I am a huge Hunter S. Thompson fan and this administration sorely needs someone with a visceral way with words to eviscerate them the way Mr. Thompson did to Nixon.
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I posted this as a response to someone and I think it bears repeating and expanding a little.
as an immigrant, someone who has been through the process (including being denied re-admission and spending the night in a detention center in an orange jumpsuit), i’d like to point out a couple of issues that no one seems to be addressing.
1. Permanent Residents (green card holders) who are/were out of the country are being denied re-admission and forced to sign documents to give up their permanent resident status. There are only a few reasons for revoking permanent resident status and outside of a felony conviction, they generally require an order from an immigration judge for which the petitioner should be present.
1b. The Permanent Resident process requires at least two in person interviews, usually takes two or three years to complete and runs somewhere in the vicinity of $5,000-8,000 in fees without the use of a lawyer. This process also requires multiple sets of paperwork to be filed. There are the initial application forms, change of address forms, biographic information forms. Any error, either deliberately or by omission will usually result in your application being denied and the process beginning again. Additionally, permanent residents are fingerprinted and photographed on multiple occasions and required to have a physical at USCIS appointed doctors only.
2. any one that was in transit and arrived in the US when the EO was rolled out and denied admission at that time cannot reenter the country or apply for a new visa without a waiver for 5-10 years, at least.
2b. Refugee visas require more in-person interviews than Permanent Residents, and include interviews with the FBI.
People believe immigration to the US is a simple process. It is not. It is a multi-year, highly intrusive and in some cases, expensive process during which every facet of your life is under a microscope. Saying we haven’t been vetted is insulting both to immigrants and the people that do the work. #askanimmigrant
I didn’t emigrate to the US out of fear or to escape an oppressive regime. I emigrated for love, and I jumped through a lot of hoops. I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like to wait on the slowly turning wheels of bureaucracy while in fear for your life.
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whatever you are celebrating this time of year or even if you’re not celebrating, it is worth remembering the intent of the season – light triumphing over the darkness.
be a light in the darkness, for yourself, for someone else, for your community. as dark as it may seem even a tiny light may help bring others to you or merely help you see you’re not alone in the dark.
happy holidays.
As I type this a woman named Elaine is laying in a hospital bed, unresponsive, her kidneys are failing and she is intubated. I suppose I should call this person my mother but the tiny frail body I put into care six weeks ago wasn’t my mother and what’s left laying in a hospital bed now is even less of her.
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A year ago, I awoke in less pain that I had been in for the previous six and a half months. A year ago today was the first day after a surgery to correct my hip impingement. You would imagine that having a surgeon shaving off portions of bone would leave you in an excruciating amount of pain, you would be correct but as I’ve always stated, all pain is relative.
From January 1 to June 15, I spent my every waking moment in an incredible amount of pain. The kind of pain you could see in my face. Sitting, standing, moving, I hurt. In my first visit to the doctor after the surgery his comment to me was, I’m surprised you could function, most people with that amount of build-up in the joint are generally immobile. I dealt with the pain for six months with mostly OTC pain meds and the day after surgery coming off the minimum dosage of prescribed pain killers I immediately felt better.
Now it’s a year later and I still get twinges when I overdo it or as the weather changes but it’s better and I am truly grateful.
Today was not a particularly good day for me, at least in terms of pain.
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Today is my 14th wedding anniversary and as expected with birthdays and anniversaries, it’s always a time of reflection. We spent the first two years of our marriage apart and a few days before we officially began our lives together I posted this:
vic and i are not living in a fairy tale and we know that. things are not going to be peachy and perfect all the time. we both have our off days, luckily we seem to have them when we can provide the most support to each other.
we`re both strong willed people and we`re both accustomed to doing things a certain way, we`re sure it`s going to take some getting used to.
what we have going for us, is our ability to talk about anything without discomfort or contention. we expect there will be problems, but we also thing we can sit and talk about them and work them out. there are going to be external forces to deal with as well, but we will try and work those out in the safest possible manner for us and that`s a family us.
we`re going to try and deal with each day as it comes. we have shared long term goals that we`ll be working towards when i get settled. in the interim, it`s about learning to live with each other and getting comfortable sharing a physical space.
i know it`s not going to be perfect all the time but i think if we abide the rule to not go to bed angry, i think we can face whatever challenges come up, together.
It’s been 12 years since I wrote that and in that time we’ve faced a number of challenges and seem to come out stronger and better for it. Thank you Victoria for choosing to make this journey with me. I’m looking forward to more adventures with you.
days between when I first experienced hip pain and surgery to resolve said pain: 165
days since my surgery: 200
days without any kind of hip pain: 0
days since we moved to Knoxville: 127
days at my new store: 116
days until graduation: 127
days until classes start: 18
credits needed to graduate: 10
number of classes being taken: 3
may the numbers be in your favor.
Below is a gallery of the scopes from my surgery. Starting with the initial scope to the Dr. repairing my labrum (if you look at the slide show, it’s the blue thread), then going in and removing the tissue built up in my hip joint and sculpted my hip socket.
