Are We There Yet?

Twenty years ago today Nelson Mandela (called "Madiba" by many in South Africa) walked out of the prison on Robben Island as a free man after twenty-seven years of confinement.  It was an electric sight to see him standing tall in the sunlight after being held for so many years.  In his autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" Mr. Mandela wrote "I always knew that someday I would once again feel the grass under my feet and walk in the sunshine a free man."   
After walking into the sunshine, Mr. Mandela didn't find a comfortable chair in the shade and just sit down with a cold glass of lemonade.  He continued to work for the rights of all citizens of South Africa, work that he had not put down while behind those bars.  The Freedom Charter was written into a wall at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria.  The preamble says "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white and no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people."  He was elected and served as president of his beloved South Africa in the first general election there, and worked hard to build up a democratic infrastructure. He is still an inspiration, for his dignity, his grace, his upholding of his commitment to freedom even when he was not free.   
                                                                                                                                                                              So in this 21st century, have we arrived at that destination called Freedom?  Have we touched down on the tarmac of shelter, food and healthcare for all?  Are we on the staircase of accessible and affordable education for all?  Are we crossing the intersection of Accountabilty Avenue and Integrity Road?  The sad, loud answer is "no".  Sometimes it feels as though the walk has gone completely off the road.  We have libraries with books and the internet, making it easier than ever to research and learn.  We have greater communication choices with even more being developed every day.  And what 'research' are we 'communicating'?  Reality shows that are spectacles of bad taste and language.  Videos that show how much one can shake while nearly naked.  Stories of bad government and wasteful spending around the world.    Missteps, misrepresentation and mistakes all around.  Marvin Gaye called it when he recorded "Make Me Wanna Holler" on 'Inner City Blues': "...Oh, make me wanna holler And throw up both my hands Yea, it makes me wanna holler And throw up both my hands..."  Owww!  
                                                                                                                                                              After the hollering and hand throwing, then what?  Back to the walk, back to working to make positive changes in our communities.  Back to speaking up for those without a voice or vehicle to make themselves heard.  Back to mentoring and encouraging the children to dream big and learning how to make those dreams real.  Back to speaking up and speaking out for what is right.  Back to getting up when we stumble or when we fall.  Back to being the change that we want to see.                                                                                                                                      
Rosa Parks, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, Sarah Delany and Bessie Delany,  Justice Thurgood Marshall, Dr. John Hope Franklin, the Tuskeegee Airmen, Roberto Clemente, Osceola McCarty, Ulysses B. Kinsey, Jackie Robinson, Brig. General Daniel "Chappie" James and those who struggled for freedom in South Africa, among so many others around the world, didn't get it wrong.  President Barack Obama, Dr. Keith Black, Oprah Winfrey, Rep. John Lewis,  Ron Clark, Maya Angelou, Attorney Areva Martin, Rev. Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis, Rae Lewis-Thornton, Bernard Kinsey and Shirley Kinsey, and General Colin Powell, among so many others, aren't getting it wrong.  There is room on the road for us to continue the walk.                                                                                                                    Thank you, Madiba,  for your courage and your strength through the struggle. www.nelsonmandela.org/  It was a thrill to watch you walk out of prison on that Sunday afternoon.  It is an honor and a privilege to walk the path of freedom and to look to your journey and others' journeys for inspiration.       Go Well.







                                                                                                                                                                 
The Window Seat by Karen Caffee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.karencaffee.com.

Another Chance To Say "Thank You"

                                                                                                                                                            Today is Go Red For Women Day, organized by the American Heart Association to call attention to women's heart health.  Women and men are rocking red clothing today, whether one item or an entire outfit.  Wearing red is a symbolic statement encouraging people to learn the symptoms of heart disease and how to improve your heart health. Heart disease is no respecter of gender, race or even age.  We hear more stories of youngsters with heart disease, and sometimes with fatal outcomes.  Women think that they aren't at risk if they are thin, exercise regularly and eat right.  That's just not so.  We are a nation of too many diabetic and obese people - but that's not news.  Women's heart disease is too often undiagnosed because women don't focus on the warning signs, or put off being concerned about their health until later.   We don't all get to 'later'.  Too many women die of heart attacks and heart disease because they ignored their bodies saying "There's trouble here, time to get it checked out!"   

My body sent that message on two different occasions in 2009.  The first time was on Easter Sunday, while rushing around town to take care of some last-minute requests before an event at church.  The palpitations had been going on for a little while, and after I ran back into the store for a case of water, I passed out in the checkout line.  Not once, but twice, because after I came to I insisted that I was fine and got back in line to pay for the water.  After I dropped the second time, the paramedics came and even then I was insisting that I was okay and didn't need any help.  One of the paramedics gently told me that my heart was beating a little too fast to be considered 'okay'.  Please take note: when they inject you twice with a drug to stop your racing heartbeat, you're not okay.  Especially when the drugs don't seem to have any effect.  So we went to the hospital, but I "fell through the cracks" of the evening shift change and received minimal attention for the first four hours of my stay in the ER.  (I left just before midnight, hungry, frustrated and disgusted.  If I'm suspected of having a silent heart attack, how is it that the doctor on duty for the last four hours that I was there never came into the room to see me - just across the hall from the nursing station?)  Healthcare is not an option - but that's another blog topic. 

The second time was on July 2nd, after the funeral of a dear sister friend who had died of heart disease the previous week.  I was still at the church, working on a project, feeling bad and pushing through.  But again the message was pounding loudly in my chest, and when the paramedics came there was no discussion about going, just where to go.  While sitting in the ER bed that night, waiting for the IV to finish so that I could go home, the doctor came back and told me that the only place I was going was to a bed upstairs because they had run more tests and knew something was wrong, but not specifically what had happened.  She mentioned Silent Heart Attack, whose symptoms differ in men and women.  That time, in Olympia Medical Center, the cavalry was in place.  They started tests the next morning at 6:30 a.m., called in the cardiologist, who called in the cardio specialist.   Thank God for the episode that I had in the hospital while attached to the monitors because that helped the doctors with the diagnosis.  They made a plan and we made a date for surgery. 

One week after going home, I went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for an angiogram and a coronary ablation.  The angiogram showed that my arteries were clean.  The ablation was partly successful because I had residue of a heart medicine in my bloodstream, so the next month I went back to the hospital for a second ablation.  No open-heart incisions, no long scars. Surgery through catheters, home the next day.  How amazing is that!  Now nearly five months later, twenty-three pounds lighter, taking a nightly mile walk with my nine-pound, four-legged 'trainer' and just a nightly cholesterol pill, I beg you one and all to 1) learn the symptoms of heart attack and stroke, to 2) learn CPR if you haven't already taken a course, and to 3) tell every woman that you know to speak up when they feel bad.  We need to be superwomen and superdivas with healthy hearts!!   Take the time to make healthy eating choices, take part in regular exercise and share the weight of the world with others (stress will knock you down and can take you out).  Treat yourself as well as you treat your loved ones.  See your doctor regularly, and tell your doctor about the aches, pains, flutters or whatever it is that just doesn't feel right. 

God bless health professionals, healthcare workers and first responders for the work that they do.  To honor the memories of all of the women who did not survive heart disease or heart attacks, we have to make our health a priority in our lives.  Today is a great day to prioritize your heart health, woman or man, girl or boy.   For more information, visit http://www.americanheart.org/

Red love to you!!

                                                                                                                                                                
The Window Seat by Karen Caffee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.karencaffee.com.