“To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men.” ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

When it comes to gifts and blessings, the nurse learns early on that health has to be number one.  Even if you were not exposed to illness before entering the healthcare field, it is not long before you learn all of the possible ways that health can be jeopardized.  In fact, most nursing students, when provided with heavy textbooks (although nowadays they are all online!) can soon find that they have the symptoms that correspond to some life-threatening disorder! And now with the access to the world-wide-web, now even lay-people can self-diagnose.  A very scary possibility!

One of my peers in nursing school was studying one day at her desk in the nurse’s residence.  We had very small rooms that were furnished with a single bed, a wardrobe and a desk which doubled as a dresser – with a mirror above it.  My friend was sat at her dresser studying about neurological disorders which could result in your pupils being unequal.  Looking in the mirror she saw that one pupil was twice as big as the other! Oh no! A brain tumor! As it happens she was on rotation in the Eye Hospital and must have rubbed her eye after administering a dilating eye drop! It took a while for her to figure out what had happened.

It definitely is a privilege to be reminded of the fragility of life, the uncertainty, the knowledge that health should never be taken for granted.  I had a scare a few weeks ago, while getting in my Zumba exercise (an experience which at times can be quite religious!).  Out of the blue I had a weird feeling (oh no, something bad is going to happen) and next thing I was looking up from the floor at my classmates who were asking me if I was ok!  Fortunately, despite apparently landing on my face and sustaining a cut lip and a bruised nose, I was remarkably undamaged.  It has taken a few weeks since then to go through all of the appropriate tests and scans and heart monitoring, but the good news is that all systems appear to be working well.  My primary care physician thinks the probable cause was inadequate hydration, and since I tend to have low blood pressure on an average day, that could have been enough to cause what is known medically as ‘a syncopal episode’. 

I remember teaching patients who had been admitted with diagnoses like ‘Rule out Myocardial Infarction’ or ‘Rule out Stroke’, that health episodes which resulted in diagnoses being ruled out, were blessings, warnings that your body needed your attention.  At this stage of my life too many of my friends and family have already had more than health scares, have had to change their lives drastically to accommodate some new reality.  So I am very conscious of what not to take for granted, and have been increasing my fluid intake through these hot, humid days of a South Florida summer.  And I have since gingerly headed back into my Zumba class without adverse consequences. 

This week I heard a phrase that made me stop and think.  In a novel I was reading, the author wrote about the non-violent protests of the Tuskegee Airmen, who flew over 1500 missions, skillfully and effectively protecting the bomber aircraft.  They refused to sign a base regulation which required separate officers’ clubs for Black and White soldiers. In fact, 61 Black officers were arrested for trying to enter the White officers’ club.  The author wrote ‘…when they protested they were arrested’.  I was reminded of that this week when we saw the Texas Representative who refused to sign the order requiring round the clock surveillance by Public Safety Officers.  She was one of the Democrats who had left the House without a quorum in protest of the proposed redistricting of the voting map.   By refusing to sign, she had had to remain in the building, in her words ‘illegally confined’. 

In other news, one of those recently detained by ICE agents allegedly heard one of the officers bragging about the $1500 reward he would be getting for the human being he had just detained.  Which made me think of the bounty offered the ‘slave-catchers’, who earned their living by hunting those enslaved African Americans who had managed to escape the brutal condition of slavery.  It was not much better after the Civil War in the South, when ‘Black Codes’ were enacted, allowing for the arrest of African-Americans on any pretext, and forcing them into hard labor.  We have already seen the prison system turned into a form of Jim Crow, where prisoners work making uniforms, or license plates and are ‘paid’ pennies an hour for their labor.  Don’t be surprised if we see something similar happen with the detainees.

In a world where propaganda has replaced factual news; where reporters from legitimate news agencies are being blocked from attending press conferences to ask the difficult questions, we are challenged to hold those in power accountable.  There are too many examples of inhumane acts being perpetrated in our name. 

This week I heard a term that I found intriguing: ‘Creative Justice’.  This term was defined by the African American artist Chad Brown as a ‘…pursuit of truth through Visual arts, Cinema and Photography’.  It made me think of how difficult it is at the moment to defend truth, to speak openly, to write our truth.  For many of us who live in the US without having been born here, the ground beneath us has become shaky.  We now have to wonder about traveling outside of this country.  Will something I have written in social media be used to claim I have no right to reenter?  Even traveling around the country could be dangerous.  When could a traffic stop turn into a confrontation?  Even worse for those who are undocumented.  What kind of trauma are we inflicting on the children (who are US citizens) of those who are being assaulted as they drop kids off to school?  When did this country become so inhumane?

History itself is under attack.  Museums are being told what they can and cannot display.  Yes, viewing the evidence (the truth) of American history is difficult.  When I visited the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis last year I was relieved that we got there when the museum was about to close.  It meant we had limited time to stand before images of cruelty and abuse, evidence of man’s inhumanity against his fellow man.  But how else can we learn from our mistakes? How else can we correct the injustices of the past?

It feels as if this country needs a full work-up; a complete set of diagnostics to unearth the cause of this year’s onslaught against human rights.  In the local vernacular, it would appear that this country ‘…done lost its mind’!!! How can these things be happening?  As always we must recall that a democracy which was established ‘…by the People and for the People…’ has the power to reestablish itself, to recreate the possibility of a country which declares itself to be ‘…Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All’.  And even though we are having some kind of syncopal episodes, some kind of temporary insanity, ultimately we will reassert our respect for each other’s humanity and dignity.

On this Friday morning, I assert my right to write what I like! I hope that everyone is able to take care of and listen to their body, after all, it’s the only one we have!

Have a wonderful weekend, Family!

One Love!

Namaste.