Mom is 89 and will reach the amazing 90 on Feb 6, and as those who are in a similar situation will attest, trips to urgent care and the emergency room become all too frequent. Most of the time they tell her that she is in great shape for being 89; she’s just getting old. This time the issue was not extremely serious either, but as is usual at hospitals we were waiting and waiting, and as usual we talked about the election. She’s bright and still very alert, so naturally she voted for Obama and "NO" on California’s Prop 8 and has never voted Republican. While they were drawing her blood (not the Republicans, they suck the blood out) and getting samples, I read Predatory Scapegoating in the November 3, 2008 edition of The Nation.
When Mom returned I just had to read her the following section. I know she was not feeling well because she was resting her head on her cane but ...
Here’s the part about which she wanted me to write.
Some three weeks before New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was forced to resign his office in disgrace (sex! scandal! floozies!), he published an op-ed in the Washington Post. Titled "Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime: How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers," ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/... Thursday, February 14, 2008) the piece expressed Spitzer's concern that for several years there had been a marked increase in predatory lending practices, including distortion of terms, surprise balloon payments, hidden fees and deceptive "teaser" rates. These practices, he wrote, were having a "devastating effect on home buyers." In addition, the sheer number of such transactions, "if left unchecked, threaten...our financial markets." To those in the know ...... the situation loomed so egregious that the attorneys general of all fifty states, both Democrats and Republicans, lodged suits against the worst predatory subprime lenders. A number of states, including New York, passed laws to rein in such practices.
The response was shocking, and not nearly well publicized enough: the Bush administration employed a little-used 1863 law to annul all state antipredatory-lending laws and, if that wasn't enough, to block states from enforcing their own consumer protection laws in suits against national banks. Thus, when Spitzer tried to open an investigation into discriminatory mortgage lending in New York, the administration actually filed a federal lawsuit to block it. These interventions were so extreme and so unprecedented that the attorneys general and the banking superintendents of all fifty states came together to oppose the rulings unanimously. But to no avail. http://www.thenation.com/...
... but watch what happened. Even before I had finished reading the second paragraph I could hear her rustling about in the chair next to me. After I had finished, I looked over at her. Her head was off her cane. She was sitting straight up. Her eyes were wide open and mouth was open in that "You’ve got to be kidding me" look. Then that was replaced with her stern look and, for her, her angriest comment, "Oh that man." Then we talked about how absurd this entire Republican disaster has been, and why we hadn’t heard it in the mainstream media. For a while the pain inflicted by Bush and the Republicans distracted her from her pain.
An added advantage of our interaction was Mom’s diminishing hearing. I had to read it so loudly that I’m sure that more than a few patients and hospital personnel heard it.
Mom’s okay; it’s another bladder infection. At 5 feet 1 inch and 105 lbs, they can be very painful and sap her energy quickly, but not so much that Bush couldn’t rouse her ire - again.
By the way, Mom says "Hi" to all you Obama supporters. You made her happy on Tuesday. Hopefully she'll be able to leave this world with the Democrats still in charge, with no wars and with people working to help each other instead of taking from each other. She stands a better chance of making it since she will not have to suffer through another year of Republicans in the White House - this will be a special Thanksgiving. It's like an early Christmas.