These Thoughts in my Head

An open letter to American Airlines

Maya — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:04:51 GMT

Dear American Airlines,

If you haven't noticed, the US economy is not doing so well right now. I don't know if you're aware of the causes of the current economic problems, but let me break it down for you: many banks gave loans to people who should not have gotten loans to buy houses. These people quickly found themselves unable to pay off these sub-prime loans, having not paid close enough attention to the terms and conditions, and now well, the US banking industry is kind of in the toilet over this whole mess.

With this in mind, it boggles my mind to the point of raising my sense of indignant fury that I got the following email from your esteemed company a few days ago:

"Your home could be worth thousands in American Airlines AAdvantagemiles! Right now, you can earn up to 15,000 bonus miles after closing a loan or real estate transaction through LendingTree. Get up to four customized loan offers, plus earn thousands of miles after closing, all from the comfort of your own home.

Refinance:1,250 milesfor every $10,000 financed+ 15,000 Bonus Miles

Purchase Mortgage:1,250 milesfor every $10,000 financed+ 10,000 Bonus Miles

Home Equity Loan/Line:1,250 milesfor every $10,000 financed+ 5,000 Bonus Miles

Find a REALTOR:3,000 milesfor every $10,000of home purchase or selling price+ 10,000 Bonus Miles

For example, if you refinance $200,000, you could earn 25,000 miles PLUS an additional 15,000 bonus miles. That's a total of 40,000 miles - enough miles for award travel!"

The sheer irresponsibility of this promotion is absurd. People are already in financial difficulties because of bad spending decisions, and you, American Airlines, are waving a free vacation around in their faces if they go even furtherinto debt to procure those miles.

It's in such bad taste it's almost insulting. I can only hope that the decision to run this scheme comes back to bite you in your collective behinds.

- Maya

Damn it, Democrats!

Maya — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:38:49 GMT

Being a supporter of the Democratic Party is a frustrating business, because you know that no matter how golden the situation may look (the current political climate, for instance), they will find some way, inevitably, to either screw up royally or to make themselves look thoroughly incompetent.

Yes, even with wunderkid Obama at the helm, I've been waiting for something to happen, whether it be an attack from John McCain or (more likely) party-inflicted stupidity, and today it has happened.

On the front page of the New York Times is the article I have been waiting for (though i have a sneaking suspicion this is only the first of many between now and November). It details how planning the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado this summer is proving to be an enormous headache.

The budget has been underestimated, money has been spent foolishly, and the party is struggling to put on a good show to prove to the world that all sides have kissed and made up in the aftermath of the grueling, seemingly endless primary season. If this weren't enough to make me bang my head against my wall, hard, this one particular particular problem certainly is: in the 28 page contract signed with the City of Denver, the DNC agreed for completely unfathomable reasons that the food should contain:

"'at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.' Garnishes could not be counted toward the colors. No fried foods would be allowed. Organic and locally grown foods were mandated, and each plate had to be 50 percent fruits and vegetables. As a result, caterers are shying away."

Look, I'm all for eating healthy, promoting locally grown produce, and supporting sustainable, organic agriculture. Our planet is in bad shape, and the effort is a commendable one. But when you start agreeing to stipulations (and subsequently getting into arguments) over what color the food should be, you start looking less like the party that can win the general election and lead the country successfully, and more like a complete parody. How can the DNC even hope to be taken seriously as a political party if they wind up fighting about the color of the food on their plates (and blue/purple? What the hell are they going to serve? Blue corn and Terra chips?)?

It's this kind of stupid incompetence that makes it all too easy to start losing faith in the Democratic Party. If the Obama campaign has any sense, now that they are involved in the planning process, they will take charge and restore order to the process. Failure to do this and to resolve the issues surrounding this convention (food nonsense aside, the convention is costing a huge amount of money) puts the Democratic Party in the position of being a laughingstock instead of the party that will (hopefully) retake all the branches of the government come November.

What the teen pregnancy pact reveals

Maya — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:59:43 GMT

If you've been paying attention to the news over the past 48 hours, you'll likely have seen the headline that reads something to the effect of "Teens made pregnancy pact." I belong to a message board that is both predominantly female and made up of parents, so the story has been receiving a good amount of discussion.

Part of the discussion has, inevitably, spun off into whether or not minors should have access to contraceptives without parental consent, but surprisingly, that question and the one of sex education are NOT the revelatory aspect of this story (which puts me in direct disagreement with my good friend Philosophy).

Why? This may seem surprising, and let me say I am wholeheartedly in favor of comprehensive sex education in schools, as I am in favor of girls under the age of 18 being able to make decisions about their reproductive health on their own (but under the full supervision of a medical doctor, NOT a school nurse).

The reason is that, at least according to the article that I read on the story (from Time Magazine: these girls ARE receiving sex-ed in school. The problem is that they WANT to get pregnant because some of those who did not get pregnant were disappointed. If you have girls who are willing to sleep with a 24-year-old homeless man in order to produce a being who will love them unconditionally, birth control and better access to it (or, for that matter, sex-ed) isn't going to make a whit of difference.

These girls are getting pregnant because they don't see any other future for themselves, and I would put good money on the fact that many of them come from broken/abusive homes (I say this because of the fact that they seem to be under the impression their baby will automatically and eternally love them, just like that). Something is very wrong in this community as a whole if this is the attitude of so many of its young girls.

It's a sad and revealing commentary (but not one that I've seen the news media pick up on thus far) about what happens when young people feel they have no stability or prospects in life. It's great that the school is providing services to help these girls stay in school, but what then? As teenage single parents, they are at a high risk for remaining in poverty or struggling to get by for the rest of their lives, which is in itself a heartbreaking thought.

So what can be done? The school can certainly play a role in supporting these young women who are new mothers, but I firmly believe they should implement some kind of comprehensive, experience-based learning for these girls to teach them about pregnancy and childbirth. I strongly suspect that if you tell teenage girls that they are going to be up at 5 am feeding the baby for the third time, that breast-feeding can be excruciatingly painful, that they may never lose the weight, that they may experience vaginal tears that permanently affect their sex lives, etc., that many will have at least a second thought about what they're getting into. Have the girl who was interviewed, who has realized what hard work a baby is, come in and speak to these classes after she's been up all night.

What about the classic 'carry around this sack of flour/baby doll/egg for three days and treat it like a baby' experiment, only somehow actually having the girls work with new moms and babies?

The community also needs to step up to the bat and figure out what role they can play in preventing teenage pregnancy (and hint - the answer does not lie in only preaching abstinence). But most of all, these kids need some impression that they have a future. That they can achieve things beyond the confines of their depressed, blue-collar town, or that opportunities will be created for them to revitalize their town.

It would be wonderful if the only problem this town faced was that its students were being given incomplete sex-ed, and that they lacked access to contraceptives. Those problems are easily (well, in comparison to a generation of babies who are being born into less than ideal situations) remedied. Sadly, in this case, what seems to be a black and white story really reveals a whole lot more, and it's going to take a lot of time and effort to even begin to fix these problems.