Sylvan Lake

I went to Sylvan Lake for a weekend, in upstate New York. Recently, I've been turning to airbnb first whenever I travel, mainly because I am usually travelling with two dogs, and it's easier to find dog friendly places there than through hotels. An added benefit however, is that there is a lot more charm to these private rentals. You can see the personality of the people who set up the room, apartment, or house, and it really does add to the visit. Plus, most air bnb rentals have access to a kitchen, so you can cook if you want to.

The bungalow that we rented is right next to the lake, and included oars and life jackets to use with the canoes. We took the two dogs to the lake, and they loved it. My dog Sandy even got into the water.

In my 20s, I traveled a lot internationally. I have taken a break from that since I brought my dog, Sandy, home with me in July. She is turning 15, and has been with me for half my life. I've decided to not take any trips without her for the remainder of her life, with the exception of trips that I have to take for work. Thus, recently I have been taking weekend trips to places within driving distance. It's really nice to be able to get away from the city. I realize that I took the greenery for granted as a kid, growing up in the suburbs. Now, I don't really care where I go, as long as its quiet, not crowded, and close to nature. Upstate New York has a lot of good options.

The weekend was a good example of a simple thing done perfectly. I've noticed more of these perfect simple things lately. For example, today I had the perfect spaghetti with tomato basil sauce. The pasta was done perfectly (a little on the harder side), and the basil was added late so the flavor was really strong. I've realized the trick is to heat olive oil on the stove until it's really hot, and pour it over a bowl of garlic, so the garlic is cooked but not all the way, so you retain a bit of the spiciness from the garlic. Then topped with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese. It's not a complicated dish, but when every element is done exactly how you like it, it can make your day.

In any case, we spent the weekend ordering Chinese food delivery (Americanized Chinese food), watching TV, and walking along the lake. Nothing too exciting or elaborate planned, but it was a much needed time to recharge from the craziness of living and working in Manhattan. For that weekend, time slowed down a bit.

November

I rarely write about political issues, since so much of my daily job involves political issues, so in my free time, I usually like to take a break from it. But I need to say something about Donald Trump.

As a Chinese-American and daughter of immigrants, I have been disheartened to see the amount of support that Trump has garnered.

When he talks about “making America great again”, he means let’s make America white again. Specifically, her means let’s go back to the days when things were easier for white men, when there was less competition in the job market from women and people of other races, and it was okay to “tell it like it is” and make broad, nasty judgments on entire groups of people.

As a child, my mom told me about my dad’s interview for a Ph.D. program with the University of Pennsylvania, in molecular biology, when he was explicitly asked, “why should we give this position to you? You aren’t American, and there are many Americans applying for this position.” His answer had been that, “Even though I’m not American, my work is going to belong to the United States.” In the decade or two since my parents finished school, they have worked for several different pharmaceutical companies and helped develop drugs that save lives, or improve people’s quality of life. They have worked on drugs that treat breast cancer, colon cancer, bladder cancer, multiple sclerosis, leukemia, and asthma, to name a few.

If you’ve ever had a Hepatitis B vaccine, you can thank my mom.

America is one of the most powerful countries because it is at the forefront of science and technology. It is great, because it is a country that draws the most brilliant minds from around the world, and gives them the resources and opportunities to make miracles. I grew up going to the labs that my parents worked in, and they were as diverse as the United Nations, racially and religiously. If it were up to Trump, half of those people probably wouldn’t be allowed in the country.

Trump and his supporters might emphasize that they are okay with useful immigrants (especially models), but that we need to keep out the Latino “thugs” that are raping and stealing and causing crimes. And we have to keep out the Muslims, since all they do is blow things up. And the Chinese are problematic, because they are taking our jobs. Since it’s so hard to filter the good from the bad, we should just go ban them all. I have no doubt that, should there be a war between China and the United States, that Trump would advocate putting people like me into concentration camps, like we did to the Japanese in World War II (back when America was “great”).

One of my favorite classes in law school was “the law of genocide”. Scholars today have studied what drives humans to the point of madness that triggers the brutality of Rwanda and Auschwitz. Few people walk onto a platform and explicitly say, “let’s round up all people X and put them in a camp and kill them.” It starts with a seed. It starts with the notion of us versus them, it starts with “let’s build a wall”, and starts escalating to “fuck that nigger”, phrases which have both been shouted at Trump rallies. It starts with finding a scape goat for the entire country’s troubles and woes.

Trump has instigated and encouraged unabashed, vitriolic hate for entire groups of people. Trump is the American Hitler of the new millennium.

Now quite a few people say that if Trump actually became President, he probably wouldn’t be so extreme. That he is “just talk”. That we have a system of checks and balances too, that can prevent him from being a total nut case. All that is irrelevant to me. Trump has, through his own rhetoric and action, become a symbol of hatred and intolerance.

As someone who works in international relations, I recognize the President of my country is our representative to the rest of the world. By electing him as our President, we are saying, to ourselves and to everyone else, that we endorse all of the hatred that has been spewing from his mouth. That we accept, and even support, his racism, his sexism, his bigotry and xenophobia. To my fellow Americans, a vote for Trump or, effectively, anything except for a vote for Clinton, is a tip of the hat to the people who threw a brick through my friend’s window with the word “chink” on it and the woman who yelled at me to “go back to my country”.

Let Brexit be a lesson that silence is consent.

I plan to do everything in my power to prevent this person from becoming the representative of my country for the next four years. I hope you will too.