Resposne to a post editorial

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301528.html

 

Dear Mr. Vlanton,

 

I read your editorial in the post today and really appreciated the light you shed on the millions children who are far too often ignored on this topic of immigration reform. But I think what you propose is too ideal and too harsh.

 

But however many people are eventually able to gain legal status, there is one thing that should be required for all seeking to make a new life in this country: education. It is a matter to which Congress has thus far paid little attention.

 

Any new immigration bill should require that all immigrants 25 or younger, before qualifying for permanent resident status, graduate from high school or earn a GED.

 

Like you, I strongly believe that education is the key to success. It is something my parents have always stressed to me. But I also look at my parents story and believe it was an impossibility. My mother and father and my father's two older sisters and younger brother all arrived in the US as Immigrants from Vietnam in 1981. My oldest aunt was 25 at the time, my mother and father both 20 and my uncle, 17. They had lied about my uncle's age to the immigration officials to make him eligible for high school. My father was also eligible for high school, but the administration had denied him the right because of his lack of English speaking ability. I was born six months after their arrival, and so he had no choice, but to make money to support his family and his younger brother. My mom took a few English courses to be able to read and write, but she too had to get a job.

 

Education, even free education is a luxury for the immigrants that arrive in this country with nothing more then the change in their pocket. I don't disagree that there should be more programs and legislation to help immigrants obtain a high school degree or GED, but I do disagree that it should be a requirement to become a citizen.

 

Eventually my Uncle went on to BU on a full scholarship to get his masters in education. My Mother and Father and Aunts all took the US citizenship exams and passed the requirements to be able to say the Pledge of Allegiance in historic Fanuiel Hall.

 

What made their journey successful is their desire to achieve a better life, which is a unifying value all immigrants have. They want a better and safer life for their children and their children's children. The Regulations congress comes up with in the coming months will have a strong affect on the fabric of this country and what it means to millions of people. I'm not saying make the process easier, but I say approach immigrants with more compassion and less as problems who need to be assimilated, reeducated, and fenced out like rodents.

OH dear

This is an e-mail I got this morning:

 

Good Morning D,
 
I wanted to check in with you regarding your plans for law school.  Have you made any decisions as of yet.  If so, and you are planning to leave the Firm, I need to begin working on hiring your replacement.  Please let me know what you will be doing.
 
Thank you very much.
NEW HR LADY FROM HELL
 

I should really thank this lady. Without her, I wouldn't have finnagled my way to a  15 percent raise*. Also, (like I should talk) aren't you suppose to put question marks after questions? And as a public service announcment - Don't use fancy fonts in work e-mails with undistinuishable shades of blue, closing lines should end in commas, and the closing "thanks you very much," makes you sound like you are three.

 

*15 percent raise story. So one day my co-worker gets and e-mail from a friend at GW who just recently graduated directing my co-worker to GWU work website. There at the site, was a description of a job that started a two dozen bejamins higher then both what I and my co-worker were making. I thought, hey that's odd. It describes exactly what i'm doing now. Hey, wait, that's the hiring lady in New York. Hey! That's my law firm! What did I do? I sent my resume with a short sarcastic e-mail to one of the partners the HR lady and our recpetionist - for kicks. Anyway, that Friday my boss took us lowly and morally demoralized paralegals out to lunch to 'discuss.' HR went into a ruckus, The managing partner basically made the New HR Lady give us prorated raises, and I came out of the ordeal looking like Ferris Bueler on his day off.

So you couldn't just pull him over?!?!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/18/national/main1633196.shtml?source=RSS&attr=HOME_1633196

Smiles

I can't complain. Life has been great lately. I had one of those mornings coming out of the shower where I thought, "Hey, it's good to be alive." I went to the Red Sox Game on Wednesday night, an Opera at the Kennedy Center last night and Tonight I'm going camping for the weeked with my gorgeous girlfriend.

 

It can't rain all the time - so the saying goes.

 

The career issues are going to take a back seat for a while, even if I have brief panick attacks about it.

Can't help but love the Red Sox

..even after they lose one.

 

Red Sox Article from a Washington DC Columnist??

Pancakes with Shakespeare

Scene is making pancakes with William Shakespeare, the great 16th century playwright/poet.

 

D: Hey Bill, that pancake batter looks a little runny. Maybe you should add some more flour.

Shakespeare: What do you know about making pancakes anyway?

D: Nothing. I was just making a suggestion.

Shakespeare: Hand me the flour.

 

I hand him the flour. He eyes about two table spoons into the batter and continues stirring.

 

Shakespeare: You have any bananas?

D: Nope, sorry.

Shakespeare: How about some chocolate chips?

D: None of that either.

Shakespeare: How do you expect me to work with this?!

D: It smells good.

Shakespeare: Sure It smells good, but it's the chocolate chips and the bits of bananas that make life great.

D: Yeah, Banana and Chocolate chip pancakes sounds pretty delicious.

Shakespeare: I'm talking about life, you fool. Hand me some of that brandy you have.

 

I hand him a bottle of brandy.

 

Shakespeare: Open up that champagne too.

D:  Bill,  it's only 10..

Shakespeare:  (Interrupting) Who are you?

D: Dat

Shakespeare: Who am I?

D: Bill

Shakespeare: No, not Bill. I am the great William Shakespeare, The Bard of Avon, the Greatest dramatist the English Language has ever seen, The King of the Play and you are just Dat.

D: Well, I have won an aw...

Shakespeare: (Interrupting) The world is a stage, just Dat, and you choose and pick your roles. Don't ever let anyone or anything else define who you are. Drink Champagne at 10am, make banana and chocolate chip pancakes.

D: This isn't one of those ...cause you never know when it's all going to end...speeches?

Shakespeare: Do I look like a cliche? No. Look at that pancake batter. It's plain. It's a blog of congealing, white, uniformed, single textured...grey matter. Now I swirl a little brandy in it, and it's complemented by brown swirls. and If you had chocolate and bananas, we'd have beautiful chunks of deliciousness throughout our bites through life.

D: I'll remember to have chocolate chips and bananas around next time.

Shakespeare: D, drink some champagne with me.

 

We toast and drink

 

Shakespeare: Just make sure you your pancake of a life is full of brandy, bananas and chocolate chips, and don't you ever just simply syrup it over. I'd rather you just eat it real and plain.

D: Gotcha, Bill.

Love never goes out of style

She applies her edible mint fresh lip gloss, checks her hair - down and around her shoulders and smiles at me. Into our second glass of Beajoles-Villages, she smiles and says, "This is the shirt I wore on your birthday."

 

I say, "well, this is the shirt I wore on my birthday too." and here we are a month later - wrapped together, full from dinner at Mama Lucia's, sipping wine.

 

"We should get ready for Katie's party," She checks her wrist watch, pinky up.

"What time is it?"

She makes her famous face of resignation, "It's already 9!"

"Where does the time go?"

Bravo Steve Almond

I actually met this guy a few years ago at a book reading at Olson's. He's a funny guy and his book, My Life in Heavy Metal is hilarious. He has this one short story in it about Washington, DC and dating across party lines.

 

Condoleezza Rice at Boston College? I quit.

Treading water

The world looks so big to us 20-somethings. The roads are plenty; and like the city of Boston, full of one ways, round-abouts and redundancies. It's the journey that matters, right? Relationships are tricky. Even friendships are subject to change. Most of us have spent the later 20 or so years school where the goal was to get good grades and do well in sports. Study for a Test and get an A. Go to Practice, and win the game. Isn't it all a game?

 

I remember this game I played with my friends when we would go to Old Silver Back Beach. Chris's little brother, Dave would stand on the beach with a small, pick rubber ball.We would be out in the water, far enough to be treading water, but not past the sand bar yet. Dave would then throw the ball towards us and we'd swim as fast as we could to the ball. The person who picked it up first and threw it back to Dave, won. We didn't keep score or anything. Dave would throw it. 15 or so yards aways in the water, and I'd dive and swim towards it with all my might. Like a beacon, the little pink ball bobbed up and down out of the Atlantic ocean.

 

So what am I doing? I'm just treading water right now, waiting for that pink rubber ball to be thrown.

Just Vibrating Molecules

Sitting at Dan's Cafe with Albert Einstien on a Saturday afternoon. I sip on a Scotch and soda water and he's knocking back Southern Comfort on the rocks.

 

It's a precarious world, isn't it, Al?

 

"Yes. Very precarious indeed.  I mean you could step outside and get hit by a bus tonight. Maybe even tomorrow."

 

I take a gulp. "Thanks, Al. What I meant is its structure. Things that make sense today, sometimes don't make sense tomorrow, like one day people thought the Earth was flat, a few years later Columbus goes lands in America thinking it's India."

 

"Well, D. What you are talking about is relativity." He takes a sip. Turns his chair and opens his arms. "Imagine" He says, "that the whole universe is the space inbetween my arms."

 

I nod and sip.

 

"So that's my relativity."

 

"Are you saying I should just imagine a world inbetween my arms?"

 

"Yes, but make it bigger and give everyone their own world too. We're all living within our own worlds - each uniquely differant, each with our own frames for referance - a metaphorical windshield. It's a shock how we can effectivly communicate at all."

 

"But we can."

 

"Yes, catepillar. Because we can agree on methods and meanings - to a degree."

 

"What if we all decided to stop agreeing."

 

"Total chaos, D - which could happen, like you getting hit by a bus."

 

"So everything is relative, Einstien?"

 

"Yes, and I also think to say that we're all just vibrating molecules from some big bang billions of years ago. Swirling and bumping into eachother, which is to say - to believe you are truely in your own world is idiotic."

 

"But you just..."

 

"I explained relativity. What is more important, beyond our social science, is the philosophical science - That we all share in the unique human experiance. I emphasize human experiance and less the unique."

 

"Another drink, Bartender."

Washingtond DC Theatre Scene

The Stage in May

That's life

The bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you refuse to take the turn.

Well, I didn't get into any of the law schools I had applied to. So what now? That's a very good question.

In the mean time, I've just been enjoying myself. Things at the office have been a little strange, but consistantly busy. I've been seeing a new girl who is great and keeps me on my toes. The inspiration to write is there. I've been running around creating stories in my head, letting my 'Mark Twain's metaphorical Tank' fill up.

I guess rejection is always hard to take. Everything I've done in my life has always acheived some level of sucess. I don't think I was ever really diligant enough to apply to Law school. I didn't quiet want it or think I was ready for it. There are too many questions I want to answer about myself before I can commit myself to that type of career. Maybe later on down the road, I'll apply again, but right now I think I should focus in on my writing, possibly get a new job, maybe even in a new career field. Any ideas?