Tag: Immigration Executive Order

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immigration, compassion, & more…

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I was a young twenty-something, working somewhere between 50-60 hours per week, in the early years of a career in Human Resources in the hospitality industry. Step one meant mastering the management trainee program, with extensive time spent in each department, familiarizing myself with both the function and people necessary to make things run efficiently.

One of the friends made during that time was a shy young breakfast cook, named “Pepe.” He actually had a longer, fun name to say — at least 10 syllables (!!) — but as he’d wink and smile at our attempts to say it properly, with a beautiful Mexican accent, we all agreed that “Pepe” worked just fine.

Pepe stood out to me. Truth is, he was one of the kindest, gentlest men I’ve ever met. He never took things for granted; he worked hard, was punctual, loyal, and always did what he said he would do; he was fully trusted and relied upon. He was also incredibly shy.

Pepe rarely spoke before being spoken to first. He listened well, but it took many weeks before he’d even look me in the eye. There was just a sweetness in that shyness that was both authentic and endearing.

Pepe had left the states for sometime in order to be with his family in Mexico. When he returned — and I deeply respect how hard this must have been for him — he came to me asking for a place to live. As a young professional, I really had little. But as a legal immigrant, Pepe had even less. 

I had a one bedroom flat on the second floor of a woodworking business, on a median in the middle of the road (yes, you read that correctly). Pepe and I worked out an arrangement where for four months, he slept on my couch.

The situation was that Pepe’s wife was still in Mexico. He came back to the U.S. with an appropriate work visa, hoping to save enough money to return home and provide for his family. While Pepe worked full time as a breakfast cook at my hotel, he also worked full time at another hotel as a dinner cook. It was thus not unusual for Pepe to work a minimum of 16 hours per day. In other words, even though we agreed that he could fully use my flat and sleep on that humble sofa, I rarely saw him there. He worked harder and more than anyone I’ve ever known.

On a rare day, Pepe and I would have an evening off that overlapped. Those days were precious. While his broken English and my even-more-broken Spanish often prompted an immediate chuckle for the other, we communicated well. In fact, our favorite thing to do those nights was read together. Pepe, grateful for a mere roof over his head, bought me a paperback bible. The left side of each page was in English — the right, in Spanish. Together we read the Bible, attempting to connect at deeper, heartfelt, meaningful levels. It was one of the most fascinating, beautiful seasons of my life.

I always find myself troubled when the immigration debate heats up. Let’s face it; it has heated up on multiple occasions, but in the current climate of seemingly far too many who are ready to either (1) immediately pounce on the next perceived evil thing Pres. Trump does, or (2) immediately praise the next perceived wonderful thing Pres. Trump does, it’s very difficult to have reasonable dialogue, separating fact from fiction, and discerning where and where not to be concerned.

I admit: I am uncomfortable with the global rise in terrorism and the significant number of persons who wish to harm Americans and Christians simply because of who they are and what they believe. I would like to find reasonable, compassionate ways to ensure those persons — who truly are the ones most motivated by evil — have lesser access to succeed in such heinous activity.

But I also wish we would never allow our need to screen out the terrorist to extinguish our compassion for the refugee — our compassion for the tired, poor, and the “least of these.”

It helps me, therefore, to think of Pepe. Pepe reminds me of the compassion each of us should have for one another… and yet, we are so stingy with our mercy and grace. Maybe we withhold it from the refugee; maybe we withhold it from those who sincerely desire to keep out the terrorist. The challenge is that too often too many justify withholding it from someone.

I wonder where Pepe is now… how his wife and children are. I have no doubt they are somewhere, thriving… following their father’s example… full of that exceptional, endearing kindness… and reading wisdom on the couch together.

Respectfully…
AR

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who thinks we’re stupid?

images-1I wrestled this morn with which of the week’s most significant stories to write about… do we discuss how a man who assisted in writing the Affordable Care Act admitted that to pass the legislation, they had to play on the “stupidity of the American voter”? … or do we wrestle with the wisdom in the President’s approach, with his intent to bypass all others, creating legislation on his own? Bear with me, friends. I have a feeling the two stories will easily, semi-profoundly merge together.

Meet Jonathan Gruber: story #1. He’s an MIT Econ professor, teaching there for the past 22 years. He was heavily involved in crafting Obamacare. Wikipedia refers to him as a “key architect.”

As now reported by multiple sources, Gruber has said the following about the Affordable Care Act (also, please take note of the intelligence necessary to become a professor at MIT):

  • The legislation “would not have passed” had the administration been honest about the income-redistribution policies embedded in its insurance regulations.
  • The “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage.”
  • “This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.”
  • “Call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to getting the thing to pass.”

Gruber visited the White House five times in 2009. Pres. Obama’s campaign featured Gruber in a re-election video. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said last week she didn’t “know who he is,” but a video quickly surfaced showing Pelosi directly referring to and supportive of Gruber’s work. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) once referred to Gruber on the Senate floor as “one of the most respected economists in the world.”

On to story #2….

Near two weeks ago, America sent a message to Washington via the election. As discussed, the Intramuralist believes the primary message was “one, you’re acting arrogantly,” and “two, we don’t like the way you’re acting.” That includes Congress and arguably, especially the President.

Pres. Obama announced the next day that he will take action on immigration reform on his own before the year’s end. Granted, a new Congress was just elected, but Obama intends to bypass them before they are ever sworn in.

Now the Intramuralist believes that reform should be taken on immigration; the influx of illegals in this country has posed some incredibly challenging economic, social, and national security issues. We need to manage this is a more effective, reasonable way. Yet by bypassing the legislative branch in its entirety — even though the purpose of the legislative branch is create the law and the purpose of the executive branch is to enforce the law — the President has decided to create.

It is true that immigration reform has yet to pass both houses of Congress. It is also true that when Obama had super majorities in the House and Senate, he did not prioritize any immigration measures. For Obama to proceed now via Executive Order — completely avoiding Congress — is to this current events observer, an obviously arrogant approach. It does not adhere to the message of the most recent election.

It also makes me wonder how frequently people perceive the American voter as “stupid.”

Respectfully…

AR