Remember those articles you read in the newspaper about the horrible things that happen to children, the ones you don’t really want to read because people are setting children on fire or trying to drown them. It is so hard to look away from those articles about children who were locked in closets, or starved. The articles about a parent prostituting their preschooler for drug money repulse us.  We scowl and say those parents ought to be locked up when we read about police raiding a house and finding hungry children living in filth while the parent is passed out on the floor. We tend to want to punish the parent and forget about the child in such stories.
 
What does happen to the child?  The child usually is placed in foster care before they are placed in a permanent setting.  In a certain percentage of the cases, the abuse continues in foster care and to a lesser extent in an adoptive home.  People, who want to build their own self-esteem by abusing children, do place themselves in a position to have access to children.  Occasionally, the child comes to the attention of someone like me.  They may be in a foster home, adoptive home or with other family, often grandparents, but they are with someone who actively seeks to build a healing environment for the child.
 
My youngest foster daughter entered the system when the state terminated her parents’ rights.  She was one of those children you read about in the paper. Her abuse started before she was born.  Her mother drank while pregnant. 
 
In defense of the mother, she didn’t know alcohol would cause brain damage, and she had no concept that half a pint of vodka a day was excessive drinking. Nobody told her drinking was a problem until she was four months pregnant then she did cut way back. Still my daughter has brain damage from alcohol, beatings, near downing and malnutrition.
 
I did try to build a healing environment for her. I found clinical psychologists to work with her. I advocated for special supports for her at school and finally homeschooled her for nine years.  She had vision therapy, art therapy, music therapy, physical therapy, drama therapy, speech therapy and anything else I could think of to try. She had a horse, music lessons, dance lessons, and a therapy dog.  Did all this help? Some. 
 
The reality is that kids who have suffered the abuse you read about never recover. My foster daughter bumps along okay. She is angry most of the time. She lives alone, unable to tolerate the activity of other people around her. She gave up keeping a pet because she couldn’t meet the needs of a dog. She tried working, but is very vulnerable to manipulative abusive people and ended up seriously injured.
 
​So who paid for all my daughter’s therapies?  Hubby and I put a little over a million into her rehab and Medicaid paid in about five hundred thousand.
 
Medicaid still pays her medical bills. A person with my daughter’s background will have a compromised immune system, digestive problems, lung damage and heart damage.  The early prenatal alcohol exposure deformed her bones so her joints don’t work correctly.  She’s in pain much of the time.  Medicaid pays for her frequent doctor visits and medications.
 
So we now have fifty percent of our population jumping up and down in glee over cutting off this person’s medical care. What will happen?
 
Sadly, people like my daughter will have the last laugh. If she doesn’t have medical care and access to the medications that keep the germs under control, she will probably die before she is fifty, and without that control, she becomes a wonderful host for all sorts of diseases, and she doesn’t realize that if she has hepatitis she should not go out in public.  This is how epidemics spread. Vulnerable people get the disease first then carry it around in public where more vulnerable people get sick and carry the disease to those around them. This is why we read about epidemics in third world countries. 
 
People like my daughter need health care so they don’t become disease vectors. It is called a public health issue.  While it may make people feel good to be superior to those with histories like my daughter, it really is not in their best interest to create a class of people that form a breeding ground for epidemics. Epidemics have a way of reaching into even the homes of the elite and taking their beloved children or grandchildren.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have witnessed a peculiar phenomenon lately.  I see people of wealth and privilege, the power elite, expressing feelings of being persecuted.  Older white men will actually talk about not having representation or being picked on by this group or another.  People with money complain that they pay too much tax. The complaints go on and on.  One has only to look at their twitter or Facebook feed to find the complaints.  Those stupid other people did this horrible stupid thing. The horrible stupid thing is usually giving someone equal rights. Giving others equal rights is not persecution.
 
The reality is that the power elite is made up of very rich people and people who identify as Republican. The Republican party controls two thirds of the governorships, the House, the Senate, the White House and numerous state legislatures. Nobody is persecuting the power elite. It is impossible to persecute those with power over everybody else. We may criticize the way they run things, but that is not persecution. Being criticized for the things you are doing is not persecution when you are the one in control.
 
Why do people of astounding privilege come off with this persecution business?  The term retarded, which was once a medical/psychological term has come to be used as a slur. I’ve told people, “Don’t use retard as a slur because it puts down a whole class of people. Don’t use it as a diagnosis because it is used as a slur.” I meet this wall of hostility because I am persecuting people by denying their right to free speech.  I’m a snowflake when I unfriend them for not being a decent human being.
 
Reality is that for communities to work we have to maintain a certain level of manners and respect for our fellow human beings. Treating others as equals helps. Minding our own business helps.  There is a real difference between being told to mind your own business about who marries whom and being persecuted. Paying taxes is not persecution. Paying service people a living wage is not persecution.
 
When someone has different beliefs than you do it is not persecution, but I think this is where the idea of being persecuted is born.  We all love to be told that we are right and valuable. We love to be validated. We get a warm fuzzy feeling. The neurotransmitters flow, and we are happy.
 
When someone believes differently, they don’t make our neurotransmitters flow. With a little bit of outside prodding, one can very easily look at the contrast between being validated and not being validated and turn the lack of neurotransmitter stimulation into a feeling that gets labeled persecution.  It has nothing to do with persecution. The reality is that not everybody is going to run around validating us over everything we do.  Other people have their own lives to live.
 
The point where I have trouble with the whining is when I do a reality check.  Remember, I live with an older white male. I’ve been married to him for over fifty years and yes, he tells me he feels persecuted.
 
Hubby’s persecution doesn’t hold up well to reality checks. Mostly, he bumps along pretty good until he talks to someone who is feeling persecuted because students at Berkley are demonstrating. He’ll come home and tell me students are taking away his rights because they demonstrated against someone.
 
I sigh and say, “Oh Honey, that reminds me of when we were young. Remember all the demonstrations? I wonder if we will get any decent music out of the social upheaval?  We had such exciting music when we were young.”
 
Hubby may try to tell me that demonstrations now are different form when we were young. This is when I give him The Look and explain, “No. I had to pass through demonstrators when I attended a lecture by a woman who identified as a Commie. During her speech, she made some good points, but sometimes she made some logical blunders and the students greeted these with hoots and laughter.  We protested when we found something wrong, untrue, racist or misogynist. Students today protest bigotry, war, social injustice and liars.  Not much has changed, so why feel persecuted when the young have different values or point out the truth?”
 
Older-White-Male-Hubby grumbles and growls when I blow apart his little persecutions, but when he recovers from having his bubble burst, he feels much happier. Hubby isn’t persecuted. Life has been pretty good to him, or rather as good as it gets. He is not, and never has been, persecuted.
 
The problem with feeling persecuted is that the illusion of being persecuted colors all our interactions with our environment.  It makes us sad. It is bad for our health. It clouds our relationships and divides friends. While focusing on being persecuted is stimulating, it becomes an addiction destroying lives and relationships.  It is one of the factors destroying our country.
 
Cut it out!
 
Okay, I’ll mention some tips for combating the feeling.  As I’ve talked about above, reality checks will help.  Are you homeless? Yes? You can feel any way you want. No? You have a lovely home. Maybe you aren’t persecuted.  Changing your focus from the things that irritate you to doing things you enjoy helps. Watch for classic cars while driving or plan a dinner out.  Read books. Go see a movie, garden or play with trains. Get involved in living your own life. Give thanks for the people in your life and for the things you own.  Acknowledge your privilege. 

 My dear biographer Delinda McCann has crashed. I suspect that she sees many parallels between my country and her own and is overwhelmed with the seriousness of the situation.  I’ve agreed to step forward and voice my concerns on what she calls the Deadly Divide.
 
She has some basis for being concerned.  She shared with me her distress over discovering that some longtime friends and even some family no longer trust her because she spoke out about the dangers of a nation being divided against itself.  I find this astounding and alarming.  One of the first signs of an oppressive regime occurs when the intellectuals, historians, artists, poets and journalists face discrimination for doing their job. Friends and neighbors no longer trust each other and that distrust feeds into the power of our oppressors.
 
Oppressive regimes are not the result of one ambitious person seizing power.  One person acting alone cannot overcome all sense of social justice among the populace. Long before that one person reaches the stage of public recognition, groups of people with common interests, often from the military or the business sector or a religious sector, have infiltrated the major institutions of the country and started movements toward restricting the rights and privileges of laborers, natives and minorities.
 
I see many problems with your current head of state. Your president is not my biggest concern.  He will do as he is told.  My concern is with the big bosses. My country does not produce fossil fuels.  We must import what we use.  My administration started building a series of small dams to control flooding and produce hydro-electric power. We recently built a wind farm and have plans to build more. We are slowly but steadily moving toward energy self-sufficiency. This movement has already brought criticism from the oil barons who control much of the global economy. As our next election cycle approaches, I see they are supporting two candidates who will do their best to reverse that progress. How far will those big bosses go to maintain their energy domination over us? I am certain the people of my country will not have a president who represents their interests.  We cannot produce a candidate who will stand up to big oil without being assassinated. We worry about being invaded for producing a little electricity. So it is in many countries.  The oil industry rules us all.
 
What do those behind the power regimes want?  Do they even know what they want?  My estimate is that they want everything. Make no mistake, the leaders among the power elite are broken individuals.  My wife shakes her head and says, “No mirror neurons.” Or “autism spectrum.” One has only to walk into their homes to see the brokenness. Everything is about display.  Why does one want gold paint everywhere? It isn’t restful. It doesn’t follow good design principles. It is only for outward display. The art and decorations are meant for display more than bringing the viewer a sense of awe or enjoyment. One looks at lavish surroundings and wonders if anybody is home inside the owner of such a display.
 
I think the ruthless lust for power and wealth among the power elite is a quest to fill up the emptiness inside.  That emptiness cannot be filled thus the never ending struggle to have power over as many people as possible.  Denying basic necessities like clean water and health care to the population acts like heroin to the oppressor.  For a few minutes the tyrant is happy as he imagines his power to impose suffering.  Like heroin the rush wears off and the tyrant turns to buying an election to get his next rush, and we all pay the price.  
 
Some places have managed to throw off the oppressors for a while at least. The difference between those countries that have had peaceful revolutions and those who have not lies in the people.  In my country we knew who was behind the emperor. We knew who our friends were and who the enemy was. I don’t see this in the United States.  I see divisions between neighbors and equals.  I see divisions based on levels of poverty.  You would think that at least the poor would stick together, but they blame each other for their poverty with no idea that they are poor in order to feed the sickness of the power elite.
 
I urge my US friends to think about your country and your fellow citizens. You are all subject to the whims of a sick oligarchy. It isn’t your neighbor who oppresses you.  Your neighbor suffers under the same yoke as you do. There is no right or left, only the oligarchs and the oppressed. In the end, the best advise I can give is to urge you all to love your neighbor.