November 4, 2008

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  Americans are busy in the selection of the best person to be their President.  This is a very scary time.  I watch my 401k dwindle and wonder who are eating away my retirement saving.  I wonder who can make America’s economy healthier.  Yes, I am selfish.  The bottom line that ordinary citizens will always demand is how the presidency affects their basic needs, the bills to pay, food on the table, and healthcare.  Mr. McCain’s plans will put us in deeper debt.  Mr. Obama does not have a proven record just about anything that matters.  Funny, when we look for a job, even the entry level job, we are asked about experiences.  Here the top job of government, experiences do not seem as important as the ability to inspire.  Maybe that is just what it needs to hold top job.  To be able to inspire and bring out goodness and greatness in others.  Like King Arthur in the animated movie The Sword in the Stone  to be able “to make the world goes round and round.”

   

  Anyway, that is enough for me talking about politics. 

   

  I have been silent many days, not to be able to comment anyone, although I read your posts, just a bit here and there.  I am so busy and exhausted both mentally and physically although there are many things that will be fun to write about, like autumn and the magnificient foliage.

   

  Saturday I had a little gathering.  I invited a Vietnamese poet and his wife.  When the poet talked to other friends of mine, I talked to his wife in my kitchen.  She is a very interesting lady in her sixty.  Demure and sweet, she also radiates courage.  She told me her boat-people story.  Her husband, the poet stayed in labor camp for four years.  When he returned she collected every pennies and also borrowed money to buy ticket for him to escape Vietnam.  She stayed back home with her 5 year old son.  Very much wanted to follow her husband but she did not have money for her and her son’s trip.  Nine months after her husband left Vietnam, she was lucky that one of her cousins offered her and her son a chance to escape without having to pay.  Her boat got pirated 7 times.  The main motor was broken but a spare one much smaller was working barely.  The Thai pirates were armed heavily with guns and grenades.  The very last time they robbed the boat there was nothing left for them to rob.  Someone in the boat cried if they could not get anything they probably would throw a grenade to kill all the people on the boat.  However, there was one pirate who did not participate in the robbery or beating people.  That one told the boat “captain” that the boat was heading wrong direction and if they changed the course they would come to land in less than a day.  Her boat was heavily leaked and water raised up to her chest.  They had to drain water manually and constantly.  All the time her son was laid upon her chest so he could be drier.

   

  They got to the Thai shore of a village where people had a celebration of God.  There was a carnival and food was sold.  Yen, the lady’s name, means a swallow (the bird), carried her son on her back and went to beg for food for her and her son.  She accidently ran into a co-worker who lended her some money so she was able to wire her husband who at that time already lived in the United States.  She wondered how she could support her son and the little boy answered “I will be a fireman to support you, mommy.”  Well, that little boy went on to become a doctor while the poet went to college and got his master degree in math and writing poetry and stories at the same time.  As she told me her story she cried a bit when she was recalling the past and that made my eyes well with tears too.  

  She expressed gratitude to be able to live and make a living safely in the United States.  Sometimes I do not think it matters what party we vote for, as long as we can attain our basic needs and live safely.
  
  

  • 7:11 pm
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