gopiscrap
gopiscrap's JournalThe baby, I delivered when I was 19......
The summer I was 19 years old, I was working on a national singing tour for the Lutheran Church. Myself and 6 others went from town to town in a van. One night on our once a week day off, just the guys on the team took the van and went from Evansville, IN to Memphis TN. On our way back to Evansville coming into Owensboro KY about 2 in the morning, a car passed us at a high rate of speed. Very soon that same car was on the side of the road and was smoking, the young man driving it was waving a towel for some one to help him.
We stopped and inside the car was his 17 year old partner pregnant as can be and whose water had just broken. The young man stayed with the car and sent his partner with us to the hospital about 9 miles away. On our way, her little baby was born. Scared the crap out of me, I had no clue about child birth and neither did the other three guys that were with me. We were all aged 19-23.
Once we got her to the hospital and settled, we exchanged names and phone numbers etc. Through the years the parents of Christopher wrote to me and I got to know him. They had made us four honorary Godparents of Christopher. He has struggled in his young adulthood but today he emailed me out of the blue and told me that he has graduated college with a four year degree in computers. I was very happy. I am also grateful to have been a part of that.
I know it's not important in the scheme of poitics but it made my day and I wanted to share.
Thanks Mike C
"The Work of Christmas" by Howard Thurman
To my friends in this Democratic Community:
Each year as I celebrate Christmas, I share with my friends and family, this profound message:
"When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky i gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
THE WORK OF CHRISTMAS BEGINS:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among the peoples,
and most importantly,
TO MAKE MUSIC IN THE HEART!"
As a person of faith, this speaks to me more than any prayer, or sermon.
I feel it is our call, to do this and to make music in the heart,
by sharing a meal, giving of our resources, by turning frowns into smiles
by drying tears, and including the outcast and forgotten and by
being a social and political voice for those who have none.
I see this one often on DU, members step up and share with, affirm one another and also confront injustice and violence and work relentlessly for peace at home and abroad.
Enjoy your day, be in community, but look forward to doing the work of Christmas in the days to come.
May we always make music in the heart with and for one another.
Joyeux Noel
Felicem Natali Christi
Buon Natale
Frohe Weinacthen
Feliz Navidad
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Fuck trump and his...
comment about immigrants poisoning the blood of the USA. I happen to be one of those immigrants. I my life I have worked mostly for either the church or the state. I have led a wining City of Tacoma Initiative, ran for US Congress, helped lead a campaign. I ran a peace and justice organization for 4 years and co-pastored a UMC congregation for 3 years among other jobs. I chaired a Refugee choir, was on an immigrant welcoming team.
I would compare my work in the US with trump's...if u wish to talk about poisoning, life in the mirror you orange anus
A refugee's story
Today would have been the birthday of Lieselotte (Lilo) Collier.
Lilo was born in Frankfurt am Main Germany, 10 months after Hitler took power. She lived her early life in a four bedroom apartment in downtown Frankfurt. Close the the cathedral, schools, train and shops.
During World War II her neighborhood and home was bombed out by the Allies. In 1943, Hitler, believing that children under 12 years old, were the future of the Third Reich, ordered all the children out of the major cities of the country.
Since Germany was knee deep in the war, there was no motorized transportation available for the children to get to their new assigned homes. My mom with a couple hundred other children walked off and on for 46 days to an orphanage just inside the Austrian border. She lived at this orphanage for almost 18 months.
Five days after the war ended, the director of this orphanage called all the German children together and told them that there was no money for them and that they had to leave. Two days later, they were driven to the Austrian-German border and left to fend for themselves. For 7.5 months Lilo wandered the country side and cities, slept in door ways, bombed out schools, churches and alleys. At times she had rotten food thrown at her, rocks and other garbage too and had even been shot at once.
Finally, an American military battalion found her and several others and brought them to a staging orphanage where parents could come to find their separated children. On the 17th week while at this orphanage, Lilo's father found her and brought her back home to Frankfurt.
Because of her trek through the Bavarian Mountains while wearing substandard footwear, she got frostbite on her left leg and right toes. When she was pregnant with me, the hormones in her body changed and because of the injury to her toes and leg, she contracted gangrene. In order to save my life, she had to have her left leg and right toes amputated with just local anesthetic. In spite of the precautions, I was born two months early and never caught up physically til I was about 25.
Lilo met an American soldier and we came to San Antonio and then lived in Tacoma WA. I remember all my life, kids staring at her because of her prothesis, kids snickering because of her heavy accent. I remember every time a low flying plane or a siren would come by, her cringing.
She had a very hard life after the war, always worried about her weight, being not too thin, not too heavy in order to acommodate her left leg. She was unhealthy and descended into alcoholism and died of a stroke when she was 51 years old.
She did leave a legacy for me though....to always be involved in the civic life of your city, state and nation. She taught me how to listen to a candidate and read between the lines when they are advocating for fascism. She taught how to live my faith through civic involvement and concern for the poor and voiceless. She challenged me and had me achieve my US Citizenship through testing.
I wrote this to honor her, to remind us of the human cost of war and to remember those like her.
Happy Birthday Lieselotte (Lilo) Collier
War affects children for generations let me tell you a story (long read)
Some one earlier said this and it has stuck with me. I wanted to share my answer with everyone the following is a true account:
Lieselotte Stein was 6 years old when the second world war started with the invasion of Poland in September of 1939. She lived in the bustling transportation and financial hub of Frankfurt am Main Germany. Her mom and dad and two older sisters all lived in a cozy for bedroom apartment close to the core of the downtown area of this city of at time 600,000 inhabitants.
Her home and many others were bombed into nothing but rubble. In 1944 she along with all other children 12 and under were ordered by Hitler to be removed from the cities as the Allies were doing around the clock bombing. She along with the other children, because there was no transportation were forced to walk for 49 days to an orphanage just inside the Austrian border. This was in the winter of 1944 and part f that trek was through the icy and snowy Bavarian Alps, done with substandard footwear. She was put in a Roman Catholic orphanage jus inside the Austrian border for the remainder of the war. This gave her frostbite in her left foot and leg and her right toes.
when the European war ended in May of 1945, she, along with the rest of the children were kicked out of the orphanage and transported to just inside the German border. Following this she wandered and made the pilgrimage to get back home. She slept in doorways, bombed out buildings, sometime a convent or church, pegging for food and looking for clothing. She wandered through Germany for five weeks before being picked up by an American Military patrol and brought to a staging orphanage in northern Germany. For 11 weeks she was lined up every Saturday morning while parents came to look for their children. On the 12th week her father found her and brought her home.
Because of the long walk under icy conditions, when she was in her first pregnancy, the changing hormones in her body, caused those symptoms to turn to gangrene. In the seventh month her pregnancy in order to save her baby's life, she had to have her left leg amputated to just below her knee and the toes on her right foot also amputated with just local anesthetic in order to save her little boy's life. Her child was born at the end of the seventh month of gestation.
That little boy was me and Lieselotte was my mother.
All my life, I saw her struggle with health issues. She always had to watch her weight, weighing neither too much or too little in order for her prosthesis to fit. She had many other health issues also. Because of the pain and loss she sort of gave up, descended into serious alcoholism and died when I was 15 years old.
As for me, I did not have a normal childhood either. I had encephalitis as an infant because of the poor health conditions in the German hospitals because of the war. It gave me poor equilibrium, poor eye sight and neurological damage that is still mildly present today but was acute when I was a child. More than that, I was always worried about my mom. The emotional toll was great. I was teased by other kids because of her "peg" leg. I listened at night in bed for any sound from her to make sure she was still alive. I was always worried that one day I would find her as I did, unconscious and close to death.
The man she married in Frankfurt and became pregnant with, left her and her new born son after her amputation. She married an American soldier who brought us to the US at age 14 and later I achieved my citizenship. He died as a result of injuries suffered while fighting in Vietnam when I was 7.
Emotionally I always longed as a child to have a father and mother who could come to my singing, plays, sports, school nights etc. As an adult it would have been a joy to be able to share in those great events, high school and college graduation, marriage, birth of children and grand children, when I ran for US Congress etc.
So my point of this post is that not only does it affect children deeply, but succeeding generations also. I ask that we keep ALL the children involved in our prayers, good wishes and healing thoughts. When ever there is a war, I always think of them first. I was lucky that I laned on my feet and live a nice comfortable life now.
This is not my native language, but I hope this makes enough sense for those readers to remember the children (the innocents of war) and do what we can for them, whether by prayer or direct action.
Thanks Mike C
so if that orange anus is found guilty on these charges what
are the odds he will see a jail cell?
Happy 4th of July from a naturalized citizen
I first came to the US as a 5 year old. My biological father was killed in a car crash in Germany and my mom met the American solidier who was to adopt me when I was 2 and a half. My mom and I first emigrated to the US when I was 6 after my father had been wounded in Vietnam which later killed him when I was 7 years old . My first memories of ceremony in the US was at his military funeral. The playing of taps, the guns shooting their salute and the folding of the flag.
My mom and I went back and forth to live during various periods in both Germany and the US. I learned to love US History and politics. I knew from a very early age that national decisions could have both catostophic and personal impact on the individual. I knew at 7 that political decisions can mean actual life or death for yourself or a loved one.
My father's death and the social justice teaching gave me a passion and a heart for being an advocate for the very far progressive ideals of life. I am so grateful for that. I was fortunate and blest to be able to make a credible run for US Congress when I was 33 and also led a city wide successful municipal initiatve for a 200,000 plus sized city.
My citizenship in the US has allowed me benefits and blessings beyond imagination. It has alo given me the grace to be able to express myself for the struggle of those around us with out a voice, with out resources. There are many things wrong with this nation, but obviously also many great gifts of which we all partake.
On this 4th, I view my patriotism not in the flag waving, not in jingoism of military slogan, not in the rah rah of being number one, but in the grace and beauty of living in the history of the noble struggle of which we discuss and aspire and of which we as citizens should all take part in.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY
Receiving an honorary Doctorate!
Hi folks, I know it's not important in the scheme of all that is happening politically, but I am so jazzed I had to share.
I have been nominated and approved to receive an honorary Doctorate of Sacred Music. This is in recognition of my life work. I have sung in 68 coutries, soloed in 51 one of them. I have sungin choirs of 7 different denominational traditions. Directed choirs in the Roman Catholic, United Methodist and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America traditions. I have about a 1000 hours of workshops and have taught hymnody and liturgy. I have sung and soloed for 22 denominations. I have sung in 1,266 differents chrches.
Also sang for two secular choirs 1) I was the first Board Chair person for the Tacoma Refugee Choir and have sung with them for 6 years 2) started singing ith the "Threshold" Choir, a group that sings for those in Hospice who are near death.
As a child, being able to sing, was the only thing that kept me from getting kicked out of a Catholic School. I started singing at 4 years old in the cathedral in Frankfurt am Main and have continued ever since.
One of the things I wanted to point out is that much of the hymnody I sang in German, Latin and English had wonderful peace and justice texts and helped form my sense of justice and the need to be an advocate.
Thanks for letting me share!
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Frankfurt am Main
Home country: Germany
Current location: Tacoma, Washington
Member since: Sat Jul 18, 2009, 11:55 AM
Number of posts: 23,733
