america

Uncle Stefan

/ Carmen McKnight / Leave a comment

IMG_4487He’s my mom’s younger brother, aunt Olga’s husband and now the proud owner of a successful back operation.

My uncle fell off a ladder a few days ago-work injury- and injured the lower lumbar disks of his back, more precisely, the jelly cushion known as intervertebral disks and their role are to absorb any shock from fall or trauma. He had surgery yesterday and everything went well:) Thank you, God:)

My uncle Stefan’s been dealing with severe asthma as far back as I could remember. This disabled him so severely, that his last year in Romania was spent mostly in the hospital. Through the help of Red Cross, he was able to come to America and settle in California where the weather is hot and dry and the medicine is far better than back home. The plane he flew on out of Romania was the last one to leave the country right as the revolution of 1989 begun. It was an impossibly hard decision to leave behind his beautiful wife Olga, and his five children. It would take about nine years (I can’t remember right the number so I may be off by few years here) until the family was able to re-unite. The paperwork process was long and dreary but eventually everyone was able to come:) Uncle Stefan’s health improved greatly here in America, especially in California due mostly to the weather, but also the medication. All his children (my cousins:) are married now, have good jobs and good lives, in California. I am so glad his surgery went well and his on the road to recovery now:)

So many times I get inspired by real people who endured hard times but succeeded in the end.

God Bless:)

Disappointment

/ Carmen McKnight / Leave a comment

When I came to America, twenty something years ago, I learned quickly a few things. Although I was aware of certain corruptions, the day to day business was done in a fair way, by regular folks that took pride in their work or hoped to get ahead providing great service. To a certain degree, that’s still happening but the crumbs of destruction are more visible- like the appliance delivery service, who turned from sad to down right pathetic.

Since Trump vs Hillary fiasco, America is shown it’s real colors and the people “came out of their closets”. Such hateful organizations or religious movements as: The Nazi party, Antifa, White Supremacy- and the list gets too long to bother- were not born right after Trump became president. These beliefs, because that’s what they really are, existed long before Trump became president, lurking in the background, some of them behind nice facades, but just as dangerous and diseased at the core. When sweet old ladies start talking about assassinating a certain president with such hatred you don’t seem to recognize them any longer, I loose a certain amount of trust towards them. Such hatred. It seems most people -around where I live, at least- favor one party above the other, which is to be expected for this area. But there is no tolerance against the one who may differ in opinion and that’s dangerous. Same goes for any adverse political parties. This is not a blog about one party is better than the other, but I can tell you one thing for sure, from my perspective: the party that thought themselves bright, tolerant and so very loving are far from that.

I used to have a sense of pride being part American, but lately…I’m only saddened. It’s sad to see how everyone’s exposing their garbage, proudly. Trump had it’s own pile of garbage before he became president, so did Hilary, and so do I, and so do you. What happened to focusing on our higher calling?

Seeing today’s clearly biased referee calls against Seahawks, was frustrating. How can one team be okay winning or loosing under such shady penalty calls? Let one win or loose on their honest efforts.

There once was a dream and people had a vision. Let’s dream again.

God Bless:)