0036 - 22MAR2016 - A screwed-up System...

This is a story about immigration; it is not the typical story of late about suffering and hard times; about anguish and separations; about people living in the shadows in constant fear of being found out… No; this one is a little different…

After years of coming to the USA frequently to visit in leisure trips, in 1992, this man and his family applied for visas to come to live permanently here in the USA. They went to the USA Embassy in their country of origin, met with an embassy worker, acquired the application forms, filled the application forms and submitted them with all the pertinent and required supporting documentation. One of the reasons why they used to come to the USA as often as they did is that he had a sister living in Houston who had moved to the USA for reasons or marriage. The other reasons were to continue their education by frequently attending medical seminars… When they submitted their applications for resident visas, his sister provided an affidavit about her being financially responsible for them and therefore, under no circumstance would they become a burden to the government (housing assistance welfare, food stamps, etc.) In the process they went for several interviews with Embassy officials or diplomats all as part of their permanent residence process…

At the time he was a 40 years old Medical Doctor (Gastroenterologist) and his wife was a 39 years old Medical Doctor (Pathologist); they had four kids all still in school and living at home. He had a private practice, rather successful, and she worked at the University in their Tropical Medicine Institute (doing research).  They calculated that they would need to put themselves to school for about four more years to become fully license doctors here in the States; consequently, they figured out how much money they needed for their schooling, their children schooling and overall living expenses for four years; saved their money and put it in the bank to be ready for the occasion…

Years went by, life went on and – meanwhile- they were always looking forward to the day when they got their permanent visas… During that time things changed… The kids grew up, got out of school… One, also a doctor, got married and moved to the USA with her USAir Pilot husband; today she practices medicine in McAllen, TX. Another one, a lawyer, got married and lives – and practices law - in Santiago, Chile. The others have similar stories with the bottom line being, that all the kids sought greener pastures… Also during that time, the political and economic situations changed and, little by little they started to eat into their savings in order to maintain their lifestyle…

One day last fall, after 23 years of waiting, they got in the mail the news that their application had been approved, welcoming them to the USA… Woot woot! Time to celebrate!

Well, not so fast… He’s now 63 and his wife 62; if they decided to come and go through the schooling they need to become fully accredited doctors in the USA, they would be ready to start a career when they are 67 and 66; hmmm… Also, all their savings are gone; therefore, they could not go to school anyway; so what would they do here? What kind of professional start would they be able to achieve at 63 & 62? He/they refuse to be a burden to either his sister (now an elderly woman herself) or to their daughter… After a long time of deliberation, they decided to say thanks, but no thanks; decided to stay where they are and continue to wait, this time for the sunset of their lives…

I wonder, what kind of administrative process takes - legitimately - 23 years to complete…? Coming out empty-handed with an answer, I can reach only one conclusion: the system is seriously screwed up!

His name is Dr. Manuel J. Gomez (a.k.a. Manolo), and her name is Dr. Miriam Naranjo de Gomez. He was my next-door neighbor, childhood friend (two months my senior!), and classmate through elementary, middle and high schools in Carúpano, our home town in Venezuela; he’s still my dear friend… I can assure you not having this caliber of people amongst us is a real loss for the good ole U.S.A.

0035 - 04MAR2016 - The Freak Show...

So, I was watching the Republican debate last night and, within the first five minutes, Jan said: “this is uncomfortable”; she was referring to the tone and content of the questions and answers being attempted to be asked and answered. Two minutes later she said “this is disgusting”; she was referring to the level of exchanges and discourse among people who are seeking to lead this country; immediately after that, the last straw came when Trump said he has no problems with the size of his ‘endowment’; “this is embarrassing”, she said, and got up and left the room. I agreed with her but, nonetheless, stayed to watch the rest of the ‘show’…

Uncomfortable, disgusting and embarrassing sum up the spectacle served last night by Bozo, Pennywise and little Bongo (Trump, Cruz and Rubio) and ‘moderated’ (allowed and encouraged, I would say) by anchors of the Fox network (I refuse to call the Fox News; they belong in the entertainment category!) The only adult in the room is the one that is – of course- trailing in all polls: John Kasich (another evidence that few people give a flying flick about seriousness anymore!)

Last night’s freak show tops a week of developments in politics that, as little as four years ago, I would have never imagined that it would happen here, in the U.S. of A., where we pretend to be the standard bearers of democracy, the model that many other nations aspire to emulate, the leaders of the free world!

The week started with a comment made by the ex-director of both the CIA and the NSA, a retired Air Force General by the name of Michael Hayden, who said in one of the Sunday programs that if Trump, as Commander in Chief, gave an order to use torture on prisoners (as he has avowed several times), soldiers would have the right to refuse to execute that order, since it is prescribed by the Military Code of Conduct to reject unlawful orders… Holy smokes!  That is tantamount to open rebellion! That is only a taste of the kind of discussion provoked by the rhetoric used by some candidates… That’s horrific!

As we readied ourselves on Wednesday to deal with the hangover from Super Tuesday, we also had to confront – head on - the consequences of such a decisive day in our electoral process… By the looks of it, and based on vox populi, it would be Hillary vs. Trump in the fall, unless the Republicans staged a coup d’état at the convention (rumors abounded that morning), and/or Hillary got indicted/arrested … On that day, Wednesday, I thought that the rest of the field, though some of them waged a very dignified campaign, needed to go home, lick their wounds and see how they could contribute to the re-accreditation of the process, to the salvation the system. I envisioned the ugliest times of the campaign were yet to come, in the fall… I was wrong and my timings were off (the fall was too far away) …

The news outlets, news shows, and every pundit were talking about one of these topics: 

• (a)    Almighty Hillary cannot put away a 74 years old New York Jew socialist from Vermont, virtually unknown up to one year ago; now she’s copying some of his lines…
• (b)    The guy who setup Hillary’s server has been given immunity by the FBI; the likelihood of her indictment and arrest just got higher…
• (c)     The Republican establishment (who are they anyway?) will not accept Trump as their nominee…
• (d)    It looks more and more probable that the Republican Convention will be a contested event…
• (e)    Ohio and Florida are the firewall to prevent Trump from ‘hijacking our party” …

And, on Thursday, the wheels came off the Republican wagon: Mitch's re-birth, and the debate!

First, good ole Mitch tried to do an impersonation of the Phoenix, and come back from the ashes of rejection and defeat; he gave a blistering speech against Trump holding nothing back. He tried to play the role of the elder statesman imparting his wisdom. He delivered a recipe for only one objective: stop Trump. The speech was a summary of what all Trump’s opponents have been saying about him for the last several weeks; it made no difference then; Mitch’s speech, therefore, will make no difference. He said nothing new and, furthermore, Trump’s supporters don’t care; Mitch is part and parcel of what they are rejecting. The only result of that speech was that, last night, Trump offended and demeaned – mercilessly - a decent man; Mitch should have remained retired; his time came and went; the Trump crisis is someone else’s battle to fight. Besides, stopping Trump is not possible without tearing the party up possibly beyond repair. I’d say the Republicans have only one way left to save the party: support Trump; embrace Trump; manage Trump; tame Trump; make a Republican out of him!

And then came, of course, the debate. I will add no more. The only results these clowns accomplished were (a) to demonstrate that Kasich is the only viable choice; and (b) made the Jerry Springer show seem refined…

One final thought, my friends: if this is the best we have to offer to our nation and to the world, our future is simply bleak. We are better than this!

0034 - 16FEB2016 - The show goes on...

And then, all of a sudden, we come to realize that the show has moved from the three-ring Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus, to the octagon of the Mixed Martial Arts arena…

In the first round Bozo (Trump) and Pennywise (Cruz) got engaged in a contest to see who could call each other a liar faster and louder; it quickly escalated to a very unsavory brawl… Meanwhile Honey Booboo (Bush) woke up in the second round and started to complain that Bozo was calling his family names and started to quiver (I thought for a minute he was going to cry). Later, little Bongo (Rubio) decided he needed to get in the action in the 3^rd round and started to shrill and stump his feet because ‘it was Clinton the one who was guilty for the 9/11 attack’… Literally, there seems to have been only two grownups in the room: Kasich, who is in general very sound and stays above that fray (but is getting borderline weird with his message of ‘love and reconciliation’), and then Ben Carson who, at one time, I am sure was a master of the electronic scalpel, but, at this moment cannot speak his way out of a paper bag…  What a spectacle folks… 

This is my 11^th rodeo - presidential election, that is - in the USA (my first one was Carter Vs. Ford in 1976) and I had gone through four rounds in Venezuela before that… Never could I imagine that I would be witnessing the degradation in civility, manners, respect and demeanor that these characters, who aspire to be the leader of the greatest country on Earth, have taken this process down to…

Ah, but this is not all… In the previous match, Ronald McDonald decided she cannot convince anybody that she has anything original to offer, or anything that people could find her credible on; so, what does she do? What every loser with complete lack of integrity does: start to change the focus from them to their opponent, and try to discredit them; it is called climbing up on someone else’s back because you don’t have one to stand on… Then there is Bernie Sanders who seems to have gotten stuck on Wall Street and cannot move any further that that…

Is it also very amusing to watch the political morning shows (MSNBC, CNN & FOX): all the pundits walk around like zombies with their jaws dropped to the floor: they cannot believe what was said in the latest debate and how it was said, and cannot figure out why the polls show Bozo so far ahead, or where this process is going to…

Now, to make things more complicated, and to define a battle with far more consequences than the presidential election, Justice Antonin Scalia died. In two days it has already created more animosity and crisis than the election; the whole power base of the republic is in turmoil: The Executive branch (the President) must appoint a successor to Scalia, but they are told not to bother; the Judiciary branch (Supreme Court) is incomplete without the 9^th Justice and many cases would not be heard or adjudicated letting the lower court decision prevail; the Legislative branch (the Senate) is obligated to advise and consent but they have bowed to do neither until Obama is out of office… This is UGLY!

0033 - 18JAN2016 - Bozo, Pennywise, and Ronald McDonald

I watched most of the presidential debates this past week (Thursday – Republicans & Sunday-Democrats) and decided that what I saw was worth to come out of retirement for, and re-start this Soap Box…

Going in chronological order, I will first comment on the Republican side, Varsity Team (I did not bother with the JV debate/show between Pandering Carly, Pastor Mike and Pataki (is he still in?) … First, I believe the only grown up in the whole cast of 13 (down from 17) is Rand Paul. And, as such, he decided not to join the matinee function (JV show) of the RP-RNC (Reince Priebus and the Republican National Committee) Circus…

The opening act, starring Bozo (Trump) and Pennywise (Cruz) went for a 15 to 20 minutes give and take shouting match reminiscent of a 4^th grade argument; first, a troublemaker (Bozo) gets under the (very thin) skin of a Constitutional Lawyer (Pennywise) by floating the rumor that Cruz is not eligible to be President because he is foreign born (Canada) contrary to what is stipulated in the Constitution. And Pennywise, instead of slamming the door on this Constitutional area using his alleged vast Constitutional Lawyering experience, lets it become an issue in which these two pretenders spent most of the first 20 minutes of the debate. The ringmasters, Cavuto and Martiromo, let the charade go for as long as they could, milking it for more debate/ratings/ fodder for the rumor mill… What a great first act!

Eventually the show continued with none of them answering the questions posed to them; instead, the all followed the following pattern:  

·         Not one of them was able to articulate any new position, any new approach to issues, new areas to think about, new proposals to solve issues, nothing! How much more pandering are these clowns willing to do to try to steal the finite amount of votes amongst the GOP voters? None of them, except for Rand Paul (and he sometimes goes off the deep end too!) is bringing up issues and their solutions that may be of interest to independent folks, or non-dogmatic folks who may be looking at all the candidates…

·         All of these ‘senior leaders’ of a national party, the venerable and respected Good Ole Party, seem to be eager, willing, and ready to ‘do carpet bombing’, ‘put boots on the ground’, ‘send in special forces’, ‘establish no fly zones’, ‘shoot down Putin planes’, and all other sorts of descriptions of actions/engagements that eventually boil down to war. Two things come to mind that merit asking:

o   On one hand everybody complains (rightfully so) about the budget deficits and the growing foreign debt, but there seems to be no qualms at the prospect of spending trillions of dollars (that we don’t have) on more wars… What gives?

o   None of these folks have either served in the military of fought in a war; however, they have no second thoughts whatsoever about sending other people sons and daughters to the slaughter… How callous are you?

·         They all seem to be running against Barack Obama; nobody seems to realize that (a) Obama is not running and (b) his 2^nd term is over in January 2017, regardless of who wins, as per the 22^nd Amendment to the Constitution of the USA. When not running against (read insulting) Obama, the focus is on Hillary Clinton (more comments about Ronald McDonald below). Meanwhile, Donald J Trump, a non-political politician, is arousing a part of the base of the Republican party with messages that resonate with them and is eating the rest of the field’s lunch! If the rest of these clowns do not wake up in time, Bozo will run away with the nomination!

Now, on the Democratic side, I am going to keep it shorter because there are less entrants, and because, as you will see, my opinions are very cut, dry, terse, unambiguous and to the point. On this side, there are also all sort of shenanigans going on with Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and DNC trying to ‘protect’ Clintons lead. And there is also an exception to the politics-as-usual rule and that is Bernie Sanders: call him what you want or wish, but he’s always been an unashamed socialist, has hidden it from no one, deceived no one, and he panders to no one. The other two are very special, each on their own way. Martin O’Malley is still showing up for debates, and that’s all the key-strokes I am willing to dedicate to him; good night!

Then there is Ronald McDonald! This woman gives the impression of being the stereotypical politician; the one routinely bought, and paid for, by special interests; the darling of the lobbyists; the one who would say anything to anybody at any time as long as she thought she could get either money of votes – or both - out of them. She is also the one with – allegedly – the least amount of integrity in the whole bipartisan field: she was ‘cleared’ of culpability or negligence or ineptitude on the Benghazi deaths not because of her, but because of an incompetent and over eager and partisan committee, and a gift from McCarthy; and then there is her arrogance about the e-mails issue, conducting government business on commercial/private lines with complete disregard of express rules and regulations, and also ignoring potential exposure of private government business…

I don’t know yet what the ultimate field will look like, and if there could be new entrants; I do know – for sure -  who I am NOT voting for (Bozo, Pennywise and Ronald McDonald)!

Stay tuned… We’ll talk again after Iowa and New Hampshire…

0032 - 30APR2014 - "Is Cliven Bundy a role model?"

Ok folks, here is something worth talking about a bit (or is it?)… By now most of you have probably heard about one Cliven Bundy, a rancher in Nevada who has made a stand against an institution he does not recognize: the US Government!

Bundy's fight with the Federal Government (the Bureau of Land Management specifically) goes back to ‘93 when the BLM eliminated livestock grazing in the area, citing the protection of an endangered tortoise species. That was when Bundy decided to stop paying grazing fees. Now, the agency says he owes more than $1.2 million. A federal judge first ruled in 1998 that Bundy was trespassing on federal land. Last year, a federal judge ruled the agency could remove the cattle. When the BLM started the process of removing the cattle, Bundy and his family took up arms against the BLM; shortly after that the BLM, in order to defuse tensions, returned the cattle to Mr. Bundy. However, the machinery was in motion and even after the returning of the cattle hundreds (some reports say thousands) of people who sympathize or identify with Bundy’s position have flocked to the area North East of Las Vegas where all this drama has been unfolding… These people call themselves many names amongst which are ‘Patriots’, ‘Constitutionalists’, ‘ Militias’…

Politicians and other public figures have either supported or condemned his stance and/or actions… He’s been called everything from ‘hero’ to ‘terrorist’ and many have already brought out references to, and comparisons with, Randy Weaver in Ruby Ridge, ID. Whether you agree with his position or not, he deserves the credit for taking a stand on it. This level of civility, however, may soon change and here’s why: in an interview with the New York Times, he referred to black folks and ‘the negro’ (a pre-Civil Rights term, also used by people who consider black people inferior) and then proceeded to say of them “And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children; they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.” Now folks, that kind of statement really changes the discourse landscape, since he seems to suggest that (a) all black people behave the same; and (b) they seem to be better suited to be slaves and not free people… Now he’s gone from a Randy Weaver like-thinker to a pro-slavery sympathizer (maybe he’s also throwing his hat in the ring as a candidate for Grand Wizard of the KKK!) He’s also gone from the voice a citizen airing a grievance, to somebody with questionable credibility since he seems to be a practitioner of egregious double standard: on one hand he complains about ‘the negro’ being subsidized by the government and on the other hand he is claiming as a right the subsidy he’s been getting from the US Government for decades by letting him graze his cattle on land that is not his, paying a pittance, and then he even refuses to pay the fees demanding that he should have the grazing rights for free (from subsidy to full ‘gift’ from the Feds!).

Now you see the likes of Rand Paul - the Junior Senator for Kentucky - going from “There is a legitimate constitutional question here about whether the state should be in charge of endangered species or whether the federal government should be” to “His remarks on race are offensive and I wholeheartedly disagree with him” and Dean Heller – the junior US Senator for Nevada - from “Bundy and his supporter are Patriots” to “Senator Heller completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way" via a spokesperson… Now it is time to backpedal, my friends, now that Mr. Bundy is showing his hand... This was truly an “Oh shit” moment for many politicians and people in the media… It is time to put some dirt between them and this whack job, at least publicly, because he is ‘radioactive’!

Now, I have not seen much in the ‘mainstream’ media about this issue; I have no idea what the staff of the ‘Fair and Balanced’ are saying now (although I heard that many of them are also running for the hills), or other radio personalities are spewing out; I read that Beck said something about it “being in danger of representing the ‘right’ version of occupy Wall Street” to which Bundy responded that Beck didn’t know what he was talking about! Last, but not least, bow-tie man Tucker Carlson has gone on record saying that, in fact, the land does not belong to the Bundy clan as they claim; for this, he will be excommunicated, his credentials revoked, and his rear end will be thrown out of Paradise!

However, all of these prominent politicians and other personalities were – seemingly - ‘asleep at the switch’… Anybody worth their salt could have recognized the true sentiments underneath this Bundy character’s rhetoric… When you hear someone with the argument that they don't recognize the Federal Government, that they are Constitutionalists, that they believe in states’ sovereignty, it is usually a big and loud clue into (a) their allegiance to the 4th Article of the Constitution where it says that some persons are considered personal property (read slaves); (b) their disagreement with the Emancipation Proclamation and the fact that the civil war ended up being an anti-slavery war (regardless of what they choose to call it); and (c) they are against the 14th amendment, and having to consider all persons legally equal - as that amendment mandates - is against their very fiber. I wonder: were they really asleep at the switch? Or were they fully aware of Bundy’s core ideology and ran away from it when those beliefs became very apparent to all, and quite toxic – I may add - for certain political ambitions? Hmmmm…

There is a couple of points, at the very center of this story, which I think are worthy of further commentary: first, the issue of states being considered exempt from Federal oversight. The Pledge of Allegiance says “One Nation, Under God, with Liberty and Justice for all…”; it one does not say “50 States, Under God, with Liberty and Justice for all…” The Federalists Papers (#9-Hamilton and #10-Madison) address this issue with all the arguments for there to be an Union, a Federation of States acting as, and reaping the benefits of being, one Nation. And the second point is the misuse and hijacking of the term Patriot, and here’s why:  a true Patriot does not pick and choose which parts of the Patria (Father Land) he or she will defend or support; a true Patriot does not choose which of the amendments to the Constitution they are willing to die for if necessary, and which ones they choose to ignore, depending on convenience; a true Patriot does not ask for (and much less demand to have) the right to pledge allegiance only to those parts of the nation they happen to like… Being a citizen is not like being in a restaurant where you can pick from the menu what you want to consume (i.e. what laws you want to follow or ignore): being a citizen or a patriot is all or nothing; the law applies to all equally; the rights are the same; the duties are also the same!…

0031 - 25APR2014 - "Everything is relative"...

Ever since Albert Einstein introduced his Theory of Relativity in 1905, and was last validated in 1938, many of us have grown accustomed to the thinking that everything is relative, although sometimes it is still a foreign rationale for some who believe in terms such as ‘absolute’, ‘perfect’, ‘never’, etc.

Some days ago I was at a gathering with some friends and a delicate subject was brought up: people who live in this country and do not speak English. There were people of somewhat diverse backgrounds, some of them multi-lingual, some bilingual and some who only spoke the language they were born into and grew up with.  There were opinions, some strong ones, about the situation where if you live here, you must speak English, period. And I could not agree more. And I usually take it a step further: even if you come here to do business, or to go to school, or to simply visit, you’re expected to speak English. The discussion ensued – very animatedly - with several points of view being expressed; some in the form of simple comments and others more passionately… Some of the most interesting ones were:

a)     I am quoting: “How is it possible that a person goes to a public establishment, and either they are expected to speak other languages, or there are no English-speaking people in the establishment?” (End of quote). This was a very passionate point for, and commonly experienced situation by, some folks…

b)    We want people to speak English when they come here; however, we generally neglect, is not even in our 'Radar Screen', or sometimes refuse to learn other languages; so, when we go elsewhere, we expect – and often demand – that people address us in English, even though they speak another language in that particular country we are visiting… We, at times, seem to be very comfortable with double standards, and are proud of it!

c)     There are some other countries, developed countries like us, where people proudly speak more than one language and where they have more than one official language. In almost every country in Europe, people speak two languages, and many times more than that; they do business (officially) in more than one language; even our most esteemed neighbors (the ones to the North, of course) have two official languages: English and French Canadian. In some Caribbean Islands that belong to the Netherlands people must speak, at least, five languages (that is 5!) to work in anything related to the public. However, we somehow consider it inappropriate - sometimes - for people to ask us if we speak another language… I have witnessed this dialog more than once: “Do you speak Spanish?” “No, I do not!” and the left-hand conversation goes like ‘who do you think I am?’ or 'where do you think you are?' as if they had been offended (or mistaken or misplaced) by the question…

At any rate, in the middle of all these worthy and enlightening arguments, a friend tried to give an example to the point they were trying to make (their point being that people must learn the language of the country they live in) and said something to the effect that “English is not John Doe’s first language but they speak it perfectly…” (I will omit the names to protect the innocent and the guilty alike). Another friend made a gesture of surprise and said under their breath “Oh my God, is he serious?” apparently taken aback by the 'perfectly' assertion, since John Doe clearly speaks with a distinct accent… Being a natural introvert, I sometimes need my time to process certain topics properly and I hold back any reaction until I have had time to really ponder all the variables at play and formulate an answer; of course, by the time I was ready to participate in the discussion with an adequately thought-out opinion, the gathering was over and I had nobody to share my answer with; so I decided to use this as my outlet to offer my opinion… And here it is: as I said before, likely my friend’s 'surprised' reaction to the original comment was based on the accent John Doe has when speaking English; they most likely consider that accent a language flaw, in contradiction with the original comment. Again, John Doe does have an accent when they speak English but, in all reality, who does not? Who can cast the first stone? Within the US alone there are over 25 different dialects and accents of English… (Easy examples: people with a Boston-urban accent do not pronounce r’s, and people with the Virginia-Piedmont accent add r’s where there are none!) So, even those who were born and raised here in the good ole US of A, have an accent when they speak English; everything is relative.

In the wider scope, everybody around the world who speaks English has an accent; some more pronounced than others, some worse and some better; everything is relative… Try to listen to a conversation being carried in ‘English’ between a person from Texarkana (Texas) and one from the Transvaal (South Africa); let me know after that ‘experience’ if you still think that people born in English-speaking lands have no strong (and sometimes hard to understand) accents… Or try one, also in ‘English’, between a Cockney (London East End) and a Guyanese (South America)… If you think there is no accent there, or that one is better than the other, or that one accent is more understandable than the other, think again… Everything is relative.

You see, historically, English is and has been for millennia a dynamic language; it has been evolving constantly since its Teutonic origins… The initial British Isles dialects were modified (some may say bastardized) by the pseudo-Latin the Roman Legions spoke while occupying the territories for over 300 years… They were further modified radically when the Saxons (with a more modern German or Teutonic version of their language) conquered the Isles, and lately refined by all the words adopted from all the colonies while the British Empire was in place (Hindu, Spanish, Farsi, Arabic – yes Arabic! – amongst the most influential ones). Even among themselves, the British Isles still feature four major groupings of regional dialects and accents of English, such as English itself, Scottish, Irish and Welsh; people with more knowledge than I are able to point out many other variations within those groupings…

For those who still think they speak perfect English and, as such, think they have earned the right – by birth, or otherwise self-adjudicated – to feel somewhat better suited for communications than those who do not speak like they do, the bubble is about to burst: there is no such a thing as ‘perfectly spoken [language]’ (still a truism regardless of what language is inserted between the brackets); what may be perfect for some, is flawed to others; everything is relative…

Bottom line folks, there are many versions of English and many ways in which those version are spoken (i.e. accents). The beauty of it all is the diversity and richness of the language, how it evolves over time, how it bends according to needs and geographies, how one never ends learning it (thinking otherwise is folly), and how humbling it could prove to be to even the most proud, confident and self-proclaimed ‘Perfect English’ speaker…

0030 - 03MAR2014 - "To Flagstaff and back!"

Background…

In mid January, Leah – the youngest child - was invited to apply for a job with her current company ACC (American Campus Communities) in Tucson, Arizona; although initially exciting, after a couple of conversations with the hiring manager, Leah decided to graciously decline the invitation; it was not a good fit for her. Jan and I were somehow relieved because, even though we raised our girls to be confident and seize opportunities (“we gave them wings so they could fly…”), we thought Tucson was very, very far; in other words, we dodged the bullet… One week after that, Leah was invited to apply for another job in Arizona, this time as the Assistant General Manager for one of the two properties ACC had in Flagstaff. After several conversations and then interviews with the hiring manager, and others in the chain of command, Leah was offered the job and she accepted. She had made known to them that she was the maid of honor in a wedding in Gainesville on Saturday, February 22. So, even though they would have her in their payroll since Monday Feb 17^th, they asked Leah when she could be at work; she candidly responded: the 24^th! It was some hours later, after she spoke to Jan and me, that she realized she would have only 30 hours between the wedding and the time she would have to show up for work, but it would take, minimally, 31 hours driving nonstop for her to get there. Asking for an extension was not something she wanted to do; so, after some thinking and considering of options, we decided that Leah would fly from Orlando to Flagstaff on Sunday, February 23^rd, in the morning, make it there middle of the day with enough time to regroup and make it to work, as expected, on Monday morning, February 24^th, Alex’s birthday! The rest of the plans called for me to fly to Florida, finish packing Leah’s stuff, load the car, drive her to the airport early on Sunday - her flight to Flagstaff was at 7:10 AM - and then drive to Tennessee, pick Jan up and continue driving to Flagstaff with Leah’s car.

Alex jumped in the game and went to Gainesville in early February to help Leah with the packing/trashing/donating selection process. She also proposed that, instead of me taking Leah to the airport on Sunday morning, she would drive from Atlanta to Gainesville and meet me there on the night of Friday the 21^st of February; we would ‘finish’ Leah’s car on Saturday morning and I would drive home to Tennessee during the day with enough time to rest and then continue on to Arizona… We all agreed on this plan but, to complicate matters, the previous weekend (on Feb 15^th) Leah got the flu, a strain of Influenza common in the Orlando area, where the Bachelorette party took place on the weekend. She could go to work on Monday, and she could not get out of bed for the following three days, sending all her plans for last minute packing and organizing her move, down the drain…

Friday, February 21, 2014

So, as planned I am flying down to Sanford, FL today… Leah will pick me up and Alex will join us later in the evening… Looking forward to seeing my babies… Well, this execution is not coming out quite as planned… The original schedule was for my Allegiant Air flight to leave at 2:30 PM from Chattanooga to Sanford, FL (a suburb of Orlando), arriving at about 4 PM , and for Leah to pick me up. Jan and I left the house at about 10:45 AM, to make it to the airport at about 1 PM. Jan dropped me off and went back home… At about 1:30 PM they announced that the plane, coming from Sanford, was late by about two hours due to bad weather; the new departure time was 4:30 PM; I duly notified Jan and Leah (Leah was still not really up for the drive so she was going to have a friend drive and Leah would pay for the gas…). The plane made it to Chattanooga at about 4 and the gate agent announced the plane was being cleaned and reconditioned and to expect boarding at about 4:30. And just at about 4:30 another announcement came saying that ‘due to the crew having exceeded their air time, the flight was being postponed until the next day at 8 AM’. No other crew was available to fly the plane – no other recourse; too bad, so sad! There were lots of people who were going to Florida to go to the Daytona 500 race, both Saturday and Sunday programs… The counter agent commented that another plane would be there between 6:30 and 7 AM the next morning to ensure timely departure. Jan picked me back up at the Chattanooga airport and we took a ride on 111 for the fourth time that day… Meanwhile, Alex had started driving from Atlanta to Gainesville to help Leah with last minute packing and to eventually drive her to the airport on Sunday morning…

Saturday, February 22, 2014

I wanted to be at the airport at 6:30 AM; that meant Jan and I getting up 3:45 and leaving the house at 4:15, which we did and made it back to the Chattanooga airport at 6:30 AM; this time Jan came with me to ensure that, if there were any other delays or cancellations she would not have to drive back to get me. Everything was in order and on-time so, I went through security and Jan left. The flight was scheduled to leave at 8 AM; however, the crew (must have had a great time the previous evening) did not show up until – precisely - 8 AM! Started boarding at 8:30; boarded the plane and, as we seem to be sitting there for a long time, along came the pilot’s voice over the PA system apologizing for the delays and bearing more bad news: the hydraulic system was producing abnormal readings and we would have to deplane for him to have the plane checked; and so we did. A mechanic showed up 30 minutes after that and found a leak; they shared with us that it would take about 90 minutes for the work to be completed and that it was only after the subsequent test that they would know if the fix had worked; meanwhile they were contacting partners about availability of another plane to make the trip. So, if the fix worked we would be looking at a 1:30 PM flight; or, if it did not work and a new plane had to come in, we would be looking at a 3 PM flight; if neither of those options worked, all bets were off … (That third option would have meant that Jan would come to pick me up and, instead of going back home, we would have kept on going to Gainesville…!) So, I was trying to keep all affected parties – Jan and Leah/Alex- updated and called Jan to update her on every new item of information I got, and asked her to update Alex (my phone was not too high on charge); after the second update Jan requested I update Alex myself – I guess she felt that was the best course of action for her; oh well… Eventually the leak was fixed and we left Chattanooga at about 1:45 PM, over 23 hours after the original departure time! There were lots of people who had missed already the Saturday race (at a clip of $350 per person, non-refundable) and most of them were very upset; some other folks were meeting their entire family in Disney World and they – the ones in Chattanooga still – were holding everybody’s tickets… Yet another person was collecting names to give them to a lawyer to pursue further action against Allegiant… We finally made to Sanford; Alex picked me up at the Sanford airport and we made it Gainesville at about 5 PM. Leah had left the house at about 8:30 AM; her day was to be consumed by the preparations for the wedding she was the maid-of-honor in, and then the wedding itself… Alex and I finished packing a few last-minute items and loading and securing the top cargo pouch (Alex was a true blessing! I praised her about being a very hard-working woman and she responded “Only if and when I have to, Daddy!” That’s my Alex!). I left the 2^nd Avenue compound at about 6:15 and, after stops for gas and food, I left Gainesville at about 6:30 PM; made it home at about 1 AM. My plan was to get enough rest and to hit the road as early as possible…

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Jan and I left the house at about 9:30 AM after a shower, a cup of coffee, a walk with the pups, and rearranging the load in Leah’s car a bit to fit our luggage and provisions for the road… Took TN-111 North and, after filling up in Sparta,  hit I-40 in Cookeville and headed West; passed Nashville and then Memphis four hours later (Tennessee is a very wide state). Went over the Mississippi river into Arkansas (the weather had changed from sunny to cloudy) and eventually passed through Little Rock and Fort Smith. Got into Oklahoma as it was getting dark and then through Oklahoma City at night, and finally hit Clinton, OK - where we had reservations at a Days Inn (the worst ever!) - at about 10 PM; in bed by 11. Grateful that the weather held well for the most part…

Monday, February 24, 2014

Alex’s 24^th Birthday!

After a less that restful night, got up at about 6 AM and called Alex for her birthday; left Clinton, OK at about 7 AM after gassing up and continued headed West on I-40; Leah’s car is behaving well and, since its gas gauge is broken, we are measuring the availability of gas based on miles driven (need to refill every 300 miles or so and we have been very consistent about it…) After we entered Texas, the roads became more and more desolate; exits and gas stations became more scarce than before… Nice land with lots of wind powered turbines generating lots of electricity – the ‘windmill’ farms extended for tens of miles… After passing Amarillo, we left Texas and entered New Mexico; very strong side winds and even stronger head winds at times (once I could not get the car to accelerate beyond 75 MPH…) Right after passing Albuquerque, NM and when the mileage still read 230, the alarm for ‘Low Gas’ started to ring; it was completely unexpected and became an ‘oh shit’ moment – as it turned out, the head wind made us lose more than 20% effectiveness on the gas usage; we were able to find a gas station near a Casino on the road and, literally, saved the day! The terrain gradually changed from the grassy plains from Oklahoma and Texas to the more rugged and rocky Southwestern one… Got into Arizona and, after climbing to 7,000 in elevation made it to Flagstaff at about 6 PM under the duress of a setting sun shining right in front of us at eye-sight level! Leah had directed us to a parking lot in front of a Starbucks store which is right under her building - The Suites - and she met us there, inside the Northern Arizona University (NAU) campus… It was good to see that baby! Made two or three trips unloading the car (with the help of an industrial-strength dolly Leah had borrowed from the maintenance office). Went to a nearby Wal-Mart for some basic supplies and crashed in Leah’s place; she was fading rapidly since she was still very weak from her bout with Influenza the week before…

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Leah’s apartment is simply great; it is an ‘efficiency’ apartment with a sleeping area, a sitting area, an ample full bathroom, two bathroom sinks, two mini-refrigerators, and a microwave oven; a full kitchen is available to the whole floor down the hall… After seeing Leah off to work (she left with us her car and house keys along with a fob for access to some doors and elevator), Jan and I had some coffee, rearranged completely Leah’s furniture to make more effective use of the space (and we did a great job, if I may say so myself!) and got ready to go out; Leah called to ask if we wanted to tour her work place – The Town-homes at Hilltop @ 1500 S. San Francisco Street - which is about a 7 minute walk from her apartment, still inside the NAU campus, and so we did… What a place! The lobby, game room, meeting rooms and gym are first class; Leah’s office is about 14 x 14, nicely appointed; Rob, her boss, is quite young, well spoken, and rather polished; and then we toured their model; their ‘product’ is unbelievable: they offer townhouses of 4 bedrooms and three bathrooms (two of the bedrooms share one bathroom) with all conceivable niceties and very attractive…!

Later, we went to several stores (Target, BB&B, Wal-Mart) and got the materials to build a pantry for Leah and ‘hide’ it behind some curtains… and so we did! Later on, for dinner, Jan made an 8-can taco soup in the Crock-pot we just bought for Leah and (a) it came out great, and (b) Leah had a good amount of leftovers for later days…

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

We modified the ‘pantry’ to make it more effective and then put together an area for her ‘kitchen’ work using a couple of Kitchen Island pieces… In it we put all her kitchen appliances (toaster oven, electrical skillet, rice maker, crock pot, George Foreman grill), utensils, bowls and a lamp. She can now do 100% of her cooking, if she wishes to, in her apartment without having to go to the kitchen… Bought all the material we needed to build her a stand for her flat screen TV (her old building in Florida was having all their TVs replaced with newer ones and they were giving away the ‘old’ ones, less than three years old in perfect condition, but no remote control or stands)… That night we met with Rob (Leah’s boss), his girlfriend and Sara, another coworker, for dinner at La Fonda, Mexican restaurant. Nice time!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

After our daily coffee, I built a sturdy and safe stand for Leah’s big screen TV; it ended up being quite adequate and worked very well; Jan helped me get it to where it needed to be (high above the twin refrigerators) and it looked great. Later that day, at about 2 PM  a dear old friend, Chris Redrup, drove up from Phoenix to visit with us (he also drove up from Phoenix the previous Sunday to meet Leah at the Flagstaff airport, to welcome her to Arizona, to driver her to her place and to a grocery store, and to ensure her general well-being… For all that, I am eternally grateful!) After catching up over some Stella Artois while waiting for Leah to get off work, we all went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant, ‘Salsa Brava’, featured by Guy Fieri in his Diners, Drive-ins and Dives program.  It was great to see ‘Crittopher’ again and he promised we would come to Tennessee to visit again one of these days!

Friday, February 28, 2014

Today, Jan and I decided to take the day off and play hooky... We went to Sedona; a once sleepy town, it eventually became an artists’ retreat and now has become a veritable tourist trap. Still pretty and with beautiful offerings, all entirely overpriced! The drive from Flagstaff is simply spectacular and there are many Navajo artisans works offerings along the way…

During the day, the weather was fair; a little chilly and cloudy but not much else; it deteriorated later… We picked Leah up from work, went out shopping for more business clothes, and then ordered pizza from Papa John’s!

Saturday, March 01, 2014

Since we had an 8AM flight from Flagstaff to Phoenix, we got up at 5:15 AM, left Leah’s place at 5:45 and were at the airport at 5:55 AM; the airport was closed and the weather was foul. While waiting in Leah’s car for the airport doors to be opened by somebody, she checked from her phone to ensure our flight was still on-time and we found out the flight had been cancelled! Jan got on the phone with US Airways Customer Service and, after 15 minutes of non-answer (on hold plus trying to communicate with the rep) we decided to ask Leah to drive us to Phoenix… Our original itinerary was Flagstaff->Phoenix->Los Angeles->Nashville; so, since we were still early, 6:15 AM, we could be at Sky Harbor by 8:15 AM and still be able to resume our itinerary since that leg of our trip was scheduled to leave PHX for LAX at 10:15 AM. So Leah was a champ and, even though she had been looking forward to go back to her place and continue sleeping, she cheerfully drove us to Phoenix and dropped us off (we asked her not to park since, for sure, we were not going back with her to Flagstaff under any circumstances; if worse came to worst, I would rent a car in Phoenix and return it in Nashville…). So, after standing in a queue to check in into US Airways for about 30 minutes, we finally got to talk to an agent who, after hearing of our cancelled flight situation, directed us to a ticket counter with a real person behind it. After double checking and verifying everything, she let us know that, even though it was an US Airways flight, it was operated by American Eagle so we needed to go check in at the American Airlines counter; with some disappointment, we grabbed our bags and graciously went on as instructed. At the American Airlines area, they directed us to the self-checking kiosk even after I explained we were trying to catch a flight in the middle of our itinerary (first leg cancelled); as expected, the kiosk response was ‘CONTACT AN AGENT’ so they directed us to the ticket counter. Darla, nice lady, started to check us in and, after a few minutes stopped and let us know that, due to the bad weather in LA, US Airways had already re-booked us on a flight to Dallas, and that we needed to go back to them; after we, politely yet clearly, expressed to Darla our reluctance to get on that queue again, she understood and asked us to stay where we were  while she went to do whatever needed to be done  (Side note: American Airlines and US Airways are merging – approved by the FAA and all other pertinent regulatory bodies; however, as one of the ladies put it ‘we are living together but we’re not married yet’; in other words, processes, procedures, systems are still separate). Darla worked diligently, by herself and with other agents, to solve our issue (the problem was caused by the difficulties to modify our PNR after one leg had been flown; in our case, the leg had not been flown, it had been cancelled but the system did not seem to process the difference properly…) Eventually, and after over one hour, she came through for us: we were booked on a flight from Phoenix to Dallas at 12:40 PM (with priority boarding) and then from Dallas to Nashville at 6:40 PM (in First Class!). The rest of the day, did not come without anxiety because both flight were delayed (and one never knows, based on my experience, when a delay will lead to a cancellation!) Unfortunately, Rick and Shawn Perez had offered, and insisted on, picking us up at the Nashville airport and I had to let them know that we had screwed up their evening in Nashville because, instead of arriving at 5:20 PM as the original scheduled said, we were coming in now at 8:50PM! We landed at 9:20 PM; picked up our luggage and Rick got us home right before midnight… Our pups were elated to see us and the greeting and welcoming went on for several minutes (McGee had taken good care of them while we were away, and she also took good care of us by making us a chicken pot pie) … Jan texted Alex and Leah to let them know we had finally made it home… All is well!