Circle the wagons: You could be next

Circle the wagons: You could be next


Portsmouth Daily Times

01.12.12 - 09:00 pm

As I look back over the years of my life I find that I have been brought full circle back to my childhood.

I was just a young child when television and movies were still in black and white, when the “western” was a theme of more programs and movies than not. A time when “circle the wagons” and “white-man speak with forked tounge” meant little or nothing to me; after all, I am caucasian and it was just a tv show or movie.

I was, of course, a bit older when the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement was in full force, when oppression and discrimination of the races was “in our face.” Then there was the 1970s with Vietnam and a Washington, D.C., administration that quit their jobs before being faced with prison for their crimes. Oh, these were reassuring times alright, and far more reality-based than the cowboys and Indians on the silver screen.

So what does all this have to do with today, when I am now older than I ever dreamt as a young child?

I now know what the Indian meant when he said, “white man speak with forked tounge”. I now know what the oppression, discrimination and retaliation of the Civil Rights Era meant to those who were oppressed and discriminated. How do I know these things as an aging caucasian female? Because my mother is under a court-appointed guardianship shoved into a nursing home against her will just like the American Indians who were guardianized by their treaties and shoved onto the reservations, only to be lied to, neglected and exploited by the very “forked-tounge” establishment who promised them care and protection.

I am utterly amazed and disappointed that our politicians can proclaim to possess concern for the elderly, concerned that they will be abused, neglected and exploited, yet when I reach out for help and protection for my mother from those in a position who say they care and who have the authorty to do something about the injustice, I am met by a bunch of “forked-tounge” speaking establishment types who are more than content to enjoy their own freedom and liberty, while depriving my mother of her freedom and liberty.

A bit of advice in close, “circle the wagons” folks: You might be next, because guardianship abuse is on the rise, it is nothing new I have since learned, and it is likely coming to a loved one near you sooner than you might think.

Jane Branson
Hillsboro

Member, National Association To Stop Guardian Abuse

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