Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

“A vision is best taken on by the culture of a people when it is not forced,” I say to Fidel. In Spanish, they told the two young teenage sisters to take off all their clothes. The two girls refused. A standoff ensued at the Jose Marti International Airport in Cuba.The authorities said they needed to check if they were carrying ‘contraband.’  Their mother and father had looked to get them on a flight out of the country after the new, ruling leadership had ordered these girls and many others to work in the sugar cane fields under the Cuban sun. The girls were adamant in their position and refused to comply. Anything could have happened at that moment. Ultimately, the authorities relented and allowed the young girls to board the flight to American soil.  My maternal grandfather and grand uncle had a thriving law practice in La Habana. Life was good for my family but it came to an abrupt end when Fidel Castro and his band of visionary rebels forcibly took over ...

My home in Oahu’s North shore town of Haleiwa was a 2 bedroom ‘shotgun’ plantation wood structure left over from the 1940’s. It sat on a raised level just across the towns only 7-11 store on Kamehameha Highway. My backyard overlooked the pineapple fields and the massive mountain range that shoots out to Kaena Point, the most westerly tip of O’ahu. While in Hawai’i, I worked as a life skills trainer to a young, feral girl on the autism spectrum. On my time off, I would explore the island, surf, join bonfires on the beach and race through the pineapple fields. There was always talk of protecting the North Shore’s natural environment and warding off big development was very important to the people of the town. Everyone liked the way things where. My neighbor, originally from Oregon, was an exceptional Mormon surfer guy who use to go out at midnight off Sunset Beach with a spear and long flippers to fish all alone. I was amazed he stayed alive.  A jack-of-all-trades...

Tio Enrique, went back almost two decades ago and brought back pictures... Mami, as her grandchildren call our graceful, humble and classy artist grandmother said,  "Ay! Los mumbles son los mismos mio. No los han cambiado!" My cousin, my sister & a stowaway (lols)  Two families had been living in our family home. She left  Miramar, Cuba in the heart of La Habana in 1959 never to return. My cousin, Enrique Alfredo and my youngest sister, Giselle,  went back about a year and half ago and walked into my families former home cataloging it and bringing back a treasure trove of nostalgia for the rest of the family to see. The families living in the home were gracious enough to allow this. Everything is run down in an elegant way. The people living there there have done what they can with the means they have had.  People do what they can to get by. Enrique told me of the warped political science perspective of the taxi drivers which like the Chevro...