Learning Politics: Walking Dead Edition

I’m an undecided voter but this last presidential debate has made one thing clear, I’m not voting for Governor Mitt Romney. After watching the debate and listening to what the candidates had to say I was not persuaded to vote for either one of them. But I was persuaded to not vote for Mitt Romney by Romney himself.

Romney did his best to get his message across and I do believe he was successful. I got to see a different Mitt Romney than I get from media outlets or any other online editorials. A Mitt Romney that is obviously passionate about his campaign and a proud American. For that reason I have a lot of respect for him.

Despite this optimistic bought of energy that Mitt Romney displayed on debate night it was not enough to get my vote. Why? Because I believe Romney’s 4 year plan for the U.S is nicely presented but I believe it will lead us in a wrong direction.

I am a fan of the T.V series The Walking Dead on AMC and many other dystopian/apocalyptic T.V/Movie series. Oddly enough these types of series have taught me valuable lessons of what happens to a society when the world is turned upside down. Most importantly what happens to an individual when the comfortable world they once lived in changes for the worse.

So when I watched the debate and heard of Romney’s plan I couldn’t help but remember some key scenes from The Walking Dead. Scenes in which characters clearly stated why the world was enveloped in chaos. Two of Romney’s points stuck out and I will use them to explain in this blog why I’m not voting for the Governor.

One point Governor Romney stated was that he wants to work to get the U.S energy independent. His goal is ramp up production of clean coal, natural gas, and crude oil. This is a great idea and if done properly can create good jobs and help with the energy crisis.

But ultimately this plan is still depending on non-renewable sources of energy. These sources will eventually run out or production can come to a halt during a national catastrophe. One fictional example comes from episode T.S-19 of season 1 of Walking Dead. In this episode the character Dr. Jenner plays a scientist who works at the C.D.C, he explains that the C.D.C facility is shutting down because the generators are running out of fuel.

Dr. Jenner goes on to rant about how the world runs of fossil fuels and how its a choice that came at a heavy cost. Electricity went out in cities all over the country causing emergency services to go down. Chaos enveloped the country simply because the lights could not stay on.  

The idea of chaos brings me to my next point that Mitt Romney stated on debate night. He stated that if elected he would increase the military budget. I believe his reasoning was to create a strong military to defend the U.S from any threat. Which I find reasonable and given the turmoil around the world I would be inclined to think the same way.

My problem with this again comes from a critical scene from the Walking Dead series. In the scene the country has already rolled into chaos and the military seems to have stepped in to keep control. The scene shows the character of Shane trying to get his best friend Rick out of the hospital before the “Walkers”, reach it. Unfortunately, Shane is unsuccessful and has to leave Rick behind but as he’s leaving he sees the military shooting and killing innocent civilians. In another scene Shane also witnesses the military drops napalm unto the city of Atlanta consequently killing innocent civilians as well.

The series goes on to explain that in the chaos the government/military had no choice but to react swiftly to contain the spread of disease. Even if those swift actions caused collateral damages it was choice the government/military made. Though never mentioned in the series I’m sure in an emergency like that, the government must of asked for citizens to lay down their weapons and issued martial law.

Now the Second Amendment of the Constitution states that all citizens have the right to keep and bear arms, and that shall not be infringed. Though hypothetically speaking given the extreme circumstances of a great national emergency the government may reason to look passed the Second Amendment thus infringing on our right to keep and bear arms.

Of course this only for sake of argument and completely hypothetical but I can’t trust a big government or in this case a big military. So in the end these are just two reasons why I’m not voting for Governor Romney. Though he is a very qualified candidate and passionate about “turning” things around, these two points make me quite concerned with his plan. Yes, it’s a silly to try to explain my reasoning by using a fictional example. But given their close similarities I couldn’t help but to extrapolate this choice.

I would like to close by asking all eligible voters to go out and vote. Remember it’s an important right all citizens have and we must exercise it intelligently. So study up on the candidates because the choice and responsibility falls solely on you. Vote for who you want too and make sure to hold them accountable for what they promise.

Making Border Security a Game

The ideas on how to enforce security and law along the Mexican/U.S border come far and wide. Now it seems that the private sector is pitching an idea that will make protecting this border a game, literally! A news story posted on a "gamer", centric web news site Kotaku explains that the company Sandia National Laboratories "have built a giant touchscreen video game that simulates the capture of illegal aliens". This is strikingly upsetting and discomforting for the fact that the article uses the term "Illegal aliens". One can speculate why this term was used but my opinion is that Sandia National Laboratories is only trying to reinforce the fact that it is easier for the government to dehumanize immigrants in order to impose harsher methods of control over the border. As far as Kotaku stance on the use of "Illegal aliens", it seems that the dehumanizing has reached a new level of use. The site Kotaku is a gamer centric site that reports of various video games popularity and use. So it was not surprising to see at the end of the article the author Joel Johnson ask one question "We just have one question: When can we download an iPad version?", as I stated early it seems that protecting the border has now become a game that we all can take part in. So is protecting the border just a game where we capture illegal aliens? I really hope its not for two reasons.


1. Protecting or enforcing the border is not a game. Real people are involved in doing it and people do die in the process. There is no +1 life bonus in protecting the border.

2. Real people cross the border. Not "illegal aliens", but real people who also suffer and die everyday trying to cross. They are not target practice, and you do not get bonus level ups for capturing or shooting a real person. A real person dies when shot.

If the government really thinks this is the best solution for border security, I would argue they are dead wrong. I will end by quoting the author Avram Bornstein who states "Borders are Tyranny".

Eduardo

Border Wall photostream

hardrived009's photostream on Flickr.

Success!

The Tejan@ Movement For Education Walkout/Teach-in/Rally was a success! We had a great turn out and many people were moved and inspired by all the speaker and performers. I want to thank everyone who came out and supported. I will post a follow up article in the next days detailing the event and pictures to accompany. Again thanks to everyone!

Eduardo

My preparations for Tejan@ Movement For Education

Tomorrow is the Tejan@ Movement For Education Walkout/Teach-in/Rally and we have already planned out a great event. We have gotten lots of recognition for this event and more than likely will get more tomorrow and in the future. With all that will be going on I will be there trying to cover the event in a true geek/techie way. I have set up a Ustream channel to watch the event online, and I will blogging and tweeting, Facebooking, Buzzing every bit of the event that I can. Some of the tech I will have at hand is minimal but I think will get the job done for sure. For example I will be using 2 laptops and my cell phone to try to get the blogging, streaming, and social media coverage. So hopefully there is no big mishaps and I can use all my gadgets to cover this event in a 21st century way.

Eduardo

Tejan@ Movement for Education

Hello all here is a friendly reminder that this Thursday will be the Walkout/Teach-in at UTPA. For more information you can see our Facebook event or the Mexican American Studies Club blog here. Hope that you can come and support Texas education and be a part of history.


Thanks,
Eduardo

Visiting the Border Wall

Today for the first time I went to go seriously observe the Border Wall. It was only me, my car, and my trustee phone(which I used to take pictures and video). My plan was to head down to the Hidalgo pump house to try to get some good snapshots. I unfortunately got a bit lost trying to find the pump house but I found myself near the Hidalgo-Reynosa international bridge. Fortunately along the bridge there's part of the border wall constructed so I stopped and took some pictures. While traveling down a street nearest to the "wall", I stumbled upon a Border Patrol guard tower. The tower did not look very impressive. It looked old, beaten up, and ineffective. Of course this is coming from someone who is used to seen the local police having bigger and flashier guard towers down at the local HEB. But nonetheless I could see how having such a apparatus serves its purpose despite being not as sophisticated as local police towers. Though I did notice a lot patrol vehicles and mobile spot lights(with the DHS logo on them).

 I encountered a one as I was walking down the pump house and was forced off a pedestrian walk way by a Border Patrol S.U.V. Though it seems that the patrol man just wanted to ensure his dominance, I was not impressed but irritated. I had many mixed feelings about seeing the border wall, in the end I am not sure what to think about it. I absolutely disagree that it should be built but yet I feel that there has to be a manner to deal with immigration in a humane and reasonable manner.