robhon Posted June 30, 2003 Report Share Posted June 30, 2003 Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who yearn to be free? No, actually, you will need to fill out the following forms: I-129, I-130, blah, blah... You must prove adequate income so as to not become a ward of the state. You must wait indeterminable lengths of time with no insight into the decision process that determines your fate. You must be subjected to fantastically rude officials who may deny your case for no other reason that they don't feel good that day.... and so on. My point? Do you know how other movements seem to find a simple, often clever way of simply illustrating the nature of their cause. Like, "Right to Life Campaign" or "MADD - Mother's Against Drunk Drivers." It's a very effective tool for furthering a cause. This idea struck me this morning: The sentiment represented by the Statue of Liberty has been completely thrown out the window by our nation. We are all good examples of this. So, why not create a group who's purpose is the dismantling of the Statue of Liberty. It is false of us, as a nation, to hold up this icon of freedom when our systems are built to prevent the very notions it espouses. The idea would not be to really dismantle the statue but to dismantle the system that subverts it's ideals. I don't know... Maybe it's just my dumb thought of the morning. But I just figured I'd throw it out here and see what reaction it got. Link to comment
whoever Posted June 30, 2003 Report Share Posted June 30, 2003 I totally agree with you. But, I found something funny living in America for over 10 years. The government will not care for any problems, until a group of people starting showing their faces in the public, and starting to protest. The tough part of getting any attentions from the government is, that 90% of the people who are involved with BCIS and Immigration needs are afraid of going out and protest. They simply do not want to prevoke the authority, and they can not afford to lose the status. Afterall, we are just a group of people, who has less than 1% of the nation's population that doesn't have much voice at all. In fact, many Americans are afraid of the immigrants. Many of them agree with controlling the immigrations. The government is making it harder for us, so it will discourage us to marry someone over seas, especially from China. The truth is, I will never petition someone overseas again. It's totally discouraging. Link to comment
robhon Posted June 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2003 Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Link to comment
whoever Posted June 30, 2003 Report Share Posted June 30, 2003 Probably the Statue itself needs help Link to comment
robhon Posted June 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2003 Probably the Statue itself needs help She needs to be helped into a set of crates until we can live up to her ideals again. Link to comment
whoever Posted June 30, 2003 Report Share Posted June 30, 2003 I started my petition on 12/14/2002. Now, I am still waiting for P3. I have tried to ask Guangzhou to mail my fiancee the P3 package. But they replied with they have not received the case from NVC yet. However, NVC already mailed the case to Guangzhou on May 9th, 2003. I also the the GUZ number. Now, I don't know:( BTW, I live in San Francisco. We are only 20 minutes away. Link to comment
rocksplit Posted June 30, 2003 Report Share Posted June 30, 2003 The statue of liberty is wonderful . Robhon your morning thought certainly does not appear dumb to me . >>>... yearn to be free? Sure, just a moment the next available... > pending. (97days today) A present from the French with a very interesting History:http://www.americanparknetwork.com/parkinf...ry/liberty.html It can not easily be turned into something else (When I eat fries they’re French not Freedom-fries and I do love freedom) Ideas and ideals need to be fought for. whoever, this might not help you much, but I experienced like many others the very same frustration of an aging petition at GZ. I offered Richard Adams to physically help out in clearing the back-log, of course he never replied. KC from CA did, but it has been months since I heard from her Link to comment
robhon Posted June 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2003 Yeah, I totally love the Statue of Liberty too. When I read those words they go straight to my heart! I believe in those ideals so much. It's just so dis-heartening going through this whole humiiating immigration process feeling that, as a nation, as our system is structured, we really don't hold those words as true. Link to comment
Guest R2D2 Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 The Chinese immigrants did not come through Ellis Island and were not looking at the Statue of Liberty. They came in the back door through Angel Island. What an odd name for a Devils Island! Link to comment
tparrent Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 If someone wants maximum media exposure, some form of peaceful protest at the base of the Statue of Liberty should do the trick. Maybe everybody standing in front of the inscription holding pictures of our loved ones. Of course I'd never dare care my Ling "wretched refuse" Link to comment
Argyle Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 Hi Rob, It's not a dumb thought. I think everyone here understands your frustration. We all feel it... every day. You're certainly among friends here, and sometimes it helps to just get it out -- to vent. As for maximum media exposure, Tom is probably right. A peaceful protest at one of our national monuments would definately do the trick! But, only 36 of us signed the letter to Maura Harty, and some of those were from other websites. I don't think that we'd be able to get enough participation to have an effective protest. I plan to keep writing, and writing, and writing... until someone in our national media listens to our story and helps us to tell it to the world. Best Wishes Link to comment
tonado Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 After 9/11, the Statue of Liberty is off limit to people. I was lucky enough to climb it twice. Link to comment
Robert S. Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 Miss Liberty is a beautiful statue representing an abstract ideal that I hope America will always stand for, but idealism has to give way to the current reality of overpopulation. We could not afford the huge waves of immigrants we used to take. Those old immigrants were able to come over here simply of their own volition and because we had a policy allowing it back then when our population was so low. The case of marriage-based visas is not comparable to other kinds of immigration. We are Americans by birth and we have a right to use the system to bring a spouse here from a foreign country. It is supposed to be a fairly easy process and still is to a large degree - if the lady is from a country that is not disapproved of. The difficulty we have been having is nothing but outright discrimination. Link to comment
tonado Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 The Chinese immigrants did not come through Ellis Island and were not looking at the Statue of Liberty. They came in the back door through Angel Island. What an odd name for a Devils Island! They came to Angel Island because San Francisco. I had a picnic there 15 years ago. There are many Chinese poems (to show their frustration and sadness) written on the walls in the detention Center. Link to comment
robhon Posted July 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 Miss Liberty is a beautiful statue representing an abstract ideal that I hope America will always stand for, but idealism has to give way to the current reality of overpopulation. We could not afford the huge waves of immigrants we used to take. Those old immigrants were able to come over here simply of their own volition and because we had a policy allowing it back then when our population was so low. The case of marriage-based visas is not comparable to other kinds of immigration. We are Americans by birth and we have a right to use the system to bring a spouse here from a foreign country. It is supposed to be a fairly easy process and still is to a large degree - if the lady is from a country that is not disapproved of. The difficulty we have been having is nothing but outright discrimination. The irony of this is that, those who would limit immigration are the same who would argue for the merits of market forces. If anything is a limit on market forces immigration is exactly that. A couple of years ago they killed rent control here in Berkeley. The whole time I was saying, "Yes, I know it's going to cause rents to sky rocket and make housing unaffordable for some people." What I also knew was the controlled rates were not a healthy thing for the local economy and, thus, long term was also bad for everyone in the community. Rates did sky rocket but now they're settling back down. I think the U.S., with our current isolationist tendancies, we're doing exactly the same thing. We are restricting the marketplace. Eventually there will be a breaking point if this nation continues on this path. We may be maintaining our American lifestyle in the short term but long term it will damage our economy. If this nation, and more importantly this administration, truly believes in the long term health of this country AND the long term health of our relationships with other nations, they (we) would stop our isolationist ways and embrace a more healthy form of immigration. Two cents of the morning. Link to comment
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