Tom Ramirez

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

In Texas they told me to stop at Buc-ee's for gas.

I have been to shrines. I have stood in temples that took two hundred years to build.

I was not prepared for the gas station.

There were one hundred and twenty fuel pumps.

I counted them because I did not believe them.

A man beside me was filling a truck the size of my first apartment, and he was not filling it because it was empty.

He was filling it because he was here, and here is where a man fills things.

Inside was a hall so vast I lost the horizon.

A wall of jerky. A wall of fudge I did not know the country produced.

A brisket sandwich handed to me by a man in a beaver costume.

And I want to be clear, the beaver is not a mascot.

The beaver is a saint.

The people speak of him the way my grandmother spoke of the mountain behind her house.

And the bathrooms.

I had been warned about the bathrooms and I had dismissed the warning as the pride of a loud people.

I was wrong to dismiss it.

The bathrooms are famous across the whole state and they have earned it.

I have slept in worse hotels. I nearly bowed upon entering.

A janitor was polishing the floor with the devotion of a man tending a garden he loved, and when I thanked him he said "welcome in," which I have since learned is what Texas says instead of hello, and also instead of I am glad you exist.

I went in for gas. I was inside for ninety minutes.

I came out with fudge, a shirt printed with a joke I do not fully understand, forty dollars of jerky, and a feeling I can only describe as having been to church.

I did not need any of it.

I needed all of it.

I have walked through the great cathedrals of the old world. I lit no candle there.

I lit no candle at Buc-ee's either.

But I did fill the truck.

And I understand now that in Texas, this is the same thing.

[SportsCenter @SportsCenter]

WITH AUTHORITY‼️

Devin Vassell blocked Chet and let him know 😳

[Mark Phillips @SupremeDreams_1]

How OKC was in practice after losing game 4 to the Spurs 😂😭🏀

[Hoop Central @TheHoopCentral]

This angle of Victor Wembanyama’s half-court shot is CRAZY. 🥶

Wemby is special.

(via @NBA)

[Bleacher Report @BleacherReport]

STILL NOT OVER THIS SHOT 😭

WHO WAS WEMBY FEELING LIKE??

[Tom Ramirez @TomTom1550]

@Syndicate First few notes for song from Jaws

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

Why does this guy always talk like a World of Warcraft npc

[Tom Ramirez @TomTom1550]

#IDontWantToOverreactBUT JJ McCarthy is just a mobile Jameis Winston.

[Tom Ramirez @TomTom1550]

@BAXUSco

[Tom Ramirez @TomTom1550]

Hey my brother found the guys from Baxus!! #baxus #kbf #bourbon

[QTCinderella @qtcinderella]

Today!

The summer concert is back!
Raising money for @AlveusSanctuary & Kerville Pets Alive.

4:30pm PST
https://t.co/7hyky7DDlx

Tag who you’re most excited to see

[Professor L @LudwigAhgren]

🚨GIVEAWAY🚨
THE COWBOY BEBOP MERCH DROP COMPLETELY SOLD OUT (it's still available for pre-order)
TO CELEBRATE WE GIVING AWAY THE ENTIRE COLLECTION TO SOMEONE WHO
♻️Retweets
➡️Follows @MogulMoves

thank you everyone who bought something <3

[Tom Ramirez @TomTom1550]

@spaceghost Joel. The Last of Us 2. That one hit hard.

[QTCinderella @qtcinderella]

I COULDNT WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW

This years @StreamerAwards Lineup

CoHost
@TinaKitten

Floor Host
@thesketchreal

Red Carpet
@Valkyrae
@CDawgVA
@StableRonaldo

Musical Performances
@JohnnieGuilbert
@ironmouse
@bellapoarch

Live December 7th, 3pm PST

[Tom Ramirez @TomTom1550]

@LudwigAhgren This doesn’t inspire confidence for the NFL games they’re streaming on Christmas

[Tips Out @TipsOut]

The below are my personal thoughts and do not reflect my employer or any company or person I am affiliated with.

Hello everyone,

As many of you are aware, some comments were made by Zack yesterday about Palestinians and Muslims. Before I address his comments, I’d like to take this opportunity to share some details about my background in hopes that those reading this post may better understand who I am, where I come from, and what those comments mean to me.

34 years ago, I was fortunate enough to be born in the United States of America, a blessing and lottery ticket that I thank God for every day. My parents, Syrian immigrants from Damascus, came to the US in the 70s/80s at a time when the likes of Hafez and Rifaat Al-Assad were massacring tens of thousands of their own people in Hama. The sole reason I exist today can be attributed to the words of one of my father’s neighbors, who informed my late grandmother that my father’s friends had just been arrested for political dissent, and that the Mukhabart were coming for him next. Quick on her feet, my grandmother, God Almighty grant mercy on her soul, grabbed my 22 year-old father, and with tears in her eyes, shaved off his beard and sent him to Jordan, hoping he would make it out. With the help of a few friends, and at a time when many thought “Syria” was a wheaty breakfast consumed with milk, my dad was one of the few Syrians lucky enough to be granted passage to America. To that, we say ‘Alhamdulilah’ (thank God).

At some point in the mid-eighties, my father, then working as an engineer in Los Angeles, was serendipitously reunited with one of his childhood neighbors and school mates in Chicago, IL. This man would become my uncle, as his sister (my mother), would marry my father soon after. In typical immigrant fashion, they wasted no time and my siblings and I were born.

Growing up in the early 90s, it was clear that we weren’t your stereotypical American family. After all, we were Muslims – headscarves, no pork, 5 daily prayers, and so on. We dressed conservatively, packed foreign foods in our lunchboxes, and spoke with thick accents until grade school. Yet, strangely enough, I cannot recall a single moment in those early years where I feltdifferent. Yes, our swim trunks could have been less goofy and explaining what ‘Zaatar’ was to kids at school was a thing, but despite all of that, we were just another American family in southern California, navigating life and seeking out the coveted dream. Then 9/11 happened.

For those that may have been too young to remember, September 11th was not simply a moment or a ‘day’, it was a – a monumental shift in thought and discourse. People were horrified, confused, but above all, angry. In a famous incident, popular radio host Howard Stern called for the entire middle east to be nuked, “Bomb’em all!” And his opinion was not uncommon; from schoolteachers to store clerks, politicians to celebrities, liberals to conservatives, one thing was on everyone’s mind – “we gotta get them”. But who was “them”? Surely the perpetrators and murderers who planned the attack, killing thousands of innocent people in the process and changing the landscape of modern humanity. However, to some, “them” had a much broader definition.

One of the least understood aspects of the attacks was the local aftermath, specifically the experiences of Americans who could be perceived as Arab-passing. It didn’t matter if you were Persian, Indian, South Asian, or even Latino – if you were within a certain shade of beige and had a 3+ syllable last time, you were a “fucking sand-nigger” that had to be dealt with. Many religious minorities were also caught in the crossfire, with Sikhs, Hindus, Sephardic Jews, Arab Christians, and others receiving a significant share of the vitriol. Acts of wanton violence became commonplace, houses of worship were burned down, and random people you knew from your community were being locked up, with some never heard from again.

But how could this happen? How could such a monumental shift in attitude and behavior occur in the greatest country to ever exist; the same country that opened its arms wide to the tired and the poor and not once made us feel less than any another American? Truly, to be born American is an undeniable blessing and despite our governance, I would gladly give my life to this country and the people that have given me and my family a chance.

The reason behind such a substantial attitude shift cannot be attributed to a single moment or event. Rather, it was the accumulation of decades and decades of subtle media propaganda designed to produce an “other”, so that the powerful can continue to prey on the angry and divided powerless. It is a tale as old as time, transcending region and geography, national lines and civilizations; a governance strategy deployed all throughout history to keep us, the people, at odds. It is this same calculated dehumanization that has led to some of the most heinous crimes and bloody massacres whose horrors we do not utter aloud.

To many who heard Zack’s comments, the language he used, whether intended or not, wreaked of the same dehumanization that plagued their ancestors, their grandparents, and in some cases, their families today. It is the same language used to justify wanton violence, genocide, and the destruction of our universal brotherhood. It is the same language used to brush off a video of a Palestinian woman and child burning alive as a “price of war”.

I am not writing this post to defend the dignity of the Palestinians suffering in Gaza; dignity does not require defense, it is a right. To those who have supported the humanitarian efforts and self-determination of the Palestinian people and all the oppressed around the globe, thank you. To those brave enough to look beyond their own anger and reach out to their Jewish friends and neighbors, thank you. These are trying times that will test us all.

Zack’s comments may have been the impetus for this post, but if there is one thing I hope to convey in my incoherence, it is this: I desperately plea to all those reading to wake up to the forces around you that wish nothing more than to separate you from your fellow man and conquer your hearts, your minds, and your humanity. Those that wish for you to look upon your schoolteachers, store clerks, and neighbors as “them”. For they are not “them”, they are you, born to different circumstances no doubt, but are you nonetheless. Open your skin and take a look for yourself – we all bleed the same blood, share the same dreams, and will one day rot in the same Earth until our bones have long become dust and the difference in our beings will be no thicker than air. Please, for the love of all that is holy and good, look out for yourselves and those around you, and if you ever feel the urge and anger to reduce your fellow man to anything less than yourself, ask aloud – “who benefits?”

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I’ll be spending most of my upcoming time working behind the scenes to ensure our staff and teams are alright and that OTK continues to grow into the place I know it can be.

In the meantime, peace.

[OTK @OTKnetwork]

4 Years of OTK 👑🩶

Thanks for hanging with us.

[Tom Ramirez @TomTom1550]

@BJP_Official I feel like there's no way it wasn't because of Rodgers

[RAE @Valkyrae]

hihi!!! so excited to finally announce the launch of my media company @hihistudios !! My love for animation has only grown and now excited to be able to be involved in creating entertainment across tv, film, and other mediums! Stay tuned :)

[Ty Hill @cheetah]

Let’s make a change