Shutdown!!!

This past weekend we witnessed the dysfunction of Washington, of the Republican controlled congress, of the President and of the Democratic Party. Our leaders in Washington were trying to make a deal. A deal with the author of the Art of the Deal. Meetings and meetings and no deal. Commercials and tweets blaming each other. Tweets applauding the other party, then tweets saying that they caved. That’s like a bully hitting you in the stomach then asking if you are ok. Then hitting you again.

Is the blame game for them or for their political base? Who looks better in this shutdown?

Part of the deal is what to do with DACA recipients. They should have nothing to do with the government shutdown. The border wall should have nothing to do with this shutdown. For whatever reason, both issues are part of the “Deal.” So, if no deal is reached by February 8^th, who will be at fault?

The problem that I have is that if no deal is reached then nothing good comes of this for Dreamers or any progress, good or bad, on the border wall. I just hope that our leaders in Washington can resolve differences to keep the government going. I also hope that our leaders finally make decisions on DACA and immigration reform. Do something!!!

It was just a comment, right?

Trump made the "shithole" comment in an Oval Office meeting after lawmakers suggested restoring protections for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and several African nations. According to Trump these are the shithole countries. The comment is inappropriate. He needs to apologize for the remark as soon as possible, wait, it is already too late to apologize. What is frightening to me is that the white house did not apologize in their statement regarding the comment.

Some media members also came to the defense of Trump’s inappropriate comment. Fox News Hosts Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters defended Trump’s comments. Carlson stated, “Why can’t he say that?” While, Watters argued that the "forgotten men and women" who make up the president's base would approve of the comment. This comment alarms me. It is one thing to defend the comment, but to say that a group of people would also approve is worse. The sad part about Watters remarks are they are true. It is one thing to have political base that would approve this racist comment, but for a Television News station to carry the same message is beyond shocking. Is agreeing with Trump’s comment just to get ratings or is it to get ratings and the news hosts agree with the comment.

I appreciate the president not holding back his opinions of minorities and immigrants. I am a Mexican American and in my life, I have dealt with racism, prejudice and discrimination. As an adult, I decided that I appreciated everyone’s opinion of people of color. The more I know how a person feels about me the more I know what to expect from them. I can deal with honesty, even if you do not like my ethnicity.

This comment was not a “hot mike” comment, it was intentional. The defense from these News hosts was also intentional. Trumps base is the Fox News Market. The comment and the coverage of this inappropriate comment reminds me of how far our country has not changed, even though some historical events might say we have make progress. Let’s be honest, we have not really made as much progress as we would like to think.

The Bill of Love

Immigration reform, again, was the big news story today. President Trump met with Republicans and Democrats to discuss a solution for 700,000 people that might face deportation if Congress does not fix DACA. The meeting was streamed online as if it were a reality show. Don’t we already have C-SPAN?

The topic of Immigration always comes up when no other political issues need to be solved. This time a fix to DACA might be tied to a bill to avoid a government shutdown. Immigration has not be a political issue alone. The issue is raised before election for the House or the Senate or before the Presidential election. The issue is raised to either get votes from those who support immigration or to get votes from those that do not support immigration. Politicians will first take a side depending on the votes that they need. Politicians do not put the people affect by immigration reform or DACA.  

Now the issue is upfront for the next 10 days. It is an issue because of a government shutdown. Giving this issue only 10 days is all that will be given to this issue. Of course, this is the amount to time that the President and Congress believe is enough time to come up with solutions. Is the immigration issue give the same amount of time that the recently passed Tax Bill was given? I believe that it was more than 10 days. That was a “bill of love.”

Build Me Up Buttercup

Build Me Up Buttercup

I took our new puppy, Butter Cup, to the vet this morning. My wife found something crawling in her poop. Not good for the pup, we have only had her for a couple of weeks. A Christmas gift for my wife and our dog, Bentley. He now has a friend to play games like chase you over there, pull this toy, and let’s find paper to shred. 

Buttercup and arrived a few minutes before the clinic opened, like a few others did. It was a cold morning so we waited in heated car. Buttercup did her usual thing, ok, one of her usual things, she cries when she is cold. I made sure to have my hand and arm for her to lean. After a couple of songs on the 80s station, she likes Men at Work, the clinic was not open.

I made sure to wrap Buttercup in a warm blanket, like a football. We walked into the clinic and I signed in for us. Buttercup is new to the clinic so there was some other information to fill out. Buttercup helped me fill in all of the blanks on the paperwork, actually, I made sure that she did not attempt to shred this paper since it was important. So then came the waiting.

There were other dogs with their owners, some big dogs and some medium dogs. Buttercup is tiny compared to them, she is a chiweenie and only three months old. Buttercup did receive compliments from other owners for being so cute, my wife and daughter know how to pick them. Some dogs were there for surgeries, others were there for other illnesses. Fortunately, we did not have to say out loud the reason for our visit.

We finally get to the back and one thing that had to happen was get her temperature. For humans we get a thermometer put in our mouth, for dogs it goes into a different place, poor Buttercup. I held her during this procedure and she did well. Then after more examination, they needed a sample of her stool. This procedure was a bit more involved and I held Buttercup even closer, poor baby. Who likes medical procedure anyway?

Well the results were negative, which was good news. She was going to get some meds to help with deworming and be fine. My wife reminded me to ask for Buttercups nails to be trimmed, thank you text messaging. We then waiting in the lobby for the prescriptions. There were new owners and new dogs waiting. This love for pets is incredible, I saw all types of people on this visit to the clinic. There were old people, young people, professionals, students, possible gangsters or just wannabes, all ethnic groups, etc. 

All of these people took time out of their schedule to take care of their pets. This is a great type of Love, a Love for pets, animals. The best part of this Love is when the pet reciprocates, this love. Kisses, sitting on my feet while I work at home, walking on me in the morning because it is time to go outside, barking to let me know that strangers are near, sometimes the strangers are on television, but it is still a display of Love. Take care of your pet, if you don’t have one, what is wrong with you? Get a pet, they are worthy of Love. Be worthy of their Love.

New Year's Eve

It is that time. The time that a year ends and a new year begins. It is time for many to make resolutions. A New Year's resolution is a tradition in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self-improvement or something slightly nice, such as opening doors for people beginning from New Year's Day.

I have not decided on my resolutions yet, or even if I will set resolutions. I always have things that I can improve, I am not perfect. In the past, I have made resolutions and at times, conveniently forgot what I said or, honestly forgot what I said. Either way as I get slowly get older, I think that some of the old resolutions would have been good to accomplish.

Now it is better to have daily resolutions to accomplish and to keep track. The more important thing is to improve myself, even if it is a small improvement. It is an improvement. As you consider your resolutions, consider what you can improve to be a better you. I will begin the new year with a walk in the park. Then I will take it from there.

Happy New Year!!!

Tejano Juan

A Pallbearer’s View

We see funerals on the roads we drive on every so often. A funeral is the observances held for a dead person usually before burial or cremation. The procession, a long line of cars and truck, including the hearse and limousines, are part of the funeral.  I was taught to stop my vehicle and turn off the radio when a precession comes my way. Yesterday, I was part of a funeral, I was a pallbearer. I had not been a pallbearer for a while. This was different view of the funeral.
I saw the friends pay their last respects. Then came the family, saying goodbye one last time before the casket was closed. The funeral director said. “take as much time as you need.” The family wept together and held each other as they exited the building to their vehicles. Then the directors took the drape off the casket and put it inside, they closed the casket and then tightened a bolt that sealed the casket. Under their direction, we lifted the casket, walked it to the hearse and slid it inside.

We then got into the limousine that would take us on this procession. The pallbearer limo is the lead car in the procession. I chose to sit up front with the driver, did not realized what I was going to see on this drive. We departed the funeral home under the direction of three police on motorcycles. The speed of the procession is slow depending on traffic at the next intersection, after passing each intersection, an officer would pass us on his way to control traffic at the next intersection.

From the front seat on this procession, I witnessed some significant things. Cars would pull over and stop their vehicles on both sides of the road, some would turn on their lights. Some cars were oblivious until they saw the others stopped. I think once they saw the hearse they would stop in their tracks.

I also saw a construction worker put down his tools and stop his work. He walked over to the side walk and removed his cap and placed it on his heart. He stood there while the procession passed. At the last intersection before the cemetery, a lady caring her baby helped stop traffic until the police caught up to help control traffic.

To me, these people that stop did a kind and noble thing, they paid respect to the life of a dead person. It did not matter if the person was famous, or if they knew the person, people stopped their vehicles, and some stopped work. For a moment in time, my cousin was famous because she stopped the world. For a moment in time, people in the City of Corpus Christi, Texas came together to pay their respects. These moments happen all around the country. We could use more moments like this, when communities come together.

A Wonderful Christmas Time

Many stories can be told at Christmas time. Hallmark, Lifetime, Up, ION, Freeform, depending on your cable provider. These stories have happy endings before some sort of conflict as we get to the ending. Some good stories and some great stories along with some good endings and some great endings. That is television. I like television movies.

When it comes to family and Christmas the stories can be great and have great endings and sometimes the stories are not so great and do not have happy endings. Last night my little family had a great story. We visited my Sister’s for a Pajama Party on Christmas eve. There were games like the one where you write down as many words about Christmas next to the letters from the alphabet. I had two minutes to write down words, I came up with ten, thanks to thinking of the song, twelve days of Christmas. I did not win, but it was fun. Next was some game where you unwrap Saran wrap that is in the shape of a ball. It is filled with goodies. My daughter won a lottery ticket, won $2. That is my usual. Last came the white elephant gift game. I held a couple of cool gifts for a while. The I stole one back, to have to move it to the right, oh well. I do like the Christmas oven mittens that I received, good times.

During the evening, caught up with my nieces and nephews and their children, family. I also caught up with my sister’s in-laws and their children, more family. Then there was my younger sister and her husband and family from his side, more family. I cannot forget that cousin that passed last week, her daughter, my second cousin, and her husband attended, more family. Good times.
One of the gifts that we received last night was a picture from my nieces and nephews, the Perez Kids. This picture included all of them with spouses and their children. This picture is a snapshot of who they have become over the years. Somewhere along life they grew up, matured, have families and are just amazing people. Now, I received others gift from my wife and daughter, my little family. My dog and I have a breakfast set and I have a Superman tie clip. Yes, I am a Superhero or at least can dress like one.

Having fun with family is not always easy. It takes work, it takes good communication, it takes forgiveness and takes appreciating the family that you have. Last night my time with our family was a great story. It was filled with visiting family. Filled with laughter, filled with good memories, good times. It was like watching a television movie with our own Christmas traditions. It is a great story unlike the alternative. It is a great story that continues…