Documenting
The light had changed three times but no one in the line of cars ahead of her, had moved. Filly sat in the car, low in the seat because it was her husband’s car, not her truck, and she waited for the cars in line to move. It was bright and hot in Houston, late summer. There was a school bus she noticed through the gap between two cars, unloading.
The kids were all going towards parents, with their sparkly still new backpacks into the large apartment complex located directly on the busy multi-laned street, with cluster of residential apartments boasting a sign “Ashford Santa Cruz, a place to belong”. The sun heat radiated off the sign and the streets and Filly thought about the message she had learned about from her sources, regarding the global elites who had said “just give us Texas”.
Santa Cruz as far as Filly knew, was in California. Texas was nothing like California other than both bordered Mexico on their southern boundaries. Filly had just read how the Treasurer for Santa Cruz, Elizabeth Gutfahr had embezzled 40 million dollars.
“Apr 19, 2024Former Santa Cruz County Treasurer Liz Gutfahr, a three-term Democrat who was running unopposed for re-election, resigned from office on April 12.”
How did hard earned tax dollars in that amount disappear with no one noticing for twelve years? Filly wondered. The funding from taxpayer dollars was not the problem. The criminal behavior of those managing or handling the people’s money WAS the problem. Just like immigrants were not the problem. But the criminal behavior of those letting in millions of undocumented people, including high risk convicts from other countries, WAS the problem.
Filly had learned that neighborhoods in her state of Texas, were being overwhelmed by the influx of people, as evidenced in one small way, by the ten minute wait for the full bus of low income housing children, unloading. And as the people waited patiently in their cars, Filly knew that the homeowners continued to pay taxes for education, (school tax) while at the same time, meeting with local state representatives, who had informed residents that these low income housing projects were exempt from payment of any taxes.
Filly watched commercials telling her (and others like her who thought that migrants should be documented), to “be kind”.
“WE ARE KIND” Filly thought to herself about the “virtue signaling” hypocritical messages. “How can a group of people who claim to care about children on the one hand, prove willing and able to dismember babies in abortion for medical research on the other hand” she thought. Those entering her country, who did so legally, usually had work lined up and were willing to be contributing members of society, not a financial drain on the local economy.
Ted Cruz was one such contributing and much appreciated Texan and had come from a family of legitimate immigrants. Filly had heard about his childhood from a talk done by his father at a political meeting. Texas welcomed legit documented migrants, but Texans wanted justice for all, not justice only for migrants, which meant that everyone got documented. “Good intentions for everyone” was not something that needed to be marketed to the masses. The majority of people already were kind…and not as stupid as the media seemed to think.
The unloading bus finally turned off its red blinking lights and moved to the right of the intersection and Filly went up to the light. She made her way back to the hospital for the third time that day. She had been awake for almost forty eight hours having spent the night sitting in the chair helping to facilitate healing for a loved one.
The main doctor, a migrant from India, had said “people are like cars, and they can run well for quite some time without trouble, but then they start needing to be fixed”. Filly thought about exhaustion and exhaust. IF people were like cars, then shouldn’t exhaustion be like exhaust, something that was eliminated?
She smiled at her own play on words. The doctor before the main doctor, also was from another country and had immigrated from Bangladesh and Pakistan and had written a book, “the boy refugee, a memoir from a long forgotten war”. These two men, both doctors, were legitimate immigrants, had not only escaped to come to the USA, they had made a new life for themselves. They were much appreciated, much respected members of the community and were experts in their medical field.
There had been so many times Filly’s own exhaustion had been minimized or eliminated in the past few days that she had spent, helping a loved one recover at the hospital, because of the warm help from the doctors as well as the expertise of the nurses.
The OR nurses, who were the first to welcome them, were amazing, with their bright colored caps and their stunning work ethic and proficiency. They were the “welcome mat” of the hospital, for people about to have some kind of procedure. That was at the beginning of Filly’s “shift” so she did not have any “exhaust” to worry about then. Filly did not know their ethnicity but walking around the hospital she was able to get a feel for the wonderful melting pot of humanity that it was. She would be grateful for any sign of removal of “exhaust” from her “car”.
She then met more nurses, floor nurses, charge nurses, tech nurses, lab nurses and more. Filly really appreciated the help from Nurse Hong, who was from Vietnam. Also a refugee to the USA and a lovely lady, she was surviving by herself with her twelve year old daughter who loved to play with friends. Hong was able to make a huge difference in the quality of care by paying close attention, following up, and giving relevant information when needed.
Nurse Hong was assisted by a student nurse who was attending a local college. Then the night shift brought the lab nurse, whose lighthearted manners reminded Filly of Akwafina in Crazy rich Asians. She had a bright and humorous disposition, not a bad trait when taking blood at three am. Then there was the “middle blocker volleyball player” looking women, Audrey, who had a voice and mannerisms that were as pleasant as butter. Filly loved her weave and again, her colorful nurses cap.
The male nurse on the fourth day, was named Julio…Filly asked him if he had “Been down to the school yard” and he laughed and got the joke. He said that he had never heard the song up until just a month ago and he had been studying to get his nurse practitioner license.
All the nurses were busy as the floor was completely full and endured much hard work as some patients were volatile. Filly learned that one patient, a police officer, had been hurt while trying to avoid some motorcycles who were trying to take over the road. Another patient, a vet, was yelling daily that his food was cold and he wanted to “get outa here”.
Filly, walked down the hall to the ice station to get some ice and tried to talk to him and he thought she was his counselor. When she told him that their experience was very favorable, he seemed to quiet down some. Filly had learned that he had thrown his tray at the nurses and they had to call security. There was much that people trying to help, apparently had to endure. Filly wondered if the media ever marketed messages to nurses asking them to “be kind” as it would be about as appropriate as the ones aimed at the general public.
In the midst of getting arm stabs for IV’s and eating only liquid diet, the patient that Filly was helping seemed to respond favorably to nurses who took the time to say their name, write on the board, and listen to the patient. Most of these people, helping her loved one, were immigrants. OF COURSE she wanted to be kind. There was no reason not to be.They even brought her a comp breakfast on the one day when she had been up all night helping and was too tired to walk down to the cafeteria. On the other days, it helped, that Luby’s was just a block away as well so Filly could walk and get in her steps too. Their menu was right up Filly’s alley.
When Filly drove home, later in the day, the sun had gone down and there was little traffic to worry about. Just give us Texas? Filly thought… sending out a response to the global elite…
Nope… “ask not what Texas can do for you, ask what you can do for Texas” she said. The doctors and nurses proved that there was much that immigrants could do for not just Texas but for the whole USA. Vote for those who protected babies and wanted documented workers because those measures were fair and just. Very simple.