Phil's Blog About Stuff

Okay guys, this one is an important post. A friend of mine linked this website about someone she knows that is currently being held for deportation, even though she is married to a US citizen. She has a Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota. This coupled with the fact that she is a genuine and nice person should be major pulls as to why to keep her in the United States. She is a wonderful representative of what all of Americans should strive to be. What I am asking you guys to do is to look at the website. It would greatly help if we could all send in letters to our elected representative(s). Even though this is not in Maryland, getting more pull from other senators will help!

I am going to make this easy for you guys. Here is where you can find the letters that have been provided to download. I would suggest that you get the editable versions of the letters under “Other U.S. Congresspeople” and “Other elected Officials” for the senators. I am going to make it even easier by giving you some information. These are our Maryland senators. Please-please-please send in a letter. All it costs is a stamp, and if you’re really that concerned with the 30 cents for a stamp I can pay for that (granted I have proof that you are sending the letter out). But, hurry because she is running out of time. As Krissy mentioned in an e-mail to me “As you know my friend Hoa is being deported soon. On Saturday, October 10th there is a world-wide event to try to put pressure on legislators and raise funds for their legal fees.”

I know most of you can not afford to contribute to the cause. I will not ask for donations, as I certainly have no money to donate. However, if you do have some spare cash around, please consider this. You can make a donation from this page.

From here you can submit an electronic letter to our Maryland senators, but honestly the chances that they will be read before it is too late is slim to none. If enough people post these electronic messages, they will have to take notice. Because of this, I am starting here and ask that at the very least you copy the letter into these comments with a title along the lines of “Please Help Hoa Nguyen Get A Fair Trial.”

If you need help in what to write, I would suggest copying the letter that was posted in the second link. I started with a more unique and personal touch. This is my letter to both senators, in case it is easier for you to see it before you start:

‘I am writing you to inform you of an issue on immigration that has come to my attention OUT OF STATE. I know that you are focused primarily on what Maryland can do, and I appreciate the focus on such issues. However, I recently have come to hear about a case of a friend of a friend of mine in which Hoa Nguyen from Minnesota has been detained due to some complications of her student visa. She was married to an American citizen and due to some minor confusion, missed a court date.
While I think that she should have some penalty against her for missing the courst date, I do not see why such lengths have to be gone to. I do not see why she can not reschedule her hearing. She represents what all Americans should be. She is educated (with a Master’s Degree, no less), nice, caring and brings joy to everyone I have met that knows her.
She is an active member of her community and should not be kicked out of this country right as she and her family are starting to make a stride at starting their own business. If anything, we need to encourage more people to do this in the financial times that we are in. I urge you to please give her the chance at a fair trial.
The website that was set up to help her (hoadefense.org) has a default letter to send in which I will post to further explain the issue. However, I thought that first I would give a more personal touch to this, so that you would not think that I am just a blind follower of a philanthropic trend. The letter reads:
“I am writing with concern for William (Dan) Hanson and Hoa Nguyen.  Hoa came to the U.S. on a student visa to study ten years ago. She attended Luther College where she met Dan, a U.S. citizen. They graduated in 2003 and moved to the Twin Cities to begin the next stage of their lives. A Hennepin County judge married them on November 8, 2008. A ceremony and reception were then held in Hoa’s native country, Vietnam, two months later. Dan recently began his own construction business and Hoa has finished her Master’s degree in French Literature from the University of Minnesota. They planned to build a life together; one of community, compassion, and contribution.
Hoa and Dan hoped that their marriage would only simplify their future plans.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  Hoa is now in Sherburne County Jail, scheduled for involuntary deportation.  Her visa status first became unclear to them in the midst of their trip to Vietnam to celebrate their wedding.  Upon returning, Hoa talked to immigration officials, who set a one-month time limit in which to resolve her status.  She requested more time to sort through the situation, and her case was then transferred to a different office.  After that, she received a letter to appear in court on August 13, 2009 regarding her status in the U.S.  After confusing, and missing, the court date, she was taken into custody and has been in jail since August 14, 2009.
As she worked to try and comply with immigration law, Hoa was unaware of the excessive consequences and felt assured by her marriage to Dan.
I am asking that Dan and Hoa be given the chance to comply with this country’s immigration laws in a reasonable manner; without being separated from each other and denied their life here indefinitely.  I am asking you to sponsor a private bill on their behalf, which allows Hoa to stay in her home, gain legal status, and be with her husband.
I thank you for your time and consideration.’

Thank you for your time,
Phil Heaps”

So, I was reading this about some of the ideas rolling around to improve our educational system. Well, I am a little concerned. First off, I think Summer vacation is something kids need. At the same time, I know that kids lose a lot of what they “learned” over the extended break. The article brings up a good point about students in poverty who may fall behind during the summer months and how they do not have the luxury of camps, summer school etc. Then again, I was not wealthy enough to do that stuff either. The only time I went to summer school was when I risked dropping out. From what I recall, that did not cost my family anything. Even so, I do recall having a lot of trouble at that point. Even with all of these points, I think the problem is not that kids have an extended summer vacation. The article also mentions adding three hours to every school day.

I think what they need to do is start school later so kids are actually awake when school starts. Moreover, I think there needs to be a change in how students are taught. They need to be taught how to think critically and how to solve problems effectively. For instance, they should be taught to look at the problem and look for different solutions to it. This way they have a process that they can learn how to solve those problems, as opposed to simply searching for an answer. There is way too much process of elimination style learning in our current system. Seriously, tests and quizzes that are multiple choice encourage guessing! If we can focus on teaching kids how to find answers instead of how to figure out which answers work best, we may actually get at a decent point on the educational standings. Essentially, the answer is not to add more hours to learn the same things the same ways. That may work for a small improvement, but if we continue to teach the same way then students will keep learning how to find a particular answer than how to solve a type of problem. Case and point, how many of you will take a test and say “that sounds like the answer that would be right on this test”? Compare that to actually thinking about what the question is asking and how each item that could be an answer would fit into that category. We have all been taught how to look for the answer someone wants, but we do not know how to find an answer that someone may not have. If we want to solve issues like health care, this ruined economy and all other sorts of problems, then we need to start thinking of solutions that no one has thought up, yet. Let’s face it, nothing that these politicians are planning is going to solve the problems indefinately. We need to learn how to prevent and adapt!

In lieu of being able to think about anything creative, I am just going to post about my night this past Saturday. I decided to get together with some freinds I have not seen since highschool and head out to a bar.  Because one of my friends (who wound up bailing) wanted to watch the fight, we were going to go to some bar in Laurel that none of us have ever heard of. The bar was packed. We decided that this bar was lame (and after finding out there was a $50 cover charge our conclusion was affirmed). We came back up to Columbia and hit up a bar called Pub Dog, which has good and cheap beer (2 fo $4!). After a night of drinking and discovering that I was the only white person on earth who does not know the lyrics to The Devil Went Down to Georgia, we called it a night and got a lift home. I drank some water (so as to avoid the hangover) and passed out. In the morning, I was ready for work and not hungover at all. Saturday night rocked!