The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

not the age of aquarius

Yesterday the planets were aligned against communication of any kind for me. I couldn't blog, the post simply would not publish. I couldn't get anything constructive done, i.e. I was trying to mail off something I needed to get out, and one thing went wrong after another.  THEN i went and tried to teach.  oy!

They were obtuse, obstinate and simply obnoxious.  I had a group that I assigned a scene to.  To make the scene more fair to all participants I added a page.  ONE FUCKING PAGE! Instead of starting on Page 101 they were to start on page 100.  After I explained it FOUR TIMES while I was trying to do something else, I took the book, went ACROSS THE FUCKING CAMPUS and made copies of THE ONE EXTRA FUCKING PAGE!!!! At the same time I assigned a scene to another group.  They were told at the outset that two of the three people in the scene didn't get a copy of the last page on which there were three lines, and that they'd have to share the one copy of that page until the break and then I'd go make copies.  THREE TIMES I explained this.  When I went to make copies I asked the one student who actually had the page to give it to me.

He gave me the wrong page.  Imagine how amused I was on the other side of campus trying to make copies a few minutes later. 

They did not have a good class after that.

Luckily the planets did a 180 for me a couple of hours later and I...well, shall we say that there is now a 24 year old skater boi to whom I am deeply grateful. Such a grand end to such a crappy day.


I've whined enough. Turning our attention to more important matters.

None of our struggles and none of our victories could prevent the following story from happening in 2010?


Greene v. County of Sonoma et al.

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place—wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.
One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold’s care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.
Ignoring Clay’s significant role in Harold’s life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf. Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold’s “roommate.” The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold’s bank accounts to pay for his care.
What happened next is even more chilling: without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold’s possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold's lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord.
Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years. Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.
With the help of a dedicated and persistent court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis of Santa Rosa, Clay was finally released from the nursing home. Ms. Dennis, along with Stephen O'Neill and Margaret Flynn of Tarkington, O'Neill, Barrack & Chong, now represent Clay in a lawsuit against the county, the auction company, and the nursing home, with technical assistance from NCLR. A trial date has been set for July 16, 2010 in the Superior Court for the County of Sonoma.


Ed note- this isn’t a 20 year old story, it’s happening right now.   I’m constantly amazed at the apathy people exhibit when marriage and/or equal rights come up.  Apparently these kinds of things take them by complete surprise…how sad.

 
And so it goes: