When is Illegal wrong?

So Mayor Bloomberg is in trouble from no less than the Governor of New York, who should know better!! It seems that His Honor came out against Spitzer's plan to allow illegal immigrants to get NY Driver's Licenses because he felt that it would be a security risk. Being from the state that provided licenses for several of the 9-11 hijackers, I must say that I can see some validity in his argument.

A variety of Hispanic organizations have attacked Mr. Bloomberg. One spokesman I heard on the radio said that it was "wrong" to not allow the Mexican driving the pickup to his lawn job, or the Hispanic woman who takes care of our children to not get a driver's license. I must disagree. It is NOT wrong, it is the correct attitude because a driver's license is not a right, it is a privilege (at least that is what I was taught before the days of PC). Not only is it a privilege, it is a privilege for CITIZENS of the United States.

Why would we not want to give them licenses? Perhaps it's because they are not in this country legally and have not earned the right. That's generally what the word ILLEGAL in front of immigrant means!! When you run across the border without securing proper entry, then you are violating our laws. You, therefore, should give up the benefits associated with law-abiding citizens (and legally registered aliens).

I am in favor of working on a plan to grant citizenship to those already here if they have established themselves as productive members of our society, but I'm not going to give them the rights due a citizen until they become one.

Thoughts anyone?

Reflections

So as I begin my 46th year here on the planet, I reflect upon the things that I've learned. Despite what other writers may have you believe, I don't think I really learned all that I needed to know in kindergarten. I think that it is my job to learn new things continually. Here are some of the more important things I have learned so far:

1) I've found that Billy Joel was right, "just surviving is a noble fight." Coming out of college I left a good paying job with a reputable company doing something that I enjoyed because I felt that it didn't contribute enough to society. Over the years I've often wondered if I hadn't left that job, how would things have turned out. I've learned that having such a job eliminates one part of your life that you have to worry about and you can use your free time to "change the world" or at least make a bigger difference. By always searching for "the perfect job", you may give up the ability to do other things outside of work.

2) I've learned that my parents were right when they told me that you will probably be able to count the number of true friends on your hands. I have many good friends and am lucky enough to have a great deal of acquaintenances whose company I have and do value, however, there are about 6 people that I feel that I could call at this hour (1:45am) and say, "I need your help tonight" and they would come from across the country without question and they know that I would do the same for them.

3) I've learned that family is important. I've seen families that allow themselves to drift apart, to argue about petty things such as status and belongings, and to keep score on who did what to whom. They are, in the long run, very sad people who end up lonely. This past weekend, I lost an aunt and was fortunate enough to be able to attend a family gathering of aunts and uncles and cousins, literally from all over the country. Amid the mourning, there was joy at the ability to be together and laugh and remember and share. Although we hadn't all been in the same place at the same time in 5 years (fortunately a wedding), we knew we were connected.

4) I've learned that you must do what you think is right. Not right for you, just right. You must be able to look at the "man in the mirror" and know that you've done the best you can for those that you can.

This is what I can come up with on the morn of my new year. I hope that I will have more for you next year.

Thoughts anyone?

It is 9/11

My thoughts and prayers to all of those touched by 9/11/01. If you haven't already, I would encourage you to read some of the articles regarding the day on www.helium.com. They range from the somber to ridiculous. Here is what I wrote:

"We remember because we must. Thousands of lives were snuffed out that day and we wish to honor them as we would any other significant loss of life such as a plane crash, a boat sinking, or an act of war. They were human beings who were doing nothing more than living their daily lives and they were slaughtered. The politics behind it can be discussed, dissected, and debated for years, but that doesn't change the fact that these souls deserve to be remembered.

The emotions behind the remembrance are most definitely geographical. I remember watching the tragedy unfold in Oklahoma City and I felt for those families and rescue workers. I felt their anger and pain while I watched. I will admit, however, that there was a certain emotional detachment that may eventually lead me to write an article using such callous phrases as "shooting an elephant with a BB gun" (but I doubt it). I was because I didn't see the smoke or hear the sirens or know someone who knew someone. That makes it more of an impersonal remembrance, but a remembrance nonetheless.

Being in the New York City area, I watched as black smoke poured out of the towers. I cringed as US Air Force F-16s roared overhead in a desperate attempt to try and keep anything else from happening. I was sobered as I watched National Guard troop helicopters pour into the city. I was scared when I listened to the chaos and uncertainty on my police scanner. We were scared and those of us who live here will never forget that.

As with all memories, the pointedness of the feelings will diminish with time, but they won't be erased. We must remember this day because it is about people who were doing nothing more than living their daily lives. It could've been you or me, and we also need to remember that the danger is still out there, so it still could be you or me, the next time."

Thoughts anyone?

We've got your back

Much is said, and rightly so, of those men and women of the emergency services of New York City that perished in the World Trade Center. They should be remembered always. I cannot even imagine the courage it took to try and fight the hijackers on Flight 93. There were acts of heroism throughout that terrible day in 2001.

As we remember six years later, I wanted to share my recollections from the other side of the river. I am fortunate to be a part of a specialty EMS unit that provides emergency command and control for EMS responders. On the morning of September 11, 2001, we were called to respond to the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge to assist in setting up a triage and treatment station for the victims that were expected to pour across the bridge in an effort to try and make it home after the attack.

As we gathered our equipment and personnel, it struck me that I was surrounded by well-trained volunteers from my community. There were college students, business people, firefighters, EMTs, police officers, and others that comprise this unit and they all left work and responded to the call. As our task force made its way from our town to its assigned point, people actually pulled their cars over (a rarity in the New York metro area) and waved out the window for us to go by. Some even shouted, "Go get them". On our way we drove by hastily assembled checkpoints, some manned by obviously off-duty officers who were wearing jeans and a t-shirt with their badges hanging around their necks and guns tucked in their belts.

When we arrived at the GW Bridge Plaza, you could see fire trucks and ambulances, three lanes across, bumper to bumper, sitting and waiting for instructions. Most of these also manned by volunteers. Some of them from towns as far as 100 miles away. All of them mobilized by the various mutual aid and disaster response agencies in the state. They all sat quietly waiting.

We were rerouted to a football field in the local high school where we set up. We were assigned a task force of 20 ambulances to transport our injured to hospitals around the state. Once we set up, people came from surrounding apartment buildings asking us to take blood (which we can't as EMTs). In addition, the high school opened its facility and made all its staff available to us. The man assigned to me as my "runner" (a person who literally runs paperwork from one officer to another to facilitate patient tracking), came to me and said, "Tell me whatever you need me to do." He was later introduced as the principal, someone who is used to running the whole thing.

This type of behavior was repeated throughout the day and throughout the state. In the Meadowlands, a huge staging area was set up and task forces arrived from as far as Delaware and Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, as we all know, most of these resources were not needed because those who made it out were able to receive treatment in NYC and those who didn't couldn't use our help.

The point of the story is, as we remember those who fell, we should also remember that today, just as on September 11, 2001...........we've got your back.

Thoughts anyone?

More Inconvenient Truths

Shame on Al Gore!!! Read on:

"LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU
CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST. HOUSE

# 1: A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural
gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by
gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average
American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and
natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time
we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the
national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or
Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.

HOUSE # 2: Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national
university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home
construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms)
and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet
in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk
300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in
winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or
natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional
heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a
25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets
goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected
water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native
to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville,
Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al
Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford,
Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the
President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you
WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or
the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's truly "an inconvenient truth."

Here's another example of do as I say, not as I do, brought to you by a leading Democrat! (Once again verified as true by my friends at snopes.com.)

Thoughts anyone?

Hooray for the US Postal Service

Today I got an e-mail story about a kind act from the Postal Service. I checked it with snopes.com and found it to be true. Before I quote it, I just wanted to say that while I am guilty of occasionally complaining about junk mail, slow mail, or other things related to the Postal Service, I would like to note that it is an amazing service to be able to drop a letter in any mailbox around (although they are becoming more scarce) and know that the item I dropped in the box will be received by the party it's addressed to in a matter of days. All this for $.41!

When I read of something like this e-mail, it just adds to my wonderment at the men and women who are out there every day in weather that keeps me inside (too hot, too cold, too rainy, too snowy). Thanks to them. Read this and then do what you feel is right next time you see your mailperson:

"Some of you may know that our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month (8/23). The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. She dictated and I wrote:

'Dear God,

Will you please take special care of our dog, Abbey? She died yesterday and is heaven. We miss her very much. We are happy that you let us have her as our dog even though she got sick. I hope that you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and swim before she got sick.

I am sending some pictures of her so that when you see her in heaven you will know she is our special dog. But I really do miss her.

Love,Meredith Claire

P.S.: Mommy wrote the words after Mer told them to her'

We put that in an envelope with 2 pictures of Abbey, and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Mer stuck some stamps on the front (because, as she said, it may take lots of stamps to get a letter all the way to heaven) and that afternoon I let her drop it into the letter box at the post office.

For a few days, she would ask if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had. Yesterday, for Labor Day, we took the kids to Austin to a natural history museum. When we got back, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch. Curious, I went to look at it. It had a gold star card on the front and said "To: Mer" in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith took it in and opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers, When a Pet Dies.

Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God, in its opened envelope (which was marked 'Return to Sender: Insufficient address'). On the opposite page, one of the pictures of Abbey was taped under the words "For Meredith." We turned to the back cover, and there was the other picture of Abbey, and this handwritten note on pink paper:

'Dear Mer,

I know that you will be happy to know that Abbey arrived safely and soundly in Heaven! Having the pictures you sent to me was such a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. You know, Meredith, she isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me — just like she stays in your heart — young and running and playing. Abbey loved being your dog, you know.

Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets! — so I can't keep your beautiful letter. I am sending it to you with the pictures so that you will have this book to keep and remember Abbey.

One of my angels is taking care of this for me. I hope the little book helps. Thank you for the beautiful letter. Thank your mother for sending it. What a wonderful mother you have! I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I am in heaven and wherever there is love.

Love,God, and the special angel who wrote this after God told her the words."

As a parent and a pet lover, this is one of the kindest things that I've ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is some very kind soul working in the dead letter office. Just wanted to share this act of compassion :) dear friend — hope you enjoy it as much as I did"

Snopes.com can tell you the details on when and where this happened, but they did verify that it is true.

Thoughts anyone?