by: Marceline Donaldson
That African American family is mine. The harassment, demeaning, threats and more happened on Tuesday March 3, 2020 in my home. Your home is supposed to be sacred, but was violated on that Tuesday morning in the most horrific ways.
On Tuesday morning, the door bell rang about 10:30am. When I went to open the door there were some 8 policemen (all male, all white) and six or more EMT’s also all white and all male. They were standing on the porch and said they had a “warrant” – a Section 12 order to take my husband out of the home and bring him to Mount Auburn Hospital because he was not safe in his home and they went into so much more.
It was unbelievable. 2020 in the United States with a Constitution and other protections, piled into my home were all of these white males in uniforms which traditionally destroy, harass, kill, maim African Americans.
The last time I felt so terrified was in New Orleans walking on Canal Street on my way to school as a high school student when a man grabbed my hair – which at the time was close to my waistline – and using a cutting instrument he had in his hands he cut it off quite short, nearly breaking my neck in the process. A policeman was standing nearby and instead of responding to my cries, he turned his back and walked away – having seen clearly what happened to me. And now, here I was in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2020 experiencing something very similar only they were after my African American husband.
When I looked out the door there were police cars all over the street, an ambulance, policemen guarding the entry to the house, on the porch and in the house.
When I asked why he was being sent to Mount Auburn Hospital when he had been a patient at Mass General, no one had any answers.
What happened that they felt they had the right? My husband was discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital and sent to Sherrill House for rehab after surgery. When I went to visit him at Sherrill House on Sunday everything seemed fine and I was not unhappy that he was there because as an Episcopal Priest I thought Sherrill House would be a good place for his rehab. It was not my idea to send him to Sherrill House, it was one of the people at the hospital who made the suggestion. I was more interested in him going to Spaulding in Charlestown, but I was told the place which had a bed for him was Sherrill House. With his Episcopal background and my own, I was open to him going there. Once we arrived at Sherrill House I discovered why most of the hospitals I had seen and visited and the related medical places were all white with blacks providing the cleaning and other upkeep services. There is a black and a separate white apartheid system in the Cambridge/Boston area for those who need medical services. Sherrill House was mostly black – African Americans, Caribbeans, etc. The patients were also mostly minority. So that visit to Sherrill House cleared up what I did not understand. Separatism bordering on apartheid is what I was witnessing.
On Monday, when I returned to spend time with my husband I was not allowed to see him. Why? Sherrill House was being quarantined because there were three or four patients with the flu on the second floor where he was staying and that second floor was quarantined to keep the flu from moving further out into the society.
I was unhappy, upset, confused and didn’t understand any of what I was being told. My attention was on what would happen to my husband in a place with three or four people with the flu on the same floor with windows not open and lots of ways the flu could spread to those in the facility – the healthy and those there to become healthier. My husband was not there to come down with the flu, especially with all of the coronavirus possibilities going around. I asked what kind of flu – no one had an answer.
I spent time in the lobby talking to people and the receptionist about what this was about – discovered it was not a first for such to happen at Sherrill House, it had been under quarantine just months prior. My decision was, as my husband’s health proxy, to take him out of Sherrill House. I did not feel he should be exposed to the flu and have to deal with that as well as his recovery. People were going into Sherrill House if they were on the first floor or visiting someone on the first floor. They were going to visit family and/or friends on the third and fourth floors, but the second floor, where my husband was, it was quarantined – no one knew how long this would last nor the extent of what would happen to those on the second floor.
I checked my husband out of Sherrill House that Monday afternoon and we went home – away from an active flu spot exposing him 24 hours a day. I hope you would have done the same thing – if you loved and were concerned about your family. I had not read the reviews of Sherrill House on the internet before Robert went there. The Episcopal connection made me think it would be a great place for him to be. When I read those reviews I was appalled – most of the reviews were not only bad, but talked about the hurt that had unnecessarily happened to patients at Sherrill House, including a death under difficult and what was characterized as negligent circumstances.
Robert was very happy to be home. He was thriving. On Monday, we walked to the post office and enjoyed the rest of the day going places and doing things he enjoyed.
On Tuesday morning all hell broke loose. All of the white policemen and white EMT’s, some 12 to 14 people arrived to in affect, arrest him and take him to a place for people who were seriously alcoholic and had been sent against their will – sectioned because their alcoholism was a danger to them and the society; who had a drug habit on the same level; was a danger to themselves because they were ‘committed’ and sectioned’ because they were a suicide threat; and because they had other mental illnesses which caused them to be forcibly picked up and held in a large emergency room full of security people walking around to make sure the people in that room were ‘safe’. There were a couple ‘runners’ while we were there – people who were constrained and had somehow gotten loose and were chased and returned to an examining room in constraints. That is normaly what this sectioning “warrant” is used for – not the way it was used with Robert.
This ‘arrest’ of my husband was ordered by Cambridge/Somerville Elder Services by a woman who should not have been able to sign such a sectioning order and the Court should have been involved if this were really such a serious threat.. She is a psychologist and none of my husbands reasons for having been in the hospital had to do with psychiatric or psychological reasons. She filled out the forms necessary and noted that she had neither seen, nor examined the patient – she had not seen nor been in his home to see its condition to know whether or not it was ‘safe’ although she declared it unsafe. She was backed by two young women who lied to help her take out this section 12 order. They claimed prescriptions had been sent for Robert to CVS. She claimed that I had been notified by CVS but refused to pick up the prescriptions. When a friend of mine who accompanied us to the hospital and stayed most of the evening as a support checked with CVS all around Cambridge and/or reasonably close to where we live, there were no such prescriptions at CVS waiting for Robert.
We spent 14 hours under this sectioning order which were a strain on my husband and put him under unbelievable stress. No one with any real concern for him or his health would have done this. A call to me would have been in order to attempt to understand and clear up any concerns she may have had. That is what usually happens with people who use these Section 12’s, but she simply filled out the form and sent it to the police for their action. A cruel slam against an African American who racism says does not deserve such consideration.
I insisted that, if Robert had to go, it would be to Mass General instead of Mount Auburn Hospital because it was clear to me there could have been political friendships going on that could make this worse. I wanted to know why the police had been told to take him to Mount Auburn where he had no history and no prior visits.
After their examination, Mass General lifted the sectioning and discharged my husband.
It is time to change this ability of people clearly not qualified to do such to be able to use this sectioning to exercise their racism and other bigotry and possibly even personal vendettas. It was the meanest thing I have seen done to another human being in a very long time. What could have happened with all the white policemen and the circus environment created outside my house with neighbors and others stopping to see what was happening was clearly the possibility of physical harm, extreme emotional and mental stress and a display of racially based violence.
It is clear this would not have happened to a white family in the Harvard Square neighborhood and the police and all the others were able to do what they did because they were dealing with an African American family. In that Brattle Street neighborhood this does not happen. The whites who live there are given much more respect, privacy, and more.
I am talking to attorneys and encourage any attorneys who would like to be involved in this, please don’t hesitate to call and/or visit. This needs to be changed – there should be the necessity of a Court being involved when someone’s freedom is being taken away with what is characterized as a “warrant’; civil rights people need to be involved when this happens to an African American or any other minority family and so much more. Your feedback is requested.
Whether it has relevance or not I do not know, but we published a Bettina Network Blog on Tuesday morning at 5am entitled ‘Hospitals and Bigotry – Institutional Racism, alive and well!’. The police arrived at approximately 10:30am with their section 12
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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
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A Response by a Bettina Member
December 5th, 2019First – I am young, white and male. I need to put that out front so you know something about where I am coming from. I am also a scientist who has been using Bettina Network for several years and look forward to my time spent in one of your homes in Harvard Square – it is my favorite place to go. I get the education in that house that I didn’t get at home and I get to stay in real luxury surroundings at the same time – something I also did not get to do at home.
I read Marceline’s article on Kamala Harris and there are things I would like to add that she did not say. Things I researched after many breakfasts in her home which just blew my mind. Mostly, about telling the truth.
To tell the truth about Kamala Harris means to say that she was one of those who supported Barack Obama from the beginning. At the beginning of Obama’s candidacy, when others were looking elsewhere, Kamala Harris was strong in using her time and other resources to work towards getting Obama elected president. She has yet to be given credit for that. What blows my mind is the fact that so called “older blacks” are supporting Joe Biden because of his closeness to Obama. How such is that?
That should not be such a surprise to me because I noticed over the years African Americans are not great supporters of Bettina Network. I have yet to meet one using this network and my conversations with those I know blow my mind. A couple African Americans I know and who are friends of mine would rather stay in lesser accommodations and pay more than to stay at the Bettina Network. They don’t articulate why, but after a short conversation it becomes clear they do not give much credit to a company owned by another African American, especially a woman. Given that I have some understanding as to why blacks are not supporting Kamala Harris. To support their own seems to be a negative to just about every African American I have met. This is an article, after all, in which I am determined to tell the truth as I see it in this life. If that violates you or makes you angry so be it. I have had to struggle years to be able to face life as it is rather than as it is described to me for me to believe as the truth.
To tell the truth about Joe Biden, which few are doing, means to say that he was not one of those supporting Barack Obama when Kamala Harris was out on the campaign trail doing exactly that. My research shows that from the very beginnings of Barack Obama’s campaign there was Kamala Harris doing everything she could to support his candidacy.
It is to admit that Biden was instrumental in seeing that Thurgood Marshall was followed by Clarence Thomas – and that is who “older blacks” are supporting instead of supporting Kamala Harris? I was too young to remember the hearings, but I went back to read about what happened when Clarence Thomas was put on the Supreme Court and it was vile and who was instrumental in seeing that happen? Pictured in newspaper clippings as chair of the panel that made sure Thomas was exonerated enough to be elected to the Supreme Court – Joe Biden. So now we have to live with him on the Supreme Court without acknowledging who was instrumental in making that happen.
To tell the truth means to talk out loud without being intimidated to say Joe Biden treated a black woman – Anita Hill – disgracefully, and this is the man being promoted as the successor of Barack Obama? The man promoted as the next president while Kamala Harris’ campaign is suspended? I do not wonder why we now have Donald Trump as president. Sometimes I wonder if he is not who we deserve.
To tell the truth means to point out the upset and upheaval that happened when Elizabeth Warren was, briefly, the front runner in the Democrat’s primary presidential campaign. Such furor and upset was palpable. A flurry of activity and out comes Michael Bloomberg and even DeVal Patrick running into the campaign to stop what looked like an election getting out of control – how? a woman was then the front runner taking control out of the hands of the white males who normally oversee and dictate such things whether they be Republican or Democrat. That should have been done generations ago, but we are still here fighting the same battles we have been fighting for generations. I hope it stops with my generation. At least there seems to be some hope after we have seen an African American man as president doing an outstanding job followed by an out of control White man who someone said wears “clown shoes” and will engage in treason to keep himself up front and in control because his ego needs that. The job he does is irrelevant, only a by-product of his stage settings for himself. And that job includes turning the United States Government into a criminal enterprise over which he rules as the godfather? Is this what I am inheriting?
All of a sudden there were people coming out from all corners to stop Elizabeth Warren. The last time I saw anything like that was when it looked as though Hillary Clinton might win and out came even Russia and Vladimir Putin to stop that and stop her becoming president even if they had to sully the process to achieve their goal.
We don’t tell the truth. And so we help elect the likes of Donald Trump. The man whose closest long term adviser is Steven Miller – a Jew who hates other Jews and has promoted and helped to bring about things that were prevalent during Hitler’s reign and Nazi Germany. Just like Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn who was a gay man who hates gays.
To tell the truth means that we have a straight line we can draw in our government from Joe McCarthy of “communist” days straight through to Donald Trump. I heard at many breakfasts how Trump learned at the feet of Cohn and McCarthy and as my research bore that out I was stunned. That is not something I would have put together otherwise.
We have constantly had to fight such people and why? Is it because we put forth a scenario which skewers the truth and puts forth instead a story line which is meant to manipulate the voting public into a stance that we want which will maintain the system as it is rather than tell the truth to gain a fully functioning system open to all which reflects the equality we claim to be about?
We had a senator in Joe McCarthy who was rumored to be a total drunk and yet he had lots of support as he careened all over the place making life a living hell for many, seeing to it that their lives were upheaveled, their jobs lost, their beliefs lied about for the convenience of the many who wanted to see the kind of “purge” McCarthy undertook. I didn’t realize until my stay in a Bettina home the connection between McCarthy, Cohn and Trump. There was even talk about the role Robert Kennedy had sitting at McCarthy’s right hand as he made his way up the political ladder. I heard it at a breakfast seminar and still didn’t believe it until I did my own research and the shock that this is my country and this is what we are about hit with crude power and I have not been the same since.
I could go on for pages, but this is what we need in this country – tell the truth and deal with the consequences. What a totally refreshing idea. Maybe then we wouldn’t have to worry about the “billionaire group” who deserve to be a part of this society also. And we wouldn’t have to worry about the feminists, or the lesbians, or the homosexual males, or the angry blacks, or the immigrants, or……… All people we have in our immediate families – well, maybe not all, but certainly one or two. We can have family dinners with them, but not allow them to be an equal part of our lives. Is that why our family lives are so screwed up? To be better than, we have to hide and/or try to change those who share our genes?
Maybe when I get a bit older I will understand and join this group, but now, as a young person I hope I continue learning and speaking truth. It is freeing like nothing else. At least if I decided to support Joe Biden it would be after I knew the truth about his history and who he is today. But even so I agree with you Marceline, I would rather support someone like Kamala Harris for president. I was lukewarm about her until I read your article. Today, I would like to be one of her supporters.
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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.
What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:
Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!
Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*
*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.
Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*
This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.
Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog
into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.
Project 4 – Boycott the Twenty Dollar ($20) bill
You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.
If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.
_________________________________________________________
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net
Tags: #KamalaHarris, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Presidential Primary
Posted in #DonaldTrump, #meToo, Anita Hill, Barack Obama, Bettina Network, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, Feminism, Guest comments, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nazism, President Obama, racism, sexism | Comments Off on A Response by a Bettina Member