing, because the tax dollars we give to the Federal government each year aren’t returning to our local organizations as funding like we were promised they would be.
Moldy Onions
I am biased, because I am a person, and right now, this national unrest is continuing to spark internal questions about where I came from, and where I want to go. It’s a parallel to my personal life. What is one to do when they came from and grew from something bad? Or at least something they perceive as bad.
I keep looking at moldy onions. I’ll tell you all a story. I love to cook.
But I live in a new place, and I don’t know why, but every time now I go buy onions, at more than half are moldy.
I have tried organic, I tried going to a farmer’s market. I tried a different store. I don’t know why, but almost all of the onions are moldy. White, yellow, sweet, doesn’t matter. I can’t understand why this is so prevalent. It’s been so long of this that I’ve started seeing the moldy onions in my dreams. Holding them, tossing them, rolling them around. Cutting the paper skin in my head, and cutting too deep. A constant mental problem, that won’t leave until it’s solved. I see the skin, I see the dots of mold beneath the surface, and I cut the onion in half and the center sprouts and it keeps growing. Why is it growing? Isn’t it rotten? Isn’t this sprout (the chives) going to grow up rotten too? Can it escape its roots? Can you physically remove it so even though it grew from mold, it won’t start its life moldy?
If you take a big look at the world we see after we grow up vs. before, we’d probably end up asking ourselves the same questions. If this place is so bad, if everything we’ve lived and worked in and grew up in and supported with our lives was always being directed towards doing bad, hurtful things out there….
How do we change the world?
How do we come to terms with our second-highest-order organization as a species, our government, hurting so much that’s good?
How do I get rid of the bad within myself that I feel like I must have, and turn it into something good?
Moving On or Staying Put
A question I’m personally done asking myself, but might be good for a reader to ask.
I’m already planning to leave this country. I want to build my life somewhere that can support me. And also, because my career in particular is about building up cities better, and I don’t believe in building up something that can be hijacked or is already working towards rotten goals. City infrastructure supports laborers who pay taxes, and both labor and taxes are crucial elements for the Federal government to keep doing what it’s been doing, here and elsewhere. I already cared about the wrongdoings elsewhere, and didn’t want to support it, but for over a decade (remember: Obama started the “children in cages” stage of immigration detention, and the largest detention numbers ever recorded at the time!) they’ve been targeting our own residents and laborers, our undocumented community members, and there’s absolutely no way I could support that either.
Think about the rest of your life. Just remember to know what you’re supporting with whatever work you do. Remember to never be complacent, because every one of our skills is useful, and they might tell you they could find a worker like you anywhere, but that’s a lie, there will not always be someone else to finish the evil jobs, they’ll run out of people eventually as long as you do your part in reminding everyone, through your actions, that most humans are good.
Conclusion
Your choices are, always and forever, your own. Nobody can make your hand move, and nobody can make you get up in the morning. Find someone out there to give you the strength to not become complacent, and you’ll make it through.
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