NaNo Day whatever it is + other stuff

So Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer came out this week, and well, there went any plans to spend my free time writing until I finish it.  I did hit the 50,000 goal, and I do plan to spend some time finishing up the first draft in week four after I’m done reading, but man, I can’t put this book down.

Anyway, to the real reason for this blog post:

I deliver mail to a man who came up to me yesterday and gave me a change of address form.  He is being deported, which somewhat shocked me.  It shocked him somewhat more than it shocked me, unfortunately.  His parents were Vietnamese refugees fleeing the war in Vietnam.  They fled to a US Army base, and were rushed onto a plane, which landed in California.  He was born on the plane, in the air.  When the plane landed, he was given a California birth certificate, and his parents were told to be proud of their son, because he was an American citizen.  He grew up in the USA.  He’s spent his entire life in the USA being told that he was an American citizen.  He has a freaking California birth certificate, a social security number, and all the other bells and whistles.  The only language that he speaks is English.  He served in the Army during the first Iraq war, and was awarded a bronze star for dragging three downed men to safety under fire.  He owns his own business, which employs twenty-seven other people, who are now going to lose their jobs.  He’s very active in his community, coaching children’s sports, and was the one who set up their neighborhood watch program.  He votes in every single election no matter how big or small, because he feels that it is the most important thing an American citizen can do.  Six months ago he recieved a notice that his citizenship had been downgraded from citizen to refugee.  Last month he was informed that he had exceeded the legal term in which a refugee could claim solace within the United States.  This week he will be sent to Vietnam.  A country he has never seen, that speaks a language he does not know.  He has no relatives still living in Vietnam.  They all either died in the war, or later in the USA.  All of this because of an executive order that President Trump signed in March.  This order changes the way that refugees are handled by the USA, and the immigration status given to them.  It, basically, stripped him, and thousands of others, of their US citizenship.  This man has spent nearly 50 years as a US citizen, a prime example of the American Dream, and Donald Trump undid it with a single signature, and a complete misunderstanding of the implications of literally EVERYTHING he has ever signed.  This man is a freaking US Army hero for god’s sake, and he’s being deported because his refugee status is being revoked?  Refugee status he never had before march, because before march he was considered to be a fully legal, born and bred, US citizen?  Does that make you angry?  It sure makes me angry.

Look guys, we live in a democray.  Sure, it doesn’t seem like it’s working most of the time.  But a lot of the time that happens because people like you and me don’t use our rights as citizens and our voices.  If things like this piss you off, TELL YOUR CONGRESSMAN!!!  TELL YOUR SENATORS!!!  VOTE FOR THOSE WHO WILL UPHOLD THE THINGS THAT YOU WANT, RATHER THAN JUST VOTING ALONG PARTY LINES SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT!!!  If none of the candidates represent your ideals and way of thinking, RUN FOR OFFICE YOURSELF!!!