Inspirations

Tomorrow is election day. Get out and vote. Our country is only strong if we are ALL represented, so you need to make your voice heard. Make the effort to get to the polls. Take time today to study your ballot and be an educated voter. Choose to vote for candidates who support Lady Liberty and what she represents. Choose to vote for candidates who […]

This past weekend I traveled to New Bern, North Carolina to help with the Hurricane Florence clean up. We arrived early Saturday morning at the command center. It was staffed with local residents who were grateful for our help and eager to provide assistance. It was stocked with mounds of donated equipment designed to help ensure us a safe and productive weekend as we offered […]

Did you know that 40% of all Americans have at least one ancestor who arrived in America between the years of 1857 and 1920 and was processed through Ellis Island or one of the other New York ports? The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation has a free digitized database of all the relevant ship manifests from that time period. You can go online, […]

I don’t particularly enjoy today’s politics. Everyone seems to be so full of hate for other individuals who simply identify more with a differently labelled set of beliefs. Political discussions become aimless arguments as two opposing sides throw their unshaking beliefs at each other while being too hard-headed to even acknowledge the potential validity of their “opponent’s” argument. And out of what? Pride? Pride for […]

Two years after 9/11, I was asked to present at a Government Finance Officers Association meeting in New York City. Although I attended a slew of educational sessions, I also took one afternoon off to go explore the Big Apple. Coming from a small rural area near Yosemite National Park where our wonders are made by nature, I wanted to see for myself the significant […]

Author Dave Eggers writes as if he is sitting on my couch talking to me about something important.  He needs to tell me about the Statue of Liberty.  And I am listening.  I love how he explains her origin before even diving into her purpose.  He talks about how the Statue of Liberty was conceived, built, assembled, disassembled, shipped, and reassembled in New York Harbor.  Then he describes her in great detail, […]

Give me your tired, your poor,” she calls.  And they come.  Sometimes in not so legal and conventional ways. Actually, driving or flying across the border to visit family and then never going back is a rather conventional way to have come for an illegal resident of the United States. So, now their children are here and they want to stay. These children “yearn to breathe free” […]

I grew up in a multi-cultural neighborhood and went to elementary school with children whose ancestry hailed from several continents.  This experience, along with my parents open mindedness about our friends and neighbors gave me a gift. This gift was that  of enchantment with, as well as interest in, those who may have looked or lived differently from me. Honestly, looking back, we were just children at a school and […]

Everyone is familiar with the commonly recounted story of an immigrant family that moves to the United States in search of a better life. First, the parents get low-paying jobs and work nights and weekends to put food on the table. Then they tell their kids to do the same thing. Wait, no, that’s not how the story goes. They send their kids to school. […]

Fall time is traditionally harvest time.  The time when our forefathers gathered in their abundance to prepare for the winter months. This tradition lives on. Some of us do gather in our harvest and prepare for the winter months. Others find pumpkins and gourds in the local market and are reminded that this is the traditional time for gathering and thanksgiving. After celebrating Thanksgiving and […]