let springtime officially begin

I just had a conversation with a co-worker about immigration that left me pondering the whole mess. She and I usually have very similar political views and yet on this issue she's of the "the operative word is ILLEGAL--they should be fined and deported. Amnesty in any form should not be an option" mindset. This morning on the news I heard a quote from a man who said that 'mericans should be outraged 'cause we dunno who's here and what diseases they got. I finished reading "The Grapes of Wrath" last night. It was the first time I had read it and given the current debate over immigration I'd say I read it at the right time. I don't have any solutions to this issue, but I refuse to believe that deportation is the answer. I refuse to believe that fining people is a deterrent for jumping the border. I don't care that "you can't have country without borders." We live in a global community and as the richest and most powerful country in the world it is shameful that we are debating an immigration law that is inhumane. Read the Declaration of Independence (okay, you can just read the preamble) and then go and read "The Grapes of Wrath." And then let's start coming up with some real comprehensive and compassionate solutions to this problem. Repealing NAFTA might be a good start.

As if immigration isn't enough to drive my mind into overdrive, military strikes against Iran are looking like a real possibility and this time we're talking nuclear:
"One of the military’s initial option plans, as presented to the White House by the Pentagon this winter, calls for the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against underground nuclear sites."
That's from a really good article in the New Yorker. This whole thing makes me nervous in the service. First, how serious is this threat? The administration repeatedly telling me that it is ain't gonna cut it this time (not that it really did last time either, but now I get to say I told you so alot). And I'm not entirely sure how smart a move military intervention would be without allies and it looks like (again!) no one's up for a big battle scene:
“Everyone is on the same page about the Iranian bomb, but the United States wants regime change,” a European diplomatic adviser told me. He added, “The Europeans have a role to play as long as they don’t have to choose between going along with the Russians and the Chinese or going along with Washington on something they don’t want. Their policy is to keep the Americans engaged in something the Europeans can live with. It may be untenable."(from the same article)

I have dubbed this summer the Summer of 20th Century American Literature that I have overlooked. I'm currently looking for a Hemingway I can stand to read, but after Grapes of Wrath I'm needing a breather. On tap: Octavia Butler's "Kindred" or "Lonesome Dove." In addition one of those, I'm going to start "Democracy Matters" by Cornel West for some nonfiction because I obviously need to think more.