I'll say it Loud and Clear, "We Are Florida!"

The legislative session in my wonderful, sunny state of Florida began eight days ago with large, ominent shadows of Arizona-like racial profiling bills introduced by senators and representatives alike. Yes, you read correctly. The same legislation that allows Arizona officials to be able to ask any person in the desert state for proper documentation because of the way they look or in the proper vernacular of the law "under reasonable suspicion." Yeah, right. Well, as of right now, there have been 10 to 12 similar bills introduced in both the Senate and House of Representatives that would permit law enforcement here in Florida to be able to do the same thing. They will ask for ANYBODY's immigration papers if they deem it necessary and under any suspicion, even if a person is stopped for rolling a stop-sign or turning left when they were not suppose to. My blood boils every time I hear or read news of the sort, and Florida is not the only state who has advanced proposals like these. At least 20 other states around the country have done the same, with large advancements in states like North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. I am getting heated with every key that I type...
I first became aware of the actual threat to Florida's immigrant population last year in November at the FLIC Congress. It was like a bucket of cold water was thrown in my face. Subhash Kateel, one of the coolest people that you will ever meet, held a presentation on the Arizona SB 1070 law and all of its discriminatory language, and how it was all cloaked in a "It's better for the State" type lingo. The people who write these bills throw in so many useless adjectives and confusing diction that they might as well write in Latin because nobody understands what the hell they are saying. And that is exactly what they want to achieve. The actual senators and representatives do not even read the bills, they get translators to sort through the entire document and tell them the jist of it. Well, to say the least, I was literally blown away with Subhash's demonstration of what was actually going on in our very own state of Florida.
Prior to the SB 1070 workshop, I knew that Rick Scott, our new Florida governor was in favor of a racial-profiling bill such as the Arizona one, but I underestimated the actual ordinance of such legislation. But, Subhash put everything into perspective. Living here in Miami, surrounded by Hispanics and Latinos alike, you think, "Oh, that's never going to pass." However, Miami is NOT the state of Florida. You drive past the borders of West Palm Beach, and the state morphs into a very anti-immigrant, raucous crowd of White supremacist who support racial profiling to its fullest extent. Heck, they even practice it already with countless of raids and stings operated to trap undocumented day workers. I am not trying to generalize the entire population of central and northern Florida, but I believe that I am pretty accurate in the sentiments of the majority of Caucasians in the populations of these sectors of the state. I apologize in advance for those of you who do not fall in this category. Thank you very much for your work and cooperation with the immigrants of our Sunshine State.
Well, its been about four months since FLIC Congress, and this Cerberus guarding those cowardly, racist proponents of these 12 anti-immigrant laws must be stopped. One of the bills already passed the judiciary committee of the Senate late last week and is inching its way to Scott's signature in record speed. But, we will not give up without a fight. Starting tomorrow, March 17th, the shit is going to hit the fan! FLIC's We Are Florida campaign is mobilizing as I write, on its way to the state capitol, Tallahassee, to give these legislators a piece of our mind! Senators like William Snyder, Mike Bennett, and even Anitere Flores, who apparently turned her back on us, should be scared because the immigrant population is pissed and we will NOT have racial profiling condoned and accepted en la Florida! Vamos que se puede! El pueblo unido JAMAS sera vencido! I get goosebumps just thinking of shouting and ranting around the streets of Tallahassee. Sadly, I will not be able to attend because of commitments to my beloved STU Bobcats tennis team since we play three matches in the span of the weekend. But, I will be there in spirit and energy! Like the title states, "I'll say it loud and clear, 'We Are Florida!'" conchetumadreee! Haha, sorry, the Chilean slang had to surface at some point.

Glass Half Full

Less than a thirty minute window. That's all I got for today. But, I'm glad that I got this little creak of hope to express my literary brush on this electronic canvas of a medium. Well, I'm already more than halfway done with the semester and the tennis season! And I'm still alive and kicking. Well more alive than kicking, but all in all I'm surviving.
As I am accustomed to do with my academics, I really have not hit that point where I'm panicking about all the projects, essays, and presentations that I have to turn in. At least not YET. That point will undoubtedly come, but probably in a few weeks. I have kept a side note on my World Film class though, since it is full of busy, tediously, stupid work such as writing pages and pages of trivial notes that I simply do not have the time to do. Or at least at this point in my collegiate life, I do not care to do. Don't get me wrong, I like the class and love the professor when she's lecturing and all, but the work is for middle schoolers. Luckily, sticking to the middle school reference, she does offer a heap of extra credit work for those that are struggling with the notes, to turn in. So, that is where I am going to put all my marbles. Not trying to stress it. Plus, I think I killed that midterm. The rest of my scholastic itinerary is practically blemish free. Got a couple of midterms coming up. Sports Tourism tomorrow and Multicultural Psychology next Monday. But, again, I'm not sweating them. Thank God, Dr. Grace has been really lax on this psych. class, which is really out of her nature, but I am definitely not complaining. Kind of a curve ball, but I'll hit a homerun for sure. I can't believe I just referenced baseball. Please shoot me now. Haha, just kidding all you baseball lovers. I'm just not very fond of the sport.
Tennis-wise. Now, that has been an interestingly, exquisite rollercoaster. With six matches left in the regular season and ten matches in, the STU Bobcats stand with an 8-2 record and a 3-1 Sun Conference record. I am pretty damn proud of that, and proud of myself as well. Not feeling nearly as prepared as I should have been, with all the extracurricular activities that I was doing in the month of December and basically not touching a racquet and practicing the way I am used to until the second week of January, I feel really good about my performances in the season so far. If I were to compare the way I felt about my game from last season to this season, I was playing better last season. Better, but without fathoms of differences. Last semester I might of been more efficient, closing the door on matches more quickly and swiftly. This semester, I have had to grind out matches.
But, grinding matches out and coming out on the positive end of the stick is also a hell of a good feeling. Out of the nine matches I've played this semester, five of them have been three-setters. And, out of those five, I have won three, lost one, and was not able to finish one being 4-1 up in the third set. Driving home one night after getting picked up by my brother, he turns to me and says, "how the hell are you winning this season if you were playing much better last season?" He goes on and wryly apologizes, "my bad, but last season you didn't have that much shit to do and were more focused on your tennis."
I take a step back, and digest what he has just asked. And, the only real answer I can come up with is simply, "I've learned how to win ugly." Just like Brad Gilbert said it in his book. What really counts in the end is the "W." In my matches this season, I have not felt one hundred percent. I have double-faulted. I have gotten nervous and pulled up on my forehand. I have shuffled my feet the wrong way and felt out of position. But. The big BUT is that I have kept going. I have not let those mistakes get the best of me. Last season, if I was not feeling great on the court. In the zone it is said. I might have blamed a loss on that. That I was erratic or on my lack of execution. But, this season, especially in the three-setters, I have kept my cool and pulled the matches out. Scratching, gnawing, clawing at my opponents. But, I've learned exactly how to do that. To turn the odds back and stay with it. Tennis is a game of momentum changes. The ENTIRE match is like being at Six Flags. And, I have not thrown up after the big drop in the rollercoaster. I've sucked it up, and gotten up off the seat, dusted off my shoes, and raised my clenched fist in victory, letting out a "Let's go Bobcats!" Until next time, I gotta run to class! Fuck my life! Haha.