garyomaha (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
garyomaha) wrote2025-06-19 08:23 pm
garyomaha) wrote2025-06-19 08:23 pm
The friend I've not yet met
There are too many people with "A" first names in this story so I'm going to change my convention this time and use real first names.
I have been reading about Adam for years. Adam is a young man (do I sound particularly old using that term?) who is the Significant Other to Anne, who is a young woman who is the daughter of Anita, who is a long-time friend and one who is a kindred spirit of mine.
I'm one of the many people around the world who have befriended Anne and have watched her grow and become a talented person in many ways, someone we are proud to know. For a while, Anne was a world traveler in her business life, affording her the breadth of experiences that most of us can only dream about. She eventually landed in the UK and continued her studies there. She and Adam found each other and live in the UK.
They have been making plans to move to the US for various reasons. I recently found out they are not doing so -- not for the time being and likely not for the next four years at least. I had been looking forward to seeing Anne again and finally meeting Adam. I had hoped to attend their wedding in the US.
But Adam is afraid to come to the US as a person from another country. And from some of the crazy news stories that have flowed since the US presidential election, I can't blame him. He's worried he'd be deported to some prison somewhere for doing...nothing. Just for being an immigrant. Most of the time, that would be out of the question, but these days? Again, I can't blame him.
I have watched all the terrible, backwards, ignorant decisions being made by the current US administration. I watch them systematically change (for the worse) what I've known to be good rules into very bad rules. Many of those decisions have annoyed me, some have worried me, but this issue that bothers a person I kinda, sorta know, to the point he's afraid to come here, is ludicrous. Among a few other issues, this is one that's helped tip the scales for me.
Yes, many MANY other recent decisions (and others said to be coming soon) also are quite troubling. I've tried to see the other side but rarely can anymore. I've watched many people and things I love as they have been changed, perhaps forever. And now Adam -- the friend I've not yet met -- has chosen, for his personal safety, to delay our meeting, possibly forever.
Perhaps this sounds minor to you, compared to wars and incarceration and reductions of freedoms and fewer government programs and loss of jobs and more. Perhaps it is. But for me, it's a clarifying moment.
I have been reading about Adam for years. Adam is a young man (do I sound particularly old using that term?) who is the Significant Other to Anne, who is a young woman who is the daughter of Anita, who is a long-time friend and one who is a kindred spirit of mine.
I'm one of the many people around the world who have befriended Anne and have watched her grow and become a talented person in many ways, someone we are proud to know. For a while, Anne was a world traveler in her business life, affording her the breadth of experiences that most of us can only dream about. She eventually landed in the UK and continued her studies there. She and Adam found each other and live in the UK.
They have been making plans to move to the US for various reasons. I recently found out they are not doing so -- not for the time being and likely not for the next four years at least. I had been looking forward to seeing Anne again and finally meeting Adam. I had hoped to attend their wedding in the US.
But Adam is afraid to come to the US as a person from another country. And from some of the crazy news stories that have flowed since the US presidential election, I can't blame him. He's worried he'd be deported to some prison somewhere for doing...nothing. Just for being an immigrant. Most of the time, that would be out of the question, but these days? Again, I can't blame him.
I have watched all the terrible, backwards, ignorant decisions being made by the current US administration. I watch them systematically change (for the worse) what I've known to be good rules into very bad rules. Many of those decisions have annoyed me, some have worried me, but this issue that bothers a person I kinda, sorta know, to the point he's afraid to come here, is ludicrous. Among a few other issues, this is one that's helped tip the scales for me.
Yes, many MANY other recent decisions (and others said to be coming soon) also are quite troubling. I've tried to see the other side but rarely can anymore. I've watched many people and things I love as they have been changed, perhaps forever. And now Adam -- the friend I've not yet met -- has chosen, for his personal safety, to delay our meeting, possibly forever.
Perhaps this sounds minor to you, compared to wars and incarceration and reductions of freedoms and fewer government programs and loss of jobs and more. Perhaps it is. But for me, it's a clarifying moment.