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

Right now there is war and tragedy in Syria. The boy in this picture has lost family and is probably not Judeo-Christian. Should my empathy run on certain lines, yet not on others? Is not humanity a family? Being a brothers and sisters keeper puts our focus on being servants to others and the overall welfare of the community. The mind goes into a foresight-mode geared towards looking for ways to be of service.   Is Syria a lost case? Did we ever think there would be skateboarders roaming in Afghanistan? Over a decade of Soviet occupation and nearly two decades of official U.S. and allied force occupation, the tension between armed forces bent on different purposes over the Afghani-land has been something of an enigma. The people of Afghanistan are a simple people. They are either ‘from the land,’ or are focused on going about their business. They are sheep headers, farmers, servant leaders, skateboarding girls, traders, and artists. More than anything, they ar...

My maternal family left Cuba within months of Fidel taking over. They left by airplane thinking they’d be back by Christmas. They took only their bodies. One of my aunts came naked on the plane. Everything had to be left behind. The house in Miramar, the beach house in Varadero, the furniture, the clothes… everything. My youngest uncle had to stay behind as an infant because he did not have ‘the right papers.’ Papi (my late-maternal grandfather) went back for him and reunited his boy (my Godfather) with the family. America opened its arms to my maternal family back in the early 1960s. They briefly settled in Amityville, New York before relocating in Puerto Rico. While on the mainland they were given clothes, schooling and were able to move into a home at the onset of winter. Papi, a lawyer back in Cuba, worked long hours on Madison Avenue. It was rough and tough, yet better than the life that would be with Fidel in power.  On one side my family are refugees. On the...