Life

So this is what the next six weekends look like for me:

May 2nd - Home
May 9th - Boston, Massachusetts
May 16th - Phoenix, Arizona
May 23rd - Kansas City, Missouri
May 30th - Minneapolis, Minnesota and Fargo, North Dakota
June 6th - Home
June 12th - Erotic Expo

It's going to be fun I think.

Hannah Montana

Due to me having to get up to go to work on the weekdays, I am unable to sleep in on the weekends. The definition of sleeping in for me is 9am. Since I usually don’t have anything to do on a weekend morning, I’ll sit around and watch cartoons/kid shows. I know it sounds a bit adolescent for me to do that, but some shows are quite good and I can see why kids would enjoy them. One example would be “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.” But there is one show that draws my ire and that show is “Hannah Montana” starring Miley Cyrus. If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last year, you would known that Miley Cyrus is the biggest teen star in existence today. She is everywhere and frankly I don’t know why. Hannah Montana is the least funny show on television, Miley is a terrible actress, and her music sucks a big one.

Cambodia

In 2006, I went to Cambodia. It has come a long way since the days of the Khmer Rouge, but it still remains one of the poorer nations in the world. For all my loyal blog readers out there, I wanted to recap an event that still lives fresh in my mind today. One night, I was outside eating on the patio of a restaurant near my guesthouse. Halfway through my meal, a Cambodian girl came up to me crying hysterically. She was speaking in her native tongue so I couldn’t understand what she was saying but I could tell she wanted some money because she was holding out her hand. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit shocked, and so before I got the chance to act, someone from the restaurant told her to leave. For the remainder of my meal, I sat there wondering about that girl. Why was she crying? Before I left the restaurant, I made it a point to ask the lady who told her to leave why the girl was crying. She told me that her brother was sick and that her family could not afford the pills to keep him alive. A deep pang of regret and sadness came over me at that point. I can’t imagine begging for my life, let alone begging for the life of someone I love.

Would it have killed me to give her a couple dollars? Probably not. I would have spent it on a massage or some beers. People say to me, “Jamie, it’s sad. But stories like that are common throughout the third world. You can’t help everyone.” But I pose a question, “Isn’t one life saved better than no lives saved?”

Filipino Veterans

In World War II, President Roosevelt called upon the Filipinos to join with America in the fight against the Japanese. In exchange, they were promised the same benefits and pay as other American veterans. Over 200,000 Filipinos, my great grandfather included, heeded that call, choosing to risk their lives in order to preserve the freedom and democracy that our country was founded upon. At the end of the day, over half of those men would ultimately lose their lives.

The war ended in 1945, but in 1946, Congress passed and President Truman signed the Rescission Act, which stripped the Filipino veterans of all the pay and benefits that President Roosevelt had promised them in exchange for their service. For over six decades, these men have been fighting for justice. In that span of time, the majority have passed away. Today only 15,000 are alive out of over 200,000 that served.

I am glad to say, but do so with a heavy heart, that the stimulus package President Obama signed into law includes an amendment that includes $198M rewarding Filipino veterans for their service. Each veteran living in the United States gets $15,000 and the ones living in the Philippines get $9,000. It’s a small amount and long overdue, but something is better than nothing.

Critics of this amendment say that it has nothing to do with stimulating the economy. I agree with that point. But to me, this is more than that; this is about honor. Especially in America where service to one’s country is one of the highest callings, you can’t ask someone to risk their lives for a country that is not even their own and give them nothing in return. I wouldn’t even borrow a dollar from someone and not pay them back!

I say this not because I’m Filipino myself or because I’m the great grandson of one of those forgotten veterans, but because it’s what decent human beings should do. Critics say this should be a separate bill from the stimulus package. It probably should be. But for over six decades, Congress has refused to do the right thing. So if including it in the stimulus was the only avenue to get it passed, so be it.

A New Begining

Well my first attempt at blog writing was a bust, so here goes another shot at it. I feel like I set too rigid of a structure in which to blog last time, which ultimately led to me not doing it, so this time I'm going to write about whatever comes to mind at any time.

So here we go....

Well, if you know me even a little bit, you know that I love to travel. Now that I have a real job, I make a concerted effort to use every three day weekend to get out of town. Well Memorial Day is around the corner and I have decided to go to.....wait for it.....Kansas City, Missouri!!! Huh?

So you might be asking yourself, Why would anyone want to go to Kansas City, Missouri?

Well there are multiple reasons. Let me run them off.

1. It is one of my goals to see all 50 states. This trip to Missouri and Kansas will put me at the halfway point.

2. It is also one of my goals to see all 30 baseball stadiums. Seeing the Royals play at Kaufmann Stadium will make 9.

3. Independence, MO (a suburb of Kansas City) is the home of my hero, Harry Truman. So I plan on seeing his Presidential Library and gravesite.

4. Kansas City is arguably the capital of BBQ. So it will definitely be good eating.

If anyone is interested in going, let me know!