Aspies For Freedom

9th grade honors civics: we got to write a constitution for an imaginary country.  Mine was Elockia (present day Australia and New Zealand)

Someone else had a party country (with a Gulf of Girls)

Later I actually wondered if my immediate family was a country what would we be?

We definitely have religious tolerance (Dad liked Judaism, Mom liked Hinduism, I became a Christian and my brother has his own creation), although I imagine the armed forces (which figure prominently in a country under threat as many Aspies are) probably had a strong current of anti-Christianity up to 1992 (my dad feared the Christians almost as if they were Nazis and Dad grew up in Wisconsin old enough to remember Hitler, only 3 years too young to fight when the war ended, he managed to avoid combat in Korea by enlisting and choosing a specialty but I think there was some contention about whether he enlisted under imminent threat of being drafted).

Culture (relevant to office romances)

1.  Asking for a date: disrespectful
2.  Advertising a status of engaged, married, depending on the company, possibly even wearing a wedding ring on the job: very disrespectful, as if to imply a sense of social superiorty on that status.  Strong emphasis on work-related criteria only as a yardstick for social comparison.  Strong emphasis on concealing relationship status (although it would be hard not to tell your boss that you have kids and can't work till 10 PM at night): rights of working parents a neglected part of law
3.  Parental rights in higher education and the military also very neglected.  Attempt is made not to draft parents when a draft is necessary.  Difficult for parents to enlist.  
4.  Gay marriage: the state doesn't give a damn whether you choose to be faithful for life to one gender or the other.  As Christianity is not a majority religion (at least not by much), large number of non-participating citizens block any attempt at rights limitations.
5.  Abortion: Legal, for same reasons.

Demographic statistics

Average educational attainment: 14.4 (better than a U.S. associate degree)
Average household income: based on average 1.63 working adults per household, $99,500 Marsh or $92,000 USD
Percent married: low, perhaps 20-25%
Births per woman: 1.3 (more like Japan than U.S.)

Maybe a notice to foreign travelers with the visas sent out:

13.  Love Issues at the Office

Fewer Marshes than Americans are in traditional marriages or their functional equivalents.  This is frequently attributable to the prevalence of neurological disabilities in the nation and to religious affilitations that forbid sexual activity until marriage.

The Marsh office place is supposed to be neutral, under law and under custom, to a long list of non-performance-related criteria including gender, the presence or absence of a scheduled or current sexual relationship or whether one seeks one, and the genders and ethnic affiliations involved in the relationship.

This is not merely for the legal benefit of the company.  It is for the emotional protection (and productivity) of every staff member.
1.  A staff member may feel his or her status being diminished if he or she is approached for a date, especially a one-on-one date as opposed to a group date,
2.  or if his or her relationship circumstances are compared to that of others.

Should you start consulting work with a Marsh officeplace, or begin work yourself, please observe the following standards.
1.  It is not Mrs. or Miss, ever.  The gender neutral Ms. and Mr. are always used, unless an academic, occupational, or military rank is applicable to the organization (Dr., General, Lieutenant, etc.)
2.  You are advised not to wear a wedding ring on the job, although most office places will let you wear them or at least let you lock it in your desk.
3.  Americans are advised not to keep photographs in plain sight.
4.  Please do not complain to your co-workers about relationship or parental problems unless you know they are in the same situation.  Otherwise it may be harder for the employee you are talking to.

Parental note: Even the Marshes themselves admit that their employment law regarding parents is even less perfect than in the United States, for example.   Marshes take more seriously than Americans the concept that life is a series of choices and trade offs, as opposed to the American belief that one can "have it all" at once.  

Parents are frequently left to decide how to fit work into family life.  Some may work shorter hours by choice or may shift the primary burden associated with the child or children to one parent (this is usually a woman in either Marsh or American culture, but more Marsh men than American men also assume this role), usually influenced by the salary history of the parents involved.

Single parents constitute a major social dilemma.  The Marsh tradition has always relied on a household with at least two adults, usually but not always in line with traditional marriage.  An increasing number of single parents, usually siblings, choose to live together to facilitate this situation.  

It should be noted that the Marsh government does much to discourage parenthood.  Recently-enacted tax breaks for children only apply to the first three children.  Abortion is legal because most Marshes do not want to imagine the desperate alternative.  Contraception is available almost on request, even at the high school level.  Female welfare recipients must certify evidence of contraceptive use.  [footnote: Catholics, especially the growing number of naturalized citizens from Spanish-speaking countries, are finding this difficult despite the government's insistence that the entire country is like a family and needs to keep its numbers of young people under control.]

Only the fact that higher education is free to at least some or most high school graduates, depending on their academic performance, removes financial pressure from parents.

Note:

Neurological disabilities should be, instead: neurological predispositions

16. Illegal immigration

One does not become a Marsh citizen simply because their birth happens within the country's territory or on its ships and aircraft, as it still does in the United States.

Many immigrants come to America without its legal permission and proceed to have children that will become citizens at birth without any questions asked.   Once their children have automatic citizenship, the parents stay, daring the government to deport them with or without their citizen children.  Many parents end up staying without permission.

If neither the father nor the mother can demonstrate Marsh legal residency (distinct from educational, occupational, or travel visas or refugee status) or citizenship status, however, then neither they nor their child or dhildren are considered lawful residents or citizens at the time of the birth.  They become subject to the same conditions as their parents with respect to travel, education, short term employment, or refugee status.

The honorary citizenship bestowed by the Legislature on selected individuals is considered full citizenship for the purpose of passing their citizenship to their natural children.  Only taxes (at this time, anyway), jury duty, and potential military service are excluded from honorary citizenship.

Religious distribution

All humanist:    42%
   Buddhist       32%
   New Age        8%
   All other         2%

All Christian:     47%
    Baptist          8%
    Methodist      7%
    Lutheran       4%
    Other Prot.    2%
    Catholic        9%
    Orthodox:      3%
    Jehovah W.:  11%
    Mormon:         2%
    Other:           1%

Islam:                3%
Jewish:              2%
Atheist:              5%
All other:            1%

Children of honorary citizens are ordinary citizens without special privileges.

I originally modeled it after my family as we were.  Exceptional levels of alcohol abuse.  Certainly introverted foreign policy.  But not a country that terrorizes its own children.  Let's not even think about it.

Now there is only me.

I hasten it would be a free country.  You would not be bothered, and you would have more rights than you do in America.

I can imagine an almanac entry, first paragraph of country description


Although it is a majority-Christian country within ORION (Organisation of Romantically Independently Oriented Nations), Marsh Northern Virginia is a country with a strong spirit, guarantee of freedom of conscience, and healthy economic growth.  It is one of only two Christian countries (that I know of) to guarantee complete freedom of conscience and protection to its citizens of other religions.

Marsh Northern Virginia has a slightly larger military force than its allies, a legacy of foreign persecution from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.  Only in 2002 did its military begin to downsize, completing the process by 2005.

We did not force religion on anyone, and let each make his or her own choice.

No, I just had a problem with him asking me to get lost when I couldn't get a job, or asking me to join the Army to get the hell out.  I did do grad school instead but even then I had to come home some time.

Let's see.  Public opinion that I was mentally *** for being special ed.  Being molested (improper contact) in my own home.  Various ridicule, I remember one mixture of grass, dirt, and water the dudes two doors over thought would be funny if I drank it.  Too many damn taunts and pranks in high school.  Various pranks in the college and grad school dorms (I did live on campus in grad school, made sense if you didn't have a car to live very close in).  Telephone harassment in grad school.  A succession of well-drawn but humilating cartoons left on my dorm door.  Allegation by dad that our cat was killed by a motorist.  Someone knocked over our mail box with a car and then we encased the mail box in cinder blocks.  

I was very happy to relocate to West Virginia four months before I graduated high school.  If it wasn't for that, a guarantee of a college education, and caring teachers and maybe some friends, maybe I'd have done something I might still be in jail for.

But I do know a nameless woman friend whose terrors at the hands of at least the male parent encouraged her to get a drinking problem and then take many times the fatal dose of lithium carbonate.

I'm glad I don't know any more details.

Dad might have been a workaholic, mom might have been alcoholic, but my parents weren't monsters.

I hasten to add that my parents believed and I believe in the separation of church and state.

In the modern world with diversity, there is no good alternative to the separation of church and state.  Civilization requires the security of being allowed to live in peace regardless of conscience.

I see the humanist me is not dead yet, and was that what you expected a Christian to say?

The Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists take a heck of a lot of comfort in separation of church and state.
1.  The Nazis persecuted the Jehovah's Witnesses.
2.  Seventh Day Adventists, some might have nightmares about the U.S.A. forcing everyone to go to church on Sunday.  The two horned beast is defined as America because the horns are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  A good start gone bad like a mogwai out of Gremlins.  Some think fascism is creeping up to us.  Can anyone say "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis?

So when I say the ideal country would be a free country, separation of church and state, I mean it.

And we practiced the same as I grew up.  Drop dead serious.  I don't think I am being heard, seriously.

The woman survived and got saved.  I would vomit blood if the surprising truth was she is a phobe.  This is the last person I'd expect to hate anyone.

Severe trials at the hands of others lead many to live lives of compassion.  I really think she does.

A high prevalence doesn't necessarily mean it's ideal. Germany was a bad place to be for Jews in the period 1933-45, even though they were prevalent.

No need I'd have to be executive of the MVR.  Why not a woman executive, say, from the Humanist party?

I really liked listening to Neil Diamond "America" today.  I'd be proud to live in a country where it is safe to be you, as long as you were safe to everyone too.

I was greatly inspired by the NATO actions on behalf of Bosnia and Kosovo.  I had been dismayed when UNPROFOR was not authorized to use deadly force to save Bosnians.  I have really come to respect coalition building as a way to make things better.  

I'd share what is on my mind but not enough time now.

Not quite.....democracy works best as a deterrent against the existing faction(s) in power's overeaching.  Democracy in and of itself does'nt work very well to make decisions, but it does work well at periodicly changing the group in power.

I am beginning to think that the United States cherishes the freedom to discriminate against certain types of people.  Sure, we eliminated most racial inequity under law, we came close to an Equal Rights Amendment for women.  But gay people, fat people, autistic people, people with other disabilities especially mental, it seems America can always find someone else to pick on.

It's almost as if "hey, you don't want to work with ______, it's a free country, you don't have to."

The first thing I'd do over in America is to identify acceptable criteria for hiring, promotion, termination, and so on, not simply to add to a short list of categories you cannot consider.

We would also need to standardize the definitions of occupations, or else employers could weasel out of equal opportunity, custom tailor a job to somebody they like.  It would be a necessity, for example, to challenge an employer's request for a foreign worker visa....

"but, hey, ______ and Associates, we have a list of 2,000 people who can do THAT, and they live right here, visa request denied"

It would probably also be a good idea for the Ministry of Labor to assess a surcharge on a visa worker's labor rate, simply to make existing labor more economical.  

As I said before,

immigration lets many employers ignore people at home
welfare often lets many would-be workers ignore employers

The simple fact that
a. American employers may hesitate to hire, for example, women to make bombers
b. but, for example, during the Second World War, when so many men are fighting, it was inevitable to hire women and most everyone to out-produce the Axis countries with respect to ships, planes, weapons

[The World At War, episode 7, "On Our Way" (United States entry into WW 2)]
"Everyone who could, got work.  This was greatly appreciated after the long economic depression...."

This is very important for us Aspies especially and generally important to Americans everywhere
Employers do what the heck they need to, when they have no other choice.

And some learn to like it (equal opportunity)!

The above post, when I said

Below is an online letter to the editor of the Washington Post today
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...02202.html

'The Justness of Our Cause'
Thursday, October 4, 2007; Page A24


The Employment Non-Discrimination Act would send a strong message concerning discrimination against gays. The Sept. 28 editorial, "A Civil Rights Law," sent one as well: To gain our inalienable human rights, transgender people must first convince the public that we are human.

The Post's proposed solution, that transgender people embark on 40 years of educating the public, is naive at best and cynical at worst. We are so small in number and so easily ignored at negligible political cost. Every group that has fought for its civil rights has been a minority dependent on people outside the group to recognize the justness of its cause. Those who claim to believe in justice must recognize that you either believe in an egalitarian society open to all or in one where discrimination is a valid societal response, only requiring you to pick your targets carefully.

LAURENCE HART  Mechanicsville
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So, just what I thought.  America supports the right to discriminate on legally-approved grounds.

A country can do better than this.