Happy Thanksgiving

Holiday has you “STRESSED”? Then just remember that spelled backward it is “DESSERTS”!

On Facing an Invasion

In recent weeks, a big question has been banging around in my mind about the word “invasion”. President Trump has used that word to describe the caravan of Central American refugees who are marching towards the U.S. Regardless of what my or your opinion is on whether they should be let into our country, I just can’t accept them as an invasion force.

The dictionary defines invade (invasion is the act of) as: “to attack; to enter with hostile intentions; to encroach upon (to invade the rights or possessions of another).

Can one really say that a group of individuals, mainly consisting of women and children and men whose intentions is flight from countries that threaten their lives or just to attain a better living standard, are “invaders”? When we think of invaders don’t we usually think of Attilla the Hun, and Genghis Khan and their hordes? Don’t we see Hitler with his army and armaments taking over a European country?

In those 3 examples I gave, the common denominators are hostility, aggression, and use of force through armaments (arrows, guns, bombs). Not to mention, containing sizable numbers of trained solders to execute those hostilities. These poor people approaching us have no weapons (except maybe a pocket knife or two), they don’t want to “take us over” and that would be ludicrous anyway since they are 5,000, more or less, against a population in the U.S. of millions. Furthermore, they would gladly be “captured” if it meant asylum. They love the US, otherwise why would they be making this thousands of miles trek to come to us.

OK, it is true that there are always bad apples among every group. But so far no guns, no killing, nothing except some rock throwing has surfaced. And unless they had the biblical David’s skill with a slingshot, they are incapable of doing much physical harm. Yes, their illegal attempt to enter our country would be a violation of our laws. But do we have to demonize them? Do we have to have a campaign of fear and hate placed on them? After all the horrific shootings in the last 2 weeks, do we need yet more hate to be planted in our hearts? I just pray that when they eventually do arrive at our boarders, I will not awake to the sound of gunshots on the morning news.

Quote of the Week

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes in to us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” – John Wayne, 1971 interview in Playboy

Practicing Malpractice

Malpractice: Professional impropriety or negligence. Usually we hear this word in connection with medical lawsuits and other legal issues. However, I recently came across a very interesting use of it in relation to President Trump. Some politician, whose name I failed to catch as the news station flashed the Tweet across the screen, used it in conjunction with Trump’s attempt to override the US Constitution’s 14^th Amendment with an executive order. The Tweet said that he would be practicing “political malpractice”!

 

Regardless where one stands on the issue of whether or not a person born in the US to parents who are aliens should be given citizenship rights, the problem here is the fact that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Yes, its amendments have been open to interpretation (i.e. the right to bear arms issue), however, we have a system of checks and balances in our legal system and there is a formal process of how to go about changing or adding an amendment. An executive order cannot do that. Trump should know this as he swore to uphold the Constitution when he was sworn in as president! The Constitution will always, pun intended, trump a Trump!

Quote of the Week

“We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.” – Will Rogers, 1924, The Illiterate Digest