Covid 19 and mental health

There’s gonna be a reckoning in mental health as result of of Covid and I don’t think it’s gonna play out as people think.

I’ve never gotten so many cold messages on LinkedIn to apply for telehealth practices. I see a lot of therapists- especially young, new ones – pontificating about the liberation of telehealth only practices that don’t take insurance and don’t have to diagnose. Offering “sliding scales” with little attunement to the reality that most Americana struggle with $20 weekly copays so even a $75 sliding scale rate is ludicrous. What they’re actually doing is removing one accountability touchstone but they still have ethical standards of care of their licensing boards.

I predict there’s going to be an uptick in therapists having violations with ethical boards and telehealth practices being shut down due to shady billing practices.

My recommendation for people is this – see someone in person, if you can. It’s always better. Use your insurance if you can. See someone who is independently licensed if you can. Support your community mental health centers because they are more likely to be able to provide the highest level of care.

On fascism and Harry Potter and JK Rowling

Harry Potter is a profoundly anti-fascist tome. The main plot line is about a man who, out of his own fear of death, seeks to consolidate power and subjugate wizards who either oppose him or who he views as less than, impure. But an important part of this plot is that the wizarding world has tolerated less obvious forms form of bigotry for thousands of years – the belief that nonhuman creatures are inferior, at best useful tools to humans and at worse worthy of enslavement and subjugation. Human wizards ignore the magic and talents of other creatures because it does not fit their narrative.

The analogy here to white supremacy and other forms of hatred and discrimination seems obvious to me. Ron Weasley’s arc is a case study in white identity development – from early color blindness taking for granted the that the world is meant to work this way to becoming an anti-fascist (anti-racist) fighter. Dobby is a case study in a house elf who dared to believe house elves were not meant to be slaves, as thousands of years of subjugation had been ingrained into other house elves.

Which is what makes Rowling’s doubling down on anti-trans bigotry so heartbreaking and infuriating.

Why America May Never See a Woman President

I’m not waiting for  this poem to get picked up by a literary magazine, because this is what I want to say about the state of the Democratic race.  Yes, I’m grieving the loss of Elizabeth Warren, the most inclusive, qualified, progressive candidate we’ve had for president since Barack Obama.

Why America May Never See a Woman President

Women must be polite to men
Women must be strong, but not too strident
Women must be smart, but not make men feel dumb
Women must be the flexible ones.

Women must be the team players
men are always insisting they be.
Women must be the negotiators
we need at the table when there are deals to be made.

Women must be pretty, but
women must not be too sexy, it’s distracting.
Women must make her man look better,
If women don’t need men, we have no need of them.

Women must not give in, that makes them weak
But women must not be demanding, or forceful,
that makes them bitches.
Women must know when to be quiet.

Women are the gentler sex,
the fairer sex, the peacemakers.
But that’s just it, you see:
Women will never be strong enough

because we won’t let them be.

Lessons from When Harry Met Sally

Couple #1: Horn & Hardt
Humor your spouse

Couple #2: 34 years later
Never stop seeing what you first fell in love with

Couple #3: “what’re you doin after”
Sometimes time away makes you see your love in a new light.

Couple #4: “Nine extra floors”
Be willing to go out of your way for each other.

Couple #5: “I knew the way you know about a good melon”
Trust your gut.
Sometimes they’re crossing room for YOU.

Couple #6: Arranged marriage
Make sure you’re attracted to your future spouse.

Couple #7: Jess and Marie
Don’t settle for the one you’re set up with if it’s not right.

Couple #8: Harry and Sally
Be honest with each other.
Appreciate each other’s idiosyncrasies.

Say Their Names: A Litany for Transgender People Killed in 2019

1. Dana Martin, 31
In a roadside ditch
Murdered in Alabama
“was loved by many.”

2. Ashanti Carmon, 21
Outside of D.C.
Prince George’s county
Engaged to Philip

3. Jazzaline Ware, age unknown
In her apartment
Killed in Memphis, Tennessee
“a beloved friend.”

4. Claire Legato, 21
She’s shot in the head
Mother argued with a friend
Cleveland is mourning.

5. Muhlausia Booker, 23
Found on a golf course
Mob attack a month before
Corrupt in Dallas

6. Tameka Washington, 40
North Philly murder
She was known as “gay mother.”
Also shot and killed.

7. Paris Cameron, 20
Killed with two gay men
Triple murder in Detroit
Suspect arrested.

8. Chynal Lindsey, 26
White Rock Lake, Dallas
Killed two weeks after Booker
Police have no leads.

9. Chanel Scurlock, 23
North Carolina death
“Live your life as you wanted”
Police have great leads.

10. Zoe Spears, 23
Killed on Eastern Ave
“Casa Ruby was her home.”
Left out on the street.

11. Brooklyn Lindsey, 32
Found on the front porch
Murdered in Kansas City
“I live on for you.”

12. Denali Stuckey, 29
Lying by the road
Murdered in South Carolina
“We were like sisters.”

13. Kiki Fantroy, 21
Killed in Miami
“Bring justice to my baby”
Shot multiple times.

14. Jordan Cofer, 22
Killed in mass shooting
Dayton, Ohio
Only man on list.

15. Pebbles “Dime” Doe, 24
Found dead in parked car
Murdered in South Carolina
“Best to be around.”

16. Tracy Single, 22
In Houston, Texas
Found dead at a gas station
“In power and peace.”

17. Bailey Reeves, 17
Killed in Baltimore
Seventeen and seventeenth
Little more is known.

18. Bee Love Slater, 23
Florida murder
“She never harmed anyone”
Found burned in her car.

19. Johana Medina, 25
Just released by ICE
Detained without treatment
She sought refuge here.

20. Itali Marlowe, 29
Houston, Texas death
Murdered in her own driveway
Killer lived with her.

21. Breonna Be’Be Hill, 30
Shot in the morning
Second in Kansas City
Dead when cops arrived.

Manifesto

Another mass shooter has murdered innocent people. People trying to buy clothes or back to school supplies or camping gear. Maybe some were even trying to buy guns. Before they became a weapon of mass destruction they were a commodity. This shooter in this Wal-Mart, this bar, this church, this school, this cafeteria, this gay club – he (and it’s always a he) got his gun from somewhere. Someone made some money off of it. Maybe it was his grandfather’s money he spent but someone is always making money while American blood flows in the street. Someone made money off of the six year old who was murdered at the garlic festival. Our president tweets and even though a third lien got taken out on his hotels, the ones he was supposed to divest from rather than sell rooms to foreign nationals, he still makes money. Every time some white boy who feels entitled to a woman, a job, the presidency, he goes and shoots up this Wal-Mart, this bar, this church, this school, this cafeteria, this gay club,and someone makes money. Who makes money? The gun sellers. The gun show organizers. The gun owners at trade shows. The NRA. The gun clubs, the shooting ranges. We are obsessed with our guns and do you know who’s obsessed with guns? Scared people. Terrified, small people. We are scared. We are still one of the safest countries in the world but we’re scared. We’re so scared we’re killing ourselves. But I won’t give into this fear. I won’t give up my country. It belongs to me as much as it belongs to the white supremacists, it doesn’t really belong to any of us. Take away guns from the white invaders and arm the Native tribes with all the arrows they had before we came here and let’s see who wins. That’s what we’re fighting. We’re back on the plains, back in the Civil War, fighting for what kind of country we’re going to be. I’m here for the fight because we can’t let the white invaders win. The white supremacists, the entitled white boys, they don’t deserve this country. They never did.

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