Protesting CAPP (Photo credit: Caelie_Frampton)
I really wonder about people sometimes. Some of the things I read on Facebook in the comments on posts and I just shake my head. For instance, I read under a photo of a protest of Chase bank that envy is what causes people to not like capitalism. This is funny because the photo was specifically of a sign that read: I don’t have a problem with capital, I have a problem with theft. Continue reading
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
It amazes me, after thousands of years of civilization, with all of the philosophy and social theory we have developed in that time that any of this can still be in question. How necessities of life can be considered luxuries is a bit beyond my understanding. I don’t care how lazy you think someone is, or even if you are right about them, how does that exclude them from being fed, or kept out of the cold, or receiving proper medical attention? It seems petty to me to be so wrapped up in how hard you work that you think someone not working makes them so loathsome that they deserve to suffer horribly.
Clause two is a bit more problematic, not because I disagree with it, but because I see it being manipulated by some elements in our culture. Mothers, especially new ones, and of course children are vulnerable. Because they are vulnerable we need to look out for them. Unfortunately I can see some people deciding that this is somehow proof that women need “looking after” and don’t deserve the same rights as men. Also, while I am not interested in getting into the abortion debate just now, some would use this to define the unborn as children and having human rights. There are important reasons why I believe the unborn are not children, but that is far more than a 300 word blog post.
The simple fact of the matter is making sure people have the bare minimum is not just the nice thing to do. It is not why I support it. I believe helping little old ladies cross the road is the nice thing to do as well (and not just because I am not that far off from being one), and do so, but I don’t think it should be codified into our laws and culture. No, we should take care of the least among us because for one, we never know when we might be among them, and for another, it makes for a stabler, safer society for everyone. Desperate people behave desperately. There are two obvious ways to deal with that, and the one not suggested by this Article has been tried, to horrific effect. This way works and it is the kinder option.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Has anyone noticed Eleanor Roosevelt’s hand in all this yet? I, for one, miss her and she passed nine years before I was born. Many accuse (and yes they are happy to use that word) her of having an undue hand in the New Deal, you know, the plan that saved our country? She realized, as educated people around the world are doing in greater numbers all the time, that a compassionate society is a stabler and simply greater one. I suspect her influence is over rated vis-a-vis the policies her equally intelligent and decent husband was the driving force behind is vastly over rated. Her influence on the Declaration, however is not, and it shows the most in Article 22.
There are certain things nobody should go without. Everyone deserves to be fed, everyone deserves safe shelter, everyone deserves decent health care and at least the simplest methods of entertaining themselves, even if it is only a public park to enjoy (I am inclined to define it a little more liberally than that though.) These are things that, as unbelievable as it may seem, most of the people on Earth go without.
To some, the fact that so many go without to such an extreme degree is somehow proof that we do not need to improve things in industrialized democracies. “Look how bad they have it,” some advocates of austerity say “the poor in our country could have it worse.” They are right, of course, they could. They deserve better, however, as do the poor around the world. I do not see the absolutely destitute people of Ethiopia, Somalia or Sierra Leone as a reason to not improve things for those that go without in our country, I see it as a reason to call for the elites to do more for both groups.
I have been in the gutter more than once. The most recent time I swallowed my pride and went to family for help. There were a couple of times though, that I did not. They were thankfully short-lived, but I got a taste of what it is like, the not being able to wash for a week or more, the eating every other day, and learning that summertime overnight lows of the high 50′s are still pretty cold when you are sleeping on the cold earth. For many, both here and abroad, this is more than a two-week hiccup. This is an everyday of every year reality. Any society, any individual, that thinks it is OK for even one person to suffer that, cannot call themselves a decent individual and be taken seriously.
Imagine you are with the person you love. You are having a wonderful, blissfully peaceful Friday night after a hard week at work. You both just want to melt into each others’ arms for two or three hours and watch Netflix, and for a little while you do.
But then your love grunts uncomfortably. They grab their chest and complain of being light-headed. You are both getting to your middle years, and they’re carrying a few more pounds than either of you is comfortable with. You never did get around to joining the gym or trying that diet your GP suggested. Your own heart starts racing, but you manage not to panic and call 911. Your love, clutching their chest now, takes out their own phone to text their family to let them know which hospital you will be going to.
You put on your brave face for them, choking back tears on the ambulance ride as you hold their hand. They pat yours to let you know it will all be okay and you try not to cry and laugh at the same time at how ridiculous it is that they are comforting you at a time like this. The EMT mechanically goes about asking all the appropriate questions, taking your love’s blood pressure and a dozen other things, pushing you gently out of the way as he does so, and you mostly succeed at not taking it personally.
At the hospital your love has fallen unconscious and you find yourself answering a hundred questions: what did they have to eat, what allergies do they have, does heart disease run in the family and so many others that you do your best to answer. For half an hour you watch as they poke and prod and probe the most important person in your world and they look so helpless and you wish they could hear you when you tell them that it will all be OK.
Then the doctor puts her hand on your arm and tells you your love’s family is here. They guide you out of the little cubicle and you greet their father, mother, brothers and sister. They ask if your love is in pain and you cannot answer, and then their father speaks up. He tells you that the family wants you to know they respect your choice, but it has been hard for them, and it has caused divisions and fights and it would just be easier if you waited for word at home.
You cry and you want to fight and you argue a little. The mother asks you not to make a scene as the oldest brother talks to a security guard. You want to stay, you want to tell them they can’t make you leave, but the thing is they can. You are not married, you can’t be, because he is white and you are black. He dared to fall in love with a black woman and you remember, especially now, being so proud of this man who dared to stand up to his father when he brought you to his family’s home for the first time.
Now all you can do is go, rushing out the door angry and scared and hurt before the guard can escort you. You go home and wait for the nowhere near frequent enough calls from his sister, the only member of the family to stand up for the two of you. Two days later you get the call from her: he has passed. They let you come to the funeral, so long as you stand in back. Your whole world is coming down around you and though they love you, some of your own family cannot help but offer thinly veiled “we told you so”s.
Does that sound far-fetched to you? Well it shouldn’t. We are less than half a century removed from that being the case in some parts of our country. It is a horribly painful reality that gay couples in most states must now live through. The only option preventing this in some places is terribly expensive lawyers fees to draw up living wills, contracts and proxy arrangements. So when you say you support initiatives like North Carolina’s Amendment 1, you are supporting exactly the kind of cruelty described above.
If you oppose marriage equality, you support denying people the right to choose their own family. You cannot do so without exposing yourself as a horribly cruel human being. Does that sound harsh? I hope so because it is meant to be. It is significantly less harsh than being denied the right to see your love in the hospital, or them not getting shared custody of their child, or not being able to put you on their health insurance, or being granted the simple, humane pleasure of being able to take that person’s name as your own. So before you cry that I am being mean to you for calling you out for your bigotry, take a few minutes, or better yet, the next 24 hours if you live in North Carolina, and reflect on how much meaner a state with Amendment 1 would be.
If you are depressed,
you are living in the past.
If you are anxious,
you are living in the future.
If you are at peace,
you are living in the present.
If you think this makes sense,
you have mental health privilege.
From an internet graphic meme, original source unknown
I have had my struggles with mental health issues. Depression has plagued me at least since my late teens. In my late 30′s I was diagnosed bi polar, though later two different therapists told me they disagreed with the diagnosis and said that my depression had more to do with not dealing properly with my status as a trans woman and other issues that have arisen over the years. I have many loved ones, friends of loved ones and loved ones of friends that have also had their struggles with mental illness. Through this all, even when I was at my own personal lowest, I felt myself outraged on behalf of other mentally ill people for two very simple reasons: how lightly it is treated by those who do not struggle with it and how everyone, including the mentally ill, can still act like mental illness is a moral defect.
Too often in mainstream entertainment we see gross caricatures of the mentally ill. They are the butt of jokes, a source of cheap drama, the malevolent psychopath preying on your children or the pet “project” of the protagonist so that the producers can show what a good person he or she is. “Crazy”, “psycho”, “has issues” or actual clinical terms are used at the drop of a hat in public dialogue to describe anyone we disagree with. In using the image of mental illness to demonize others, we continue the demonization of the mentally ill.
With rare exceptions the mentally ill did nothing to create their illness. Whether it is innate due to a chemical imbalance or life events wearing you down, no one did anything to put themselves on the path to poor mental health. Maybe they have done things counter to improving it once they were on that path. I know I have done this, but when you are living on mist shrouded, rocky coast you are not sure where to step.
Things have gotten better. While the knee jerk reaction of the public at large when dealing with individuals is still fear, shock and judgement, we treat the mentally ill as a group with more compassion. I just think that over a hundred years after Freud, and with our ability to disseminate information around the world instantaneously, this should no longer be a struggle at all. If I may be so bold, those of you who use the words “crazy” or “psycho” so casually, or who judge the mentally ill: stop. For those of you who do not do those things, please, call out those that do.
