Is "on basic human decency" going to become a SERIES of posts here or something?
I use my journal as a soapbox often enough, but not always as a call to action?
This time, it's a call to action.
For those of you who haven't been following my Twitter, I came across a story last night that -- oh god, I can barely summarize it.
Sonoma County, CA officials separated an elderly gay couple and sold all of their worldly possessions.
These men were together for twenty years. They gamed the system -- they had wills, power of attorney, and medical directives all naming each other. It still wasn't enough. When Harold fell down the steps and was hospitalized, county and health care workers refused to allow his partner Clay to see him, in direct violation of the medical directive. The county then placed the men in separate nursing homes, auctioned off their belongings, and terminated their lease. Harold died three months later, without the man he loved most in the world by his side. And this part I just have to quote from the article itself, because I'm sobbing just thinking about it:
The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.
My god.
MY GOD.
I mean, thank god the executive order Obama signed on Friday will prevent this shit from happening again, but MY GOD. I cannot understand the sheer cruelty involved in denying these men the little time they had left together, and I don't think I ever will.
My grandmother passed away last fall, as some of you know. She was in a nursing home, like Harold, but she was able to spend her last days with the people she loved most: her family, her friends, her nursing-home boyfriend. I can't even begin to imagine the immeasurable comfort that must have been to her. It's a simple right, maybe, but it's an important one: the right to be with the people you love when you need them most. If you've lost someone close to you, you know what I'm talking about.
Harold didn't have that.
Nobody should have to die alone. Nobody. That might be the most awful part about all of this to me, honestly.
I didn't post about this last night because I was too sick and sad and shocked to say anything, but today is ACTION DAY. See, this story has received little to no press, including in the county where it happened, and that's where we CAN do something. I've already e-mailed the Press Democrat, the local newspaper, about this story (this is their email), and I've talked to some of my contacts at the press thank you journalist family, and if you guys have any time to do the same, I'd encourage you to. Hell, you don't need official contacts to do this -- hit up HuffPo and Daily Kos and Americablog and any other progressive/liberal news outlets you can think of and use the contact forms on their sites to let them know about what happened.
If you're not comfortable with that, pass the link around. Share it on Facebook. Retweet it. Get the word out, however you can.
ontd_political has more information, and suggestions about who to contact (including phone numbers). I don't know who's going to pick up or who's going to listen, but goddamnit, I have to try.
Nobody should have to die alone. I've said it before, and I'll say it again until my throat starts to bleed.
.
This time, it's a call to action.
For those of you who haven't been following my Twitter, I came across a story last night that -- oh god, I can barely summarize it.
Sonoma County, CA officials separated an elderly gay couple and sold all of their worldly possessions.
These men were together for twenty years. They gamed the system -- they had wills, power of attorney, and medical directives all naming each other. It still wasn't enough. When Harold fell down the steps and was hospitalized, county and health care workers refused to allow his partner Clay to see him, in direct violation of the medical directive. The county then placed the men in separate nursing homes, auctioned off their belongings, and terminated their lease. Harold died three months later, without the man he loved most in the world by his side. And this part I just have to quote from the article itself, because I'm sobbing just thinking about it:
The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.
My god.
MY GOD.
I mean, thank god the executive order Obama signed on Friday will prevent this shit from happening again, but MY GOD. I cannot understand the sheer cruelty involved in denying these men the little time they had left together, and I don't think I ever will.
My grandmother passed away last fall, as some of you know. She was in a nursing home, like Harold, but she was able to spend her last days with the people she loved most: her family, her friends, her nursing-home boyfriend. I can't even begin to imagine the immeasurable comfort that must have been to her. It's a simple right, maybe, but it's an important one: the right to be with the people you love when you need them most. If you've lost someone close to you, you know what I'm talking about.
Harold didn't have that.
Nobody should have to die alone. Nobody. That might be the most awful part about all of this to me, honestly.
I didn't post about this last night because I was too sick and sad and shocked to say anything, but today is ACTION DAY. See, this story has received little to no press, including in the county where it happened, and that's where we CAN do something. I've already e-mailed the Press Democrat, the local newspaper, about this story (this is their email), and I've talked to some of my contacts at the press thank you journalist family, and if you guys have any time to do the same, I'd encourage you to. Hell, you don't need official contacts to do this -- hit up HuffPo and Daily Kos and Americablog and any other progressive/liberal news outlets you can think of and use the contact forms on their sites to let them know about what happened.
If you're not comfortable with that, pass the link around. Share it on Facebook. Retweet it. Get the word out, however you can.
ontd_political has more information, and suggestions about who to contact (including phone numbers). I don't know who's going to pick up or who's going to listen, but goddamnit, I have to try.
Nobody should have to die alone. I've said it before, and I'll say it again until my throat starts to bleed.
.