2003-02-13 - 4:45 p.m.
The job
Oh god, my job is alternately the best job in the world and the worst. Here's why it's the best. My boss and I were talking about legislative strategy today and then she asked me if we could speak alone and closed the door. I was wondering what she wanted to talk about and was feeling just a little panicky at that point. But then what she wanted to talk about was the tension between my hated co-worker (see archives) and myself. She wanted to get my perspective and so I told her exactly how I felt. It was one of those dream conversations you hope to have as a professional. Noone was the bad guy and we acknowledged said hated co-worker was smart and dedicated. BUT she asked me if there was anything she could do to address the communication issues. She talked about the fact his contract was renewed to head up another project and new people were coming on board and she wanted to make sure that I felt supported and people felt comfortable going to her to express their concerns. Do I have the best boss on earth or what?
Anyway, I hate my job because of Congress. As we speak, the House of Representatives is passing a welfare reform bill that requires cash strapped states in a lagging economy to hurry up and find jobs for EVEN more people on public assistance. It also allocates more money to pressure women in abusive situations to stay married along teaching sex ed in a way that doesn't talk about condoms, homosexuality, and pre-marital sex unless it is to talk about how they lead to disease and sin. I am extra sad because the Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, David Wu will be voting for this legislative pile of crap. My colleagues and I have talked ad nauseum with him and his staff about it but he smiles and says he "can see where we're coming from" and then turns around and votes for a bill that cuts off hundred of thousands of people.
As if that wern't enough, the Department of Justice would like to expand their powers to harass people even further. Get this: one provision of their bill allows for the Attorney General to strip citizenship away from any U.S. citzen that provides support for who they designate as a "terrorist" organization. Just to give you some context, I have heard some Administration officials tell me with a striaght face that they would love to designate the ACLU as a terrorist organization. Another provision would allow the Attorney General - without court order - to wiretap U.S. citizens of the Administration unilaterally (without Congressional approval) decides to declare an emergency.
The country is in a fucking state of emergency. It's is an emergency of civil liberties. It is an emergency of privacy. It is an emergency of poverty. We've moved beyond code orange to code red. But it's not the time to buy plastic. It's time to raise some hell.
