There are so many things angering me today that I can barely concentrate for 200 words at a time. Actually, it could just be a new and more advanced stage of senioritis setting in, heralding a new era of convoluted ramblings on my part, but I prefer to believe it's just that this is a very difficult time for everyone, what with so much wrong with the world.
First of all, the United States is evidently more concerned with protecting oil wells than with protecting priceless cultural artifacts. I'm not saying U.S. forces in Iraq should not have prioritized the safety of oil wells as they took control of Iraq. Quite the opposite, I do believe that oil could represent Iraq's future re-entrance into the global economy and such a valuable resource ought to be protected. But the artifacts we saw on television in pieces this week represent Iraq's cultural legacy. Even aside from the obvious importance of such art to the Iraqi people, many of the missing or destroyed artifacts are important to history of civilization itself and thus, have a place in the legacy of all people.
As what may turn out to be a very long occupation gets rolling, we can only hope that its leadership figures out that it is there to protect more than just money. But even if it does, Iraq has suffered an incalculable loss in the looting of the National Museum alone. And for all those fearing that the Iraqi occupation will turn out to be just a newer, sleeker breed of imperialism, those millennia-old smashed pots are an eerie omen.
Earlier this month, yet another singularly bad idea made it through a House subcommittee. H.R. 1119 aspires to change the 40-hour work week as hourly workers currently know it by allowing employers to sign agreements with their employees agreeing to \compensate"" with time off later rather than pay the time-and-a-half wage currently required by law. Republicans are billing it as a ""family-friendly"" bill that will allow workers to spend more time with their kids... later. Back in the real world, where the 40-hour work week protects some of the most vulnerable workers in America, the bill is more likely to make it easier for employers to force overtime.
In fact, Wal-Mart is currently being sued for practicing a similar policy in which workers were illegally asked to work overtime ""off the clock"" to be compensated in later, slower weeks. Feeling pressure from managers, facing an uncertain job market and coming from largely low-income backgrounds, many workers were railroaded into working overtime without their rightful compensation. In some Wal-Marts, the situation devolved until the ugly heart of those employer-employee relations was laid bare: Managers actually locked workers into the store until they reached their goals, making for truly forced overtime.
The current labor laws barely work as it is, and weakening them isn't going to make the situation any better. If anything, it's a low blow to the many workers that count on overtime pay to meet expenses and the many more that count on overtime protections to assure them they will only be required to work a reasonable number of hours before going home to their families. So what's so ""family-friendly"" about weakening labor laws? Now that the war in Iraq is over, I'm sure the Bush administration will get back to us on that one... later.
If you're graduating this May, you probably got your truth-in-lending statement from the university this weekend. It turns out that even despite working nearly every semester and sucking my family dry, I owe approximately $40,000 for what seemed like pretty meager financial aid packages at the time. And that's not counting the private loans I took out after the financial aid office repeatedly undershot my estimated need. Despite having lived on ramen noodles like everyone (well, almost everyone) else for my college career, my debt is terrifying.
I have to wonder how many 18-year-olds really understand what it means when they sign those first promissory notes. Most of us never actually handle any of the money we borrow. We simply sign the promissory note and then our tuition is discounted. And then, four or five years later we enter a pitiful job market with marketable skills like an appreciation for late modern Scandinavian literature and a debt load that could finance a small house in some parts of the country.
Unfortunately, I am beginning to realize that even if I had been a business major, job prospects would be looking pretty dim right now. Though I'm sure President Bush will be jumping right on that dismal economy problem too... later.
