I remembered an unsung heroine yesterday.
Memorials for those who don a uniform and learn to point and shoot can seem perfunctory and hollow--a reach to justify the easy solution. Chris Hayes is spot on.
I spent part of my day yesterday sifting through picture albums and remembering my mother who died 15 years ago. She had a high school education and had longed to be either a teacher or a librarian but was never able to achieve her dreams. She died before she could retire, earning only $.25/hr more at her job that the wage she was given when she started it. One penny for every year she worked there. She raised eight children sometimes in dire poverty. She dealt with the bouts of decompensation my father experienced at a time when there were no support services for families with members with mental illness.
She somehow managed to get us through to adulthood in one piece. All the while she taught us the value of an education and was immensely proud that most of us made it through college. She taught us that not one human is better than the next or more entitled their beliefs than any other. We learned that a strong person does not resort to violence and that no matter how bad your life is at the moment, there is always someone else who needs help more, including your help. We see her lessons reflected in the faces of our spouses and children. She may have been bowed by the weight of her burdens but was never broken. She may have been quiet and soft spoken but her range was far. She made the world we knew bigger and pointed out the horizon to us.
I remembered my mother and miss her terribly.
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