I would like to thank everyone who stepped up to express outrage over the racist billboard placed by Missouri Right to Life in St. Louis city!
Y’all have flooded my email inbox with calls for action and to share your outrage – my heart is filled with pride that so many people share my disgust over this outrageous slander against black women.
I would like to specifically commend Gateway Outdoor Advertising for swiftly responding to calls for the billboard advertisement to be removed. Although Gateway Outdoor Advertising is listed on the side of the billboard, they confirmed yesterday that they are no longer the owner. The following comment was also made to my post about the billboard –
cheard@gatewayoutdoor.com said...
I am the President of Gateway Outdoor Advertising and we do NOT own this billboard. The City of St Louis confirmed this yesterday. The billboard was taken over by John Drochelman (Catalyst Investments) of St Louis in 2008.
This poster is a disgrace and the owner should remove it immediately and remove our logo still on one side of the billboard.
And no, Gateway Outdoor Advertising has not contacted me on this matter again or asked me to clarify.
I just want to acknowledge Gateway for their quick response and for calling this ad what it is – a disgrace. Hopefully their name will be removed soon so that folks don’t continue to associate them with this outrageous campaign.
We are in the midst of organizing to fight this campaign here in Missouri.
I will let y’all know as soon as things are in place.
But trust that people are not fooled.
It walks like it and talks like it and people see it for what it is – a disgraceful indefensible racist ad.
UPDATE - Thank you Gateway Advertising for your swift response and condemnation of this racist campaign!
I am pleased to know that Gateway Advertising is no longer the owner of this billboard and appreciate you supplying the information on the current owner of the billboard - John Drochelman of Catalyst Investments!
Thanks!
A billboard claiming that the most dangerous place for a black child is in the womb…that black women are dangerous genocidal threats to black children…has been placed in North St. Louis city.
Specifically, the billboard is at the intersection of Cass and N. Jefferson.
I know this neighborhood well.
I volunteered for years at a shelter for teen mothers just a few blocks from where this racist billboard now stands.
At a shelter where the residents are predominately black women who balance school, parenting and work.
At a shelter where women work to rebuild lives shattered by violence and oppression.
At a shelter that saw state funding slashed over and over, year after year, by a state legislature that has yet to consider legislation that prevents unplanned pregnancy, would reinstate comprehensive sex education in our schools, and expand access to programs that prevent sexually transmitted infections.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Ward 5…driven the streets, got to know families and residents…and one thing is clear – this is a neighborhood full of people, not genocidal maniacs…full of children, not creatures representing a separate species.
Full of black women, capable of self-determination and deserved of respect.
On Friday I drove up to inspect the billboard…to see for myself how Missouri Right to Life sees black women, how Missouri Right to Life invests in black communities by fundraising through campaigns attacking the humanity of black women, how Missouri Right to Life would like to define black motherhood.
And I saw a contrast that will probably skip right over MRL and their minions…if they dare to drive to the corner of Cass and N. Jefferson, park their cars, unlock the door (gasp), get the hell out and meet people.
The contrast is between the definition of blackness on the billboard – that black women are dangerous, violent, hateful, fickle beasts who are threats to our children and community – and the real community where this billboard has been placed – full of families, homes, the church around the corner, the fire department up the street, the young women who walked up to me and shared their disgust over this racist campaign when I stood staring at the billboard.
I am a proud St. Louis city resident.
I call on the owner of the billboard and/or property to pull this racist advertising immediately.
I denounce this billboard campaign as an insult to all St. Louisans and Missourians.
I am a black woman.
The most dangerous place for black women’s agency is in the hands of Missouri Right to Life’s spin machine…
…and the most dangerous place for my rights is in the hands of my oppressor.
Missouri State Senator Jim Lembke has been heading up a filibuster of a legislation that would allow Missouri to accept federal funds to extend unemployment benefits and school aid because 1. he thinks unemployed people are getting over on the rest of us and 2. he wants to send a message to the federal government about spending money it doesn’t have.
That’s the gist of the fiasco unfolding in Jefferson City.
When Lembke says this is not about hurting the unemployed he contradicts his own public statements made during his vicious filibuster on the Senate floor.
I was listening as Senator Lembke and his minions made the argument that the unemployed are slave masters who have enslaved employed people…as they ranted about lazy Missourians who are enjoying their benefits so much that they can’t be bothered to go out and get one of the fabillion trillion good jobs these GOP Senators are certain are out there.
Any attempt to present this mess as anything other than an attack on the unemployed is the very definition of bullshit.
Lembke has a clear and freakishly harsh loathing for unemployed people and he’s sleeping well because in his mind he’s using the power of government to send out some tough love…and emancipate his constituents while doing it.
In a move that solidifies Lembke’s position as the King of Rancidity in Missouri, he called a press conference where he said he’d end his filibuster against accepting federal unemployment benefits if Governor Nixon agreed to reject federal stimulus money for other important as hell shit.
Lembke and his sidekicks demanded that Governor Nixon reduce the reappropriations by $300 million before he releases his hostage.
Pause…sip coffee…continue.
Now it is important to understand that these GOP State Senators think unemployment benefits are a form of economic slavery, because that’s a point that keeps getting lost in the coverage of this shit.
So the mess that’s happening in Jefferson City is this – a gaggle of GOP State Senators, who are trying to save face after their own colleagues turned against them for this ridiculous and damaging filibuster, are holding unemployment benefits in bondage so they can emancipate working Missourians from the tyranny of federal stimulus money and the oppression of the unemployed being able to put food on the table.
And they’re proud of this shit.
They’re gloating over it.
Odds are they’re so thrilled with this latest move that they hurried back to their offices to Google themselves looking for articles of praise and adoration.
As for those fabillion jobs Lembke and his homeboys keep claiming are out there waiting to be filled…
When I was a wee bitch I was bullied mercilessly for all things related to my blackness. When they made fun of my hair, I cut it off in an attempt to make it look more like the bob that was the trend at the time. When they made fun of my ashy knees, I meticulously rubbed lotion into my skin before school. When they made fun of my lips I tried to fold them inward…that didn’t last long.
Ultimately my bullies focused on my blackness as a whole – I was different and I could not change, so I thought that the best I could hope for was to conform as much as possible and get rewarded for not being as black as some of the other students who came to school through the desegregation program.
County black trumped city black, but black was still worthy of bulling.
By the time I hit Junior High I realized that I had accepted the unacceptable – that these assholes set the agenda and had the rest of us scrambling to meet their standards so we could make the constant taunts, physical abuse, and harassment stop. I decided that was bullshit and stopped trying, but I lost a lot to those years of bullying.
Here’s the thing – the same young people who are having surgery to make their ears stick out less will likely be the same young people who will find out that their hair isn’t just so, their clothes aren’t up to par, or their [insert anything here] offends the same horrible little shit who used to make fun of their ears.
Here’s another thing – bullying hurts more than just the person being bullied. Bullying distracts from class work…it creates a climate of fear and intimidation…and, if left unchecked, it creates grown ass people who bully because they were young people who bullied.
I understand the attraction of cosmetic surgery as a solution to your child getting teased about their ears. It’s gotta be hard to see your child miserable because of something like how their ears are positioned on their head.
But cosmetic surgery isn’t the solution to bullying.
Cosmetic surgery is a solution for some people who have ears that stick out and want to change that.
We need to shift our thinking on this shit. We need to focus on the bully and ask ourselves why they aren’t being asked to change. And we need to deal with the fact that bullies will bully until bullies are taught not to bully.
Eventually the bully will move on to something that isn’t changeable…to something that isn’t fixable through an expensive surgery and painful recovery.
Because bullies bully until bullies are taught not to bully.
When we start down the road of changing ourselves to appease bullies we being a journey that will never end and that puts the responsibility for being harassed on the survivor rather than on the person who desperately needs some home training and likely needs therapy.
This is the "solution" that has people blaming the gay kid for acting too gay…the black kid for not acting too black…the fat kid for not losing weight…the woman for dressing in a provocative manner…the deaf kid for not dedicating her life to making hearing people more comfortable…and so forth and so on until finally the bullies of the world are satisfied.
But the bullies of the world will never be satisfied.
Bullies bully until whatever the fuck kind of insecurity and/or self-hate they are avoiding dealing with is dealt with.
Pause…sip coffee…continue.
Surgery will be a solution for bullying when doctors discover the Bully Tumor and create a surgery to remove that rancid shit.
Until then...well, now that those ears have been “fixed” I’ve noticed how large the nose is and you could lose some weight and your hair is too short and you “act gay” and why are your feet so big and…
I am your enemy if you seek to oppress me and mine.
I am dangerous as hell if you seek power through my oppression.
I am suspect if you fear someone who does not actively seek to be like you, to please you, or to give you strength through my submission.
I am something to be feared if you fear the empowerment of others.
I am - unbought, unbossed, and unashamed.
Reproductive justice didn’t happen to me.
Fighting for the right to determine whether to have children, to raise the children we have, and to raise our families in communities free of violence and oppression…all of that wasn’t done to black women.
All of that was and is done with black women, by black women for black women.
We are of this movement.
Always have been.
Always will be.
So reproductive justice didn’t happen to me.
I am reproductive justice.
And you know and I know that you know that I know that you cannot advocate on behalf of black women if you do not trust black women.
But some will try.
A campaign is afoot.
A campaign that would define black women as genocidal…that claims that black children are a separate species that is endangered in the hands of black women…and that seeks to divide and conquer through the tired old tactic of blaming and shaming women in general and black women specifically.
Those who place racist billboards in our communities want to talk about dangerous places.
Okay…let’s talk about dangerous places.
Let’s talk about the infant mortality rate in America…about the lot of the born…about how each year having an infant that lives past the first year of life becomes more and more a privilege for the few and an expectation determined by race rather than a right of the masses. And let’s talk about how the stereotype of bad black mothers fuels the acceptance of high infant mortality rates just like it fuels the acceptance of low employment rates, low graduation rates and racial profiling.
As if all that is our due.
As if all that is to be expected.
Let’s talk about health care disparities…about how the same motherfuckers shouting about life vote against life saving programs and rally against expanding access to health care.
Let’s chat about how black women are more likely to lack access to cancer screenings, more likely to have a delayed cancer diagnosis, and more likely to die because of it.
And let’s talk about why funding for programs that provide low cost cancer screenings is under attack, why health care programs that serve poor women are under attack and why the some of the same people who chastise black women who do not breast feed won’t do a damn thing to help protect the breast health of a black woman.
Let’s talk about the lack of access to pre-natal care…the low birth weight of infants born into poverty…about how so many families struggle to provide diapers for their infants that there are multiple national campaigns trying to meet that need.
Let’s talk about prevention…and how that’s such an unpopular word. Let’s talk about how some see the wages of sex as illness, suffering and death…about how the same people protesting at the clinic can’t be bothered to baby sit at the shelter for homeless teen mother less than a block away. And let’s talk about those shelters…about how there are so many of them in St. Louis city…about the amazing women who live there and about the lack of funding for programs that help their families out. Let’s talk about the waiting lists at those shelters…about the sisters who get turned away…about the children who go to sleep hungry and wake up hungry and go to school hungry and walk back home to go to sleep hungry again.
Let’s talk about lies.
About how the Missouri legislature passed a law mandating that women who seek abortion services must be told that there are programs to help them with housing and child care and education if they choose to continue their pregnancy…about how those programs are the same programs the legislature cut funding for while they mocked those who needed those services on the floor of the people’s house.
Let’s talk about black babies born to black mothers who are shackled during labor.
Let’s talk about the removal of comprehensive sex education from our schools and how our young people enter adulthood with the abstinence only advice to put a quarter between their legs and squeeze.
Let’s talk about how the debate over life ends at birth…about the young women I’ve met who chose to have a baby only to find that the same people praising them for that decision won’t hire them, don’t want them moving into their neighborhood, will one day grab their handbag and lock their car door when that black baby becomes a black man who walks by them on the sidewalk.
But I don’t get to just "talk" about all that.
I’m a black woman - I live it.
I get to walk into a health care center to a shower of shouts from white men charging that I’m a race traitor, that I’m participating in black genocide, and that I bring shame upon black America…anti-choice activists who have been emboldened by a campaign that feeds right into the racism that lives just beneath the surface, that opportunistic infection that feeds off of billboard campaigns spouting rhetoric that backs up what they already hold true – that black women are lesser than, dangerous, inferior, lacking in humanity, unhinged, untrustworthy, reckless…
That black woman = violent.
I am a black woman.
That black woman = bad mother.
I am a black woman.
That black woman = sex object.
I am a black woman.
That black woman = irresponsible.
I am a black woman.
That black women are a problem.
I am a black woman.
That black women are unfit.
I am a black woman.
And so black women must be…wait for it…oppressed for our own good.
But...I AM A BLACK WOMAN.
The most dangerous place for my rights is in the hands of my oppressor.
And the most dangerous place for oppression is in my angry black hands.
Giant puffy bits of snow rained down on St. Louis city…coming in fast at sharp angles and making this bitch question the season.
Something about the heavy session of snow seemed fitting. It was like an environmental gotcha…as if even the gods of nature are feeling contrary ‘round here.
I couldn’t help pondering the weekend snow…how it coated the early buds on trees and mocked all who celebrated those first blades of green grass pushing through the soil to seek the sun.
And I realized that I’ve been in the midst of a case of Weltschmerz.
Sigh…sip coffee…continue.
I keep starting posts I don’t want to finish…pondering topics and issues I can’t rustle up the energy to bitch about…and generally longing for the blessed release of sleep the moment I wake.
I just spent a month working my ass off on multiple fronts to defend against legislative assaults on women’s rights and access to health care…and trying not to think of all the amazing proactive people benefiting programs I’m not working on because I’m forever defending against legislative assaults on women’s rights and access to health care.
And I hit a wall of absolute undeniable Weltschmerz.
Mmmhmm…that’s right – Weltschmerz.
Sigh again…sip coffee once more…and continue.
I drove home through the freakish snow storm, all the while thinking that it was so fucking appropriate that it should be snowing in March on a Saturday when others are trying to get their outside activity on because the world has gone to shit and maybe some snow would help the gleeful masses realize that they are in the middle of a monumental shit storm that should inspire riots rather than trips to the zoo...
Shit.
I arrived home, grabbed the computer to check my email, and was confronted by several emails confirming that the world has gone to shit and one email that hit my internal reset button.
A friend wrote to me about her experience at the recent Planned Parenthood Truth Tour event here in St. Louis…an event that I had worked on and one that I had seen more as a project to be completed than the rally it actually was.
Until I read my friend’s email…and saw the rally through her eyes.
What had been a project was mentally reset, because for my friend it was a rally at which she and her daughter were confronted with the forces that would deny women access to life saving services and those who are prepared to fight that with everything we have.
And I realized what camp I’m in and why I’m in it.
And I was reminded that there is a reason why a team of activists worked to pull that event together…why over 300 people gathered on a Saturday to participate…and why thousands of Missourians have signed an open letter pledging support.
My friend’s email was like anti-venom for my case of Weltschmerz – the impact melted away all the exhaustion and woe-is-me-ism and thoughts that no one really gives a flying shit so why-the-hell-do-bother-isms.
Reality may never fully satisfy the demands of the mind…but it often over performs and exposes a world not quite as fucked up from the floor up as it first appears.
Weltschmerz can kiss off.
This bitch is fixin’ to carpe this diem, damn it!
And yes, I’ll post a link to my write up about the specificitude of my friend’s email later.
Sorry I’ve been absent, but my world is currently beyond hectic right now!
I’ve got more hours of work to do each day than there are hours in a single day…but hey, it is what it is.
Anyhoo, I do want to say something on the passing of Elizabeth Taylor.
Elizabeth Taylor has always been one of my favorite movie stars. Even though some of her movies make my feminism hurt, I still enjoy her performances…her fire and grit that came across clear as rain on the screen.
But more than her skill as an actor, I enjoyed Elizabeth Taylor the mega star.
I liked the fact that her scandals were more about her than getting her picture in the magazines…that she was flawed and didn’t shy away from those flaws…that she sought and earned respect in an industry that was at best patronizing and at worst demeaning.
I like Elizabeth Taylor because she lived life…fucked up or achieved with gusto…and she put her star power to work as an activist before that shit was expected, respected or applauded.
Elizabeth Taylor’s life indicts the 1950’s and 1960’s American stereotypes…she was sexual, bawdy, bold, and smart…strong when the world expected weakness and fragile when the world was calling for strength.
Taylor was a very human mega star…and even so, we never really knew her.
The lights will dim on Broadway to honor her...Hollywood will offer sound bites about her…and we have a legacy of film to remember her by.
I’ve spent the last month engaged in some of the most frustrating debates I’ve ever experienced over federal funding for life and cost saving programs. The U.S. House vote to cut Title X funding is a classic case of politicians using the weapon of government to attacking an organization to the detriment of the people. Even the reigning King of Rancidity, Rep. Mike Pence of the infamous Pence Amendment, recently admitted that Title X programs work. But Pence could give a shit about that – he’s shamelessly waging war against Planned Parenthood while the anti-choice faithful fall dangerously in line during the current budget battle that puts one the most successful public programs on the books in peril.
So here we are – the Senate is the theatre and Title X funding is the political football.
Woo followed by hoo.
‘Tis a shame that some folks have a hard time understanding the simple fact that Title X programs save tax payers money, save lives, and are deserved of additional funds not funding cuts.
But Lawd knows that the only thing that brings on a case of intellectual lazitude quicker than a discussion of health care is a specific discussion of women’s health care.
Pause…sip coffee…continue.
The scary thing is that the new House has a pattern of doing this stupid shit.
Poison control centers are used by regular folks like this bitch and by hospitals too.
Calling poison control saves lives and…wait for it…it saves money too.
Gasp.
I’m not kidding…if members of the House have their way, calls to 1-800-222-1222 will no longer connect folks to the life saving and cost saving services of the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
And never you mind that for every $1 spent on funding poison control centers we the people save $7 in health care spending.
The GOP dominated House is sending a message with their 2011 budget…
…and that message is that these fools need a crash course in Public Policy 101, stat.
Beyond the drama of what this legislative malfunction would mean for people (who will have to make decisions without advice), for 911 operators (who will have to give guidance without being able to get advice from the hotline), and for hospitals (who would now be faced with the 75% of exposure cases that are currently treated at home because of poison control centers)…
…beyond all that shit is the harsh reality of what bad budget moves mean to communities across the nation.
Treating exposure cases in Emergency Rooms that should be treated at home is expensive as hell.
Funding programs that end up saving more money than they cost is good policy and should be the easy everyone-agreed-on-that-one-so-lets-move-on-now additions to the budget.
And this flawed budget cutting frenzification gutting funding poison control centers is the exact same fucked up from the floor up flawed as hell process these same ig’nant fools have applied to Title X.
Twitter turns five years old today and this bitch is addicted.
I am!
I adore Twitter and I really appreciate it when all hell is breaking out around the world.
I’ve been catching up on what’s happening in Libya…reading tweets and clicking links to articles. And this is just the latest event that I’ve been able to monitor through Twitter better than I remember monitoring news before tweets came into my world. News on Twitter may not be vetted…Lawd knows that there is plenty of inaccurate bullshit that gets tweeted and then retweeted…but I find that knowing some of the material isn’t vetted helps me weigh the integrity of the news I’m getting.
Anyhoo, I’ve been out of the loop and knee deep in health care related activism…so I’m still working through the who, what, where and when of the drama in Libya.
What I do know is that we are facing some very troubling times…innocent people are dying and suffering…and things are only going to get worse before we can even consider them getting better.
Sigh.
I woke up this morning to the sight of that huge bright moon in the sky.
It was glowing…so bright and peaceful…situated just so in the sky and looking down at a world that seems dedicated to the pursuit of absolute fubar.
I though about taking a picture and tweeting it...but I opted to just experience it instead.
Have a good Monday, y’all.
***logs off to check out the moon again...and then look at Twitter one more time before getting ready for work***
It’s critical to demonstrate our community’s strong support for Planned Parenthood. Stand with us (and our big PINK bus) to say NO to taking away family planning and birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings and testing for HIV and other diseases from the women in our community.
Politicians in Washington DC and Jefferson City are trying to cut health care services for Planned Parenthood patients. As you know the US House of Representatives already voted to cut ALL federal funding for Planned Parenthood preventive services like lifesaving cancer screenings, annual exams, contraception visits, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. In order to make sure this provision does not pass the US Senate, we need as many people as possible to stand up for Planned Parenthood and Women’s Lives.
Lawd, I’ve been watching the news and I can’t wrap my mind around how horrible the situation in Japan has become!
It’s hard to focus on anything else…but life does not pause for disasters or even a nuclear crisis.
The other day I was knee deep in political activism, trying to keep my state government from further restricting women’s access to the full range of reproductive health care, when the phone rang.
The manager of my brother’s house (he’s in a residential program for autistic adults) was on the line telling me that my brother’s primary care doctor is closing down his practice and we needed to find a new doctor.
Ugh.
Finding a doctor in St. Louis who is accepting new patients and who also takes Medicaid is as hard as locating a Democrat in the Missouri State Senate.
Oh, they’re out there…but they are few in number.
We put together a list…called around…and finally found someone.
The entire exercise reminded me that my brother is due for a dental appointment and that his dentist is one of the few in the state who is trained in behavior modification. That training is key to dental care for people like my brother, who often struggles to stay still during cleanings. Our goal is to have my brother keep his teeth…mostly because the thought of him using dentures gives me hives. To achieve that goal, my brother needs good cleanings…and his current dentist is fantabulous at working with Bill to get those teeth clean.
My never-ending concern is that we face a shortage of doctors and dentists trained to care for people with autism.
As it is, my family often foots the bill for the behavior modification when Bill has dental cleanings.
Sigh.
So here we are, breaking in a new doctor. I’m fretting over the thought of the dentist eventually retiring even as I plan for another hit to my pocket book in the form of those additional fees for behavior modification. My work is overwhelming with threats to access to health care on both the state and federal fronts.
And you know what?
I’m fucking lucky.
Life might not pause for a natural disaster or nuclear crisis, but it sure as shit is put into perspective.
And this is what the people who praise and cheer what happened in Wisconsin last night can no longer deny.
To every asshole that has ranted and raved about government spending – Wisconsin state legislators did NOTHING to address that shit yesterday.
To every asshole that says this mess in Wisconsin is about fiscal responsibility – last night was one of the most irresponsible displays of thuggish politicians using the weapon of government against citizens that I have ever witnessed…and all that was fiscal was removed in order to push this legislative malfunction through without a quorum.
The unavoidable, undeniable, naked and exposed before all who have the strength to look upon it FACT is that this was never about anything other than crushing unions and creating an environment in which workers are subject to the callous whims and unchecked greed of their employers.
And let me be clear - that environment has never been, is not, and will never be some mystical American meritocracy in which the best thrive and are drenched in milk and honey.
Know this – unions exist for a reason. They came to be because that mystical meritocracy is bullshit, and they will only grow stronger in the face of this old school backroom rancidity that proves the point organizers have been making from the beginning.
It was never about money.
It was never about fiscal responsibility.
It was always about crushing unions.
I couldn’t ask for a clearer example of that than Wisconsin March 9, 2011.
This will not stand.
They will not win.
And I’ll finish with the words of a legislator who voted against the bill…
I sent Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) a message telling him why defunding Title X is fiscally and morally irresponsible and that Missouri needs community health care providers like Planned Parenthood.
Senator Blunt replied with his anti-choice resume form letter that completely dodged the issue of fiscal irresponsibility in a time of great economic fuckeduptitude and instead peevishly scolded me for supporting a Constitutionally protected right.
Silly constituent!
Rights are for rich straight white men over 60!
Oh, but wait…there’s more.
Within hours, Senator Blunt’s e-newsletter broke into my email inbox.
I am not fucking kidding you!
The Blunt minions signed this bitch up for his e-newsletter!
I sat there looking at his smug grin.
And…well, I didn’t have the strength to read the e-newsletter at that time.
I decided to read it this morning.
And it fucking gets better!
Senator Blunt is trying to cash in on the high gas prices by advertising his anti-environment pro-gas industry Gas Accessibility and Stabilization (GAS) Act.
Blunt’s solution to the high gas prices is to deregulate the gas industry…’cause in his mind, mandating that gas meet certain standards is part of the problem.
Deregulation is just the beginning.
Blunt more wants us to look toward “more conventional energy sources” and he points to looking for oil close to home (translation – off shore drilling) and natural gas (translation – fracking)…
…oh and he tossed in a nod to look for alternative sources like renewable fuels and battery-powered vehicles.
The e-newsletter ended with Senator Blunt urging me to follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
***blank stare***
I need to follow Senator Blunt on Twitter and Facebook like I need a drug resistant yeast infection.
Longtime readers know that my older brother is autistic. He recently moved to a new house in the city. With a new house came new staff and two new roomies. We’ve had a few hiccups, but Bill has taken them in stride.
Last year, when we finally got the opportunity to move Bill closer, my sister and I decided to learn sign language. Bill has limited speech and does not speak in sentences. After years of speech therapy and being surrounded by verbal people, Bill has expressed his preference for sign language. We noticed that he gets frustrated when folks don’t understand his speech…but it took us a long time to come to the decision to learn sign language.
As children, we were discouraged from signing with Bill because the focus was on improving his verbal speech. But Bill is 40 years old now…and he clearly prefers sign language. So, we came to the decision to err on the side of communication and see where that takes us.
My sister C- Money has been taking sign language instruction from a tutor and we practice at home. We’ve focused on the words we know Bill uses and are building from there.
Fastforward to a couple of weeks ago.
I got a call at work.
Bill’s new house manager was on the line. Staff had reported that they had accidentally given Bill his morning meds…twice. Since his meds include two pills for high blood pressure, this was not a little fuck up. I called C-Money to fill her in…she called the house manager back…and we all ended up at the Missouri Baptist emergency room.
FYI – Missouri Baptist has got to have the quickest ER in town! We were seen within 20 minutes and the entire experience took under three hours. The ER staff talked to Bill directly (a huge plus, since far too many medical folks tend to talk around the patient when the patient is autistic).
Anyhoo, the ER doctor said Bill would be fine but wanted to run a blood test. Bill’s blood pressure was low, but still within the range of normal. Double dosing blood pressure meds can be dangerous as hell…so we subjected Bill to a blood test just to be careful and then waited to see the results.
As we waited…and waited…and waited (the MOBAP ER was fast, but it still took some time)…Bill started signing that he wanted to get the hell out of Dodge and go for a ride in the van.
C-Money started signing back and the most remarkable moment of normal unfolded in the ER room.
I watched as my sister and brother started fussing with each other over whether or not we were going for a van ride now or later.
Bill’s face was animated. He jumped up and leaned toward C-Money, hands flying as he signed his opinion that the van ride should commence immediately. C-Money, trying not to laugh as she egged him on, kept repeating that the van ride was going to have to wait because Bill let staff double dose him. He didn’t appreciate her sense of humor and the fuss-based debate went on for a while.
The doctor came in. Bill’s blood work was fine and we were free to go. He shook the doctor’s hand, turned to C-Money and signed van with a smirk on his face, and then made for the door.
Later that evening, as I processed the day, I realized that was the first time I’d ever seen my siblings really argue. Oh, we’ve disagreed amongst ourselves before. Bill has expressed annoyance and frustration with us plenty of times.
But that was the first time I can recall ever seeing them communicate like that…really communicate, person to person, with both participants understanding each other and thinking the other was wrong as hell.
There are a lot of reasons why my parents focused on verbal communication when we were growing up. This is a speaking world and they wanted my brother to be able to ask for help, tell people when he was in pain, and express his wants and needs in a manner that speaking people can understand.
His speech, though limited, achieves that goal. He speaks softly…in single words. It gets the job done.
But communication is different than single word declarations that get the job done. At least it is in our situation.
When I sign to my brother I often mess up…when I get it right he turns to me and signs “Good job!’
I’m looking forward to more opportunities to chat with my brother, rather than at him…to get to know him better and enhance our relationship.
Pause…consider…continue.
And we may have to add some signs for “I’ve already taken my blood pressure meds this morning!” to the mix.
They don’t want Missouri to accept additional funds from the federal government that would allow the state to extend unemployment benefits.
Thousands of Missourians are unemployed.
Many of those folks are about to hit a hard as hell wall.
Our federal government voted to send more unemployment funds to states so we can meet those needs.
That money has been appropriated for that purpose.
Refusing the funds will NOT return them to some mystical pool of funds that the Federal government will then use to pay off our debt to China.
And yes, that’s the kind of ig’nant as hell bullshit a gaggle of Republican Senators said yesterday while wasting the people’s time to kick unemployed people in the gut area.
The head ass in charge of this public display of stupid is Senator Lembke.
He was joined by minions Sen. Nieves (R-Washington) and Sen. Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph).
Together they ranted about how unemployed people are lazy…unemployment benefits encourage the unemployed to stay unemployed…unemployed people have enslaved employed people by taking unemployment benefits…unemployed people need some tough love so they will be inspired to go out there and just get a job...and blah, blah and another blah.
Lawd.
They went on and on about how GREAT the Senate is because Senators can talk about whatever they want for as long as they want and block the horror of accepting federal money to help the unemployed.
Oh, and by the way – no one in their districts wants Missouri to accept this money, they’re sure of that.
They laughed and cajoled…ranted and pontificated…and ultimately stalled movement on the legislation.
When fellow Republican state Senator Mayer stood up to challenge their...um, logic...one of the snotty knaves sarcastically called him compassionate and then went on to claim the federal fund would be sent back to China. He finally admitted that he had no idea where the funds would go if Missouri refused to take them.
Pause…sip coffee…continue.
All in all, this theatrical mess highlighted the callous disregard these state Senators have for their unemployed constituents…their complete ignorance over how unemployment funds work…their general wish to score political points with the conservative fringe on the people’s time…and the tragic limits of their vocabulary.
My heart bleeds for their constituents, particularly for their unemployed constituents who should know after yesterday that none of these state Senators gives a flying shit about them.
Hell, these state Senators think they are liberating working constituents from bondage!
As for working on legislation that may actually help Missouri’s economy…well, clearly that shit isn’t half as fun as mocking unemployed Missourians.
