My new employees from Refugee Resettlement showed up the first day with a great work ethic. They needed little supervision, worked well as a team, and although many spoke fluent English, I was surprised to learn that those with little or no English managed just fine. Many were Bosnians who were in refugee camps in Europe for a year or more before being admitted to the US. They were fed a lot of rice and vowed to never, ever eat rice again.

To repeat from my first post, I turned to RR for business reasons, not humanitarian ones. Yet my relationships (which became friendships) with my employees and their families was a life-changing event. Because it happened over time, I never saw it coming.   

Some had 2-3 years of college before the war and others had good jobs and modest homes. The losses of property were not the most important though. One man was the sole surviving male in his family. Two brothers told me how they had retrieved the rotting corpse of a man who had committed suicide due to the war so that he could be given a proper burial. One brother said "That smell. I couldn't get it off my hands for days." Then, after a long pause added "I was 16". At a gathering of Bosnians, I saw a 16 year old girl whom I knew had found her grandparents shot to death after the invading Serb soldiers had left her village. With all males 14-64+ out fighting, the women and girls were considered fair game by the Serbs. She may have told only a part of what happened that day. This is all just a very small sample the stories I have.

Guy Frank, my RR contact, became a good friend and brought me so many great people. One time he brought 2 men and he was clearly avoiding my queries about their backgrounds. He knew I was uncomfortable taking in highly educated people and putting them into production jobs if there was any chance they could find work in their fields. Finally, I got it out of Guy. They were doctors and could not practice in the US. I told Guy to keep trying to find them jobs in some related field before I would hire them. Fortunately, he did. Another prospective employee-a Russian Jew who was no longer welcome in the post USSR time-brought a thick resume' that I leafed through. He had been an aeronautical engineer in the Russian space program.

I have great respect for people who bravely leave their native countries to rebuild their-and their family's lives. There is a huge difference between reading about their stories or seeing clips on TV and getting to know them face to face.     



 

     

Quote from: tower912 on July 08, 2025, 03:04:26 PMGod loves the foreigner living among you.

"Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

And also, I would note, whatever you TO them.

Quote from: Scoop Snoop on July 08, 2025, 02:58:35 PMThis post is already very long, and I fear that scoopers will give Rocky reasons to lock it...

Good luck with that.

Quote from: Jockey on July 08, 2025, 03:42:48 PMMaybe someone in this administration should read the Bible.

Immigrants will be demonized when a racist government exists.

      44 minutes later, one of the usual suspects shows up.

I'm going to pull the pin, throw the grenade and hope it doesn't go off. 

Maybe someone in this administration should read the Bible.

Immigrants will be demonized when a racist government exists.

Some Canadians know how to handle slow play.   Alcohol makes you braver and dumber.

God loves the foreigner living among you.

Nice to see Fritz advance.   And a big thank you to Alcaraz for bludgeoning with zero mercy that fake British chump.  Let's pretend I'm British so the Wimby crowd supports me?  Nice try dude.  We're not buying it and you've insulted New Zealand and South Africa.  Buh-Bye.

As far as Fritz' chances?  It's gonna be tough.  He has to serve huge and hope Carlos sprays a lot of UFE's.

Shelton on the other hand could very well pull the upset over Sinner.  It's no secret that Alcaraz' A game is pretty much death on the grass.   His shot variety is sick and he's gassed up his serve a bit, along with pinpoint placement.  Placement of the serve is as important as pop, especially on the 2nd serve.  Tiafoe is a good example of a player with thunderous velocity but can really struggle with his 2nd serve.  I haven't really seen Flavio play a lot, but if he can hold his nerves, he could give Novak some probs.  Excellent serve, wheels, and a wicked backhand. 

With immigration being such a politically charged subject, I would prefer to focus here on the humanitarian nature of our treatment of these people rather than describing immigrants as either illegals or undocumented. If we carefully do so in this thread, hopefully Rocky will leave it be.

My most important experience with immigrants was with a special class of them-refugees. I discovered the Refugee Resettlement office in Richmond while trying to find employees for the small manufacturing company that I had founded. Too often, I had to deal with employees who were hung over until noon and others who needed frequent supervision, so my decision to work with Refugee Resettlement was a business decision, not a humanitarian one.

My contact was a guy named Guy who brought prospective employees to me and explained the way RR worked. The RR act was passed in 1980 and specifically was designed for people whose personal safety, and often their very lives, were at stake. While RR accounted for a very small percentage of US immigrants, it assisted them with finding employment, offered translation services, walked them through how to use public transportation, assisted in getting the children registered in school, ESL classes, finding housing, and explained temporary government subsidies to help with getting settled into their new country. Volunteers helped with much of this very difficult transition for the stressed, scared refugees. The Feds subbed the administration of RR to independent organizations, frequently to the World Council of Churches or the Catholic Dioceses. Any discussion of religion was strictly prohibited, and the program was sparsely funded with Federal dollars. Without dedicated volunteers, it would have been far less successful.

I think the term migrant is understood to mean Mexican and Central American immigrants rather than the nostalgically remembered European immigrants from whom many of us are descended. In reality, migrants, immigrants, and refugees are often, I believe, simply different words describing people who leave their home countries, cultures and families out of desperation rather than choice.

I am not suggesting that an RR styled program is feasible to handle the massive number of migrants/immigrants/refugees that are currently in the US, but the transparent campaign to dehumanize them? The recently completed huge mural of Lady Liberty in France with her hands covering her face in shame reflects my feelings on the matter.

This post is already very long, and I fear that scoopers will give Rocky reasons to lock it, so I will soon have another very long post regarding my many experiences with migrants/immigrants/refugees. That post hopefully will survive.

 

   

 

Quote from: 21Jumpstreet on June 30, 2025, 08:50:27 PMStarted watching The Waterfront and Animal Kingdom. Similar pacing, similar ideas, not sure I am getting into either one but trying.

Can't wait to watch The Bear

The Waterfront has been pretty good through three episodes. A friend described it as "Ozark on the oceanfront." I wouldn't go that far but it's been solid.