gopiscrap
gopiscrap's JournalHi DU friends
In December, I had a mild heart attack which forced me to get a complete medical check up. Due to the check up, it was discovered that I have both prostate cancer and bladder cancer. The prostate cancer treatment is coming along well, however the bladder cancer treatment is not responding. They have tried both chemo and radiation. So now they will be infusing me into the bladder with a mild form tuberculosis. I am a bit nervous about it.
If anyone has had this treatment, can you let me know what to expect? And for all of my friends here on DU I ask for your prayers and healing wishes. If I don't respond quickly, please extend grace to me. I might not be feeling well enough to get back to you in a timely manner
Thanks Mike C
I have been walking around with a deep sadness today
I just can't shake it. As the child of a refugee and an immigrant myself, I have suffered first hand what war does to both the people fighting it and their families. We never should have gotten to this point. What the fuck is wrong with the god damn republicans? As a citizen I apologize to the world. Most of us would love to sit at the table with you and bask in both our diversity and yet sameness.
We all long for shelter, to be clothed, nourishment , education, health care and most of all, community.
To my sisters and brothers in Iran, I do not support trump, in fact I abohor what he is doing. It weighs heavily that I am a citizen of a nation that will commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.
I walked and am so glad I did!
yesterday the day was a beautiful warm day oin Portland OR. As I opened the curtains in the hotel room I was staying in I glanced at the sky and it smiled that sunny countinance that said: today is a day for walking, marching, for being with others, for advocacy for a more just world and to give witness to that expression.
We took the MAX train to the convention center and listened to speeches and songs to get us into the vibe for the march ahead of us. At 11:30 four motorcycle cops got into formation and the start of our walk was announced with this amazing drum line. The space behind us was blocked off with parade marshalls to protect us as we marched.
As we walked the 1.2 mile route from the convention center, the cadence was kept, slogans chanted and in a determined and festive sense 5,000 of us made our way to the main protest. We gave voice through the town. the 3 most touching monentdss for me were:
1) we passed this restaurant and as we walked by the wait staff, cooks and washers and line the front entrance and affirmed why and who were walking for. IIt was a simple gesture but profound d to me,. The reality of what is going on seen in their eyes, and for a brief simple moment our hearts were joined.
2) walking underneath a bridge in the downtown area, there were hundreds of people lined across the bridge chanting and encouraging us as we made our way to the main protest site. Having the people waving their placard and cheering us, was really fun.
3) coming into the main protest site, the immense sea of humanity. Old, young, children, teens democrats, republicans, those that never marched before and those who have been in the struggle for 50-60 years. It was amazing seeing the signs, and the artistic and creative talent of so many.
It was so reaffirming to be with so many folks who care like I do about where this nation is heading. I love=bed it ! The sun, the signs, the chanting, the mingling with so many others of such a like mind..it was so uplifting.
I started on the second walk but only got a quarter of the way. This was walk with 40,000 people. I had to turn back, the stamina is not like it was before I got sick (double cancer; bladder and prostate) so I walked back to the hotel room, sore, aching, tired but exhilirated. I am just sorry I couldn't do the second march.
As an immigrant to this country, I so grateful the chance to politically express myself. I am sorry I couldn't go the full distance. I am so proud of all who came out. It gives me energy and hope.
In gratitude to my fellow travelers!
Mike C
I have to walk!!!!!
We have a president who has 34 felony convictions
I have to walk!
We have a president who wages a war with out thinking
I have to walk!
We have a president who stole classified documents for personal gain
I have to walk!
We have a president who molested children
I have to walk!
We have a president who alienated just about all of our alllies
I have to walk!
We have a president who denigrates and dismisses those who have died for our country
I have to walk!
We have a president that allows our own citizens to be shot in cold blood in our neighborhoods
I have to walk!
We have a president who makes it a part of his administration to disappear people
I have to walk
We have a president who is actively trying to suppress your right to vote
I have to walk!
We have a president who revels in cruelty
I have to walk
On Staurday we have that chance. Please join a No Kings protest. I had a heart attack in December and then got diagnosed with cancer in January and am taking chemo and radiation, but thios is so important to me. I wish to still struggle for the dream that was presented to me when I first came to the US.
What ever you can do, join a protest. run, march, ride walk, but please show up!!! There are those that say marching and protesting doesn't do anything...just ask the folks who protested against the Vietnam War and those who demonstrated for civil rights, what being out in the streets did to progress those causes.
So I invite you to in person or in spirit on Saturday, to WALK WITH ME!!!!!
Peace Mike C
Hey MAGA fucks, how's that trump vote working out for you?
Trump said :that price of groceries would go down...so far as I can see only eggs cost less
Trump said: No nation building, no wars
Trump said: Gas prices would fall..today I paid 4.67 the day he took office I paid 3.49
Trump said: Inflation would come down, so far it hasn't and it won't
Trump brags about the Dow....down a few thousand in the last week
We are spending over a billion dollars a day on a worthless war.
So many nations all over the world hate us.
We have a president who is an international joke
We have a president who staff's his cabinet with idiots and grifters
We have a president who is child rapist
We have a president who has 34 felonies
We live with the fear that Iranian drones could possibly hit the west coast
We live with the fear that this unhinged asshole could blow up the world if things go bad for him
We live with an appointed cabinet who mocks science
Farms are in crises and farmers are going bankrupt and losing their farms
Women might not be able to vote for the sole reason they changed their names when married
trump sold out the soybean industry
Our nation and our world is more dangerous and coarse because of the idiot you assholes voted for
But oh yes, you fucking morns let's own the libs and spite ourselves by doing so.
God I hate low information voters like you!
So Magat's all this shit is on you...and that includes those who were all for him until he started going crazy
It also includes all the folks who are republicans and supported that shit hole and supported the turning of the republican party
So MAGA fuckers you voted for a clown and now you've got your circus
I just pray that we can survive this
When I was 7 years old on a snowy, icy morning I held my mom's hand
as we walked to my fathers new gravesite 3 days before Christmas. I sat there staring at my 38 year old father's flag draped coffin. I cried as I heard taps being played, trembled when the rifles sent out their volleys, and gasped in anguished grief as they lowered my father into the cold earth never to be seen again. It is a searing memory and one that is indelible in a child's mind even as he grows to adulthood.
Why did this happen, my father was shot in Vietnam and and died when he came stateside. He was one of those 58,000 US military victims.
But the one good thing was that his country and president honored him. They accorded him the respect he deserved and affirmed and grieved with his survivors.
I find it completely morally reprehensible and an affront to those families that must go through what I went through, but with the callousness of our leader (and mourner in chief) and his sycophant followers. Never had we had a president who is so unfeeling, so callous and so ignorant of what is required to be a leader. This soulless son of a bitch has no clue what it means to sacrifice, to empathise with another's grief. He will never apologize, he will never recognize their pain. A good start would be to lower the flag at a minimum.
I apologize (on behalf of trump) to those families who are feeling the beginning of this life long grief. This president will never apologize My heart is with you. I can identify with the road you are taking.
And to this administration: Shame on you, not only are you uncaring in a time of this immoral war, but you make the pain of the families who paid the ultimate price harder and with deeper scars!
Today would have been my mother's 92nd birthday
I have shared her story here before, but feel compelled to tell it again:
Liselotte (nick name Lilo) was born in 1933 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She lived in downtown Frankfurt near the railroad station. When she was ten, Hitler decreed that all the children of the 3rd Reich should be removed from the major cities of Germany, since he felt that they were the future of the nation. Rge allies were making headway and were seriously bombing the major urban centers.
Since there was no public transportation (it was being used in the war effort) she and a group of many other children had to walk for miles tin the bitter cold and snow and ice to just inside the Austrian border and there she stayed in an orphanage til just after the war.
Five days after the war was over, the director of the orphanage all non Austrian children together and kicked them out as there was no Moner for them and scarce room to house them,
For the next two months she and others wandered through the countryside and cities of Germasny on foot, sleeping doorways, bomb shelters, empty abandoned shells of buildings etc. She had rock and rotten food thrown at her and was shouted at to leave many times as food was very hard to come by.
Finally an American military battalion picked her up and took her to an orphanage in Oberndorf Germany, For the next 17 weeks on each Saturday she stood against the wall of the basement and watched as parents came by to be reunited with their children. On the 17th week her father found her.
She married an American GI and when she was pregnant with me the frostbite she got on her left leg turned into gangrene and in order to save her fetus, (my life) she had to have her left leg amputated just below the knee with on local anesthetic.
This caused her great pain throughout the rest of her life. I remember being teased by my friends because of her leg and when coming to the US also because of her thick German accent.
She instilled me a passion for civic service and a deep sense of peace and justice.
I havejust recently been contacted by a writer to chronicle her story.
So: 92nd birthday Lilo Collier RIP
So I had a heart attack
on Tuesday. I have pushed my doctor to release me and he said I can go home tomorrow. See you all on Saturday at the protests. Don't be intimidated by that fucking orange gas bag! Take to your streets and show this corrupt administration that you mean business. Be loud, be lawful but be insistant on our rights and our disgust with trump and his bullies!! Stay safe and have fun!!! Mike
Looking for advice
I want to share the plight of a young girl from Frankfurt am Main Germany who during the war became a refugee. Her name is Lieselotte (nick name Lilo.) She was born in Frankfurt in 1933. At the age of nine, Hitler had decreed that the nations' children were the future of the Third Reich. Since all major cities were being bombed into rubble, Hitler had ordered that all children from the age of 6 -15 be evacuated and relocated from all the major cities. Frankfurt, being the financial and banking center of the nation was one of those cities. Because there wasn't any transportation available, Lilo (along with many others) was sent to walk to an orphanage just inside the Austrian border during the winter of 1943. It took forty six days to do so. Five days after the war, the director of the orphanage gathered all the children together and gave each child the equililant of 8 dollars and then sent them on their way, telling them the Austrian government couldn't afford to keep them.
Once again, there wasn't any transportation, so Lilo spent the next 4 months wandering from town to town in order to get back to her parents. Lilo slept in fields, bombed out builidlings, in churches when they were kind enough to house children. doorways and alleys. She was shot at, had garbage and rocks thrown at her. She slept in door ways, bombed out buildings, churches when the pastor was kind enough to let her do so. In her fifth month of wandering she was spotted by and picked up by an American military battalion. She was driven to a Catholic orphanage in Northern Germany and spent the next four months hoping her parents would come and find her. During this time she took part in the only recreation available, singing in the Obern Kirke Kinder Chor. Each Saturday the girls would be lined up against the dining room wall while parents came and searched for their missing children. Finally on the fourteenth week, her parents came and she was repatriated and sent home with them.
Because she had to walk through the Bavarian Mountains with substandard foot wear, during the winter, her feet and left leg were frost bitten. When she became pregnant with her first child that frost bite turned into gangrene and in order to save her baby's life, she had to have her left leg amputated just above the knee. For the rest of her life, every time she heard a siren or low flying plane, she cringed. She also endured the stares of people looking at her artificial leg, her little boy endured teasing most of his childhood. She had numerous health problems and was always watching her weight. Too much weight, the leg wouldn't fit. Underweight and the leg would slip off. After many illnesses, Lilo died at 51.
THAT LITTLE GIRL GREW UP TO BE MY MOTHER
My question is, I have been approached by a book writer who wants to tell her story...it wouldn't be just this episode, but about being in Germany and born the same year Hitler took power, also about her travails and her acclimation upon coming to the US. My biological father left when she had her leg amputated in the 7th month of her pregnancy. She married a career military person who passed away when I was 6 because of war related injuries.
Should I tell him to go for it, or do think it's old news and not that compelling?
Just trying to get some opinions...thanks Mike C
Had my meeting with the immigration attorney
First off, I want to thank everyone for their kind expressions of support and encouragement.
I just got done with meeting with the immigration attorney that I have. It was a good meeting. Most of it dealt with paperwork etc. He wants me to have about 2500.00 available in case I need bail. I need several copies of my Citizenship certificate. He wants me to have copies of my Alien Registration card and also my green card that I had before citizenship. He wants me to make sure that I have copies made for both my kids so in case something happens they have quick acess to documents. He gave me a card that I can put in my wallet to call the Nortwest Immigrant Rights Project, also the ACLU (of which I am a member) he said that if I go protest, I need to stay in the middle of a pack of people so I can't just be grabbed.
He said he would prefer that I don't protest, but said if I must, to be very careful. I told him that it is not in my dna to sit passively when there is such injustice. My faith will not let be silent, I also wish to be on the right side of history. Then there is being able to tell my grand children that I did what I could.
The attorney said that I am at heightened risk because of previously being put on the no fly list twice and also being charged with inciting a riot when George Bush the first came to Tacoma and we arranged a "welcome" for him that forced him to leave town 17 minutes early. The third reason I am at risk is because I have had the trump administration take me to court and challeng my citizenship. (Which I won the last time and was awarded attorney fees.)
The final thing he said to me is to make sure my neighbors, co-workers and specially my church community to know what's up.
So friends thank you s much for your support. I will keep you posted on any future developments.
Together we make "Good trouble" and stand up for our neighbors and those who have no voice.
Peace
Mike Collier
Profile Information
Name: MikeGender: Male
Hometown: Frankfurt am Main
Home country: Germany
Current location: Tacoma, Washington
Member since: Sat Jul 18, 2009, 11:55 AM
Number of posts: 24,768