Tuck and Roll

I was out running this morning, when all of a sudden I tripped on a semi-covered, or semi-uncovered rock on the path. As I fell I channeled my long ago athletic days and remembered that I had to tuck and roll.

As I was going down, I also realized I had my iPod in my hand, and at the last possible moment I managed to slide it out of my hand (I did not want to crush it). As it slid, and I rolled, I was thinking that it would be pretty expensive to replace it in Argentina and I was already feeling a little anxious.

See, I can't even fall down in peace. I have to be thinking of the Argentine economy even as my feet are going over my head.

I am not as fast as I used to be. As I was going up from my roll, I grabbed my iPod and I realized it was okay (the music never stopped playing obviously); however, my knee hurt a little and I knew it was going to be bleeding so I changed direction and ran the rest of the way home.

Now I am sitting here typing this out after I bathed, and after I rinsed the wound scratch, and waiting for it to dry a little and I decided to see what my Facebook friends were doing.

I have been posting all kinds of crazy things that have made me shake my head in wonder and even in shame. Like for example a Republican hopeful from Iowa who came up with the brilliant idea of implanting microchips into people just like we do to dogs. Don't believe me?

“I think we should catch ’em, we should document ’em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going. I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I microchip an illegal?"

In the same article you can see the backpedaling begin at the very end.

There was also another brilliant analysis comparing Mexicans to grasshoppers by Republican Ted Poe from Texas.

One small silver lining is that the far right activist have managed to make mimes funny.

I also stumbled into a video cartoon by Mark Fiore on the subject. I learned of it through the news that Steve Jobs had to step in to get this app approved after it had been denied.

But to get back to where I was going initially with my mentioning of Facebook was that on one of these posts of mine a friend chimed in with this statement that made me pause for a moment and really feel hurt by all this bigotry flying around:

In 1978, my parents smuggled my brothers and I out of Vietnam in the middle of the night to save us from being kidnapped by communists, sold into prostitution, or raised as soldiers. after 9 weeks at sea, we shipwrecked on a small island near Malaysia where incredibly generous people took us in, nursed us back to health, and helped us get to the US. Thanks to Arizona, I now feel no shame in kicking in the face anyone who finds themselves in my place. Thanks Arizona for giving the world another reason to hate the US, and Americans another reason to feel shameful.

And she added:

AND my brother is being deployed to Afghanistan for 6 months. I can't believe THIS is what he is fighting for.

Not only that, but this Arizona thing is making them come out of the woodwork. Oklahoma is liking this so much they want to not only copy it, but want to take it a bit further. I don't think they have heard about the microchip implanting idea yet.

 It looks like we, as a country, are falling down right now and we have to remember to tuck and roll people, tuck and roll.