Once upon a time in Hollywood…

August18

This movie is AWESOME! This is the best movie I’ve probably seen in 5 years… just genius the way it comes around in the end :).

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Calico Jack :)

August13

It has been so much fun to watch more and more of Calico’s personality emerge, he is a little over 2.5 years old and so much fun :)

He has started this new thing when we ask him why he did something he says “happy”, which is hard to argue with.

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Kids realizing nobody is there to pick them up from school.

August8

On Wednesday…

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 700 workers at several Mississippi food processing plants in a series of coordinated raids that were described as “the largest single-state workplace enforcement action in U.S. history.”

What about their kids?

Keep in mind these kids are American citizens and who were in school while this was going on…

These children were relying on neighbors and even strangers to pick them up outside their homes after school and drive them to a community fitness center where people tried to keep them calm. But many kids could not stop crying for mom and dad.

“Babies and toddlers remained at daycare with no guardian to pick them up. A child vainly searched a workplace parking lot for missing parents.”

How fucked up is it that we are arresting people who are doing incredibly hard work and paying taxes in the hope of building a better life for their family. That is the definition of being American.

Imagine you are one of these kids, waiting outside of your school, full of fear and anxiety on if your parents are still there and not knowing where to go or what to do. Maybe you are 9 and you start thinking about how you will even get food, or how to feed your younger sister.

Now imagine the larger community of kids in schools across the state and country who are filled with the constant fear of wondering if they will have parents when they get out of school tomorrow or next week or next month.

We have to figure out a way to grant citizenship to people who are here in the USA and who are for all effective purposes “American”. Plus we need to figure out a new path forward for sustainable immigration.

I’d love to see blanket amnesty and for Congress to grant everyone in the USA right now citizenship. These are great people who are working hard, paying taxes, and trying to raise great kids. They are just like everyone else in the USA except they were not lucky enough to enter this country when a “visa” was just a ticket on a ship to get here. We need more people for jobs right now, for the next generation of an educated workforce, and because we can provide a lot of people a better life. There is no reason we can’t take in more people who want to become American.

And, to people who say things like “oh they broke the law and came here illegally”, we shouldn’t reward them… that is silly. Your families did the same thing back in the day to get away from debtor prison or religious persecution or because you were accused of sorcery or just because you wanted a better life for your family.

In terms of immigration going forward… fuck if know what do as that is why I supposedly vote for competent politicians to research, learn, and make good decisions… :)

But I do know I’d like to see it be a lot easier for skilled and/or educated people from around the world to get a visa easily and for people studying here to get a 10-year visa easily. We want to attract, build, and retain the most driven and educated people in the world.

But, we are also Americans and that means a lot of our ancestors left their homes and everything they knew to try to make something better for themselves and their family. We’ve created something great here and to keep that going we need to have an honest conversation if we still want to be that “shining city upon a hill”. Because if we do want to be a shining city upon a hill we need to find a way to admit people who are so brave and courageous to leave their countries to find a better life. We need to give them a path to citizenship and give them the chance to build a better life and become Americans.

This is the America I want to see.

P.S. I also think we should be working to support all of Latin/South America economically and encourage the rule of law (not something we have done in the past + our drug policies). It is in our best long term interest to have an economically strong and free Mexico, Latin America, and Central America.

P.S.2 Reference articles on this here:
Jackson Free Press, Common Dreams and BuzzFeed. Among many others…

posted under Dangers To World, Politics | Comments Off on Kids realizing nobody is there to pick them up from school.

Goodbye Running…

August1

For the last couple of months, I’ve slowly been adding running back into the mix to see how my back holds up and how I feel. I miss long-distance running and I was hoping I could get back to hour-long runs. I got up to ~45-minute trail runs, but I decided it just isn’t worth it. My back is not loving it I am ready to say goodbye…

I love running, but it is hard on the body. And, with an annular disc tear and a new found love of biking, I’d rather ensure I stay healthy for that and bike adventures. I am going to see what I can do around other bits for more high-intensity stuff.

Goodbye running.

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This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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