Not This Grandma By Connie Schultz

[babylonsister]

https://www.creators.com/read/connie-schultz/03/20/not-this-grandma?fbclid=IwAR1Ix4PkLPU37sF5CjgDYRpGprOu7fltS-u6V0blUvCrxJMOP8A1PiaycYY

Not This Grandma
By Connie Schultz
March 26, 2020


My, these aging men with their bright ideas.

First, it was the president, who has been openly contradicting medical experts with his pining for an early end to social distancing. This would threaten the lives of millions of Americans during the pandemic. Oh, well.

As he said, via tweet and at the microphone, "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself." Every time he says that, I can't help feeling that women like me — over 60 and eternally over him — are on his checklist of things that can go.

It's not sitting well, I have to tell you.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, on the verge of 70, spelled it out for us in an interview on Fox.

"No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?' And if that's the exchange, I'm all in."

He added: "I just think there are a lot of grandparents out there in this country like me — I have six grandchildren — that's what we care about. ... And I want to live smart and see through this, but I don't want the whole country to be sacrificed. And that's what I see."

I don't know who he's looking at, but it sure isn't this grandma to seven grandchildren. I would throw myself in front of a 137,000-pound Montana B-Train to save the life of a grandchild, but I will not risk a single hangnail to rescue corporate America.

snip//

I'm sorry these men hate their lives. I can't name a single grandmother of my acquaintance who wants to throw away her life to save companies like Hobby Lobby, which has insisted on remaining open during this pandemic.

The craft company also told its managers to "make every effort to continue working the employees" while denying those same employees sick leave. Billionaire owner David Green is big on touting his right-wing version of Christianity, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm with the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wing of Christianity. She said this after Congress passed the stimulus package:

"I wish that every person in America would subscribe to the fact that science is an answer to our prayers so that we can get through this in a very positive way."

She's a grandmother, by the way, and what a fine example she is setting in not volunteering for the Trump-Patrick-Beck cliff leap.

Regular readers will notice that I've been quoting poetry a lot in the last few weeks, and wouldn't you know it? I've got another poem. This excerpt is from the late poet Grace Paley's "Here," about an old woman watching her old man in the yard:

at last a woman

in the old style sitting

stout thighs apart under

a big skirt grandchild sliding

on off my lap a pleasant

summer perspiration

that's my old man across the yard

he's talking to the meter reader

he's telling the world's sad story

how electricity is oil or uranium

and so forth I tell my grandson

run over to your grandpa. ask him

to sit beside me for a minute. I

am suddenly exhausted by my desire

to kiss his sweet explaining lips

Mercy.

Silly old men can cling to whatever economy-themed fantasies make them feel useful in the world.

I've got other plans, if God's up for it. I want my grandchildren to know that for them, Grandma lived.

[gibraltar72]

1. Sumbitch we're lucky to have her.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. K & R. Thanks for posting.

[Delphinus]

3. Bravo!

She is a gem, as is her husband.

[Delmette2.0]

4. I'm not a grandmother, but a Great Aunt and there is little difference.

Connie really got my attention with the Montana B train and again with Holly Lobby. ( Montana is my lovely home and Holly Lobby is my emblematic of my hatred of indifference for women.)

As an older wiser woman I have spend most of my adult life giving back more than I have received. Now they want to throw the wise women of this country into the volcano of sacrifice? You fuckers need us more than you know, more than you will ever admit.

How many of them ever changed a diaper or stayed up with a sick child AND went to work the next day. How many spent 20+ years working full time then coming home to a second shift of grocery shopping, dinner, laundry and homework. How many of them have worked through the Sandwich Generation of caring for parents and children?


It is the older wise women of this world that will save their sorry ass. Now shut up and get out of the way.

I'm done ranting.