Skip to main content

Us Versus Them


We were invited to a brunch to celebrate a friend’s mom’s award as the "Congregant of the Year" at her church.

At the brunch, most of the people were pretty elderly. As one older woman was leaving, out of the blue she said, "Oh this must be the Republican table." 

"What," I responded?

She confirmed that she heard that we were the Republicans in the group. Nervous laughter ensued because none of our group voted for the current president. 

In fact, a close friend of mine at the brunch might be a Democratic Socialist. 

None of us voted for Trump or Hillary Clinton. Two horrible candidates so we voted for other people for our own self respect.

Nevertheless we had to defend ourselves for no reason. 

I realized at that brunch, that the political venom is getting so personal that a geriatric political progressive needs to chastise people she doesn’t know anything about.

I used the term "political progressive" on purpose. This woman stereotyped without knowing anything about us. I don’t know anything about her also. When she said that statement out of the blue, I thought about Representative Maxine Waters angrily telling her supporters to chastise Trump and his staffers.

 

I thought about telling her that yet I realized that that would confirm her suspicions about me even though I do not agree with President Trump.

The whole point of this post is that the political vitriol is getting so extreme even a religious brunch to celebrate an old woman’s church award is now political.

Sad.

Comments

Rebecca Dutton said…
Truly sad. In my opinion Osama Bin Laden won because our fear is so omnipresent that we attack each other.
July 24, 2018 at 6:34 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Phantom Blindness and Taking a Break after Strokes

I met with my eye doctor last week about taking some time off from my vision therapy. I have been doing therapy since my stroke almost two and a half years ago. I am tired, and a need a break. My doctor said, “This is completely understandable. Take some time off.” At the appointment, my doctor tested my vision. Because of the strokes, my vision was affected, and I have a problem in my field of vision on the right side. I have a deficit with my right side peripheral vision. However, it is getting better. During the test, I told him that I “sense things on the right side of my peripheral vision.” It seems that I know that something is there, but I cannot really distinguish what it is. He told me that there is a body of thought describing phantom vision or phantom blindness. A Polish researcher, L. Bieganowski, described this phantom blindness this way:    “The subject of the paper is the phenomenon of phantom vision. It occurs among the blind (or almost blind...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is wrong with us! A lot: Aphasia, Apraxia, and Dysarthria

This morning, from 10:30 to Noon, at St. Lukes in Meridian Idaho, I participated in the “Aphasia, Apraxia, and Dysarthria Support Group” started a year ago through Idaho State University. We meet weekly.  So, what is wrong with us? Aphasia is the name given to a collection of language disorders caused by damage to the brain. A requirement for a diagnosis of aphasia is that, prior to the illness or injury, the person's language skills were normal. The difficulties of people with aphasia can range from occasional trouble finding words to losing the ability to speak, read, or write, but does not affect intelligence. This also affects visual language such as sign language . The term "aphasia" implies a problem with one or more functions that are essential and specific to language function. It is not usually used when the language problem is a result of a more peripheral motor or sensory difficulty, such as paralysis affecting the speech muscles or a general hear...
Post a Comment
Read more

January

January 10th was the 13th anniversary of my first stroke. After 18 days in the hospital (including my second massive stroke were I lost almost everything) we celebrated my son’s seventh birthday. I wanted to celebrate my son‘s birthday but I had no idea the sensory overload would cause. The flashing lights, the unbearable noise of the crowds and the music, and loud conversations caused me to panic. In the midst of my brain damaged confusion, I had to go to the bathroom. At that point I really didn’t know how to navigate the restaurant even though I had been there many times. I didn’t know the concept of letters and I didn’t know what “men” and “women” were on the doors. My little son gripped my hand and said, “Daddy… I will take you to the bathroom.” Stumbling through the crowded restaurant I was scared. My son guided me to the proper door and asked if I needed any more help. After I finished I came out and he grabbed my hand and took me back to the booth. In January this year, We cele...
Post a Comment
Read more