Alzheimer’s and Alito

[garthranzz]

Alzheimer’s and Alito


Alzheiimer’s and Alito. What do they have in common, aside from that first syllable alliteration? My father, and from that connection, one must conclude, I think, that a filibuster is a moral imperative.

My father has Alzheimer’s. He’s a decorated Word War II veteran – purple heart, bronze star. He worked on the space program and for city government. He’s the most honest man I know. And everyone who’s met him says the same thing. You want a testimony to his integrity? Four different mayors had only praise for him. He’s not John Murtha, but he’s from the same generation.

We’re not sure what triggered the Alzheimer’s, but the trauma of war, his injury – he nearly died – the doctors think helped set the stage.

He lived in New Orleans. For over forty years, he not only called the Crescent City home, he helped build it. He and his wife – my mother – had a nice little home in New Orleans East. His home was an anchor, a reality zone.

He was at what they call mid-stage when Katrina struck. Before the hurricane, if we went on trips – to the D-Day Museum, for instance, or out shopping, he wouldn’t always know where we were or where we were going. But in his home, he knew how to get around. He wasn’t confused there. He knew where the bathroom was.

That’s a simple thing, knowing where the bathroom is. Try not knowing where it is. Go to a strange house, one where nobody speaks English. You’ll be confused. The obvious won’t be. And since no one speaks clearly, speaks your language, so to speak, you’re on your own. You’ll find it, by trial and error. But if five minutes later you don’t remember what the layout of the house is, you’ll have to find it all over again.

Before Katrina, he was getting worse. But he had time. He had his home. He had his dignity. And he had his wife.

Today, he goes into the VA Hospital. They may be able to find a sorceror’s apprentice brew of medicines that will stabilize him, reduce his anger and aggression, his explosive frustration. Because all he wants is to come home. Home to a house that drowned. And he can’t and he doesn’t know why.

Fog blinds his mind and he panics. So he might never live with his wife again.

It would have happened eventually, this final separation from his personality and his life. But not now, not this way, not so soon. Bad enough he was becoming a refugee in his own mind; he did not have to be a refugee from his own home in his own country.

He did not have to be, except that Bush drowned his city. Bush, through his subordinates, won’t release the records about what the federal government knew before the hurricane, but much of that’s out there anyway. We knew he gutted the Corps of Engineers financing, that he ignored the warnings and pleadings – even from those within his own party – so that the danger built up year by year. We know that as the hurricane approached New Orleans, he did nothing but play politics and grab for power. We know that once it hit, like Marie Antoinette he ate cake while the city drowned.

To paraphrase Senator Kerry, and others: Katrina demonstrated, irrefutably, Bush’s incompetence. Yes, the governor and mayor take some of the blame for what happened, but Katrina was a national disaster requiring a national response – before, during and after. None of it came. Not even for the “white folk.”

And yes, it’s personal. Bush can’t be trusted. For many reasons, but at least for this one: through negligence , he drowned a city and shoved my father over the Alzheimer’s abyss.

And Alito? Alito believes in an imperial presidency. An increase in executive power. No responsibility. An Alzheimer’s of accountability. Confirmation of Alito would confirm an indifference to truth, cement a befogging of our collective mind. Confirmation of Alito would vindicate Bush, empower him, and Cheney, and Rove, to ignore mistakes, to enshrine themselves, to sabotage those who oppose our self-destruction, to deny reality. Confirmation of Alito allows Bush to delude himself, to delude us, to accelerate the Alzheimer’s of the public mind.

GarthRanzz

[Grateful for Hope]

1. I have recommended this

I feel for you, your mother, and, particularly, your father. This is a very powerful reminder of what we have and will be facing if something isn't done to stem the destruction this administration has "bestowed" on our nation.

[Vidar]

2. I empathize. My dad & 2 other relatives have died of this disease.