Những ngày qua tôi không đọc báo, không xem tin tức, và không tham gia vào thế giới social media. Cuối tuần tôi dọn dẹp nhà cửa, xếp quần áo, nghe nhạc, và vui chơi cùng đám nhóc, nhất là thằng Xuân. Ở chín tháng tuổi nó bò cùng nhà. Thấy gì lạ là bóc bỏ ngay vào mồm. Hai thằng anh lớn thì đam mê iPad và thích làm súng bằng Lego rồi đi bắn giặt Đức.

Tôi không còn hứng thú gì với chính trị. Đúng ra ông Trump và đảng Cộng Hoà thắng là có lợi cho cá nhân tôi. Nơi tôi làm việc đa số là dân conservative. Ông Dean của trường có quan hệ đến ông Koch. Một ông giáo viên làm việc với tôi là một trong những người đã viết những bài luận văn cho ông Trump. Hơn hết cái tên Scalia cho biết rõ trường luật nầy theo phía nào.

Tuy làm việc cho Cộng Hoà nhưng trong đời tư thì tôi thấy Dân Chủ thích hợp với lối suy nghỉ của mình hơn. Nên tôi thường cảm thấy rất mâu thuẫn giữ hai thế giới. Biết làm sao đây khi tôi mang trách nhiệm nuôi sống gia đình. Chẳng lẽ để vợ con đói để theo ý tưởng riêng của mình.

Thôi thì chuyện tương lai để ngày mai lo. Hôm nay thì sống cho hôm nay. Sống thoả mãng và với cuộc sống hiện tại. Sống thoải mái với những người xung quanh. Sống nhẹ nhàng và êm ấm với gia đình. Được như vậy là mai mắn và hạnh rồi.

A breezy and practical guide to grammar and punctuation. Clear examples and practical quizzes make it a useful tool for self-assessment. I could see why an instructor in a business grammar workshop recommended The Blue Book to us.

Dear Colleagues

Some of us have spent time at colleges or universities where people are sometimes punished for expressing a particular thought or having a particular identity—institutions where everyone knows that it is not safe to say something or be someone that some professor (or professors) or some administrator (or a whole administration) does not approve of. In those environments we have learned fear—fear of the price of being who we are and of saying what we believe. It is a tragic thing to have to live that way. I am confident that I speak for the people who lead this law school—the professors and the administrators—when I say that our law school is *not* such a place. There is no need for fear here. Be who you are, say what you think, and welcome everyone else in our community (and all of our guests) to be and do the same. But it can be difficult to unlearn fear. And so it is entirely understandable that you might worry about such things even at our school, until you gain confidence that we are who we say we are: a constantly changing and growing, yet consistently honorable and civil, community of inquisitive and energetic students and practitioners of one of the essential components of any decent society: the law. I cannot guarantee you that everyone will always be a perfect manifestation of all that good stuff (indeed, I suspect none of us ever will be), but I am quite sure that we try in good faith. Nor, I am sure, will this note be enough by itself to fully reassure anyone who has known the kind of fear I mentioned at the top of this message. But I do hope it helps.

This is a school where we work together to make the most of a great educational environment, to elevate each other, and to make the world a better place. To the extent we can show the rest of the world how to do those things, all the better!

Sincerely,

Ángel Cabrera:

Dear Patriot,

Our mission defines us as an innovative and inclusive academic community committed to creating a more just, free, and prosperous world.

This was our mission the day before the election and it remains our mission today. If anything, the bitter campaign that just ended and the divisions in our society it highlighted suggest that our mission has never been more important and necessary.

Today, more than ever, we must keep working hard to help students of all backgrounds learn and grow. We must double down on our scholarship to deepen our understanding of the world we live in and to find new solutions to the complex issues that we face.

We must reaffirm our commitment to embracing a multitude of people and ideas in everything that we do, to respecting differences, and to protecting the freedom of all members of our community to seek truth and express their views.

We must continue to hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards as educators, scholars, students, and professionals, and we must continue to nurture a positive and collaborative environment that contributes to the well-being and success of every member of our community.

Since the results of the election were announced, I have heard too many stories of students and faculty feeling fearful about their place in society and in our university.

Let me be clear:

If you are Muslim or Jewish or Christian, you belong at Mason.
If you grew up in Mexico City, Islamabad, or Roanoke, you belong at Mason.
If you are part of the LGBT community, you belong at Mason.
If you are Black or Brown or White, you belong at Mason.
If you voted for Clinton or for Trump or anyone else, you belong at Mason.

Whatever your background is, your uniqueness represents the very essence and incredible strength of our university. You make Mason, Mason.

I feel fortunate to work for an institution that strives to create opportunity for all, to make our world more educated, more civil, more understanding, and more inclusive. I am proud to work with you. Let’s keep at it. The world needs us.

To provide a space for employees to share their thoughts on the presidential election, Mason’s Human Resources came to the law school to facilitated an open forum for conversations. I was curious to hear what staff and faculty members have to say. Unfortunately only my colleague and I showed up.

There were just the four of us: Three Black women and one Vietnamese guy. Listening to what they had to say helped me move forward. They were as shocked and powerless as I. The path forward starts with ourselves.

I had begun to accept the reality. If this is what America meant to be, then let it be. I am tuning out of politics as much as I can. I even avoid reading my favorite magazine—The New Yorker—and focus on reading books. I cut down my doses of social media and use this blog to share my thoughts. Most importantly, I devote my attention to my family.

A brief, compelling guide to improve business communication. From business letters, reports, to emails, Garner helps make your case clear, concise, and engaging through the process of the MACJ:

• The Madman gathers material and generates ideas.
• The Architect organizes information by drawing up an outline, however simple.
• The Carpenter puts your thoughts into words, laying out sentences and paragraphs by following the Architect’s plan.
• The Judge is your quality-control character, polish the expression throughout—everything from tightening language to correcting grammar and punctuation.

This little book, recommended to me by a business-grammar instructor, has just what I need to communicate in my day-to-day job.

In the past couple of months, my blog posts had been mostly links to articles about the election. Now it’s time to get back to blogging again.

Blogging nowadays feels antiquated, yet it remains one of my favorite activities to share my thoughts and hone my writing. It still provides a space for me to write without all the distractions from social media. Although I still am active on Twitter and Facebook, I prefer writing on my blog. Unlike those two networks, blogging no longer needs to fight for attention.

I can just write, publish, and leave. I don’t need to constantly checking for likes, retweets, and replies. I used to do that way back when I had comments turned on. Now it is just me and my own words. Not knowing who reads my blog, I write mostly for myself.

As a blogger, I also enjoy reading other people’s blog. I still use Feedly to keep update on my favorite blogs. Sadly, most of the blogs I subscribed no longer making updates. On the other hand, a few bloggers are still killing it.

For personal pleasure, MsNguyen is the only one that updates on the regular basic. Although I don’t engage in the comment section, I read every post she published. I hope she will keep on writing because I will definitely miss reading her words if she stops.

For critical thinking on the web, Mr. Jeremy Keith is always on point. He is one of the bloggers who inspired me to own my blog. Medium, WordPress.com, Facebook, and Twitter could disappear tomorrow, but my blog will always be under my control.

I spoke to a colleague whose last name happens to be Khan and she almost choked up. We didn’t utter his name, but we both knew what had happened to this beloved country. Home of the free is now only for a certain people, and not for everyone. It’s now clear that America is not above racist, sexist, and supremacist. Eight years ago, we elected our first black president and moved the country forward. Yesterday, we had chosen to take American backward. I finally understood the meaning behind his slogan: Make AmeriKKKa Great Again. It’s “An American Tragedy.”

How am I going to tell my son in the morning that the smart woman he was rooting for had lost to a man who mocked the disabled? How do we get to this? No matter how smart a woman is, she is never going to be able to compete against a man. Bullies, sexists, and racists still can be a president. America will face its darkest days ahead, but let’s just keep move forward. I did my part, but the country has spoken so we just have to live with it for four more years. I don’t know if I still have the strength and stomach to keep up with politics. It is appalling. Let’s just hope for the best for our future. I am closing out my chapter on politics and focusing on something else.

Although I voted early, I took the day off work. In the morning, I took my mother-in-law to the hospital for her bronchoscopy test. The procedure took the entire morning. During the waiting period CNN was on the entire time, but I focused on reading about grammar instead.

At noon, I took my wife and the boys to sushi buffet. I had two plates full of sushi and sashimi complemented with a bottle of hot saké. While my wife and I made a toast to Hillary’s victory, Đán immersed himself with four bowls of ice cream. CNN was also on, but I paid no attention to it.

After feeling bloated, we headed to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather until time for dinner. We just had pizza at 7:00 p.m.

After the kids go to bed, I will be up to see the final result. I still have confidence that she will win.