Monday, November 26, 2018

Immigration to America was Never Easy

FROG HOSPITAL -  November 26, 2018

By Fred Owens

Immigration to America was Never Easy

It's possible to become an American, but it's never been easy. Newcomers were given the worst jobs and lived in the worst neighborhoods. They were mocked and abused and worse, People said they looked funny and they couldn't speak English and their food smelled awful. People said much worse than that, but over a period of time, we got used to them, and they became like us, and we became a little like them. But it was always difficult.....It was never easy.

There is a trouble at the San Ysidro crossing between San Diego and Tijuana. We can let the migrants in or we can turn them back. We can grant them asylum or we can put them on a plane back to Honduras. I'm not proposing a solution, but I do want to pose a context. Immigration has never been easy. There was no golden age when newcomers were welcomed with blessings and open arms. It was always tough. The Yankee kids beat up the Irish kids until the Irish kids became cops and then the Irish kids beat up the Jewish kids, and so it went. The Chinese were treated worse, and the African slaves worst of all. But it was the promise of a better life that made it happen -- those long, harrowing journeys and those hopes.

And we can do better. We can get better at welcoming strangers to join our culture. They can become like us and we can become a little like them. It just takes time. It starts out rough and then it gets smoother.

But one thing is sure. The trouble at the border is a difficult situation and Trump will make it worse. He will take a problem and turn it into a crisis. He will take a crisis and turn it into a war. There must be a way for calmer people to act and prevent a crisis and a war.

Thanksgiving and Driving Through Malibu

We had a swell Thanksgiving with Laurie's family in Manhattan Beach. I sat in the TV room and watched football games with Sam. Sam is Laurie's brother's wife's brother. Got that? Sam was born in Japan and came to California as a child. He is eighty years old
I would guess and he pretends he doesn't speak English. The first six years with Sam we watched the game together in silence, in full appreciation of the calm atmosphere while the other relatives screamed with joy and laughter in the living room.

But this year Sam and I began to talk. He offered me a beer, and went to fetch it. He offered me some edamame beans which he had cooked himself. His English vocabulary is very limited but good enough, and his smile is genuine, so we are friends now. Actually we were always friends even during the silent years, enjoying a mutual love for Beer and Football.

(Regarding the football game  -- I did actually rise to do a few kitchen chores, cleared dirty plates, took out the trash, etc.)

On Friday after Thanksgiving we visited my sister and my son and two of my nieces in Venice Beach. We walked to a restaurant and had brunch.
Then we drove up the coast through Malibu. The Malibu fire is out, but the blackened hill sides come right down to the highway and go on for ten miles and more. It will grow back if it ever rains. The homes destroyed and the lives lost -- I'm glad we saw it. We got back to Santa Barbara by dinner time and ate leftover turkey and pumpkin pie.


Happy Thanksgiving,

Fred






--
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214

My gardening blog is  Fred Owens
My writing blog is Frog Hospital


Sunday, November 18, 2018

Go Fred Me

By Fred Owens

I was getting kind of discouraged and feeling like a patsy. The last straw was one I bought two sticky buns at Gelson's and they overcharged me. I didn't object. I was too embarrassed. Why was I being so meek? Why did I not say something and insist on the fair price?

I decided to hold a pep rally. Go Fred Me. ...... It's like GoFundMe but much cooler, and it doesn't cost any money. It's more of a vibrational, psychological boost. Go get 'em, Tiger......

I want to be a hero like Gary Cooper in High Noon. He ended up facing the desperadoes all by himself, but first he asked for help. That's a hero to me. You ask for help. And if you get help, good. If you don't get help and you're sure you're right, then you face the desperadoes alone. That's me -- like Gary Cooper. That makes Laurie like Grace Kelly -- don't you think?.

In California we're asking for help from the federal government to help us rebuild fire-torn communities. But let's be clear. That's our money. We  have paid many billions in taxes to the feds for just this reason  -- disaster relief. So now we are asking for the money. as a courtesy. Truly it's our money and we need it back now.

In Praise of Nancy Pelosi. The really cool thing about Nancy Pelosi is that she sets the Republicans an edge. In the last issue of Frog Hospital I only mentioned her name. For doing that I got some unusually nasty mail from people who ought to know better. Are they afraid of her? Good. So better show her some respect.

There are those among the Democrats who wish to replace Pelosi with someone younger and more progressive. That will happen in time, but not yet, not yet. This year, this session of Congress is Nancy's time. This is her moment, high heels and all. She's going to go out a winner.

Trump is showing his Age. Trump skipped ceremonial duties in Paris because of the rain, and he did not lay a wreath on Veterans Day. I suspect he is just getting old and tired. He's 72 and it's starting to show. Hey, Mr. Strongman, better get some rest because you ain't what you used to be.

Trump has no Friends. A lot of old guys his age, they get up early, 6 or so, and they go to the local cafe and have coffee with other old guys and talk about how things aren't what they used to be. Trump ought  to do that. Go out in the early morning and have coffee with his friends. If he had any friends.

Bruce Byers gets KIdney Dialysis. Bruce Byers is a man my age and a friend from the Santa Barbara Kiwanis Club where we go to have lunch on Wednesday. Bruce's kidneys -- he has two -- have gone the distance, but they are per-squat now, at less than ten percent of function, so he needs the dialysis. He goes three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, for three hours each time. Bruce occupies a comfortable recliner next to the machine. The nurse hooks the tubes up to the port in his chest, one going with blood to be rinsed out, the other with cleaner blood to be returned. It is a miracle of progress that we can do that and keep living. I visited him at the dialysis center on Thursday. He seemed fairly cheerful considering. For his three hour stint he has a smart phone and a laptop. On the laptop he was watching Japanese animie cartoons.

"I watch them to keep up on my Japanese. I lived in Japan for two years and became somewhat conversant."  Now, just what Bruce was doing in Japan for two years I do not know. I could have asked. He is on two waiting lists for a kidney transplant. The transplant is the only way Bruce ever gets off the dialysis machine. But his overall health seems good and I liked his smile. More about Bruce next time.

--
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214

My gardening blog is  Fred Owens
My writing blog is Frog Hospital


Monday, November 12, 2018

Ten Days in Hawaii

Nov 6, 2018
Ten Days in Hawaii
By Fred Owens

Today is Election Day and you are probably glued to the tube or out canvassing for your candidate. Good..... but life goes on, so while we wait for results let me tell you about our recent trip to Hawaii, to the Big Island.

We stayed five days in Kona on the fourth floor of a condo with a balcony overlooking the sunset and the pounding surf. The air was warm and humid. Let me say something right off about humidity. I like it. Dry air is just air. Humid air is like a warm pillow, you just move slowly and the clouds are comfy.

We went snorkeling and saw golden fish. Snorkeling is light exercise, at least for me. I'm a floater -- why paddle after fish? why not let them come to you? I saw a sea turtle moving slowly along side me, unconcerned and friendly, about 2 or 3 feet across on the hard back shell. The sea was calm and gently swelling.

We took the helicopter ride over the volcano. It's really big. The pilot played dramatic volcanic music on the headphones, right out of Lord of the Rings. Plumes of smoke rose over plunging craters and roads destroyed by recent irruptions. Then she, the pilot, flew us to the waterfalls and she played Elvis Presley singing Blue Hawaii as we drifted over cascading ribbons of rain water. It was quite special, so calm we floated above the green valley.

It was delightful. We walked through Botanic Gardens and ate Poke, delicious.

That's all, but after ten days on the island you begin to get Hawaiianized and it stays with you.

Everyone, Be Well on this Election Day.

Fred

California is Burning


By Fred Owens

"California is Burning," I wrote that a few months ago when the huge Ranch fire swept through the northern part of the state. Now it's happening again. People are exhausted and despondent. I mean people like me in Santa Barbara and all we got is a little smoky air and a TV news show of helicopters red-bombing the flames. Let alone the tens of thousands who had to evacuate, let alone the thousands who have lost their homes and the many who have died in the fire. It has been quite awful and if I look out the window I see a tinder-dry landscape. There has been no rain for months.

We expect the rainy season to begin in late October, but so far we have had only one sprinkle and the blues skies that make us famous now make us worried. Clouds feel better. Hoping for clouds.

Some people have a better attitude than me. I have lost nothing, but I am bummed out to even be near this. Neil Young lost his home in Malibu or was it in Topanga Canyon? Or was it Bob Dylan? Either way, famous people who have pets and memories just like the rest of us have lost everything.

We can build new homes in California. We have the resources to replace the 6,000 homes lost in Paradise. We can build 60,000 homes. We can make a new city. What else can we do? 

There is no replacing the lost oak trees, not in a hundred years, but still we will plant them.

The next issue of Frog Hospital. The next issue of Frog Hospital will include political talk, fundraising plans and medical concerns. A friend of mine is undergoing kidney dialysis and he is in line for a new kidney. Talking with him about this has been interesting. And, if he agrees, I will tell his story.
For politics, I have in mind something like "In Praise of Nancy Pelosi." And for fundraising we will announce the Go Fred Me fundraiser which will commence in mid-January.

--
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214

My gardening blog is  Fred Owens
My writing blog is Frog Hospital