I have a new friend who needs to learn that because she is now poor, it does not make sense for her to be a Republican anymore.
I'm finding ways to break it to her gently.
My new friend here at the senior complex said she was having trouble sleeping, so I offered to give her one of
my Valerian. A laugh slipped out of her chest
and she said, oh those aren't strong enough for me. Then she gave a 15 second litany of
pharmaceuticals she takes, and that's just at night, to help her sleep. Soon she let out another laugh, “Valerian aren't
strong enough,” she said, “they do nothing for me.”
Me, I take one Benedryl and get knocked out as soon
as it hits. I thought these were
massively potent pills I was getting through Amazon, but my neighbor explains, because
she is on so many prescription drugs, she can take Valerian and Benedryl and
not even feel their effects.
She said one of the drugs she takes “is for
restless leg syndrome.”
I started to continue the conversation with, “I
don't trust pharmaceutical companies,” but I'm pretty sure my new friend is a Republican. For that reason I also didn't say “or any
drug introduced since Ronald Reagan was President.” Instead I say:
“I don't trust any drugs that were introduced since
the 1980s.”
My friend starts to agree
then stops herself.
I continue, “Since
deregulation, they've been getting away
with too much.”
My friend hesitates more, not sure how what I said conflates
with what she's believed all these years.
My new seventy-something friend doesn't realize the
only reason she's Republican is because her husband was successful. He's now dead and his long illness depleted their
funds. So she's not really Republican anymore,
she's just voting that way out of habit.
I don't want to force this new truth in her face by starting political arguments,
but I feel a need to help her as over the coming years the fact of her new income status makes itself
more obvious in her life.
I remember in about 2002 when it first happened to Lizzie
and me. When we were living in our car on the streets of Hollywood those months, I realized, People aren't poor because they
want to be poor. And once you're poor, you're
there and there’s not a whole lot of ways out.
I said to my new friend, “If I take too
much Benedryl, I get restless leg syndrome,” and hoped that later she makes the connection
that one of her prescription drugs is probably causing the symptom they're treating
with another prescription drug, when she thinks about it. And that big pharma has put profits above her health in the "free market" she and her husband cheered all those years. And a lot of things in her life today would get better if more people would just vote Democrat.
My friend was married for 27 years to a man who was
“in real estate” and they traveled between their two houses on different US coasts. Now she lives in this lower rent senior
complex and even though she drives and dresses better than anyone else here,
she tells me she feels like she’s poor too, and I understand because from her frame
of reference she is.
Oh, and anti-depressants for pain
My friend is also taking an anti-depressant and every time she says the name of the drug to me, she adds, “For pain, I take it for pain.” I've been down that road before, where corporate
doctors prescribe anti-depressants pills as pain medication.
Apparently a few decades back, when psychiatrists gave
depressed people anti-depressants, the patients reported that they not only got
happier, but in some cases their physical pain went away.
Pharma execs saw dollar signs. Now they could sell anti-depressants to emotionally stable people who
were in physical pain.
Vastly expanding their customer base.
Again, this was after Ronald Reagan.
So after a minimal amount of unmonitored testing, big
pharma got doctors all over America to prescribe antidepressants to people when
they are in physical pain over the last thirty years.
I saw through this ruse after a few months of
taking psychotropic pills for body pain, because I could tell, the pain was not
getting any better, but the psychiatric drugs were making me more crazy than I had ever been before, and I've had my periods. Not having any doctors paying attention
to me for last decade or so, there hasn’t been anyone to convince me those drugs work
when they don't.
So I don't take pharmaceuticals and if I feel the need, I can take a
Valerian root bought over the counter in tablet form and then lay down for a
snooze.
But maybe for now I'll cut back on the Benedryl.
.
Meanwhile:
Stay Happy
.
ke
Ladywomen: Not housewives,
not career women, females who came of age too early
for Ms Magazine but too late for Ladies Home Journal are today's "Ladywomen" though we could also be called “gray tweens.” Ladywomen grew up thinking we’d be supported by a husband and wound up supporting ourselves, usually in low paying jobs, often raising kids singlehandedly
as well, as we Ladywomen were also the first of the “single mom” phenomenon. 
Around 5 PM today the call went out over social media. By 7 PM about a hundred people showed up in downtown Lancaster to demonstrate and march, calling for Justice for Trayvon Martin. I could tell something was developing from my apartment nearby and when I heard the name "Trayvon" being shouted, I grabbed my camera and ran out the door to get images. Here is video, and photos from the event.
