We directly created the conditions that gave rise to ISIS. We created the Taliban and Al Quaeda before that. Our war profiteering and imperialism has done nothing but hurt civilians.
Yeah, ISIS is bad. Yeah, the others are too. But when we kill more civilians than insurgents WE ARE THE PROBLEM. There are no acceptable levels of civilian casualties.
THERE ARE NO ACCEPTABLE LEVELS OF CIVILIAN CASUALTIES.
And if you want to talk weakness and terrorism, let’s discuss the literal fucking Nazi that was protected by police weeks ago that just murdered two Americans in an act of terrorism targeting Muslim women. If you want to talk about heroism let’s discuss the young man I’m watching over in the hospital tonight–a scholar and a poet who nearly lost his life with the other two for daring to stand up against hate. A boy barely old enough to drink put his unarmed body in harms way to protect the innocent while cowards in armor invade foreign lands crying “freedom” and allowing “acceptable levels of civilian casualties” so our corporate overseers can make more money.
Shut the fuck up.
The War on Terrorism has now lasted more than fifteen years. How many people have been killed or maimed or dispossessed, how much money has been spent, and what exactly do we have to show for it? Is the Middle East more peaceful or stable now? No. Are there fewer terrorists? No. Are you any safer now than you were in 2001? No. All that it’s done is ruin millions of people’s lives, militarise our societies, and create a power vacuum to be filled by an organization so bloodthirsty that even al-qaeda seems disgusted by them. And we’re just supposed to continue this until trumpets sound on doomsday? Fuck off.
Her mental age is about three years old. She loves Winnie the Pooh, Beauty & the Beast, and Sesame Street. Even though the below picture is unconvincing.
Edna and “Cookie.” I think she was trying to play it cool.
My name is Jeanie. I’m Edna’s younger sister. I’m also her guardian and caregiver.
That’s me on the left. (Hey, you never know. After a year of writing a blog about online dating – Jeanie Does the Internet – I’ve come to learn that there are A LOT of fools on the internet.)
ANYWAY, I’m not “doing the internet” anymore. I’m taking care of Edna full-time, after completing my MFA in Writing for Screen & Television at USC.
May 16, 2014. I wanted a picture. Edna wanted breakfast.
In case you’re wondering where our parents are, they’re dead. Our mom died of breast cancer when she was just 33.
Us with mom before she died. (Obviously.)
As for our dad, he peaced-out around the time my mom got sick. His loss – we’re awesome.
Here we are being awesome at the beach. Pushing a wheelchair in the sand? Not so awesome.
In case you’re wondering “What’s wrong?” with my sister – as a stranger once asked me on the street – NOTHING. Yes, Edna has a rare form of epilepsy – Lennox-Gastaut syndrome – but I don’t know if that’s anymore “wrong” than people who don’t have manners.
Basically, Edna was born “normal,” and started having seizures as a baby. They eventually got so bad that they cut off the oxygen to her brain, causing her to be mentally disabled. Or impaired. Or intellectually disabled. Or whatever you want to call it – except “retarded,” because in 2010, President Obama signed Rosa’s Law into effect, replacing that word with “intellectually impaired.”
Which is cool and all, but services for the disabled and the people who care for them are SEVERELY LACKING. Also, there’s a bunch of people working in taxpayer-funded positions who are supposed to help families like us, but don’t. (Big surprise, I know.) They just fill out paperwork (whenever they feel like it) with asinine statements like this:
YUP. I transport my sister down the stairs in her wheelchair, because that is not only safe, but TOTALLY PRACTICAL. Why doesn’t everyone in a wheelchair just take the stairs, for God’s sake? Stop being so lazy, PEOPLE WITHOUT WORKING LEGS!
But, as it says above, Edna’s legs do work. Whether or not she wants them to, is another story.
Edna refusing to go inside.
These are the stairs that I have to carry her up – by myself – on a daily basis. That is, until one of my legs break and both of us are just sitting at the bottom of the stairs, helpless.
For six months, I have begged – BEGGED – the State of California to help my sister, which they are required by law – The Lanterman Act specifically – to do so. But they’ve told me “these things take time” and that I “need to amend my expectations.” (That was said to me when I refused to place Edna at AN ALL-MALE CARE FACILITY. Because yes, that was an “option” that was offered to me.)
Prior to Edna moving in with me in my one-bedroom apartment, she was living with her amazing caregiver, Gaby, back in Tucson, where we went to high school and I did my undergrad. Edna’s reppin’ the Wildcats below.
But back in November, Gaby also died from breast cancer. (FUCK YOU, BREAST CANCER!) This picture was taken a month before she died. She never even told me she was sick because she didn’t want me to worry.
By the way, we were raised by our grandma. Edna and her were very close.
She’s dead, too. Surprise.
She died when I was 20 and Edna was 21. That’s when I became Edna’s legal guardian and Gaby stepped into the picture to help me out with Edna.
So, six months ago, after Gaby died, I moved Edna to California, where I tried to get the folks over at The Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center to help me. I’ve told them I’m worried about our safety – that one of us could get hurt on the stairs – I’ve told them I can’t afford to pay the private babysitters $15/hour because the ones social services sent me who make $9/hour were unreliable (they didn’t show up on time or at all so I could get to school and work), untrustworthy (one of them let Edna go to the bathroom in the kitchen and then took her into the bathroom because “that what I thought I was supposed to do.”)
But the people over at the FLRC don’t return my calls, they don’t file the paperwork on time – and the first caseworker that was assigned to us actually LAUGHED AT my sister when he came to our home to evaluate her. When I reported him to his supervisor, she told me, “That’s just [insert name of said jackass].”
He was one of the two caseworkers that contributed to the report I mentioned above, which also included this:
So let me get this straight – I have to feed, bathe, dress and help Edna in the bathroom and you can’t deduce whether or not she is able to vote? What in the fuck?!
Now I realize I seem angry. And you can bet your balls I am. I’m also sad. Sad for those who don’t have family to stick up from them and who waste away God knows where, monitored by no one. Or monitored by people who physically and sexually assault them.
I’m also sad for the caregivers who are SO EXHAUSTED – trying to take care of their loved ones – while also trying to take care of themselves and battling a system that is supposed to help, but does nothing of the sort. And I know a lot of people give up. They let their dreams, their marriages, their friendships slide. All while trying not to resent the very person you’re doing it all for.
Edna wanted to sit next to me the other day while I was writing. Clearly, she’s not impressed.
Here’s the thing: I REFUSE TO GIVE UP. I’M NOT GIVING UP ON HER OR MYSELF. I’m going to pursue my dreams while taking care of her, AND while ensuring that the people paid to do their jobs ACTUALLY do them.
That’s where you come in. I need you to help me get my story out there. Because I know I’m not alone in this. I want to connect with families who are in similar situations and also show people who have no idea what it’s like to care for someone with a disability (or even a loved one who is sick) that it can be rewarding. Super fucking hard. Exhausting. Painful. Isolating. But, rewarding.
I’m going to get help for my sister – and others. My hope is that by sharing our story, I can bring awareness to the lack of services and help for the disabled.
STOP SCROLLING. THIS PERSON ISN’T ASKING FOR MONEY AND THIS POST WON’T MAKE YOU SAD.
This is a really uplifting and inspirational story of a family sticking by each other and making things work despite a whole lot of shit
They just want to find other people in the same position they are, for a sense of community and to feel like they aren’t alone.
I know out of all of you, some of you have followers who are living with and taking care of intellectually or emotionally disabled family members, and this lovely and unbreakable pair of sisters need to find them.
SIGNAL BOOOOOOOOOST
Repost! This story needs told!
Disabled lives matter. Sooo much.
I wouldn’t be here without the support of my family – share stories like this, the more people know, the more likely systems of support can change and grow to better serve families and communities.
there’s honestly never been a tv show more tender and gay than xena warrior princess which is why it baffles me that more sapphic women aren’t talking abt it constantly
Well I know I do!
There was a beautiful time of people in their 20′s who remembered it airing but who were too young to watch it then discovering Xena on Netflix. That’s literally why I have a tumblr. Xena is THE BEST shit.
Agreed. The very best.
Still angry Universal/NBC did not thing to celebrate her 20th and have failed to bring a new series. I hope post-WW, we’ll see a change, hopefully before, but no later than, the 25th anniversary.
Alright kru can you RT this post and give it likes? We lose nothing doing this y’all. Keep fighting for our girls and our ship kru.
A genius loner, recruited by MI6 to surveill a white supremacists org at a European university, finds deeper, international connections that lead her on a wild chase around the world into the heart of a political/corporate collective that seeks to undermine democracy in favour of profit and control – through any means necessary.
Sneak peek of the swagbags that attendees are getting tomorrow. Can’t wait for you all to see what’s inside! Relickru are getting spoiled with the Clexa/Hunner swag.
Let
me start by comparing TV writing to book writing. I just wrote a book,
and I only got creative notes from one person, my editor. She does two
rounds of notes with me (a general edit and a line edit) and then passes
me off to the copyeditor, who gives me grammar and spelling and
continuity notes. Then it goes to print! Easy peasy! (Well, not easy at
all, it’s a lot of work, but very straightforward.)
Compare that
process to the TV writing process. Every Rdale script is broken
(meaning: figured out) in the writer’s room, where there are 11 writers
plus Roberto, our fair boss and Showrunner. We all chime in with ideas
and suggestions and Roberto decides what direction he likes best and
chooses the pitches that work best until we have a working outline. Then
we put the scenes onto notecards, moving them around, re-breaking,
rejiggering, until the story works. That’s a lot of hands stirring the
pot so far, but we have one head chef: Roberto.
Then we write an
outline, which gets notes from the producers, the studio (Warner
Brothers), and the network (CW). Then we adjust based on those notes,
which come from a few of the execs at each company, who are smart and
very good at their jobs, which involves reading and analyzing TV scripts
from many shows and deciding what works well for them. They’re drawing
on their whole careers-worth of experience doing this on lots of
different shows to figure out how to guide the direction of Rdale.
Then
we go to script. The writer of that episode takes the very detailed
outline and starts writing scenes. Sometimes s/he might farm out some
scenes to other people in the writers room, or sometimes the room will
move on to the next episode and leave that writer to write solo.
Then
the completed script goes to Roberto, who does a pass on it to make it
sound like his vision for the show, and feel like the characters he has
in his head.
Then, when he’s happy, he brings it back to the
writers room and we all read it and go through it page by page together
to revise it and give notes. At this point, Roberto has the script open
on a computer in front of him, and he changes dialogue, action lines,
scenes, etc. live as we give feedback.
Then, the script goes back
to the producers, the studio, and the network, to get notes from them.
Sometimes those notes are minimal, and sometimes they’re major, it all
depends. The writer and Roberto make revisions based on those notes.
Sometimes we have to go back to the room and rebreak as a group, but
usually not.
Somewhere along the way, someone at Archie Comics
reads it to make sure we’re taking care of the characters they’ve had
and loved for 75 years.
At some point, someone in a legal
department reads it for clearance, which means sometimes we can’t use
certain brand names in dialogue or else we’ll get sued, and we can’t use
certain people’s names unless they’re in the public eye.
Also
someone in some department reads it to make sure we aren’t swearing too
much or referring to something too vulgar or the FCC will fine us.
Then
the script is sent up to Vancouver where production reads it and starts
pre-production. Sometimes there are changes to the script at that point
because we can’t get a location or we can’t get an actor because he’s
booked on another series, or the weather won’t allow us to shoot
somewhere, or we have to move an outdoor scene indoors, or a night scene
to day for budget reasons. Revisions are made here. The actors read it,
and occasionally they’ll have notes which require revisions.
Then
it gets shot. Then the footage is sent to post-production, who starts
to edit it. In the edit, frequently we’ll learn that our episodes are
several (maybe many) minutes over, and we’ll have to cut lines, jokes,
moments, sometimes whole scenes for time.
Then those rough cuts get sent to the producers, the studio, the network for notes.
You
get the idea yet? There are lots and LOTS of hands in the pie here.
Hundreds, maybe a thousand. If a certain idea isn’t making it through
from initial pitch to the final screen, it could be any one of the
people along the way raising a red flag. Usually there’s no grand
conspiracy – there’s too many people with competing interests for that.
If you find that you’re less than satisfied with something on your
screen, it could be for the devious reason you suspect or it could be
for a completely benign reason like budget or schedule. There’s no one grand puppetmaster holding the strings, but there are lots of people making changes along the way.
tldr:
There are too many companies and too many people for any kind of grand
conspiracy, but that doesn’t mean that a bunch of people giving tiny
notes couldn’t add up to something bigger.
The Doctor Is Out 