I am Pro Reform

Hi Guys, thanks for coming back to read more. It's taken a bit to distill my thoughts down to a 1 topic, easy to follow post. One post has turned into 3. Check back in for the other 2, 'What  Actually Happens When I contact my Senator?' & 'Trump vs. Obama, Charted.'

Ive been thinking about the "Muslim Ban." Here's where I've landed on it. I am pro reform. I am for the tuning up process of reform in our government. Before you stop reading, hear me out, (or go post your thoughts in the comments and come back and finish reading;).

 I call Bull on anyone who is pro police reform and anti immigration reform. Just as you can be pro police and pro reform, You can be pro immigrants AND pro reform. Being for one and not the other is like changing the locks on your doors and leaving all your windows open.

Like so many of our buerocratic systems, this is a broken system. I completely agree that this reform was rolled out shoddily. Here's Paul Ryan agreeing too: At 10:27, The rollout could have been much better . Please get out there and protest. Hold the government accountable to doing a better job. These are people's lives they're screwing with... But let's make immigration in this country work better.

I worked at a refugee resource center for a short time. There is horror story after horror story of people being denied visas illogically and people who should have never gotten a visa, getting into the U.S.. There is already hardcore vetting in place but it needs to be tightened and improved.

A former colleague of mine and her husband and 3 children immigrated to the U.S. from Palestine. After enduring years of abuse by her husband, she courageously divorced him. He stayed in the US harassing her and her children for years, never paying child support. Finally he returned to Palestine, after having multiple warrants in 2 states for his arrest due to violating his restraining order, physically abusing her and her children, and owing more than 200k in child support. He was able to return to the U.S. in 2014, using false documents. This isn't hearsay.  This isn't meant to scare you, this is anecdotal evidence that our immigration system needs improvement.

Did you know that currently (or at least before 1/27/17) any immigrant entering the U.S. directly from Afghanistan has NU as their first name on all of their official documents? NU stands for Name Unknown. It doesn't matter if this individual has all of the documents to prove their identity, it doesn't matter if they served 10 years fighting terrorists alongside our military, they are dehumanized into NU. Does this sound like a system that's working!?

One of the reasons it took me so dang long to get out this post (aside from it being flu season and somehow also head cold season) was because I read the immigration executive order in its entirety. I didn't skim it. I read it and processed it and thought about it. You can too; executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states. There is a lot of good in this order, like the increase of budget and training to international Fellows programs so more staff can process refugees. Also data collection available for public viewing for terrorist related acts due to immigrants (I have a minor obsession with data collection).

One of my favorites was country reciprocation. The U.S. will now charge the same amount to obtain Visas and treat potential immigrants similarly to how each country treats a U.S. citizen when they try to get a Visa. What's confusing to me is that there is also emphasis on uniformity, that all immigration programs would have the same screening processes. Does this mean we screen the Swiss the same yet less than we do the Chinese? I'm confused and so are the people whose job it is to enforce this EO.

I pray that the Trump administration learns from the egg on their face from this unclear executive order and takes the time to more carefully craft future orders. In the meantime I am shallowly grateful that Melissa McCarthy has reached the zenith of her skill, playing Sean Spicer. I just peed my pants I laughed so hard.

Leave your thoughts! 😘

#WhyIMarch /What do we tell our kids?!

My family and I took part in the Women's March last Saturday. It was how I got through the inauguration on Friday. Not only did I not implode on Inauguration Day, I had my children watch it with me (we DVRd it, the 9 yr old was in school). I was able to watch without breaking into cold sweats because:

 1. This is still my country, dammit and this day of peaceful transition of power is the keystone that makes us great. 'I thought it was the right to vote,' you might say. & you'd be right. But this is why we vote. Win or loose, our country will not sink into a political coup created by a vacuum of power (intro: warring factions). We are soooo fucking blessed no matter who our president is. My city will still be standing at the end of the day. We can buy food and gasoline for our cars, cause despite the media's best efforts to insight a panic, our economy is working just fine. I'm not speaking to our economic future, but today right now, let's breathe.
Here's something to help you breathe, good ol' George W doing his thing


http://nypost.com/2017/01/20/george-w-bush-spent-the-inauguration-battling-a-poncho/Bush Vs. Poncho


2. The second reason I got through the inauguration without inciting a riot in my living room was because I knew, tomorrow I march. I would say what I needed to say through action. A friend of mine commented on my first post, wondering 'What do we tell our children about Trump?' I have 3 kids, a 9-year old girl, who picks up on way more than she should, a 2 year-old girl who can identify both Trump and Obama by their voices as well as faces, and a 4-monith old boy, who is a strong giggling feminist. All three of our children are why we marched.

Our 9 year old cried when she found out Trump was elected, she's heard a few sound bites and watched some of the debates. She didn't want to watch the inauguration (neither did I), but in this house we respect the process. We don't have to like Trump or support him, but he is our President. According to Band of Brothers (episode 10) we salute the rank not the person. I am not a soldier so while I've got one hand in my pocket the other is holding a picket sign that says "Women's rights are human rights."

So this is what we told our children;  'No matter how you are treated, or what is said, or the example set by the number 1 citizen representing the USA to the world, you will be kind. You will give people the benefit of the doubt and our family will love others to the best of our ability. Why? Because God. God loves us so deeply that Trump can't stop human kindness.' So tell the truth about Trump. He is an ignorant and foolish man. But we will be kind and we will not check our brains at the door and we will be involved. We will be the dissenters who are the cornerstone of our Republic.

Intro- Why now should we blog?

Hi Guys,

I've found myself googling 'Trump Survival Guide' multiple times since Nov 6th, 2016. None of the results have been satisfactory. So I've decided to go full Lisa Sullivan and be the one I've been waiting for. I am creating a Trump Survival Guide myself.

Join me on an adventure of epic proportions as I navigate the landscape of being a Christian, and a politically active mom and feminist. If you are neither female a feminist or a mom, do not feel left out. You certainly don't have to be like me to join the conversation.

I intend this blog to be a resource first for me, to keep me from hyperventilating and bitching about Trump to the innocent checkout kid at Target. But beyond that, this blog will give you a place to connect with each other through productive conversation which will lead to logical action.

I am about action. I vote so I can have the right to bitch (the right to bitch is the 30th constitutional amendment) and if I'm going to bitch about something I'm going to pick up my phone and call my senator. If you read this blog, I don't care if you agree with me, chances are you'll be offended at some point, that's ok. But do more than tell me, call your representative and voice your opinion to them.

It's my goal to minimally have  bi-weekly posts. One will be something that's been taking up recent mental space. I spend most of my mental energy somewhere in the intersection of faith, politics, & momming. The second will be a current event that you can impact by calling your governor, representatives or the White House. So come join me. Together, let's take deep breathes and survive the Trump administration.