I would like to start by wishing my fellow Kossacks a very happy Fourth of July. I will be celebrating today with some friends and family and buffalo burgers. the fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays because it was the fourth of July in 1976 that make me the bleeding heart liberal I am today. And my conservative parents did it!
They were not alone in their unintentional work. They had help from a nation in Bicentennial fever. All that blind patriotism worked on me and I have always been very patriotic. I may have said this before but will say it again. They made me memorize the words on the Statue of Liberty:
"Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. the wretched refuse of your teaming shore. Send these the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
They made me read the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. All that stuff about all men being equal and having inalienable rights. That stuff really got to me. I loved my nation with all of my 10 year old heart. I still do. I still am blindly patriotic to what I know our nation can be. I will always be loyal to the nation I believe our founding fathers meant to create. I will always do what I can to move our nation in that direction.
That said. It came as a shock to me to find out that the people who taught me these things never really believed them to be true. My parents were conservative and like William Buckley believed that not all of us were meant to be equal. But they weren't the only ones telling those lies back then. They are no longer alive to tell these lies but they are still being told. Republicans all over America will try their best to instill blind patriotism in their children today. They will talk about the freedoms that all American enjoy, while working to deny those freedoms to our LGBT community. They will talk about how any little boy can grow up to be president while seething with rage that a little African American boy grew up to be president. They will speak of equality while believing that women and minorities do not count as their equals. They will lie to their children and I can only hope that the children hear the real meaning of the words they speak and not their parents lies.
Meanwhile, I celebrate the founding of a nation whose very existence meant the destruction of the nations of my ancestors. Not because I want to celebrate that destruction, but because I still believe in that idealistic, childish way in what our nation can be: A place where all of us are truly equal. A place where we all have the same rights. A place where we are truly free.
This Week: This week my neighbor broke his hand. He and his wife live in my building with their six year old daughter. They live in a small one bedroom apartment which is all they can afford. He works nights as a cook and she works days cleaning houses. They do this so that their daughter does not have to go to a sitter. they also do not have insurance and he is walking around with an old wrist brace on. His hand is horribly swollen and he will not go to the emergency room because of the cost. I advised him to call a couple of low cost clinics in the area. These are good, hard working people who have sacrificed to care for their child. He cannot work with a broken hand and might now lose his job.
Also this week my two good friends moved into my building. They are both mentally ill and on disability. I have written about her before. She is the friend that I call Heather. I will call her partner Craig. They are both recovering meth addicts. We have been friends for a long while now and help each other out as much as we can.
This is also Bebe Moore Campbell Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Bebe Moore Campell has written about minority mental illness and is founder of NAMI Los angeles. NAMI is the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. They do some really great advocacy and lobbying work for the mentally ill in America. They also have a small lending library in the office here in my area(and probably yours as well) with lots of very helpful books on mental health issues and treatment. They even have books for family and friends of the mentally ill. This is a great resource.
This week Bubbles the surprise kitty is doing very well. I have to say being able to reach out to this tiny ball of fluff and help her has been really great. She is playing at my feet with the older kitten, Friday. She gets all excited and tries to puff up and arch her back to look bigger but she only looks more adorable.