Monday With McCain

Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.---on the Iraq war

Best Of The Week...

From www.timesunion.com:

A 19-year-old man dressed as a penis was arrested for disturbing a high school graduation today at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Calvin Morett of 337 Pyramid Pine Estates allegedly interrupted the Saratoga Springs High School graduation by marching across SPAC's stage in an inflatable 6-foot penis costume while diplomas were being given out, Saratoga Springs Police Sgt. Sean Briscoe said.

Morett purchased the full-body costume and sprayed parts of the 5,000 people in the crowd with Silly String, Briscoe said.

His motive? ``He thought it would be funny,'' Briscoe said.

Morett was ticketed for disorderly conduct, a violation, and will face the charges in City Court on Tuesday, Briscoe said.

Morett graduated from Saratoga Springs High School last year. He tried to streak away from law enforcement, but could not.

``Once I stopped laughing, he was pretty easy to catch because he was tripping on the lower portion of the costume,'' said Briscoe, who made the arrest.

Who Doesn't Love A Midget?

Texas GOP Convention Top-Selling Item!

This Modern World

It Could Always Be Worse

I LOVE this story from Colorado's KWGN:


People in the small mountain town of Allenspark are drawing up the battle lines. The controversy began when Jeff Mead wanted to open an ATV rental store there. But nearby neighbors complained about the noise and enviromental impact. Margie Patterson says off-road vehicles have damaged pristine private land. The Boulder County Planning Commission recently denied the businessman a special-use permit to open his business. So Mead put out a banner on his building which reads,"Patterson's XXX Porn Gallery".

Mead said he's serious about opening the adult store to make money since he was denied a permit to open his rental shop. Patterson and other residents claim the move is childish and in poor taste. Mead says he hopes to open the porn gallery by August.

I love the fact that Mead has named his proposed porn-shop after the neighbor that complained about and protested his ATV rental store the loudest--Margie Patterson!

The Great Second Amendment Decision

Today's Supreme Court decision on guns not only has a great outcome, its reasoning is for the most part exceptionally sound, too. It notes that the Second Amendment does not grant the right to keep and bear arms, or any right at all -- it just stops Congress from infringing a "fundamental right" you already had according to "libertarian political principles."

Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion, and my initial opinion, at least, is that it's a masterpiece. It's a shame he squandered so much credibility with his awful, dishonest dissent in the habeas case earlier this month.

Because the gun opinion only addresses the specific controversy before the court, it doesn't address a lot of questions many will have. It doesn't address whether gun licensing and registration is constitutional. It doesn't address the criteria under which the government could deprive you of your right to bear arms -- although it seems to suggest that restrictions might only be applied to the likes of felons and the mentally ill. And, most significantly, it doesn't address the constitutionality of state and local governments' gun bans.

Next, look for lawsuits trying to apply the Second Amendment to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment to end gun bans in cities like Chicago -- a dubious theory, perhaps, but an outcome that wouldn't trouble me too much -- and arguments that state constitutional provisions protecting gun rights should be interpreted in the same way.

Reading Lists For Kids

If I had a school-aged child, I would be more than happy to have him/her enrolled in the Walpole, Massachusetts School District. Just a short list of books required of their summer reading program, including several that are sure to generate a little controversy:

The Golden Compass---Philip Pullman
I Am Charlotte Simmons---Tom Wolfe
I, Robot---Isaac Asimov
Beloved---Toni Morrison
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War---Max Brooks
A Thousand Splendid Suns---Khaled Hosseini
Bringing Down the House---Ben Mezrich
Eragon---Christopher Paolini
The Five People You Meet in Heaven---Mitch Albom
At Hell's Gate---Claude Anshin Thomas
Dreams From My Father---Barack Obama
Into Thin Air---Jon Krakauer
It's Not About the Bike---Lance Armstrong
John Adams---David McCullough
The Revolution: A Manifesto---Ron Paul
Tuesdays With Morrie---Mitch Albom

Assistant Superintendent Jean Kenney said "The students are encouraged to read as much and as many different genres as possible."

Three cheers for promoting diverse topics!

Read more here.

Titties, Toes And Tater-Tot Tuesday

Monday With McCain

I will veto every single beer, um, bill with earmarks. --speaking at the National Small Business Summit, Washington, D.C., June 10, 2008

McFascist

John McCain calls the Supreme Court decision affirming habeas corpus for prisoners at the Gitmo dungeon “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country." As he might see it, echoing a legal decision more in line with his tyrannical tradition, the detainees have no rights an American man is bound to respect.

McCain: Don't Let Soldiers Know the Truth About US Aggression

Brainwash them in the glories of the all-good, all-knowing, all-killing US regime, so they do not realize they are fighting an immoral, illegal war, John McCain urged the military in 1974, in a hitherto secret thesis.

Read more here.

This Modern World

John Cusack Gives the Bush-McCain Challenge - 30 sec version

McCain Is NOT Getting Alex!!!

Is Iran Next?

Shortly after I posted on Saddam Hussein's desire for Iraq to use the Euro instead of the US Dollar for reserve currency, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a similar statement.

Titties, Toes, And Tater-Tot Tuesday

Devaluation Of The Dollar

Just to make you feel better, if the U.S. was using the Euro right now, one gallon of gasoline would cost $2.58.

Saddam Hussein was about to discontinue using the US Dollar as it reserve currency for trading in exchange for the Euro. Maybe he was on to something...

The Messenger Is the Message?

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.---Thomas Pynchon

As I write these words, we are into the third day of a seemingly endless period of mourning for Tim Russert. While he seemed to be a likable fellow – in a conventional sort of way – and I can sympathize with his family, friends, and colleagues over his loss, there is something telling about the state of journalism in this country in the way his death is being transformed into a national tragedy. Even in Hollywood, the demise of even the most prominent of the prominent stars does not merit the media’s nonstop observance such as we are witnessing not only from Mr. Russert’s network, but from others as well.

This endless electronic eulogy brings to mind the classic observation of Marshall McLuhan: "the medium is the message." A centrally-directed, vertically-structured society requires a uniformity of thought in order to maintain a collective commitment. This requires a continuing indoctrination in the values and purposes of the ruling establishment. Government schools exist for the primary purpose of conditioning young minds in such a viewpoint, a function acknowledged by the Los Angeles County government when it declared that children need to be taught "that we are all part of one big social system" and "must learn to participate effectively in the system." H.L. Mencken was more to the point, as usual, when he wrote that the purpose of schools is:

to manufacture an endless corps of sound Americans. A sound American is simply one who has put out of his mind all doubts and questionings, and who accepts instantly, and as incontrovertible gospel, the whole body of official doctrine of his day, whatever it may be and no matter how often it may change.

Once children have passed through the school system, there is the danger that this conditioned mindset may wither, a threat that the established order has long employed the media to resist. Learned attitudes must be constantly reinforced, a function performed by the journalistic community. Those who were paying attention could see how this role played out in the propagandizing for the Iraq War as well as the treatment accorded presidential candidate Ron Paul. Here is a man whose ideas challenged the very foundations upon which the corporate-state owners had long maintained their destructive power over people. The media immediately went into damage control to prevent members of the public from seeing/hearing any message contrary to that favored by the political establishment.

If, as McLuhan observed, "the medium is the message," who are the scriptwriters of the message? There is a hierarchy of interests at work within the mainstream media that parallels the state apparatus itself. Atop this pyramid of power rest the corporate interests who own not only the political system, but the message machines. Beneath these owners are to be found the corporate sponsors, whose advertising and, in some cases (e.g., PBS stations), charitable contributions, provide the financial backing that keeps the message machines well-oiled and operating.

The message machine owners – subdivided into various radio/television networks and print media who, nonetheless have a shared interest in the message content – hire the "journalists," commentators, and others, to write and deliver the agreed-upon script. It is into this class of people that Tim Russert – along with other members of the fraternity who now lament his passing – was accepted by the owners. He was safe for their purposes, not the sort of person to ask unsettling questions. One major media source referred to him as "a towering figure in American journalism." If such words were intended to acknowledge only that Russert was held in high regard by fellow disseminators of what is to the interest of the establishment to have the public believe, it is probably correct. If we are asked to believe, however, that he represented the kind of critical, journalistic inquiry that troubled the minds of the powerful, I strongly disagree.

In my late teens, I realized a great affection for what is now dismissed as "muck-raking" newspapers. Recognizing the inherently dishonest and criminal nature of most all of politics, I admired the journalists who preferred exposing the muck of the system to the moderns with their unexamined defense of establishment agendas. Today, however, so much of the muck of politics is inextricably bound up with the interests of the corporate order that own the message machines. Tim Russert’s employer, NBC, is itself owned by General Electric, one of the largest defense contractors. Shortly after the present war against Iraq had begun, one of NBC’s reporters, Peter Arnett, publicly stated that the American military’s "first plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another plan." While this proved to be a true and accurate statement – for which one would think a journalist would be rewarded – NBC fired Arnett.

If the conduct of a war is highly profitable to a company that happens to be the owner of a message machine, do you think its owners will tolerate any expressions of doubt as to the wisdom of that war? Do you think that the treatment of Arnett – as well as that experienced by a few elsewhere employed journalists who were fired for daring to step outside the lines of employer-permitted reporting – sent a message to Russert and his colleagues? Is it only coincidence that a lengthy interviewed eulogy of Russert was delivered by Jack Welch – former chairman of General Electric – on the Fox News channel – one of the principal propagandists for the Iraq war? Do you wonder why extensive praise of Russert was offered by Dick Cheney?

A few years ago, I listened to a man talking about a New York Times reporter who had endured great danger in a hostile part of the world in order to get a story that his paper, for apparent "policy" reasons, chose not to publish, a decision the reporter reluctantly accepted. The man speaking of this said "he [the reporter] will risk his life for a story, but he won’t risk his job." This is a debate most of us have had with ourselves, at one time or another, as a result of working for others. Tim Russert may very well have gone through this calculation as to whether his self-interest would best be served by the enormous salaries, political influence, and social prestige associated with his position at NBC, versus the inner spiritual sense that drives unfettered truth-telling. I believe I know how I would answer this question for myself, but I do understand how others might come to a different conclusion.

It is representative of the sharp division that exists between establishment, mainstream media journalists, and those who have opted for the joy and integrity that accompanies the hard work of digging out truth. The likes of H.L. Mencken and Albert Jay Nock have their modern counterparts in a number of journalists and commentators who insist upon working outside the towers and chambers they are to investigate. Such people would consider it a slur upon a noble profession to be "embedded" with generals and admirals or Daddy Warbucks as sources upon which to depend for their writings. Just a few of such people include (in alphabetical order) Becky Akers, Jim Bovard, Alexander Cockburn, Robert Fisk, Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, Chris Hedges, Seymour Hersh, Bob Higgs, Chalmers Johnson, Karen Kwiatkowski, John Pilger, Justin Raimondo, Paul Craig Roberts, and Lew Rockwell. When was the last time any of these persons were interviewed on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, or elsewhere in the mainstream media?

At a time when newspapers and weekly news magazines are experiencing major circulation declines, and television news is losing viewers – all to the benefit of more free, open, and responsive Internet reporting – the mainstream media is struggling for its very existence. There may be a metaphorical message in the untimely death of television news’ most visible personage. Like those who gather to celebrate the life and death of a friend, perhaps the mainstream media is using the memory of Tim Russert to celebrate its own life, which seems now to be in a terminal state.

This Kid Is My New Hero!

An eight-year-old boy has been told he cannot become a Cub Scout after refusing to swear allegiance to the Queen.
Matthew McVeigh objected to part of the Cub Scout Promise which includes the line, "I promise to do my duty to God and the Queen".

His mother Tracy wanted the pledge changed on religious grounds to: "I promise to do my duty to God and my country".

But Matthew was told by the 1st Neilston Scout Group in Renfrewshire that unless he took the official oath he could not become a fully-fledged Cub.

Read the rest of the story here.

Monday With McCain

I'm glad to have his endorsement. I condemn remarks that are, in any way, viewed as anti-anything. And thanks for asking. --after being asked by George Stephanopoulos about receiving the endorsement of Evangelical pastor Rev. John Hagee, who has made a number of controversial remarks, including calling Catholicism "The Great Whore" and blaming Hurricane Katrina on gays

Protecting America

Homeland Security officers preparing for whatever it is that they do...

Monday With McCain

I disagree with what the majority of the American people want -- Sen. John McCain, on Iraq

The Dream Academy - The Love Parade (Remix)

John McCain: Slavemaster, Traitor

On May 22, 2008, Republiconman John McCain voted against supporting the U.S. military by voting against the new GI bill. McCain, who is running for "Commander-in-Chief" (not President) of the United States, says that the GI bill--that would pay for tuition and expenses at a four-year public university for anyone who spent three years in the military after 9/11--would hurt the military's efforts to retain its troops. Lord knows any military personnel who have suffered through the past 7 years of Bush administration debacles deserve aditional benefits.

Let me see if I understand this Mr. McCain. Since 9/11, the military has already had an increasingly difficult time meeting its recruitment quotas, right? So to make recruitment easier, instead of offering enticements, benefits, and rewarding those who enlisted since 9/11, John McCain feels that is more beneficial to the military to offer fewer benefits to those who have suffered through the Bush administration? Sound logical? Maybe there is something to that rumor that John McCain is suffering from PTSD. Or Alzheimer's disease.

Barack Obama took McCain to task by stating "I respect Senator John McCain's service to our country ... But I can't understand why he would line up behind the President in his opposition to this GI Bill. I can't believe he he believes it is too generous to our veterans." Good for you Senator Obama!

John McCain's response? "It is typical, but no less offensive, that Senator Obama uses the Senate floor to take cheap shots at an opponent and easy advantage of an issue he has less than zero understanding of. Unlike Senator Obama, my admiration, respect and deep gratitude for America's veterans is something more than a convenient campaign pledge."

Follow your own advise, John McCain, Mr. Commander-in-Chief wannabe. If you "admire, respect ... America's veterans," why not show it by supporting them and voting for the GI bill and not just giving veterans your lip service.

This Modern World

...Then Again

Here is another essay I wrote for my English 104 class. If I remember correctly, the assignment was to write a short essay about an iconic place/structure, etc. that played an important role in our life. I think the Professor thought that he would get lots of school, church, amusement park, etc. types of examples. Naive old man. Before the Professor read each students essay out loud to the class, I can still remember the facial expressions as he quickly read the opening paragraph to himself before speaking out loud. Some of the essays were simply horrendous, while others were quite good. I distinctly recall the pained look on his face when he reached my essay and realized that he would be forced to say the word "fucking" out loud. This was, after all, a conservative Catholic University in Pennsylvania and I didn't fit in too well. But I laughed. The entire class laughed. And I received an "A" on the paper. A little background...

When I moved to NYC in Summer 1979, I was like a kid in a candy shop--never had I experienced the sights and sounds that accompanied such a large city for any appreciable length of time. My father was (and still is) a Jehovah's Witness (I'm not) and was rather restrictive in his "house rules"--like "If you want to go to College, you will have to do so on your own" and "if you leave this house, don't expect to come running back if you fail." Being 17 years old at the time I naturally thought I could handle life on its own terms and moved out. As you can see, I hadn't experienced much of life outside of my peaceful little steel-town. And as you can imagine, I had alot of catching up to do when I left my childhood home and arrived in NYC--CBGBs being the first.

For those of you that had the great privilege of experiencing CBGBs, I salute you and simply remind you to stay up-to-date on your tetanus shots. For those of you that didn't have the opportunity to visit CBGBs, I say "sorry," it closed October 2006. There was not--and will never be--another place like CBGBs; plywood stage, beer-soaked floors, barely functioning bathrooms, loaded with freaks, etc. But CBGBs was unique. CBGB was located in the Bowery, a section of NYC that at the time few sane people ventured, but is now a trendy and desirous area of Manhattan. During any particular week you would be just as likely to see slamming punk-rockers such as The Ramones, Richard Hell and The Void-Oids, and Blondie and you would folksy acts like Elly Greenberg or the Wretched Refuse String Band. It was cool. And people accepted each other for who they were. No pretentiousness allowed--it would be just as likely to see a Wall Street broker as you would a member of Hell's Angels. And I think that is part of the reason I was attracted to CBGBs, for one of the few times in my life I felt like I actually "belonged" to something bigger than myself. Of course I was 17, so what did I know. The time I spent at CBGBs was short--but fun. I drank massive amounts of alcohol, got laid for the first time behind CBGBs, ran out of money by October of that year, kicked out of College and then my life drastically changed--but that's a story for another blog.


So here it is...

“CBGB: How Fucking Refreshing”


The above quote, by Ann Marlowe, Village Voice reporter, sums up her feelings on one of America’s most notorious and famous clubs, CBGB. America is filled with iconic structures that bear ideological significance to its citizens. While some may not carry as much notoriety or be as widely popular as others, their importance in the development of American culture is just as striking. New York City’s music club, CBGB is one of those structures.

Considering the distinguished place that music takes in our society, its not surprising that a club like CBGB’s has become a symbol of music’s influence on our society as a whole. More than just a building or institution, its internal operations have given birth to new music genres and trends for almost thirty years, the likes of which may have never had a voice without it.

Music has been the modeling clay of American culture as far back as recorded history goes. From the promiscuity of the Jazz Age to Elvis Presley’s swiveling hips, the music scene has imparted a dramatic impact on our society. But this kind of sway doesn’t control a society on its own. It needs an avenue of some sort to feed its influential components to the masses, hungry for the independent and unrestrained conviction that comes in the form of music. That’s where iconic institutions like CBGB’s take their prominence.

CBGB is a club renowned for its role in taking less-than-acclaimed bands and their cutting edge music styles and turning hem into well known and sought after public images. CBGB’s creator Hilly Kristal is often asked what his club’s name means. He tells them, “It stands for the kind of music I intended to have, but not the kind that we became famous for” (Kristal). CBGB stands for Country Blue Grass Blues.

There is actually more to the acronym, which includes OMFUG, meaning Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers. And what is a Gormandizer? It’s a veracious eater of, in this case, music. Kristal says that he opened the club to showcase the music styles of country, bluegrass and blues, but it actually became the show grounds for those and much more.

In a 1975 review article for NME, Charles Shaar Murray described the club like this-“CBGB is a toilet. An impossibly scuzzy little club buried somewhere in the sections of the Village that the cab drivers don’t like to drive through” (Murray). A thorough reading of the article proves that Murray’s relatively pessimistic opening line was actually an incredible compliment to a club that, after only two years running, was bringing in headliners from all over America’s music underground.
While the headliners have changed over the last twenty-odd years, the club itself has changed very little. Describing the physical attributes of the club is like detailing the least of its attributes, but its necessary to fully understand the whole aura of CBGB’s club scene.

In an editorial profile, Kerry Burke describes CBGB’s atmosphere: “CBGB has the ruined charm of a blighted biker’s bar” (Burke). Such a description lends itself to the darkened image of a smoke filled saloon lined with bearded malcontents, ready for a rumble. But CBGB’s has always been more than that. Instead of the rumble, society’s restless have waited patiently at this club for the next wave of music that would imitate or fashion their ideals.

Burke goes on to detail the club’s marred walls, plastered with the posters of bands from years gone by, their personal signatures and anecdotes a legacy of the club’s groundbreaking and influential past. One can hardly compare the pristine walls of newly erected venues across the country with the nostalgic persuasions of CBGB’s “graffittied” walls.

The club’s most descriptive element, a “long narrow bar” is, according to Burke, “lit overhead by old neon beer signs and crowded by a raised platform that gives pool players and table customers a better view of the plywood-pile stage in back” (Burke). Regardless of whether the club’s dance floor contains a discriminating rock crowd or “a mosh pit in full pummel,” (Burke) the club introduces each band approximately every hour on the half-hour once the doors open.

The club itself has a crowd capacity of 350. In his editorial, Burke almost complains about the club’s less-than-complimentary view of the band platform: “Unless the joint is half empty, CBGB’s narrow width limits unobscured sightlines, even from the club’s rear raised platform. Downfront on the dance floor/ mosh pit is the only place for a clear shot at the band” (Burke).

Surprisingly, such physical limitations have done little to keep the crowds away, a clear indication that it's the music that the customer wants, unlike the throngs that fight for front row seating at boy-toy concerts by the likes of the Back Street Boys and N’Sync.

CBGB’s has always catered to innovative music styles and eclectic new bands. Genres like punk, thrash, and indie-rock formed their popularity here and the bands that played these styles gained their popularity by playing gigs at the club. Without a doubt, the majority of bands that played and still play at CBGB’s aren’t headliners but the club still made and makes room for the likes of Patti Smyth, Juliana Hatfield, and Sonic Youth (Burke).

Players like the Ramones, the Talking Heads, and Television have a unique association with CGBG. These are groups that were obviously out of the mainstream when they started, but CBGB’s has a way of putting bands like these in the forefront. It’s not presumptuous to suggest that CBGB’s gave them the credibility needed to be recognized by mainstream music listeners, not to mention mega exposure.

The club’s current gigs include groups such as Eager Meat, Sour, Evil Adam, and Root Philosophy. But don’t let the names fool you (CBGB). CBGB’s knows what music lovers want regardless of the names that bands chose to present themselves with. And it almost stands to reason that the more unusual the name, the more versatile and inventive the band.

In Murray’s 1975 review for NME. He described CBGB’s unique clientele with the same veiled homage that he described CBGB’s physical atmosphere: “The audience, who consist mainly of nondescript urban hippies, a smattering heav-vy street bro’s, rock intelligentsia and the occasional confused tourist, are reveling in the tack and basking in their own hipness just for being there” (Murray).

CBGB’s audience hasn’t changed much since then. The club CBGB’s “musicians, tourists, and friends of the bands” (Murray) are still there. Consider the fact that the urban hippies have been replaced by today’s yippies and by even more but “less confused” tourists, and the club is still the iconic structure it has always been.

CBGB is no longer just the meeting grounds for the music industry’s wayward bands and burgeoning music styles. It is all that and much more for both music lovers and the band’s that typically choose the “road less traveled.”

For the next century, CBGB has moved on to bigger and better ventures to move America’s alternative music scene into the limelight. Hilly Kristal, the club’s founder has partnered with Genya Raven to form the superlative indie, funk, punk, hardcore, and above all, refractory and self-contained record label-CBGB’s Records Ltd. (Interview). Yes, now we can all be stars at CBGB’s. What has been the stepping-stone to alternative music greatness for almost three decades, CBGB’s is, to an even greater degree, continuing its dedication to music’s underground and at the same time maintaining its influence on the ideologies of our American Society.











Works Cited

Burke, Kerry. CBGB. Editorial Profile. [Online]
Available: http://www.newyork.citysearch.com/E/V/NYCNY/0010/73/87/.

CBGB. [Online] Available: http://www.cbgb.com/club front page.htm.

“Interview: Making A Commitment to Artistic Integrity”. [Online]
Available: http://www.gumguy.com/cbgb.html

Kristal, Hilly. “The History of CBGB & OMFUG”. [Online]
Available; http://www.cbgb.com/history1.htm.

Murray, Charles Shaar. “Shots From the Hip”. The NME reviews a 1975 CBGB’s show.[Online] Available: http://www.netaxs.com/~rzepelaa/csm1.html.

Far Away And Long Ago...

Today, as I attempted to organize and delete some of my computer-related files, I stumbled across many of my essays, research, and term papers written while attending DSU earning my BA and MBA (2000-2003). Finding these floppies was like opening the time capsule of my life.

While I will only occasionally write about this period of my life, finding my old assignments reminded me of just how completely immersed and focused I was with my task at hand--and how oblivious I was about the world in which I functioned. I sit here reading and re-reading my essays, trying to convince myself that this was my life for five and one-half years. Occasionally, I have days when I obsess about how I allowed Alzheimer's disease to forever change my comfortable life as I knew it: my marriage ended, my health deteriorated, my family disintegrated, my assets evaporated. Yet, as I read my essays, I realize that what I once thought of as my "sacrifice" was in reality my "blessing," and I would do it all over again.

No matter the class subject, Theology, Philosophy, History, Criminal Justice, Sociology, Economics, etc., I somehow managed to make a connection to Alzheimer's disease. It was easy for me to make these connections since I often make a few logical connections along with many, many illogical connections.

Here is one of those papers from November 26, 2001, one and one-half years before Miss B passed away...


A Meeting of Caring: An Alzheimer’s Support Group


Theology 262-Medicine and Morality
Dr. William F. Urbine
Date Due-November 26, 2001






Thesis

Few chronic diseases affect or devastate a family to the extent of Alzheimer’s disease. The patient can live for many years, slowly deteriorating and draining family members emotionally and financially. Fortunately, no family has to face this horrible time alone; there are support groups ready to reach out to everyone.

My Choice

My method for choosing a topic for this paper was a purely selfish one-I have attended an Alzheimer’s support group on a monthly basis since September 1998, when my step-grandmother was first diagnosed with this disease. Since October 2000, I have been her Legal Guardian. Caring for an Alzheimer’s patient can be frustrating, yet personally fulfilling at the same time. Conditions, attitudes and, most of all, behaviors change on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. The medical, moral, legal, and ethical dilemmas and implications that is associated with my step-grandmothers situation weigh heavily upon my thought process. I am fortunate though, that there have been others before me-others that can lend their experiences, support, advice and most of all, love and understanding. The support group plays an integral part of my life-a lifeline of sorts-for which I will be eternally grateful.

A Representative Meeting

Attending my first support group for families and caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients was an eye-opener. We hear so much about what the disease does to a family, often over months and even many years. Yet, I was pleased to see that such meetings provide more than a little comfort, as well as a continuous network of support outside the meetings themselves.
At this meeting, which, in 1998, I attended as a newcomer, there were four couples: Bill and Frances, Dot and Jim, Lynn and Frank, and Ralph and Mona. The facilitator was a member of a group of specialists whom would be treating my step-grandmother, which consisted of a Physician who specializes in Alzheimer’s, several resident Doctors, nurses, physicians’ assistants, psychologist, and social workers. At this particular meeting, the facilitator would be the psychologist, who holds a Ph.D. and who immediately welcomed the group’s members warmly and sincerely.
Beginning the meeting, the facilitator said, “All of you are going through perhaps the greatest family crisis of your life. I am not going to say there are any easy solutions, for there are not. However, you are all here seeking help, which you will get not only from me and the entire staff but, more importantly, from each other.”
She then assured that no one faces such a debilitating problem alone. She pointed out that families provide a “flexible structure” that goes on, regardless of good times or bad times. For adult children whose mother, father, or loved one is suffering from Alzheimer’s, bonding together as a family, and with additional help from others in the same situation is a tremendous aid to dealing with the problem.
Noting that all the caregivers in attendance were couples almost old enough to be my parents, I felt slightly out of place as a 36 year-old male. The group, however, made me feel quite at ease. The facilitator said that care giving could become a way of life, at least for a time. She shared with the group the story of a woman with teen aged children who were solely responsible for her mother’s care. This caregiver, named Anita, went faithfully to her mother’s home every day, cooking meals, cleaning the house, and seeing to her mother’s increasingly burgeoning needs. Then, Anita herself had to be hospitalized for a week, followed by a recuperative period. Anita’s two children, ages 15 and 13, moved into their grandmother’s house while their grandmother recovered. This kind of selfless giving gave Anita some peace of mind, though she still felt “guilty” because she could not care for her mother for more than a month.
When Anita’s mother deteriorated mentally to the point where time lost all sense and she could no longer remember even her own daughter, the strain on Anita (a single mother) and her children went almost to the breaking point. Ultimately, Anita’s mother had to be placed in a nursing home, where she remains, floating in and out of lucid thoughts-mostly out.
“My point,” the facilitator added, “is that Anita finally sought out a support group to calm her nerves and emotions, which were frayed to the limit. Anita had become short-tempered, and though her son and daughter understood, they were nonetheless greatly distressed by their mother’s yelling when chores weren’t done, or when grades in school had slipped. Yes, Alzheimer’s disease was affecting the entire family, not just the patient. Once Anita found that she could share her experiences and stories, the problem with her mother remained, but she was able to handle it much better.”
As the facilitator spoke, all in attendance nodded in agreement. Then the facilitator asked, “Why all you all here?”
At first, there was an uncomfortable silence, but then Mona volunteered an answer. “I guess we tried to take on all the responsibility for the care ourselves,” she admitted. “Suddenly, one day, Ralph and I found ourselves in a screaming match. We’ve always had disagreements, but never one so bad as that one. Suddenly, we stopped and just stared at each other. We realized what my father’s Alzheimer’s was doing to us emotionally.”
Frank added, “My wife and I figured we could go it alone, calling on other family members to help from time to time. Sure, my sisters cared for Mom a couple of days a week, but they don’t live as close to her as we do, so most of the burden fell on us. Now, Mom is completely unable to care for herself, and we had to put her…” He broke off, his voice choking.
“It’s okay,” the facilitator said, smiling slightly. “It’s okay to admit that you can’t do it all yourself. And that’s why you are here. You have just become part of an extended family.”
Then, Jim brought a lighter moment to the session, which helped get the discussion going. “You mean I have to buy birthday and Christmas gifts for all these people?” he asked in mock horror. Everyone laughed, and I could feel some of the tension leave the room.
“And for me, too,” the facilitator said, grinning. She added immediately, “How many of you have a parent in a nursing home?” Frank and Lynn’s hands went up. Frances said, “My mother is getting closer all the time.” She sighed heavily. “We don’t want to go that route, but Bill and I both work, and our children live out of town. We love Mother, and we don’t want to put her in a home, but we just don’t have the ability to care for her any more.”
Seizing on that point, the facilitator said, “Good! Not that putting your mother into a nursing home is an ideal solution, but you are both being realistic. You can still see her quite often and know she is being well taken care of.”
Mona and Frank then commented on the difficulty of caring for an Alzheimer’s patient, and Jim said he and his wife had found a good adult day care center for his father. It enabled him and Dot to care for their family’s needs and get a much-needed break every weekday. The facilitator nodded in agreement. She said that local “gatekeeper” services were important and therapeutic for both the victim and his or her family.
“Now,” the facilitator asked, “what do you do with your free time, such as it is?”
There was a general chuckle amongst the group, and all volunteered that they occasionally went to a movie or out to dinner, just to get away for an hour or two. Lynn hesitantly offered, “Sometimes, I just sit alone and meditate. It seems to help.”
“Great!” stated the facilitator enthusiastically. “You see my point? You can’t live in a vacuum, even in such a serious situation. You must make time for yourselves. After all, if you wear yourselves out, who will take care of the caretaker? Because if we just live within ourselves and let our problems overwhelm us, we become blind to the larger picture, including neglect of our children, families, even our jobs. Do it–find time for yourselves every day, alone or with your partner. I know it’s not easy, but it’s necessary for your emotional and your physical health.”
“Yeah, my kids are getting very resentful,” Jim said. “They’re teenagers, just like Anita’s children, and our family time together is getting shorter and shorter all the time.”
“You’re a member of what is known as the ‘sandwich’ generation,” the facilitator said. Your children need your care and so does your parent with Alzheimer’s. So, you and your wife are sandwiched in between responsibilities at both ends.”
“And giving me heartburn,” Jim added with a slight smile.
“Well, Jim,” the facilitator said, “help is not only on the way, it’s right here in this room.” She then suggested that all group members exchange phone numbers and addresses and promise to stay in touch in between weekly meetings. She also suggested get-togethers, whenever possible, at the group members homes, perhaps in rotation, on a semi-regular basis. “Most important is that you all stay in touch. Remember, help and empathy are just a phone call away.”
The facilitator then gave out some literature from the National Family Caregivers Association, a group that supports family caregivers through booklets and direct contact with caregivers. She urged the group to obtain the NFCA newsletter, “Take Care! Self-Care for the Family Caregiver,” which provides practical advice on caring for disabled older family members and also contains stories similar to those the facilitator shared and which some group members told during my initial support session.
Finally, the facilitator handed out a sheet with ten tips for family caregivers. They were:
•Take charge of your life and don’t let your loved one’s disease or disability always take center stage.
•Be good to yourself. You’re doing a very hard job and you need some quality time, just for you.
•Watch for signs of depression, and don’t hesitate to seek professional help when you need it.
•Accept help when people offer it and tell them what they can do to help you.
•Learn more about Alzheimer’s disease, for knowledge is power.
•Help your loved on be as independent as possible.
•Trust your instincts, which most times will lead you in the right direction.
•When you lose a loved one, grieve, but then allow yourself to dream new dreams.
•Stand up for your rights as a caregiver.
•Seek support from other caregivers. You are not alone!

“I cannot stress the importance of all those points, especially the last one,” said the facilitator. “I hope all of you will support each other and will be there for each other not only during this terrible time, but also in the future. Nothing dispels loneliness and a sense of helplessness more than the comfort of friends,”
She then invited the group’s members to enjoy refreshments and to share their experiences informally and at length. Having been given the direction in which to travel, the members rapidly became involved in animated conversations, which lasted more than an hour. The facilitator had given the group a continued, and for me, a new, sense of purpose and meaning during our time of trial.

What I Learned

Too often, we think we have to bear our burdens alone. That is not true. As I learned at that initial meeting, and have continued to learn over the past three years, there is not only professional assistance available, but also help from others experiencing the same situation–in this case, loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease.
I came from that first meting with new insights into the human experience and condition. That first group has evolved from an uncomfortable “why am I here” attitude at first to a better understanding of our situations and also with the comfort of knowing we have others to call on. A burden is shared, indeed, halved. As the facilitator said when we were all leaving, “We are asked to become part of something larger than ourselves. Together, we can make it happen.” I continue to attend an Alzheimer’s support group on a regular basis, and although the members in the group change at every meeting, I am still in contact with several members from that first group. My personal situation has not become any easier; my step-grandmother’s health has deteriorated, but she still retains the feistiness that continues to challenge me. One minute she willingly allows me change her Depends, the next she brutally attacks when asked to take her medication. But there is one thing I will always take comfort in – I am doing the right thing for her, and there are many who are there to support me–my Alzheimer’s support group.






References

In preparing this paper, I drew information from the following web sites, all of which deal with care giving and with Alzheimer’s disease:

Anonymous, “Caregiver Support Groups,” online at www.elderserve.org/caregiver.htm

Anonymous, “The Purpose, Direction and Programs of NFCA,” online at www.nfcacares.org/servicef.html

Anonymous, “Tips for Family Caregivers,” online at www.nfcacares.org/tentipsf.html

McLeod, Beth Witrogen, Care giving Support Strategies,” online at www.grandtimes.com/css.html

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