Taking care of each other, that's what progressives do. It's what tonya has done too:
This year, we’re going to have a huge crowd at our house--about 35 people. We decided to invite some of the families from my children’s school because, like so many folks these days, they are having a really hard time financially. Maury County, TN has a lot of very poor people. Some of the kids my children go to school with are lucky if their families can barely keep food on the table, let alone afford to get their kids anything for Christmas. So we invited as many as we could, and bought all the kids a few small gifts each. We couldn’t afford to spend much--I’m not exactly what you would call rich, but it didn’t seem right to allow all those kids to go without anything at all on Christmas Day--in many cases, not even a decent meal. So I sat down and talked with the kids about it, and we agreed that this was the right thing for us to do.
A lot of people I’ve talked to around here think I’m crazy for doing this. They say that there’s no way in hell they would spend $600 buying gifts and cooking a dinner for people outside of their own families. They tell me that the people I’m helping are mostly “lazy-asses” who don’t deserve it, and that they are just taking advantage of me. They think those people must have brought their poverty on themselves--they just assume that these folks must be drug addicts, drunks--you get the drift. This county is Teabagger Hell--while there are folks around who try to help the poor, even many of the ones who are willing to do anything at all to help their down and out neighbors dish out that assistance while looking down their noses at them...
But those people can think whatever they want of me--I believe we all have a moral imperative to help those in need. Over the years, I’ve realized that I’m something of a weirdo to a lot of folks--maybe it has to do with the way I was raised up in eastern Ky. My dad was an old-school liberal, born in 1913. A regular visitor at my house was his life-long friend, old Congressman Carl D. Perkins. In their generation, whole communities would have probably not survived if not for people pulling together and helping each other.
Now, Tonya needs our help. She is having surgery to remove a large uterine fibroid and hysterectomy that doctors will then biopsy for cancer. She will need weeks to recover, and during that recovery, she needs a personal assistant for her daughter, who is severely disabled.
We're trying to raise the $5,000 needed to pay for the after-school aide or personal assistant needed for her daughter because Rand Paul's Kentucky does not provide this state aid.
Yesterday, we raised $2,500 or half our goal! Thanks everyone so much! DK Rocks! I will provide updated amounts here.
now $2752. ($252 from today)
5:30 pm: Total now around $3, 177! Thanks everyone! $677 from today!
8 pm: Total now is $3292. That's $792 for today, but this number is PP only, doesn't include checks or Money orders. Thank you everyone. This will make such a difference for Tonya!
Total is $3400 $900 for today, plus whatever money sent by personal checks and money orders.
Please help Tonya by donating in one of the following three ways:
1. PayPal: weckworth [at] earthlink [dot] net.
2. Personal checks can be written out to Kossack Charles CurtisStanley (Kitsap River's husband and Aji's brother). Kosmail Aji for the address and Kitsap River's phone number, should you wish to verify it.
3. Sending money orders via the U.S. Postal Service and Western Union, because many check-cashing outlets apparently won't cash personal checks (in addition to the problem of their outrageous fees). Kossack jpmassar tells Aji that after checking rates, the USPS ones have much lower fees. Kosmail Aji for Tonya's snail-mail address.
However you donate, please include the following notation as she needs a receipt for charitable donations to maintain her ability to get the surgery:
This is a charitable donation for the medical care of the family of Tonya Harris.
Aji's diary, NEW $500 MATCH! Community Fundraisers: When Your Own Surgery Risks Hurting Your Disabled Child, provides the details of why tonyahky needs our help. She faces surgery for a dangerous uterine fibroid tumor and then the doctors will determine if it's cancerous. The surgery will remove her fibroid that is six to seven inches across and the doctors will also do a hysterectomy. Whether it's cancerous or not, she will require recovery time from this surgery, and she will need assistance during that recovery for after-school aid for her severely disabled daughter. Tonya is a single mother of four children: The oldest starts college in five weeks, and the other children will return to school about the same time. Tonya's children range in age from 12-19 and the three oldest have autism, in widely varying degrees of severity. One child is 16 with severe autism that requires a personal attendant virtually around the clock. As Tonya said: "She is completely nonverbal and functions on about the level of a two or three year old. Imagine a toddler in the body of a 16 year-old girl who is built like a tank." This personal attendant must be able to help physically with some very heavy, labor-intensive tasks that Tonya cannot do after her surgery for at least six weeks. And that is the purpose of our fundraiser: To raise the $5,000 needed to pay for the after-school aide or personal assistant for her daughter because Rand Paul's Kentucky does not provide this state aid.
When Aji told me about Tonya's situation, I flashed back to when I had testing for breast cancer almost two years ago. The possibility of cancer makes you so vulnerable and seems to cause a variety of reactions from others, even friends and family. Even today, when I think about what happened back then, I cry because it was such an ordeal. When I felt my lump, I was so shocked and surprised. When we check ourselves, we're not actually supposed to find a lump. At least that was my mindset each time I checked. I googled to find out more information and could tell from what I was feeling and what I had read, that it was most likely cancer, but naturally hoped I was wrong. Even though breast cancer ran in our family, I never thought I would get it. One friend warned me to be careful and selective about whom I told because people have lost friends and jobs. I shared my finding with friends I trusted, and they helped me get through the next few weeks of tests. At each test, the doctors and even the technicians looked at me with sad puppy eyes and talked with a plaintive tone of voice. The doctor who gave me the biopsy results talked with me for over an hour and I could not remember what he said when we left. My sister was with me, but she too was in shock. Ten days later I had surgery to remove the lump, but for 10 days I did not know how much of my breast would be removed. I told the surgeon I did not want it removed completely, but he suggested we make that decision during surgery. The game plan was that if he decided once he was inside that he needed to take my entire breast, he would wake me up first to discuss. Fortunately, my surgery was not interrupted! Recovery from surgery was not bad, thanks to pain pills and because while I was not mobile, and needed help with some things because my left arm was worthless then, I had someone here. And I could take time off from work. I had friends from West Coast, East Coast and Gulf Coast offer to stay with me both when recovering from surgery and then later with radiation treatments.
I was in a fog and dazed for around 5 months. It was like I was watching myself in a movie. Some things that happened back then, I don't remember. I was lucky, some women get PTSD.
Then I think about what Tonya faces. In addition to the fear and trauma of possible cancer, which alone is more than enough to bear, she must have invasive surgery that will incapacitate her for six weeks with no family support to help with her four children. She does not have a job and the state does not provide her with assistance. How frightened she must be with worry over the care for her severely disabled daughter and her other children. We can help to perhaps reduce the emotional, psychological, financial and physical stresses she faces now. No one should have to face all of this on top of the trauma and fear endured with cancer detection and possibly also treatment for cancer too.
Please help Tonya by donating in one of the following three ways:
1. PayPal: weckworth [at] earthlink [dot] net.
2. Personal checks can be written out to Kossack Charles CurtisStanley (Kitsap River's husband and Aji's brother). Kosmail Aji for the address and Kitsap River's phone number, should you wish to verify it.
3. Sending money orders via the U.S. Postal Service and Western Union, because many check-cashing outlets apparently won't cash personal checks (in addition to the problem of their outrageous fees). Kossack jpmassar tells Aji that after checking rates, the USPS ones have much lower fees. Kosmail Aji for Tonya's snail-mail address.
However you donate, please include the following notation as she needs a receipt for charitable donations to maintain her ability to get the surgery:
This is a charitable donation for the medical care of the family of Tonya Harris.