Roger O Green

Veterans for New Americans

Starting with Lafayette

After Colin Powell died, I was reminded that there have long been people who have been immigrants and/or non-citizens who have joined the US military. I found a link titled Veterans for New Americans with a Non-Citizens in the U.S. Military Fact Sheet.

“To join the U.S. military, non-citizens must be living permanently and legally in the United States. Non-citizens must also have permission to work in the United States, possess an I-551 (Permanent Residence Card), have obtained a high school diploma, and speak English…

“Between 1999 and 2010, approximately 80,000 non-citizens joined the U.S. military force. Most recent data from the Department of Defense (DOD) showed that 24,000 noncitizens were on active duty in 2012, with 5,000 legal permanent residents (LPRs) enlisting into the U.S. military force each year…

“From FY2001-FY2015, USCIS naturalized 109,321 noncitizen service members. Since 2008, USCIS has also naturalized 2,650 military spouses.”

A 2019 article looked at the 2017 American Community Survey. 697,711 foreign-born veterans lived in the United States, comprising 3.5 percent of all veterans; 190,198 foreign-born individuals were actively serving in the military comprising 4.5 percent of all active-duty service members.

The US Foreign Legion, as it were

An August 2021 Washington Post article reads: “The U.S. government hasn’t protected noncitizen veterans from deportation. That may change.” And “The U.S. military has a long history of relying on foreign recruits.”

But from DHS and the VA comes the announcement of an “Initiative to Support Noncitizen Service Members, Veterans, and Immediate Family Members.”

WaPo: “Noncitizens have played critical roles in every war that the United States has fought. Decades after the Marquis de Lafayette served as an aide to General George Washington during the American Revolution, tens of thousands of Canadians and Europeans joined the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War. And hundreds of thousands of Black soldiers fought in the Civil War, their service all the more remarkable given that the U.S. government denied them citizenship.”

Over time, I’ve noted that a number of black Americans have used serving in the military as a way to “prove” their “worthiness” as Real Americans. This has been true from the Revolutionary War through at least through World War II. Perhaps Powell, as a black from Jamaica, consciously or not, may have used his service in Vietnam in the same matter.

“As modern militaries increasingly field sophisticated weapons systems, countries have also looked to noncitizens to bring much-needed technical skills into the ranks, as well as expertise in foreign languages and cultures in areas where the military operates.

This reminds me of, for instance, the Afghan translators who often risked their very lives working with the US military. I wish them every opportunity to come to this country and have the good chance to become citizens.

The Police Quota System

read the manual

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah had a segment called The Police Quota System – If You Don’t Know, Now You Know. “Police officers give people tickets for speeding or running a stop sign, but there’s another reason that people are getting pulled over: It’s the dirty little secret called the quota system.”

Here’s a news story about the Daily Show segment. “Noah explains that police give people traffic tickets for multiple reasons, be it speeding or running a stop sign, or simply to generate ticket revenue. The quota system is illegal in a handful of states, like Florida, at which Noah quipped that if it’s illegal in Florida, ‘then it’s got to be really bad.'”

And the map shown indicated that quotas are likewise illegal in New York. But a friend of mine, a very good driver, I believe was caught up in one of those situations. I wasn’t present but heard all about it. And it’s what they WEREN’T charged with that really caught my attention.

CAUTION

In a small, rural community, there was a school bus riding down the road with its yellow lights flashing. My friend was driving on the other side of the road toward the bus. But since the bus never stopped, my friend slowed down but did not halt.

The local cop soon pulled over my friend. He said, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” “No.” “Because you passed the bus. You should have come to a stop.” This is bogus.

From the NYS DMV manual: When a stopped school bus flashes its red light(s), traffic that approaches from either direction, even in front of the school and in school parking lots, must stop before it reaches the bus. You should stop at least 20 feet (6 m) away from the bus…

Before a school bus stops to load or discharge passengers, the driver will usually flash warning lights, which are located on the front and back of the bus near the roof. When you see them, decrease speed and be prepared to stop. Which is what happened, but the bus NEVER stopped.

Then the cop said he’d give my friend a pass on the bus charge and only give out a ticket for speeding. Unfortunately, this place is four hours away, because my friend would LOVE to see the alleged sign suggesting a lowered speed limit. So going back to challenge the ticket is not cost-effective, especially since my friend has not had a ticket in decades.

Is network television dead?

Rhimes, Bellasario, and Wolf

law and order With all of the streaming, cable, and other options of TV viewing, I’ve wondered if network television is dead. 2021 has brought three MORE hour-long spinoffs of established shows. And the majority of all of these programs are from the same production house.

At least, Young Sheldon (CBS, Fri, 8 pm ET) is a 30-minute comedy replacing Big Bang Theory on the schedule. I’ve never seen it, BTW.

Seattle

Two or three years ago, I came across a survey of shows that started since 2015 that teens were watching. Much to my surprise, one of the popular selections was Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, Th 9 pm ET), a medical soap opera that started in 2005 by Shonda Rhimes. She’s had some other successful such as Scandal (2012-018), and How to Get Away with Murder (2014-2020), as well as the often terrible Grey’s spinoff. Private Practice (2007-2013).

For the next spinoff, she set Station 19 (ABC, Th 8 pm), a piece about firefighters, in Seattle, just like Grey’s. This allowed more opportunities for crossovers. For instance, Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey has appeared on Station 19 at least a dozen times. Dr. Bailey is married to Dr. Ben Warren, now a firefighter on Station 19, who’s appeared on Grey’s at least 30 times since his character moved from the hospital program.

My daughter began watching Station 19 on her own. Later she learned that Okieriete Onaodowan (Dean Miller) played Hercules Mulligan and James Madison in the original production of the Broadway musical Hamilton, which made her quite excited.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service

She discovered reruns of NCIS (CBS, M, 9 pm, 2003-). It is actually a spinoff of JAG (1995-2005). As the parent, I had to check out what the daughter was watching. It wouldn’t have been my first pick.

It was the vision of Donald P. Bellisario, who often has his protagonists as current or former members of the United States armed forces. Tom Selleck’s character in Magnum, P.I., Jan-Michael Vincent’s character in Airwolf; and Albert “Al” Calavicci in Quantum Leap are some examples.

There is also an NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, F, 9 pm, 2009-) that my daughter has no interest in. Ditto with NCIS: New Orleans (2014-2021), which just left the CBS schedule. But now there’s an NCIS: Hawai’i (CBS, M, 10 pm, 2021-).

Dick Wolf

The rest of the shows are the aegis of Wolf Films. That is to say, Dick Wolf, the executive producer. The two FBI shows Tuesday nights on CBS, FBI (8 pm, 2018-) and FBI: Most Wanted (10 pm, 2020-) are joined in 2021 by FBI: International (9 pm, ET). “Elite agents of the FBI’s International division as they travel the world with the mission of protecting Americans wherever they may be.” I saw one episode of the eldest show.

Chicago owns NBC Wednesdays. Chicago Med (8 pm, 2015– ), Chicago Fire (9 pm, 2012- NBC), and Chicago P.D. (10 pm, 2014– ). At least once, the stories leaped from one show to the next.

But Wolf is best known for being the executive producer of the Law and Order franchise. The original ran from 1990-2010. I used to watch the Lenny Briscoe (the late Jerry Orbach) seasons. The quirky Criminal Intent (2001-2011) I’ve actually just discovered. There are a few more series.

Special Victims Unit (NBC, Th 9 pm, 1999-) is the longest-running scripted drama on television, surpassing Gunsmoke (1955-1975). The show became a personal issue a couple of summers ago, before COVID when my daughter was watching it at the family timeshare. Her parents had watched it with her at home, but others were less comfortable about her viewing it.

The sound effect

The newest entry in the brand is Organized Crime (NBC, Th 10 pm, 2021-). Despite starring a character who started on SVU, Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, it has a very different feel. It does the famous Chung Chung sound effect exactly once per episode. Having watched it a few times because it crossed over with SVU, I now know that it is a vile program.

Characters are crossing over all of the time in the Wolf universe. And actors on one Wolf show will end up as a different character in another Wolf program. A discussion of those phenomena would be lengthy.

A Dick Wolf quote: “TV is not about ideas. It’s about execution. And writing and casting. That’s why most of TV drama’s biggest stars have been character actors, not romantic leads.” His shows, as well as some of the NCIS line, and Grey’s Anatomy, are constantly available in syndicated reruns, likely more profitable than the latest offering from Netflix.

Snail mail: college, Medicare

PAEA

On Monday, October 18, our household received 23 pieces of snail mail. Good golly! Usually, it’s about eight. When I opened the mailbox, items cascaded out.

Seven were for my daughter, almost all of them from colleges that wrote that they want her to apply to their college or university. Five were for my wife, catalogs and bills mostly. Two were jointly for my wife and me from organizations we belong to.

Almost all of the nine for me were from insurance companies. The period from October 15 to December 7 constitutes when I can change coverage for my Medicare supplement, including prescription coverage, dental, and eye care.

My Rx coverage is scheduled to go up about 74%, so I would like to find a company that will cost the same or less while providing similar coverage. There IS a process for this, but it involves entering the names of all of my physicians and pharmaceuticals. Tedious but necessary.

One of the pieces of mail is from an organization that I ostensibly agree with philosophically. But I don’t give them money because they mail the solicitation to Roger C. Green. Actually, I get quite a few of them each month, and I haven’t given any of them a dime. Get my name from some mailing list company, then you hope the information is correct.

He brings me no joy

Of course, thinking about the mail makes me think of the dreadful and corrupt Louis DeJoy. I’ve discovered that a lot of people don’t understand why Biden hasn’t just fired him as Postmaster General. It’s not that simple.

“DeJoy still runs the Postal Service because he maintains the backing of its board of governors. This bipartisan, nine-member body oversees the service’s expenditures and operations and appoints postmasters general — and decides how long their tenures last. Six of the governors, including the board’s chairman, Ron Bloom, are Trump appointees; Biden has appointed three.

“Unless Biden wants to try removing governors for cause, he can replace them only when their seven-year terms end or they step aside prematurely. Those rules are meant to protect the Postal Service from partisan meddling and generally make it hard for presidents to reshape it without waging political battles.

The plan

DeJoy’s announcement is to make the service slower and more costly in the near term.

There is a positive aspect of the plan, though. “The Postal Service is requesting that Congress pass legislation that enables us to fully integrate Postal Service retiree health plans with Medicare and eliminate the retiree health benefit pre-funding obligations imposed by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006.” The PAEA HAS been an onerous burden on the USPS and reflects much of the losses for the entity in the past 15 years. This should be passed by Congress.

Going to church together, or not

Live! In person!

My wife and I have usually gone to church together over the past 22+ years. But often, we didn’t sit together, as I was usually perched in the choir loft while she was sitting in the congregation. The exception was during the summer when the choir was usually off. She really liked it, but it felt somewhat foreign to me.

Then there was the pandemic. When our service returned on Facebook beginning March 22, 2020, it was us sitting together watching a screen together. And we’d do communion together, either something my wife baked that weekend or a cracker to eat, homemade grape juice, or Nine Pin Cider to drink.

But we would be on separate computers for the adult education class. We had different ZOOM styles in terms of when to be on mute. For me, it was almost always, when I wasn’t speaking. Also, I found that couples on the same ZOOM screen are harder to hear/understand and especially more difficult to see.

On June 20, 2021, we began the in-person church, and we both went through the summer live, except once when we were away.

Risk assessment

So it’s curious that now we’re doing church differently again. We both go to adult ed online. But then I go to church in person, while my wife has decided to go back online. She’s teaching kids, most too young to be fully vaccinated yet, whereas I really don’t see that many people.

I was having a discussion about COVID and risk with a friend. It reminded me of a comment to a recent Weekly Sift article. “When there’s a threat with no end in sight…, we need to also measure risk against the reward… Eating in a restaurant is risky, so I won’t eat inside just any restaurant, but I will eat inside my favorite restaurant. Not because the risk is lower, but because the reward is high (in my case). For other people, it might be that you’ll spend time in a small room for a long time with vaccinated family but not with vaccinated strangers.”

My choir met at church on October 14 for the first time in 19 months, and we sang! All full vaccinated, masked, and distanced – it was difficult to hear the tenors – but we sang. And we didn’t suck! It wasn’t for the service, yet, but maybe we’ll record something in the next month or two to be used.

Rule of thumb: when there is both a remote and face-to-face option, I’ll almost always opt fr the latter. But I never mock other people’s more cautious approach.