Upstander Reflections

Preface: Last week when confronted with the news of the mass arrests of undocumented workers in Mississippi and subsequent separation of families in the process; I was appalled at the double standard of “justice” in our nation. Pundits flooded the airways with support for one side or the other. Most of it sounded like BS to me.  I struggled to formulate a response that properly magnified the absurdity of the situation. However, an idea came to me late one evening last week. Below is a satirical news article I wrote that attempts to highlight how unjust and unproductive raids like last week’s are in curbing illegal immigration.         Nearly 700 Corporate Executives Detained in Landmark Immigration Raid  -Mike Walsh  Sobbing, eleven year old Madeline Wynne spoke to the camera. “I need my Dad… he’s not a criminal!”   Madeline’s father was arrested along with nearly 700 other corporate executives charged with ...

It’s summer, and that means road trips. We’ve taken a couple long trips to West Virginia and Northern Wisconsin but mostly we have just been tooling around to various places closer to home like beaches, pools, parks and family-friend houses. Call us old fashion (not a stretch for me, I know) but we don’t bring our own music. We don’t use a phone. We don’t have playlists or mixtapes. We don’t even use the CD player. We just listen to the radio. Sure we have our favorite stations when we’re close to home but we also just like to press scan to see what comes up. In the middle of places like Ohio, Indiana or Wisconsin it’s often some evangelical Christian not so politely or subtly letting us know that we’re going to hell. We take that as a good reminder and then we move on to the next station. One time here in Chicago, I popped into a store for a minute and when I came back the kids were listening to Polish rap. Nate liked it so… Leah, Maddie and Nate getting goofy in the b...