In September I brought one of my younger brothers out here to take care of him. He is 100% disabled with severe diabetes and muscle wasting. It has been a very rough time physically and emotionally. Sunday we almost lost him. His blood sugar plummeted to 30 and he went into full grand mal convulsions. He is doing well today but the health and caregiving is a different story that I will type up for Kosability and Caregiving Kos. Today I am celebrating a different victory. Follow below the orange cheeto to see why I am doing my victory dance.
Reid has always been extremely conservative. He is very close to the youngest brother Jerry who is radical right. I have cut Jerry off several times from communications when his politics became too obnoxious to handle. He scorns the fact that I am a proud liberal. He was shocked when our oldest brother died in 2010 that none of the conservatives that he kisses up to could be bothered to give him any sympathy. Some even took that time period to go after him. In stark contrast to what he was going through by his political people, Daily Kos made me a community quilt to help me through the trauma. Jerry had to grudgingly admit he gets more respect from Daily Kos people then his own Party.
Since coming out here Reid has had several health crisis and if he had been living alone back in California last Sunday would have been his last day on Earth. Jerry and his wife never considered having Reid live with them. I was a caregiver for six years to our mother so the idea of being caregiver to him was a no-brainer. We hope eventually to get his health up to the point where he can stay in his own apartment at times while I can still keep an eye on him. He will literally be 80 steps away. He will continue to have meals with me and days he isn't feeling well he will sleep over here.
His coming out here from liberal California to conservative North Carolina has been almost like reverse osmosis. It started with him watching other channels then Fox News. He was tired of them always whining about repealing Obamacare. The next milestone was when he told me he was gay. I knew that years ago. He had tried coming out as gay about 18 years ago but family members convinced him he was just confused. He has always known and coming out here to start a new life gave him the courage to finally admit what he has known all along. It took our super conservative born again Christian brother over a week to finally contact Reid. He said he had no problem with Reid being gay as long as he didn't turn liberal.
Listening to a liberal sister since September has done something that Reid never expected. Today he told me that he just wasn't going to tell Jerry that he is turning liberal. Reid is for the first time really seeing who supports LGBT people. He sees who is trying to deny him his rights. He looks at the wars that have been fought for nothing. He realizes it was the Vietnam War that killed our oldest brother and destroyed him inside. He is sickened by the hatred against Obama and sees that Obama is trying to do his best to help this country.
Most of all Reid realizes just how much he loves me. It is the lone super liberal in a highly conservative family who was there Sunday night on the ground feeding him Kayro syrup to get his blood sugar up while talking to 911 and assuring him he will be okay. He knows that conservatives want to take his rights as a gay man away, his social security disability and Medicare away because he is nothing but a "taker" in their eyes. He is starting to see who really cares for the people like himself who worked hard all their lives and now needs help.
Changing minds starts with touching the heart.