Final Drafts!

What a Snowman Carries

My dearest Sven,

How long ago was it that we trekked across Arendelle with missions and heroic acts to fulfill? Our job as essential sidekicks meant everything to me. Of course, this job is not yet over, but as I sit here at the footboard of Elsa’s bed I can’t help but feel pensive. As we both know, she’s aging. My whole life I’ve carried the knowledge that I only exist at the whim of her power. Elsa created me, and as she gets older, I can’t help but wonder what will become of me when she goes. 

My prized (and only) possession is the life-sustaining fluffy white snow cloud that follows me everywhere, dusting me with delicate snowflakes, and floating lightly above my head. This personal flurry was a gift from Elsa so that I could live through my favorite season each year: summer. It’s quite a shame that my favorite season of the year is the one I’m not supposed to survive. In any case, I am a simple being, as this snow cloud is the only tangible thing that I carry. Granted, oftentimes my body parts have the tendency to come apart, so then I carry my abdomen or foot respectively.

I admit Sven, sometimes I feel more like a snowflake than a snowman. A snowflake “...appearing aimless, just like love, / but sensing, seeking out, its destiny.” After all, my personality was borne of symbolism for the love between the two young sisters who built me. I’ve always wondered if I was even created to have a destiny to seek. I’m a sidekick, so I carry responsibility for the lives of Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff: my family. But is the life of a sidekick resigned to comic relief and emotional support? Don’t be mistaken Sven, I love my family and would do anything to protect them, but how much protection am I really? Sometimes I can’t help but feel like a burden, I mean, I’m living snow for heaven’s sake. I do my best to hide it, but I will always carry punctured confidence from everyone being scared to death when they first hear me speak. 

Most people don’t understand the weight that a snowman can carry, probably not even you best friend. Let me tell you the story of our last adventure. After we got separated from you and Kristoff, Anna, Elsa, and I continued our journey to find answers about Elsa’s magic. When Elsa found out that her parents had set sail to the river of Ahtohallan before they died, she left us and went to Ahtohallan herself. Shortly after I began to feel… light, like a delicate butterfly. I realized I was flurrying away. Elsa had gone too far into Ahtohallan and froze. I lost my magic. I tell you this now to try to explain my perspective. I carry the weight of only existing at the will of another person. Like all snowmen, the awareness of your own impermanence and reliance on others becomes a heavy load. I carry this weight because of my role in society, but without this knowledge that I could be gone in a second like I was when Elsa froze, I believe I wouldn’t be able to fully grasp my gratitude for life. 

Really, the weight I carry isn’t a negative thing at all. Because of it, I feel that the positive light within me has taken hold. I see only beauty in a world that I wouldn’t otherwise see at all if it weren’t for Elsa’s creation of me. I will tell you Sven that the stress and anxiety people feel so deeply is what makes me the saddest of all. It is so easy for humans to lose sight of how incredible it is to have a life in the first place. Take it from me, I impaled myself on an icicle once and merely chuckled. Sven, there are so many amazing things in this world! The scent of wildflowers in the spring, the feeling of the swirling summer breeze against your snow (or skin, or fur of course), the taste of sweet hot chocolate with marshmallows, and most importantly, the people who share them with you. Right before I lost my life force for a quick second in that cave, I said, “Hey Anna, I just thought of one thing that’s permanent, love.” 

I have to apologize, Sven, I think I was having one of those ‘seasonal depression’ moments that are chronic for snowmen when I started writing. I carry many things that one might not anticipate when they meet my endlessly cheery self, but although Elsa might be getting older, and my magic a little weaker, my impermanence doesn’t bother me as much anymore. I know that those truly permanent things won’t ever leave me, and that’s all that matters. 

P.S. In light of reinventing myself, my nose is now made of steel so that you can’t eat it.

Warm hugs,

Olaf

Snowflake by William Baer

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Why We Must Increase Employment-Based Green Cards

The United States has many restrictions and guidelines regarding the amount and type of immigrants that can enter our country. Employment-based green cards are one way that immigrants can secure a position in the country. These green cards grant temporary citizenship to immigrants who come to the US to work in certain fields. The amount of employment-based green cards available each year needs to be increased, and per-country restrictions need to be eradicated, in order for the US to fulfill increasing worker demand and remain a global competitor in the coming years.

The US is facing a severe labor shortage that can only be solved by bringing in more workers. According to a 2023 article in Newsweek, “Despite economic uncertainty, the U.S. continues to face critical labor shortages, with over 10 million job openings and only 5.7 million unemployed workers. As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported: ‘If every unemployed worker took an open job in their industry, there would still be millions of open jobs.’” (Source E) This lack of manpower is adding strain to the economy, and causing many companies to struggle to maintain operation. As stated, even if every worker took a job in their industry, this issue would still be left unresolved. The fact that we simply do not have a working population that can meet rising demand shows the immense need for an influx of more immigrant workers. The number of people in the US on green cards decreased dramatically from 2019 to 2020 due to the pandemic, but despite these labor shortages and the recovery of the economy after Covid, immigrants with green cards increased only minimally from 2020 to 2021. (Source C) If the US wants to begin to fix the employment crisis, employment-based green cards need to be increased.

Immigrant workers contribute greatly to innovation and the advancement of the US as a global competitor. One of America’s top STEM universities, MIT, claimed, “‘The ability to recruit global talent is a key factor that has contributed to U.S. leadership in science and research,’ according to the MIT Science and Policy Review. ‘This talent has been vital for the development of U.S. science and responsible for numerous discoveries and innovations that have improved quality of life.’” (Source F) Many immigrants have professional skills and expertise invaluable to the advancement of America. Immigrants with experience in STEM fields, in particular, have great potential to help the US compete with other countries in technology and innovation. According to Forbes, the oldest business magazine in America,  “At U.S. universities, Indian graduate students in science and engineering declined by nearly 40%, between 2016 and 2019… ‘During the same period (2016 to 2019), Indian students attending Canadian colleges and universities increased 182%.’” (Source F) Already, the US is falling behind other countries regarding immigrants wanting to study and work here. Our harsh immigration restrictions are to blame for people who could be a great asset to the economy choosing to relocate to other competing countries. It is necessary to increase the ease of access for employment-based immigrants so we don’t continue turning away a very important resource.

It could be argued that granting more employment-based green cards risks letting in immigrants who don’t fulfill their promise to join the workforce. In 2021 42,000 legal immigrants were unemployed in the country. (Source B) However, the proportion of immigrants who enter the country and don’t work is insignificant compared to all those who come to join various fields of work. This argument that cites the small proportion of immigrants who don’t work, invalidates the many who do. In the same year, 122,866 immigrants worked in management, professional, and other related fields, and many others in service, transportation, construction, etc. (Source B). There are many immigrants who work in highly respected professions, yet constantly must fear their lives being upended by deportation. A cartoon by Bill Bramhall, editorial cartoonist for New York Daily News, shows a doctor/nurse telling her patient, “Good news! You’re being discharged and I’m not being deported!” (Source A). Although this is satire, it demonstrates that even once immigrants are granted employment-based green cards, they still face insecurity that is caused by strict regulations on these cards. Our country claims to value workers and champion their interests, but with limited opportunities and unfair treatment of migrant workers, we aren’t practicing what we preach.

Immigrant workers bring significant value to the US economy, yet they are being limited by per-country restrictions that limit employment-based green cards granted for each country of origin to a set percentage. “Due to a low annual limit on employment-based green cards and a per-country limit of 7% from a single country, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) estimates that more than 2 million people from India will be waiting in the U.S. employment-based immigrant backlog by 2030. Many foreign-born scientists and engineers will potentially wait decades before gaining permanent residence and a chance to become U.S. citizens.” (Source F) These restrictions disproportionately affect immigrants from countries where many others seek green cards. Countries like “...Mexico, China, and the Philippines also far exceed their country limits, and have longer wait times because of the backlog.” (Source D). An article in The New Yorker emphasizes how detrimental these wait times can be by interviewing an indian family who immigrated to America through employment-based green cards. “Sivakumar’s father, then a project engineer at the technology company H.C.L. America, had applied for a green card in the spring of 2015. The family hoped that their green cards would arrive before Sivakumar turned twenty-one and aged out of his H-4 visa. But that day came and went, and Sivakumar’s parents are still waiting. ‘It might come next month, or next year, or it may take another ten years,’ his father told me. It takes an average of nearly six years for a sponsored employee to become eligible to submit a green-card application. For many Indian immigrants, however, the wait can last a lifetime” (Source D). Because of these per-country caps, the US is turning away potential workers just because of the country they’re coming from. This is wasting potential workers who could help minimize job vacancies and benefit the country. 

Getting rid of per-country limits and increasing the number of employment-based green cards being granted is necessary now more than ever to help fix labor shortages, and rebuild a stronger, more competitive, and sustainable economy. If America wants to remain a country that people from across the world hope to work in, then these changes are necessary to bring about more equitable treatment and opportunity for migrant workers.

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The Problem with "Meatless Mondays"

Schools are always seeking to promote nutrition and healthy practices for students. One way schools have done this is to enact “Meatless Mondays” where school lunches are completely meatless every Monday. Starting good eating habits young will greatly benefit students in their futures, however, the trend of "Meatless Monday" should not be adopted by school cafeterias in my area since it isn't beneficial for students' health as claimed, and the practice is harmful to farmers overall.

Meat has been demonized as an unhealthy food option even though it's other unhealthy food sources that are actually the problem. "Meatless Mondays" promote the idea that meat is bad for your diet and should be limited but according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "Children in particular have shown to benefit greatly in terms of physical and mental health when modest amounts of milk, meat or eggs are added to their diets..." (Source B). Meat is a source of protein that is beneficial to human health and functioning. It is much easier to become protein-deficient when one is avoiding meat consumption. Additionally, regarding a New York City school that adopted “Meatless Mondays," a dietician commented, "My kids might get a big pretzel or garlic bread at school – I don't know where the nutrients are, but I know it's meatless" (Source D). It isn't meat that is the problem when it comes to nutrition in schools, it's these other fried and oily processed foods, that are the real issue. By teaching kids that taking out meat is the solution to becoming  “more healthy”, we are misleading youth regarding nutrition, which will contribute to misunderstandings that will likely persist into their adult lives. America is facing an obesity epidemic, and we need to put more resources into teaching kids the right information, or we risk worsening this issue.

Another problem with "Meatless Mondays" is the negative impact they can have on farmers and Americans' perceptions of agriculture. A farmer and recent graduate of Kansas State University and the Masters of Beef Advocacy (MBA) program stated, "... the hard thing for us is to take into account all the criticisms of conventional agriculture, and to also continue to feed the world on the scale we are doing now” (Source E). This singular idea that Americans have of farmers, which is supported by the popularity of "Meatless Mondays" or Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" as mentioned earlier in the source, is supporting a society that has the wrong enemy when it comes to health and the environment. This negative image of meat farmers adds stress to an industry that needs more support. "I think a lot of young people are primarily worried they won't be able to have a career in farming at all in the future” (Source E).

In conclusion, we shouldn't be teaching kids that the meat industry is the enemy through practices like Meatless Mondays. We should be trying to promote health by taking out foods that are actually harmful and creating a desire in students to not boycott, but to learn about and help create a more environmentally friendly food system. 

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