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Dear Friends,

As an aside, the Ukrainian Kozaks fought Turkish and Tatar Muslims to the point where even the Kozak Cross took on an interesting feature . . .

The Kozak Maltese Cross, adopted from the Crusaders by them on purpose, was often depicted on top of the Islamic crescent moon.

Even Orthodox three bar Crosses were so depicted. The icon of the Holy Protection published by Jordanville has this Cross on the cupolas depicted there!

Orthodox Greek writers often wrote to extoll the heroism of the Ukrainian Kozaks in going to liberate Christians from Muslim slavery.

They believed that Kozaks who died in battle with them went straight to heaven etc.

St John the Confessor (O Aghios Ioannis o Rossos) was a Kozak who was taken prisoner and sold into slavery.

He endured many insults by his Turkish family who soon, however, came to revere his sanctity.

He often went to a walled-up church to pray the Psalms - the Kozaks often memorized the Psalms in case they would be captured and so had ready material for prayer and meditation.

Another is St Pachomius the Kozak who is enshrined on Patmos and there are others.

When the Sultan of Istanbul sent a letter to the Kozaks asking them to stop attacking his ships and otherwise causing him grief, the Kozaks wrote a famous reply back to him . . .

The painting depicting the Kozaks writing this response is popular in Ukrainian homes . . .

The Sultan called himself a "Commander-Warrior-Chieftain" in his letter, but to this the Kozaks replied:

"What kind of 'commander' are you when you can't even kill a porcupine with your bare posterior!"

(The Kozak response to the Sultan gets better . . .)

This saying, vulgar as it is, has entered into common, vulgar Ukie parlance today . . .

The Kozaks firmly believed the Muslims to be "devil-worshippers" because of a misunderstanding of their battle-cry, deriving from the first verses of the Koran: Bismillah Ar-rahman Ar-rahim! Or, In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

"Bis" in the Slavic languages means "devils" and so the Kozaks referred to the Turks as "Bisurmen" or the "devil's men."

We Slavs and Greeks have been struggling with those guys for centuries!

To our American friends - welcome to the club!

Alex

Hello,

That is the point. My country (Mexico) doesn't expose itself to international insult. Our principle of international politics is that they are none of our business until somebody actually calls for our help.

That may be so. I do not presume to know how things were 200 years ago in these lands. Or actually not in these lands, for these lands were not part of your country back then.

Don't get me wrong. I've found plenty of people living by the highest Christian standards, and I am honored by even having had the chance to meet them.

But a collection of individuals doesn't make a State, and even then, I've met many more people about whom I cannot make such a statement.

This would be hilarious, except that you actually seem to believe it.

Let me tell you a little about your social classes:

First of all, this is the only country I know of where your ethnic AND your national origin are of any relevance for official purposes.

And there is an offical social class system: At the very top you have the Citizens, who enjoy all the rights you are familiar with.

Next you have the Permanent Residents. They can decide on their employment, they have permission to travel, as long as they register every 10 years with the USCIS, they have to pay taxes, but they cannot vote or be voted.

After them you have dozens of different categories of Non-Permanent Residents. There are so many categories that the initial effort to classify them using letters of the alphabet became inadequate and now some categories have sub categories indicated by numbers and/or more letters.

For instance: An L-1 person can work here, but only for a company that also has operations in his/her country of origin for which this person already worked in that country. An L-1 person cannot work for any other employer.

The spouse and minor children of L-1 persons are L-2 persons, they cannot work in this country, but they can start their own business.

An H-1 person can work here, but only for the company sponsoring the visa. Sponsor companies can be changed only with permission from the USCIS.

The spouse and minor children of H-1 persons are H-4 persons, they cannot work, they cannot start their own business, they cannot have a social security number.

If you want to "upgrade" from one of the lower categories to Permanent Resident, you might, but the moment you do, you loose some of the few rights you had in the previous category, such as the ability to travel abroad. If you dare to travel abroad while the process is pending, you loose both the pending process and any previous status and if you try to come back, you are denied entrance and deported.

These processes don't take "weeks". The typical family-based process lasts 5-10 years. The typical employment-based process lasts 2-4 years.

Currently I am an H-1 person, but I am in the middle of the upgrade process, so I cannot travel to Mexico, but 3 years ago, before we started the upgrade process, my youngest son was 2 years old, and his passport was valid only for one year, so on our way back from Mexico, he was admitted only until his passport's expiration date (although the law clearly says otherwise, that he should have been admitted until the expiration date of his visa, but the law also says that the decisions of immigration officials regarding aliens cannot be appealed). I could not afford another trip to Mexico that soon, so once his passport was renewed, we had to ask my brother in law to take my 2 year old son to visit his grandmother in Mexico so he could re-enter the US with his new passport. The only other choice was for him to be deported.

Yeah, very Christian.

Not me. I don't have a "better life" here than in my country. It's the other way around, actually, I came here to serve and help, because here is where I think I can do it best. Here, among my people who suffer opression and discrimination, here is where I need to be. But not because I'm looking for a "better life"

Is that why you have Irish-Americans and Italian-Americans and Arab-Americans and Mexican-Americans and Chinese-Americans? Don't seem very united to me, though. To me it looks that although you've acknowledged you share something, you still want to make it clear how many camps there are and who belongs to each one.

Honestly, I do not know, I never knew the Soviet Union.

That greatly depends on what lasts longer, my patience or your bureaucratic processes. Yes the choice is mine, but can yet be revised.

Sharing with you my point of view about what I perceive as being wrong, so you, who have (or at least claim to have) the meanings to change it, could change it comes not from anger, but from charity.

It is precisely in consideration of those precious jewels of Christianity that I've found in this heap of ore that I shout: "Change! You can be jewels as well! It is still time!"

I hate to see you so distracted with your war games when there is so much to do!

Blessed Pascha to you too.

Shalom,
Memo.

Dear Memo...

Thank you for your views. I always try to remember that we can live in a bubble. If I lived near you I would love to come over, share a beer, and listen to you. We could poke each other's - bubbles.

Never, are my horizons expanded more, than when I try to look at the world through the eyes of someone who has grown up in a culture and society diffrent than my own expereince. It reminds me of how human we all are. It serves to remind me that we are all, limited human beings. And how much we need each other.

Peace my friend.

I live in Meriden Connecticut, and I am ready to give Meriden back to Mexico... what's that? Connecticut was never a property of Mexico??!! Well - I will gladly take a few beads for Meriden. In the very least we would like to sell you - our state Governor.

-ray

Well, apparently a lot of your fellow countrymen and women don't like that principle, because they keep crossing the border to a country that IS willing to expose itself to international insult, if it perceives the cause to be just.

Hello,

Well, we certainly not do so to interfere with your politics.

Shalom,
Memo.

I'm sure you don't intend to, but certainly the issue of illegal immigration from Mexico has had a major impact on our politics, not to mention our economy - especially in California.

Really? What do you call your soccer fans chanting Os-a-ma at the recent Olympic qualifying match between Mexico and the US.

Yours,

hal

Hi Hal

Now, I see no relationship between this comment of you about ignorant crowds of a football match and our international politics.

I think it's a good idea to clarify that incident:

It was not the qualifying match between Mexico and the USA, it was a previous match between the USA and Canada teams. This match was completely uninteresting for the Mexicans (I would not have gone to the stadium to watch a match that was probably boring, I don't know), there were few in the stadium and you will be surprised to know that the ones who started shouting "Osama" were Canadian students from the Guadalajara Free University (the owners of that stadium).

Mexicans there thought it was funny and they took the phrase as theirs for all the matches. And remember this is a football match nothing more (anf if you wanna know what is fanatism you should go to a British Stadium where more horrible things are shouted).

Mexicans do not hate Americans, they still come here and they're treated well, you will always find that we're very welcoming and friendly with anyone.

...and especially our tourist dollars, right?

If the Canadians had been chanting the name "Adolf" in front of a group of Jewish students, would the Mexicans have thought that was funny and joined in? And would that make everything all right, because after all, the Canadians started it?

You do understand why the name "Osama" might be disturbing to us, right?

Or, those Canadians, being very religious as they are, were just shouting "Hossana!" for their soccer team's deliverance but the translation got entangled in the charged stadium air waves and reached those equally devout "futbol" Mexican fans as "Osama!"?

Amado

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"...and especially our tourist dollars, right"

Would this be wrong? If so, why? Do we in the US attract tourism from around the world for profit? Considering the benefits to Americans from the labor of Mexican citizens here and abroad, why should we not spend our money in Mexico on vacation?

I am truly unsettled by the nationalistic and uncharitable words I am reading on this thread. I understand that many of us react out of fear and misunderstanding, but can't we just try not to be whipped up into a frenzy of hatred (and self-glorification) by what is going on around us.

Maybe all of us could benefit from a long look in the mirror (individually and collectively) to see the good and the bad in ourselves and our countries. Neither the USA, nor Mexico, nor any Middle Eastern country is without good and evil in its foreign and domestic policies.

Getting the planks out of our eyes might help us all see things more clearly.

Hi,

Should I presume you think all Mexicans living in the United States are, or at least were at some point, illegal immigrants?

If so, then you're wrong.

Neither I, nor anyone in my family, have ever violated the migratory laws of the United States.

The hardships I described on a previous post are the hardships suffered by LEGAL immigrants. Illegal immigrats fare even worse, much worse.

And if you think illegal immigration is a problem in California, then it would be interesting to see what would happen if we all(legal and illegal) had our Exodus and left you virtually without cleaners, waiters, nannies, farmers, etc. THAT would be a problem.

Illegal immigrants taken alone, provide a significant fiscal surplus, meaning that they pay more in taxes than what they use in public services, not to mention the steady support that their work provide to the American economy, especially in these times of crisis.

And in the whole "illegal immigrant" thing, we only provide half of it, the "immigrant" part. The "illegal" is provided by you and your law-makers.

We cannot put an end to illegal immigration. You can.

Shalom,
Memo.

"Soccer fans with a too-spicy sense of humor".

And they are not "My Country", unless you are willing to call "Your Country" those who shoot Mexicans as a sport in Arizona, or the ladies in Texas who drown or stone their children to death because "God asked them to".

Shalom,
Memo.

Which you could spend elsewhere, and yet freely choose to spend in Mexico.

What's wrong with that?

Shalom,
Memo.