“The Proof is in the Pudding”… & “Time Will Tell”

This week teaching Tuesday’s theme was the significance of those sayings those sayings that that we hear from our parents and grandparents over the years. You can go back and read the teaching Tuesday lesson, but the point was as a parent you want those words of wisdom that you hoped to impart to your children and their heart and mind so that they will refer to them once they leave your home in the safety of your umbrella…

     I couldn’t help but think of them when a few stories in the news this week made headlines. The bigger story this week of the two I’ll talk about was the warrant and searching of Congresswoman Ilhan or Omar‘s home in Washington DC. For years there have been allegations of possible wrong doing or miss representing herself on immigration papers and possibly other family members, allegedly. The story would surface every so often but nothing happened. And then once the story broke of the corruption and fraud in Minnesota in the Somali population and money going out of that Minneapolis airport, which is which employees many Somali more red flags were raised. An investigation was originally opened in the latter part of the Biden Administration, so yes, this story has been out there for a while. Well, there must’ve been enough evidence for a warrant to be issued and carried out so close to an election. According to recent reports, this isn’t something that normally happens. It’s sort of an agreement between the two parties not too release such a story before an election. Also, it was a Washington DC judge who signed the warrant, and that is surprising too since many of the judges in the Washington DC area tend to have been appointed by democratic Presidents.

John Yoo, Korean American Law Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, an immigrant himself made the comment, (I am paraphrasing here) if he were to be questioned about the validity of  his citizenship, he would gladly present any documentation necessary to prove that he had immigrated legally when his parents brought him here as a baby. Yoo made these comments when asked his opinion on the case. These are allegations and the congresswoman will have an opportunity to have her day in court. Should charges be filed.  Time will tell…

     Last week, Marco Rubio traveled to Athens, Greece, where he gave a moving speech with the backdrop of the what was the backdrop of the Acropolis and the Parthenon. If you can listen to the speech, it would be well worth your time. We made some very good points. Anyway, while he was there news broke of the ambassador Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and allegations that she asked a political donor to pay off an American Express credit card bill. Now these are allegations only, she will need to answer to any wrong doings.  Again, time will tell..

     It was my father, the immigrant from the small village of Bouf, Macedonia, who came to the United States with his brother, in their twenties, with five dollars in his pocket sent over to him from his father, who had lost touch with the family before the war stated. It’s a long story, but my grandmother had died, she left these two little boys, two older siblings had died as well. A Macedonian couple who owned a little grocery store in Pontiac, were friends of my grandfather and when they decided to take a trip back to ‘The Old Country”, my grandfather asked them “Oh, by the way, could you see if you can find my wife and kids?”. (This was the way these people came over; the husband went first, got a job, saved up money, bought a business and THEN brought his family over. The war broke out and it was hard to keep in touch since most in Bouf, left the village to escape to Yugoslavia). Surprisingly, THEY DID find my Dad and Uncle David. The asking around as they traveled to visit family from village to village, “Do you know Yana Todorovsky and her children?” Eventually resulted in my grandfather getting in touch with his sons, finding out that his wife and other children had died and making arrangements to eventually get them over.  My grandfather spent his small savings on legal fees to get his sons over.

     My Dad didn’t have command of the language, but he was a very wise man and he knew how the world worked.Time will tell, among other phrases like you make your bed. You need to lie in it among other common sense and wise phrases were often on the tip of my Dad’s tongue ready to be used as a good lesson. I will be forever grateful for the lessons he taught me about working hard, being kind and honest and more importantly that most everything else, to live by The Golden Rule, treat others the way that you want to be treated- officially, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” He worked his way up from a dishwasher to eventually he and my uncle owning their own restaurants. He and my American born Mom, who was raised in the south and picked cotton growing up afterschool and in the summers on her family’s farm in South Carolina, taught me that every human being deserved to be respected and to always rely on my faith growing up as an Orthodox Christian…

     My father-in-law graduated from Detroit Denby High school, went onto the University of Michigan and then got into dental school at the University of Michigan a year early-he was number one in his dental school class. He too was a very wise man, with similar lessons to those of my father that he passed on to his children, and probably his staff and patients here and there. My father-in-law is a very kind, soft-spoken man who led his family well. My mother-in-law -also graduated with the University of Michigan was a total team player in raising there four kids. They ran a very tight ship and they garnered very good results from their parenting. Their life too revolved around their church life - at Faith Lutheran in Grand Blanc, Michigan.

     I recall when my husband and I were getting married, observing my father-in-law‘s own set of sayings that he would pull out here and there. I remember after my mother and father-in-law met my parents my father-in-law telling me that he found my dad‘s history, interesting, and he made a comment that always stuck with me and he said, paraphrasing here but something like, “I can tell what kind of a man your father is“ and he pointed to me and said “the proof is in the pudding.” At the time I don’t know if I really knew what that saying meant but over the years as I heard him say it, more and more often, in different situations, I learned what it meant, and I took it as a huge compliment thinking back to that conversation he made about my (myself &) Dad. What does the saying mean is that the results or outcome, tell the true story of a situation.

     Both of these stories this week, Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, and the American Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, are worthy of these two sayings from my Dad and father-in-law. Time will tell if Ilhan Omar is a citizen or if her financial records are accurate and truthful. If they are, she deserves full freedom from any of these allegations in the future. Same with Kimberly Guilfoyle. It was probably a good idea for her to resign as suggested from the President and his administration. Now, investigations and disclosure of documentation is taking place. And if she is found to be innocent of these charges, there should be a form of apology or whatever is customary in this situation. The allegations do not look favorable for herself or administration if they are true.

     Neither one of these women have not shied away from the spotlight. Guilfoyle is an attorney and a former Fox News news personality. Her first husband was Gavin Newsom when he was the mayor of San Francisco. That marriage ended. She was married a second time to a furniture designer, Eric Villency. She has a teenage son from her second marriage. That marriage ended, and she left Fox News after it was made public that she was dating Donald Trump Jr., and the two of them became engaged. They were engaged for a few years before the engagement ended.  Following the breakup President Trump offered her the role as the U.S. Ambassador to Greece…

     Ilhan Omar has gained attention for for her fiery comments regarding civil liberties in the United States. When college students at Columbia University were protesting after the October 7 tragedy in Israel, she showed up to show support for the organized “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” She toured the encampment and spoke with protesters, even sharing her experience on social media. While in Congress, Omar has advocated for an increase in the minimum wage, student debt forgiveness, universal health care, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement and Deferred Actions for Childhood arrivals (that last one is interesting based on the recent allegations). Again, the Congresswoman is innocent until any charges, should they be brought against her, are found to be true. 

     When stories like these break, no matter how serious or not serious they are, I sometimes think of how stressful it must be to be “on the hot seat.” We all have seen serious allegations become true and things spiral from there. If someone IS involved in wrong doings, they get their day in court, are found guilty and experience consequences, that is the price one must pay for their behavior. When there are allegations, charges, days in court, and someone is found innocent that is tough too, because the person charged had to go through the time the stress and the expense of defending themselves to clear their name. That must be horribly exhausting, expensive, and a drain on one’s life for the time it’s all going on. We have all seen both scenarios play out in front of us and when I see it, I think how I would hope to never be in either circumstance.  However, that is the way it goes and when is someone is guilty they have to “lay in the bed they have made for themselves.”

     Isn’t that sort of the way life plays out? We all start out somewhat equal growing up finding our way. If you grow up in this country, you pretty much have the same opportunities if you’re willing to work hard, save and make good choices. Period. (Pending a tragic accident, illness or any other out of the ordinary circumstance. The results of our life are the proof in the pudding that my father-in-law liked to talk about.  How our lives turn out are the result of the choices we make and our experiences. Time does Tell.  As we travel through the time in our life, we see the results of the choices that we make both good and bad, the choices as to who we will spend our life with , how we will choose to live our life and how we will choose to spend our talents and money.

     On Kimberly and Ilhan.  Time will tell….and as investigations play out the proof will be in the pudding.   In this day of digital footprints and financial ‘breadcrumbs” left everywhere, there will be no shortage of evidence in either situation. Bank records don’t lie, credit card statements can be made visible and what account they were paid from. Shell companies can be created and funds moved around, (we have seen this in funding for “paid protester, signs, garb, ‘uniforms.’ Individuals names/organizations can be removed or hidden, but eventually, a proficient forensic accounting can sort this all out, and some already have, last week’s blog post mentioned this) the truth will eventually will come out, it always does. Honesty always is the best policy. Either spot would be a bad place to be in right now, but I do think, Ms. Guilfoyle may fair better in the end.  Both have children, that’s another sad part of these stories or any other, those who will share in the consequences in one way or another indirectly and miss or be excluded from opportunities that could have come their way, had their parent or family member been honest, upfront or refrained from engaging in wrong doings or breaking the law. Imagine, for Guilfoyle and her son, how amazing a chance to live in Athens in the Ambassador’s residence for her tenure there? Take a look at the grounds and the home in Athens‘ most coveted neighborhood. One writer described the residence as “Greece meets Palm Beach”. Guilfoyle had requested a fifty-plus thousand dollar basketball court be added to the property-most likely for her son. Maybe an attitude like that was part of what contributed to her alleged problems. It can be human nature to want more and more…For Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, as an immigrant, to gain a house seat and placement on committees in Congress on Education and the Workforce as well at the Finance Committee, what a story of the American Dream. If allegations are true, could it be possible that she used her position on these committee to gain grants, resources and positions for her own family members and members of Minnesota’s Somali community? Time Will Tell & The Proof Will Be in the Pudding.  Just sad on so many levels.