thoughts on traveling to the US, etc.
Given what's going on in the US, together with what may soon be going on in Canada, Geoff has decided that he will no longer travel to the US except to see family (his and mine). He's notified the conferences he normally speaks at every year (techwriting and sff), and he will no longer court speaking engagements with US chapters of the Society for Technical Communication, as he has in the past.
He and I also had a conversation about how much trouble we'd be willing to get in, at a US border or airport entry check. I mean, we're extremely unlikely to be hassled ourselves, especially me (since I'm a citizen), but we might see someone else being hassled, and I wanted to check in with him, to make sure we were on the same page. Years ago, before 9/11, Geoff was at a land crossing into the States, dealing with permission to bring his kids in (they were young, and he'd forgotten to bring a letter of permission from their mom), and saw a group of Arab-looking men being berated by a border guard because they didn't have US currency with which to pay some fee or something. So he went over and offered to exchange money for them, which got him thoroughly berated himself, and iirc threatened with being refused entry, although in the end they did let him in. He's never forgotten it.
So here the two of us are, oozing safety and privilege, and it behooves us to mobilize them if we find ourselves in a situation to offer help or bear witness. But I wanted to make sure that he and I were on the same page regarding being willing to, e.g., end up being refused entry ourselves, or even arrested or otherwise hassled, and I'm pleased that we are.
He also wanted to go over with me whether we knew any Americans who might suddenly need refuge outside the US, should things get really bad, and he also apparently wants to investigate emigrating to New Zealand. I think he's overreacting; things are bad, and loking to get much worse in many ways, but we're a long way from those levels of emergency. Still, I'm not going to stop him, if he wants to! At worst it will make him feel better, and at best I'll be glad he did it...
Unrelatedly, I've barely been on Twitter in weeks, because I had to forbid it to myself in the evening; as well as the other fun things my feed provided, it had become one of my main sources of WTF news (thank you, people I follow!), and reading it after dinner meant I got so wound up I didn't sleep. But I don't seem to have/make time to catch up on it during the day. In lieu, I've subscribed by email to The Daily WTF, as well as some more, uh, traditionally phrased news sources. I would like to find time for Twitter again, though!
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He and I also had a conversation about how much trouble we'd be willing to get in, at a US border or airport entry check. I mean, we're extremely unlikely to be hassled ourselves, especially me (since I'm a citizen), but we might see someone else being hassled, and I wanted to check in with him, to make sure we were on the same page. Years ago, before 9/11, Geoff was at a land crossing into the States, dealing with permission to bring his kids in (they were young, and he'd forgotten to bring a letter of permission from their mom), and saw a group of Arab-looking men being berated by a border guard because they didn't have US currency with which to pay some fee or something. So he went over and offered to exchange money for them, which got him thoroughly berated himself, and iirc threatened with being refused entry, although in the end they did let him in. He's never forgotten it.
So here the two of us are, oozing safety and privilege, and it behooves us to mobilize them if we find ourselves in a situation to offer help or bear witness. But I wanted to make sure that he and I were on the same page regarding being willing to, e.g., end up being refused entry ourselves, or even arrested or otherwise hassled, and I'm pleased that we are.
He also wanted to go over with me whether we knew any Americans who might suddenly need refuge outside the US, should things get really bad, and he also apparently wants to investigate emigrating to New Zealand. I think he's overreacting; things are bad, and loking to get much worse in many ways, but we're a long way from those levels of emergency. Still, I'm not going to stop him, if he wants to! At worst it will make him feel better, and at best I'll be glad he did it...
Unrelatedly, I've barely been on Twitter in weeks, because I had to forbid it to myself in the evening; as well as the other fun things my feed provided, it had become one of my main sources of WTF news (thank you, people I follow!), and reading it after dinner meant I got so wound up I didn't sleep. But I don't seem to have/make time to catch up on it during the day. In lieu, I've subscribed by email to The Daily WTF, as well as some more, uh, traditionally phrased news sources. I would like to find time for Twitter again, though!
read
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