Hope is a Dream that Never Sleeps

Source

Video of Tama

^Nitama majestic, and below with Yontama

Yontama.

This is SUNtamama below:

Source: https://mainichi.jp/graphs/20161017/hrc/00m/040/003000g/1

Don’t vote straight tickets, don’t just select Democrat. Do each choice individually. People voting straight tickets in Texas caught the machines changing Beto votes to Cruz, while leaving the rest of the ticket Democrat.

Do individual votes, CHECK OVER YOUR BALLOT BEFORE YOU SUBMIT. Don’t exit out and try to start over, you aren’t allowed, your vote will be nulled. Get a poll worker to help you and have THEM document any machine errors, don’t take a pic of your ballot. Get a receipt of your vote. Ask poll workers how they are backing up votes. If you vote by mail, it’s critical to get your ballot in the mail asap. Thousands of votes aren’t counted because they’re stamped too late.

If you’re voting in person, go over every choice in the ballot carefully, and double check that the machine hasn’t changed your choice BEFORE you hit submit. Take your time, even if there’s a long line outside. Ask poll people for help if you have any questions. THERE ARE NO DUMB QUESTIONS.

Sometimes I have to ask really basic questions over and over and over before I understand stuff. I never forget, once it’s in my head, but some stuff takes clarifying and reclarifying and re-re-clarifying. I have learned to tell people that I’m not trying to be obtuse or difficult, that I have ADHD and I have to ask and re-ask. I don’t love sharing that with strangers, but it’s the most effective approach (I’ve tried a lot of different coping and learning methods over the years, including “I’d rather people think I’m stupid or sullen or contrary, I’ll be damned if I tell them that I process stuff differently”). But now I repeat back what they said to me, and they say, yup, that’s right, and then usually I say, I have ADHD, so I need to run this by you again to make sure I’m on the same page as you, and I ask some more questions, and 99% of the time they’re cool with it, and help me till I understand. A few people go from thinking I’m contrary to thinking I’m dumb, you can see it in their faces after I explain, but 1. Who cares, I need to understand, so they need to help me, and 2. I don’t think other people are dumb when they don’t notice all the things I see, from subtext to prediction to whatever. There are a lot of ways to be a person. I’m pretty secure with my level of intelligence, and I don’t look down on non-ADHD brains ffs, and 3. This is a small, but important aspect of disability and accessibility. If I told them I had dyslexia, people would be more patient with me re-stating and re-questioning. If I had other disabilities, they would be legally required to assist me or make the process accessible to me.

Everyone gets a seat at the table.

Everyone gets a vote.

“Oh yeah, every time that dad forgets mom is dead, we head to the cemetery so he can see her gravestone.”

WHAT. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard some version of this awful story. Stop taking people with dementia to the cemetery. Seriously. I cringe every single time someone tells me about their “plan” to remind a loved one that their loved one is dead.

I also hear this a lot: “I keep reminding mom that her sister is dead, and sometimes she recalls it once I’ve said it.” That’s still not a good thing. Why are we trying to force people to remember that their loved ones have passed away?

If your loved one with dementia has lost track of their timeline, and forgotten that a loved one is dead, don’t remind them. What’s the point of reintroducing that kind of pain? Here’s the thing: they will forget again, and they will ask again. You’re never, ever, ever, going to “convince” them of something permanently. 

Instead, do this:

“Dad, where do you think mom is?”

When he tells you the answer, repeat that answer to him and assert that it sounds correct. For example, if he says, “I think mom is at work,” say, “Yes, that sounds right, I think she must be at work.” If he says, “I think she passed away,” say, “Yes, she passed away.” 

So finally one day Alice did the whole “JANET IS HERE” and this nurse rather nastily went “Janet is dead” and before it could go any further I said “excuse me??? How dare you say something so horrible to my sister?”

The nurse was pissed, because I was “feeding Alice’s delusions.” Alice didn’t have delusions. Alice had Alzheimer’s.

But I made sure it went into Alice’s chart that she responded positively to being allowed to believe I was Janet. And from that point forward, only my specific patient referred to me as “Nina” in front of Alice—everyone else called me Janet, and when Alice said my name wasn’t Nina I just said “oh, it’s a nickname, that’s all.” It kept her calm and happy and not sobbing every time she saw me.

Always remembered that, always did it. Nothing worse than hearing someone with memory loss ask the same question over and over again only to be met with: “We already told you!”

a swedish Jewish politician’s house was burned down in a suspected antisemitic attack

a group of teenagers, one wearing a Star of David, were robbed and beaten by three adult men in france

the headstones of a Jewish cemetery in greece were smashed

over the span of two days, two visibly Orthodox Jewish men were attacked in brooklyn

They threatened from the start to resort to violence if they didn’t get their way, and then got their way…and resorted to violence anyway. They are the purveyors of a body of politics that sees most of us as subhuman and undeserving of life, and actively works toward our destruction.

Remember that during this election.

This is not a matter of choosing the “lesser evil”. This is flawed politicians vs. actual fucking terrorists. This is human failings vs. inhumanity. This is not being progressive enough vs. silencing the opposition with violence.