10/27/2011

Bus vomiter

Yesterday a young man two feet away from me vomited and made me lose my iPod Touch.

He was at the seat in front of me (and I was in the sideways seat, so facing the direction he turned to go stomach-suprise in). He covered it with his hand like a cough, I think that was a bad decision.

This was on the bus, and it happened right as the bus was stopping. So without even wiping his hand he just ran off the bus. Then the bus driver just started driving! Here was the thing that made me lose my iPod Touch, because I had been reading it at the time, and set it down without realizing as I jumped to the front of the bus to tell the driver "Hey a dude vomited." Now that I was at the front of the bus, I wasn't going to walk back. That would have been pretty weird. I mean the rest of the people in the back were just sitting there but it was all sliding around, it wasn't a good place to be. The bus driver kept going for two more stops before leaving his seat. I left since I was with my bike and didn't need to wait. I did not perceive that I was missing my iPod Touch until just before going to bed.

(I realize that leaving my seat just to tell the bus driver about vomit was a questionable action. I could have instead yelled this information to the driver from where I was, and not lost my iPod Touch. But I don't believe in yelling in public. If a person starts yelling in public, whatever the reason, really they are just a doctor's note away from being an official crazy person. I don't want to become a crazy person. I stand by my choices.)

What I reflected on during the pleasant bike-ride home, was how un-upset the vomiting man made me. It was clear why: he was a handsome young dude. I really sympathized with him, and hoped he was well soon. Maybe he has super-tragic cancer! When a handsome person vomits, you just assume they have a really good reason, and that it isn't a product of poor life decisions. I bet if I were a girl and that guy vomited on me, I would have given him my phone number. Maybe he needs a sad wife to watch him die of tragic Young Man Cancer.

Whereas, if that had been some old dude with wrinkles and stuff, I imagine I would have been really more worried and upset about being 10% vomited on.

Wherever you are vomiting handsome dude, I hope you don't have cancer.

10/17/2011

Is America Like Libya or Egypt?

In my internet circles I have read complaints about the claims of some Occupy protesters that this movement is inspired or bears a relationship with the Arab Spring. The complaint is that it is absurd to compare the difficulties facing the American people with those faced by the citizens of Egypt or Libya.

For most Americans, such a comparison is definitely weird. Most Americans are not deprived of free speech, political organizing, and voting rights via a 30-year long state of emergency declaration, as Egypt's people were. Most Americans also don't have to worry about ending up in a secret prison without trial, as 5000 - 10000 of Egypt's people were in the year before the revolution.

But most Americans is not the same as all Americans! Invoking the injustices of Egypt and Libya, whatever its flaws as good messaging, can only be called a crazy idea if you forget that America contains lots of people, and not all of them are white twenty year-olds.

For some more comparisons,

The population of Libya is 6.5 million.

The prison population of the United States is 2.3 million, with an additional 4.9 million on parole or probation, and an additional 40 million out of the justice system but still holding criminal records that prevent employment for which they would otherwise be eligible, or limit their access to government assistance, or legally forbid them from voting in many states*. The United States has something like two Libyas-worth of disenfranchised citizens who will never break out of poverty.

Back to the original 2.3 million actually in jail:

905,000 are black.
475,000 are Hispanic.

500,000 are awaiting trial at any given moment. The United States has a rolling population of .5 million untried prisoners at all times.

Out of the 1.5 million in state and federal prison, 12ish percent, 180,000 people, are there for pot. The percentage within local jails and the parole/probation population is harder to find out.


Of course, this isn't largely what the white kids in the 99% are protesting. They're protesting inequality. Clearly America's inequality problem should never be compared to Egypt or Libya.

(One more tidbit: The population of Egypt, 80 million, is 43% urban. Of all Egyptians, 30% enroll in some amount of post-secondary education, 15% graduate. 2/3rds of the population of Egypt is under 30. The median age of Egypt is 24.)



*All states except Maine and Vermont take away voting rights upon felony conviction. 2,000,000 Americans who have completed applicable prison and parole sentences are ineligible to vote due to prior convictions. Millions more fail to re-register to vote after becoming eligible due to confusion over their state's re-registration laws.
-Source for prison population statistics: Wikipedia
-Source for post-prison and disenfranchisement statistics: ACLU: Voting With A Criminal Record - Executive Summary