Eating with friends

Last Sunday I had dinner with Holly and Mike--they prepared a pasta feast, and I came bearing gifts of pumpkin bread. All food was made completely from scratch--Mike made the pasta and infused it with basil that he'd actually grown himself in a little basil plant in the window. I don't think I've ever had fresh pasts like that; it tasted amazing. I baked the pumpkin bread the night before using the puree I'd made a few weeks before, from the pumpkin I bought and froze last fall. We drank wine (a merlot) and ate pasta and had some garlic bread as well, and talked about the upcoming summer, and maybe going to some Yankees games. And riding--Holly was a pretty accomplished rider as a teen, and I rode some in college, and afterward as well. We talked about riding at Claremont Stables in Central Park sometime which would be a lot of fun. I miss riding--I have all my gear up here but it's hard to fit it into my schedule nowadays, and it's not the cheapest sport. Holly and I also talked about women's colleges--she went to Vassar, one of the Seven Sisters which went co-ed in the early '70s, and I went to Mount Holyoke (another Seven Sisters school) my freshman year, and Sweet Briar.

The whole evening was just really nice.

And last night Tesse hosted a seder--her parents, Paula, Jason, Tesse's friend Dee Dee and I all attended. A very interesting meal--there's so much symbolism and history in it. I was fascinated by the plate in the middle of the table with Jewish symbols on it and holders for all the required symbolic foods, like the sweet charoset, the salt water, the herbs, the shank. There seemed to be a lot of reminders of sadness--I've heard that about Jewish holidays, that there are very few unrelievedly joyful holidays (I suppose Purim might be one?). We started off by reading from the program that Tesse has put on each of our chairs, that led us through the prayers and the remembrances. I started thinking about how many thousands of years back in time this meal went--that I was standing with members of a people who go back to before our country was founded, before the Middle Ages, before the birth of Christ. Keep going back farther and farther in time, and you will still find Jews who sat at a table in the spring, and celebrated Passover. Thousands of years ago. It's awe-inspiring. The Jews are the only ancient people that has survived with their culture intact. The Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Phoenicians--they are as Ozymandias, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" fallen by the wayside. The Greeks worship different gods, and the Egyptians speak a different language. Only the Jewish people have lasted. Last night I sat with their descendants.

Immigration, legal and illegal

So, the Senate is trying to work out a bill on immigration, although it looks as though they won't pass the House bill which made illegal immigration a felony. CNN has been showing a lot of programs on illegal immigration lately. I have some fairly complex feelings on the matter, and I've talked about them on my message board. I'll start off by saying I wholeheartedly support LEGAL immigration. I think immigration is what makes this wonderful country relevant, that we have always encouraged people who seek a better life to come here, to the point that our Statue of Liberty explicitly welcomes them. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... I played Emma Lazarus in Lady of Copper and always loved those words. I even think we should pass legislation that makes it much easier to become a citizen; if we can liberalize the laws, more people can come.

However. Legal immigration is just that--legal--and I have a real problem with illegal immigration, with people who ignore our laws time and again, and who cynically exploit our constitution to have their children born here in order to make it harder for them to be deported. I get extremely impatient with those who claim "they're just doing work Americans won't do." I say bullshit. I've worked plenty of crappy jobs, for little money, because that was what was available. I work at a dinner theater during changeover, and got paid less than minimum wage, in cash. I scraped gum off the bottoms of the tables for that money. I've stood in the cold in front of Grand Central Station, handing out magazines. If a person needs to make rent, you'd be surprised at what they'll do. Don't tell me what jobs Americans won't do; that's insulting to hard-working Americans. (And not to mention--the illegals in this article apparently don't want to work even some jobs that are OVER minimum wage--in the one hand, by refusing the work, they may help drive up the wages. On the other, I don't EVER want to hear about how American won't work for XYZ money, when even some illegals won't!)

Oh, and I should make it clear I'm talking about economic immigration, not political refugees. I think political refugees should be treated differently--fleeing from a dictator who wants to exterminate you because of your color or creed is very different from fleeing poverty.

( Entitlement, Racism, Etc. )