Consequences

I just read an article where the Ohio ACLU http://www.wral.com/aclu-asks-ohio-city-to-stop-charging-drug-overdose-survivors/16610880/ wants people who use drugs and overdose, which cause others to rush to save their lives by administering medical help . . . somehow if these people are not charged with a crime, it will help them in some way? That’s what the ACLU believes.

In reading the article, I saw that the penalty is 180 days in jail (hey, maybe they can get off that stuff while they’re in there? just a thought) and $1000 fine. That’s too much for overdosing citizens to pay for the trouble they cause others by overdosing?

We used to have something called consequences for our actions here in America. Sure, some people get away with things, but that doesn’t mean they should. The recent generation who are now adults seem not to equate actions with consequences.

There are numerous facebook posts about poor Kaepernick, the football player who went down on one knee during the national anthem. There’s article after article about different illegal aliens who are being deported, but who really needed to be here to have a better life and who will suffer if returned to their countries of origin. When you hear the first word of that person’s description and it’s “illegal”, it causes you to ask what?

What has been going on for years that allow people to willy-nilly do anything and everything they feel like doing and to then expect no consequence? That is what has been wrong with America for a long time.

Then there are college students, who do want a new life, a better life, badly enough that they go into debt for thousands and thousands of dollars. They expect their lives will be bettered. They’ve actually done an honorable thing of trying to improve their contribution to society and of bettering themselves. They didn’t sneak into another country’s populace and try to blend in . . . they didn’t disrespect a flag in front of veterans who will spend the rest of their lives affected by the war they fought . . . yet, the college student loan borrower gets a lifetime of being saddled with debt, while lawbreakers and disrespecters should be given a pass?

Consequences should fit the crime. I cannot go to my doctor and say I was around someone with the flu, but now I have the flu and expect him to treat me for free. If I wander into some other country, like perhaps, North Korea, no one is surprised when I am sentenced to prison. It’s expected.

It’s time to put consequences back in place for those who don’t think through their actions. If someone overdoses, they deserve to pay for the treatment that saves their lives and then they deserve to find a way, if it’s jail time, to get away from that poison they’ve been ingesting and make their lives worth living. Being high all the time may be fun to some people; that doens’t mean it shouldn’t have consequences.

People need to stop and think again. We had a saying, “Your freedom ends where my nose begins.” That’s how America was founded. Sure, we’re free, but not to the point of trashing someone else’s property and lives and not to the point of getting stuff free just because you’re an addict.

If you’re going to dance, be prepared to pay the piper.

Maybe we need a book of such slogans to remind people that freedom is not free. Somebody paid the salaries of those who saved an addict’s overdosing life. The addict, ultimately, is responsible for the costs he caused.

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Emotional Toll

Feeling better today, I decide to print out some more of what I have written on the Blindman book.

I have to scan my writing because I’ve mixed up my nonfiction supporting sister book entries with my memoir writing, and I only want to print out the memoir entries.

This is a book about a very heart wrenching time in my life. Reading it now, I wonder how I ever survived.

I’d love to find an agent/publisher, but this book will get into print if I have to self-publish it.

I hope this book will change the way some things are done in America. Between this true account and the other information I have collected, someone somewhere should have a loud outcry, and not just my voice.

There’s a saying about for evil to survive, good people have to just stand by and do nothing. What if good people are not aware of the evil being done? Let’s make sure they all know.

That’s my goal, but reading back over this time in my life is taking an emotional toll on me, and I cannot bear to read and print all the things I have written, in one sitting. As it is, once it’s all printed and put in chronological order, I’ll need to go through and read the whole thing and edit it.

This will not be easy, but it feels necessary.

At some point, I’ll print an entry from this book here on this blog.

I won’t do it today.

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To Write or Not to Write

That’s been the question.

I’ve been really sick this whole month. I went back to the doctor Tuesday. Today is Thursday. I’m on the final antibiotic before hospitalization. Let’s hope this does the trick.

I’m now on steroids as well. I feel like how people describe that they feel on speed. This is no fun at my age because I truly want to lie down and rest. Two steroids at bedtime last night equaled not getting to sleep until 4:00 am. I’m tired today, but almost time for another steroid. If it gets me well, it will be worth it. I’m also on an antibiotic. I think I already wrote that.

Besides not feeling like writing, I’ve not felt like I could say anythinhg worthwhile. I did post on my proudofeverywrinkle blog about anger ovre various things, but that was probably due to how bad I felt and I was already angry before I got angrier.

I’ve been told I’m a very good writer. However, I notice my writing is better when I feel well.

Just for kicks, I have taken my picture every day since I got sick (March 2). It started out as me being optimistic and sure I would be better in a few days. I wanted to document my progression back to health. The pictures I’ve taken look like I’m headed in the other direction.

Tell you what. I’m going to go try to scarf down some lunch, take a quick steroid and try to get to sleep before it knows I took it.

I have diabetes and these steroids are really messing with my blood sugar. It was almost 400 last night. That’s another issue.

If you pray, how about lifting up a prayer for me that I will get well soon so I can write something worth reading? Thanks.

Constance

Looking for an Insult

Some people go through life monitoring every interaction with another person to see if they’re being insulted, or slighted. I can guarantee you that if you do that daily, before each day is over, you will have found something to feel insulted about. It may not have been meant in the way that you believed it was, when you heard it, but all of us say or do something from time to time, without even realizing it, that someone else can find insulting or offensive. Perhaps the best reply would be “I beg your pardon?” with a hint of shock in the statement. That is often enough to let the other person realize you’ve heard something that feels insulting or offensive. They will usually explain what they truly meant. Or, if you don’t want to try that, you can ignore what was said. If they were trying to offend you, it will not have worked. If they weren’t . . . well, good.

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Writing Every Day

I think it was yesterday that I blogged about writing every day and how blogging was the best way to be sure you met that goal? Was it yesterday? I have been sick for several days. I finally got in to see the doctor. He said I have three different types of infection and should take these very strong antibiotics and stay in bed 2 days.

That’s where I’m headed. Back to bed. I did just write a poem and thought about posting it here, but I’m fairly jealous of my poems and don’t want the words or even the ideas stolen.

I did write a poem I’ve almost posted here before that was published in 2 am Magazine. It was titled Slumberlost. The rights reverted back to me after publication. I’ve tried to re-sell it, but the magazines I’ve approached don’t want it, if it’s a reprint. Even if it was published in the 1980’s? 1990’s?

Maybe one day I’ll publish a book of my poems. I’ve thought about it a lot. Or maybe my kids will find all these poems I’ve written and post them post-humously (is that the word? did I mention I’m sick? Today instead of googling that word to be sure it’s spelled right and means what I intend, I am going to go back to bed.

Chances are no one, but me will see it anyway. Like many of my poems.

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Advice to Writers

I don’t know when it happened, but I recently realized that I’m writing every day now on one of my blogs. (I have three. It sometimes varies which one I write on, but I write on at least one of them every day.)

A blog is an easy place to go to put down your thoughts and ideas, and it stays there so you can compare earlier blogs with later ones.

When I taught school, my students kept journals. They wrote daily. When I had parent  conferences, I could show each parent the growth in writing that their child had made. We just looked at the first, few pages and at the most recent pages.

It helps me to see growth. It helps me to practice. It’s also helped to see when I am most productive and write my best.

I’ve found that I need to be motivated and inspired to do my best writing, but I can also write when I don’t feel well.

Try it. Set up a blog on wordpress, or wherever you want to blog, and try to write something every day. Don’t force yourself to write a certain number of words. Sometimes I can say something in a few words and if I expanded it too much, it would lose some of its punch. One of those recent days was when I blogged “A senior moment is better than a xanax.” I had been worrying all morning about something and suddenly I forgot what I’d been worried about. I don’t know if the phone rang, or the dog needed to go out, but something interrupted my thoughts, and I suddenly no longer could remember what I was stewing about.

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American School Day

Just watched a school bus stop to pick up school children in the pitch black darkness outside (5:57 am), and I wondered how many other countries make their children get up before the sun rises and get on a bus to go spend a day that ends for them way before the sun goes back down? I wonder if sleep deprivation is a factor in today’s childhood learning? I wonder why we don’t move forward to a better way?

2017 Joint Address by Donald Trump

I just listened to President Trump give his first 2017 joint address to congress. What I thought as he left the podium was that he hasn’t deserted us. I’ve seen Presidents come and Presidents go and they don’t speak to the American People and they don’t keep their campaign promises. Donald Trump is not one of them.

I watched his speeches when he campaigned. I watched all the candidates’ speeches because it was an election like I have never seen before and I was trying to make up my mind about the candidates. Donald Trump did and said things that I truly understood. No, he was not a perfect man and the media did their best to point that out. It’s probably why I took such a close look at him. I liked what I saw, and I voted for him.

I saw all the wailing and complaining from those who did not want him to win. I wondered what they preferred. Nothing I saw from the other candidates, except maybe Bernie Sanders, appealed to me. Bernie lost my respect when he let two women take his microphone when he was about to give a speech and when he let Hillary Clinton convince him to support her. Bernie Sanders might have won, if he’d had Donald Trump’s bravery.

Donald Trump doesn’t mince words. He tells it like it is, and some people don’t want to hear that. He is of my generation, so when his slogan was “Make America Great Again”, I understood what he wanted for our great country.

Young adults today complain about how things are, but they cannot see how things can be, if we return to American values. In the past decade, my country has become completely foreign to me. Our focus has been on anything but the American Citizen. Yet, when the younger adults complain about how much better my generation had things, they can’t see past their displeasure to what “Make America Great Again” means. I hope they will see it as it happens. I hope they will benefit from the changes.

Donald Trump gave a great speech tonight. I haven’t yet looked to see what all the reporters want me to believe about his speech. I’ve never appreciated them interpreting things for me that I can interpret for myself.

Donald Trump makes it easy for Americans to make up their own minds. He talks to them. He tells them what he’s doing and why. He shares his hopes and dreams for their future.

He gave a great speech tonight.

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