Something I Actually Believe

This is something I believe even though I don't want to. But I feel that circumstances have forced my hand, like how so many people don't believe in God because bad things happen. 

I believe that all computer cables were created by a set of wizards who hate women and put a curse on the cables so that when, in the middle of a young woman's presentation tonight, a blue screen appeared, flicked black, then blue, then in white letters "HDMI 1." 

This has happened to her before, as it has all of us. You start by making sure all your cables are firmly connected; maybe one was jostled out of place. She did that immediately and competently to no avail. Another woman came up, checked the cables, and moved the mouse to be sure things weren't going to sleep: no change to the blue screen. So far, no one had touched a button or clicked on anything, as best I could tell. Then a young man, a bit older than the presenter, came up to the computer, moved cables around in just the same way she had, and the screen immediately returned to her presentation, none the worse for wear. That happened.

And then we have my own printer. It allows me to command it to print using any of my connected devices. But then it will say "load paper." I open the paper tray to find that the paper has been loaded, and is in fact loaded to an appropriate level, just over three quarters full. I'll firmly and gently close the paper tray, and then it will begin to turn as if to print, but stop to say that I must "load paper." We do that dance sometimes four or five times before my husband hears my distress and comes to take a look. He opens the paper tray and closes it, and it prints right away. Right away. 

What am I supposed to think? 

The data is just these two things, granted, but they happened and continue to happen in my life. Enough for me to be thinking about how my printer may very well have feelings and preferences. It just makes me wonder about if it's my gender... maybe it's some other marker entirely. My height, weight, voice, scent? What is it? And is it connected to the young woman giving a presentation? Is there anyone investigating this right now?

Special Immigrants

 It only takes one car accident to ruin your life as you know it. That could deplete your accounts, make you unable to work, dependent on disability and on your friends and family for care. Or it could take one short bout in prison for you to lose your job, your lease, or your house, and maybe even some of your dearest friends who can't support you as a matter of principle. Because now you've been in trouble with the law.

Let's start to assume that people who have been in prison may have been there for good reasons. I'm going to assume that about you. Would you please assume that about me? And would you please make sure my kids are okay? I'll look out for yours, too.

There are suddenly a lot of good reasons to go to jail, prison, a detention facility. Maybe you spoke out against the Trump Regime deporting American citizens. Maybe you tried to hide immigrants from ICE. Maybe you helped someone that the President said was not a human, but you don't call humans animals. Humans are not animals. Maybe you called for an end to the genocide in Gaza. Maybe you called so loud that people started to look for reasons to make you be quiet. But you can't be quiet, because people aren't animals. As an aside: animals also should not be deprived of food and water.

This morning, I sat next to a woman who had to leave Afghanistan because the Taliban was threatening her family. They had sided with the US in some way during the US occupation, and now she could not leave the house without facing certain danger. They fled to Pakistan, where they could not legally work. What were they supposed to do? It was the TALIBAN. Remember them? Beards, guns, extreme religious beliefs about gender and patriarchy, they ride around in the backs of pick-ups trying to pick fights and intimidate people with violence all in the name of God. 

Are you asking me if she was immigrating legally to Pakistan when she was being pursued by the TALIBAN, running for her life? Of course not! But Pakistan made life hard for immigrants, and they sometimes cooperate with the Taliban. So she had to keep going, keep searching for safe haven. And now they are here in the USA, the place they sacrificed so much for while living in their own country. 

"It's good here," she said, "Not like Afghanistan, with the Taliban." Oh, how I wanted to agree with her. A strange presentiment crept over me, that we have a parallel to the Taliban and it's growing in popularity. Instead of infidels, people are looking for illegals. Instead of men gathering together in the backs of pick-up trucks with their guns, riding around looking for infidels, we have...