Not only is America fighting illegal wars oversees, Elizabeth pointed out that our country had declared war on its own people, by declining to provide them with health care.
Here Elizabeth brings that message to a protest on Academy Boulevard.
Will someone tell Elizabeth about her sign?
Not yet.
Elizabeth gets it right for a RADIO interview.
KRCC’s Western Skies interviews the grandest dames of the local peace effort: Pat, Elizabeth, Phyllis and youngster Harriet the Peace Dog.
And Layla.
I was standing next to Elizabeth that day (or one very similar). When someone in a car alerted her to the fact that her sign was upside down, I was impressed by her complete lack of embarrassment. She simply shrugged her shoulders with a cute little giggle, turned it right side up, and went on protesting.
After that she would periodically point her sign my way and I would give her a thumbs up or down depending on its orientation. But she knew people could see the message either way.
In Tony’s tribute he said of Elizabeth: We knew her as one easily to anger, but one who was just as easy to forget and forgive. In fact, she was more likely to forgive others for their differences and bad habits than she was ever likely to bear an unnecessary grudge.
I think her ability to accept herself — upside down signs and all — had something to do with her ability to embrace and forgive everyone around her. Which ability came first, I’m not sure! But she was a very cool lady, and I know she’ll be missed by many.
We spend so much of our time protesting against The War, but often times many of us have felt that we should maybe be spending much more of it protesting what is done to our young, elderly and sick in this country. Nowhere in the world has medicine been turned into big business as much as it has in America, and the results have been catastrophic. It has produced a scale of suffering that rivals what the Pentagon has produced in suffering for the Iraqi and Afghan peoples even. I really don’t think I exaggerate here, either. After all, allowing the insurance companies and all the other corporate bloodsuckers to cannibalize the health care delivery systems of a country of 300,000,000 is a pretty destructive thing.
If you cannot see and understand this suffering first hand, it is because that just like with The War, most of the killing, maiming, and annihilation of people is most often quite hidden away. Visit a nursing home, though, for just 15 minutes, and get a glimpse of what’s going on. And think deep about what you see and feel there. Does it really have to be like this? I think that with many of us, if you think about it a bit, the answer is a resounding… NO, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS WITH OUR AGED AND AGING.
Must agree with Tony. Aged care for Americans is so bad
that unless you see it with your own eyes you would not
believe it. That is the way our children treat us, is it because
that is the way you treated your mom & dad? In this land of
always being young (old must be bad, huh) so say the TV
& movies. What do you expect from a land where the word
honor or respect or do what is right is countered by “do
you own thing” or the best “go ahead & do it, if it feels good
to hell with anyone else”! Todays standard! Respect for
the been there seen that done that does not count. Whats
in it for me, now that matters view by too many of todays
cool cats/kittens. Just how many old folks DO you visit?
None! Well foxie, your time is coming – age waits for no one.
So what you do today or not, will reflect on you tomorrow.
Keep you head in the sand, you will know soon.
respectfully
George, your favoright neocon & retired combat vet.