Author: Nicole Luttrell

I'm a speculative fiction writer. That means I write about dragons, ghosts and spaceships. Sometimes I write about the ghosts of dragons on spaceships.

Dead Like Me, a series review

One thing I love about the modern way we watch tv is the ability to binge-watch old shows. Can you believe I’d never seen Seinfeld? We sure fixed that now.

Another show we recently binged that took a depressingly short amount of time was Dead Like Me.

Originally a Showtime show, we found it on Amazon Prime. 

Dead like me pic oneThe show centers around an eighteen-year-old girl named George (Ellen Muth). She’s killed by a toilet seat falling out of the sky.

Upon dying, George is chosen to become a Grim Reaper, as the Reaper who took her soul has now moved on. 

On where? No idea, that’s sort of a thing. None of the reapers know what’s waiting on the other side. They just know that they have to take the souls of those who have passed on to where they’re going. 

George is greeted by Rube, played by Mandy Patinkin. He dispenses sticky notes with a first initial, last name, date and time. 

This show was brilliant. We watched both seasons in no time at all. Let me break it down for you.

The show isn’t shy about hitting the hard issues in the first episode. Or any of them. The people who are dying aren’t bad. They’re children, beloved husbands, parents. Innocent, happy people who simply have an appointment.

For example, in the first episode, George has to take the soul of a little girl who dies in a train accident. We also take a good long look at what the loss of a child does to George’s parents. What losing a sister costs her little sister, Reggie.

This isn’t to say this show isn’t also funny as hell. I mean, George is killed by a falling toilet seat. She ends up working at a temp agency because being a grim reaper doesn’t pay. Literally, she’s not getting paid for this gig, and she still needs to do things like eat and pay rent.

Dead Like Me seems to go out of its way to not answer any big questions about the afterlife. The reapers don’t know. They only know that it looks different to every person and it looks fantastic. It’s like that episode of Are you Afraid of The Dark, Station 109.1. Near the end, Roy (played by Gilbert Gottfried) tells the main character that the afterlife is only terrible if you’ve led a bad life.

“If you’ve led a good life, it’s the best thing going.” 

One thing that I always like to see is well-written characters. Characters that feel like they could be people walking through my own life. And Dead Like Me hit that on every level.

Not a single character on this show was exactly good, bad or frankly sane. They’ve all go dead like me pic twotheir thing. They’re selfish, lazy, thieving, angry. Nothing is clear, really, about any of them. For example, the darling husband and I watched every episode together, and we couldn’t agree on whether George’s mom is a good woman trying her best, or a self-centered bitch who verbally abused her husband. I consider the fact that two people who tend to think alike on most things were so conflicted by this person.

So, that was all the good. Now, on to what wasn’t so great. 

The show ended after two seasons. And it ended with far too many questions unanswered. I feel I need to warn you now, a lot of questions just don’t get answered. It doesn’t end on this big awful cliffhanger. But you never find out how Rube died. You never find out what happened to Betty when she followed a dead person into the light. You never find out why one dead person turned into a graveling. You just don’t know. You don’t know if Mason ever gets clean if Daisy finds the fulfillment she’s looking for. You just don’t know.

And if you were hoping that the movie was going to answer any of these questions, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

Let’s talk a little about the movie. Because while it wasn’t Serenity, it wasn’t what it could be.

The story starts with Rube finally getting his last reap and heading into whatever awaits Reapers after they’re done. He’s replaced by a slick Reaper named Kane. He encourages them to break all the rules, including saving people from their death, stealing from the dead and visiting family from their previous lives. Hilarity, and lots of pain, ensues.

But the whole thing is super convoluted and rushed. It was hard to follow everything as it was going so fast. I won’t say the ending wasn’t satisfying. But it wasn’t what it could be.

Would I say it’s not worth watching? Absolutely not. I loved every episode. Do I wish it was more satisfying? Yes, of course. But then, I imagine that George wishes the answers that waited for her after death was more satisfying. So maybe the show did exactly what it was supposed to do.

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Carry Dr. King’s lessons into the Lunar New Year

Image by John Hain

Monday ways MLK Day, the day we as a nation set aside to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His lessons on equality of race and economic status, as well as his calls for peace, are ones that we should honor every day, not just once a year. 

Maybe not with a giant gun rally that included several organizations with ties to Neo Nazis. But that’s another issue for another day. 

Tomorrow is Lunar New Year. Also known as Chinese New Year, it’s a celebration of new beginnings, cleaning out the damages of our past and moving forward into a new year. Kind of like the one we just celebrated at the start of this month. If you don’t know, we are leaving the year of the Boar and entering the year of the Rat. 

I love rats. I’ve had several as pets over the years and I can tell you it’s basically like having a really smart puppy you can perch on your shoulder. 

According to Chinese Zodiac, people born under the year of the rat are clever, successful, thrifty and highly likeable. So anyone having a baby this year, get that kid a savings account. They’re also the first animal of the zodiac, so this year also marks the start of the newest cycle. So that’s pretty awesome. (This information curtesy of Chinesenewyear.net.)

I’m bringing these two things up because I think it’s a sign that MLK Day is the same week as the Lunar New Year. And as this is the start of a new decade, and a new 12 year cycle, it seems like a time to make some significant, long term changes in our lives. 

Instead of making a promise to get your finances in order, or start using that gym membership, how about we all make a resolution together?

Let’s make a resolution to carry the lessons of Dr. King into this new cycle. Let’s all make

martin-luther-king-682116_1920
Image by Adam Clay

an effort to speak up for those around us. Hell, for those around the world who are being persecuted. Let’s speak out against hatred, bigotry. Let’s stop seeing The Other. Let’s work towards seeing everyone as us, not them.

 

Today, right now, make a list of ways you can be an advocate for your fellow man, to stamp out hatred and foster peace. If we all do that, maybe the next time the Zodiac Wheel turns back to the year of the Rat, we can make Dr. King’s dream a reality. If not now, when?

And now I’d like to leave you with one of my favorite Dr. King Quotes.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

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A review of Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

I first heard about Rachel Hollis when I saw the cover of her first book, Girl Wash Your Face. 

That title is a case study in why choosing a good title is so important. Hollis got that title spot on. Of course, I had to find out what this was all about. And of course, I had to read her book.

After reading it I had to get the next one. Because the first one was so great. I did a review of it before, you can read it here.

Now, if you read Girl Wash Your Face, you know that it was half self-help book, half stop apologizing pic twoautobiography. That’s what I would expect from any good self-help book. If someone hasn’t lived through Hell, I don’t believe they can help me get through it.

There wasn’t much of the biography experience in Stop Apologizing. There are little snippets of her life, sure. But not the full-fledged stories like before. That was alright, though. We got all that in book one.

What this book focused on was being, fully, unapologetically you. and you know how I feel about that. I’ve all but removed ‘sorry’ from my vocabulary. Unless I mess up, of course. In the past, I’ve literally apologized when other people ran into me! 

I’m working on it. 

Stop Apologizing is broken into three parts. The first part, and the longest, is the list of lies we tell ourselves to stand in our own way. And, most importantly, why they’re all bullshit. 

I think this is the foundation of any real, honest change you’re going to make in life. Start with weeding out the lies and bad habits. It’s like cleaning, you can’t start until you get rid of the clutter.

Next, we move onto habits to adopt. These are not hard habits, but neither are they easy. For instance, Behavior number five hit me right between the eyes.

Build a foundation for success. 

Mind you, I didn’t start reading this book until I’d already picked out my word of the year. You know, Foundation. So this chapter struck me right between the eyes. I love it when the universe lines up like that for me.

Finally, the last part is skills to acquire. Some of these seem like the sort of thing you’re born with or not, but the truth is that there’s little to nothing you can’t learn. 

I appreciate that the first skill listed is planning. No surprise there, it’s my favorite thing. But guess what? The only reason I’m able to get done what I get done is that I plan shit out. Do you think I could hold down a full-time job, take care of a mother in law recovering from hip surgery, host this blog, work for another blog and still put out at least one book a year if I didn’t have my life planned down to the half-hour? No, never. At least not if I wanted to, you know, sleep. And I do, I really do. Sleep is sacred.

I loved this book, and I hope that Rachel Hollis keeps churning them out. I love following her on social media, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Did you read Girl, Wash Your Face or Girl, Stop Apologizing? What books have you read so far in 2020? Let us know in the comments below.

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The price of war

I often spend time sitting at my local Dunkin, just people watching. I do something I call sketching, but what I mean is writing out little descriptive paragraphs about the people in the place with me. It’s a writing exercise.

There’s a lot of kids, of course, drinking smoothies and soaking up the free wifi. Cops and people stopping in for a coffee before or after work. There are all sorts of people, just looking for a sugar fix.

There are a lot of older men who come in. They get small cups of coffee, and they sit around making conversation with anyone who catches their eye. Many of them are not well. Some are homeless, filthy. Some are just angry. Pretty much at everything.

These men are a common sight in my hometown. They’re Vietnam vets. And once or twice a year they all get together and march in the parade. But between those times, Veterans Day and Memorial Day, we pretty much ignore them. They go into stores, sometimes causing trouble, sometimes just making people uncomfortable.

Not me, though. Well, that’s a lie. I get uncomfortable too. But I do my best to not show it. 

I do my best because these men were sent into a nightmare situation. They came backpablo(2) damaged, in body and mind. The best of them came back with night terrors. The worst of them could be said to not have come back at all. Their bodies did, and they walk around in the world. But their minds are still in the jungle. 

This generation of broken men has surrounded me my whole life. I was taught by them in JR ROTC. I had friends who were the children and grandchildren of them. My first father in law was a Vietnam vet. He once almost planted a knife in his younger son’s throat because he accidentally startled him in the middle of the night. I and many women and men of my generation have sat at the knees of these Veterans and learned well the price of war.

And yet, it never ends. My generation has sent its share of young men and women overseas. One buddy of mine had a panic attack at New Year when people started popping balloons. 

Another one killed himself last year. He left a wife and a bunch of kids. The terror of war finally got to him.

In a few decades, this town will still be full of men walking around, maybe homeless. Maybe just broken. They’ll be from my graduating class of ’05 or later years. We’re too late to change that.

But damn it, if we keep beating the drums of war, we’ll just keep breaking these kids. We’ll weaken generation after generation, not in service to our country but service to the rattling of useless sabers. We aren’t any safer. We’re just poorer.

And the next wave of broken men drinking coffee in Dunkin will be from the graduating class of 2020. 

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Join me in helping the people at the American border

Some time ago I wrote a blog post in defense of the immigrants seeking asylum at the American border. 

Seeking asylum isn’t illegal, but they’ve been shoved into cages and forced to exist in inhumane conditions that I, as an American, am ashamed of.

It’s monstrous, and I’ve had enough. I bet you’ve had enough, too. 

That’s why I’m hosting a fundraiser for the groupImmigrant Families Together.

If you haven’t checked out this organization yet, you should. It’s committed to helping immigrants detained at the border post bail, get homes and be reunited with their families. This is work that I want to be involved in.

indexI hope you do too. So I’m hosting a fundraiser for Immigrant Families Together, from January 31st to February 2nd. During that time I’ll be posting a link to donate directly to the organization. 

Of course, I want to thank you for giving to this worthy cause. So, screenshot and send to me the confirmation of your donation, and I’ll send you a free e-copy of any Station 86 book of your choosing. You can do that on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or, you can just use #PBWIFT on those platforms, and I’ll keep an eye out for you.

Now, the PBW community has never done a fundraiser before, but I bet you guys are going to shine. So I want to set our goal at $1,000 over three days. We can do it, I know we can.

If you feel the same way I do, please share this post, and the social media posts I’ll be doing over the next few weeks. We need to raise awareness not just that there are still people imprisoned at the American border and that there’s something we can do to help.

See you then, have a great day.

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Welcome to 2020

Wow, it’s a whole new decade. I needed to just kind of sit with that for a little bit over the last few days, let me just tell you. It’s January third, 2020. It’s the fourth decade change I’ve seen in my life (I was born in 1986). I’ll turn 34 this year, which means I’m clearly in my mid-thirties and not my early thirties. Let me tell you, it’s a sobering prospect.

But that’s neither here nor there. What I really wanted to talk to you about was my word of the year.

Do you do a word of the year? Everyone should. It gives you a target to aim for. It gives you some clarity. Especially if you, like me, tend to put way too much on yourself. Having a word of the year puts things in perspective. What’s the most important thing to do today? Well, what’s my word of the year? Whatever goes toward that, that’s what I do.

In 2019, my word of the year was brave. I was required to be brave for a lot of things in my personal life. There have been some health issues going on, and the whole year’s been a bit of a mess. But I also decided I wanted to be brave about other things. I decided to be brave enough to talk about leaving the Mormon church and converting to Unitarianism. I talked about things going on in the world that were upsetting me. And I had to be brave enough to end my first trilogy and move on to something new. 

It also lead me to apply for a critic job at Horror HTML. By the way, I’m doing five reviews a month over there, if you’re a horror fan. 

Brave was a great word for 2019. But every year is a new chapter and requires new things of us. So for 2020, my word of the year is Foundation.

Here’s what that means to me. As I said, I’m creeping into my mid-thirties now, and I sure as hell don’t want to be in bad shape health-wise when I get older. I also have this bold, audacious dream of buying an RV and traveling around America selling my books and working as a freelance writer. And I want to do it by 2029. So, what I need to do this year is to build a foundation of good health and habits that will allow me to do that.

I need to build a foundation of good eating and exercise habits.

I need to build a foundation of good spending habits.

I need to build a foundation for a more serious writing career. 

I need to build a foundation of minimalism to fit my life into an RV.

I don’t know if I can get healthy in a year. I think I can. I don’t think I’ll be making quit my day job writing money in a year. And I’m sure I can’t go through a lifetime of physical and emotional clutter to leave a lot of things behind. Well, maybe I could leave all the physical things behind. But I’ve got to not collect more things after that. That’s the tricky part. 

So that’s the plan. Build a strong foundation that will lead me to where I want to be in ten years. It’s a little crazy and super scary. But a year of being brave brought me to a better place. Let’s see what a year of building a foundation for the rest of my life can take me.

What about you? What’s your word of the year and why? Let us know in the comments below.

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The top ten most popular posts of 2019

Note: Sorry this post is so late. Had a stumach bug that put me down hard for a day. Worst time of the year for that.

I also wanted to let you know that all of the Woven Trilogy is on sale on Amazon right now for the holidays. Here’s a link. They’re on sale until Monday.

At the end of every year, I post a list of the most popular posts of the year. I love doing this post, and I love seeing similar posts from content creators across all the other platforms I frequent. It brings back a flood of memories from the year. Where I was, what I was doing and who I was with when I saw or read the posts. I hope you feel the same way, or this post is just an indulging of my nostalgia.

A lot has changed in 2019. I published the last in the Woven trilogy, started writing for a horror review site, and started writing a new science fiction series. (More on that to come.) Altogether, it hasn’t been a bad year. I mean, I’ve certainly had better. But I’ve also had worse.

Without further ramblings, here are the top ten most popular posts of 2019.

Worldbuilding questions to answer for a more realistic world

I enjoyed writing this post. Worldbuilding is something I’ve struggled with and seen done poorly by authors who seem to think it’s alright to just rip off Tolkien instead of writing anything original.

What is Speculative fiction

I’m so thrilled that so many people are interested in speculative fiction. I mean, it’s what I write, so I hope people like it.

What I learned as a flag football mom

This was surprising. It’s an older post. But I was pleased to see that it resonated. 

Picking apart Coraline

I’m pretty sure the popularity of this post is due to the artwork I put on Pinterest. Even so, I loved Coraline, and I learned a ton from it as a writer. So I’m pretty excited that you all loved it too. 

What I learned from Brooklyn 99

Despite the last season of this show being a bit of a flop, it’s still got a lot to teach storytellers. If you haven’t seen it, check it out.

An open letter to the teacher who changed my life

I’m touched that this post was as popular as it was. So many wonderful teachers helped shape me into who I am. I hope that all of you had that experience as well.

Science Fiction Subgenres

All of these got a lot of love over the last year. I’m thrilled, and I really hope that they helped.

Keeping a poetry journal

Poetry continues to be a big topic of interest. I think I need to do some research to write more about it. 

Writing gunshot wounds realistically

This was a guest post, and it was the second most popular post of the year. I love/hate that. It was a great post with a great amount of information. If you haven’t read it yet, check it out.

Writing Dark Poetry

This was a post that I take a lot of pride in, and I’m beyond thrilled that it was the most popular post this year. Sometimes it’s really hard to figure out what sort of post is going to resonate. You pour time and research into something and it just doesn’t work for people. Then you write something off the cuff and it goes viral. This wasn’t the case with this post. I poured my soul into it, and it apparently spoke to a lot of people.

Thank you again for a year of wonderful adventures and learning. I hope that 2020 is even better.

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My favorite books of 2019

This post took way too long to write. I spent far more time than I should have dithering about this list because I read a ton of really good books this year.

These books didn’t necessarily come out this year. None of them did. But I did read all of them this year. I didn’t include any of the books that I read every year or anything that I’d read before. They are across several different genres, fiction, and nonfiction.

Without further rambling, here are the best books I read in 2019.

10. Troublemaker by Leah Remini.51iWPFRZVSL

This is a memoir about Leah’s days in the church of Scientology. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a little bit obsessed with anything about that creepy cult. So, of course, I read this book as soon as I could get my hands on it. It did not disappoint. It’s about her life from childhood until when she realized she wanted to leave the church. And it is riveting.

9. Broke Millennial, by Erin Lowry.

2019 was my year to read a ton of nonfiction. And I can’t suggest this book enough iindexf you need to get your finances in order. I learned so much, and I’m slowly using what I learned to get my credit score in order and make better money choices. And it wasn’t dry!

8. The Pug List, by Alison Hodgson.

pug listFirst off, the pug lives. I wasn’t willing to even touch this one until I found out that not only does the pug live, but his name is Oliver and he has his own Instagram. 

That being said, this family goes through hell and back. Their house is set on fire by an arsonist, and it burns to the ground. They have to rebuild their life from there. 

7. The Bullet Journal Method, by Ryder Carroll.

Bullet journalI don’t think I’ve anticipated a book as much as I did this one. I got it for Christmas last year, and I got to read part of it during a three-day vacation in Pittsburgh. And let me tell you, I was a Bullet Journal fan girl before. This book changed how I do Bullet Journaling for the better. If you haven’t read this book yet, do it now.

6. Girl, Wash Your Face, by Rachel Hollis.wash your face

This was an inspirational book from someone who manages to be supportive and verbally kicks your ass at the same time. I love how honest and funny she is. No punches were pulled, and it made me feel better about my whole life.

5. Muse of Nightmares, by Laini Taylor.muse of nightmares

I’m not going to go into too much detail here, because I did a review of this book, as well as the first book, Strange The Dreamer. Suffice to say that this two-book series is one of the best modern fantasy books I’ve ever read. It’s creative, immersive and just a treat to read.

limetown4. Limetown.

Alright, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about this series recently, so again I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this. If you love the podcast, you’ll love this prequel. I can’t suggest it enough.

 

Outsider3. The Outsider, by Stephen King.

This novel was one that reached right through the pages, grabbed me by the throat and did not let me go. I mean to tell you, I cannot describe how deep this book went. I loved every page. And I can’t believe it’s being turned into a mini-series on HBO next year. Next month, actually.

I haven’t done a review of this book yet, so here’s a quick overview. A small town is shaken to its knees when a popular coach is accused of raping and killing a young man. The only problem is, he couldn’t have done it, even though people saw him at the scene. 

The ending was rather predictable. That didn’t stop me from enjoying every page.

2. Doctor Sleep, by Stephen King.Dr. Sleep

You had to know I was going to have a few King books on here. Dr. Sleep is a followup to The Shining, and I have to say I liked it better. Better enough that I squeed when I saw the first trailer for the movie. (Haven’t seen it yet.) 

If you don’t know about this one, here’s the premise. Davey isn’t the only person who has the Shining. There’s a whole lot of them around, mostly kids. Some people prey upon those with The Shining, who feed on them.

Again, the ending was predictable. But it was a great ride, all the same. 

1. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, by Hank Green.art

Again, this is a book I did a review on and just gushed about. It’s hitting number one on my list this year because it is the most creative and unique novel I have ever read. I cannot wait for the next one.

So that’s it. What do you think? What were the best books you read this year? Let us know in the comments below.

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Tips for buying gifts for readers, 2019

In years past, I’ve done gift guides for writers and readers. They were a lot of fun and (bragging) pretty popular. 

This year, though, I feel like I’ve sort of exhausted those posts. So instead, I’ve compiled a list of tips for getting gifts for readers. These should help you get a present for any avid reader in your life.

Don’t buy them a book unless they asked for something specific.

Let me tell you a story, and before I do, I’m sorry Grandma. 

One delightful Christmas, I was handed a big, heavy wrapped book. I’d just finished reading the first two Eragon books and wanted to read the third. (The first two were alright.) And so, having been handed a heavy book, I thought for sure that my grandmother had gotten me book three. “Oh, is this Brisingr?” I cried and ripped off the paper.

It wasn’t. It was Duma Key by Stephen King. 

Now, it was really hard for me to hide the disappointment on my face. Even though now pablo(1)I know for sure that I’d rather read Duma Key than an Eragon book. Most of you reading this know that. So, of course, my grandmother thought that.

But it wasn’t what I was into then. And that’s not her fault. But it is a perfect example of how much of a pain in the ass readers are. Even if you think you know for sure what they’d like, don’t buy them a book unless they’ve specifically asked for it. Even if they like it, you always run the chance that they already have it.

No, they don’t have enough bookmarks.

There’s no such thing as too many bookmarks, the damn things are always getting lost. Yes, a bookmark is a great idea. Yes, they will lose it. So don’t break the bank, you know?

Yes, they would like a coffee or hot chocolate gift set

Nothing makes reading better than a hot drink when it’s cold or a cold drink when it’s hot. And while I can’t speak for all avid readers, I never have met one who has enough coffee cups.

There is an exception to the first rule.

If you are also an avid reader, then I’m sure you have more than a few books that are meaningful to you. These are great gifts because they mean something to you. You can explain to the recipient why this book matters so much to you. And in that way, this gift is about more than the book itself. You’re giving them a part of yourself.

Gift cards are great, gift cards to second-hand book stores are the best!

Look, a second-hand book store is the best thing. It’s an adventure every time. And you can finance that adventure. It also supports independent booksellers. Which is something we need more of.

If you really want to put money into it, you can get them a subscription box

There are so many subscription boxes these days, that you can find very specific ones no matter what genre your reader likes. This can be a pricy gift, but it can be a wonderful one that continues to give all year long.

If you do it right, prepare not to talk to them for a while.

This is the downside of getting the reader the perfect gift. They will sink into their favorite activity, reading. But rest assured that they’ll think fondly of you as they do.

3

Will you say something?

If you live in the states, I’m sorry to bring this sort of downer post to you the days after a holiday. But, I honestly couldn’t think of a better time to do it. And, while I normally like to think that I write to a worldwide audience, this post is just for Americans. Because there’s something we need to talk about, guys. Something that should have stopped a long time ago.

Thanksgiving was a few days ago. Those of us who celebrated gathered with family and friends. We enjoyed food, wine and good spirits. Then some of us headed out to go shopping. I have feelings about that, but that’s another topic for another day. Let’s focus just on Thanksgiving. A time for gratitude, for family, for love and compassion. The first day of a season that is dedicated to seeing every man as our brother and reaching out a hand for those in need.

So let’s talk about some people in need. There are lots of them, but there’s one group that’s been heavy on my heart. The women, men and children currently held as prisoners at our southern border.

And make no mistake, they are being held as prisoners. They have committed no crime. All they have attempted to do is cross our border and seek asylum, legally.

I cannot stress this enough, seeking asylum is legal.

Let me say it again for the people in the cheap seats, seeking asylum is legal!

I would also like to point out that many of the people being held are children. Babies, toddlers. Ripped from their parent’s arms. Some have died. They’ve been denied basic hygiene, privacy and everything else a child that age needs. And, most horrifying of all, many children have gone missing. They’re just gone, missing. We have no idea where they went. The adults who took these children from their families have now been so negligent as to lose them.

And don’t think for a moment that this is unintentional. That this was some sort of well-intentioned governmental bungling. It was a fear tactic, and the government has said as much. Here’s a link if you don’t believe me. Our government is intentionally trying to scare people away from coming here and legally seeking asylum.

During WWII, America was attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. This is something we all know. We all also know that we responded in a few different ways. The worst way was by locking up Japanese American citizens in camps. This is a scar on our country’s legacy. I like to think that if I had been alive then, I would have spoken up.

When we were founding this country, and making room for the ever spreading communities and cities, we forced native American’s off of their lands. Countless were sent on a march down what we now call the Trail of Tears. So many lives were lost, and this is a loss for all of America. We should have the ancestors of those people walking among us today. But we don’t. I like to think that if I had been alive then, I would have spoken up.

I’m here now, a proud American descended from Hungarian immigrants. And I will speak up for these families. I’m not doing it to assuage any sort of guilt, or because I wish to appear woke. I’m doing it because they deserve to have us all speaking for them. I’m doing it because the America I want to live in remembers what’s written on the Statue of Liberty. I’m going to speak up for these people because my great grandmother traveled here as a child with her parents so that I could stand here today. I’m going to keep right on speaking up because what’s happening is inhumane.

I’m hoping that you’ll want to stand up for them, too. Here are some ways you can help. 

To start with, start talking about this. Don’t let people forget that this is happening. The news cycles move too fast, and it’s too easy to forget. Post stories of families at the border, share this blog post if it inspired you. If you’re a blogger, and I’m honored that so many of you are, share your feelings in a post to raise awareness.

You can also donate. Here’s a charity that I’m donating to, called Immigrant Families Together. 

Finally, contact your local officials. Tell them that you don’t want to see these families treated this way anymore. Tell them that they need to do something to help them. 

And if they won’t, remember that next November. Remember who stood by, and let this happen. And vote them out.

I hope that all of you enjoy the holiday season. I don’t want you to spend the next month dragged down by guilt. I won’t be. But while I enjoy the season with my family, my heart is with the people at our border separated from theirs. And I will not stop doing whatever I can do until every family is reunited and free. 

And I’m grateful for every single other person saying something. 

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