Boundaries are a Good Thing

After listening to me complain about, well, everything, earlier this week, a wise friend said "you have to set boundaries for yourself, what will you absolutely NOT put up with?"

And so the concept of boundaries got the wheels of my little brain spinning on over-drive yesterday as I worked my way through a family emergency. Now, when I say "worked," I literally mean "worked," because in this hyper-connected age you can bury your mom and blackberry your boss at the same time. Or, in my case, juggle doctor's appointments and a near break up while proof reading documents.

Pondering what I will and won't put up with personally and professionally in the middle of an NYC heatwave, I also put together a check list of my political boundaries. Granted, I've gone on the record about my disenchantment with the Dems, but this doesn't mean I'm pinning a flag to my lapel and switching from CNN to Fox News. Even schizophrenic GCL has limits, and here are my top three:

Family Values: I won't support the family values platform and that's because it denigrates my family; I don't want kids watching porn on daytime TV, but me living with my partner in no way corrupts neighborhoods or compromises national security, contrary to what the American Family Coalition or the Christian right will have us believe


Immigration Reform: The conversation about immigration is blatantly anti-Latino. When did we go from "tear down this wall" to "let's blow through tax payer dollars to Fort Knox-ify our souther border" I'd rather focus on OPEC, specifically Saudi Arabia, as a threat to our national security, not day laborers.

Lying: While the world may be a better place without Sadaam Hussein, it'd also be better without Chavez, Omar al-Bashir (President of Sudan) and Ann Coulter, so unless we plan on going to war with all of these people, Operation Iraqi Freedom has been a complete failure. Except for the oil industry, who has seen its profits soar following the invasion of Iraq. Mission accomplished, W.

And I could go on, but I need to save materials for future posts.