Jena and The Stacked Deck

This past week brought us the first civil rights demonstrations in this country since the 60's. Yes Mildred, a fair and honest judicial system is a civil right and our justice system has systematically been stacked against African Americans since....well, since forever. Richard Pryor used to say he went down to the courthouse seeking justice and that's what he found, "just us".

CNN did a great story on the whole Jena situation. Three major incidents were mentioned: the hanging of nooses in a schoolyard tree that black students had the audacity to sit under, a white student stopping at a convenience store in a black part of town and pulling a shotgun on black folks when he felt "threatened" (the shotgun was taken from him by the folks who "threatened" him) and the beating of a white student by black students that resulted on the attempted murder charges being filed.

So the way that went was white students who hung nooses were suspended for a brief period of time cuz in was just a "schoolboy prank", no charges against the white student who pulled a shotgun in public and attempted murder charges against the black students who beat up the white student (he felt well enough to go to a school function later that day). Here's how, in a fair system, I would have seen these situations handled: noose boys - charged with inciting to riot or making terroristic threats (or at least expelled from school); shotgun boy - charged the crime of brandishing a weapon, a class A misdemeanor; beat boys -charged with assault.

But that's not how things like this play out, certainly not in that part of Louisiana. I have relatives who live a bit north of that area outside Monroe. The only frame of reference they have for African Americans is the "N" word. That's the primary reason I maintain no contact with those relatives and haven't visited in over a decade. If they think that about black folks, imagine how they feel about gay men.

Black folks have always had the deck stacked against them in the criminal justice system in a form of very unspoken racism. It's long since time that changed. If a white teen had to get beat up and a black teen had be excessively prosecuted in order to get people focused on this, well, so be it.

It's time for this to change. Really.

The Injection

I've been dealing with this herniated disc since July 20. It's been difficult beyond belief and I am way over the whole sit in my apartment, take pain meds and chat on the internet thing. It's also been quite a learning lesson in terms of where support comes from. It seems that for me, support comes from my mom (to the extent she's able) and a couple of close friends. But there is no help offered from anywhere else in my family. Rather disheartening but a good lesson on how to plan for my old age.

Yesterday, I had an epidural steroid injection. I'm optimistic about the results because cortisone in other problem joints has always worked well for me. I had to be at the surgery center (yes, even though it was only an injection, the specialist uses a surgery center cuz he "sedates" you) at 6:45am. I'll never understand why doctors insist on doing stuff like this before the sun comes up. My sweet, dear, reliable friend James got up early and took me. After they made sure to get their money, I was called back to the prep area by this nice RN named Deb.

Deb proceeded to explain the procedure and have me sign all the waivers so that if I became a paraplegic as a result of the spinal injection, I wouldn't be able to say they hadn't told me. Then RN Cathy comes to do the IV. Even with a little local anesthetic, that shit still hurts. After the IV was started, I was called back to the procedure room. I was instructed to lay face down on the procedure table with my belly button on the 3 pillows. What that translates to is that I was on a table with my ass way up in the air. I'd no more than laid down when one nurse yanked my shorts halfway down my tush and the other nurse pumped the versed and fentanyl into the IV. It wasn't enough and I felt the whole damned injection. Ouch!

The entire thing took maybe 5 minutes and then I was rolled over onto a rolling stretcher (I could have walked but hey, for $1500 I'll let 'em push me) and whisked to the recovery area. There really wasn't much recovery as I couldn't tell that I'd been given any drugs. Either they use a very low dose or I have a very high tolerance to versed and fentanyl.

So today I'm sore from the injection but I'm thinking I might be starting to feel a little relief from the herniation. With cortisone, it usually gets a little worse for a day of so before it gets better.

And I so need it to be better.