Why do Wordle - Why build a wall

 

Well, it's funny. Say, well, it's funny because I've been doing Wordle for over a year now. Um, just started doing it as a whim, as you know, something to do quite a while back when Lauren showed it to me. And then during this period of time, uh, after Tess’s passing, I just did it every day. Did a video every day. That's really the whole project is doing the videos. And it's been interesting and it's been surprising and it's been a recreation for me and a certain degree of a calling or a job almost because every day they come out with a new wordle, there's a new word, there's a new solution and I got to find that first. Then when I find the word, I got to find something to go with it to illustrate it. And recently I I've pretty well used it as a vehicle to find songs I like and uh either put this the words to the song and then melody or whatever the background music or in some cases just the flatout video as long as I stay under a minute which is another big part of the project or part of thechallenge you might say is to keep it under a minute so I don't violate any copyright rules. Well, anyway, this morning, and I when I say this morning, I mean 4:00 in the morning or earlier, the word came up exile, and I thought, gosh, you know, what what word can you use for that? Or what how can you illustrate that? And Tom Petty just came to my mind. You know, you don't have to live like a refugee. And they have similar but different definitions. When you look up exile, it says that, youknow, you're barred from re-entering your own country. and for whatever the reasons are. So, you're living in exile in in another, you know, another country and uh as a form of punishment, as a form of control. And uh refugees, I think, we think of as people that are leaving their country in order to gain access and freedom in another country. and and so now now they're refugees whether it's from the weather or whether it's from political storms something is forcing them to leave home and uh try to make a newlife. So anyway that's that's what crossed my mind and of course Tom Petty says it better than anybody and uh so I got a chance to use my one of my favorite songs. So then I, you know, I did it and, you know, I'm putting it in the blog. Anybody wants to see it and that's the other irony. How many people are actually going to see it? Not many. It doesn't really matter. The irony there is that I've had over a thousand views on some of my videos. And some of the ones I really liked the mostor worked the hardest on, I only got, you know, a few views. You might say, 10, 20, 30, whatever. So, here we are. And this morning it took me who knows if it took me a half an hour to do the video. I don't know. It ain't no big deal. But then I thought I'm gonna send it to people. Who would I send it to? People in my circle. People who I think might get it, might um sympathize with it or agree with it in terms of, you know, what are we doing in America? Building a wall. Walling out our fellowAmericans. not our fellow Americans, our fellow South Americans, we might say, or hemisphere Americans, however you want to say it, are our neighbors. And so, you know, this one, I've been going back and forth between tags between save our world and love thy neighbor. And I might, you know, come up with another one, but quoting Jesus, I felt should be safe. You know, why should I even worry about being safe? But I want to say something and love thy neighbor says a lot to me. It says a lot. And obviouslyhe meant to love more than just your next door neighbor. He meant to love each other. He said it so many different ways. However you treat the least of thee is how you're treating me. And then you know the inscription at the at the foot of the Statue of Liberty and and uh Seinfeld I just saw the other night he did a funny take on it. Yes. give us your tired, your poor, your hungry masses yearning to be free or huddled masses yearning to be free. You know, he says, could we go any lower? You know,could we say, you know, anyway, he was funny. I'm not, so I'm going to leave it there. But my point is, you know, I understand we have an immigration problem. I understand we really can't have open borders, I guess. But then again, building a wall is symbolic. It's symbolic. And I think there are people who are raising the wall metaphorically as part of their sense of anger, fear, and hate, I guess. And that's what bothers me more than anything. We are the country that invited the refugees. Weare the country where refugees could find hope. And now because of this political turn and because of the environment we're in, suddenly we're all all keyed up about being Americans, you know, and who's an American? You know, do you have to be born here? Well, of course. But then, well, what if you're born here? But, you know, we don't really like your people or whatever. Oh, then we're going to test that. We're going to question that. So, it's turned into like I just a broiling mass ofconfusion and hate. And I just want to rise above it. I don't want to be part of it. I don't want to exacerbate it. I don't want to get into a conflict. I didn't start YouTube videos to be controversial or my blog or anything else. But then the reason I did it and the reason I sent it out was I feel a certain fear also of being silent. I feel a certain responsibility to say something. Say something. However innocuous, just say give peace a chance. Give people a chance. There have beenmany sad stories coming out of here and and just one, this is years ago now or whatever time it's been, but a father, you know, his daughter, his three-year-old daughter, I think, drowned on the shores of either the Rio Grand or somewhere, it doesn't matter, but he stood there with his with his arms open and his mouth, you know, dropped in horror. How could this happen? And people are suffering. People are suffering to get to America. Now the pilgrims suffered to leave, you know, to leave their homeland to come to America.And you know, some of these people are just like those pilgrims. Some of them are just leaving in order to have a better life. And that belief that they can have a better life. And 99% of them when they get here, they work hard to earn that better life. Yes, there are some bad apples. There are some bad people. In any group of people, there's going to be some bad people. And that's a sad fact of our life and our existence and our our creature habits. But that doesn't mean that they're all bad. Andit doesn't mean we're all bad. And it doesn't mean Trump's all bad. I might as well say that there are aspects of what he's doing that I I actually agree with and support. But I'm not supporting things that promote hatred and meanness. And I just felt the need to say it. That's the end of this That's the end of this blog. That's the end of this uh soap box or whatever. You all have a nice day. Give peace a chance and love thy neighbor.