CrankyCurmudgeon

I was born in June of 1947 in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. I was raised primarily in the San Fernando Valley (like, fer sure). After graduating High School, I joined the U.S. Navy. I later became a great opponent of our involvement in Vietnam and was a member of such organizations as the Peace Action Council, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the Indochina Peace Campaign.

For several years I was involved with providing security for anti-war and peace and justice demonstrations, as well as both general security and armed bodyguard work for such people as Inti Illimani, Arco Iris, and Vietnamese Students in the U.S. In 1972 I was one of three people who provided personal security for Roger and Darlene McAfee and their children. This was the white family who put their dairy farm up for Angela Davis's bail just before her trial began. During the 1972 Presidential election I provided security and personal bodyguard work for Jane Fonda as well.

After a two-month trip, in the Spring of 1973, to Cuba with the Venceremos Brigade, I returned to the U.S. and, despite having no undergraduate work completed, was admitted to a California State Bar accredited Law School, from which I graduated in 1976. During this time I discovered I was much more interested in amicable reconciliation than making money off of facilitating conflict and, subsequent to a family emergency, decided to join my family's business.

A few years later, due to having married a woman who hailed from Miami and who had three sisters, all of whom had husbands who were engaged in the business, I took up the sale of an interesting, white, powdery substance which, at the time, was considered good for you. During the next four to five years I made and spent a couple of fortunes . . . and had a very good time.

Since 1988 I have been working at a very large, very well-known aerospace company and have settled down remarkably. In 2002, at the tender age of 55, I became a first-time, adoptive father and, in 2005 repeated the effort. My wife, who is Sansei (third generation Japanese-American), and I are busy raising our children and would like to do so in a healthy environment.

I sometimes wonder if we did the right thing in removing two innocent Chinese children from their birth culture and bringing them into the belly of the beast, but what can I do. Here we are.