GOD MUST LOVE VARIETY BECAUSE HE CREATED SO MUCH OF IT!

 

Today's post is a bit of a Sunday ramble, but I think it holds up, at the end.

Every Christian knows that one of the basic understandings of our faith is that God created each of us in His likeness and image.

"And God created man to his own image: 

to the image of God he created him: male 

and female he created them." Gen 1:27

 

What I find very interesting is that, while we are all created in God's image, none of us is much like any other! Even twins have physical differences, what to speak of the vast psychological differences of each person.

I find this fascinating. What could it mean about God's motives, or is God Himself intrinsically one and a variety? Father, son and Holy Spirit and SO much more?

I am not a theologian, and can't tell you the answer, but I suspect even the theologians probably do not really know. It is likely one of those delicious Catholic "mysteries." Even our greatest minds cannot know much about God's intentions, in particular. We only really know what God Himself has told us about His reasons. There isn't a lot of that. Instead, we have to trust that everything He created is "very good" and behave accordingly.

"And God saw all the things that He

had made, and they were very good."

Gen. 1:31

The fact that God created us in freedom, especially in our freedom of choice, is a concomitant factor of our diverse natures. I imagine that God did not want to create slaves that would love Him and engage with Him out of pre-programed, forced duty. 

Whatever his reasons, He obviously intended to create each one of us as a unique individual, like no other. There must be something intrinsically "very good" about this plenteous expression of diversity, otherwise the Lord would not have done it. And each of us is beautiful in His sight, I am sure of it. He would not create anyone who is not basically "good" in their natures. But that "free choice" I mentioned determines what we do with it.

Whether or not we glorify God by the free exercise of our decisions is another matter entirely, as the history books are full of tales of the mistakes of others who have gone before us, so we can't say that everything every human does is good. That is another topic, separate from the innate goodness of variety.

A related, but more mundane example about how diversity is essential to even the health of our bodies: 

I recently consulted my doctor about some dietary changes, and she talked about older patients needing much more protein (because of reduced ability to digest, as one ages), as well as the necessity for variety of animal protein sources. She told me about how animal protein is better than plant protein because it is "complete" in amino acids, for one thing. The multiplicity of available vitamins, minerals, and whatnot in our food sources are another indication of the need for and goodness of variety that our bodies express.

Given all the variety I've discussed, I am naturally wondering how we are "made in the likeness and image of God." I strongly suspect that we are "like" Him in our spiritual souls, our heart of hearts.

A deceptively mundane example: I really love watching wholesome family dramas in which the members are expressing love and affection for one another, within the context of the ups and downs of life. I rarely watch television, but occasionally, on Sunday, I will watch PBS. Today there is a marathon of "Call the Midwife," one of my favorite television series.

I find it very interesting that, although I was raised without parental love and was, in fact, emotionally brutalized by a sick and self-absorbed mother and an opportunistic and sociopathic sibling, I enjoy watching the family-oriented television dramas very much, and I easily understand the love and caring, the values and higher aspirations of human love.

You'd think I would be unable to understand any sort of love at all, given how I was raised, but instead, I feel tremendous affection and empathy for the human race altogether. I have no trouble loving people, no matter how odd, obstreperous, or difficult to get along with. I can't even work up animosity for the folks who treat me badly. I want the best for everyone. It isn't that I do not notice the cruelty. I do what I can to protect myself. I know that being loving and kind will not prevent them from mistreating me again, so I am careful to guard against future abuse, but it just isn't in me to join them in the dark place in which they live.

Everything depends on that free will and what we choose. Will we be true to God's most wonderful gift of our creation? THIS place of love that resides within us all is where we are most like The Lord. This is where we are made in His likeness and image. But, at the same time, we must choose to be faithful to it.

My family was anti-religious and, particularly, anti-Catholic. My mother had gone to Catholic school, and the nuns had been mean to her, I am told. From the time I was a young child, then throughout my 20's and 30's, I was on a journey in search of God, studying various religions, and even joining a Hindu-based convent for some time, but this search culminated in a radical conversion to Catholicism that began when I read the Catholic mystics while a nun in the Hindu convent. Gradually, gradually, I turned to the Catholic values and religion. From one choice to another, I learned of the faith, followed it, committed to it. It hasn't been easy, and there are no earthly rewards for adhering to the faith. In fact, it is usually a painful cross, but once I understood the stakes, I was "all in."

I am particularly focused on the topic of diversity today, thanks to the toxic public comments of the vulgar convicted felon that currently resides in the White House. Before allowing the families time to grieve, and without reference to any facts whatsoever, he is blaming Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hiring practices for a recent mid-air collision that killed many people.

"D.E.I." is the shorthand he uses for his idea that women, minorities and the disabled are being given jobs for which they are not qualified, and this idea is just another lie he is passing off - like all his other misogynistic, racist and ableist prejudices.

The D.E.I. programs were created because minorities, women, the disabled and the otherwise different were being denied the opportunity to COMPETE for jobs and housing.

The preference is for white males, and there is a descending order of prejudice below that.

People of color were mostly denied access to the higher paying jobs and/or were underpaid in comparison to white people occupying the same or similar jobs.

Qualified women were denied access because of their sex. Many times, women were rebuffed because they were not sexually attractive to the men who run every corporation and business. Countless numbers of women have been fired for not agreeing to sexual relations with their bosses. I myself was pushed out of more than one job for this very reason. Once I was pushed out of a secretarial job for gaining weight.

Disabled people were being denied jobs and housing because of their disabilities. Most work facilities were built or occupied buildings which did not allow for wheelchair access, for instance.

In short: Perfectly qualified individuals were being denied access to the same field of competition. The purpose of the D.E.I. programs is to make sure that qualified individuals are competing on an equal playing field.

These D.E.I. programs were NOT created to give UNqualified people preference over qualified persons. Anyone who says otherwise is misinformed or blatantly lying.

In addition to the sexual harassment I experienced in some of my clerical jobs, I witnessed people of color being actively discriminated against in housing.

More than 40 years ago, when I was apartment shopping in Los Angeles, I was standing in front of an apartment complex, talking to the landlord, when two young black women approached us. It was immediately apparent that they were already very upset, and they proceeded to yell at the landlord because she had told them just the day before that the apartment was already rented but, just as they suspected, she continued to show it to other people - to white people.

The apartment manager seemed stunned. It was an unexpected confrontation and she clearly did not know what to say. Clearly, the accusations were true, as was apparent by the "the look" that the landlord gave me. Clearly, she was expecting that this pretty young white girl standing in front of her would be sympathetic to her racism. But she was very wrong. 

As for the two young black women, what could they do but make their charges and then walk away? I noticed, as they turned their backs and made their way down the sidewalk, that they were dressed as well as I was, well-groomed and shod. But they were black and, upon meeting them the day before, the landlord, seeing that they were not white, told them the apartment was rented in order to get rid of them.

Without missing a beat, I gave the landlord a "piece of my mind," and told her that I would not want to rent an apartment from someone who had racist housing policies.

Then I ran toward the two young women, who were walking away from us, and I tried to talk to them, to reassure them that I would NOT cooperate with this travesty, that not everyone was in agreement about this toxic social ill, but they were so angry, they assumed that I had gone ahead and rented the apartment out from under them, and accused me of it. 

I tried, and failed, to get them to listen to me and understand that I had rejected the apartment. I imagine that lifelong suppression of their dreams and basic survival had given them assumptions about ALL white people so that they were unable to perceive a "friendly" when they ran across one. So both "sides" are prejudiced against the other - something that would, at least in part, be rectified by rubbing elbows with one another on a job site, office, or apartment complex.

They turned their backs on me, and walked away. This is a perfect example of why we need D.E.I. policies, in order to counteract racism, sexism and ableism.

D.E.I. policies are those policies that ENSURE that the best qualified person is hired, no matter their race, gender or disability. Donald Trump has turned this reality on its head. Right now, he is in the middle of a wholesale firing of expert government workers so that he can replace them with know-nothing, incompetent, disqualified lackies whose only qualification is that they are devoted to HIM. But he blames D.E.I. policies for everything bad that happens in government.

Trump and his movement is the worst thing that has happened in government in a long time because he deliberately exaggerates the animosities between different groups of people, using dishonesty as his primary tool to separate people from one another. 

While he is encouraging people to face off against one another, Trump is making diabolical changes to our government, using illegal methods. There are such a flurry of Executive Orders that I imagine he is intentionally flooding the zone to cause further confusion. What do we fight first?

"You are of your father the devil, and

 your will is to do your father's desires. 

He was a murderer from the beginning, 

and has nothing to do with the truth, 

because there is no truth in him. When 

he lies, he speaks according to his own 

nature, for he is a liar and the father of 

lies." John 8:44

Photograph by "Z"

on Unsplash

Does this mean that Trump and his minions are NOT "made in the likeness and image of God," since he uses Satanic methods and has values that are the antithesis of Christ's specific commandments?

No. What it means is that he chose the way of lies and this free choice deformed his nature. He isn't the first corrupt leader to claim to be an adherent to Christianity so that he could bamboozle the public. Claiming to be Christian but behaving otherwise is a path with a terrible price.

Christ's parable about the tares being sowed among the wheat is instructional on this topic.

24. Another parable He put forth to them, saying: 

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed 

good seed in his field; 25. but while men slept, his 

enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and 

went his way. 26. But when the grain had sprouted 

and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 

27. So the servants of the owner came and said to 

him, “Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? 

How then does it have tares?

28. He said to them, “An enemy has done this. The 

servants said to him, “Do you want us then to go and 

gather them up? 29. But he said to them, ‘No, lest while 

you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with 

them. 30. Let both grow together until the harvest, and 

at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First 

gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn 

them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Matthew 13:24-30

Obviously, people who claim to be Christian but whose choices and behavior are not in concert with Christ's commandments are the tares among the wheat. The "enemy" that planted the tares is Satan.

One thing I LOVE about Catholicism is that there is always time for the repentant to come to Christ, confess their sins, and be forgiven, in a very definitive fashion, until the time runs out. But Hell is not empty, unless you think Christ is a liar.

"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ 

will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who 

does the will of My Father who is in heaven 

will enter." Matthew 7:21

Clearly, the free choice to follow the will of God the Father, to the extent He has made his will known to us, is crucial to whether or not we go to live with Him in Heaven when we die. 

Jesus clearly tells us that prejudice and discrimination are the opposite of his most important commandments: 

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment

 in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with 

all your heart and with all your soul and with all 

your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest 

commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love 

your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and 

the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36-40

God has commanded us to love one another as we love ourselves. We cannot be selfish and at the same time be obedient to what God has asked of us.

If we are really Christians, we want the best for our neighbor, in equal measure to what we want for ourselves. Prejudice is obviously, blatantly inconsistent with this commandment.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs are meant to fight the prejudice that is abhorred by God.

There is nothing wrong with refining the program, better tuning it to its mission, but the wholesale destruction of it, without anything to replace its mission, is diabolical. Satan loves to see this chaos.

If God wanted to make SURE that all his people ended up in Heaven, He could have MADE us adhere to His two most important commandments, which would make prejudice and discrimination impossible, but He would have had to give up on the idea of being surrounded by his loving creation. Love, in order to BE love, has to be a gift given freely.

By trashing a program that works to demonstrate our love of neighbor, Trump is demonstrating values that are the opposite of Christian values.

By claiming widespread corruption in these agencies, without any proof, and destroying them without any due process or replacement of services, the current administration is demonstrating hostility toward the American people who are not part of the 1% of Americans who are rich white men and their families.

MOST of us, in one way or another, will suffer greatly by the elimination of services, just as we have suffered over the last 5 or 6 DECADES, as the wealth of our country has gradually been shuttled up to the top 1% of Americans. If you take a look at this chart, you can see that, since 1970, wages have stagnated, rising only 25% in actual money, but when compared to the increase in living expenses, have not increased AT ALL. CEOs of corporations, and corporate profits, however, have soared over those same 5 decades.

The above chart shows the years

1970 through 2005

In addition to the D.E.I. programs, this administration, using an unelected shadow government of gullible teenagers and young men barely out of college, led by an unelected immigrant billionaire (Elon Musk) are being given top secret information, as well as the private financial information of all Americans in an assault on the Treasury Department.

I pray today that Trump and the members of his unelected shadow government become real Christians, that they fall in love with God, fear His might and His reprisals and acknowledge His sovereignty, repent of all their lies and scams, confess all their evil intentions and that they choose to be obedient to the commandments of The Lord - before it is too late.

I pray that GOD take pity on the people who claim to be Christian but who are confused, who follow the lies of the enemy, thinking they are doing a blessed thing when they are actually trodding the road to Hell. May they be saved from their selfish orientation and illuminated with God's Truth and Love.

I pray that GOD take pity on the folks who claim to be Christian, but who know they are scammers trying to bamboozle honest people. May the fear of God be instilled in them so that they repent of their sin and turn their faces to The Lord.

We are all in need of God's pity, my friends, and here is my prayer of the daily recognition of it. I wrote it for myself and it has no imprimatur, but it can be an example for something that you pray for yourself.

My daily prayer of submission

Please Lord Christ, help me to perfectly follow 

each one of your commandments. 

My will is to be more faithful to Thee in every way. 

I pray that you help me do everything in exactly the 

manner and with the attitude that is Thy 

most perfect wish for me. 

Please, Lord, take from me every erroneous idea 

that I may hold, and replace it with the pure beauty 

of Thy ultimate Truth.

I know, Lord, how very easy it is to put a step wrong 

and start to follow the road to perdition, so I offer to 

Thee the ultimate sacrifice - that of my free will. Take 

all of it Lord, and replace it with your holy will.

Please, Lord, save me from every evil inclination. 

I submit myself to Thee.

Amen

Please, friends, join me in the prayers for the Trump Administration and also participate in some kind of prayer of sacrifice of our own will and replacement of it with His. Do we trust Him enough to abandon our selfishness and residual evil inclinations while we take the yoke of His will onto our shoulders?

I have the conviction that it will help us to order our behavior more perfectly toward the Lord's commandments, in order to find ourselves bathed in the light of the beatific vision when our time here on earth is done.

I pray for you, that The Lord enlightens you and helps you follow His holy road. Please also pray for me.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

What Will History Report?

Winter in Old Town Albuquerque

Copyright (c) Silver Parnell, 2018

It has been a rough few weeks, and I have been knocked off my pins. Two days ago, a robber tried to steal a bicycle near my house, and we were in lockdown for the entire day, while the police and their swat vehicles and boats and horses and all kinds of armored this and thats were camped out in the middle of the street. They didn't catch the guy. For someone with PTSD, this is a particularly stressful situation.

I was already feeling somewhat pressurized because of the misogynistic, bigoted, xenophobic government being pressed into place by the current "leader" of our country, along with his fawning sycophants in the shockingly transformed Republican Party.

Last month, I wrote about how a supermarket employee expressed hostility toward my disabled status, telling me that, "I believe in Trump's law. Unless you've got two arms cut off or two legs cut off, you're not handicapped!" It took several weeks to call him to account for this outrageous verbal attack and, although he was suspended from work without pay for some time, I was left with the stress of having been the recipient of Trump's disgusting animus, through one of his MAGA nuts. I continue to remind the skeptical that the supermarket employee sailed into his diatribe without my having said anything even faintly political. When the president of the United States sneers at, mocks and criticizes disabled people, this is what happens. None of the MONEY trickles down, but the insults and the prejudices sure do!

~Trump mocking a disabled man during a pep rally~

I have had people tell me that I should just ignore what Trump says, that it doesn't have anything to do with me and does no good to say anything, but they are dead wrong. My life has already been directly affected by his nauseating comments and behaviors. He has emboldened and encouraged hateful people who, in turn, inflict their vile bigotry and ugliness on me and others like me. Fat, female, senior, disabled; I've got four strikes against me, in the mind of the Trump supporter who feels entitled to torment me and others like me. In addition, I live in low income housing, and, if it is discovered, is yet another mark "against" me because the alt right wackos claim that all the social programs are rife with fraud (which is a lie.)

Trump supporter

We're in the middle of a government shutdown that is costing 800,000 Americans the loss of their income and is risking their basic survival of food and housing. Our Federal lands are being vandalized and trashed. TSA workers are calling in "sick" at double the customary rate because they aren't being paid for what is, at the very best of times, a stressful, physically demanding job, which makes it all very unsafe for travelers.

Trump is holding us ALL hostage, really. Despite the fact that illegal immigration over the Southern border is at its lowest since the 1960's, most "illegals" are in this country on VISA OVERSTAYS, and the drugs are coming through the standard ports of entry - not smuggled illegally across the border, Trump is fixated on having a WALL, which is a decidedly low-tech method, even if the problem WAS illegal border crossings! But it isn't.

[Note: The source information for this chart comes from the U.S. Border Patrol.]

The problem with this particular issue is that, instead of leaving the method up to the experts, Trump has slapped them aside and is insisting that everyone accept his opinion about the proper method of fixing a problem. The underlying defect, of course, is that, although he bleats constantly about a "crisis" at the border, there isn't one. Illegal entry over the Southern border is the lowest it has been since the 1960s.  Sure, it happens and it has to be dealt with, but there are a variety of measures that the experts recommend.

So, Trump wants to spend billions of dollars for a low-tech solution to a nonexistent problem, and that bit of crazy is why we are all on tenterhooks - conducting our lives under a bleak, dark cloud of foreboding. I'm afraid Trump will start a war, in order to distract us from his crimes, or simply because he bungles his way into it because he doesn't have a clue about how to be presidential and refuses to get counsel from anyone. His followers don't respect experts either. I have given up responding to their hysterical, overblown comments on social media. I just block them when I see another overwrought, lie-filled comment. I can't deal with it.

Our constant sense of apprehension or anxiety is well founded. We have been here before. Trump's fascist, authoritarian tendencies are easily compared with those of dictators like Hitler, who, as I've mentioned before, was also fond of calling the press "fake news" ("Lugenpresse") and was prejudiced against the same minority groups, with the exception of the Jews, who are the darlings of a segment of the electorate that identifies as Christian.

Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi and other representatives were about to board a plane to go to Afghanistan and, at the last second, Trump issued an edict to Pelosi telling her that none of them may go because they should be staying home to negotiate with HIM. Pelosi already did her job and passed legislation through the House that temporarily funds the government until border security issues can be resolved, which then passed the Senate and Trump refused to sign it. There is a remedy for that, but Mitch McConell refuses to follow procedure. Other Senators have tried to bring it before the Senate (again) and McConnell just objects. You get the picture. Trump is acting like a 12 year old. McConnell and the GOP enable him.

A flood of information about Trump's Russian connections continue to flood in from the various cases that have been turned over to the Department of Justice. Although Trump keeps bellowing "no collusion" every time he is the same room as a reporter, we also have a lot of quotes from him from the pre-presidency years when he and his sons bragged about all the money they were getting from Russia. What does this have to do with me?

Well, Russia is the enemy of democracy. It is run by oligarchs who steal all the money they can from their people, and they murder anyone who gets in their way. It looks very much as if Trump is just another "convenient idiot" through whom Putin originally thought only that he would launder his money, but now that he is president, they are making greater use of him.

Trump's longtime attorney has recently testified that Trump ordered him to lie to Congress. One of the many articles about that can be found HERE

Russia would be thrilled if America would leave NATO (which Trump wants us to do) and, I don't know about you, but I rather like democracy and I do not want it messed with.  But it has ALREADY been messed with - during the last elections. It has been confirmed by OUR intelligence agencies, and they are a lot more credible than Trump.

I am astonished that more people are not alarmed, stressed and anxiety ridden. Our entire way of life is under threat.

Winter in the neighborhood

Copyright (c) 2014

So, I don't feel like writing blissful little tomes about the beauty of meditation and prayer this week. Certainly, I am praying and meditating a lot lately. I am in constant communication with the Lord - but He is the Lord of free will. He doesn't force his will on anyone. Occasionally, He chastises. Sometimes He heals. Sometimes He appears. Sometimes He sends his angels. But He doesn't usually force Godless oligarchs to stop attacking democracy, and I am not so surrendered and sanguine that I am oblivious to the dangers.

Christianity is not magic, folks. God doesn't manipulate Heaven and the world in favor of Americans, as if they were His chosen people. We are expected to behave a certain way. Perhaps all of this has been visited upon us because our Christianity has become a sham. I really don't know, as I do not speak for Him, but I do dread the punishment that may come our way.

Know that I am praying, but I hope you are praying also - and also DOING. Spread the word of God's goodness and mercy, yes - but also spread the word about what He expects of us.

God save us all.
Silver

I WAS DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BY SMITHS MARKET EMPLOYEE

Yesterday, I stopped by Smith's Food on Constitution and Carlisle in Albuquerque. All of the handicap parking spots were taken. Several of the cars parked in those spots were not exhibiting any handicap placard or license plate. The lot was jam packed, and I was in too much pain to walk from the faraway spots that were available. I resolved to return the next day at an earlier time.

Today, I drove back to that market at about 10:40 a.m.  Again, the lot was packed, and handicap spots were few and far between, with all but one occupied. I noticed a trim and energetic young woman park in the spot reserved for pregnant ladies next to the handicap spot I was able to get, and then RUN into the market.  She was dressed in exercise gear. She had dark curly hair and appeared to be about 30 years old, or a bit younger. I called out to her but she ignored me. It reminded me that I had intended to speak to someone at Smith's about the parking situation for handicapped people.

I noticed two Smiths employees standing outside the market, apparently shooting the breeze. Perhaps they were on a break. One was very tall and of stocky build, with gray or blonde hair. The other was shorter, with dark hair.

Approaching them, I asked politely, "hey, do you guys ever keep track of the non-handicapped people using handicap parking? I see people using handicap parking all the time."

The tall man, with a derisive look on his face, said to me, "I believe in Trump's law. If you don't have two arms cut off or two legs, you're not handicapped."

The other man appeared to be somewhat uncomfortable by the tall man's comments. He shuffled his feet and avoided my gaze.

I said to the tall man, "Well, that's a mean comment!"

Still with an arrogant attitude, a cruel smirk on his face, he said, "There's too many of you." He continued to talk about how Trump feels about the topic of disabled people.

I asked him how we are supposed to get our shopping done. He said that we WOULDN'T.

His meaning was clearly communicated to me. He is one of those people that thinks that all disabled people are living off the dole and that we are sissies and not deserving of any kindness. CLEARLY he does not agree with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is the law of the land, not some imaginary law of Trump.

His comments and hostile manner made my PTSD blow up. My heart started racing. I felt frightened, in danger, and prompted to FLEE.

As I left, I said to the man, "go back to Russia!" and I went into the store as fast as I could, given my limping, pained body. I would have gone directly to the manager, had the place not been exploding with people and had I not been suffering with a full blown PTSD attack which I was working on tamping down. I decided to report the incident later.

This blog is just the start.

Trump mocking the gestures of a disabled person

When Trump mocks disabled people in his speeches, he is mocking me. When he makes derogatory comments about the relative attractiveness of women, calling them "dogs" or "fat pigs," he is talking about me. When he brags about grabbing women "by the pussy" without their permission, he is talking about me. When he discounts the suffering of the disabled, he is talking about me, and when he likewise promotes the idea that poor people are worthless and criminally minded and a drain on society, he is ALSO talking about me. These lies that he spreads about the vulnerable classes filter down to cads like that guy at Smiths who treated me with CONTEMPT.

Trump has proposed and managed to effect many government measures that make the lives of disabled people much more difficult.  In addition to public policies, his lies and demeaning comments about vulnerable people, the disabled, the marginalized, women, the poor DO impact my life and the lives of other disabled people by emboldening his followers to feel entitled to bully us.

I am constantly being assaulted by Trump's ideas. My life has been rendered MUCH more difficult than it already is. People who are supposed to be giving me service treat me, not as a valuable customer, but as an unworthy person. They feel entitled to diminish me, mock me and hurt me; physically, financially and psychologically. My rights are continually being abridged or dispensed with entirely.

"When you give a crazed crying lowlife a break,

and give her a job at the White House, I guess it

just didn't work out. Good work by General Kelly

for quickly firing that dog."

~ Donald Trump, disparaging former female appointee

All of these indignities are being perpetrated against me while I am in awful pain, the inconvenience of which is compounded by mobility issues.

That stupid Smith's employee does not have x-ray vision. He cannot see that the valves of the major vein in my left leg DO NOT WORK. He cannot see that the valves DO NOT PUMP THE BLOOD THROUGH MY LEG and that, the longer I am standing upright, the more critical this issue becomes. The blood pools in my feet and ankles. The leg falls asleep and I gradually become more and more pale because of the improper distribution of blood. Often, if I stand for too long, I come close to fainting. I am not missing any of my limbs, but I might as well be, considering the effect.

That Smith's employee cannot see my scoliosis, or the fact that my left leg is shorter than the right, and that my right arm is longer than the left. He cannot know about the Ehler's Danlos type syndrome that affects all the collagen-based structures in my body, making me weaker than the typical person and more likely to fall and break bones, which I have done many times in my life. At this very moment, I am recovering from a break in a knuckle of my right hand, which became chipped when I fell. The x-ray showed a piece of bone, wedged in my muscles, causing me constant pain and reduced function. That Smith's employee cannot see any of that.

He cannot see that there is very little cushion between the bones of all my joints. When my doctor saw the x-rays, years ago, he said to me, "no wonder you're in so much pain." The doctors rely upon x-rays and other tests to diagnose me, but that Smith's employee thinks that his eyeballs are superior.

That Smith's employee perfectly demonstrated the gross and barbaric stupidity of many of Trump's supporters, who rely upon prejudiced and limited observations instead of facts. I had all my arms and legs, so I was therefore not disabled in his eyes. When he said, "there are too many of you," he was making reference to the Trumpian idea that most disabled people do not deserve the moniker, that we are faking it, that we have larcenous hearts and just looking to take advantage of more deserving citizens who work for a living, dammit.

Forget that I worked and supported myself for more than 30 years, that I am living on my Social Security insurance into which I paid money for everything I earned during 32 years. Forget that it is extremely difficult to retire early on your Social Security income because the Social Security doctors have strict standards of disability, and typically make you wait YEARS before approving you because the standards are so high and they make you jump through so many hoops!

Ignorant but opinionated people like that Smith's employee, who know nothing of the process, spread the rumor that all you need to do is lie about being disabled and "the government" just hands you money. When that man retires on HIS Social Security, he'll think nothing of it. He will think that it is somehow different than MY Social Security, that he "deserves" it but I don't.

Fortunately, the law is on my side, and I must have some kind of recourse. I'll let you know how it works out. In the meantime, perhaps it is best to stay away from Smith's Market in Albuquerque, at the corner of Constitution and Carlisle

UPDATE:

I called and spoke to the manager, Elena Sharbutt, who could not have been nicer. She too was shocked by the comments of that employee and assured me that those comments were unacceptable and do not represent the policies of Smith's. Several times during the conversation, she emphasized that I am a valuable customer and that Smith's wants me to enjoy my shopping experience. She was very warm and gracious, in addition to being efficient. She said she will look at the video. I told her the approximate time of the conversation and other pertinent details. We will talk again later, and I will keep you updated.

Silver Rose