Inaugural Posting

Welcome to the first posting on Reflections on East Austin Conversations. As I said before, the basic intention of this blog is to convey my reflections on random conversations I've had or will have with average citizens in East Austin. My hope is that this blog will serve as a catalyst for accelerated public discourse. One final note before I begin; I have realized with this first conversation that it will be necessary for me to write follow-up postings, expanding upon and exploring further those issues which are brought up during conversations, and need further research/explanation.

My first conversation was with a young man named Ryan. He is an openly gay Latino American, and works at a retail store in East Austin.

I have to say that the first issue discussed somewhat surprised me. Ryan is concerned with prostitution and human trafficking in the local area. I honestly was not aware that this is much of an issue. This is definitely one of those issues which will require a follow-up, so for now I will concentrate on Ryan's concerns. He was (as one would hope) concerned for the well-being of trafficking victims, as well as women forced into prostitution. We both observed that in most cases, women are forced into this terrible profession due to either dependencies or severe misfortune and desperation. Ryan is uncertain, however, whether or not much can be done. As for the trafficking, there should be zero tolerance. Expanding upon poverty and class issues, we both shared a concern for the apparent large numbers of homeless people.

The next issue we discussed was gay rights. Ryan feels that gay marriage should be totally legalized. This is a conversation I have had several times, and I must admit, I have yet to come up with a personally satisfactory solution. My primary difficulty lies in compromising the long tradition of marriage with the necessary need for absolute equality. We all know it, but I love this portion of the Declaration of Independence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." While to a limited extent, our founding documents are antiquated (not just men, slaves counting as 3/5ths of a man), the spirit remains forever relevant. We are all created equal...it is not equal for heterosexual married couples to receive 1139 rights that homosexual couples can only sometimes receive through complex legal procedures. What is the best solution? I don't yet have that answer; however, it seems to me that not granting the same rights to homosexual couples is far to close to withholding the unalienable right of the pursuit of Happiness. The bottom line is that we must be champions of equality.

As our conversation continued, I asked Ryan for one last major issue. He didn't have one, he had many. His concern is that there are far too many issues. How is one guy writing a blog going to begin to solve them? This is a good point, yet it is not necessarily my intention to solve the problems, but rather to proliferate discussion about them. And so we moved onto Iraq. Now Ryan did admit that he voted for Bush. That being said, he was not happy with our invasion of Iraq because of "so called terrorists." Furthermore, he questioned how a C-average person can run our country.

Moving on (and back to the root issue in Iraq) to Democracy, however, Ryan feels that there should be no poverty in the world and all countries should be developed...but how. I asked Ryan if he feels that it is the responsibility of America to accomplish these lofty goals, and he conceded that it is not. Ryan feels that responsibility lies with the leadership of the relevant countries. I agree, but am not certain how best to approach this reality. I am progressive, and as such, believe that in many cases, poverty and unrest persist due to global economic inequalities. Why should American companies be profiting so greatly in "third-world" countries? It seems to me that local populations should realize the greatest benefits from commerce within their borders. Unfortunately, it is far too often that those same benefits are exported, proliferating the poverty and inequality of our world. Furthermore, economic inequality tends to create feelings of inequality which lead to the far too common feeling that American's see themselves as superior.

Our final topic of discussion was the minimum wage. We both feel that it needs to be raised. Someone shouldn't have to work three jobs to survive. In fact, Ryan mentioned that a friend of his claimed the average single male in Austin needs to make 56,000 dollars a year to live comfortably, over 5 times the minimum wage.

This marked the end of our conversation. I am new to blogging, and will be learning to blog for quite a while. For the time being, I hope you enjoyed this reflection, and I welcome any and all feedback.