Today we celebrated our dear Betty's 90th Birthday!! Whoo Hooo!!!! She was SO happy! And what a delight to have the pleasure of knowing her and spending this special day with her!! Yay!!
Pastor Michael, Mrs Fox and Rosemary
Pastor, Mr Fox and Breanna
How many of you having been reading the multitudes of reports regarding Henry Cejudo's awesome Gold Medal win? And how many of you have read the issues surrounding his mom's immigration status? Sick....isn't it. Why don't people leave this poor woman, Henry and their family alone and let them enjoy his victory? Here's one of the articles for you. Your thoughts???
Medalist's mom at heart of immigration crisis
It is not that we can't quite get to the heart of the immigration crisis. Our problem is that we don't allow heart to enter into the discussion.
Luckily – or not – we sometimes don't always have a choice. That's what happened Tuesday.
On that day at the Beijing Olympics 21-year-old Henry Cejudo, who attended Maryvale High School, won the gold medal in wrestling's 55-kilogram (121-pound) division.
He later told reporters, “This is cool, coming out of a Mexican-American background. It just feels so good. Not many Americans get to do something like this. I feel like I'm living the American dream.”
And he is. Following his victory there was an appearance on NBC's Today Show. There were highlights on ESPN. There were articles in newspapers from all over the United States and abroad.
All of which told the tale of Henry's hardscrabble young life and his dreams of an Olympic championship, and did so in a manner that was upbeat, inspiring, heart-warming and, ultimately… troublesome.
You see, there's one little problem.
In telling Cejudo's triumphant story, the media outed the young wrestler's mother for having entered the country illegally before Henry was born. (He is a citizen.) His father, who wasn't in the picture during much of Henry's life died some time ago in Mexico.
But what about his mother? Now that we know that she is not a citizen, what do we do? I posed the question on an Internet blog on azcentral.com Wednesday.
The information about the gold medalist's mom has been on TV and in the papers. It has been discussed everywhere. Should Sheriff Joe Arpaio send some deputies to follow her until she commits a traffic infraction that might allow them to pull her over and get her deported?
The articles that I've read talk about how Cejudo's mom has held down numerous jobs while raising her children.
Should we try to find out who those employers were (or are) and bust them for breaking Arizona's law against hiring illegal immigrants?
Or should we ignore her immigrations status and give this one woman a pass?
The Internet responses were fast and (as with any discussion of immigration) furious.
“Either you're pregnant or you ain't. Either you're an illegal alien or you ain't,” one reader wrote. “Deport all illegal aliens. No exception.”
Another wrote, “Are you kidding me Montini? His mother is here illegally and she should be deported. The issue of breaking the law has nothing to do with whether or not an individual is a good parent. Clearly, by breaking the law she really isn't a good parent. She has set an example for her children that it's okay to break the law when it's in your own self-interest.”
Others saw a more complex problem, like the reader who wrote, “Ignoring the commenters who are obviously blinded by their hatred (either of immigrants or Montini), obviously the woman should be allowed to stay, and in fact, a bill should be pushed through congress to grant her citizenship. It's just unfortunate that there are many, many other people in similar predicaments who will never have their stories heard. Perhaps if the true face of the immigrant were seen by the public, there would be less hatred.”
It's easy to reduce an argument about immigration to numbers, to describe people like Cejudo's mother as “illegals,” a word that makes them seem less than human.
But she is human. And so is her son, the Olympic gold medalist, the American. The two of them persevered. They have guts. They have heart. Do we?
I woke up this morning, and found the morning to be exceptionally pleasant. Sooooooo, I said to myself, "How about going for a hike this morning?" After all, I haven't been hiking in a while. I got myself ready, dropped my son off at football practice and headed over to the trail closest to my home, the LV Yates Trail. And, guess what? It was gorgeous out!! And it felt really, really nice being out there. Gosh I miss our hikes!!
I was memed by my friend Lylah a couple of weeks ago. I'm suppose to follow and post the following rules:
Here's the official rules as they are to be posted:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Oookaaay now to the 7 facts:
