A DAY IN LIFE by Mare

I wrote this as if I was our daughter..and I just wanted to share. Spike feel feel to use if you would like. ~Mare

She wakes up to get ready for school like everyone else her ages does. She takes a shower, pets her cat, eats breakfast and gets ready for her day, just like everyone else does. She begins her day reading a book, and tells herself she is going to have a good day.
Her parents get up get ready to take her to school. She is a good teen-ager she stays out of trouble she is a only child so figuring things out comes first hand for her, almost like the oldest child. Her parents drop her off at school and hold up traffic tell her to have a good day and watch her all the way to the door to make sure she makes it in the school, as most parents just drop off their child and drive away as the day is too busy for them.
The day goes on and noone wants to partner with her she is called a "Lesbian" knowing she isn't they are just calling her that because her parents are. She pretends it doesn't bother her and the next class comes around and it happens again..Her mind shuts down and the emotions begin to fill and the feeling is too much. She begins to cry and then gets upset with herself because they are only words and she knows her parents love her and their parents are probably never around to tell the difference in their day, but "I can only take so much" her mind explodes with emotion and what started off as telling herself "I am going to have a good day" begins the day from hell.
She comes home from school and her parents know the look on her face there is something wrong and she doesn't want to appear weak or that she is ashamed of them, she doesn't talk about and her parents keep at her because they know and they care. She tells them ever so quietly and like it was no big deal. Her parents know better they know just what to ask and just what to say. Her parents walk her through some scenario to help her along for the next time around.
Her parents worry that the words will lead to attacks which will lead to other things all because two people love one another and have raised a child into this world. Children can be mean no matter if you come from a poor family, rich family, two moms, two dads, have glasses, or braces. Not that it makes it right but there needs to be something that can rest her parents from worrying, and her from having to go through the harassment.
They talk and hug and have dinner. They may go for a walk or watch a movie, She feels better when she is at home and hates when she has to get ready for bed for the new day is about to begin again and telling herself she is going to have a good day. ~Mare

posted by sapphoq on behalf of Mare

THE OTHER 4/2/07

Customer service is dead. There is vast evidence of its' demise on the internet. Examining the Blogger site in order to locate the "report abuse form" is daunting. So too is the policy behind it: Blogspot will not participate in the shutting down of sites which are defamatory in nature, yet will help the Indian government block objectionable content. The individual pales in comparison to the perceived importance of political entities.

Customer service is dead. Leaving electronica, one only has to visit physician discussion boards briefly to realize that what cannot be treated adequately [i.e. pain] is lumped into a vast world of blaming the patient [i.e. drug-seeking]. In my own life, one pain specialist refused to diagnose my numerous painful trigger points as fibromyalgia. "Fibromyalgia is a life style," he told me. He sent me off to aquatherapy where a physical therapist enlightened me on the play of words involved.

Then there is the attitude of many folks regarding disability. Physician discussion boards are a wonderful instrument of learning how patients who are disabled are viewed. Some won't fill out forms dealing with getting benefits for disability; others charge for them. A few will dump the patient [i.e. refer them to someone else; or passing the buck]. People in the generic population will also make comments. If ya don't "look" disabled, it is assumed that you can get and keep a job. Idle loafing, collecting the "free" money, living at or below poverty level are all great motivators [NOT].

Community is slowly dieing. One only has to briefly witness the antics of narcissistic or psychopathic bullies to understand this on a gut level. Whether the bully is a government or is found in the corporate boardroom, in academia, or on the world wide web, again we have become tainted with the fear of Otherness.

To a service provider, we all have become The Other. To the terminally healthy, anyone who is "different" is The Other. To the cowardly bully or the fundamentalist whose aim is to obliterate freedom of community and of self-determination, The Other is suspect. In a quest for sameness in an increasingly complex and diverse universe, xenophobia has become rampant. Internalizing these attitudes of The Other causes us to hate ourselves. That is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all.

Customer service is dead. Community is slowly dieing. Shunning and pushing The Other away is certain death. Embracing The Other reminds us that our basic humanity can outweigh the brute force of shutting each other [and ourselves] out of the richness of intradependency.

radical sapphoq