Goodreads | Dr. Seuss quotes

"'Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.'
— Dr. Seuss"
"'Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.'
— Dr. Seuss"
"'You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.'
— Dr. Seuss"
"'You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...'— Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You'll Go!)"
"'Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.'
— Dr. Seuss (The Lorax)
"'We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.'
— Dr. Seuss"
"'If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too.'
— Dr. Seuss"
"'You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!'
— Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You'll Go!)"
"'In my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!'
— Dr. Seuss"
"'So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you'll move mountains.'
— Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You'll Go!)"
"'All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot!'
— Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You'll Go! and The Lorax)"
"'I'm afraid that sometimes you'll play lonely games too. Games you can't win 'cause you'll play against you.'
— Dr. Seuss"
"'I know, up on top you are seeing great sights, but down here at the bottom we, too, should have rights.'
— Dr. Seuss (Yertle the Turtle and Gertrude McFuzz)"
"'Oh, the things you can find if you don't stay behind!'
— Dr. Seuss"

History lessons via Pop Culture, Hollywood, and RedBox

Recently, I was going for a drive with my best friend and I told him about how deprived we were educationally. We both attend public schools until graduating from high school. Both of us followed the same U.S. History curriculum mandated by the state of Kentucky. First Semester is roughly 1600's-pre-civil war era; Second semester was Civil War Era-present. However, due to the dated text books, it was more like Civil War era-1969. So, we were only taught about McCarthyism, how the cold war got under way, the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Bay of Pigs...and then they just left us hanging...We were not taught that the Cold War ended, how it ended, the diplomacy involved, etc. I figured when I had more advanced U.S. History in Undergrad my public university would teach me more. Unfortunately, I did not. Over the past summer, I had learned more about post-modern history than in 17 years of formal education. So, if you would like to find out more about what they were not teaching you in school; I have some suggestions: all of the Michael Moore documentaries (use your brain and look past the propaganda; there are ACTUAL facts in his movies), The Barack Obama Story is pretty interesting, Charlie Wilson's War, Julie and Julia (not kidding), Jarhead, Hurt Locker, Blackhawk Down, and many, many more. Check out RedBox; $1.00 per movie and you dont have to fill out a FASFA or use a highlighter.

Stumbling toward Love

After I went through a very, rough and unhappy marriage, I made a decision to not live in an environment where my spirit is constantly being broken down by someone else's comments or actions. I made a strong descision in October 2008 to file for divorce and begin my life anew with just my son by my side. The decision was not hard, but the road has been. Along the way, even though I had made a secret vow to keep my distance from men for a few years, I met the most incredible man I have ever met in 2009. I made the mistake of acting on my feelings for him on Oct. 10,2009. I gave my best effort to keep it casual and friendly...after less than 3 months; I could no longer just keep someone I obviously loved at an arm's length. Love feels so blissful yet can make you more sad than any other human emotion; but love that comes from a lifelong friendship is something you simply can NOT ignore. It is something you can't direct your heart not to feel. All the above said. My great love has moved on...not in loyalty, not moved on from our love, but he has moved on to a new life. A life enviable to people like ourselves...idealists. There are not many of us left out there that truly believe that we can change the world; We are more like one person that lives in two bodies. We both believe we (our generation) CAN change the world. My only hope is that someday, I can join the other half of my soul and help change the world we live in as world full of peace, understanding, and global tolerence...I LOVE YOU AND YOU ARE MY HERO. Thank you for saving me. Someday when you need saving; I will be there to return the favor.

"Do I look Illegal?" A question for Arizona

Would You Wait Over a Century to Reunite with Your Family?

Would you wait 131 years to reunite with your brother or sister? How about 112 years to see your children, or mom or dad, again? Probably not ... since at that point, barring any astounding medical advances in the intervening time, you'd be dead.

Prakash Khatri, attorney, Homeland Security consultant, and former Citizenship and Immigration Ombudsman in the Department of Homeland Security, recently issued a press release to call attention to the ludicrousness of the American immigration system. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will take the money of hopeful Mexican immigrants with family in the United States, but fails to let them know they're going into a line they'll most likely die before seeing the end of. *cough* scam *cough*

While for these family members a "line" does exist (which many people who want to immigrate don't even have), it's an absurd one. The State Department reports that the family visa backlog for Mexico's FB 2B category (over-21 unmarried children of permanent residents) goes back to 1992, but Khatri reveals that those applying today can expect to wait rather more than a couple decades under our current country-based cap on immigration.

The press release provides a handy chart with the estimated wait time, calculated based on the number of family visas we've issued annually over the past five years. At our current rate, the wait for a FB 2B visa for a Mexican family member is 112 years — as in, you'll be dead before your kids can join you. Khatri also crunches the numbers looking at 10 years of visas, which makes the the picture slightly rosier, but not much: the expected wait is 95 years. And if the child gets married in that time, you're out of luck: unless you become a U.S. citizen, there's no longer a way for your offspring to immigrate through you.

Another quirk of immigration law is that an "intending immigrant" can be (and often is) denied a visitors visa. So for the next 112 years, not only can't your kids immigrate, they can't even make a short visit for a family reunion, an additional insult. Even the spouses (heterosexual couples only, of course) or children under 21 of permanent residents wait 3.5 years, which is of course lightening speed in comparison, but because that ban on visiting still applies, also a long time to go without even a visit, especially if the children are little.

For U.S. citizens, your over-21 children can immigrate from Mexico within a short 40.1 years. Oh, unless they got married in that time: then tack on another 6.5 years on to the delay. In any case, you might all still be alive then — important, since if the sponsor of an immigration application dies, so does the application. A citizen's siblings, however, can hop onto the 131-year line. (For perspective, the oldest living human being ever confirmed died before she hit her 123rd birthday.) Why don't they just say there isn't a snowball's chance in hell your brother or sister will be permitted to immigrate?

If I were a U.S. citizen trying to bring my family to join me in America, I'd be deeply infuriated with the current dragging of heels on immigration reform. This is why comprehensive immigration reform that emphasizes family-based immigration is so vital; we must get rid of the unjust system that keeps families apart. When the system is designed to take people's money, but never offer a real chance at entering the United States and seeing their family again (ahem ... scam), it's no wonder people go through the ordeal of immigrating without authorization. If we provided a way for them to get in line and legally rejoin their families before being delivered in a coffin, they would do it in a heartbeat.

By: Alex DiBranco

Sorry, Dr. Paul, I believe in Civil Rights

The U.S. is debating the Civil Rights Act of 1964...all over again.

No, we're not stuck in some kind of crazy time warp - it's just election season 2010.

This past week, the victor in Kentucky's Republican Senate primary and Tea Party favorite Rand Paul decided to come out swinging against parts of the Civil Rights Act. It's not that he supports racism, Paul says. But he does support private businesses' right to deny certain customers based on whether they're black or white in the name of "private ownership."

As NAACP President and Change.org Changemaker Benjamin Jealous writes this week, Paul is leading U.S. voters down a dangerous, ill-informed path.

According to Paul, the market's free hand would eventually have forced most businesses to serve black people.

But Paul is badly in need of a history lesson. Even after Jim Crow laws were reversed, those businesses that actually served blacks were still subject to threats and outright violence - often sanctioned by local and state governments. The market would never have eliminated slavery, and it's not going to eliminate racism, either.

After making his inflammatory comments on NPR and the Rachel Maddow Show and sparking widespread backlash, Paul went silent. On Friday, he canceled his planned appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." He's now equivocating on his statements about whether he would have voted the Civil Rights Act, but he hasn't backtracked on his argument that companies should have the right to deny service to blacks and other minorities.

All this is conduct hardly befitting a candidate for the United States Senate. By endorsing a system that allows businesses to humiliate and discriminate against minorities at will, Paul is appealing to the worst strands of our nation's history. And by then shrinking from debate after his reckless comments, he's failing to give the voters of Kentucky a clear sense of where he really stands.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous has offered to debate Rand Paul about the Civil Rights Act and the role of discrimination in America - anytime, anywhere. If Rand Paul wants a seat in the highest elected body in the country, he should be willing to an open debate about his vision for America.

American Citizen Faced Deportation

American Citizen Faced Deportation
By Alex Perez & BJ Lutz
NBCChicago.com
updated 4:18 p.m. PT, Tues., May 25, 2010

A Chicago man who spent the weekend in jail and faced deportation on suspicion he is in the country illegally said what happened to him illustrates the need for America to change the way it deals with immigration.
Eduardo Caraballo said his self-described nightmare began last week when he was arrested in connection with a stolen car case. He maintains his innocence and says the car case is still being investigated, but says the real problems began when his mother posted his bail Friday.
Instead of being released, he was told by authorities that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was detaining him because he was an illegal immigrant.
"That's crazy. Because I was born in Puerto Rico. I never knew that Puerto Rico wasn't part of the United States," the 32-year-old said Monday.
Caraballo said he repeatedly told officers that he was born in Puerto Rico and therefore an American citizen. His mother also presented his birth certificate, but despite that and his state-issued ID, officials told him he was facing deportation.
"I'm pretty sure they know that Puerto Ricans are citizens, but just because of the way I look -- I have Mexican features -- they pretty much assumed that my papers were fake," he said. "They were making me feel like I can't voice my opinion or I can't even speak for myself to let them know that I am a citizen."
He says officers asked him specific questions about the Caribbean island that he could not answer, mostly because he moved to the mainland when he was 8 months old and has only been back to Puerto Rico once since birth.
Almost three days later, and after his mother contacted Rep. Luis Gutierrez's office, immigration officials released Caraballo at about 2 p.m. Monday.
And now, Gutierrez, who's fighting for national immigration reform, wants answers.
"You know what this proves to you? That in Arizona, they want everybody to be able to prove they're legally in the country. They want everybody to prove that they're an American citizen. Here we had an American citizen, that the federal government, not state authorities, but the federal government, with all their technology and all their information capacity that they have, could not determine, for more than three days, his status as an American citizen. It's very, very, very dangerous ground to tread," the Chicago Democrat said.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office declined to answer specific questions about Caraballo's case, but in a statement released Monday afternoon said that he was released once his citizenship was confirmed.
Caraballo said he is considering legal action and hopes his story is a lesson.
"Immigrations should analyze the way they judge people. They can't just judge people by their color or their features, by the way they look, they should actually investigate thoroughly, and they should do that before they put the hold on somebody," he said.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37328213/