Illegal Immigrants Or Refugees

I always record "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart because I know I will get the news from an honest perspective, albeit usually in a humorous way. By the way, I believe much of the news is humorous. This morning I watched the show from last night and learned a great deal from his interview with Sonia Nazario who has written "Enrique's Journey" which sounds like an incredible book on the dilemma young children are facing as they try and escape what is happening to them in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Nazario has been working on this book for approximately ten years. At one point, she spent approximately three months riding on the top of a freight train with children as young as seven traveling through the three countries and Mexico trying to escape literally with nothing but the clothes on their back.

The book chronicles the journey of one young boy on his entire trip to try and find his mother. Here is a photograph of Sonia Nazario at a book signing:

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She told how these gangs made up of children as young as twelve would go into a school and kidnap, rape and take kids to their camps to prepare them for a dangerous ride to get to the American border. Some of her stories were unbelievable! If you saw the show, you know what I am talking about.

She told of how bad the situation was ten years ago; and it is much worse today as these gangs have had ten years of experience, and the way they are being treated and sent back to their native countries in violation of a United States law passed in 2007 strictly prohibiting children from being returned to be put in harms way in their native countries. Even President Obama is trying to get this law overturned!

There are reports on all the news stations showing Texans yelling things like this at these Spanish-speaking youngsters to " Go back to where you came from," "You're not welcome here," and "What you are doing is illegal."

The irony in these intolerant people is the children do not understand a word of what they are being told. I just love ignorant Americans! The fact all of them came to America as ancestors of immigrants themselves is completely lost on them.

Many of our ancestors came to America as refugees; and these dolts at the border have forgotten that. 

A poll published in the New York Times yesterday shows there is growing support for classifying these children who are fleeing for their lives as refugees.

America has a long history of bringing in immigrants from war-torn countries. Think of as recently as Vietnam and how we have seen a huge influx of Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians and Hmong just to name a few from Southeast Asia. The Khmer Rouge fell over thirty years ago, yet their culture of impunity remains as strong as ever according to Human Rights Watch in an article I read.

We continue to bring in refugees from the ongoing war in Somalia. FYI, the Minneapolis and St. Paul area has the largest concentration of Somali refugees in the country.

We can go farther back in our illustrious history and find many more examples of how we have taken in refugees whose lives have been threatened if they stayed in their nations of origin; but I think you get my point.

Something needs to be done about this influx of young people at our southern border. However, I do not think sending them back to be raped, beaten, enslaved and even murdered is not the compassionate America I live in.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

I Had Fun Today!

It has been a while since I gave my last speech, and I needed a fix! I got in my zone and it felt great! Today that drought ended in a big way with my keynote commencement address at the University of Minnesota's Physical Therapy Commencement Exercise. It was short, which is hard for me to do; but, I received many positive comments, saw a few longtime friends and made several amazing connections.

It will be interesting to see what results of the networking that went on with a few professors in the Green Room and a constant barrage of connecting and reconnecting in the reception area after the ceremony!

I played with the professor who hired me, the student who made it all happen and even got in a comment about that big mudslide at the University Medical Center yesterday!

Afterwards, I told one parent every time I give a presentation all I can think about on the way home are the things I did not say and wanted to. It is that way if I give a fifteen-minute keynote address or a six-hour workshop.

It is now more than six hours after my presentation and I am thinking of all kinds of things I wish I would have said.

The ceremony was held in the newly renovated Northrup Auditorium on the University of Minnesota's main campus. The irony in me speaking on that stage was I graduated on that same stage in December 1980 with the grand stairway for "The Nutcracker Suite" dominated the stage. That night, I had to be lifted onto the stage as there was no ramp.

Fresh from the farm in South Dakota, my uncle commented as he stepped into this huge auditorium, "You could sure stack a lot of bales in this place!" It is all in your frame of reference.

Today, the highlight of my speech was when I talked about another commencement address I gave way back in 1998 to the Native American OIC in south Minneapolis and I got to experience something I have never experienced before, nor ever will again. I wrote about it in my book.

I was privileged to witness Dr. Leon Sullivan, who was commonly known as The Lion from Zion. He was a civil rights leader in the 1960s along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a famous Baptist minister in Philadelphia for decades.

I saw the spirit come into him for a few minutes that day and he was able to express the passion he had for his work. I wanted the new graduates to understand they need to be passionate about the work they are going to do with the patients they will help when they start practicing.

They are already aware of the skills they need to be successful in their chosen field, but I was trying to drive home the point one more time. Many of the fifty graduates already have jobs and once they pass their boards, they will be Doctorates of Physical Therapy.

After my speech, they had the rest of the ceremony which included handing out several awards and recognizing students for their outstanding achievements, and as the new graduates received their diplomas, I was privileged to shake their hands and congratulate them on their accomplishments. It was an impressive group of young people who are ready and qualified to take their place as physical therapists. Many of them are in their mid-20s and dare I say it, looks so young! Of course, that is coming from someone who graduated on that stage thirty-four years ago!

Let me close with a photograph from before my presentation as I sat on the stage at Northrup:


Click on the image to make it larger:
 

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

"Lunch Lady Land"

Last Thursday, I was in Northern Minnesota, in the heart of the Iron Range, in tiny Aurora, a community of about 1,700 residents, speaking to the secondary students at Mesabi East High School. We did an assembly and then I spent the rest of the day in four classrooms. In one of the classrooms, a student came in with his electric guitar and small amplifier. He asked if he could sing a song for me. He wanted to play "The Lunch Lady Land" song. It was the song he played in their annual talent show.

I said, "Sure, let's hear it."

He started to sing this song and it practically brought me to tears because the lyrics were so funny! In fact, he had to stop a couple of times, because, he too, was laughing as he sang.

When he finished, he told me it was an old Adam Sandler song from Sandler's days on Saturday Night Live.

When, I got home, I looked on YouTube and found the music video with Chris Farley playing the part of the Lunch Lady. It's from 1993 and I think you'll agree with me it's very funny. I think it's especially funny if you have memories like I do of your days in school eating school lunches.

Check it out and see if you agree with me:



I think the main reason this struck me as being so funny is because several years ago I gave a two-hour keynote address to the Minnesota School Food Service Association's annual conference; then, spent about two hours in the exhibit area testing the food vendors wares, and talking to many lunch ladies. It remains my all-time favorite conference, and I believe always will!

There were about 800 women and maybe twelve men in the audience who were the most unassuming, compassionate, caring group of people I have ever addressed! It was a great group of people who loved what they do and love to take care of your children.

The people who run the hot lunch programs around the country are one of the most maligned group you can imagine. And, from my experience, they take it all in stride. Yet, with all of the complaining we do about how bad our lunches are, I rarely get a bad school lunch whenever I visit a school! In fact, that day in Aurora, I had a GREAT lunch and the lunch ladies took wonderful care of me! They always do.

If you're still in school, remember to thank the lunch ladies every now and then. I thank them after every meal they serve me.