“Sick of hearing about holiday shopping apps? What about an app
to make you laugh? Or blow off some steam?”

“Yes, yes, yes,” I said!

Sometimes, the holiday season can be hard on folks… yes, even on Santa.

Talking Angry Drunk Santa™ app for iPhone and iPad

The free Talking Angry Drunk Santa™ app by LuckyLabs, Inc. for iPhone and iPad, lets users get to up close and personal with Kris Kringle, aka Santa Claus, by treating him to a drink full of holiday cheer — and like your Aunt Hilda after her last helping of the eggnog — when sufficiently relaxed, Santa reveals his human side and salty sense of humor.

Need to blow off some holiday steam? Download the free app, speak into your iPhone or iPad microphone and Santa repeats your message aloud or listen as Santa lets loose with silly, funny gripes about his demanding life. Poke and tickle Santa to help him relax. But remember to be nice to Santa – give him a couple of drinks. Everybody needs to kick back and relax sometimes, even jolly old St. Nick! Learn more about Santa here: http://bit.ly/soEeSt

It was 4 a.m. on election day when I woke up with horrible stomach pain and nausea. I kneeled before the “Porcelain God” for a couple of hours, asking for reprieve, until I gave up and decided to make myself useful; drag myself off of the bathroom floor, throw a hoodie on over my pajama pants and drive to the library around the corner to vote. Murphy’s Law would have it that I would bump into just about everyone I didn’t want seeing me in my ‘jammies that cold and rainy November morning; it was my civic duty to get my vote in. No excuses. Besides, I had another civic responsibility that afternoon. I had committed to helping in the production of an AIDS awareness TV PSA, an issue I feel strongly about, and I wasn’t about to back out, no matter how poorly I felt (or looked) that day.

Years later, I am told now and then that the PSA “Get Real, Get Tested” is still on the air. Friends say they saw me on that “commercial” on FOX, with that “attitude.” They congratulate me for a job well done and tell me I “looked great.” I even had a guy approach me at the gym to ask if I am the one in “that AIDS commercial.” When I verified his assumption, he paused in deep thought and asked, “So, do you have it?” … “Have what?” I asked, “AIDS,” he responded. So you see, it’s great that the message is still out there, though sadly it’s still not enough. There is a serious message there, a serious issue at stake and I don’t think these folks are really hearing it. Perhaps they don’t think it’s relevant to them. Perhaps, because most people still think HIV is dirty, that you only get it if you’re promiscuous, bi-sexual or poor in Africa.

If your grandmother has breast cancer, you’d likely get sympathy and support. If you announce that your grandmother is HIV positive there is a stigma associated with it, there is little sympathy. We should all know better by now.

Ignorance continues to be the real problem. They say ignorance is bliss, but in an information age, how is that possible?

It’s important to remember that HIV was not a health problem until the 1980′s when the virus was identified. Because it is spread by blood, some people were infected through blood transfusions early before screening began in 1985. The HIV virus does not discriminate between men and women. Both can be infected, and can infect others. While men still make up the majority of HIV cases in the U.S. it’s estimated that 300,000 women are living with HIV. Even more disturbing, Women of color account for 79 percent of all new infections among women 13 to 19 years of age, and 75 percent among women 20 to 24 years of age. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there were 4,377 deaths among women with an AIDS diagnosis in 2008.

Today is World AIDS Day. 30 years after the epidemic surfaced, more than 30 million people have died and twice as many have been infected with HIV. An LA Times article reported, “United States has seen 40,000 new infections a year for the past decade. It’s like accepting the Vietnam War’s number of deaths, but doing it every year. We’ve become complacent, and it’s unacceptable — especially after we know how effective testing and treatment is.”

It is about time everyone began paying attention to the AIDS epidemic. We can continue to hope for a cure, but if we fail to stem the epidemic, endless thousands more become infected and those who cannot afford treatment will die. It is our civic duty to care about those living with and affected by AIDS/HIV. It is time to educate ourselves and to work together to prevent the spread of HIV as we have done for other highly fatal, dangerous infections.

20 years after the introduction of the iconic red ribbon symbol, which was created as a source of hope to motivate advocacy and bring change, we are reminded that, like voting, we ALL have to participate in the process to be a part of the solution.

At the end of the long, arduous and expensive road to naturalization, aspiring U.S. citizens must pass a naturalization test and interview. People who want to become citizens must answer 6 of 10 questions correctly from the 100 possible questions on the nationalization test.

More than 24,000 immigrants became citizens at 350 special ceremonies from June 27 to July 4. This Independence Day we celebrated the thousands of immigrants who have crossed the finish line to U.S. Citizenship and have chosen to make this country their home after years of hard work, sacrifice and dedication.

Yesterday, NBC 17’s Justin Quesinberry http://www2.nbc17.com/staff/52705/ quizzed people enjoying Independence Day activities at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.

Watch Video: Can You Pass The US Citizenship Test?

In my work with Hispanics in North Carolina, I have heard some horror stories involving scam and fraud that directly target the immigrant population across the state. Considering the much publicized growth rate of Hispanics in the recent Census reports, it comes to no surprise that scam artists are finding new ways to target this population group.

Last month, Loma International Business Group in Baltimore was shut down for charging immigrants for filing immigration forms that the group was not authorized to file. Spanish speaking immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador lost money to this business by trusting them to file their immigration forms in order to gain a legal immigrant status in the United States. The company claimed they were authorized to perform such duties when in fact they were not, making it illegal for them to be charging money for their services.

I’ve seen similar cases in North Carolina, where “notarios” or “immigration consultants” have used false advertising and fraudulent contracts, positioning themselves as qualified professionals who can help immigrants obtain lawful status, or who perform other legal functions such as drafting wills or other legal documents.

Often, victims spend lots of money and sometimes permanently lose opportunities to pursue immigration relief because a notario has damaged their case.

Perhaps that is why I felt it important to recommend this topic to one of my video production clients – an immigration law firm – as one of their Spanish-language “Immigration Minute” videos.

Take a look at the video that I produced and share your thoughts…

Pero habrá situaciones en lo que lo más recomendable es contar con la ayuda de un profesional que le ayude a presentar a tiempo todos los papeles necesarios y a representarlo, si fuera necesario,ante las autoridades migratorias.

Por eso fue que unos de mis clientes – un abogado de ley de inmigración – me contrato para producir este video (en español) para su sitio web llamado “Immigration Minute,” para consejarles como elegir un buen profesional.

Whether it’s volunteering to help at the American Bar Association’s Citizenship Day, traveling to Africa to donate soccer balls to school children in need, carving out time for our families or presiding over a professional organization, we feel that we have a sense of fulfillment and balance through our engagement in the community around us.

In 2008, Dana Dorroh, a friend of the firm’s managing partner, Murali Bashyam, introduced him to the Tammy Lynn Center for Developmental Disabilities asked him to pay the center a visit. After that visit, something a close friend once said to him resonates  – “ we as a society should wrap our arms around those who cannot help themselves.”

That’s why he continues to support the Center today. During this gift-giving season, join Murali in supporting the Tammy Lynn Center’s vital work and the children, adults and families they help every day by making a tax-deductible donation today.

In the midst of the Holiday hustle and bustle, many people forget about some of the most important values and traditions associated with the Holiday season and Christmas – Giving being the most prominent of these.

There are many things that you can do to liven up somebody else’s Holiday season and help spread a little bit of Christmas cheer. One of the most thoughtful things you can do over the Holiday season is to donate to a charity.

Whether you are giving a cash donation, dropping your spare change into a bucket at your local grocery store or even if you are volunteering your time at the local rescue mission, giving is a wonderful thing to do – especially during the Holiday season. It is important to remember that there are many others out there that are less fortunate than you.

If you have only just a little bit to give, that’s ok. You will make the Holiday that much better for someone.

A few weeks ago, my mother called to tell me all about what she learned during a visit to the Women’s Suffrage Museum in Lorton, Virginia. She was showing some out of town guests around the Woodbridge, Virginia area and they stumbled upon what is known as the Workhouse Museum. It is open at the Lorton Arts Foundation space.

She said that the “tour guide” was an elderly woman who told her the story behind how the American woman suffrage movement came to be what was then called the “Occoquan Workhouse.”

This prompted me to “google” the location and I learned that in 1917, a group of women, termed “suffragists,” were imprisoned at the workhouse for demanding the right to vote. Feminist Sonia Pressman Fuentes documents this history in her article on Alice Paul. She includes this re-telling of the story of Occoquan Workhouse’s “Night of Terror,” November 15, 1917

90th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote

This year marks the 90^th anniversary of a woman’s most valued right, the right to vote. The Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote, passed on August 26, 1920, but the road to the Occoquan Workhouse had started in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in New York.  There groups of brave women joined forces to write and sign the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, which outlined the issues and goals of the budding Women’s rights movement.

I have always understood the importance of public service, political leadership and civic duty. It wasn’t anything that I was taught growing up. Somehow, I just “knew.”

It’s why I’ve always maintained strong involvement in political and civic organizations and probably why I built a career in media as well as government, so that I wouldn’t miss anything.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget, however, that the fundamental principles of American democracy weren’t always around and available to everyone. Hearing these stories reminds us of the struggles and the sacrifices that others made so that U.S. citizens, women and men, of all races and cultural backgrounds could exercise their authority directly through voting and indirectly through their elected officials.

Women with more to lose than any of us could ever imagine, fought and struggled for equal rights and the opportunity for a vote in our democracy.

Right and Responsibility to Vote

Today, there are more women registered to vote than men. But according to the Washington Post, only 17 percent of members of Congress are women, and women make up just 24 percent of state lawmakers. Being registered alone doesn’t cut it. Women and other minority groups need to participate in all parts of the public and political spectrum if we are going to see those stats change. If we want our political representatives to mirror us, our values and our needs, we should encourage our community to vote, we need to be represented at the polls, we should run for office and support other women in office.

On the eve of election day 2010, reflecting on how far society has come as a result of the Women’s Suffrage Movement and exercising our right to vote,  are the only ways that we can truly thank those who fought so hard to give us a choice.

Last spring, while working with NBC 17, a local group dedicated to educating the public about this community and helping these people adjust here in the U.S. approached me to help them tell their stories.

When I met with them, they were focused on bringing the story to colleges and universities around the state in an effort to educate young people about the history of Sudan, the causes of the war, religious freedom, the current humanitarian situation.

Members of the so-called ‘Lost Boys’, a term used to describe a whole generation of young people, both boys and girls, displaced by the civil war, toured some of our local colleges and universities and told their stories.

I recorded a short video about their story and spoke with a few college students who seemed to have a renewed sense of purpose in life after hearing the Lost Boys stories: http://jcoscia.myncblogs.com/2009/03/26/lost-boys-of-southern-sudan-inspire-hope-for-the-future/

There are currently over 14 million refugees in the world. There are many ways to get involved and help communities worldwide help themselves in building better lives.

I now work with an immigration law firm and my boss, Murali Bashyam, just realized his dream of building a non-profit organization with the mission of providing support for the advancement of education, health services and other basic necessities, such as food, water and shelter to people and communities around the world. The organization, called Friends Unite, hopes that the partnerships formed through their work with result in friendships that will last a lifetime.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.-Anne Frank

She was 5, when she and her father traveled to the U.S. to take care of her ailing grandfather. Her grandfather filed a relative petition for her father during the visit. Then her grandfather passed away. Her father inherited her grandfather’s grocery store in the U.S. so he decided to stay and manage the shop. He really wanted his children to be educated here, so he brought her mother, her older sister to the United States.

She has received a scholarship for college! She will be the first in her family to graduate from high school and go to a university.

Because her family came to the U.S. legally, her father never thought that to adjust her status to legal permanent resident. Her visa expired and as she applied for colleges she learned that she was undocumented.

Although there is no federal law barring universities and colleges from accepting undocumented applicants, these students are ineligible for federal financial aid, and most private aid and scholarships are restricted to legal residents.

She cannot accept the scholarship that she was granted because it requires the student to attend school full time. She will have to work full time to pay for school. She will never be able to study abroad or get a term-time job, and while her peers are stressed about finding summer internships, most of them won’t even be options for her.

This is a sad tale that I am all too familiar with. When I worked at Univision (Spanish-language television station), I managed a wonderful scholarship program called Nuestra Juventud (Our Youth). In reading hundred of applications from high school students across the state each year, I was inspired by their leadership, impressed with their academics, and moved by their stories.

Each year, it broke my heart to learn that at least one student did not use the scholarship because they could not afford to pay the difference at an in-state institution of higher learning.

While many of these bright and eager students enter the country illegally, without knowing. Millions of illegal immigrants in the United States never jumped the U.S.-Mexico border where Congress wants to erect impenetrable walls and President Bush is sending National Guard troops to patrol. They never sneaked in at all.

The little-acknowledged reality is that nearly half the estimated 12 million undocumented foreigners in the United States entered on bona fide U.S. visas – and simply did not leave or after applying for a visa extension, reach illegal status due only to government processing delays. Authorities call them “overstays” who have been largely overlooked in the vitriolic debate on immigration.

I worked with many of these so-called “overstays,” when working as an immigration caseworker for a U.S. Rep. Most of these folks did not intend to violate the terms of their admission and will leave the United States voluntarily.

Eleven states currently offer in-state tuition for undocumented students, who often still struggle to pay these lower rates. Many students work on the side to put themselves through community college, often only able to take a few credits at time.

A select few are able to defer the limitations of an undocumented future when they are accepted at schools with the financial resources to offer merit-based, need-blind admissions standards for all students, including those ineligible for federal financial aid.

Each year, more than 50,000 undocumented students graduate from American high schools without hope of a career or life in the United States. These are children who came to the United States with their families in hopes of a better future, and who are willing and able to contribute and who are now being punished.

In Florida, four undocumented and formerly undocumented students began a 1,500-mile walk on New Year’s Day.

A few weeks ago, the group made a stop in North Carolina on their route from Miami to Washington, D.C. to raise awareness about the DREAM Act and their situation.

Their “Trail of Dreams” campaign has attracted supporters and opponents, including an encounter with the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia.

My boss, Murali Bashyam, Managing Partner at Bashyam Spiro Immigration Law Group, had the chance to meet these young and brave advocates.

He shared with me a powerful video that is worth sharing.
Trail of Dreams

As the immigration debate continues, it’s important that the public become educated on the top misconseptions on immigration reform, before joining either side of the debate.

“The alarm is going off. Put on your shoes and come walk with us. We’re gonna get to D.C. You have to do something. No more talk. Now is the time to act.” – Gaby Pacheco