Visiting with my Dad yesterday we were watching Catwoman with Hallie Berry on the little TV the hospital thoughtfully provides. He needed the services of a nurse who was male and black. My brother, being a guy of course starts a conversation with this nurse about the relative merits of Hallie Berry. She's a beautiful lady and of course they were doing their guy type thing when the nurse says she doesn't turn him on...she's Gay. The reason he believes her to be gay is because he saw her arm in arm at one of those red carpet deals with a very "Butch" type woman. At this point in the conversation he licks his middle finger and slicks back his right eyebrow. Her Gayness doesn't bother him because in addition to the "fact" that she's Gay, she's also "too white". It's not that white isn't attractive mind you, it's just that he likes his "ho's" darker. Oh yeah, he said the word. Casually, the way I might say "women".
Guess what? I don't like this persons attitudes, and I can't say so because if I did, I would be accused of being a "RACIST". Apparently I'm not the only racist in the family because my brother didn't like them either. We are white and we don't like this mans attitudes, but if we were to say so, because he's black we would be accused of being racist. My brother and I would be just one more example of white folks degrading blacks. He, on the other hand, doesn't like Hallie Berry because her skin is too white. Does this make him a racist? Plus she's gay. If I were allowed to voice my opinion to this man I would tell him that in my estimation he's using language in a way that suggests he's possibly a white hating homophobe, but that would make me a racist.
What he thinks is his business, but I have to ask myself if the problem of color is not being perpetuated by people like him. How often do we hear the phrase "He used the race card". Was O.J. Simpson on trial for killing his wife and another man because he was black, as his lawyer suggests? Exactly which group of people is it that bandies the word "racist" at the mere suggestion that the law expects criminals to pay the price of their crimes whether they are black or white?
Don Imus used the phrase "nappy headed ho's" to describe a group of young black women who did not deserve this. It was not right, it was unacceptable behavior. However, I remember a Towanda Brawley who was 15. She stated that she had been raped by a group of white men who smeared feces on her. I was horrified, and I believed her, at first. Al Sharpton jumped on that one and pretty much made a name for himself with his accusations. One of those accusations, when it became apparent that Towanda was lying, was that the prosecuting attorney was one of the men who raped and degraded this poor black girl which was why she was never going to receive justice.
That "racist" prosecuting attorney had the nerve to take Sharpton to court for defamation of character. He won and Sharpton was ordered to pay a fine, which he did, and to APOLOGISE to the man he so unfairly accused. He NEVER has tendered that apology. He doesn't need to, the prosecuting attorney is a racist, according to the Reverend Sharpton, so he doesn't need to. Funny thing, Sharpton still has his radio program. Oh, but I'm forgetting...Don Imus is the "racist" not Al Sharpton. In a 30 year history as a radio shock jock, Don has twice made statements that were derogatory to black women. Hello...Don Imus makes derogatory statements about everything, women, politicians, sports figures, himself. That's what a shock jock does for a living, he spouts off in ways we don't always find acceptable. Well, until he finds another radio station that will host him, his right to free speech has been terminated.
The last couple of days I have been reading blogs on the AOL Black Voices. One of the blogs was about a book written by a black female professor which points out that black women are not respected by their own race. She cites the rap music of today and the effect it has on both white and black society. I copied some of the comments and am sharing them here because I think that we need to hear from black people other than the Sharptons of the world. I chose only those comments that were actually written by black people, and frankly they get what happened a lot better than those of us in our white ivory towers of idealism ever could. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
24. Again slavery is over,sharpton and jackson are sniveling little cowards who instead of protesting gangster rap that celebrates someone getting out of jail (living off my tax dollars)instead of someone going to college, or fighting drug dealers and pushers they jump on every simple easy no chanch of danger little comment made that they think they can snowball into a race issue. The comment wasn't even raceist it was demeaning yes but not raceist. Again sharpton and jackson won't stand up to the real issues because there's no money to be made in it for them and it's dangerous. Martin Luther King would be ashamed and spit on the both of them as well as anyone else who supports them. An I do agree with the crutch comment posted earlier. It's 2007 quit making excusses and start making something better of ourselves. The only reason any of you get angry over someone saying that your useing race as a crutch is because you are. Get off of wellfair get job go to school whatever just quit whinning about something that didn't even affect you. We're black there white OH!! whats that an asian.spanish,korean,irish person. You peoplle make me ashamed to be black. Tell you what if this pisses you off then do the world a favor an do what the rap song says you should do to someone else an put a cap in your own ass so we don't have to be drug down by your lazy everybody owes me something attitude!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------
19. Imus' words were no more, and no less, excusable than the same words when they are used to win Grammy awards, basketball games, or "street cred." Whites cannot help but feel that the current storm simply represents clear hypocrisy on the part of many Blacks, particularly those who choose to use the same words to gain respect. Is racism the same, worse, or better when it is self-inflicted? I do not know the answer; but I do know that the penalties ought to be the same. When the Black community stops using the cruelest of characterizations -- and stops rewarding them -- people of all races will be the beneficiaries. I don't believe that trading slavery imposed by whites for the trappings of slavery revered by blacks is going to help anyone "get over" an ugly period created by, and endured, by both races.
18. Congratulations Racist America.....you have fired the first shot in the Politically Correct Revolution. Imus was a bad mouth that very very few listened to...but you got your pound of flesh. Now...pay backs are a bitch, and get ready for yours. From a colored American.
28. Reecie--you and the first poster are right, being Black is exhausting. BUT when are we going to respect ourselves? As another poster pointed out--we have Wendy Williams calling Angelina Jolie's child a nigarette. We have rappers calling our women ho's and worse. We have rappers and actors and the like denigrating us. Who needs Imus when we are our own worst enemy? Until we stand up and are truly proud of our culture, our heritage and who we are--we are going to continue to be exhausted! Until we stand up and say no more to our own people who rap about drugs, ho's, beating up women etc., we will continue to perpetuate all of this disrespect. Whites buy our music, see our films, watch our comedians. They see our own dishing it out and tearing us down...and they figure it is no big deal to say some of the same words. We need to respect ourselves and demand, respectfully, respect from our writers, our artists, our own people.
1. I am so tired of being black; not the color of my skin, but the experience of being black. It is difficult living in my skin in a world that daily strips you of your right to move about peaceably without fear of being degraded because of the skin I'm in. We need to change the way we think of ourselves before we can change how others view u;we are our own worst enemy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------10. What is the problem? I thought he was complimenting the playas.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- All of the above comments are exactly as written, with no editing on my part.
Came online at an early hour this morning. Was in the process of doing a post when everything went black. Of course, with the wind and rain we've had for the last two days I thought we were experiencing a power outage. Then I stood up and looked into the kitchen, saw the clock on the coffee pot was still illuminated. which of course means the problem was inside my house.
Resetting the breakers turned the power back on, but it went off again immediately. Thankfully I had unplugged my computer, so no surge affected it. Hubby took the tester and discovered that the breaker box was not getting sufficient power, so we called an electrician.
He discovered a loose connection in the outside box, which meant that we were running on low voltage, so when the freezer kicked on it overloaded the circuit and shut me down. He tightened everything, and checked everything to make sure we were going to be safe. He said we were fortunate that we have a good system that doesn't have breakers too large for the line. He said that most people put larger breakers in the box when they frequently blow the breakers. If we had been the type to do that we would have had an electrical fire. Instead of blowing the breaker the arc would have kept sparking until the wire got hot enough to burn.
Unfortunately he tracked mud all over my house so I have a LOT of work to do to clean up his mess. Plus, since I live in a mobile home and the breaker box is in a closet, I have all kinds of clothes on the bed to sort out and see what I can get rid of. I'm going to go get busy and I'll see you all tonight for the music.
Hubby is a contractor that deals predominantly with septic systems. He installs them, and of course maintains them by hauling septage. We must take the septage to either of 2 facilities, the City Of Rome Water Pollution Control facility or the Oneida County Department of Water Safety and Pollution Control. Should we dump elsewhere, and get caught we must pay major fines. If we should have an accidental spill, we must pay major amounts of money to clean it up plus we will be paying stiff fines.The DEC regulations that we comply with require that we carry a million dollars in liability insurance, plus we pay $500 annually for our permit. When using either of the facilities that our permit gives us permission to use we must pay 8 cents a gallon for the priviledge of dumping the contents of our truck at their properly maintained facility.
Which facility we use depends on where in Oneida County we are pumping. With the cost of gas being what it is, we need to get the weight off the truck as early as possible because it uses more gas to drive the truck full than it does when empty. He doesn't like using the County facility because it isn't clean, and the manhole is large enough for a person to fall into should he lose his balance during the dumping procedure. With the high cost of gas these days, we have to cut ourselves a break when we can, but the conditions at the manhole at the Oneida Co. facility make him uneasy and he will avoid going there if he can. Our annual dumpage fees run close to $30,000 divided between the two facilities and we are only one of approximately 15 haulers in this area, with new haulers starting up every year. The new haulers come in with really cheap prices, and that means we can't raise our prices high enough to make a profit. The new haulers usually don't last that long because they get into trouble with the DEC by getting caught dumping where they aren't supposed to, or by hauling things they aren't permitted to. The fines usually put them out of business, but not until after the damage has been done.
What angers me most is that the new haulers use the Oneida County facility because they know they won't get caught as soon. Oneida County should hold their facility to a higher standard than say Rome does, because it's a bigger facility. It covers the new municipal sewer systems built in Holland Patent, Marcy, Stittville, Oriskany, Utica, Whitestown, New Hartford, and parts of Clinton, NY. They are adding new municipal sewer system users almost constantly because of the boom in New Hartfords commercial corridor. We used to work in these towns, but with the sewer systems built in the last 10 years our customer base has shrunk, and at the same time the volume of sewage has increased at the facility.
A septic system tank holds mostly solids. Water goes to a leach field or drywell and is absorbed into the ground where it can evaporate. A sewer system gets both the solids and all the water that wasn't present when a hauler transported it to the facility. Since all the septage now goes there, an increase in volume has stressed the facility beyond what it can handle. The operators at the facility should have been aware of the problem and done something to correct it. They did nothing, and 150 million gallons of raw sewage is being dumped into the Mohawk River on a daily basis. The state finally caught up to it. They have ordered that no new sewer system users be added until the problem is fixed which the state says must occur by 2011. Oneida County itself says that it will take 7 years and millions of taxpayer dollars just to conduct the study necessary to determine what needs to be done.
In the meantime the New Hartford commercial corridor will not be allowed to install any new sewer systems, nor will stores nearing completion be allowed to hook into the sewer system. Lowes Home Improvements has a store that was slated to open next month. This is going to get very interesting, because they may not be allowed to open. Regulatory codes state that no new septic systems be allowed to exist if a sewer connection is available. A sewer connection is available, so they won't be allowed to install a septic system. We aren't sure what part of all of this will affect us, nor can we determine whether the effect will be positive or negative. This remains to be seen, but I'm sure it will have some sort of affect.
In the early 1980;s the DEC stopped individual septic haulers from spreading on land because they determined that this practice was polluting the watershed. Prior to that, septic hauling was a lucrative business. Without the added expense of dumpage, prices were cheaper, fewer haulers were in business, and our food supply was safer. In Oneida County, with all of the haulers dumping on land the volume of dumpage might have equalled 60,000 gallons, per week. Most of the bacteria would have been absorbed into the ground and filtered out by the time any of this reached the water table. Lakes were being polluted because of substandard septic systems installed with a pipe directly into the lake which carried raw sewage into the water. This became a problem because of the boom in lakefront building. Somehow it never occured to the DEC that this problem could be resolved by regulating the type of septic system it would allow and then regulating maintenance of the system to stop the pollution. In it's infinite wisdom, the DEC blamed haulers spreading on land so they stopped that practice.
Towns and villages that were experiencing expansion were encouraged to connect to municipal sewer systems if they were available. The state even grants money for this purpose. The cost to the taxpayer for the modernization is minimal, but they have to pay a sewer tax once connected. These same people who would not maintain their septic systems because of the cost, are now paying annually the price of one pump out of a thousand gallon septic tank which should have occured every 3 to 5 years and didn't because it was too expensive. Sewer systems are better, they don't contribute to pollution the same way a septic system does. The only reason a septic system contributes to pollution is because it's not the right type of system for the area it's installed in, and because of lack of maintenance. Now all these places have sewer systems which carry raw sewage to a facility where it supposedly is treated. The truth of the matter is it's being pumped into a river at the rate of 150 million gallons a day. Now that's pollution, brought to you by the NYSDEC uniform code regulations. Now we can enjoy 150 million gallons daily of raw sewage in our water supply compared to 60,000 gallons a week of filtered sludge. Strange that I should have lost my appetite for fish.
I don't know where to start, because so many things are happening to Dad that are all serious, no clear cut plan of treatment can be established. He has chronic renal failure, and diuretics which are necessary for his edema place such a stress on his kidneys that they could shut down. He is at a stage where he must take massive doses of magnesium and zinc because the kidneys are not filtering them out of the urine to make them available for his system. Plus we have the lymphedema in his leg that really needs to be addressed through compression either by the specially fitted 8 layer wrap or a pump. Again, the congestive heart failure and the renal failure have to be considered. His system will not handle the additional fluid pushed into the trunk of his body. If we don't address the lymphedema the lymph proteins degrade in the leg and acquire bacteria, which leads to another infection. Chronic cellulitis, and chronic bacterial pneumonia. He asked us to slit his throat, I'm not sure he's kidding.
Add to all the other problems a new one. He may have Parkinsons Disease. Lets put it this way, he has the spastic tremors, and the inability to stand on his feet, plus the inability to swallow that are symptoms of advanced Parkinsons. These symptoms are not a result of any medication that he takes. He doesn't jerk his head around, the involvement appears to be entirely in his hands and legs. He has difficulty getting food into his mouth because of the tremors, and he can't stand on his own because of the tremors. He can't suck on a straw, and swallowing has become difficult. The swallowing difficulty happened in a very few minutes last night, and is a brand new symptom. The spastic trembling has happened in the past couple of months but is not evident when he feels good. It seems to be there only when he's ill. The inability to walk is not being caused by a stroke, he was tested for that yesterday, and doppler exam of his veinous system shows no clots.
He was not anemic, and to keep him from getting that way he is receiving food through a nasal tube. It was not necessary to restrain him, he understood the necessity of it and he leaves the tube alone although he does catch it periodically when he spasms. His brother was there when I got there today, and they were having a discussion about what this protein supplement tasted like. Of course, since it"s being mainlined direct to the stomach, he can't taste anything. Uncle said it tastes like pork and Dad is saying it tastes like beef. I have no idea what it tastes like, but I can tell you it smells a bit like dirty sweat socks. That may be an exaggeration, but it does smell like soy protein. I would not be able to swallow anything that smelled like that, it makes you want to gag just smelling it, let alone trying to swallow.
Stepmom has put her foot down and will not take him home until he can walk. Which means a rehab facility somewhere. I am not sure how well that's going to work, and I don't think he'll agree to it. She isn't going to give him any choice. She just can't take care of him in his present condition, and I agree that he needs to be pushed in ways that he would not allow himself to be pushed by us. Rehab is going to be an absolute necessity, no if's ands or buts about it. The boys of the family are against it, and my feeling on that is fine, you take some of the burden off of your mother. If you can't step up to the plate and help her, then rehab is the only choice. I don't want to see him warehoused in a nursing home, but rehab is a totally different proposition. As far as I can see, this is going to be a situation that's going to get a lot worse before it's over.
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