After Decades Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), I Know How To Feel Safe

My post traumatic stress disorder began in my horrific childhood. My method of feeling safe may be more effective for people with similar backgrounds. I had to cope with horrific actions from one person. Military veterans, on the other hand, cope with horrific actions from tens, hundreds, or thousands of people. Veterans with PTSD from war experiences may need different methods or more than one method for feeling safe. Service dogs, for instance, mean many veterans can take less medication and live with fewer unsettling surprises. Service dogs also provide breathing room in social situations, putting themselves between their veteran and other people. Veterans can use their dogs’ need for walks as a reason to leave when a social situation becomes overwhelming. Service dog organizations include Hero Dogs, K9s for Warriors, Patriot PAWS, and Pets for Vets. Perhaps vets could combine service dogs with finding their safety experience for even greater relief. Victims of crime would have experiences closer to mine, since I am the victim of attempted murder.

Farming is another way for vets to get past their PTSD.

Yoga is a way to relieve PTSD trauma.

Civilians can help veterans with PTSD through new hobbies, new activities, new social groups, and new peer groups.

My PTSD  began the first time my mother tried to kill me. It increased after the second time she tried to kill me. After failing to kill me physically, my mother spent the rest of my childhood doing her best to kill me mentally and emotionally. Decades later I finally understood that my mother wanted me dead because I was her second daughter instead of her first son.

My PTSD was compounded by the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. If Abraham was willing to kill his son because God told him to, I feared my mother would kill me if other people told her to. And then I became terrified that anyone who didn’t like something about me would try to kill me. But after decades of terror that anyone could kill me, I now know how to feel safe. I have a happy ending I never expected.

Murder is a physical and emotional experience. My physical and emotional safety experience — the one that washes away the terror — is listening to the main and end title music from the movie To Kill a Mockingbird. To read how I made the discovery of my safety experience and why it is a physical and emotional experience for me, read the Murder Secret Families page at speakingfromtriumph.com. You will find the information on To Kill A Mockingbird after my journal entries. Since I wrote about this in detail on that page, I will not write about it in detail here. But, I will explain what to look for so that other people with PTSD can identify their safety experiences. Below are specific steps to take, but first I will explain what I now know about safety experiences.

Your Safety Experience Will Stand Out in Your Life in Some Way, Maybe in Many Ways

I do not remember when I saw To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time. I do know that it immediately became my favorite movie. As an adult, I recorded the movie to my VCR so I wouldn’t have to wait for a television network to air it. Every time I watched the movie, I made sure to listen to the opening music without distraction. After the movie ended, I kept rewinding so I could listen to the end music repeatedly. If you read or at least skim the Murder Secret Families page, you will see that I wrote about watching the movie in my journal repeatedly. I even wrote that I identified with the character Boo Radley, but wanted to be the character Scout (June 12, 1993 on the Murder Secret Families page). Scout survived attempted murder and was able to feel safe again. I survived attempted murder and wanted to feel safe.

Your Safety Experience Will Probably Satisfy a Behavior Style Need

In the DISC behavior system, I am a High I Influence/High S Steadiness (High I over High S). If you need information about the DISC system, visit smilessparksuccess.com. My website also explains six basic values to help you identify your guiding values and rank your other values. Knowing your value ranking could help in identifying your safety experience.

High I Influence people ease stress through socializing with other people. High S Steadiness people ease stress through quiet activities. High I Influence people are emotionally expressive. High S Steadiness people are emotionally nonexpressive. I am emotionally expressive when it comes to having fun or telling stories about people who created positive turning points in my life. I can still cry when I tell these stories. One turning point happened in 1981, the other happened in 1996, and I can still cry when I talk about them.

When I need to express my deepest emotions, I do so by writing poetry. Writing poetry is a quiet activity. When I need to reassure myself with positive emotions, I do so through music. Listening to the music that represents positive emotions to me is also a quiet activity. Even though I am a High I Influence first and a High S Steadiness second, I relieve stress and express my deepest emotions through my Secondary High S Steadiness behavior style need for quiet activities.

Your Safety Experience Will Add More to Your Life Than Feelings of Safety

In my first few months of feeling safe every day, my life improved in other ways.

First, I have been doing research for years for various books I’m writing and revising. For all those years, I put the various articles I’ve collected into boxes and brown paper bags, letting them sit instead of filing them. I kept thinking about filing them, but never had the energy to do it. After about four months of feeling safe, I suddenly started filing the articles. At first, I filed at least a few articles everyday. Now I file articles weekly. I’m still doing research, but by the time I finish the research everything will be filed. I’ll be able to start writing the revisions without further delay.

Second, I now know how to write each book more effectively. I know how to determine the purpose of each chapter, I know how to use just the right amount of information to make the points in each chapter, and I know how to explain what needs explaining. One of the books is based on what I wrote in my journal about therapy and about the clues in my life that helped me recognize my mother’s attempts to kill me. That is my most difficult book to write. Over the years since I discovered my safety experience, I have refined the structure of the book to satisfy a variety of readers.

Third, I feel safe taking actions for myself in ongoing relationships. Taking actions for myself used to feel scary. If my own mother could kill me, anyone else in the world could kill me.

Fourth, I can meet new people with less anxiety. In the past, meeting new coworkers or supervisors or groups made me anxious that someone would decide to kill me if they didn’t like something about me. The last time I remember feeling that anxious was in the spring of 2014.

Fifth, I have been doing a talk at a conference every year for five or six years. The talk is based on three examples from my own research and how those examples apply to something completely different. For the first several years of the talk, I kept asking myself why I included the first example. It’s a good thing none of the participants ever asked me why I included that example because I could not have explained why. I did not know why I included that example.

After weeks of feeling safe, I suddenly knew why I included that example. It made perfect sense to me and I could easily explain it. The next time I did that talk, I explained my difficulty understanding why I included that example to my audience. When I told them my new understanding of why I included that example, it made perfect sense to them, too.

Identifying Your Safety Experience

To identify your own safety experience, follow these 5 steps:

Step 1

Identify your High and Secondary High behavior styles.
Use the Quick Look pages for behavior styles from
smilessparksuccess.com.

Step 2

Identify your High and Secondary High stress relief needs
in the Needs&PassionsMe file at smilessparksuccess.com.

Step 3

Figure out if you ease stress through your High or Secondary
High behavior style, then identify all the activities that ease
your stress.

Step 4

Identify your guiding values using those Quick Look pages
at smilessparksuccess.com. Rank the remaining values.
Read through the values and think about how each value
affects your feelings.

Step 5

Identify how you express your deepest emotions. Feeling
safe is a deep emotion. If your PTSD is so overwhelming
that you cannot identify any feelings of safety, start with
any positive emotion you can identify.

I talked about being afraid of my mother in therapy with two different therapists. Neither therapist ever asked what made me feel safe. If they had asked, I would not have been able to answer right away. I would have had to think about it, probably for weeks or months. I wasn’t looking for my safety experience when I found it. I was adding different pieces of my favorite music for experiencing feelings to my iPod. I put Mockingbird on my iPod thinking I would listen to it occasionally. Instead, I felt a need to listen to it everyday. I hadn’t even identified the feelings I experienced while listening to Mockingbird. I just knew it allowed me to experience feelings I needed to experience. I finally figured out that Mockingbird meant safety to me one night while I was listening to it. I was sitting in the dark in my parlor, listening to Mockingbird and wondering why I needed to listen to it. I suddenly understood.

My PTSD was part of a terrible secret in my life and in my family. I had to acknowledge feelings of terror before I could acknowledge feelings of safety. It took four decades to acknowledge the feelings of terror. It took another two decades before I learned how to recognize the feelings of safety. But I didn’t have anyone helping me recognize my safety experience. If my therapists had asked what made me feel safe, I would have at least started thinking about it. I could have discovered my safety experience sooner if professionals had given me the help that fit my needs instead of their perspectives.

I hope this blog post is enough to get you to your safety experience sooner.

Make full use of all the downloads you find at smilessparksuccess.com.

After You Identify Your Safety Experience

Once you have identified your safety experience, bring that experience into your life as much as possible. At first, I listened to Mockingbird on my iPod every evening. Then I started listening to it as I fell asleep. I was sleeping the first time my mother tried to kill me. I woke up to my mother trying to smother me. For decades, I had trouble going to sleep and staying asleep. I still have trouble sleeping at times.

On bad days I listened to Mockingbird for hours.

Now I have a playlist that has the main and end titles listed twice. I listen to that just about everyday when I write my journal in the morning.

I listen to Mockingbird while reading through the book based on my journal. I can read only a few pages at a time, but I started the book years ago and couldn’t reread it to finish writing it until I discovered my safety experience.

I listened to Mockingbird while writing this blog post.

Each Person with PTSD Has to Identify His or Her Own Safety Experience

I am unable to identify a safety experience for anyone else. Please do not email me with questions because I will not respond. After identifying your behavior style and guiding value combination, think about how your behavior styles and guiding values interact in your life.

Could Safety Experiences Erase PSTD?

If I listen to Mockingbird often enough will it erase my PTSD for good? I don’t know. I do have a chronology of improvement, however.

For decades, terror episodes were so real I didn’t know I was in a terror episode. Some of the terror episodes lasted for days.

After listening to Mockingbird for months, I became able to recognize terror episodes while I was in them. I could listen to Mockingbird to help me get out of them.

Then, I became able to talk myself out of the terror episodes when I wasn’t able to listen to Mockingbird. At first, talking myself out took hours, then dwindled down to minutes.

Almost four years after I started purposefully listening to Mockingbird to feel safe, I have not experienced any terror for almost three years. This is in part due to an experience that happened the last time I felt the terror.

I still do not feel completely comfortable meeting people in certain situations. But I only feel uncomfortable, not anxious.

Even if I someday experience another terror episode, I now know how to feel safe. Knowing how to feel safe is enough for me. I can have days and weeks and months and years of feeling safe. For me, feeling safe for any part of any day is a happy ending.

If you have PTSD, I hope you find your happy ending.

“Research On Yoga & Meditation”
Warriors At Ease

“Tips & Resources for Helping Veterans with PTSD”
The American Institute of Stress
October 29, 2019

“Yoga as a Complementary Treatment for Chronic PTSD”
Trauma Center At Justice Resource Center

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
© 2015 to the present.
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

In A Sacred World Order, Everyone Loses

Since the early 1980s, I have written and read letters to the editor and social media comments. I came to recognize that millions of U.S. citizens share a belief. They believe in what I call a Sacred World Order. They consider this world order sacred because they believe it was ordained by their God. I identified three levels to this Sacred World Order

Tsars of Truth

Monitors of Morality

Beasts of Burden

I refuse to refer to people forced to the bottom of the Sacred World Order merely as “Beasts”. Therefore, I came up with a descriptive phrase for people at each level.

Tsars of Truth are Toxic Tsars. Their ‘truth” limits the lives of everyone, including their own lives.

Monitors of Morality are Menial MonitorsThey wrongly think that loyalty will convince Toxic Tsars to protect them from pain.

Beasts of Burden are Bullied BeastsToxic Tsars and Menial Monitors bully the people they consider beneath them into lives of pain.

Each level has its own task in the sacred world order.

Tsars of Truth

Feel they are God’s representatives to the world

In their minds, their words can speak only Truth, nothing less. They maintain their Tsar level status by limiting contact with everyone they consider beneath them. They prefer contact with Bullied Beasts only when Bullied Beasts accept their Beast of Burden status. Toxic Tsars are certain that Bullied Beasts should feel pain so that Toxic Tsars can live pain free lives. Toxic Tsars give some rewards to Menial Monitors for keeping Bullied Beasts in their proper place. If Toxic Tsars feel any pain from Menial Monitors, however, they would quickly transform Menial Monitors into Bullied Beasts.

Monitors of Morality

Feel loyalty to Toxic Tsars

Menial Monitors identify with Toxic Tsars by copying their words and actions. Menial Monitors agree that Bullied Beasts should feel all pain. They monitor Bullied Beasts to protect Toxic Tsars from pain. Menial Monitors look to Toxic Tsars for protection from pain as a reward for protecting Toxic Tsars from pain.

Beasts of Burden

Feel depression and anger from forced pain

Bullied Beasts live with their pain as best they can while trying to bring attention to the unfairness of their pain. They know they do not deserve the pain, but can have difficulty finding ways to end it. When possibilities for sabotage occur, Bullied Beasts who see no other alternative consider taking revenge on Menial Monitors and Toxic Tsars.

You can recognize which level people put themselves in or find themselves in from what they say about themselves and other people. I found an article that clearly revealed all three levels. This post reveals the sacred world order in that one situation. Future posts in this sacred world order category will be quotes from all three levels for a single category, as in:

Race

Politics

Poverty

Religion

Health

Etc.

After a post for a category is published, I will add appropriate quotes as I come across them.

Each post will include this link to illustrate why Toxic Tsars and Menial Monitors are wrong about keeping Bullied Beasts down. When Toxic Tsars suppress others, they lose more than they realize. Their losses could include their own lives. Millions of Toxic Tsars and Menial Monitors are alive today because of a man they would have limited as a Bullied Beast.

Vivien Thomas was a black male teenage carpenter when he applied for a job in a surgical research lab in 1930. White surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock recognized a passion for medicine and healing in Thomas. Together they created a legacy that is still saving millions of lives through heart surgery. That legacy is worldwide because Vivien Thomas taught the techniques for heart surgery to doctors from around the world. Vivien Thomas’s formal education ended with his high school graduation.

“The Sins of the Fathers”
Jason Berry
Chicago Reader
May 23, 1991

This article is very long and reveals how the police and the Catholic hierarchy also bullied the Doe family, including Student Doe.

Toxic Tsar

Parents John and Jane Doe
Visited school principal Barbara Hill about their son coming home with bruises every day from playground beatings.

“She told us our son was oversensitive, that he misinterpreted children’s play, and she said rather emphatically, ‘A principal’s place is not on the playground.'”

Bullied Beast

John Doe
Parent of Student Doe

“When four boys hold my son down and two of them kick him, that’s not play.”

Toxic Tsar

Principal Barbara Hill

“That can’t be happening,” Hill reportedly stated, calling the fights “a figment of [the boy’s] imagination.”

Menial Monitor

Patricia Bobb
Attorney for Barbara Hill

“It’s an absolute outrage to me that my client has to be put through this.”

Bullied Beast

Student Doe
In a transcript, Student Doe said Principal Hill told him:

“You’re mentally retarded.”

Toxic Tsar

Father Lake
Responding to John and Jane Doe’s removal of Student Doe from the school.

“It is with deep regret that I read you were forced to move your child from [our] school. I am grateful that you brought your situation to our attention. However, I disagree with your charge of a lack of positive response and corrective action. We have looked into the matter of discipline, supervision and abuse. We will continue to emphasize Christian values of love & respect for one another [and] take necessary corrective action in order to provide a safe & orderly atmosphere for the children.”

~~~~~

Principal Barbara Hill obviously considered herself a Tsar of Truth. She considered the students Beasts of Burden. As a Toxic Tsar, she needed to keep her distance from the Bullied Beasts on the playground.

Menial Monitor Patricia Bobb was determined to protect Toxic Tsar Barbara Hill from any pain. She found nothing wrong with bruises on Bullied Beasts.

Father Lake also felt that his words were Truth. He believed Bullied Beasts John and Jane Doe were incapable of recognizing Truth.

Everyone lost. Student Doe lost the ability to enjoy his time at that school. John and Jane Doe lost the ability to trust that school. Principal Barbara Hill, Attorney Patricia Bobb, and Father Lake lost respect at the very least when Chicago Reader published the story. By trying to force all pain on Student Doe and his parents, Principal Hill, Attorney Bobb, and Father Lake brought pain to themselves.

The article includes allegations about sexual abuse and stories from other victims. The Catholic Church, of course, tried to silence the Doe family.

“Meanwhile, church attorneys are moving forward with a three-pronged defense–
stall for time; counterattack; and preserve the policy by which the archdiocese
handles accusations of clergy child abuse.”

The Chicago Reader article was published in 1991. In 2019, we know far more about the horrors of abuse in Catholic schools and churches. I attended Catholic schools for 12 years. During that time I witnessed teachers and administrators being verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive to children. For about 20 years after I finished high school, I paid attention when someone talked about adults being physically violent to children in school. I asked if the school was public or Catholic. I didn’t keep a total count, but I asked that question at least 10 times. Only once was the answer “public school”.

The Catholic Church lost respect, members, and money because it tried to put all pain on the families they forced to be Bullied Beasts. I am one of the members the Catholic Church lost. Even as a child, I knew I did not deserve the verbal and emotional pain those Toxic Tsars forced on me.

God/Higher Power/Universe

Whoever or whatever is in charge, He/She/It/They distribute(s) pain equally. Birth defects, illnesses, and “acts of God” in the natural world bring pain to everyone. Toxic Tsars bring more pain to themselves with their toxic beliefs.

“16 Royals Who Suffered From Hereditary Mutations And Defects Caused By Inbreeding”
Trista
History Collection
No Date

“Bel Air’s multi-million dollar mansions get no special treatment from California’s wildfires”
Elizabeth Segal
Independent
December 8, 2017

“What Kills Billionaires”
Vanessa Gisquet
Forbes Magazine
April 5, 2005

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
Copyright 2019 and onward
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Paula’s Proverbs Posters

Truth Or Propaganda?

Ignoring People/Opportunities

Opportunities, Not Fairy Tales

Equality/Superiority

Deliver Dignity

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

It’s All Right To Say You’re Disabled As Long As You Don’t Act Disabled

When I was 12 years old, a boy in school who had a crush on me pulled my chair out from under me to get my attention. I landed hard on my tailbone. The pain in my lower spine started right away. My mother took me to our family doctor who delivered my first misdiagnosis. It took 33 years to get the correct diagnosis.

The pain in my spine was always intermittent, depending on what I did. By the last two years of high school, sitting had become very painful. During assemblies in the auditorium, I sat in folding chairs in aisles instead of in the curved seats that my back couldn’t tolerate.

By my late 20s, I also had trouble standing for any length of time. I could not fully participate in social events because I could neither sit nor stand with my friends for any length of time. When I started college at 34, I needed a special chair that I pushed to classes in the building where I kept the chair. The chair was an old rocker with the rockers cut off. It had wheels on it and a bar across the back for pushing. When I sat in it, my knees were higher than my hips. I felt much less pain when sitting with my knees higher than my hips.

For classes in other buildings, I sat on one seat with my feet on another seat or sat on the floor against a wall. I used a back support pillow wherever I sat. For one class, I lay on the floor. Instead of carrying a backpack, I bought a used piece of carry on luggage and pulled it around on a small luggage cart. The office that worked with disabled people did everything it could to make attending college as comfortable for me as possible.

The world outside the university was far less accommodating. My father was dead and my mother and siblings were not the least bit accommodating. My mother’s response to my back problems was, “Everyone has back problems.” One of the few times my older sister was willing to talk about the pain in my back she asked me, “Are you sure it isn’t emotional?” I told my sister that if I fastened a belt too tightly, my spine hurt. If I loosened the belt, the pain went away. I asked her how that could be emotional. She said, “I don’t know…”, but still felt that my pain must be emotional. Because my mother had tried to kill me when I was very young, she taught my siblings to ignore what I said and discount what I did. My older sister was determined to ignore what I said no matter what the evidence was.

My second sister decided that for me “long term solutions” meant that I should stop being irresponsible and go out and get a job. She told me that going to school was harder on my back than working at a job would be. She didn’t bother to ask me about my experiences going to school because she wasn’t about to pay attention to anything I said.

All of my sisters provide examples of how my family discounted what I did. While visiting each of these sisters, I lay on the floors of their living rooms, trying to ease pain in my hips. My third sister shared a bedroom with my daughter and me one night when we went to my first brother’s wedding. The room had a sofa bed for two. I told my sister she could sleep on the sofa bed with my daughter because sleeping on it would leave me in pain. I slept on the floor. All of my sisters discounted my actions to relieve my pain as evidence that I could have trouble earning money.

I was always in more pain around my siblings because I sat and stood normally when I was with them. I mostly saw them only every two or three years for two or three days. When I socialized with my friends, I did not sit or stand normally. I would sit on the floor leaning against something or walk in circles around a standing group or pace back and forth near a seated group. I saw my friends more often so I had other opportunities to talk to them if I couldn’t sit or stand near them at a social event.

But I saw my siblings so seldom that I sat normally with them and stood in place leaning against something instead of pacing. Still hopeful that they would eventually treat me like a member of their family, I tried to have as much interaction with them as possible. But the pain would become intense and I would have to deal with it, often by laying on the floor.

After my husband died, my parents-in-law would give us food when they could. My father-in-law occasionally decided to teach me a lesson in responsibility by refusing to help me get heavy boxes of food into the trunk of my car.

A woman who once told me she believed in me and who had seen my sitting and standing difficulties once demanded, “Go out and get a job!”

Without asking me, a well-meaning friend lined up a job for me at a small organization. The job was clerical/secretarial. It meant sitting normally at a desk with a typewriter or computer and answering the phone. I would have been able to sit at the desk for only a short period of time before the pain started. Then I would have had to walk around or lie on the floor to ease the pain. When I told my friend I couldn’t take the job, she became angry.

In my 30s, an orthopedic surgeon who delivered yet another misdiagnosis sent me to a physical therapist to take the functionality test for Social Security disability payments. I told the physical therapist about the boy pulling the chair out from under me at school. I told her that the pain was not bad at first so I just kept doing everything. I told her that the pain continually increased so I had to stop doing all kinds of things to limit the pain. When the physical therapist explained what I had to do for the test I burst into tears, knowing the test would leave me in agony. The physical therapist decided I was “hostile” to her. She told me that if I just kept doing what hurt the pain would go away because my pain was emotional. Her misdiagnosis denied me disability payments.

Going to chiropractors would ease the pain but not stop it. One chiropractor figured out that I felt pain when I put weight on my spine. Sitting and standing normally put weight on my spine. Carrying anything put weight on my spine. This sympathetic chiropractor tried to save me from having to work at jobs that would be harmful to my back when I applied for food stamps and medical assistance. One of the women in charge of determining food stamp eligibility also had back problems. She told me, “I know back pain” and informed me that she expected me to find a 20 hour a week job. I didn’t because I couldn’t.

The sympathetic chiropractor sent me for x-rays. The x-rays showed my spine had no S curve in it.

Because my income was low my bills were high. I had to charge smaller bills to my credit card so I could pay my mortgage. I contacted a financial aid counselor for help. I explained about my back and my difficulty earning money. I asked her if there were a way I could get the interest on my credit cards reduced. She responded, “Why don’t you just stop using your credit cards?” I wrote her a letter and told her that telling me to stop using my credit cards was telling me to become homeless.

Because I had difficulty earning money and because I could not get disability, I asked for help when I was desperate. Sometimes the people I asked were not appropriate to ask, but no one appropriate was available to ask. Many people said, “No.” Enough people said yes that I am still alive. If everyone had said no, I would be dead. I am alive also because of my daughter. When she was 10 years, my daughter got her first babysitting job. With her babysitting earnings and then with earnings from fast food jobs, my daughter helped to buy food and pay bills. Because my teenage daughter worked as many hours as she could, we managed to avoid homelessness.

In the 33rd year of my pain, I started carrying a cane with me when I went to public places. I didn’t need it for walking. I needed it to lean on if I couldn’t stand near something to lean against. By then, standing normally for two minutes would leave me in excruciating pain. The only pain free way for me to sit that year was on a low chair with my feet on a stool so they were level with my head.

I received the correct diagnosis for my injury from a nurse in an audience for a talk I gave to a business women’s group. I had to lean against a tall stool to do the talk, so I explained my back injury. I asked everyone in the audience to tell any children in their lives to never pull a chair out from under anyone. The sympathetic chiropractor had told me that some people are instantly paralyzed.

The nurse told me that when I hit the floor, my spinal cord tensed up. Her husband was a chiropractor who used a little known technique called Neural Organizational Technique (NOT). He told me that the tension in my spinal cord pulled my pelvis out of place. My out of place pelvis pulled my hips out of place. The chiropractor used NOT on me and ended 33 years of pain in my spine. The pain in my spine ended with the first NOT treatment, but then I felt new pain.

Releasing the tension in my spinal cord moved my pelvis back into place. It had taken 33 years to get pulled out of place as far as it was. It moved back into place within an hour. All of the muscles in my back from my shoulders to my hips suddenly had to function differently. I still feel pain in all of those muscles, and my hips still shift out of place easily. Out of place hips are very painful.

I had to move back into employment slowly because sitting and standing normally now made my muscles hurt. It was far less crippling pain than the pain in my spine, but it was still pain.

I did a lot of temporary work. To ease the pain in my muscles, I would figure out creative ways to get work done. On one temporary job, my coworkers listened to what I told them about my back, watched how I accomplished my task, then said, “This is the way we do it. It’s easy.”

On another job, I needed to wear a shoulder wrap filled with seeds to ease the pain from typing on a keyboard at the wrong height. I put it in a plastic bag to warm it up in the lunchroom microwave. One woman complained that it smelled and that she did not want hair in her food. Management made me bring my own microwave and put it in a warehouse. My breaks consisted entirely of walking back to the warehouse to warm up my shoulder wrap. And the woman who sat closest to me told me she never smelled anything. She also didn’t think hair could get into anyone’s food when the shoulder wrap was inside a plastic bag.

When I visited a dentist I told him I had to make small monthly payments because I had trouble earning money. My payments were $5 because my weekly food budget was $40 for my daughter and me. If I paid any more money to the dentist, I would have had to buy less food for my daughter and me. Two members of the dentist’s staff continually let me know that I should be making bigger payments no matter what.

The long series of misdiagnoses prevented me from getting the treatment that would have enabled me to earn money. Difficulty earning money meant difficulty paying bills. The clinic where the orthopedic surgeon and the physical therapist worked sent me a letter informing me that if I came in again for any kind of treatment, I would have to pay $50 up front. I transferred my files elsewhere.

Because of the pain I feel, I can work in my yard and garden only half an hour a day. If I do more than that I have to take a soaking bath to ease the pain. Half an hour is not enough time to keep my yard and garden looking neat. Shoveling snow, vacuuming, and mopping also require soaking baths. People do not look at my house and yard and think, “Oh, she must be in pain.” No, they look at my house and my yard and think “She’s a slob.” One of my brothers-in-law once said to my face, “You’re a slob.”

Of course, there are people who say they have back pain who do not have back pain. If you meet someone who complains they cannot work because of the pain in their spine, ask them what they do for fun. People who have real back pain can neither work much nor play much. I haven’t been to a movie theater in years because I spend the entire movie in pain. I have lain on the floor at concerts. I have leaned against walls at religious services. If someone says they cannot work but can do anything for fun, they probably are faking the back pain. Anyone who can do little for fun is in pain.

Any action you take towards another person is an invitation for other people to take the same action toward you. Unless you have a written guarantee that you will never be disabled, you may want to make sure you accept disability for what it is. A disability is a physical or mental or psychological condition that forces an individual to function differently from the way abled people function. Please accept our different ways of functioning.

~~~~~

Critical Thinking Questions

1.  What’s happening?

2.  Why is it important?

3.  What don’t I see?

4.  How do I know?

5.  Who is saying it?

6.  What else? What if?

Stereotype Thinking Questions

1.  What is threatening my beliefs?

2.  How can I make it unimportant?

3.  What can I reject?

4.  What can I laugh at?

5.  How can I attack people who threaten my beliefs?

6.  How can I deflect?

The stereotype thinking questions are mine, based on my observations of stereotype thinkers.

~~~~~

Online workshop that provides strategies to chip away stereotypes in both professional and personal relationships:

End Negative Gossip & Increase Collaboration

“After participating in the gossip power presentation, I know I now have a better plan to be more effective in understanding how gossip affects every area of a person’s personal and professional life. Using her strategies on gossip power and gossip ears I feel I will be better able to navigate these areas both inside and outside the office. Paula does a great job, using both scientific research and personal anecdotes and examples, to develop strategies for turning the power of gossip into positives for anyone attending her presentation. I left energized and excited about her message and what I learned and am definitely looking forward to learning more at her glass ceiling presentation.“
Mark Spiers
SBDC Consultant

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
© 2015 to the present
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Gossip Posters

Gossip Proverb

Good, Bad, & Ugly Gossip

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

Negative Stereotypes Behind Bad & Ugly Gossip: Ethnic, National, & Racial Identities

My collection of stereotypes comes from books, magazines, newspapers, movies, television shows, radio programs, news shows, conversations, podcasts etc. Sources can be 10s to 100s to 1000s of years old.

Stereotypes and categories overlap at times. I create categories of stereotypes as I have stereotype examples to put into those categories.

The research into gossip goes back at least to the middle of the 20th century. Both men and women research gossip. Putting all of their research together, this is my definition:

Gossip is talk and writing about people
— both other people and ourselves —
in family, social, workplace, and public settings.

Much of the research shows that gossip is both positive and negative. I define gossip as good, bad, or ugly. Good gossip ignores or breaks stereotypes. Bad gossip uses stereotypes. Ugly gossip manufactures stereotypes.

Negative stereotypes exist about everyone, no matter their age, gender, race, religion, profession, etc. These stereotype blog posts will help you understand the negative stereotypes about you.

If you use negative stereotypes about people who are different from you, you are inviting everyone who hears you to use negative stereotypes about you.

Stereotype Updates

I add stereotypes as I come across them.

I will add the new stereotypes at the bottom of each listing, putting ~~~~~ between the older stereotypes and the new stereotypes.

More Stereotypes

Negative Stereotypes Behind Bad & Ugly Gossip: People In General

Negative Stereotypes Behind Bad & Ugly Gossip: Workplaces

Negative Stereotypes Behind Bad & Ugly Gossip: Romance

Negative Stereotypes Behind Bad & Ugly Gossip: Poverty

~~~~~

Tired of losing out to stereotypes?
Learn strategies for taking positive control
in the small spaces of situations and relationships.
People who take positive control position themselves to attract unimagined success.

softskillstrategycourses.com

~~~~~

Africans

noisy
produce kitchen odors

African American / Black / Negro People

violent criminals
ignorant
lazy
dirty
quick tempered
superstitious
hostile
on welfare or jobless
unintelligent
negative personality
mean
corrupt
stupid
ostentatious
lewd
dishonest
submissive

African American / Black / Negro Women

angry
entitled
single mothers

African American / Black / Negro Men

tall men are brutes
tall men are threatening
hoodie and sweats wearers are lazy
hoodie and sweats wearers are unintelligent

“African American” Suggests To Many People

more concern for one group than for society
less persuasive ability
not as likable
tend to complain about small things

Liberals Often Feel Excluded By The African American Label, Feeling It Focuses

attention on the label rather than on larger issues

Americans

intrusive
forward
pushy
stingy
selfish
hoarders
aggressive
materialistic
mercenary
crazy
governed by buffoons
arrogant
self-indulgent
hypocritical
unwilling or unable to engage in dialogue with other cultures

Arabs

aggressive
cunning
gook
chink
Kung-Fu fighters

Belgians

egotistical
unhelpful
unscientifically minded
inefficient

Canadians

would be living in igloos without America

Chinese

superstitious
sly

Cubans

bring exotic diseases to the United States

Dutch

negative
egoistical
dominant
less intelligent
lacking individualism

British

aggressive
egoistical
unfriendly
unhelpful
snobbish
cold

British Coppers

uneducated
seldom read books

French

rude
egoistical
aggressive
dominance
~~~~~
sly

Germans

lacking empathy
dominant
aggressive

Haitians

undesirable blacks
peasants
uneducated
unskilled
poor
wild
weird
bring exotic diseases to the United States

Hispanics / Latinx

greasy
lazy

Immigrants

dangerous
dirty
threatening
criminals
dishonest
complainers
aggressive
violent
lazy
noisy
involved in crime
ruin neighborhoods
don’t want to work
take our houses
take our jobs
abuse social security and welfare systems
cause problems at school
have a different mentality
cause dirtiness
cause urban decay
should be sent back
have too many children
treat women badly
~~~~~
know nothing about God

Iraqis

refugees
criminals

Irish

pugnacious
quick tempered
extremely nationalistic
stupid
improvident
sloppy drunks

Italians

not intelligent
unreliable
aggressive
dominant
unscientific
clannish
Mafia
emotional
quick-tempered
impulsive

Japanese

sneaky
sly

Jews

aggressive
materialistic
mercenary
grasping
kikes

Native Americans

“Good” Native Americans

friendly
courteous
hospitable
handsome
stamina
endurance
modest
noble
dignified
brave
tender
proud
independent
innocent
child-like

“Bad” Native Americans

naked
lecherous
vanity
polygamous
promiscuous
warring
vengeful
brutal
lazy
impracticality
thieving
treacherous
conjurers
barbarous
low intellect
cruel
drunken
cowardly outlaws
inhuman fiends
improvident
filthy surroundings
inadequate cooking
repulsive diet
enslave squaws
culturally deprived

Native Americans on reservations

degraded
scorned
degenerate
poverty-stricken
outcasts from own race
drunkards

Pakistani

poor

Polish

stupid
racist
bigoted

Roma (Also Known As Gypsies)

thieves
dishonest
spies
incendiaries
suspicious
school dropouts
mentally handicapped
retarded
worthless
not human
inhuman behavior
should be killed
wanderers
disliked by God
pagans
heathens

Turks

cruel
treacherous

White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASP)

cold
insensitive

White People

corrupt
greedy
competitive
arrogant
prejudiced
mean

White Men

angry
bros
prejudiced
entitled
bitchy
loud
dependent

White Women

self-absorbed
shallow
conceited
ditsy
uneducated
materialistic
sexually easy

Points to Ponder

The points to ponder here are the number of stereotypes shared by widely different groups. This sharing reveals commonality between all of those groups.

Examples of opposite stereotypes for the same group follow the shared stereotypes.

Shared Stereotypes

Shared Stereotypes #1

African American / Black / Negro People
Hispanic / Latinx
Immigrant

“Bad” Native Americans

lazy

Shared Stereotypes #2

African American / Black / Negro People
Immigrant

dirty

Shared Stereotypes #3

African American / Black / Negro People
White People

mean

Shared Stereotypes #4

Americans
Arabs
British
French
Germans
Immigrants
Italians
Jews

aggressive

Shared Stereotypes #5

Americans
White People

arrogant

Shared Stereotypes #6

Dutch
British
French

egoistical

Shared Stereotypes #7

Dutch
Germans
Italians

dominant

Shared Stereotypes #8

African American / Black / Negro People
Roma (Also known as Gypsies
Immigrants

dishonest

Shared Stereotypes #9

Haitians
White Women

            uneducated

Shared Stereotypes #10

African American / Black / Negro People
Immigrants
Iraqis

criminals

Shared Stereotypes #11

African American / Black / Negro People
Immigrants

violent

Shared Stereotypes #12

African American / Black / Negro People
Irish
Polish

stupid

Shared Stereotypes #13

Americans
Jews
White Women

materialistic

Shared Stereotypes #14

“Bad” Native Americans
Turksˆ

treacherous

Shared Stereotypes #15

“Bad” Native Americans
Turksˆ

cruel

Shared Stereotypes #16

White People
White Men

prejudiced

Opposite Stereotypes

Opposite Stereotypes #1

African American / Black / Negro People

hostile
submissive

Opposite Stereotypes #2

“Bad” Native Americans

warring
lazy

~~~~~~~~~~

Critical Thinking Questions

1.  What’s happening?

2.  Why is it important?

3.  What don’t I see?

4.  How do I know?

5.  Who is saying it?

6.  What else? What if?

Stereotype Thinking Questions

1.  What is threatening my beliefs?

2.  How can I make it unimportant?

3.  What can I reject?

4.  What can I laugh at?

5.  How can I attack people who threaten my beliefs?

6.  How can I deflect?

The stereotype thinking questions are mine, based on my observations of stereotype thinkers.

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
© 2015 to the present
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

 

Want The Satisfaction Of Being A David (Or Davida) To A Goliath?

You are I are the Davids and Davidas. The U.S. Postal Service is the Goliath. David took Goliath down with a sling and a stone. I don’t want to take down the U.S. Postal Service, but I do want stop the postal service from 5 cent stamp increases. I cannot do that alone. We could do it together.

I‘ve had snail mail problems since 1988, for as long as I’ve lived in my house. I live in a village that usually has less than 200 residents. Therefore, the postmaster for any year knows everyone in the village.

As the problems continued I reduced my use of snail mail to a bare minimum. Since the postal service decided to raise the cost of stamps by 5 cents in a single increase, it seems likely that other people are making the same choice to use the U.S. Postal Service less. I decided to conduct polls on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to discover how widespread the problems are. I hope to get responses from 1000 Davids and Davidas. With 1000 Davids and Davidas making similar complaints, maybe we can make enough noise to get the Postmaster General to pay attention. Maybe we can get the U.S. Postal Service to fix its problems instead of raising its prices.

This blog post provides detailed explanations for all of the problems I list in #PaulaPolls1. I plan more #PaulaPolls on other topics.

Many postal workers do their jobs well. They are productive postal workers. Others are pussyfooting postal workers. They pussyfoot around actually doing the work required by their jobs. Another group is probably a mixture of productive and pussyfooting. Postal workers undoubtedly pussyfoot around doing their jobs for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they don’t like the work. Perhaps they are lazy. Perhaps they feel overwhelmed by required procedures. I’m certain that the problems come from both postal service procedures and pussyfooting postal workers.

Which Of These Problems Have You Had?

#1
Slower General Delivery

It now takes three days for first class mail to travel between my village and another village three miles away. The mail travels the equivalent of one mile per day.

#2
Months Late Delivery

A friend who lived 18 miles away mailed a thank you card to me in June. I received it in September.

#3
Take A Detour Delivery

I ordered plants. The plants went from southeastern Wisconsin to the Minneapolis area of Minnesota before arriving at my post office in central Wisconsin. Most of the plants were dead on arrival.

#4
Disappearing Incoming Mail

I took an advertising class in college. For one advertising project, I contacted a cereal company and asked for information I could use in my project. When the material did not arrive, I called and talked to the same woman. She said she had sent out the 9×12 brown envelope soon after I called. She sent me another 9×12 brown envelope full of information. When that envelope didn’t arrive either, I asked her to send the information to a friend in a nearby small city. That envelope arrived. I believe the woman did send me all three envelopes because my class project was free advertising for her company’s cereal.

Other mail has disappeared from the village three miles away and from the small city 15 miles away. I know the mail disappeared because it was mail we expected but didn’t get until we had it sent again. Three notices in a row from my bank in the three-miles-away village disappeared.

#5
Disappearing Outgoing Mail

I started paying most bills online after two checks to my utility company disappeared in consecutive months.

I’ve also started calling local businesses when I mail them a check, asking them to let me know when my check arrives. One business told me that other people make the same request.

#6
Mixed Up Incoming Mail

At times, people in my village receive mail meant for village neighbors. We leave mixed up mail on a table for the addressees to find.

#7
Revolving Door Wrong Mail

I twice received mail from different counties that kept revolving back to my P.O. box. The only similarity between my address and the other two addresses was the P.O. box number. The names of the addressees were different (one addressee was a business). The towns were different. The zip codes were different. But in both cases the mail revolved back to my box twice more after I put the mail in the outgoing box. I had to write notes on the envelopes to get the mail to stop revolving back to my box.

#8
Hungry Postal Machines

The last time I had a parking ticket was decades ago. I mailed a check to the police department within the prescribed time. I was unhappy to receive a second notice about the ticket with an added fine. I took my checkbook to the police department to show that I had written a check within the prescribed time. The woman at the desk said, “The machine probably ate it.” Her statement means she had previous experiences with postal machines eating mail. How hungry are the postal machines? We’ll never know.

#9
Partial Procedure Postal Workers

I placed an order that meant parcel post delivery. When my parcel should have arrived, nothing was in my post office box indicating a parcel had arrived. The company insisted the parcel had been delivered. The postal worker insisted she had not received the parcel. After two weeks of my asking about my parcel, the postal worker decided to look through the bigger post office boxes where she put parcels. She found my parcel. My parcel had arrived on time. She had put the parcel in a bigger box, but then failed to place a key to that box in my post office box.

#10
Picky Perfection Postal Workers

For several years, we had a postmaster who refused to deliver mail when the address was not absolutely perfect. One big business owner in the village got into trouble with the state because the postmaster refused to deliver something about taxes. The part time post office employee working with this picky perfection postmaster told me every village resident would be horrified to learn what the picky perfection postmaster did with our mail.

When I was on a jury duty list, I called the county clerk in charge to say that the picky perfection postmaster did not deliver all of our mail and would she please call me when she sent me mail. She told me about a picky perfection postmaster in another village who also refused to deliver mail that was not addressed perfectly. One of the potential jurors lived across the street from that other post office, but the picky perfection postmaster refused to deliver the mail because some little detail in the address was wrong.

#11
Pity Party Postal Workers

Even on one job I had to cope with poor mail service. Decades ago, I did customer service for a company that did its biggest business during the Christmas season. One customer called to complain that her post office had decided to return all parcel post boxes to the companies instead of delivering them to their customers. Yes, you read that correctly. The post office decided to return all parcel post packages to the companies instead of delivering them to customers for Christmas. Apparently, the idea of doing the work of their jobs was just too much for those postal workers. How many Chrismas parties and Christmas mornings did that post office pity party ruin?

#12
Twin Post Office Pity Parties?

Many years ago, I was standing in line at the post office in the village three miles away when I heard an incredible complaint. A woman had delivered postcard invitations for a big wedding anniversary party to that village post office. Half of the postcards never arrived. The half that did arrive had the postmark from the small city 15 miles away. The only way for those postcards to get from the village post office to the small city post office was for a village postal worker to deliver the postcards to the small city post office. Pity party! Did the small city postal workers have a twin pity party and decide to toss half of the postcards? Did twin post office pity parties ruin a big wedding anniversary party?

Models For Postal Delivery From
Iceland & New Zealand

Contrast pussyfooting U.S. postal workers with productive postal workers in Iceland and New Zealand.

A letter sent to a post office in Iceland included a map and these explanations:

Country: Iceland. City: Búðardalur. Name: A horse farm with
an Icelandic/Danish couple and three kids and a lot of sheep!
The Danish woman works in a supermarket in Búðardalur.

Productive Icelandic postal workers successfully delivered the letter to the correct address.

“Letter Sent to Iceland with Hand-Drawn Map Instead of Address Actually Arrives at Destination”
Cammie Finch
My Modern Met
September 1, 2016

~~~~~

A letter sent to a post office in New Zealand had this address:

2 Kay + Phillip
On a farm near
situated up a long
drive with cows,
opposite cust
pub or there abouts

The productive New Zealand postal workers put the address on Facebook and found the recipients.

“How a package to ‘a farm situated up a long drive with cows’ got to its destination”
CBC Radio
March 20, 2018

The U.S. Postal Service Could Get It Right

I have a hint for the U.S. Postal Service. They should use the technique the late Ken Hendricks (ABC Supply) used to become a billionaire. When Hendricks considered buying a business, he spent as little time as possible listening to the executives. This was Hendricks advice:

“Walk in the back room and talk to the warehouse guy or the forklift operator and say, ‘If you were running this business, what would you do differently?” says Hendricks. “I guarantee if you fixed what they tell you, 95 percent of the time that would be a successful business. These guys hit it on the head all the time. But management never asks them.”

Is the Postmaster General going to be as smart as billionaire Ken Hendricks?

“How To Buy A Business”
Inc Magazine Staff
December 1, 2006

Your Turn To Speak Up

Please join me as Davids and Davidas in holding the U.S. Postal Service accountable for both its problems and its prices. Go to one of the links below to give your responses to #PaulaPolls1. I will keep reposting #PaulaPolls1 on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter until I get a combined 1000 David and Davida responses. Once we get the U.S. Postal Service listening to us, you could have the satisfaction of telling people you know that you were a David or Davida who helped change the procedures of a Goliath.

Thank you.

Facebook

LinkedIn

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
© 2015 to the present.
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

Are You An Opportunity Winner Or An Opportunity Loser?

Winners see opportunity where losers see imperfection.

In 1947, Morgan State University saw imperfection in Vivien Thomas. Thomas contacted the school wanting to fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor. He had life experience in the field of medicine that he hoped would qualify for academic credit and shorten his time attending the university. Morgan State saw only imperfection because Vivien Thomas was black. Morgan State insisted that the black man would have to take all freshman classes before graduating. Vivien Thomas decided he would be too old when he graduated and gave up his dream of becoming a doctor.

What was Vivien Thomas’ life experience? He developed techniques and instruments for heart surgery, specifically surgery to save the lives of babies with heart defects. Morgan lost bragging rights by excluding a medical pioneer from its list of alumna.

In 1930, white surgeon Alfred Blalock saw opportunity when a black teenage male carpenter applied for a job as a surgical research technician. Because Alfred Blalock hired Vivien Thomas, Alfred Blalock is now revered as a pioneer of heart surgery with Vivien Thomas. Vivien Thomas taught heart surgery techniques to all of the first white surgeons. They came from around the world to Johns Hopkins Uniersity in Baltimore to learn heart surgery. Johns Hopkins University won bragging rights for having a medical pioneering team on its staff.

Note: According to Vivien Thomas’ autobiography, he never worked as a janitor at Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt paid him janitor’s wages because he was black, but he worked only as a surgical research technician. Dr. Blalock eventually got him better wages.

In 1937, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit saw imperfection in Vivien Thomas as a colleague of Alfred Blalock. Henry Ford offered Alfred Blalock the position of surgeon-in-chief. Blalock would have been able to run his own department, train his own men, and do more research. When Blalock insisted on bringing Vivien Thomas with, Henry Ford Hospital said they never hired blacks. Henry Ford Hospital lost. Johns Hopkins University hired Vivien Thomas with Alfred Blalock and won.

In 1943, pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig saw opportunity in the Alfred Blalock/Vivien Thomas team. She came to them with the idea of creating an operation to help “Blue Babies”. Blue Babies are born with defective hearts. Taussig saw opportunity in the Blalock/Thomas team for developing a heart surgery to correct the defect and save babies’ lives. Helen Taussig won. She received the Albert Lasker Award for outstanding contributions to medicine. Johns Hopkins was a double winner for seeing opportunity in mostly deaf female doctor Helen Taussig.

Obviously, Morgan State University and Henry Ford Hospital are no longer the losers they were in 1947 and 1937. Most institutions were losers back then. Morgan State’s list of famous alumni includes many people of color. Henry Ford’s roster of surgeons includes many people of color. They have both joined Johns Hopkins University as winners.

Seeing opportunity instead of imperfection, Johns Hopkins University created more opportunity by putting Alfred Blalock, Vivien Thomas, and Helen Taussig together in one place. Alfred Blalock, Vivien Thomas, and Helen Taussig were all determined problem solvers. Together they solved one of the biggest problems in history — how to safely operate on human hearts to save human lives.

Determined problem solvers are smart employees, according to Danny Shader, CEO of Good Technology:

“Profitable innovation comes not from inventing a product, he (Danny Shader) maintains, but from having a team of smart employees who figure out how to do a better job every time they interact with customers. ‘That sort of innovation will do a lot more for your company than a piece of parchment (patent),’ he says.”

What do you see? What do your employees see? Are you creating more opportunity by putting a variety of determined problem solvers together in one place? Are you giving yourself opportunities to win big?

Vivien Thomas

Alfred Blalock

Helen Taussig

Johns Hopkins University

Henry Ford Hospital

Morgan State University

Olympians Of Opportunity

Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock
Vivien Thomas
1985

“Relax. Let your guard down: Why patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property protections are bad—that’s right, badfor business”
David H. Freedman
Inc. Magazine
August 2006

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
© 2015 to the present.
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

 

 

When Families Focus On Negative Identities, Everyone Loses: Dementia

Family Focus On Negative Identity

For a few months, I visited a woman who had been diagnosed with dementia and showed signs of depression. This woman had two adult children involved in her daily life. Because of the dementia diagnosis, Adult Child #1 made decisions for the woman. Adult Child #2 told the woman how to cook, as in explaining how to cook hotdogs in water.

The woman was a widow living alone. She drove herself around, shopped, went to church, visited with friends, and cooked whole meals for family members that were more involved than cooking hotdogs in water.

When I visited the woman, we had wonderful conversations. We talked about families, cooking, school, employment, travel, politics, television shows, and world events. We learned from each other. I asked her opinion about some of my work. We also took walks together. Shortly after I started visiting her, the woman began making perceptive jokes. Perceptive in that they were revealing, not demeaning. Adult Child #1 told me that the woman was again the mother they had grown up with.

When I was with the woman, I saw some signs of anxiety and some signs of forgetfulness. Neither was serious. Because I saw her as a competent, responsible adult, I asked the woman to make a few decisions. Adult Child #1 became angry that I thought the woman could make decisions for herself. Adult Child #1 decided my conversations with the woman were no longer necessary.

Adult Child #1 and Adult Child #2 had focused on the negative dementia identity. They saw their mother as a dementia patient rather than as a competent, responsible adult. Early on the woman had told me that all of her relatives knew she had dementia and were being nice to her. If the behavior of Adult Child #1 and Adult Child #2 were any indication, “being nice” meant focusing on the negative dementia identity.

Months after my last conversation with this woman, I learned about Self-Determination Theory, a theory of motivation. According to Self-Determination Theory, social and cultural factors can foster or undermine people’s well-being and the quality of their performance, among other things.

The conditions for fostering well-being and quality of performance are:

Autonomy (freedom of choice)

Competence

Relatedness (connections to other people)

Every decision Adult Child #1 made for their mother took autonomy away from their mother.

Every explanation Adult Child #2 gave their mother about cooking took competence away from their mother.

The woman had relatedness, but all of her connections saw a negative dementia identity. That focus on a dementia identity took autonomy and competence away from the woman. Is it any wonder she was depressed?

Every single person in this woman’s family loved her and cared about her. They thought they were doing their best for her by focusing on her negative dementia identity. But their negative dementia focus left the woman depressed. So everyone lost, especially the woman.

If all of her family members saw her as responsible, the woman would be able to enjoy the autonomy she needs for well-being.

If all of her family members saw her as competent, the woman would be able to demonstrate a high quality of performance in her own life.

If all of her family members respected the autonomy, competence, and relatedness of the woman, everyone would win — especially the woman.

Update

I ran into this woman at the grocery store. She told me that she didn’t have dementia, she had just been depressed. Knowing that I had always respected her as a responsible adult, she complained to me about Adult Child #2. That child had asked the woman if she could get herself where she needed to go. “I know where it is. I know how to drive my car. I get myself there regularly.” In spite of the evidence, Adult Child #2 continued to focus on a negative identity and take competence away from the mother they loved.

Another Example

I was visiting a woman who has memory problems. She needed to fill out a form while I was there. She knew how to write, but she was slow when she wrote. I was ready to wait for as long as she needed to finish filling out the form. Her adult child was not so patient. Seeing negativity in the mother’s slow writing, the adult child took the pen and finished filling out the form. A person who loved her took competence away from her.

Family Focus On Positive Identity

Contrast that woman’s experience with Geri Taylor’s experience. After Geri looked into her mirror and failed to recognize herself, her family didn’t focus on her Alzheimer’s identity. They didn’t limit her choices. Geri chose to expand her life. She acted on her interest in photography. She visited friends more often. She filled her days with pleasurable activities. She used her iPhone to keep track of her life and added the Find My Friends app. She created rules for living, including:

“Talk only if necessary while walking.”

When her driving skills deteriorated, Geri cut back on her driving to drive only as necessary.

Geri started doing research before talking to friends so she could keep up, but she also started speaking to groups about living with Alzheimer’s. She did these talks with her husband, Jim.

Geri met with CaringKind to say she wanted more than a traditional support group. Instead, she wanted “a peer-driven Alzheimer’s tutorial” because:

“We don’t want to be done to. We want to do.”

CaringKind set up a series of workshops “to swap tips for living with early-stage memory loss.” Geri is now a representative for the national Alzheimer’s Association. Geri Taylor’s family didn’t limit her choice, question her competence, or become discouraging connections. As of 2018, Geri has three years in as an Alzheimer’s champion, and she’s still going.

I am certain the family of the woman I had conversations with loves the woman as much as Geri Taylor’s family loves her. If only they used their love to focus on the woman’s positive identity, everyone would win.

Note

If it’s easier for you to remember, think of the three elements of self-determination as:

Choice

Competence

Connections

Think of the choice, competence, and connections that matter to you, and you’ll understand their necessity for the people you love.

Autonomy & Competence Also Improve Physical Health

Seeing competence in its patients, Cleveland Clinic created MyChart. MyChart gives patients a measure of autonomy in their healthcare and health decisions.

“Providing state-of-the-art tools to help patients manage their health
is a vital part of Cleveland Clinic care and the patient experience.”

Paul Matsen, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer

MyChart and other patient engagement strategies “have led to dramatic improvements int the patients’ experience.”

“5 ways Cleveland Clinic improved its patient engagement strategies”
Jeff Rowe
Healthcare IT News
October 1, 2013

“Best Global Brands: Cleveland Clinic”
Interbrand Health
No date.

“Leading The Way Through Alzheimer’s”
N.R. Kleinfield
Reader’s Digest
June 2018, pages 103-111

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
© 2015 to the present.
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

Should You Believe The National Organization For Women (NOW)? NOW Chapters

Equality between men and women will follow equality between:
white women and women of color,
upper class women, middle class women, and lower class women,
feminist women and non-feminist women,
feminist leaders and feminist followers.

Update: Since I wrote this blog post, NOW has removed chapter information from its website and done some rewriting. You no longer have the ability to see which chapters are active or how active they are. NOW leaders prefer keeping secrets. Just look at the “NOW Leaders” page for proof. Reread the above statement about equality. NOW is nowhere near creating equality between women and men. (NOW has removed the NOW Leaders page. This only means they are no longer announcing that NOW leaders keep secrets. NOW leaders still keep secrets. They keep their “activist” training secret from the women who pay for the training.)

~~~~~

In 2008, I started paying attention to the website for the National Organization for Women (NOW). For all of those years, NOW has made this sort of claim on the About page of its website.

NOW has hundreds of chapters and hundreds of thousands of
members and activists in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

After a few years, I started checking those claims. Never once did I find chapters in all 50 states. I always found “Sorry, no chapters found” for several states. Other states listed the name of a chapter, but the chapters had no website or social media.

Also, when I first started paying attention, NOW claimed to have more than 500,000 members. After I started writing blog posts about feminist leaders, that number changed. You’ll note that NOW currently claims, “hundreds of thousands of members and activists”. Note that being a member apparently does not make one an activist.

At the end of February 2017, I did detailed research into NOW chapters for every single state. This is my research on NOW Chapters. As of my detailed research, NOW still did not have chapters in all 50 states. Of the “hundreds of chapters”, only 132 were active. Since the total number of chapters was 228, fewer than 60 percent of all chapters were active.

When I posted the PDF files to each active NOW chapter, several of them reported me to Facebook for spam. Facebook banned me from making comments anywhere. I contacted Facebook and explained that I was informing an activist organization about effective strategies for change. Facebook lifted the ban within hours. Heaven forbid that NOW chapters be as effective as Srdja Popovic, a leader of the student movement that helped topple Serbian president Slobodan Milošević.

I can give you my perspective on why NOW chapters are inactive. I spent one year as a member of a no longer existing chapter. Booooorrrrring. Lots of sitting around listening to the local president read information from the national organization. I remember being one of three people at many meetings. That was decades ago, but if more than 40% of NOW chapters are currently inactive, being a NOW member is still not an exhilarating experience.

As I publish this post, NOW still has states with “Sorry, no chapters found”.

Should you believe what NOW claims about its chapters? You decide.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
Copyright 2015
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Standards For Success Posters

Girl Grit

Girl Goodwill

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Reputation Management Directory

myrecordnow.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As an American, I have freedom of speech.

As a woman, I have the right to express my opinion about anything the National Organization for Women claims to do for women.

In 2016, I started adding the section below to all of my new Feminist Leader blog posts. I also added it to all posts published before 2016.

The National Organization For Women
Silences Women

National NOW has blocked me on its Facebook page. I wrote comments based on my blog posts. All of my blog posts are based on a wide variety of evidence. Much of the evidence comes from National NOW’s website, emails and posts from NOW presidents, and emails from NOW staff members. I use no hostile language, no slurs, no profanity. I do use the phrase “glory addicts” in reference to NOW leaders. I also use “glory addiction”, “glory fixes”, and “a dedicated network of glory addicts”. Dr. Marsha Vanderford (Doyle) identified the glory needs of pro-choice leaders in her 1982 dissertation.

Feminist leaders have been silencing women for decades. bell hooks, Gloria Steinem, Urvashi Vaid, and Naomi Wolf got together for a conversation that was published in Ms. Magazine in 1993. The discussion included why women choose not to call themselves feminists. Did these four feminist leaders working for women’s equality ask women who choose not to call themselves feminist to speak for themselves? Of course not! The four feminist leaders silenced millions of women by speaking for them without first requesting permission to speak for them.

Imagine a group of women who choose not to call themselves feminists getting together for a conversation to be published in a magazine about why some women call themselves feminists. Would hooks, Steinem, Vaid, Wolf, or Ms. Magazine agree with nonfeminist women denying them the opportunity to speak for themselves? Of course not! Would hooks, Steinem, Vaid, Wolf, or Ms. Magazine agree that nonfeminist women had the right to speak for feminist women without their permission? Of course not!

hooks, Steinem Vaid, and Wolf could have created equality between women. They could have provided a platform for women who choose not to call themselves feminist to explain their choice in their own words.

My feminist leader blog posts provide evidence that feminist leaders still create glory for themselves while relegating supporters to “secondary importance”. Dr. Vanderford used the words “relegated” and “secondary importance” in her dissertation. Eoin Harnett of University College Cork in Ireland used the same “secondary importance” phrase:

“Throughout the ages, women were frequently characterised
and treated as inferior and of secondary importance to men.”

NOW leaders even relegated two of their supporters to secondary importance. The supporters responded to my last two comments on National NOW’s Facebook page with comments supporting NOW. NOW leaders silenced those supporters by removing their comments along with my comments. Instead of creating equality, NOW leaders treat other women the same way patriarchal men treat women, as inferior and of secondary importance.

In-House Rhetoric of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Special Interest Groups in Minnesota: Motivation and Alienation
Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1982
Marsha Vanderford Doyle, Ph.D.
(Now Marsha Vanderford)
Quoted words on page 350.

“Let’s Get Real about Feminism: The Backlash, the Myths, the Movement.”
hooks, bell, Gloria Steinem, Urvashi Vaid, and Naomi Wolf.
Ms. Magazine.
Vol 4(2) September/October 1993: pages 34-43.

“Multitext Project in Irish History: Movements for Political & Social Reform, 1870-1914”
Eoin Hartnett
University College Cork, Ireland
No date
This project is no longer available online.

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
© 2015 to the present.
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Soft Skill Power Strategies For Attracting Unimagined Success

softskillstrategycourses.com

Facebook Page

Women Speaking Equality

Standards For Success Posters

Girl Grit

Girl Goodwill

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

The Little County That Can & Does: World, National, & State Firsts

Portage County, Wisconsin (population a little more than 70,000) is The Little County That Can & Does because it is lucky and smart. Portage County is lucky because it grew up with everything it needed to create success. Many Portage County residents are smart because they use their luck to create a variety of successes. Today, Portage County is a hotbed of spectacular success. The book From Pyramids to Circles: Shaping Groups to Succeed will include chapters about both Portage County and Wood County in Wisconsin.

Wood County was not as lucky as its neighbor Portage County because it did not grow up with everything it needed to create spectacular success. However, the residents of South Wood County are learning to shape their county to create the kinds of success that can lead to spectacular success.

From Pyramids To Circles is currently in revision. Blog posts about Portage County and Wood County will be listed in the book as further reading.

Because Portage County residents are both lucky and smart, the county is also a hotbed of world firsts, national firsts, state firsts, and models of effectiveness.

When appropriate, firsts appear in more than one category.

The wide range of firsts indicates what is possible when the situational factors necessary for spectacular success are present in one place.

Contact paula at speakingfromtriumph dot com with additions and corrections. Both are welcome.

Embarrassing Firsts

As of November 2017, I added an embarrassing Portage County state first. No one is perfect. Embarrassing Portage County firsts are at the bottom of this post.

World

Educational First

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1991

Educational First

Aber Suzuki Center & American Suzuki Institute
Originally known only as American Suzuki Institute, the Aber Suzuki Center is the first Suzuki Institute in the world outside of Japan.
1971

Business Firsts

Women In Trucking Association
The Women In Trucking Association is the first association for women truckers in the world. Men can be members as well. The Women In Trucking Association has members in North America, Australia, and Europe.
2007

The Women In Trucking Association initiated an event for Girl Scouts to earn a Transportation Patch. Working with the Greater Chicago/Northern Indiana regional office, the Women In Trucking Association developed the curriculum and patch. The event has been repeated in the United States and Canada (Girl Guides in Canada).
2014

My Record Now
Online directory that gives positive online identities to people with mugshots so they can more easily live positive lives. Nowshots replace mugshots. Privacy is 24/7.
2020

Largest

Trivia Contest
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point radio station, WWSP 90fm
1969

Renewable Energy Fair
Midwest Renewable Energy Association
1990

Student Operated Paper Machine
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Paper Science and Engineering

National

Educational Firsts

Cottage at Stevens Point Normal School
For students to learn how to run a household
1915

Conservation Education Major
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1946

Student/Faculty Television
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1968

Communication Program
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1969

Student Chapter of the American Water Resources Association
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1975

Wellness Program in University Life
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1975

Computer Information System Major
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
early 1980s

Paper Machine Designed for Teaching
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1995

Suzuki Voice Training
2006

First American to Fulfill Voice Requirements of the European Suzuki Association
Suzuki Singing Books 1 through 4
Mary Hofer
2008

Undergraduate Health Promotion and Wellness Programs
National Wellness Institute
2008

Wellness Academic Accreditation Program Institute
National Wellness Institute

Student Government Association’s Environmental and Sustainability Issues
Director and Committee
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Athletic Training Research Using Virtual Reality Hockey Technology
2019

Business First

Restaurant Salad Bar
Sky Club
1950

Media Firsts

Radio Broadcasting Station at a Teachers College
1937

Student/Faculty Television
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1968

Health Firsts

Wellness Symposiums, Now National Wellness Conference
1975

Six Dimensions of Wellness Model
Dr. Bill Hettler
(National wellness founder along with Dennis Elsenrath and Fred Leafgren)
Intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, occupational, and physical wellness
1976

First Institute with Wellness as its Mission
National Wellness Institute
(Originally launched as Institute for Lifestyle Improvement by the
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Foundation)
1977

Environmental Firsts

Conservation Education Major
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1946

Student Chapter of the American Water Resources Association
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1975

Green Circle That Forms a Physical Circle Around a Community
1989

Artistic Firsts

Bachelor of Music Degree
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
1959

Suzuki Voice Training
2006

First American to Fulfill Voice Requirements of the European Suzuki Association
Suzuki Singing Books 1 through 4
Mary Hofer
2008

Award Firsts

First Recipient of Friends of Lulu’s “Women of Distinction” Award
Maggie Thompson
2004
(Friends of Lulu existed from 1994 to 2011)
National organization promoting women as readers and participants in the comic book industry

First Recipient of the Transportation Innovators Champion of Change Award
Ellen Voie, President & CEO
Women In Trucking Association
Presented by the Barack Obama White House
2012

Models Of Effectiveness

CAP Services
Community action against poverty
(Asked where Portage County gets its volunteers, the late CAP President
Karl Pnazek replied, “I pick them off the sidewalk. They just grow here.”)

Central Rivers Farmshed
Events, programs, workshops, and resources that support a local food economy

Community Care of Portage County
Long term care for the elderly and disabled
(Until the state of Wisconsin changed home healthcare in Wisconsin)

Teaching Partners
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
College of Professional Studies
Pairing faculty and teaching academic staff for discussions about teaching and learning

Wisconsin Lake Leaders Institute
Management of lakes and working with state and local governments

Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Americas
Peer to peer partnership

Writing Lab (now Tutoring-Learning Center)
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Horticultural Only

“Hans Aanrud” Triumph Tulips
Named for Hans Aanrud, Norwegian writer, drama critic.
Great uncle of Portage County resident Ruth Aanrud.
Ruth has kept the tulips growing in her garden since the 2010s.

State

Educational First

Student Organization to Work with North Central Conservancy Trust
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Land Conservation Society
2014

Environmental Firsts

Renewable Energy Fair
Midwest Renewable Energy Association
1990

First Publicly Owned Project to Earn LEED Platinum
George W. Mead Wildlife Area Education & Visitor Center
Architect Thomas Brown, Stevens Point
Mead Wildlife Area encompasses land in Marathon, Portage, and Wood Counties.
2005

First Solar Transpired Wall
Stevens Point Airport
2009

Green Tier Status
Central Waters Brewing Company
2010

Student Organization to Work with North Central Conservancy Trust
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
Land Conservation Society
2014

UW Campus with 100% Electricity from Renewable Sources
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
2016

We Are Still In Declaration
The “We Are Still In” declaration was released June 5, 2017. Leaders across the United States are signing the declaration, committing their organizations to the Paris Agreement on combating climate change. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Chancellor Bernie Patterson was the first chancellor in the University of Wisconsin system to sign the declaration.
2017

First University Of Wisconsin School Named To The Princeton Review Green College Honor Roll
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

First University Of Wisconsin School To Achieve 100 Percent Renewable Electricity
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
2017

Agricultural First

Anaerobic Digester
Gordondale Farms
Nelsonville
2002

Artistic First

First Sculpture Park Owned by a Municipality
Stevens Point Sculpture Park

Investment First

Investment in Healthy Food Enterprises
Incredible Edibles Investment Club, LLC
One member lives in Wood County
2013

Religion First

Call to Common Mission
In 2000, the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America came to an agreement known as The Call to Common Mission. The agreement allows the two denominations to share worship, clergy, evangelism, and outreach. The Stevens Point congregations of the Intercession Episcopal Church and the Redeemer Lutheran Church are the first in Wisconsin to partner by sharing not only a building, but also a clergy person for the two churches. Together they are the Beloved Community of the Episcopal Church of the Intercession and Redeemer Lutheran Churches.
2017

Premier/Largest Midwest Events

Portage County Cultural Festival
A day of fun, food, and learning organized 100% by volunteers.

Riverfront Jazz Festival
Local, regional, and internationally renowned jazz musicians coming together with the funds going to the UW-Stevens Point Jazz Studies program.

Walk Wisconsin
Noncompetitive yearly event for people of all ages and abilities on routes including all or parts of Portage County’s Green Circle.

Longest Running

Stevens Point Farmers Market
Since 1847 in Mathias Mitchell Public Square

Embarrassments

Criminal First

Double Lynching
In October 1875, brothers Isiah and Amos Courtwright shot and killed Sheriff Joseph Baker. Stevens Point residents removed the the Courtwrights from the jail and lynched them from a large jack pine tree. This was the first and only double lynching in Wisconsin.

Binge Drinking Highest (Shared)

Portage and Iron counties share the highest binge drinking rate in the state, 29%. For a county that creates spectacular success by working with others and satisfying others, this is an embarrassment. For a county that is a hotbed of world, national, and state firsts, this is an embarrassment. For a county that is a model of effectiveness, this is an embarrassment.

“The Burden of Binge Drinking in Wisconsin”
Sarah Linnan, MA
Jason Paltzer, PhD, MPH
Erin Skalitzky, MPH
University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
October 14, 2019

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
Copyright 2019
All rights reserved.

Posts on this blog alternate with posts at the link below. Posts for both blogs are published on Wednesdays as they are ready to be published. Time between posts could be weeks or months.

blog.smilessparksuccess.com

Standards For Success Posters

Working With Others & Satisfying Others

Resource Websites

speakingfromtriumph.com

smilessparksuccess.com

Business Directory

betterplanetbusiness.com

Positive Identity Directory For People With Mugshots

myrecordnow.com

What White Supremacists Have To Give Up To Live Purely White Lives

In the process of adding new examples.

 

White supremacy definition:

“the belief, theory, or doctrine that white people are inherently superior
to people from all other racial groups, especially black people, and are
therefore rightfully the dominant group in any society.”

Dictionary.com

White supremacists and white nationalists see other racial groups as threats to their supremacy, especially since the white population is declining compared to people of color. Many white supremacists and white nationalists feel they have the right to kill to protect themselves from other racial groups.

But to prove they are the dominant group, white supremacists have to prove they need nothing from any other racial group, especially blacks. Therefore, to protect themselves from all other racial groups — especially blacks — they should live purely white lives. To live purely white lives, white supremacists would have to give up:

Airplane travel

Blood transfusions from blood banks

Carbon light bulbs

Coffee

Color IBM PC monitors

Controlled drug delivery

Driving through traffic lights

Eye disease diagnostic tests

Food delivered by refrigerated trucks

Elevators

Gunpowder and firearms

Hearing aids with electret microphones

Heart surgery

Home security systems with cameras

Ironing Boards

Music

Paper

Peripheral devices for computers (disk drives, printers, monitors)

Potato chips

TV remotes

Vanilla extract

Following the descriptions below are examples from other groups who threaten white supremacists. I will add more examples as I find them.

Perhaps the best way to make use of the examples is to mention the origins as each example comes up in daily conversation. Talking about the origins in social situations where you are surrounded by people means more than one person should hear you. Also take advantage of social media opportunities to mention the origins. In my experience, indirect methods can sometimes be more effective than direct methods.

“I’m glad the Totonacan Indians of Mexico learned to extract vanilla
flavor from vanilla beans hundreds of years ago. It’s one of my favorite
spices, and it’s in lots of the food I eat.”

“My mother had heart surgery and it saved her life. If black man
Vivien Thomas hadn’t developed the techniques for heart surgery
when he did, my mother might be dead now.”

“Funny that so many people think that Jews are all about finances
when a Jew invented the TV remote control.”

Iowa Congressman Steve King:

“I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out where these
contributions that have been made by these categories of people that
you’re talking about,” King said. “Where did any other sub-group of
people contribute more to civilization?”

“Than white people?” asked host Chris Hayes.

“Than western civilization itself,” King responded, “which is rooted in
western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America,
and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world.
That’s all of western civilization.”

“Congressman Steve King: whites aided civilization more than other ‘sub-groups'”
Scott Bixby
The Guardian
July 18, 2016

Conservative Essayist Lawrence Auster:

Recently I wrote:

And that is all that blacks as an organized community have to
contribute to our civilization: endless complaints about white
injustice to blacks, and endless demands for the wealth and
goods that white people have produced, and that blacks are
incapable of producing.

To which a Christian blogger, Johann Happolati, responds:

This is absurd. In music alone (no small thing) blacks have made
many enduring contributions to civilization.

To avoid misunderstanding, I should have clarified the difference
between civilization and culture. While completely satisfactory
definitions of these concepts are not possible, and there is always
going to be some overlap between them, they are nevertheless
distinct. Civilization refers to the ordering principles and values
of a society: law, morality, government, philosophy, religion, science,
and technology, as well as art at its higher levels. Culture refers to the
expressions of a people, whether at the level of ordinary life, in the
sense of manners and morés and what we call a “way of life,” or at
the level of the arts and entertainment. Blacks have certainly made
contributions to our culture, in the areas of popular music and
idiom. They have made virtually no contribution to our civilization.”

“What Have Blacks Contributed To Our Civilization?”
Lawrence Auster
View From The Right
April 24, 2012

NASA named a 40,000-square-foot building the “Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility” because Katherine Johnson made no contributions to science or technology?

Blood banks and heart surgery are not science?

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall made no contribution to law?

“Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court
justice. Prior to becoming a judge, he founded and became the executive
director of the NAACP Legal Defence and Educational Fund.
His most well-known case as a lawyer was Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka
,
available in HeinOnline’s U.S. Supreme
Court Library.
ScholarCheck statistics reflect that this case has
been cited by nearly 22,000 articles and more than 2,300 subsequent
cases.”

“Research African-Americans’ Contributions to Legal History”
Shannon Sabo
HelmOnline Blog
February 16, 2016

Eugene Jacques Bullard made no contribution to France during World War I?

“During his lifetime, the French showered Bullard with honors, and in 1954,
he was one of three men chosen to relight the everlasting flame at the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier in Paris. In October 1959 he was made a knight of the
Legion of Honor, the highest ranking order and decoration bestowed by France.
It was the fifteenth decoration given to him by the French government.”

Story: Eugene J. Bullard
Dominick Pisano
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
October 12, 2010

You get the idea.

Airplane Travel

In 1953, a small Piper propeller plane “literally fell out of the clear blue sky and crashed to the ground” after going through the trailing wake of a larger plane. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) engineers assigned employee Katherine Goble the task of analyzing the photographic film record of the flight’s vital signs. Goble noted airspeed, acceleration, altitude, and other metrics. She made the required conversions using equations the engineers supplied for analyzing the converted data. Finally, Goble plotted the data to give the engineers “a visual snapshot of the plane’s disrupted flight”. The engineers then set up an experiment recreating the circumstances of the accident. They also gave that data to Katherine Goble to analyze.

The data revealed that when a plane passes through an area, it can leave air disturbance that lasts for as long as half an hour. The wake of a larger plane can make a smaller plane stumble and fall out of the sky. Other research found the same consequences. Because of that combined research, new air traffic regulations required minimum distances between flight paths. After Katherine Goble’s husband died, she remarried. As Katherine Johnson, she is known through the book and movie, Hidden Figures.

Hidden Figures
Margot Lee Shetterly
New York: HarperCollins
2016, quotes on page 128.

Blood Transfusions From Blood Banks

Father of Blood Banks Charles Drew, a black doctor, figured out how to process and preserve blood plasma, “banking” it for later use.

“Charles Drew”
Biography.com

Carbon Light Bulbs

Black man Lewis Latimer worked with Thomas Edison, helping to develop and patent the carbon light bulb.

Lewis Howard Latimer
Biography
Updated: February 2024

Coffee

The discovery of the coffee bean happened during the 8th century in Ethiopia or Yemen. The 15th century Sufi monasteries of Yemen have the first credible evidence for either coffee drinking or information about the coffee tree. Coffee spread throughout the Arab world before reaching Europe.

“Coffee and qahwa: How a drink for Arab mystics went global”
John McHugo
BBC News
April 18, 2013

“The History of Coffee”
Gourmet Coffee Lovers

Color IBM PC Monitors

Black man Mark Dean helped lead to computer monitors with color.

Mark Dean
Biography
Updated: January 13, 2021

Controlled Drug Delivery

Uruguayan Alejandro Zaffaroni’s companies invented Glucotrol to treat diabetes, Duragesic to manage chronic pain, Nicoderm CQ to quit smoking, and Transderm-Scop to prevent nausea and vomiting from motion sickness.

“Alejandro Zaffaroni”
Memorial Tributes: Volume 20
The National Academies Press
2016

“ALZA Corporation History”
Funding Universe

Eye Disease Diagnostic Tests

Vietnamese-born biophysicist Dr. Tuan Vo-Dinh invented optical scanning diagnostic equipment that can detect and diagnose eye diseases.

“Tuan Vo-Dinh”
Duke University

“Tuan Vo-Dinh”
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Gunpowder and Firearms

The Song or Sung Dynasty (960-1279) of China produced gunpowder and firearms.

“The Chinese Invention of Gunpowder, Explosives, and Artillery and Their Impact on European Warfare”
Encyclopedia.com

Heart Surgery

In 1930, white surgeon Alfred Blalock hired 19 year old black male Vivien Thomas to work in his surgical research lab. Thomas developed the techniques and the first instruments for heart surgery. Thomas talked Dr. Blalock through the first dozens of “Blue Baby” heart surgeries. Dr. Blalock required every surgeon learning heart surgery to take a class in surgical techniques from Thomas. All the first white surgeons from around the world learned the techniques for heart surgery from a black man who had no formal education beyond a high school diploma.

“It’s A Wonderful Story, It Brought Tears To My Eyes. Thanks For Letting Ss See It But Try It Elsewhere”
Jack Limpert
Jacklimpert.com
November 6, 2014

“Something the Lord Made”
Katie McCabe
The Washingtonian
August, 1989
Reprinted on Longform Reprints

“Vivien Thomas Pioneered Surgery That Saved Millions Of Lives”
Scott S. Smith
Investors Business Daily
February 22, 2016

Home Security Systems With Cameras

Marie Van Brittan Brown invented the first home security system with cameras.

“This African American woman invented your home security system”
Stephanie Buck
Timeline
June 13, 2017

Music In 20th Century America

“We now know with the benefit of hindsight that the black  population of the Americas, almost all of them descendants of slaves, would reinvent popular music in the twentieth century. And they did it in so many ways: first with ragtime and the blues, then with early jazz and swing and the first stirrings of R&B, and again with soul, reggae, samba, boogie-woogie, doo-wop, bebop, calypso, funk, salsa, hip-hop, and numerous other genres and subgenres and hybrid genres. Even when white musicians stepped forward with their own distinctive popular music styles—whether it was “British Invasion” rock, disco, bluegrass, or whatever else climbed the charts for longer or shorter durations—they almost always did so with heavy borrowings from black sources or inspiration. No European cabaret, however fashionable or disreputable, could compete with this outpouring of creativity and innovation—one that continues in the current day.”

Music: A Subversive History
Ted Gioia
Basic Books
2019: Page 310

Paper

Chinese court official Cai Lun (also Ts’ai Lun) invented paper and the process for manufacturing paper.

“Cai Lun”
Encyclopedia Britannica

Potato Chips

African American/Native American George Crum was a chef who invented potato chips to please a picky customer.

“George Crum”
Lemelson-Mit

TV Remotes

Jew Robert G. Adler “was definitely the father of the clicker”, according to Jerry Pearlman, former chairman and chief executive of Zenith Electronics.

“The inventor of the ‘Remote Control’ dies.”
AnandTech Forums
Discussion started by techs
February 20, 2007

Vanilla Extract

The Totonaco Indians of Mexico were the first to extract vanilla from vanilla beans. Totonacans used vanilla as a medicine and a perfume. Aztecs later adopted vanilla and used it to flavor a chocolate drink. Eventually, the French learned how to cultivate vanilla beans and vanilla became one of the most widely used spices around the world.

“The History of Vanilla”
In Depth Info

Two More Threats to Superiority

For purity protection from people with disabilities and homosexuals, white supremacists should also give up:

Beef

Computers

Beef

Because she sees the world in a different way, autistic Temple Grandin understands animal behavior. Her insights have improved every step in the beef production process.

“Temple Grandin on how the autistic ‘think different'”
Karen Weintraub
USA Today
May 1, 2013

Computers

Homosexual Alan Turing was the father of computer science.

“Why Alan Turing is the father of computer science”
Jay McGregor
Techradar
June 7, 2014

White supremacists should walk their talk if they want everyone else to accept their inherent superiority.

Note

Any group of people can discriminate. Some gays are now joining white supremacists in discriminating against blacks and Jews.

“How the Alt-Right Is Using Sex and Camp to Attract Gay Men to Fascism”
Donna Minkowitz
Slate
June 5, 2017

Anyone who stereotypes others is practicing Foolish Failure at least. Full-Blown Failure, Fanatical Failure, Finding Fault Failure, and Blunder Backfires are also possible. Even intelligent people make failure choices.

~~~~~

Paula M. Kramer
© 2015 to the present
All rights reserved.

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