Our America

Triage

(Afghan boy with US soldier, photo by J. Malcolm Garcia) Some names have been changed for privacy After Kabul fell to the Taliban, I knew I could do little for my friends and colleagues, Hamid, Faiz, and Aman. Various NGOs and veterans’ groups organized Dunkirk-like efforts online to extract Afghans, and their . . .

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A Shade of Recognition

(Photo: A bus stop in San Juan, PR; CC BY-SA 4.0) On NPR the other day there was a story about sunny, hot, and sticky Los Angeles and the utter lack of shade trees in Watts and other Black and Latino neighborhoods in contrast to their profusion in nearby Beverly Hills and . . .

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How to Talk to Your Parents About Politics: Part 2

Photo Credit: Marcela McGreal, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Young Asian Americans describe how they’re coming to terms with political differences at the dinner table and in society Tip #2: Understand the impact of traumas of the past Johnny Trinh, a 23-year-old from Westminster, a southern Californian city with the country’s . . .

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How to Talk to Your Parents About Politics: Part 1

Photo Credit: Marcela McGreal, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Young Asian Americans describe how they’re coming to terms with political differences at the dinner table and in society When Jamie Gee joined a Black Lives Matter protest last year, the crowd marched peacefully through downtown Oakland until it got to the . . .

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Are You Listening?

“Are you listening, NSA?” “Can you hear me  Mark Zuckerberg?” “Are you there Bezos?” At some point, these went from internet-era jokes to truisms, from mocking a conspiracy theory to acknowledging the status quo. While it may not be by these specific actors, most of us accept that we can be listened . . .

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All That Is Yet to Come

(Photo: Afghan girl in class. Courtesy of J. Malcolm Garcia.) My Afghan colleague, Aarash, recently received a special immigrant visa (SIV). I’m a freelance reporter, and he worked with me in Kabul as a translator for five years. SIVs are available only to those Afghans who worked as translators, interpreters, or other . . .

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