Something to Say About It (Norman & Frances)

It's been a week since the storming of Capitol Hill, and there's an unease in the air. There's confusion and trepidation and fear about the way the rest of 2021 will unfold. There's a lot of hindsight and kicking ourselves and thinking "If only we'd listened" from all generations. And there's also the sobering acknowledgement that this was not the first time this happened, and we always have to be vigilant against injustice. Our older buds have seen a lot go down in this country, and they've got something to say about it:

Norman Cain 

04.18.2019

Researching Islam

I was determined to find out the truth. I want to know why Adul Mokun, in my class, did not dress in a black suit -like the male adherents of the nation of Islam- and why there was a houseful of Muslims not too far from where I lived who dressed in Arabic attire.
The aforementioned passage appears near the end of an essay entitled “The Great Neighborhood debate of 1955”, an essay that chronicles street debates between my mother and a member of the Nation of Islam whose focus was which religion was authentic: Islam or Christianity.
Throughout the essay, I wrote the way I spoke in 1955 when I was 13 years old. Also I expressed the negativity – based upon my Christian upbringing I felt towards Islam whose adherents suddenly appeared in my neighborhood. But as I stated earlier, I was determined to, without bias, find out about Islam. The first phase of my investigation happened when I was enrolled in a world history course, during my sophomore year in college. I learned about Islam history and tenets. Later I visited mosque. Eventually my oldest son and two nephews became Muslims, also my mother who initially was against Islam respected those embraced that faith.
As for me, my study of Islam has enabled me to accept that religion as I do others.
Today facets of the United States government portray all members of Islam as terrorists, a ploy to gain political dominance. Omar a young Islam congresswoman has received death threats for being outspoken about the way Israel treats Palestinians and the rising tide of Islamophobia. Seemingly those who embrace hatred of Islam and view its members as terrorists, do not recognize domestic terrorism. I recognize all religions, because I have taken time to study as many as I can.

 

Frances Bryce

10.29.2020

Unshakable Beliefs

Now that we are again in the last days of deciding who will lead the country for the next four years, will we continue with our present President or elect a new one? In the news there are many charges and counter charges whenever the TV is on. Not to mention all the campaign ads.
I decided to further limit my TV viewing by reading magazines, and Time Magazine which I get weekly was one of those. Also, some non-political entertainment sources. In one of the articles that I read and caught my eye one of the Time reporters who visited the suburbs and outer rural areas in Milwaukee, Pennsylvania and outside Ohio to mention a few of those. He was interested in hearing how people with ordinary voices determined the coming November 3 election.
As I read the outcome of the people he interviewed, many voters were not fazed by the reports of the President saying that soldiers were losers and suckers, the death toll of COVID-19 and admission to downplaying the virus when Woodward taped him. And so, he asked about these things and no one was talking about the headline and the people often decided that it was not true, or they did not care.
Most of the Trump voters interviewed has reasons for supporting him and they were logical. One said he had lowered their taxes, appointed anti-abortion judges and the stock market had soared. So, he was logical in his goals because the President was certainly doing the things that were important to him. Some supporters, according to the writer, explained reasons that were so devoid from anything that he had ever experienced, and the reason was divorced from reality. He called this un-logic, which is not ignorance or stupidity but distorted by suspicion and misinformation. Which is geared by fiction rather than established facts because they only listen to those things that they really believe.
He found that un-logic belief from QAnon that the COVID virus is a hoax and was perpetuated by the elite from Hollywood. Anybody else who challenged this they called lying reporters, so did not listen to them. So, the un-logic of the other side often said that the President was faking, and they didn’t believe him, it was only the flu. Such belief that Hollywood’s elite who could traffic and rape children, who were pedophiles, also that they had built tunnels under the U.S. to traffic in children and to drink their blood.
When he asked two women two days after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg for their thoughts about the Judge they said, “I think that they were lying, we know that she died last year”. Their favorite news network was OANN and they said, “That station just gave you the facts.”
I understand why the term un-logic was used to explain these views by many of the voters he interviewed. And that was the thing that was so interesting to me that they didn’t believe anything that the leading stations reported, and they refused to listen to them. So, that was their reason for their feelings and nothing was going to change how they felt.

If you want to transcribe for Best Day, then email us at info@bestdayofmylifesofar.org. You can also share our older buds' adventures by donating to Best Day, subscribing to our newsletter, sending a note to our older buds, or following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you or the older buds you knwo have stories about insurrections, riots, and rebellions, then you or they can submit them through our portal right here. We're especially interested to stories from Black older buds, but we're always looking for stories from older buds of color, older buds with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ older buds, older buds of any gender or sex, older buds of any religion, and older buds who just plain break the mold.

 

And don't forget to maintain contact with the older buds in your life. If you can't be there in person, please call them, email them, or message them on social media. And if they're using teleconferencing or remote events for the first time, give them a call and help them set things up. Check in on them to see how well they're getting used to these programs. Buy them a computer or an internet package if they don't have one of their own. It's a human right, after all.

 

 

Curated by Caitlin Cieri

The First Post of the Year (Liz & José)

Happy New Year everyone. It's easy to get swept up in the joy of having finished 2020 and charge straight into 2021, but we have to remember the people who could not come to 2021 with us. Our lives are filled with all sorts of people, and every single person we've ever met has had an influence on us in some way or another. This post is dedicated to the influential people in our older buds' lives:

Liz Abrams

11.19.2020

Pushbutton- A Tribute to my Aunt Doris

And there in my life, a little girl’s life, appeared a new member of the family. A beautiful, so brown, this lady was my uncle’s new wife. Pretty, black, deep waves in her hard-pressed hair, neat. A big generous wide mouth smile that she smiled for me and that was sweet. That genuine smile, generous smile should only be from a mother for her favorite child. And I melted. She grabbed my hand, she squeezed my hand, I melted. Grabbed her hand and she squeezed my hand back and I would follow her for miles. I was so enamored with her.
The aunt changed from her Sunday clothes to a house dress and a head rag. She’s my uncle’s wife and my grandmother’s new daughter and caretaker. Boy am I glad. My grandmother warned me, “Don’t laugh at how she talks. This lady is from the Deep South and she has an accent”. I wouldn’t care if she did the camel walk, I was so enamored with her.
In the kitchen she swiftly went to work lighting a stove with the same match she lit her cigarette, grabbed a huge wash tub and scrub board, a bale full of soiled men’s shirts, filled the tub with hot water, fed my German Shepherd dog, wheeled my grandmother in front of the TV, made me a bacon sandwich (my favorite), and all the while she smiled. And after she did all that, she took care of her brother in laws, my grandfather, my grandmother, the German Shepherd, and also went to work from three to eleven in the afternoon to work at Linton’s. She was a superwoman. And she was a farm girl, she was used to doing hard work, so that was nothing to her.
A loose curl crept across her forehead, full of shine and sweat. She winked her eye at me and said, “How ya like that? Pushbutton.” and I said, “What is pushbutton?” And pushbutton taught me how to hurdle laziness. And you use pushbutton when you have jobs to do while you’re tired with a smile and a wink of an eye. Pushbutton meant you push yourself past what you’re able to do. I never saw her take a break. She was always happy working. But she called it pushbutton because she went past her tiredness to continue to get a job done, and so she was a good example on what to do when you’re tired but you still have work to do.
And that’s about Aunt Doris.

José Dominguez 

12.10.2020

The Meaning of a Kindness

That day that came to settle all my father’s dreams, fears, paradoxes and constraints, it came to him suddenly and painless as he would have desired. At the age of 72, he accomplished one of his dearest aspirations- to be productive and independent. The proof was that when his last night came, he was prepared to rest from the day of his work and from a life devoted to responsibly confront all kind of struggles, accomplishments, and issues as he always did. In his last day of his life, he prepared himself to sleep and sleep he did. He sat on his bed with his body wrapped with his pajamas, then he slipped downwards and the mattress received his dead body due to a generalized heart failure. He had no time to do or to think or nothing. Not a chance to say goodbye, not to say ‘I love you,’ not for even a farewell gesture or a welcome smile to the new life he was initiating. After that in this engagement moment, is idle to say that my parental house that always looked so alive lost that spring of energy and my mother who has always been like a mockingbird around my father turned into a hopeless, most incapable to provide the vitality that in past times was imprinted in each corner of the house. My wife Maria and I decided to live with her. My father’s name was seldom used since each of his memories was to my mother a reminiscence of his permanent loss. Several days after the passing away, one afternoon, the main door’s bell rang and as always I ran to open the heavy door. Outside, a lady was waiting for my appearance. She was almost 45 years old, rather small, dressed in a simple and a humble way, but with very clean clothes, and looked me shyly.
“Morning,” I said, “what can I do for you?”
“Excuse me,” she said, “I wonder if this is Mrs. Dominguez’s residence.”
“It is. What is the purpose of your visit?” I asked.
With gentle and low voice, responded, “I wonder if I can speak with Mrs. Domiguez.”
I replied, “Yes, yes you can. Please come in, and we’ll call her in a minute. “Please take a seat.”
“No no no no,” she responded, almost frightened, “I am here very well. Just tell her that Mrs. Lopez wants to speak with her.”
“Very well, please wait a moment,” I told her. My mother came immediately and opening the big door, invited Mrs. Lopez to enter. Mrs. Lopez advanced, her face look very serious, and began to speak before my mother could have the chance to invite her to sit.
“You don’t know me,” she said, “but I know your husband don Roberto. I sell newspapers in the street have a newspaper stand in the sidewalk. Nearby, 16th of September St. and Avenita Juarez. For years Mr. Dominguez as a clock, raining or snowing, in summer or winter, walked by that way. I guess he went directly to his work each day for years. He stopped by my tiny stand and after greeting me with a gentle buenos dias, he handed me a candy. He never missed a single day of this routine. That candy was for me a present of life. He didn’t speak a word more or a word less. It was part of my day, and also part of my life to see this gentle person going to work. Suddenly, his appearance subsided. I waited several days and didn’t see him. Then, I asked to my friends and neighbors and was informed that he lived in this house. I don’t want to bother. If he is ill, I don’t want to be an inconvenience to him. I just want to know how he is.” My mother was astonished. As Mrs. Lopez was explaining, my mother slowly and trembling began to approach her. At one point they were face to face.
Then, my mother said in a helpless voice, “Sorry, he is dead.” Both ladies embraced to each other, shaking as tears covered their faces. I guess, each of us is a witness or a recipient of the kindness and humanity. Nevertheless, each of our gentleness which this big human family around us that in a sense is our extended family. For sure, my father’s tenderness is living in Mrs. Lopez’s soul. God bless her.

If you want to transcribe for Best Day, then email us at info@bestdayofmylifesofar.org. You can also share our older buds' adventures by donating to Best Day, subscribing to our newsletter, sending a note to our older buds, or following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you have stories about older buds, or the older buds in your life have stories about even more people, then you or they can submit them through our portal right here. We're especially interested to stories from Black older buds, but we're always looking for stories from older buds of color, older buds with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ older buds, older buds of any gender or sex, older buds of any religion, and older buds who just plain break the mold.

 

And don't forget to maintain contact with the older buds in your life. If you can't be there in person, please call them, email them, or message them on social media. And if they're using teleconferencing or remote events for the first time, give them a call and help them set things up. Check in on them to see how well they're getting used to these programs. Buy them a computer or an internet package if they don't have one of their own. It's a human right, after all.

 

 

Curated by Caitlin Cieri