JERRY WOLKOFF BLOG-IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY SON STEVEN NATHANIEL WOLKOFF, MY FATHER SAMUEL WOLKOFF, AND ALL THE OTHER VICTIMS OF INJUSTICE, EVIL IN THIS WORLD.THEY DIMINISH YOUR RIGHTS,THEN THEY DIMINISH YOUR EXISTENCE, THEN THEY LIE ABOUT IT, SAY YOU NEVER EXISTED, AND THE PROBLEM IS PEOPLE FORGET THE SUFFERING THAT LASTS FOREVER, NEVER KNOWING THE TRUTH BY WHOSE HANDS, OR HOW YOU WERE KILLED.
REST IN PEACE STEVEN Time it was, and what a time it was, it was A time of innocence, a time of confidences Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph Preserve your memories, they're all that's left of you.
We had to let go of another piece of you this week Steven, but not a moment goes by that you are always remembered, missed and loved.
Just when you think that our society has sunk as low as it can go, something else even more unimaginable happens, and we discover once again that there are NO limits to the sickness of our world.
26 innocent human beings were murdered in cold blood at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Connecticut. Horrifically, 20 of these victims are little children, between the ages of 6- 7 years old. Innocent little babies who have done nothing wrong to deserve their lives being snuffed out so very young, in a school room where they are supposedly safe and protected. They are are executed for no reason at all by a deranged individual who planned this massacre with deliberate precision and detail.
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ALL THIS IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE MEMORY THAT THESE MURDERED VICTIMS MOSTLY SMALL CHILDREN HAVE NAMES. THEY LIVED AND NOW THEY ARE DEAD:
- Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06, female- 6 years old
- Daniel Barden, 9/25/05, male- 7 years old
- Rachel Davino, 7/17/83, female-29 years old
- Olivia Engel, 7/18/06, female-6 years old
- Josephine Gay, 12/11/05, female-7 years old
- Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06, female-6 years old
- Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06, male-6 years old
- Dawn Hochsprung, 06/28/65, female-47 years old
- Madeleine F. Hsu, 7/10/06, female-6 years old
- Catherine V. Hubbard, 6/08/06, female-6 years old
- Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05, male-7 years old
- Jesse Lewis, 6/30/06, male-6 years old
- James Mattioli , 3/22/06, male-6 years old
- Grace McDonnell, 12/04/05, female-7 years old
- Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60, female- 52 years old
- Emilie Parker, 5/12/06, female-6 years old
- Jack Pinto, 5/06/06, male-6 years old
- Noah Pozner, 11/20/06, male-6 years old
- Caroline Previdi, 9/07/06, female-6 years old
- Jessica Rekos, 5/10/06, female-6 years old
- Avielle Richman, 10/17/06, female-6 years old
- Lauren Rousseau, 6/1982, female -31 years old
- Mary Sherlach, 2/11/56, female-56 years old
- Victoria Soto, 11/04/85, female- 27 years old
- Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06, male-6 years old
- Allison N. Wyatt, 7/03/06, female- 6 years old
It is a parent's worst nightmare to lose a child of any age. Don't
ever forget they we who have lost children are also victims as well as the surviving brothers, sisters,
relatives of this nightmare that is all too real.
There will never be closure for us and the pain will ache in our broken hearts forever. When the loss of our children happens by the unaccountable acts of others, we are even more traumatized, damaged, and destroyed.
There is the inevitable response of a media circus, arguments about the politics of gun control, religions
explaining away what has happened by talking about fantasy concepts of
these new Angels in heaven, a time for healing, when in fact healing cannot ever
come for those killed, nor their families, useless words to somehow try to make people feel
better, and the quest for answers about how could this happen to
defenseless little children, and their teachers.
The explanations, band aid solutions, all miss the point. Soon the forgetful memory of Americans will dissipate the tragedy of this and the true solutions never touched. We are a nation obsessed with denial of "it can't happen to me, my children, my family" and so as usual nothing will change to prevent future massacres. The problem. You want to to know the problem? Begin with the hundreds of thousands people trapped in our culture with no humane
solutions. It's not as simple as there being too easy access to buy guns, that by itself is not at the root of what is wrong. As a Country we have consistently made it very clear that there is a huge disconnect between what is said and that which is actually done. Budget cuts in Federal/State governments have crippled an already impotent, dying under funded system of mental health agencies. The new upcoming round of "balancing the deficit" spending cuts will be the next set of draconian "we can't afford' to help those in need death knell to the fragile, decaying framework of organizations that attempt to help the mentally ill. All the phony hand wringing of what has happened in Connecticut to these children will be shot down by the reality that it costs a lot of money to fix these problems. We always find this money to fight wars in foreign lands but never does it become available to spend it on saving our own vulnerable citizens. But you say, we must provide
an accessible system to address mental illness, just as we are striving
for medical care for physical ills. It's not going to happen, ever.
The stigma of mental illness is almost as strong as it was 30 years ago. Little has changed when it comes to the perception of people who suffer with emotional problems.
This in spite of the fact that mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 per cent of Americans ages 18 and older, about one in four persons, which translates well in excess of 60 million Americans, not even including those under the age of 18.
We are a Country that is full of shit when it talks about compassion, protecting little children, or helping to truly attack the problems that have consigned us to the lowest steps on the ladder of hell.
It is tolerated that innocent people get murdered and now we have crossed over the line, it will be tolerated that precious little children are also murdered. It is an ugly, ugly reality that only those who live with mental illness are left to fend for themselves because no one really cares about them or even wants to think about. What is it like to live in fear that your child might hurt someone you, himself, or someone else? Liza Long is afraid she has an inkling. In a powerful essay that's being shared across the Internet, this Boise, Idaho, courageous mom of four has the guts to talk about her life with a bright but disturbed teenage son.
Three days before 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed
his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut
kindergartners, my 13-year-old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus
because he was wearing the wrong color pants.
"I can wear these
pants," he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole
pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises."They are navy blue," I told him. "Your school's dress code says black or khaki pants only.""They
told me I could wear these," he insisted. "You're a stupid bitch. I can
wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!"
"You
can't wear whatever pants you want to," I said, my tone affable,
reasonable. "And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You're
grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car,
and I will take you to school."
I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son.But he terrifies me.
A
few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and
then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His
7- and 9-year-old siblings knew the safety plan—they ran to the car and
locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife
from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the
house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me.
Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to
kill or hurt me.
That conflict ended with three burly police
officers and a paramedic wrestling my son onto a gurney for an expensive
ambulance ride to the local emergency room. The mental hospital didn't
have any beds that day, and Michael calmed down nicely in the ER, so
they sent us home with a prescription for Zyprexa and a follow-up visit
with a local pediatric psychiatrist.
We still don't know what's
wrong with Michael. Autism spectrum, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or
Intermittent Explosive Disorder have all been tossed around at various
meetings with probation officers and social workers and counselors and
teachers and school administrators. He's been on a slew of antipsychotic
and mood-altering pharmaceuticals, a Russian novel of behavioral plans.
Nothing seems to work.
At the start of seventh grade, Michael
was accepted to an accelerated program for highly gifted math and
science students. His IQ is off the charts. When he's in a good mood, he
will gladly bend your ear on subjects ranging from Greek mythology to
the differences between Einsteinian and Newtonian physics to Doctor Who.
He's in a good mood most of the time. But when he's not, watch out. And
it's impossible to predict what will set him off.
Several weeks
into his new junior high school, Michael began exhibiting increasingly
odd and threatening behaviors at school. We decided to transfer him to
the district's most restrictive behavioral program, a contained school
environment where children who can't function in normal classrooms can
access their right to free public babysitting from 7:30 to 1:50 Monday
through Friday until they turn 18.
The morning of the pants
incident, Michael continued to argue with me on the drive. He would
occasionally apologize and seem remorseful. Right before we turned into
his school parking lot, he said, "Look, Mom, I'm really sorry. Can I
have video games back today?" " No way," I told him. "You cannot
act the way you acted this morning and think you can get your electronic
privileges back that quickly."His face turned cold, and his
eyes were full of calculated rage. "Then I'm going to kill myself," he
said. "I'm going to jump out of this car right now and kill myself."
That
was it. After the knife incident, I told him that if he ever said those
words again, I would take him straight to the mental hospital, no ifs,
ands, or buts. I did not respond, except to pull the car into the
opposite lane, turning left instead of right.
"Where are you taking me?" he said, suddenly worried. "Where are we going?""You know where we are going," I replied."No! You can't do that to me! You're sending me to hell! You're sending me straight to hell!"
I
pulled up in front of the hospital, frantically waving for one of the
clinicians who happened to be standing outside. "Call the police," I
said. "Hurry."
Michael was in a full-blown fit by then, screaming
and hitting. I hugged him close so he couldn't escape from the car. He
bit me several times and repeatedly jabbed his elbows into my rib cage.
I'm still stronger than he is, but I won't be for much longer.
The
police came quickly and carried my son screaming and kicking into the
bowels of the hospital. I started to shake, and tears filled my eyes as I
filled out the paperwork—"Were there any difficulties with… at what age
did your child… were there any problems with.. has your child ever
experienced.. does your child have…"
At least we have health
insurance now. I recently accepted a position with a local college,
giving up my freelance career because when you have a kid like this, you
need benefits. You'll do anything for benefits. No individual insurance
plan will cover this kind of thing.
For days, my son insisted
that I was lying—that I made the whole thing up so that I could get rid
of him. The first day, when I called to check up on him, he said, "I
hate you. And I'm going to get my revenge as soon as I get out of here."
By
day three, he was my calm, sweet boy again, all apologies and promises
to get better. I've heard those promises for years. I don't believe them
anymore. On the intake form, under the question, "What are your expectations for treatment?" I wrote, "I need help." And
I do. This problem is too big for me to handle on my own. Sometimes
there are no good options. So you just pray for grace and trust that in
hindsight, it will all make sense.
I am sharing this story
because I am Adam Lanza's mother. I am Dylan Klebold's and Eric Harris's
mother. I am Jason Holmes's mother. I am Jared Loughner's mother. I am
Seung-Hui Cho's mother. And these boys—and their mothers—need help. In
the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it's easy to talk about
guns. But it's time to talk about mental illness.
According to Mother Jones, since 1982, 61 mass murders involving firearms have
occurred throughout the country. Of these, 43 of the killers were white
males, and only one was a woman. Mother Jones focused on whether the
killers obtained their guns legally (most did). But this highly visible
sign of mental illness should lead us to consider how many people in the
U.S. live in fear, like I do.
When I asked my son's social
worker about my options, he said that the only thing I could do was to
get Michael charged with a crime. "If he's back in the system, they'll
create a paper trail," he said. "That's the only way you're ever going
to get anything done. No one will pay attention to you unless you've got
charges."
I don't believe my son belongs in jail. The chaotic
environment exacerbates Michael's sensitivity to sensory stimuli and
doesn't deal with the underlying pathology.
But it seems like the United
States is using prison as the solution of choice for mentally ill
people. According to Human Rights Watch, the number of mentally ill
inmates in U.S. prisons quadrupled from 2000 to 2006, and it continues
to rise—in fact, the rate of inmate mental illness is five times greater (56 percent) than in the non-incarcerated population.
With
state-run treatment centers and hospitals shuttered, prison is now the
last resort for the mentally ill. Rikers Island, the LA County Jail and Cook County Jail in Illinois housed the nation's largest treatment
centers in 2011. No one wants to send a 13-year-old genius who
loves Harry Potter and his snuggle animal collection to jail. But our
society, with its stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare
system, does not provide us with other options. Then another tortured
soul shoots up a fast food restaurant. A mall. A kindergarten classroom.
And we wring our hands and say, "Something must be done."
I
agree that something must be done. It's time for a meaningful,
nation-wide conversation about mental health.
That's the only way our
nation can ever truly heal.
Ladies and gentlemen, wear sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
Than my own meandering experience, I will dispense this advice now
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind
You will never understand the power
And the beauty of your youth until they've faded
But trust me, in twenty years
You will look back at photos of yourself
And recall in a way you can't grasp now
How much possibility lay before you
And how fabulous you really looked
You are not as fat as you imagine
Don't worry about the future or worry that worrying
Is as affective as trying to solve an algebra equation
By chewing bubble gum
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things
That never crossed your worried mind
The kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday
Do one thing every day that scares you, sing
Don't be reckless with other peoples' hearts
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours,
floss
Don't waste your time on jealousy
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind
The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself
Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements, stretch
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what to do with your life
The most interesting people
I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't
Get plenty of calcium
Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't
Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the "Funky Chicken"
On your 75th wedding anniversary
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much
Or berate yourself either
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can
Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own, dance
Even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room
Read the directions even if you don't follow them
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly
Brother and sister together will make it through
Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you've been hurting, but I've been waiting to be there for you
And I'll be there just helping you out, whenever I can
Get to know your parents, your loved ones, you never know when they'll be gone for good
Be nice to your siblings, they are your best link to your past
And the people most likely to stick with you in the future
Understand that friends come and go
But a precious few, who should hold on
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle
For as the older you get, the more you need the people
You knew when you were young
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard
Live in northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft
Travel, accept certain inalienable truths
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old
And when you do, you'll fanaticise that when you were young
Prices were reasonable, politicians were noble
And children respected their elders
Respect your elders, don't expect anyone else to support you
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse
But you'll never know when either one will run out
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're forty
It will look eighty-five
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
Wishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off
Painting over the ugly parts and recycling for more than it's worth
But trust me on the sunscreen
Oh yeah
Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you've been hurting, but I've been waiting to be there for you
And I'll be there just helping you out, whenever I can
While there are multiple major horrible events taking place daily all over the world, people dying of famine, war, injustices of every type, there is one event that has gripped Americans, overshadowed the other misery happening to human beings.
It says a great deal about American citizenry and their ability to become unusually proactive when it comes to recognizing their own survival is at stake if they don't get involved with what many perceive as the most important event in decades that will affect their lives.
Yes, I am talking panic in the streets kind of involvement, awareness that knows no bounds. Americans have learned that Hostess Brands, Inc. is going out of business and is liquidating its business after striking workers with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union didn't return to normal work levels as the company management had demanded.
Panic in America in the past few days has resulted in a stampede of citizens who know what is essential to their lives as they cleaned out the food stores and bakeries yesterday of all Hostess products.
Do Americans really care about the 18,500 workers who will lose their jobs at Hostess? Nope, not much, this is really about the personal munchies, cravings on the level of a crack addict cut off from their supply, a heroin addict facing cold turkey. This is about life altering, diabetic causing, cardboard tasting artificial flavored little cakes of fat that people must have or they will surely die.
Screw hurricanes, wars, fiscal cliffs, rapists, murderers, politicians, homeless, poor people, climate change, or anything else that may get in their way of prioritizing this Twinky, Hostess cakes holy grail of life. Good-bye Yodels.
Good-bye Twinkies.
Good-bye Ho Hos.
Good-bye Ding Dongs.
Good-bye Sno Balls.
Good-bye my favorite Wonder Bread that "helps build strong bodies
12 ways," according to the advertising slogan for the brand of soft,
white bread introduced in 1921,the 12 ways referring to 12 nutrients
the owners of the company thought were worth talking about.
Oh if only Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan had known the real push button issue on the minds of Americans, its not the economy, stupid, it's sugar, Twinkies, cake.
Mitt could have used his Bain Capital Company to take over Hostess and bought the votes of fellow Americans by with the slogan "vote for me and I promise you a free carton of Twinkies and other Hostess cakes in every American's home".
His dreams to be in the White House would have come true by buying the votes of the Twinkie junkies in scoring a mere hand full, perhaps, a box, or even a carton.
Mitt had failed to follow his history lessons in which"Upon being informed that the citizens of France had no bread to eat,
Marie Antoinette, Queen of Louis XVI of France, exclaimed "let
them eat cake".
Although she was eventually beheaded when the people of France revolted, no such fate would have befallen Mitt and the GOP here in a strung out America, if only he could get a do over, the poor guy, it was that easy.
Twinkie addiction is formed in early childhood by habit, as parents introduced preschool children to the sugary cakes, and it affects several generations since early childhood. It's the white flour, sugar, and marshmallow cream filling that makes people come back for more. The flavor of the sugar makes the brain light up with hormones that eventually develop into a habit, a familiarity, if not a craving to come back for more and more of it.
See the You Tube video, Howdy Doody Hostess Twinkies Commercial 1950s.
Four generations of Twinkie eaters has had this type of brand loyalty
so much so that some supermarket's own brand of cakes similar to
Twinkie's were left on the shelf this week at numerous
supermarkets.
A lot of dentists for several generations made plenty of money as a result of children wolfing down plenty of Twinkies and changing the ratio of calcium to phosphorous in their bloodstream from eating all that sugar and white flour.
French doctor, Serge Ahmed, of Bordeaux, has been working with rats and giving them the choice between cocaine and sugar. Guess what wins, time and again? Sugar.
Sugar produces dopamine in the brain which in turn makes kids feel good for a few minutes. For some true sugar addicts, they need this to feel better. When kids and parents eat sugar, they feel good for a few minutes until the insulin surges kick in. When the happy feeling wears off, they need more.
Eventually when sugar is cut out of the diet, human brains will begin to produce dopamine on their own, but who has the time to wait for that to happen.
Most snacks such as cream-filled cakes that parents buy for themselves and their kids is high in refined sugar and simple carbohydrates. But soon withdrawal symptoms kick in. This keeps many sugar addicts trapped in their addiction to processed cakes made with white flour and sugar or even bread coated with jam and a fatty substance such as cream or butter.
The sweet taste of sugar is more rewarding than the high of cocaine to some people. That's what makes people come back to buy and eat more foods made with sugar, especially heightened when mixed with white flour, as in a cake with a sweet filling that tastes creamy or even fatty. Some parents even give kids processed sweet foods to get them to behave or even quiet down. But the reaction often is craving and crashing.
Kids grew up eating Twinkies instead of fresh fruit.
Familiarity doesn't breed contempt when it comes to sweet foods. Instead familiarity breeds habit, and habit breeds tradition to come back for more. Americans were introduced in early childhood not only to Twinkies but also to Ho-Hos and Sno-Balls. Most kids whose parents aren't nutrition and natural foods enthusiasts grew up with Twinkies.
Many are young and some are over age 65 and grew up in the 1950s and early 1960s when processed foods dominated the TV ads, as today, a time when sugary foods were advertised on children's TV shows such as the Saturday morning cartoons. The parents and grandparents passed on the Twinkie habit to their own children, and they passed on the Twinkies as soon as the kids could eat solid food, in turn to the next generation of Twinkie addicts.
By Saturday afternoon, online seller eBay was hosting more than 17,000 active listings for Twinkies. Bids and prices varied wildly." Amazingly, one seller's listing asked for $10 million for a box of 10 Twinkies. Since there were no takers by Saturday night, it didn't matter much that the seller promised to deliver the box of Twinkies in a van that displays the buyer's company logo, with $1 million to be donated in the buyer's name to a charity of the buyer's choosing.
But what about another day, when those addicted to Twinkies so much will pay big money for their sweet fix, to satisfy the monkey on their back type of addiction for marshmallow creme.
If the federal government can bail out the banking and auto industries,
why can’t it do the same for Twinkies.
Over at White House.gov,
more than 350 hardworking Americans have already taken time out of all
that working hard to put their name to a petition asking President Obama
to nationalize the Twinkie industry and “prevent our nation from losing
her sweet creamy center.”
So if you believe that Twinkies are too sweet to fail, feel free to put your name on the petition.
There's a box of Twinkies. Not just any box of
Twinkies, the last box of Twinkies that anyone will enjoy in the whole
universe. Believe it or not, Twinkies have an expiration date. Some day
very soon, there will be none left, as time does not age these cakes well.
I am holding out hope for those afflicted that some other company sees the profit value in
Twinkies (and Ho Ho’s, and maybe even Drake’s Cakes) and saves the
government from having to answer years of questions about how it let the
U.S. slip farther back in the international snack cake race.
In the meantime, sites like Hoard The Hostess are already documenting today’s disastrous news. You can go here and mourn, sniff, get an online high off of the photos.
The video clip below from Ghostbusters sums it all up, because in the words of the
great Winston Zeddemore, “That’s one big Twinkie.”
There have been many stories told about the recent storm that destroyed so many parts of the East Coast. In the New York metro area where I live many of these stories are about bad people who looted, others who took advantage by price gouging everything that we needed to survive, incompetent power Companies that had no clue how to restore the electrical service for their customers who pay the highest rates in the United States to maintain.
The area bordered on anarchy, with a cascading mountain of shortages from gasoline to food, water, lack of public transportation, sewage treatment plants broke down, pumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into the ocean and are continuing to do so at this very minute.
People were shot by others for a can of gasoline and Snake Pliskin was ready to protect decent citizens. "Yes, sir! Those Crazies'll kill you and strip you in ten seconds flat! In the Escape from New York movie, 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. The once great city of New York becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire country. A fifty-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline, across the Harlem River, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline. It completely surrounds Manhattan Island. All bridges and waterways are mined. The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped around the island. There are no guards inside the prison, only prisoners and the worlds they have made. The rules are simple: once you go in, you don't come out."
We just had a taste of what is to come if the Country doesn't wake up fast.All of this is rooted in the problem that America has a failed, crumbling infrastructure and refuses to deal with the reality that climate change is here, right now. Denial not new ideas, meaningless words not deeds, incompetence not innovation, disrespect of one another not respect, all contributed to one's life not being worth a nickel when it's every person for themselves in order to survive.
All of this despite previous storms, lessons that should have been learned, yet no realistic plans were in place by the local, State and Federal Governments.
All the politicians from both Parties were/are falling all over themselves to blame this fiasco on someone, anyone, anything, find scapegoats but not themselves.
There was no electricity and in some places there still is none. No phone service, no cell towers working, no way to get help if you needed it. Yet these inept politicians using their robo call fancy machines called telephones, spoke on Television, patted themselves on the back in the fashion of the President Bush "job well done Brownie" during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. None of us could hear them or see them, probably a good thing, but it was all they could do since they were full of shit.
Many volunteers from all over came to help or sent donations. This was wonderful to witness.
There is one particular story that won't get much media attention. You may not understand all the words spoken but you will feel the emotions.
A victim of the recent storm that devastated the New York metropolitan area said these simple words when speaking about the Jewish community of volunteers that come every day to help him and his neighbors. He said "I am proud to be a Jew". It is a heart wrenching video below of what happened to his community and the selfless response of strangers from other nearby Jewish Communities who have come to help. It is a lesson in how a culture, religion, and ethnic group have been able to survive from the beginning of time by sticking together and being there for each other.
A lesson that the rest of America needs to learn before it is too late.
We all need to get out and vote today. People have died fighting to protect your freedom of having the right to vote for the candidate of your choice. Sadly there are many States that are totally disorganized in organizing the voting process. Even more disturbing is that many election boards in states, local counties are even deliberately suppressing the ability of registered voters to cast their ballots today. They are trying to steal the election for whatever candidate they are politically affiliated with by disenfranchising voters with this chaos. In any of the 50 States, if you become aware of any voting irregularities or are a victim of someone trying to keep you from voting at your local polling place, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and a human being will answer who will try to provide immediate help so that you can vote.
This is a non partisan, not affiliated with any political party, not for profit organization whose goal is to make sure that the election process is done in a fair manner. It is administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
A common voter suppression action being deliberately done in States (I just saw it happen in my voting place here in New York State) is that after you fill out your ballot, none of the election officials at your voting location direct you to the correct scanning machine that you are supposed to use, therefore creating your vote to potentially not be counted.
At most voting centers there are several ballot scanning machines, but you can only vote at the specific machine that corresponds to your particular streets voting district. Once you finish filling out your ballot, make sure you ask one of the voting officials at your voting site which scanning machine you should use BEFORE you actually insert your ballot to be scanned.
If you have problems or see problems at the polls, be sure to report them to 866-OUR-VOTE, or at OurVoteLive.org/
Catch any problems at the polls on photo or video? Upload it to YouTube and social sites, and tell VideoTheVote.org! Also tag it with the #VideoTheVote hashtag.
Be at the polls when they close and photograph and video
tape the results tapes that are printed out from electronic systems.
Results have a way of changing between the time they're printed out at
the close of polls and the time they show up on the web. Your photographic evidence could help save an election!
Watching results on the web throughout the night? Take screenshots,
save them as you go, and include a timestamp in the file name when you
do. Those web results also have a way of changing, sometimes in the
wrong direction, throughout the night. Your evidence could help save an
election!
Vote on a Paper Ballot!
In some places, it may be too late to vote on paper ballots. In
others, know your rights and whether you are entitled to vote on a paper
ballot if you wish, even if they try to direct you towards an
electronic voting system. For example, in OH and CA every voter may vote
on paper if they wish and if they know to ask for one. So (politely)
demand a paper ballot! Check with your County Clerk or Sec. of State if
you're not sure.
A touch-screen system with a little paper printout is NOT a paper ballot! Those paper printouts are never counted and your vote will be 100% unverifiable.
If You Must Vote on Touch-Screen and Your Vote Flips...
Try to capture it with your cell phone camera
Call poll supervisors to observe the problem.
Fill out a problem report.
Refuse to vote on that machine.
Request that the machine be taken out of service.
Get the serial number of the machine if possible (may be difficult in some cases).
Tell other voters in line which machine it was and that they should NOT vote on that machine!
Report it to county/town election office.
Report it to the Secretary of State.
Call local reporters and tell them the story.
Call 866-OUR-VOTE and tell them.
Contact bloggers and Election Integrity websites.
Raise holy hell.
Also you can call the FBI Voter Intimidation Hotline at 202-514-1888 or 1-800-253-3931.Voter Intimidation Is A Crime!
Other Useful Stuff to Keep in Mind
Make sure you have the exact type of ID you'll need to be
able to vote before you leave for the polls. If you're unsure what type
of ID is needed, check with your Sec. of State or County Clerk.
Be prepared for disgracefully long lines, particularly in swing states. Your vote definitely won't get counted, much less accurately, if you leave the line before voting.
If you're challenged by a poll watcher, take their picture with your cell phone, get their name, and then report it to 866-OUR-VOTE. But do NOT
leave without voting, at the very least on a provisional ballot. But
try to vote on a normal ballot, not a provisional ballot, if you
possibly can.
If you're in line when the polls close, you still get to vote. Period.
Help others stay in line. If you can offer water, folding chairs, a
snack, etc., to those in line fighting to cast their vote, you're doing a
great public service for what's left of our democracy.
Share this list and/or this blog item with others. Print it out, share it via social networks, etc. to help spread the word.
Election protection begins with you! Good luck! You may need it!
If there ever was any doubt as to justice NOT being served for victims and their families, just read today's post about my son Steven Nathaniel Wolkoff.
As I have said before in my post WHO OWNS YOUR BODY WHEN YOU DIE, there have been a countless epidemic of horrifying legal decisions all across the U.S that the Coroner owns your body, not you, not your family, not your loved ones.
It appears that the Coroner can do just about anything to your dead body because the laws in every State are deliberately written ambiguously, so weak as to give god like powers to Coroners who then get away with committing a nationwide epidemic of unspeakable, inhuman, horrifying acts of desecration, disrespect, and defiling the dead.
In Steven's Case, without any notice, consent or permission from us as his parents, the San Mateo County Coroner, two years after he closed the Case, suddenly permitted the removal of Steven's remains from his custody to the possession of a private pathologist hired by the defendants American Medical Response Ambulance Company, and the County of San Mateo, California (The Coroner's employer). This private pathologist, without notice and without our permission, removed my sons remains to her private facility and proceeded to dissect Steven's brain into over 21 new tissue slices, for the SOLE PURPOSE of trying to create new evidence of the cause of death for purposes of using it as countering our litigation. In effect she performed a non coroner autopsy on my son, in 2010, more than 2 years after the Coroner had performed his own Autopsy, closed his case, confirming beyond a doubt that Steven died after an auto collision in 2008, because of the negligence of two para-medics. These para-medics had performed an unnecessary procedure whereby they missed Steven's airway in their placement of an intubation needle, instead mistakenly placing it into his chest cavity, pumping highly pressurized oxygen into his chest, until they horrifically, literally blew his chest apart, crushing his organs.
The Statutes that exist allow the Coroner in cases where the cause of death needs to be determined, to perform an autopsy and examine the remains for the SOLE purpose of determining the exact cause of death.
Clearly the Coroner determined the exact cause of my son's death in 2008 after examining the findings of his Offices Autopsy and examination conducted by their own highly respected Pathologist who had at that time done over 20,000 autopsies in his career.
There were no doubts, questions, or requests for additional consultation needed about the reason Steven died that were ever raised by the Coroner in his final, official Autopsy report and so the above desecration was done specifically for litigation purposes by the defendants.
The decision is not much of a surprise, based on the clueless disconnect of the Courts, Politicians, Government Agencies, Lobbying groups, that sit in judgement of supposedly dispensing fair, equitable justice to the rest of us average law abiding citizens.
There is the ARROGANCE OF THE LAW, an egotistical superiority that stinks up our Country by creating a separate immunity for those in power who commit illegal acts, a semantically constipated blind legion of those whose personal interpretations have replaced the common sense meanings of laws and block the right to have a trial by ones peers.
Those in government, law enforcement, law, that have the sworn duty to protect our human rights, to supposedly provide justice for innocent victims, instead they abuse us. They do this, because they can, it is all about their sense of privilege that fuels an endless insatiable need to wield their power against the rest of us.
This is why the legal system is considered a broken dysfunctional circus of elite clowns by most Americans and there is no faith that the Law will protect us in any way that is meaningful.
San Mateo County California, is it true as your local newspaper states glibly that "San Mateo County applauded the decision".
You "applauded" the desecration of a dead human body, an American citizen, right there in front of your faces, on your "watch", in your community. Surely you don't feel that way, or do you?
Perhaps, San Mateo County you are proud of yourselves, first trying to cover up the medical
negligence, medical misadventure of your para medics who killed Steven Nathaniel Wolkoff by
their incompetence.
Then defacing an innocent dead victims body, ignoring your accountability to his family that mourn with unimaginable grief the disgusting way you treated him, and to the other victims before Steven, and those in the future, for all who we tried to obtain justice, so that this would never happen again.
You "applaud this decision" of upholding the sadistic, callous, immoralbehavior of the County against a dead young man, whose parents are simply trying to protect their son in death, as any loving parents would.
To some of those people close to Steven's Case:
You know who you are. Many of you even spoke or communicated with me in various ways.
You saw the same horrific pictures of Steven, or witnessed the actual scene after the para-medics tortured him and asked the same questions as me as to why, how, and shook your heads in disbelief that first responders, their superiors all avoided taking responsibility for the suffering death that Steven felt, then on top of that, the desecration of his body.
What has happened to those of you who started out totally
committed to expose the true facts of the evil that has been done to hide the
sickening facts about what really took place during the time that Steven was your responsibility?
Where have you been during this time of despair and agony for him and his family?
You did not provide dignity for Steven in life while your para-medics killed him, and you failed miserably to give him respect in death.
You know all of what I say is true, yet none of you ever came
forward to tell the truth.
Then two years after his death, you allowed those responsible for his dying, to slice apart his brain, defiling his soul, while you were supposed to be protecting his remains from any more abuse. You know that, yet you never came forward to tell the truth
about that either.
Those of you who I know that still have consciences, you are the worst
of all. It is you who know better that your cowardly behavior, your
silence, disgraces your own remaining humanity, because you did nothing.
You know who you are. You know you have done wrong, unlike the
others who have no feelings, you are the ones who still feel.
You are
the ones who never took accountability for what you did, what you know,
what you saw.
I am sorry that you didn't see fit to come forward to tell the truth
about what happened to Steven and my family.
I pity your lives filled
with such denial, guilt, and the knowledge that you with consciences are more guilty than
the evil clueless ones, don't fool yourself, you are no
different than any of the others.
You knew better. You understand what your silence, lies, indifference and compromises
did to make my sons life and future innocent victims in your County, such as him, reduced to cheap
disposable lives.
You could have come forward with the truth and stopped this immoral, illegal behavior of those who have perpetrated such evil acts on fellow human beings.
You personally chose not to do so, and took the selfish, cowardly way out of not becoming involved.
Live with what you have done because it will haunt what is left of your own souls forever, I am certain of that.
I don't think that you are "applauding" very much about this decision, and your behavior that allowed it to take place.
Life is precious and death is to be respected, these are the most basic human beliefs that decent people live by.
Steven deserved better from you.
You know that, yet you are silent.
Shame on all of you.
San Mateo County: Judge tosses suit accusing coroner of mishandling man's brain
REDWOOD
CITY -- A judge has dismissed a New York couple's lawsuit -- which they
refiled three times -- alleging the San Mateo County coroner mishandled
their son's brain.
Bringing to a close an approximately 19-month
legal struggle Superior Court, Judge Joseph Bergeron ruled
Wednesday that Jerald and Sandra Wolkoff cannot proceed with their
case. The couple alleged Coroner Robert Foucrault broke the law when he
allowed an ambulance company to take samples of Steven Wolkoff's
brainstem.
In a two-page ruling Bergeron wrote the Wolkoffs did
"not identify any statute that requires the coroner to seek consent
before taking a body part." He didn't allow the family another chance to
refile, as they received in three prior court decisions on their suit.
San Mateo County applauded the decision, while attorneys for the Wolkoffs said the family is considering an appeal.
Steven
Wolkoff died after a car wreck on Highway 1 in July 2008. His parents
alleged in a separate 2009 lawsuit that ambulance company American
Medical Response made errors that led to their son's death.
In response,
the company got Wolkoff's brain tissue as part of its defense against
the wrongful death case, which has since been settled for an undisclosed
sum, attorneys said previously.
The Wolkoffs say they didn't know
the coroner had retained part of their son's brain, and never gave
their permission for it to be turned over to the ambulance company.
"The Wolkoffs are pretty upset about the
ruling," said their attorney Jayme Burns of Oakland-based law firm
Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso Cavalli & Brewer. "They were devastated.
Their (Jewish) faith requires the entire body be buried."
Due to
ongoing litigation concerning the wrongful death case, the removed parts
of Wolkoff's brain still have not been interred with him, Burns said.
San Mateo County Counsel John Beiers said the coroner didn't do anything wrong and the judge made the right call."The
court had been very benevolent in giving the plaintiffs several chances
to amend," he said. "Finally the judge had to close the door on the
case."
Foucrault was accused once before of mishandling the
remains handled by his office. Isolina Picon filed suit against the
coroner in 2007 after learning his staff had retained her son's heart.
Picon's suit was later dismissed.
