For those who read my dairy of a few days ago I’m As Mad As Hell, And I'm Not Going To Take This Anymore! you know that I've gone through a rough patch. Well things have deteriorated since then. The brother I blocked on Facebook asked Reid why I was blocking him. He wanted to know if my "precious politics is more important than family?" Reid sent him a long answer back telling him that I got tired of the snark and lack of respect. That I wasn't stupid and I had a college degree. That I was tired of his refusal to understand the impact that I have had on Reid's life. That he is here because I saved him 6 times according to the doctors and nurses who care for him. He mocked my beliefs and that I was going down the progressive road to Hell. He claims he knows me. He doesn't. Follow me below the orange fleur-de-Kos for the real me.
In spite of Jerry's belief that our parents would be horrified that I support liberal/progressive views my teacher was our Dad. Dad was the one who taught me how to think for myself. He was the one who encouraged me to be active in following my beliefs. Dad knew that I was on the left of the political spectrum and had no problems with it. Dad loved me for who and what I was.
I am heterosexual. I have friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. I believe everyone should have the same rights. Everyone should be able to love and marry who they want as long as they are of legal age.
I had worked in health care for many years. Our current system sucks. Good health care should be available to everyone. I would love to see a single payer system and the insurance companies out of business. Experience through my own insurance company has been horrible. I had severe tendinitis but they wouldn't pay for an anti-inflammatory. I have C.O.P.D. but they won't pay for a spacer so I can take my inhalers properly. I have insomnia and my Doctor filled out extra papers but they won't pay for Ambien so I can sleep. Health care isn't a privilege. It should be a human right.
Jerry is horrified that I support the boycott of his employer Hobby Lobby. I don't care if they supply 16 out of 20 birth control devices in their insurance. I care that they are ramming their religion down other people's throats. You are a company not a church. You are a company not a doctor. No company has the right to tell their employees how to care for their health. Their 401K retirement investments are in the same companies whose items they have banned paying for.
Jerry insists that he has saved Reid's life too. That he and his wife cleaned up his apartment once. They also packed so he could move. What he doesn't mention was that Reid paid him $2,000.00 to pack. He ignores that I have actually saved Reid's life. Cleaning an apartment is not being on the floor feeding someone Karo syrup because their blood sugar is at 30 and they are in grand mal seizures and you are on the phone to 911 and listening for the paramedics and trying to keep him from hurting himself during the seizures or his blood sugar to go any lower. Reid almost died. I saved his life.
I have spent many years of my working life trying to help people. I worked in a firm that supplied kidney dialysis supplies. My patents and nurses loved me. I still correspond with some of them even after all these years.
I am a caregiver. No one trained me. I learned on my own. I took care of my mother and now my brother. I spent yesterday wiping his rear end and emptying his bedside commode since my hallway is too narrow for him to get down to the bathroom. I have cleaned up rugs when he had severe diarrhea and slipped out of my grip and hit the floor and I couldn't get him up fast enough to the commode. I cleaned up my parent's house that was covered in feces, blood, and wine after my older brother's death. I have written about my experiences here hoping to help those who are now finding themselves as caregivers. I have written to help those who are also facing grief like I have faced.
Jerry dismissed my cooking with "no comment." Fine. Here is our Dad's comment. "This is my daughter Michele. She is the finest cook I have ever known." I have been asked here and elsewhere to share my recipes. I have people who are constantly checking to see how close I am to getting my cookbook finished and hopefully published.
He mocks my art. I have awards for my art. It has been published in Hugo award winning magazines. Mystery author Gillian Roberts got her friends to buy a lot of my jewelry earlier this year. Everything I have ever put in the Netroots Nation auction has sold.
I am a strong woman and have always been one. My Dad encouraged my strength and applauded my fighting spirit. The only thing he ever asked of me as I was out fighting for my causes was "be careful."
I am a survivor. I'll be 67 next birthday. I survived being born early with bad lungs. I have survived an abusive marriage. I repudiate the today's Republican culture that denigrates women and mocks rape. A secret I had kept since I was a teenager is that I am a rape survivor.
After reading his hate filled and condescending reply to Reid all I have to say is that I have an older brother Mike who is buried in Indiana, a younger brother Eric who is working up to a second black belt living in Texas, and a younger brother Reid who I will be caregiver for the rest of his life. Jerry can take his condescending and hate filled rants and stuff them. This isn't a temper tantrum. This is a strong woman who will continue to fight for a better world for others saying I don't have to take abuse from anyone even if they are family. I don't have to defend my views to someone using right wing propaganda as "facts." Jerry could have chosen to be decent and be the "good" Christian he claims to be but he chose the way of snark, bile, and hated. He made his bed and he can lie in it. I no longer have a brother in California.