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¿DÓNDE ESTÁ MI HERMANO?

When I was in the fourth grade, our teacher tried to teach us Spanish.

It was unusual then to teach elementary school students a foreign language. But that might be the best time to do it.

That’s because I still remember the sentence atop this piece, more than 60 years later. And I cannot tell you what Italian word I supposedly learned this morning on Duolingo.

Hispanic language, culture and overall presence weren’t quite as noticeable in my world in 1963 as they are today. I don’t remember tacos, much less taco trucks. Bad Bunny would have been some malevolent cartoon character, not a singer. Signs weren’t in two languages, just English.

Not that there wasn’t any Hispanic influence. “West Side Story” – the musical and the movie – remained fresh on people’s minds, in part because of the incredible music and storytelling.

But when my class got its Spanish lessons, I thought the only place it might come in handy was if I went to Spain one day.

I bring this up because we have entered Hispanic Heritage Month. It seems strange to start a month-long celebration in the middle of September, but that’s because it’s timed to commence with Mexico’s independence celebrations and include those of other countries in our hemisphere.

This must be – at best – a bittersweet celebration. Thousands of Hispanics have been swept off the streets of our country by the new Gestapo, the agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They’ve been sicced on people based pretty much on the fact that they kinda look Hispanic – it seems that whether these folks have documentation or not is inconsequential. 

These agents have been empowered by a miserable president trying to distract the nation from his multiple failings as a leader and human being. And they’ve been given license by a Supreme Court that puts privilege over justice and expedience over process – the Constitution they’re sworn to interpret fairly reduced to an annoying memo.

In the “again” part of MAGA, a lot of the inference you can draw is that America was a better country when your supermarket cashier didn’t have a Spanish accent, when congas weren’t the drums of street musicians, when the guy who cut your grass was sunburned red instead of brown.

But that’s not how America works. Period. Pizza and hot dogs came from adapting to immigrants from Europe. Jazz came from working in the rhythms of Africa. Our military and public service heroes trace their  origins to every corner of the globe.

I have no Hispanic blood or members of my extended family. It doesn’t matter. These are my people – just as everyone on Team America who abides by the principles of our freedom are my people.

They work in our communities. Their kids go to our schools. They pay their taxes – which is a damn sight more than what too many of these so-called patriots empowering the Republican Party do.

Their culture makes ours more radiant. Their food makes ours taste better. Their bravery and dedication keep us safe. Their happiness reflects well on us.

And that includes those who have come from Central America fleeing authoritarian regimes, gang warfare and crushing poverty – those who couldn’t wait for a documentation system that’s broken and corrupt, geared to let in white South Africans and nobody else.

We should not let spoiled brats like Trump, Homan, Noem and Miller dictate how these people are treated. They have no clue.

I didn’t learn much Spanish. Other than that one sentence in fourth grade, and the Spanish version of the warning on subway cars about not going on the tracks.

But.

¿Dondê esta mi hermano?

Mi hermano estâ aquî. Gracias a dios..

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FIGHTING THE ALL-OR-NOTHING COALITION

Baby boomers – that includes me – screwed the pooch.

We talked a good game when we were young. We were going to change the world. We were going to make it fairer. Make love, not war. War is not healthy for children, etc. The arc of the universe is long and bends toward justice, right?

All that stuff.

But for all the education we received at a much better price than other generations, for all the protests and clever music and revolutionary art and tech savvy, we bombed on two of the most important things we could have done.

One is immigration.

Maybe I’m naive, but this is not a hard problem to solve. And, in fact, reasonable politicians of both parties tried several times.

America needs immigrants. As “Hamilton” infers, they get tough jobs done. Sometimes without the credit they deserve. But they do.

But we also need to be careful. That’s the hangover from 9/11. People coming into this country intending to kill us. We need to prevent that.

Still, it is doesn’t seem intractable. Figure out a system that makes citizenship attainable over time and let people come in. Keep tabs on them. If they’re lost, you’ve got a problem – but most of the people who’ve crossed our borders want to live peaceably in the United States.

The other thing we messed up is the Middle East. In particular, Israel.

For its entire 77+ year history, Israel and its Jewish population have faced hostility surrounding it. I couldn’t imagine what it’s like to live in a country without a moment’s peace ever – although I fear we’re learning now.

The Middle East doesn’t seem that difficult. Israel gets a homeland for a Jewish state. Palestinians get someplace that they run themselves. Anybody breaks the peace, everybody in the world comes down on them.

OK, that’s a little simplistic. But it’s ridiculous that a part of the world special to more than a billion people – Jews, Christians and Muslims – should be a tinder box instead of a pilgrimage destination.

Reasonable people see that.

The problem here is that despite all the efforts made to sort this out – Camp David and Oslo among the more successful – there’s no rest for the hostility weary.

And the reason is this: For all the billions of the world who want peace in the region, there’s a de facto coalition that doesn’t.

At the center of the coalition are two forces that can’t stand each other: Hamas and its radical allies in the region, and Benjamin Netanyahu and the Gulf States on the region.

Yeah, these two sides – and the partners who back them – are eager to fight to the death – preferably the death of guys they’re fighting. These partners include – on one side or the other – Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration.

So when those of us who think that two states – Israel and some formation of a Palestinian government – are the only possible peaceful solution, these two sides that hate each other coalesce to stop that idea cold.

Benjamin Netanyahu saw Hamas’ horrific attack on Israeli civilians in October 2023 as an opportunity to divert attention from the criminal investigations he faced and rally forces against any kind of peace deal with Palestinians. 

And by being heavy-handed in dealing with the Palestinians living in Gaza, he gave a rallying point to Hamas. 

So whenever some idiot throws a brick with the words “Free Palestine” through a synagogue window, know that Netanyahu would rather you do that than shout the words “two states.”

Because these people are an all-or-nothing coalition. They want you cleared out of the way so that they can get on with the ultimate battle for control of the holiest piece of land in the world.

There’s a solution, but it’s not going to happen. Not now, anyway.

Last weekend, millions of Americans came together to tell Donald Trump he’s a jerk. To battle his desire to be some kind of king or dictator. 

What if large numbers of people around the world joined together with most of the world’s Jews and Muslims and said they won’t support anything but a two-state solution to this problem?

You see, Joe Biden’s failure here was worrying that he wouldn’t have the support to challenge Netanyahu’s wag-the-dog campaign. And worrying that if he didn’t give full-throated support to Netanyahu, he’d be accused of abetting Hamas – the terrorists who kidnapped children and elderly people, and held them for nearly two years or killed them.

The problem is that Americans are so distracted by what Trump has done in the past five months that they’re just overwhelmed by BS. And as awful as things can get in the Middle East – Trump is itching to drop bombs on Tehran to prove he still has a cock – Americans are besieged. By these idiotic tariffs, the potential gutting of their healthcare, the possibility that no one will come help them when hurricanes batter our shore, and the grabbing of neighbors off the street by secret police.

Maybe it seems as though I got away from my original point – that we, as baby boomers, failed.

I didn’t. We should have solved this problem. We had chances all the way into the Obama administration. We couldn’t muster the will or imagination to beat these people back, just as we couldn’t muster the will or imagination to overcome the forces that profit from trying to deport undocumented immigrants.

We didn’t do it. And now, the all-or-nothing coalition holds the reins, ready for the dogfights they’ve wanted for years.

Shame on them. Shame on us.

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NO, I DON’T FEEL SORRY FOR THEM

Can you imagine what it’s like to be an ICE agent in June 2025?

Probably not, because I imagine the people who read this come equipped with compassion, intelligence, scruples, understanding of democracy and other attributes of positive humanity.

But we are people who see that all of us are real human beings, with imperfections and such. So I guess, intellectually, we know that the ICE agents we see committing these despicable acts against vulnerable immigrants are, uh, people.

So what do you think it takes to be part of the American Gestapo?

There are, according to the Department of Homeland Security, about 20,000 people who work in various capacities for ICE. That’s one in every 17,500 Americans.

Of course, that doesn’t include the local law enforcement types who want to show they can be among the big federal boys.

I can’t imagine anybody who works at ICE was particularly good at civics in school – assuming, of course, they went to school. Maybe that’s a big assumption. They missed the classes about the Constitution – or the classes they had focused only on the Second Amendment to the exclusion of the other 26 (or 27 if you count the Equal Rights Amendment).

When confronted with the concept of due process applying to all persons – you know, that Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment stuff – their brains find it difficult to grasp the concept. So they ignore it – it’s probably easier than actually reading less than 100 words – which might stretch the extent of their vocabulary.

Being fashion forward probably disqualifies you from ICE. You’ve got to wear those drab ersatz military-style outfits as befits wannabe warriors. After bemoaning mask-wearing during the pandemic as freedom-infringing, you have to wear a black one during a long day of scooping up kids and mothers.

Most people in legitimate law enforcement go after what we used to think of as real crimes such as stealing money. That was, of course, before Trump pardoned people convicted of fraud because they or their families like him.

But those legitimate law enforcers are usually pretty proud of who they are and what they do. They’re thought of as brave and even-handed.

So they put stickers in their car saying they’re cops. They show up at festivals and parades. They’re the helpers Mr. Rogers told kids to look for in times of trouble.

What if those kids in trouble listened to Mr. Rogers and ran up to an ICE agent? I imagine they’d be cursing the nicest man in history in their native language from the friendly confines of a South Sudan internment camp.

On Career Day at school, the kids of legitimate law enforcement officers show up with their Moms and Dads in uniform.

What do ICE agent parents do at Career Day? Show up in their khakis, shades and masks? Demonstrate what it feels like to experience a flash grenade? Tell the kids to make sure they have all their papers in order – and take a few with them if they look a little scared?

Assuming that people who work for ICE are family men and the occasional woman. 

I can’t imagine they go to normal bars and church socials to meet people. Who wants to go out with somebody who might send you to El Salvador if the relationship goes sour?

That’s why there’s a lot of thought that ICE agents are incels – involuntary celebates. That makes some sense.

Unless, of course, there’s some app ICE agents use for meeting suitable mates. You swipe left and someone who loves to be dominated shows up as the mate of your dreams. Those handcuffs and twist ties aren’t just for lawn mowers, hamburger cooks and housekeepers. Good times.

And here’s the part about working for ICE that is going to make it unique:

You see, one day, this madness will end. You and I are determined to make that happen. We’ll be about the business of repairing the damage that Trump, Musk, the saps in Congress, the Christian Nationalists and your neighbor with the “Daddy’s Home” flag (I’ve actually seen that!) have done.

These ICE agents will still be of employment age. Except who is going to hire them? An employer and co-workers will always know that so-and-so grabbed defenseless people, hurled them into vans, denied them their rights, and sent them away from the lives they peaceably created and the people they helped.

Not to mention all the days these people will miss from work for testifying in the lawsuits that will brought against them by the hundreds. It’s hard to be a security guard at Walmart when you’re in court four days a week.

Normally, I have a soft spot for people with troubled lives. There but for the grace of God, et cetera.

Except I know I would never betray other human beings and the ideals of American democracy. Not for any amount of money – including the $40,000 bonuses Republicans are trying to give them.

So do I feel bad for these people? Nah.

Do they deserve all the opprobrium they will face for the rest of their lives?

Absolutely.

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COME ONE, COME ALL

Trump promised his minions mass deportations. 

So why is anyone surprised that the topic of conversation in the United States this week is mass deportation?

The stories of ICE raids in schools and workplaces are heartbreaking and cruel. But just as important, what’s going on is totally in stupid territory and not in any way in the best interest of the United States.

There’s a feeling of screaming into the void. You can tell people their rights and protest all you want. But a plurality of Americans gave Trump a victory and he believes he has a mandate to do this crap.

So here’s what I think is the best way to respond to this BS:

To the people who want to come here from Guatemala and El Salvador, from Haiti and Cuba, from China and Myanmar, from Rwanda and Congo, from Syria and Somalia, there should be one word – albeit in a different language for each.

WELCOME!

The only people we should stop from coming into this country are the ones who want to avoid going through one of the legal doors – I’d be suspicious of their motive in coming here. But for everybody who comes to a border crossing – people fleeing gang violence, political oppression and/or crippling poverty – I think we should tell them to come on in.

I think that’s the right response to Trump.

That might seem crazy. The sentiment among his supporters is these are people leeching off American prosperity. 

They’ve been stoked into this sentiment by decades of xenophobia. There are strains throughout American history and they’ve been applied to all kinds of newcomers. They never seem to go completely away.

The latest strain cropped up around the turn of this century. It was stoked by people like Lou Dobbs, who spent every night on his CNN broadcast proclaiming that America’s borders were broken and that unwanted people were taking American jobs.

And, of course, the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, exacerbated fears that people were coming into this country to destroy it. Forget that the terrorists came into this country legally. Forget that their gang leader was a citizen of a supposed ally, Saudi Arabia. 

As far as the stokers were concerned, it was the woman trekking hundreds of miles in brutal conditions trying to get in via a boxcar in 110-degree weather or across desert land in the Southwest who was the “real” threat.

It was – and is – bullshit. Because we found ways to exploit them. We used their desperation to put them in jobs citizens didn’t want to do, pay them what we thought were miserable wages and hold the threat of deportation over their heads if they complained. And we did little to improve conditions in the homelands of these folks, forcing them to flee or die.

It was a situation that needed resolution – the “illegal” border crossings were a contrivance, because people felt the need to get here somehow. And there were people in both parties who understood that – who came up with ideas to help resolve the manufactured crisis.

But the gurus of right-wing power madness had other ideas. Immigration was a gift that kept on giving – fear-mongering as a recruitment tool. As a political strategy.

Trump and the Fox News klan latched onto this nonsense and exploited it brilliantly.

The people who believe in humanity – that would be us – always play this game on their turf. We seem to think that there’s a problem because they tell us there’s a problem. So we try to find a way to placate the radicals when all this is their way of gaining and maintaining power.

Here’s what we want:

We want everybody who wants to come here to come here. We want people who are willing to take the jobs Americans don’t want to do – fruit picking, meat packing, lawn mowing, burger frying – to take the jobs Americans don’t to do. If people are desperate to escape oppression and poverty – and are willing to do anything to make their lives better – we should be their champions.

It makes no sense to create this bizarre system that forces people to use desperate measures to get here. What Trump is doing now enables the coyotes – the people who extort the tired and poor, and make them indentured servants. He’s not hurting MS-13, he’s making it more powerful.

And instead of this nonsense of blackmailing Latin American countries into taking people rounded up by Gestapo wannabes on the streets of our cities, we should work with those countries to improve conditions and allow people to live their best lives in their own homeland.

But those who want to come help us – to make America truly great? Let ’em in. Let them help us build a better country. 

A strong country,  a country that calls itself the most powerful in the world, that calls itself the world’s beacon, isn’t afraid of Honduran 4-year-olds. It embraces them, it educates them and gives them comfort and safety. And then when they succeed, it’s our success as well.

I’m here because a century ago Benito Mussolini was a prick in Italy. My wife is here because 75 years ago Mao Zedong was a prick in China. There are millions of us who can tell that story, from every land on this planet. We’ve worked together to create a nation that – at its best – captures the world’s imagination. 

Because we’re not all the same. And a few more in our situation, wherever they’re from, can help.

That’s what we need to push for. Double down, not double over.

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THE UNSOLVABLE SOLVABLE PROBLEM

Let me throw this out there: The immigration “crisis” is hardly that.

This is a solvable problem. It is one for which Americans should relatively easily find common ground.

If that sounds crazy to you, after the past 20 years of xenophobia and jingoism, do a reality check. Because this is the reality:

— Yes, there are lots of people trying to get into the United States through its southern border. Most of them are desperate to escape poverty and violence – in Central America, in the Caribbean, and even in Asia and Africa.

— Many of these people are taking jobs in the United States. But whether they’re taking jobs away from Americans is highly doubtful. Most undocumented immigrants find work doing stuff that folks born here aren’t interested in doing: mowing lawns, picking crops, working in slaughterhouses and on mindless assembly line jobs.

— The trafficking of these people is a humanitarian nightmare. They are put in compromising positions by criminal gangs, extorted and exploited. 

— The borders do seem like a way for terrorists to penetrate our country – a country whose older citizens still hold dark memories of September 11, 2001. Not that the people who perpetrated that attack snuck in to the United States – the Al-Qaeda gang came here legally. But it’s understandable that people want vigilance on this matter.

There are multiple issues that concern liberals and conservatives. Republicans and Democrats. Responsible people in all 50 states.

But solving a problem means you can’t exploit it. And there seem to be a whole lot of people, mostly on the right, who much prefer making hay on an issue than eliminating or mitigating it.

Democrats and Republicans reached compromise on a bill earlier this year that would have addressed concerns on both sides. Increased security staffing. Guideposts for determining who should stay and who is too dangerous to stay. Fairness and humanity for families. A path to citizenship for those who are here without documentation.

It’s not as easy to scare people when you solve a problem. And that problem can’t be used as your gateway to exploit other issues.

I firmly a President Kamala Harris will not rest until she has some kind of deal that defuses and diminishes immigration as a flashpoint in American life. It would be her signature accomplishment if she succeeds. And with so many conservative Republicans signing on to her campaign, the opportunity to end the constant harping about this issue might never be more readily available.

Because otherwise, we’re going to hear about “caravans” every time wants to stymy a Democratic initiative. We’re going to hear about “broken borders” and “mules” and all the other crap.

Solve the damn problem. Show the world why America is so great,

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52 – DRAGON ROLL

If you said the words “Asian food” to my parents – or any adult – in 1954, their response would have been “You mean Chinese food?”

Certainly there were other Asian ethnic groups represented in the U.S. population – Japanese immigrants notoriously were detained in internment camps during World War II. But the predominant one for most Americans were the Chinese.

The Chinese had come in big numbers during the late 19th century as they basically built the transcontinental railroad. But after that, immigration from China was held in tight check by the racist exclusion acts.

That racism wasn’t just meant for the Chinese. Immigration laws passed in the 19th and 20th century were stacked so that there were lots more openings for western Europeans and fewer for anyone from anywhere else. From elementary school through high school, the only Asians I knew were Chinese kids whose families ran local restaurants.

In Flushing, Queens, where we lived, there were two Chinese restaurants – Lum’s in the heart of the community and a place whose name I don’t remember but had a big green sign that said “CHOW MEIN” over the sidewalk.

My parents, who were married in Flushing and lived there for the first 12 years of their marriage, would – by the late 1980s – no longer recognize the place as immigrants from Asia took over.

The main catalyst for the change was the Immigration Act of 1965, which loosened the quotas from outside Europe. And it was not just Chinese immigrants – Koreans fleeing hard times and hostility, Thais fleeing political unrest and the Vietnamese, who endured hardship to escape when the Vietcong and North Vietnamese took over their country.

There were other influences as well. Japan’s rise as an economic power led to interest in its culture and food.

Sushi was an idea that made Americans (including this one) cringe when it started showing up in the 1970s. Now, there is almost no place that you can’t get it – even at gas station convenience stores (Caveat ficedular!).

Other Asian concepts were adapted by Americans just about everywhere. Yoga. Pad Thai. Bahn Mi. K-Pop. Acupuncture. Chai. Taekwondo. 

And the Lunar New Year, which is not only a holiday in the countries of East Asia, but is becoming a day off in U.S. school districts.

Which is, by the way, today. So Happy New Year! Or, as we say in my family, Goong Hay Fat Choy!

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