A Family Without a Country

At TV6, we're currently chronicling the struggles of an 11 person Hmong family in Munising, the Yangs. They've lived in this country for about 20 years, they're well established in Munising with a family restaurant, the Golden Heart, and they want to stay, but six of them are constantly at risk of being deported and being split up.

A little background: The Hmong people are an ethnic Southeast Asian group who are best known in the United States for having fought with American troops during the Vietnam War. They gained a reputation for being fierce warriors, and thousands of them lost their lives in the war.

After the war, many of them fled their native land for fear of retribution from the communist government of Laos where most of them had lived.

The patriarch of the Yang family was one of those fighters who fled his country and came to the United States. Our government welcomed the Hmong because there was a sense that we owed them for their assistance in the war.

Unfortunately, the children of the patriarch were not welcomed, even though they faced persecution if they returned to Laos, so instead they fled to other parts of the world. In the Yangs' case, it was to France, but they weren't really welcome there.

They subsequently came to the U.S. for a visit to reunify their family, and they 've been here ever since, but immigration officials have repeatedly told them they are subject to deportation, and their immigration papers are actually stamped "Deported". Not only that, but the six Yangs who are not citizens here have to make annual visits to Detroit to review their status.

They're in constant fear that they'll be deported. France doesn't want them, the U.S. seemingly doesn't want them, and if they were returned to Laos after all this time, there's no telling what might happen to them.

They're people without a country. But they live here, they work at the restaurant (they can't work anywhere else because of their uncertain immigration status), their kids attend school here, they go to church here, they're model citizens.

Many people in Munising have rallied behind their cause.

Here's hoping that others will join them. Maybe an attorney will offer his or her services to the family? Maybe one of Michigan's politicians will take up the banner, as well. We've contacted Congressman Stupak's office already. Next on our list are Senators Stabenow and Senator Levin.

Is there anybody out there who thinks Rick Snyder won't be Michigan's next governor? Anybody?

Okay, understandably, Virg Bernero and his family are out there enthusiastically waving their hands in the air, but there's nobody else.

The latest poll on the race says it all: Snyder 53%, Bernero 29%. Snyder doesn't even need the Undecideds to win this contest.

Snyder seems to be the right man at the right time in the right place. He's running as a Republican in a state that's been run by a Democrat during miserable economic times. He's also a businessman--the anti-politician when most of us have come to distrust politicians of asll stripes. And he seems moderate at a time when some Republicans seem to be veering further and further to the right.

Of course, none of this means he'll be a good or even capable governor, but it sure looks like he'll be a successful candidate.

It would take a remarkable turnaround and a major misstep by Snyder for Bernero to even make a contest of the governor's race.

The same could be said of the race to replace First District Congressman Bart Stupak. The Republican is a political novice, Dr. Dan Benishek, while the Democrat is political veteran Gary McDowell. Voters this fall are in the mood to try something new, and that would be Benishek, a favorite of the Tea Party.

Benishek's slogan, "Enough is enough" says it all.

A Benishek victory could be the one that puts the Republicans over the top in their effort to reclaim the majority in the House of Representatives. Most polls and analysts now tell us that's a likelihood.

It's remarkable how far we've come since the early days of joy and optimism of the Obama Administration in January of 2009. What that tells us, of course, is that over the next two years, the mood could easily swing back again.

The state of the economy will probably determine that. Here's hoping that the Republicans and Democrats can cast all their partisan concerns aside, and actually do something that helps the American people rather than furthering the politicians' narrow agendas.

How about a little civility, as well? I think most of us in the hinterlands are well ahead of our leaders in that respect. Politics for most of us is not about Good versus Evil. It's about the Republicans and the Democrats, working together, searching for solutions.

That seems to be such a quaint, naive notion in this age of name-calling, demonization, and negativism. Still, is that too much to ask?

Our Beleaguered Congressman

The Upper Peninsula's Congressman Bart Stupak certainly has a higher profile now than he had just two weeks ago. Not sure if he enjoys his new celebrity status.

I talked to him on the phone a couple of times last week during the wrangling over the health care bill, and he was clearly conflicted: he supported the bill but he was adamant in his opposition to public funding for abortions, and he thought the bill wasn't explicit enough in its prohibition of using those funds.

For several days, when the bill's fate was in doubt, liberals hammered him. Rachel Maddow spent much of her show on MSNBC belittling him and referring to him as a "backbencher" who was looking for his 15 minutes of fame.

Connie Saltonstall suddenly announced she was challenging Stupak in the Democratic primary this year--an attack on him from the left for holding up health care reform

Then at the last minute, Stupak reached agreement with the President on the bill. Stupak would support it and in return, the President would issue an executive order expressly prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions.

Conservatives understandably were upset at the switch and effectively called him a coward or a Judas or a "Baby killer!" And he got a new challenger---Republican Daniel Benishek of Iron Mountain. UP Republicans are energized by the challenge and think Benishek, a doctor and a political novice, has a genuine chance to unseat the nine term incumbent in November.

In short, Stupak has gone from being a quietly effective Congressman holding a "safe" seat to someone who's been villified by both the right and the left, and could face a serious threat of being unseated in November.

Similar stories are taking place all over the nation.

Who would have thought that something seemingly so benign as "health care reform" would have brought all this about?