The Woz

I was doing some research today and came across Waziyatawin.  She's an academic and Native activist.  Reading her stuff, I decided I really liked her, both because she makes important points and because she's eloquent. 
While I was reading some interviews with her I noticed that they referred to her as "The Woz" which made me think of the famed computer tycoon.  I think that's possibly the best nickname to have. 
Also, on a more serious note, Waziyatawin is being targeted by the FBI for giving a speech criticizing the U.S. government's handling on Native lands.  She's not a terrorist. 

Duh

Apparently the government has just realized that pop culture is better propaganda than actual propaganda for America. To which I have one thing to say: Duh.
I have friends who had never been in America during Halloween and Thanksgiving, and they asked me if people really dressed up (yes) and if they really ate turkey (yes.) They based their questions on what they had seen in tv and movies. I have a Norwegian friend who has virtually no accent because she watches so much American tv. I'm pretty sure that most of those friends honestly see America as mostly what our pop culture shows us as.
But I’ve also seen this as a bad thing. I know girls who come to America thinking they can live like Carrie Bradshaw, shopping all the time and getting romanced by guys, and they’re totally disappointed when they see how most people’s lives are not like that. (They also usually are surprised to see how dirty most of New York’s streets are.) They also sometimes they have a blind allegiance to what they think is American, which can mean some of our least impressive attributes. (They often think we’re far more materialistic than what I hope most people are like, but sometimes they themselves are happy enough to buy into the culture.) Even sadder, they see America as more homogenized than it really is, when there are lots of smaller groups and some are antagonistic to one another. Also, right now, a lot of foreigners I know dress like hipsters because this is “in,” and although I agree with them it is, I know far more Americans who aren’t hipsters than are.

Eye of Day

Eye of the Day is a consultant group that aids immigrants in navigating governments and laws. Looks like it could be useful for anyone looking to try to get U.S. citizenship, which, during this "War on Terror" and general racism, is probably really tough.
It's hard for us who are lucky enough to be happy with our citizenship to realize not everyone is.  And it's so hard to remember that someone who is "illegal" lives with constant fear that someone is going to discover their legal status and have them deported.  Or worse, take advantage of them in some way, like paying them less for their labor. 

Ruth's Stories

Sometimes I accidentally have long conversations with people.  Usually they're with people I love who make me laugh.  Last night it was Ruth.
Ruth and I have only recently become friends, but we're apparently those friends who meet and then a few weeks later are best friends.  (Last year, I did the same thing with Mark.  He asks me about something in a class and three weeks later we're having two and a half hour conversations with lots of giggles.  By this past April, we would run into each other in the street and ten friends would pass by, each wondering why we were having such enthusiastic conversations that last three hours when they're supposed to be ten.) 
Ruth has got all sorts of fun stories.  She used to work in a MP's office.  She said that it was an awful job, just because the MP was a complete disappointment and because she had to deal with strange situations. 
"We had to scan everything that came in and out of the office for records, which was fine, except the scanner was in one room and the computer that would actually make the scanner scan was in another room.  You'd have to walk back and forth scanning in four hundred pages.  At one point I suggested two people do it, one to flip the paper and the other to press the button, and they thought it was brilliant, but no one ever helped me."
Apparently a lot of people would call asking for asylum, which was fine, except no one could write anything down about anyone, so usually Ruth would have no contact information for them. 
"The phone number they had wouldn't work and the ten different emails they had would just come back as one of those failed to send notices, so I started guessing what the email address probably was.  Changing certain numbers, adding an s here, that sort of thing.  Finally I got one of those emails to work." 
Ugh.  Incompetent people are able to have jobs all the time and they make so much extra unnecessary work. 
The final straw was the schizophrenic who would call in.  She apparently believed that the government, elements of the police and a few lawyers were conspiring against her, and she would call the MP's office over it.  Ruth would apparently listen to her on the phone, with her head down, because she would call several times a day.  Which was apparently better than her emailing six times a day.
"Usually, if it was mildly diverting, I would listen to her for twenty minutes, or if she was really upset, I'd give her forty."
I don't even give some of my friends forty minutes on the phone.  And I'd love to talk to Dan like that, but he's always rushing to get off. 
I suggested maybe this woman get some help, since it sounds like the government was far too incompetent to possibly be conspiring against her.  On the other hand, Ruth's making my job, with minimal human contact, lots of books and research, and fellow employees I actually like, sound awesome.  I already was pleased as punch with this work, but you know, it's good to be reminded of how bad it could be.