Immigration Reform or Sound Bites?

Whatever happened to Compassionate Conservatism?
Good grief. I am so tired of trite quips that don’t even come close to telling the truth.
For instance, on the issue of immigration reform, one-liners don’t cut it.
Somebody tell the politicians.
Occasionally, I am happy when they get it right. For instance, when someone pointed out that “illegal immigrants” is an oxymoron.
Immigration is a tough issue, one that is centuries in the making.
In Texas, we understand that families have been living on both sides of the Rio Grande for generations.
When I was growing up, my history books left out the fact that, because slavery was outlawed on their side of the border, the Mexicans thought God was on their side at the time of the Alamo.
In fact, some immigrants to the Mexican territory from the US were looking to add Texas to the Union as a slave state.
You would think hassling with ruling governments would end with freedom from Mexico, but Texas had issues with the US government, too. It was still another five years before the US settled up with Texas, paying $10,000,000 in 1851 because of boundary disputes involving what are now other states.
Hmm…like I said, life can be complicated, even in Texas.
The issue of immigration won’t be solved by building a wall, not that walls keep people out.
On the other hand, if communist governments have taught us anything, walls do tend to keep people in. But that’s another story.
Then, there’s the whole welfare, government-provides-all-our-needs economy thing at work. When I was growing up that was labeled socialism.
American perspective has shifted to the point that we no longer view health care or education, for instance, as an opportunity and privilege available in a free country to those willing to make other sacrifices, but we tend view them as rights provided by our government.
I bet my grandparents would have scratched their heads over that notion.
What would happen if the government got out of the welfare business, reduced our taxes, and let us make our own decisions about our hard-earned cash?
I suspect that many Americans would enjoy giving away even more money to help others. Especially if charity meant education and health care for the needy.
Of course, that idea doesn’t buy votes. And lobbyist would have to find something else to do, something productive maybe. There’s a thought.
The growing pains associated with the current influx of foreigners won’t be solved without a lot of compassionate understanding.
Americans can handle the discussion; a good ole knock-down, drag out, lively debate all at once on the multiple repercussions of policy.
In fact, I’m bettin’ that many Americans think that debate is exactly what it is going to take to think creatively and come up with solutions along with consensus.
The American public is not stupid; if only our elected officials would leave off with the sound bites.
Sometimes I think “wise leaders” might be the more problematic oxymoron.

Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, lives, writes, and votes with a Texas twang. Comments are welcome at cathykrafve@gmail.com http://checklistcharlie.blogspot.com.

Amendment #1: July 4th, Celebrating a Free Press

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
That music you hear playing in the background is the Star Spangled Banner.
Yes, July 4th is the time of year when I like to salute our local newspaper.
I suppose this could be considered self-serving of me, since they do print my column after all.
My young friends tell me that to really reach people, my blog, not my column, is the way to go. Apparently, young people are not into reading newsprint, they prefer lap top screens.
Their loss, I say.
This paper has a website and it serves its purpose, I suppose, especially if you are young. The news industry is changing to keep up with the technology.
On the other hand, as a writer, I can’t help but be in awe of what our forefathers could cover in one sentence, even without a laptop. Clearly, they were not having a slow news day.
For instance, George Washington was elected our first president on February 4, 1789; a whopping thirteen years after the Declaration. Our forefathers had a lot of details to iron out.
Eleven of the original states first adopted the Constitution in 1787 and 88, but two states, North Carolina and Rhode Island, held out for many reasons.
So, what were the hot topics of the day?
The first ten amendments of the Constitution are what sealed the deal.
The hold-out states insisted that individual and state’s rights have some form of definition before they were willing to form an alliance with their fellow independence-minded States.
Which brings us back to the very first thing on their minds: religion, free speech, press, assembly, redress from the government.
What makes my heart pump red, white and blue is the way those things are so obviously related. Obvious to us now. Not so obvious then. You have to hand it to our forefathers for being far-sighted.
So, if you value the right to exercise freely your religion or lack thereof, to speak your mind in public, to assemble peacefully for any reason, to demand changes and integrity from our government, remember the service that a free press affords us. The patriots chose free press as a balance to our self-government in order to ensure those other primary rights.
The local news guys are the ones on the front lines, keeping our government honest.
Pick up today’s newspaper and for less than a dollar, you are buying more efficiency from our government. Certainly more than your tax dollars will ever buy.
Buy an ad from your local paper and not only are you getting media attention for your business, but you are supporting a worthy cause, the fourth estate. Plus, you can probably deduct your business’s media expenses from your tax bill.
Our forefather’s weren’t too keen on taxes; I am pretty sure they would have supported a tax deduction for media. But I bet they never imagined a blog.

Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, welcomes comments at CaeKrafve2@aol.com or http://checklistcharlie.blogspot.com.

Amendment #2: Guns

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” US Constitution, The Second Amendment, 1791
“Whenever guns are illegal, only criminals will have guns.” Yeah right, we’ve heard it all before.
Too bad, that quippy little saying really misses the point.
The View, that daytime girlfest of chatter, is a perfect wake-up call that not everyone has been reviewing their grammar school history lessons.
I happened to catch it one day when I was fighting off boredom on the treadmill with a magazine and a headset.
Elizabeth, the lone conservative on the show, is my TV action hero because she is bright, articulate, talks about motherhood like she loves it, and is outnumbered 3 to 1 by her more liberal counterparts.
When the topic was the right to bear arms, though, even Elizabeth missed the chance to remind America the real reason we should cherish the rights our forefathers established.
So why do we have Amendment #2 in the first place?
Amendments 3, 4, and 5 serve as a reality check.
Amendment #3 reminds us that at one time, the English monarch thought it was okay to force his subjects to house and to feed his soldiers, without compensation.
Amendment #4 reminds us that King George‘s soldiers thought it entertaining to bust in on folks’ private homes and search.
Amendment #5 reminds us that the king’s representatives in the New World had a bad habit of accusing folks, throwing them in jail, and confiscating their property without a trial.
Our forefathers were still in creating-a-self-governing-nation mode when they wrote the Bill of Rights. They were looking for ways to keep government for the people, by the people, of the people, as Abe defined it later.
They were creating not only three checks and balances to reign in government, but as many as they could think of, including a free press in the first amendment.
One balance of power was to ensure that government officials would be aware that every citizen was armed. That might slow ya down a mite when you are thinking tyrannical thoughts about world domination and power mongering.
Call me paranoid, but I stand with the patriots on this one.
Lately, there is talk about whether “the right of the people” refers to individuals or the military.
Really? We need to invest in history lessons for media-types.
Our forefathers were not worrying about criminals, although they had their share in a rough and rugged new country.
No siree. They were giving citizens the tools they needed to protect themselves from the very government they were in the process of designing. Just in case.

Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, welcomes comments at CaeKrafve2@aol.com or http://checklistcharlie.blogspot.com.

Newlyweds Get a Mom-in-Law Holiday

I’m giving my kids a year off from me. Just the married ones.
Why? Because the Old Testament mentions that a newlywed guy was exempt from military duty for a whole year to spend with his young bride. Who am I to argue with a good solid biblical principle, right?
Since mother-in-laws are generally perceived as only one step removed from an armed and dangerous enemy, I figure they won’t miss me.
Let the love birds coo, I say.
Being a mother-in-law is not a role that comes naturally for most moms.
It requires minding my own business and letting the kids make their own decisions. I assume they’ll make lots of mistakes without my input, naturally.
Challenging stuff.
So, what would I tell newlyweds? That is, if I were not the mother-in-law. If I was going to give any advice this year which I absolutely will not do at all in any way. Absolutely not. Obviously.
-First, have tons of fun. You can worry about your future kid’s college expenses later, much later. Today, live it up. For this year, be extravagant in all the small ways.
-Paint the walls purple. Or some other weird color now while you are still young enough to go back and paint it again without your joints aching the next day.
-Travel. Make a list of Texas State Parks and camp out.
-Eat out a lot.
-Eat at home more often, in your pajamas, and always share desert.
-Establish a habit of long, slow, tender kisses on the lips.
-Skinny dip, but don’t get arrested.
-When you are not skinny-dipping, wear Speedos and bikinis
-Dream about the future.
-Have adventures together.
-Move far from home for now, but plan to come home with the grandkids.
-Have romantic holidays alone for awhile.
-Figure out what works for you. Then, tell the rest of the family.
-Each day, tell your beloved what it is you fell in love with.
-Write down that love list. File it away somewhere safe. It turns out, this information will come in handy later on when you are way past the first year and you are wondering why you ever got married in the first place. I know, it’s hard to believe now, but everyone has rough patches. Being reminded in your own words why you fell in love in the first place will make it easier to hang in there.
-Be nice to your new mother-in-law because she is the one other person in the world who gets why your beloved is oh so wonderful. Plus, she understands that the person you love can be aggravating, too.
-And, above all else, do not take one bit of grief off your mom-in-law.
Oh, if you happen to see my new son-in-law, don’t tell him I said so.

Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, lives and writes with a Texas twang. Comments are welcome at http://checklistcharlie.blogspot.com or cathykrafve@gmail.com.

Talking in Triplicate

There are a zillion things we want to say to our kids.
Zillions of wisdom nuggets that will make their life so much better than ours, right?
We work on it everyday, conveying wisdom like a conveyer belt and wishing we could just hit a download button on the data files from our brains to theirs.
Next thing you know, your child is waving goodbye from the window of a car that drags bottom because it is loaded with all the stuff needed for that dorm room or new apartment. Your kid is looking at you in his rear view mirror and pressing the accelerator.
Trusting God is important in life.
While I do trust God about my kids, yeah, okay, most of the time anyway, I’ve learned to talk in triplicate now while I have the chance.
Talking in triplicate accomplishes three things.
-First, they can ignore you. And they probably will.
-Second, they hear you.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time,” they say, even though they were ignoring you the first time. They are hoping that if they acknowledge you now, you will quit passing along Nuggets of Wisdom.
-Thirdly, they learn to pray.
How does this prayer thing work?
Well, they learn the prayer of well-brought up children everywhere, “Please, Lord, don’t let Mom tell me that Wisdom Nugget for the zillionth time!”
Talking in triplicate is really good for children, in the same sense that vegetables are really good for children.
Redundancy lets them know we are paying attention.
Like a politician in my own home, I’ve learned to lobby for wisdom.
And to talk in sound bites.
My favorite soundbites for college-bound children include the following:
“Remember, you always reap what you sow.” My elementary-aged son learned this year that you can sow respect and reap it. But just in case some college-age kids somewhere are thinking of drinking and driving or doing drugs, I like the way this saying cuts two ways.
“Your future will be good.” Moms know these things.
“Professors are people, too.” I also like its corollary, “All people have a story, if you will listen.”
“Have some fun, but not the kind that gets you arrested.”
Of course, after twenty years of hearing Wisdom Nuggets in triplicate, the prayers of our children tend to evolve.
“Lord, help me be patient with my mom!”
I wouldn’t be surprised if they pray that prayer in triplicate.

Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, waves goodbye to her kiddoes from the driveway of her home in Texas. Comments are invited at cathykrafve@gmail.com or http://checklistcharlie.blogspot.com.

Storage Units Are Like Amebas

Have you ever noticed that storage sheds seem to multiply like rabbits?
There ought to be some way of identifying the gender on a storage unit. The gender really doesn’t seem to matter, though; if you get one shed, next thing you know you have three or four.
Personally, I suspect they are like amebas; they simply reproduce by dividing and forming new units. They always do it when you are not looking. They are tricky that way.
The genetics on storage units must be quirky, too. Have you ever noticed how the offspring look nothing like the parental units?
For instance, sturdy little units built in the forties with white clapboard and wooden frame windows invariably are attracted to units from the sixties, like cheap trophy wives built out of pressboard siding with aluminum windows. Next to them is the inevitable beat-up metal building they gave birth to in the seventies and the plastic building they adopted from a home improvement store recently.
There ought to be a law that requires all storage units to be biodegradable and self-destructing in less than twenty years.
This would eliminate the intuitive need we all feel to save things for our grandchildren.
What is it about Americans that we love our junk?
For some reason, like loyalty in a dysfunctional family, we cling to the promise of security that keeping stuff offers.
Cleaning out a unit would require us to sort through all the clutter we’ve been collecting out there in the shed.
That is the pressboard shed, not the one that would make a delightful little cottage playhouse or the run-down metal shed where the bikes stay dry or the plastic shed where the flat basketballs, Christmas decorations, and antique furniture pile up to create hours of fun for grandchildren..
I have a friend who finally broke down and put a shed in his back yard for the lawn mower.
“You’ll wake up one morning and look out in the back yard and there will be a whole family of storage units,” I warned him.
Maybe that’s a good thing. More storage units means less lawn to mow.
If he doesn’t have to mow his yard, he won’t need his mower which means he won’t have go past the other units which are certain to start gathering in his back yard like a clandestine meeting of junk collectors.
All of which means his great grandchildren will think the lawn mower is a quaint antique some day when they clean out the unit to make a cute, little cottage playhouse.

Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, lives and writes with a Texas twang. Comments are welcome at cathyrafve@gmail.com.

Clearing the Attic

My attic is now empty.
We spent a whole weekend moving anything of worth to a rented storage unit. Trust me when I say that worth stretches the limits of its definition in this context.
There are primarily three reasons why I won the battle of the attic. Ladies, if this is an issue at your house, here’s my strategy.
-First, it was a safety hazard for workmen. Plus, it was just too embarrassing to have workmen climbing over all that junk to get to the furnace that needs to be replaced.
-Second, it was a safety hazard for me. Let’s face it; I am getting too old to go scrambling up that dreadful ladder every time I need to drag out an old memory. The storage unit a few miles from our house costs a lot less than our medical deductible if I happen to fall. What husband can resist such logical economics!
-On top of everything else, I am pretty sure our attic had become a fire hazard. When we finished, we had twenty boxes of paper to dispose of. I felt vindicated.
Who saves check stubs from the 1980s, for heaven sakes!
Probably the only purpose in saving bank statements from the 80s is to confirm to our future grandchildren that we were a little paranoid. As if our grandchildren are even going to know what bank statements and checks are!
I persuaded my husband that the bank statements could be shredded now. Only it wore out the shredder before we finished. Fortunately, the shredder went in the pile with the other stuff to throw away. That’s the pile with the old appliance packaging, the outdated phones, and other outmoded technology.
Not that I’m bitter or anything. I know there are pack rats out there who far surpass the one I love.
The lady who rented me the unit reminded me that a while back a man’s leg was auctioned off when he failed to pay for his unit. It seems he needed an amputation and just couldn’t part with the leg until he forgot to pay his bill with the storage people.
Are these things really worth saving?
Next, I’m tackling my computer. It is ancient and filled with files marked “Clearing the Attic,” where I’ve been storing ideas. Ironically, while I might not hang on to stuff, I have a really hard time parting with a good idea. This is a byproduct of having zero storage ram in my brain.
Many of those files, like the twenty boxes of paper, just need to be deleted. Unfortunately, it will take hours to sort through them.
This will require me to open and read each file, then, hit the delete button. That seems simple, doesn’t it? The delete button is sort of like a shredder for modern folks, right?
However, I have DRD, Delete Reluctance Disorder. It is a disease that develops when you hit the delete button accidentally one too many times.
It is similar to a disorder people had back in the olden days, SIAD, Store It in the Attic Disorder.

Cathy Primer Krafve, aka Checklist Charlie, lives life with a Texas twang. Comments are welcome here or at cathykrafve@gmail.com.