“We are moving to America.”
At first I couldn’t process it. All I’d ever known was a brutal life growing up in a cult in the jungles of Colombia. Yes, that’s right, the first decade of my life was limited to a cult… in the jungle. I was born to American parents in a doomsday Christian cult called “The Move of God,” or simply “The Move.” You can read about it here. By nine years old I had already experienced every form of abuse… physical, mental, sexual, religious... all of it. When I thought about the future, and I spent hours wondering about the future, it was nothing but bleak. More hard labor in the sun, sitting on hard chairs for 8 hours at a time listening to preacher after preacher drone on about “dying to self” or the mandate to be perfect or that everyone in the world was evil and children were inherently evil, beatings, hunger, more living in constant fear. This life I lived was why it took a while for the words to sink in. “We are moving to America.” Like the sunrise ending a long black night. As those words sunk in, they filled me with unspeakable hope. “The Promised Land” is what came to mind. I’m tearing up as I write this remembering how powerful those simple words were for a boy trapped in a hopeless world. One by one the boys in our mission came to me and congratulated me for going to America. There was admiration and wonder in their eyes. I knew that this was the greatest gift one could receive, that every one of those boys would gladly trade places with me.
So now you see how much this country means to me. I love this country like very few of you will ever experience. Patriotic doesn’t describe it. To me it means liberty, safety, opportunity. For me it means life itself.
After we arrived in the US all I could dream about was being President of this great land (a dream I abandoned a long time ago). Not for the glory nor the power but to give other children the same opportunity I had received. I sat in rapt attention listening to President Reagan, pride swelling in my heart, sometimes hiding the tears that streamed down my face.
The next 10 years were spent still part of the cult. I was living next to a ghetto in Citra, Florida, still toiling in the hot sun, still listening to insane babbling, still being gaslighted, still being bullied. But at least I was in America. The land of the free and the home of the brave. I didn’t feel very free and I sure didn’t feel very brave but that didn’t diminish, for one moment, my pride for this country. By the end of high school I was a card-carrying member of the NRA. I would spend hours listening to Rush and every other conservative radio personality. I hated the lib-tards. I hated gays. I believed, as I was taught, that the Zionist controlled the world and that the man who bombed abortion clinics was kind of a hero. Here’s a quick story. One day when I was around 13 we went to one of those amazing fresh-water springs in Florida. I was walking through a hotel lobby when I encountered some Southern Baptist preachers… they were there for a convention. I started a conversation with them which turned into a heated debate about the Illuminati, how deceived the Church was and why they should all find true religion. Alex Jones would have been proud of my conspiracy theories and my elders were proud of my standing up to the deceived Church leaders… it was like Jesus and the Pharisees, I was told.
Why am I telling you this? Because I need you to know that I’m not a soft California liberal who is just hurt because a Republican is our president. I am someone who’s life journey has led him from the extreme Right to the Left and if you’ll listen, I’d like to share what I’ve learned along the way.
America is the greatest country on Earth and we need to keep it that way, right?
Many will argue with me but I still believe this is the greatest country in the history of the World. There has been nothing like the United States of America. I consider it to be an exponential leap forward for nations; a shining example of what any country should aspire to be.
But the question is whether the pride that I feel for my country converts into selfishness and isolationism or into inclusion and generosity. Closing our borders, booting immigrants, turning a blind eye to the pain and suffering of those in the world who are not so fortunate are all choices we have. We can also choose to welcome others into this country safely, open our borders to our neighbors responsibly and extend a helping hand to those in need, both citizens and non-citizens. Yes, we have a responsibility to take care of our citizens first but that does not prevent us from also helping those in need. “To whom much is given, much is required.” Safety and inclusion are not mutually exclusive ideals; it doesn’t have to be “or” but can instead be “and.”
The Move was hyper-exclusionist. We isolated ourselves in the wilderness. Separated ourselves from family and friends. Branded anything or anyone not Move-related as evil. We moved way beyond only labeling Muslims, gays and atheists as evil. So were Catholics, Mormons and Baptists. I don’t exaggerate when I say that anyone who was not in The Move was evil. I believed it 100 percent. So how did I go from hyper-exclusion to open-minded inclusion? In my travels and various relocations since leaving The Move I’ve met Christians (outside of The Move), atheists, gays, lesbians, “demon-crats” (democrats), environmentalist “whackos,” foreigners, Socialists, Muslims… the list goes on and on. My life has been immeasurably enrichened through those relationships and interactions. My own experience has led me to believe that America is great but America is so much greater when she opens her arms to the world and embraces the richness and pain it holds. No water, no matter how pure, will remain pure if stagnant. The same applies to our country.
“Made in America”
I have witnessed first-hand the outsourcing wave that drove millions of manufacturing jobs from our country to other lower-cost countries like China, Mexico, Brazil, etc. During my first year of being in the workforce our factory was sold to Sanmina/SCI, and by my second year Sony Ericsson’s supply chain was outsourced to Flextronics and taken offshore to Malaysia, Brazil and China. There were many things wrong with the outsourcing wave. In many ways, it was a copout, lazy, irresponsible, innovation-killing and downright short-sighted but we still did it. China and Mexico didn’t force us to move our factories. We chose that. We chose to move pollution to other countries. We chose to move blue-collar jobs to lower-income parts of the world. But in doing so, we created wealth across the entire world. Wealth that was used to send students to our universities, purchase our products, visit our shores, grow our economy to unprecedented levels. Does this mean we maintain the status quo? Do we implement regressionist policies that take us back to the golden days of manufacturing when our rivers were polluted and our cities were smog-ridden? Or do we look forward to that next breakthrough. Do we spark the next revolution in clean-tech, quantum computing, automation, artificial intelligence? We can close the doors to the world or continue to create an environment where the best and brightest want to help us solve the world’s biggest problems.
Firing up old coal plants is not progress. That’s an empty promise. Re-starting old factories is not progress. That’s an empty promise. What we need is a vision for how we create new industries and new trades so that a young person growing up in Citra, Florida can imagine a future beyond growing meth or dealing crack. Closing borders and implementing border tariffs will do nothing to help those kids. More empty promises.
I support bringing back manufacturing to the U.S. but not to what it was before outsourcing.
Our education system is broken!
Our country is struggling to educate our children. Go online and read the studies. I come from a family of educators and have seen the incredible dedication and hard work of many teachers. I believe this should be one of the top priorities for our government. Teachers are under-paid, schools are under-funded, curriculums are outdated. Most importantly, the education gap between the “have” and “have nots” continues to grow from pre-school children through college students. Here is a simple study illustrating the problem at the college level.
I was basically home-schooled (poorly) through high school and into college. Once I left The Move, I was able to transfer credits to Toccoa Falls College and complete my education. To say I barely scraped together an education is an understatement. This means I should be making every effort to put my children in the best private schools giving them the best path to the top universities, right? No. We have decided that it’s important that our children have their fair share of opportunities but not grow up feeling entitled with unrealistic expectations on themselves and on the world. We have relied heavily on the public school system, an institution that I was taught was only capable of corrupting and destroying children, and only used private schools when an adequate public school was not available. Our children are smart, educated and most importantly, well-rounded.
What this country needs leading the U.S. Department of Education is a brilliant innovator who deeply understands the needs of our children, especially ones from the lower income brackets, and puts a plan in place to elevate our education system back into competitiveness. We have the opposite. Rather than deal with the problems in our public schools, we are advocating vouchers for parents to move their students to private schools. What an arrogant solution.
Good education is a human right, regardless of family income. If we cannot provide all our students with a basic, free education then we are worthless as a society. If we abandon a large percentage of our students then we are choosing to cut off a large percentage of progress, innovation and, in the future, economic growth since our children, regardless of income bracket, are the future of progress, innovation and economic growth. It’s simply a wise investment in ourselves and yet we’ve figured out a way to politicize this issue, and our children will suffer as a result. Stupid and short-sighted.
Now let’s talk about foreign students. For the past decades, the brightest students were coming to our universities, getting educated and then working for our companies. Do we really want to drive these students away? Do we really want to turn back the talent of the world? Yes, we should incentivize companies to re-invest in our education, prioritize the hiring of our students and not abuse visa programs to cut cost. I believe most companies would gladly work together to solve some of the talent problems we have in America. But to take an adversarial stance against other countries is a losing approach. We are a country of innovators, not a country of whiney xenophobes.
How’s this for an idea? U.S. companies have $2.5 Trillion sitting offshore because of our unrealistic corporate tax rates. What if we work with corporations to give them a tax holiday to repatriate that cash in exchange for investments in school infrastructure or funding education programs in our lower-income neighborhoods or establishment of programs to teach each company’s respective trade to our youth?
“The poor you will always have with you…”
I think that is the favorite misquote of all arrogant, pompous, hardened rich people when talking about social programs. For the record, Jesus didn’t say “the poor you will always have with you so treat them like shit and ignore them,” he was saying that he was going to die shortly and that they should take advantage of his time with them. So, if anyone throws that out in a conversation, just ask them if they’re the Messiah and how long before they die.
Another arrogant assumption about the poor is that they are poor because they are lazy. That somehow poverty is a choice or because of bad choices. Peppered in the FAQ of the new healthcare plan are multiple examples of this thinking. Assertions that the ACA had created incentives for not working. When you are poor, you work because you want to eat and stay warm. There is no greater incentive to work than hunger. We do not have a right to judge the poor. We have no right to assert that those citizens deserve less basic rights such as health, education, or food just because they are poor. It’s like the GOP is a living, breathing Mr. Potter.
We are failing a huge portion of our citizens from both parties. President Obama was a great President who took a country devastated by a Recession and put us back on a path of prosperity. But the #1 issue I had with our previous administration was that, outside of the ACA, very little was done to reverse the poverty trend in this country. We continue to turn a blind eye to the fact that wealth is being gathered in the hands of very few, at the expense of many. The same is happening in other places of the world like China and Russia. Think about the fact that the greatest democracy on Earth is shifting money to the top 1 percent much like we see in Communist or post-communist countries. The middle class is one of the foundational pillars of this country’s greatness and that’s eroding at an alarming rate. We are failing the poor by withholding healthcare. We are attempting to repeal the ACA (which needs lots of improving) and replace it with a program that uses incentives that only the upper middle class can utilize. Instead of a chicken in every pot (Henry IV) we are telling the poor they can have a credit to buy for themselves a chicken at a price that no chicken is sold. We are failing the poor by withholding basic rights to children. Education, shelter, healthcare and oftentimes food (yes, free lunches) are basic needs that all children have regardless of their parent’s income-earning ability. I’m looking at you, entitled, spoiled, heartless Betsy DeVos who is looking to take away lunch from hungry children.
What we need in our country is a shift in funding from the war machine to creating a country where all citizens have basic needs met. I’m not advocating handouts, but I am saying we need to play a role in helping those less fortunate to find a path to basic things like food, shelter, education, and health.
How did I come to these quasi-socialist beliefs? I’ve felt and seen deep poverty in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, California, New York… all over this country. I have seen it all over the world but we are responsible for the poverty that resides inside of our own borders. I have lived in deep poverty. My parents were missionaries. We lived in the jungles of Colombia with the natives: dirt floors, thatch-roof huts, and hand-me-down or hand-made clothes. We ate food that we either grew or hunted and when we ran out, we didn’t eat. No electricity, no running water. When we moved to the U.S. we bought an AMC Hornet that was so old that eventually the floorboards rusted out so we used plywood to keep from falling through. We lived in a mobile home next to a sink hole. All our money was given to the commune. I paid my own way through college and left college with mountains of debt. But, eventually hard work, financial planning support from my wife Sofia, and some substantial lucky breaks, and I’m now officially part of the 1 percent club. I should be the poster child for Republicans. My own bootstraps, I tell you. Except that’s bullshit. I didn’t do this on my own. I had so many people who along the way helped nudge me forward. From my college friend’s dad who worked in tech and eventually offered me my first contract position at Ericsson Inc., to the first manager who saw something in me that others didn’t and said to some VP’s (I would find out years later) that I was VP material, to my boss at Palm who placed a bet on me and elevated me to a role I had to stretch hard to reach. Most of all, my unbelievably supportive wife who helped us dig our way out of a debt and stood next to me along the way encouraging and counseling me. So, I stand among the 1 percenters because a whole crowd of people, along with my hard work, pushed me forward.
In my journey from poverty to wealth I also met countless other people who worked as hard, were as dedicated and are still struggling on the bottom half of the middle-class band fighting every damn day to not slip into poverty. Some didn’t have the intelligence or the gifts to break through. But some didn’t have the right gender or the right skin color or the right support network to break through. The playing field is not level for everyone and to believe otherwise is, at best, naïve. Yes, I know that there are lazy people in this world. Yes, I know that there are people who abuse the system. Hell, I grew up in a commune! I saw first-hand how unfair it was for some who worked their tails off and still got the same exact benefits of the lazy, no-good, worthless pieces of shit that were let alone not contributing but also doing awful things like molesting young kids. I know that exists but I also believe with all my heart that the bulk of us are doing our best, working our hardest, using every available tool to get by. To judge each other by our income class is no more enlightened than refusing to give a beggar food in Calcutta because in a previous life they did something to deserve that misery. I fear that our pride and hubris will end up destroying our country.
Oh, one more thought. I cannot figure out how in the hell someone can call themselves a Christian and turn a blind eye to the less fortunate. How is the Republican party the party of the Church when it has, in my lifetime, shown very little sympathy for the less fortunate?
The Earth’s resources are put here by God to be used by humans.
Yes, that’s what we were taught and I don’t think we’re alone. Except that while I was being told this, whole swaths of jungle that I lived in were being destroyed in attempts to make them pastures to grow cattle for the beef industry. Even as a child I knew that was wrong. I grew up drinking water from streams, breathing fresh air only to later encounter a world of polluted rivers and lakes and air congested with particles that make it hard to breathe, that kills an estimated 1.7M children under the age of 5 every, single year. The oceans outside of Panama City are littered with human feces and plastic waste. We are destroying our planet and our new administration is not only standing by but accelerating that destruction under the guise of deregulation. I am reminded of the story in the Bible where King Solomon was told that his punishment wouldn’t come in his lifetime but his son’s lifetime. He seemed ok with that. We seem ok with making our children pay for our short-sighted, greedy, ignorant abuse of Earth and her resources.
Liberals are pros at killing babies.
I was barely a teenager standing in front the church preaching about abortion. I drew a parallel between the mass execution of babies in Egypt and the judgement that followed and how I was afraid this country would be judged for the mass execution of our babies. I looked out and there were tears streaming down the faces of church members. In college, I also volunteered at a Christian pregnancy center where I had to watch videos of abortions and learn how to counsel young, pregnant moms into keeping their babies. So, it might surprise you to hear me say that I think it’s about time we stop the debate about pro-choice vs pro-life. Here is what I’ve learned in the order I learned it.
Pro-choice is not the same as pro-abortion. I have yet to meet a pro-choice person who is out encouraging people to go get abortions. I’m sure there are exceptions but people I’ve encountered who’ve had to face the choice of getting an abortion did so with deep anguish and soul-searching and only did it after they felt that it was the right choice for not only themselves but also their future baby.
Women should have the right to decide over their own bodies. Imagine how livid we (men) would be if the government was involved in managing our reproductive rights? We have, through male authority or legislation, denied for too long a woman’s right to that choice. “But this isn’t about her body,” you say, “it’s about the baby.” No matter how you spin it, it’s still her body and therefore her choice.
The idea of “pro-life” is essentially the idea of “pro-birth.” It’s about whether a mom should birth her child. So much focus is on the “to birth or not to birth” debate that it overshadows all the other needs that go into preserving life: the life of the mother and the life of the child. The mission of Planned Parenthood (which I was told was pure evil) is all about LIFE. Nutrition, pregnancy prevention, education, support for mothers, etc. I’d argue that investing in Planned Parenthood is actually helping life. What could be more pro-life?
I fundamentally dislike “or” statements that can and should be “and” statements. Why do you have to be pro-choice or pro-life? Why can’t we be pro-choice and pro-life? Do we want to do everything in our power to preserve life? I believe so. Do we believe that women should have power over their own bodies? I believe so. Why is it that we must stand in opposing camps hurling insults at each other, debating decisions that were passed into law 43 year years ago when we have millions of young women who desperately need the help, counsel, advice, support, resources that both camps offer? While we stand firm in our ideologies, our young people suffer. I guess I stand with Barbara Bush who said, “I hate abortions, but just could not make that choice for someone else.” If we all worked together to advocate for choice and life we would have a very different impact on the world.
I hate how our two-party system has politicized everything that is important to the citizens of this country. I hate how it’s put us all on opposing sides of issues when, instead, we should be working together to advance this country.
What the hell does this have to do with Donald Trump?!
I’ve shared five examples of where my life’s journey took me from “Tea Party” to “All Party.” There are many other areas where my imposed and deeply embedded beliefs have been challenged and changed, such as gun control, military spending, LGBTQ rights, globalization, immigration, etc. Perhaps I’ll delve into them in a separate article but for now I think I’ve proved that I fully understand (and sometimes still support) the beliefs of many who voted for Trump. I understand that people in poverty are desperately looking for answers to better their lives. I understand that people in our heartland feel mocked and ridiculed by the political and financial elite on either coast. I understand that over-regulation has been choking the life out of our small businesses and increasingly what used to be small mom/pop businesses are being destroyed by behemoth organizations with seemingly no soul. I understand that for many, the American dream looks like nothing but a dream, unattainable to the average person. I understand that most Americans are sick and tired of a political system that only serves itself; parties that are more loyal to their charters than our Constitution. I understand that disruption is necessary.
It’s also my strong belief that either Trump himself or his advisors recognized the problems in this country, amplified and exaggerated them then set him up to be the answer to these problems. An outsider. Someone who had the power to cut through the piles of political dung and get things done for the American people. I too had a glimmer of hope that he could disrupt enough to allow fresh ideas and fresh thinking into this stinking morass of self-serving greed. But I have concluded that Trump is a Carpetbagger disguised as a champion. He is an unscrupulous opportunist who played on the fears and concerns of the troubled working class to gain power, recognition and wealth and he will do it by standing on the very backs of those he promised to help. Those who voted for him will suffer the most and that’s what has me angry. Many of my friends and family are in that group. He has already taken your trust, spit on it and filled his coffers. I have seen his types in Colombia, China, Panama: men who profit from the poor. He is our version of Carlos Slim. I hope I’m wrong but here are the data points (and there will be more):
- He hasn’t separated himself from his businesses. Trump is a self-professed billionaire. At 70, what more could he hope to gain, except to raise himself from being one of the most worthless of billionaires? He hasn’t built a company that will last for generations like Gates, Zuck, Brin, Page and others have done. He hasn’t built a financial empire like Warren Buffett. At the top of the billionaires list is a group of oligarchs who have amassed massive, unspeakable wealth. Perhaps that’s what he envies? If Trump did care about the citizens more than himself, he’d draw a clear line of separation between his presidency and the financial benefits. But the opposite has happened. He’s raised prices at Mar-a-Lago. He is making a fortune by using Mar-a-Lago every weekend to entertain guest, heads of state and hold fund raisers. His hotels are getting direct payment from campaign funds whenever there is an event in town. KAC publicly endorses his daughter’s brand. The Chinese government has given him the rights to 38 Trump brands in China. The list goes on and on and he’s only been in power a few weeks. His wealth is built on a foundation of debt that can come crashing down at any time like it did in the 90’s and 2000’s. This presidency will create such a windfall that it will elevate the Trump brand to new heights of wealth. How does that help us?
- Refusing to disclose his tax returns. I cannot accept that my champion will not stand and do his part to help advance this country. The reasoning that he can’t disclose his tax returns because they are being audited is a complete, absolute, bold-face lie. Warren Buffett personally refuted this excuse. We don’t know what’s hidden in those tax returns but I know that during my career I have paid $Millions in taxes at rates ranging from 25 to 55 percent (Sweden), knowing full well that I could find loopholes to reduce my tax burden but choosing, as a loyal citizen, to do my part. I know he has not done his part; he admitted as much. But he has created so many jobs which generates tax revenue for the country, you say. Ah, while we’re on jobs creation…
- Trump has a long history of squashing the “little man.” As Trump grew his wealth, he not only didn’t pay his taxes but he has repeatedly screwed his workers, contractors and suppliers. That is how I believe he is now screwing us. Same, exact patter with a much larger scale.
- Advocating the elimination of healthcare (not insurance) for the poor and disadvantaged. The poor, people with complicated medical conditions, and women are going to get hit the most by this new ACA replacement plan. Independent, 3rd parties are saying so. We need an expansion of affordable healthcare (notice I didn’t say affordable insurance) and the introduction of competitive practices to reduce cost but instead we get healthcare ripped away from people who need it the most.
- Repealing laws that protected retirement accounts and rolling back the mortgage rate reduction for the poor.
- Putting un-deserving cronies and the helm of agencies that serve his citizens. You cannot tell me that we could not find, in this great country, an innovative education leader who could help elevate our struggling education system. Instead we got someone who has no experience in education or managing a business. She married into the Amway fortune. We have seen him appoint cronies into undeserving positions as a dizzying pace. We now have the richest cabinet in history. How is buying your way into a Cabinet position going to help citizens who are struggling?
- Elevating dangerous men who have a proven record of being racist, xenophobic and want to destroy our country. Bannon, Miller, Gorka. Destruction, xenophobia, antisemitism. How is that solving our country’s problems?
- Increase in military spending and building a stupid wall. In 2007 our annual DoD spending was $652B. In 2017 our annual DoD spending will be $853B. That is an increase of $200B in 10 years. In 2007 we had 1.38M active soldiers, today we have 1.138M soldiers. Interestingly that’s a drop of 200,000 soldiers in the same period. Now, I realize that soldiers aren’t the only cost but my point is that the US military has shrunk in the past 10 years while the money spent has grown. We don’t have a money problem, we have a waste problem. We need to rapidly modernize our military to keep up with the threats of the world. We need smart spending and smart incentives to keep money from being wasted (eliminate the “use it or lose it” policies). So why would Trump push for a historic increase in military spending? He’s supposed to be a businessman and should know that you can’t spend your way to fiscal health. Why isn’t he using his “considerable experience” to help us strengthen our military while being smarter about spending? Why can’t we use the $54B increase in military spending and the $21B needed to build a wall to invest in infrastructure and job creation?
So, what can we do?
I think we can all do a few simple things to work toward a more inclusive and loving country.
- Stay vigilant. Question. Research. Don’t just accept what he says as truth.
- Stop listening to fear-mongering, conspiracy peddling and propaganda. When I was listening to conservative talk radio I believed with all my heart that the Liberals were feeding their followers propaganda. It caused me so much fear and consternation. I walked around seeing a conspiracy behind every bush and a doomsday around every corner. Then when I stopped listening to that garbage the weirdest thing happened. I started listening to my own heart and my own mind and the fear subsided, and what I found instead was a desire to be open, include and search for peace. My simple test for propaganda is whether when all radios and TVs are off, when the websites are shut down and voices are quiet does it all make sense? Take this piece by Hannity. Deep state looking to overthrow Trump? Wiretaps? America has a right to know what Obama knew? It’s OK that Trump blatantly lied about Obama ordering a wiretap but it’s not OK that we don’t know what Obama knew? Really? Why does every conservative radio host from Hannity to Rush to Alex Jones make me feel like I’m too stupid to have figured this out and only they can piece it all together? Because it’s made up propaganda. Truth be told, I don’t listen to liberal talk radio. I don’t watch liberal TV. I don’t read liberal newspapers. My thinking is not being shaped by liberal propaganda, it’s being shaped by what’s in my heart.
- Talk to each other. Meet diverse people. Explore new ideas. I can only tell you what I’ve experienced, that once you get to know people from all different walks of life you will find that they want the same things… love, connection, acceptance, safety, equality, to feel valued. Shouting at each other over social media or screaming at our TV screens is not going to bring us together. Getting to know each other… all flavors of each other…will create understanding and acceptance.
- Talk to your representatives. Stay active. Hold them accountable to respond.
- Vote for principle, not party. Vote for those who have real ideas on now to advance our country. Don’t vote for people who just parrot a party platform. Vote for those who vow to protect our basic rights to freedom, sustenance, education, healthcare, safety. Vote for progress, not regress. We can never win the race looking through our rear-view mirror. We must look forward to win.
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