I love Brother Robert. He attends out meetups. He is so giving and caring.
He has a little AME Church up the road. His congregation has dwindled down to about 4 or 5. Just too much truth telling at that little church. He loves to fish. He loves to visit the sick and the shut ins and the jails, of all races. He loves to speak up in a kind voice. He is 64 years old and has a very sick wife with diabetic issues. He has a son incarcerated. Now he has me angry with him. He truly is one of us here even if he can’t use the computer or has time to join or post. He is here for the North and Central Florida Meetups. He donated chairs….podium. tables....all the things the local DNC did not donate.
He has a Mother of near 90 and he tries to do all needful things alone.
He has worked and put up with all kinds of racial slurs at his job for years and years at a glass factory. He loves to sing and laugh and lead. The problem is..no one is listening. He had the right message just as Rev. Barber. He has the right message, he just has so many distractions. I am on a mission to help him. I feel ashamed I did not find out so much of his distressing things until today. I should have been checking closer and not assuming he had gone off somewhere after the election because he was heartbroken… It was not the case. He has been here with prayers and kindness since we met him in 2013. He always lights candles for any of our Kossacks here because I tell him to remember all of you in need.
I found out this morning that he came home from work and his wife had fallen and was without her cane. ( weeks ago) She is also in and out of the hospitals over her renal failure and dialysis. I found out this morning that he had been fighting his high blood pressure for weeks and weeks. His wife is now in a rehab. I have no idea how he is paying for it.. I do not think she is old enough for medicare and God knows we have no medicaid expansion down here. I did not know that he lost his primary care physican that he was using here in Florida and was visiting those walk in clinics and being told he needed a primary physician and when given a blood pressure med after it being changed over and over that he landed in the hospital for weeks with a blood pressure reading of around 250/200. Why? Because he was out of his blood pressure meds and did not call one person to tell them. I got livid. I told him… “ YOU ever do such a thing again and you had rather the Klan pay you a visit than me. I am furious with you. He would always say when I called to check on them, “ Oh we are fine..just working all the time and then we would talk politics or strategy. He never complains. It always ended with a prayer for all of us. So many on the left or the right side of history in this community are keeping such a low profile...it is like a disappearance of folks… I know that to be true in this small rural town in Florida.
He is IMO, our own Rev. Barber.
forum4.aimoo.com…DONATE..BY CLICKING ON THE LINK AND HITTING DONATE AT TOP.
My husband has always tried to be there for him when he attends church. We have swept floors and cleaned bathrooms and tuned instruments. We have personally donated musical equipment but people have pretty much just drifted away after the election. Now the little church has not been available for weeks. Lately, we have not been able to reach Brother Robert. Not till this morning. No one has answered the phone. No one is at the tiny church. No one is at the house and after weeks and weeks of this I kept calling until I finally get an answer this morning.
It is simply Amazing how people don’t want too much to do with ya when kids get in trouble or you have so much trouble, folks feel like it so much worry, they keep it all bottled up, put on a smile and say Oh I am fine and you? I know...Been there done that. His finances I know have gone down since his son got in some trouble a year or so ago when the son outran the law and stole his Dad’s car and then totaled it because it is dangerous to pull over for the law when black and driving in some of these states. ( especially if you are on the wrong side of the law). Fortunately the son did not die but got put behind bars for a long time. This stressed Brother Robert out pretty badly as with his wife. He has tried to take care of his family and just keep on keeping on.
I said, “ Why”? Why didn’t you call me or Jack?” His answer...I didn’t want to cause no worry for anybody. Everybody has their own troubles. I said, “ This is not acceptable”. I could have gotten that prescription filled”. I could not if I didn’t know and now you and your wife have been hospitalized for weeks and didn’t let anyone know? He explained that she did not have her life alert on. “ I said, “Oh that explains why all the “ We can handle this alone stuff...how does that it even square with not telling people what is happening”.? Did the Trump election upset you to the point of insanity? He said, “ Almost, I guess”. I was not happy. This.. This people is what Florida healthcare for the most part looks like and how YOUR healthcare can and will dwindle down to, without the full benefit of ACA. I am beyond angry… I am absolutely livid. I am so hurt that someone this family loves dearly nearly died and now I can’t trust to tell me when they are in this much trouble because they are afraid us poor folks have enough trouble. Is this new norm? Broken people are afraid to let others know they are not only heartbroken but broken into health and financial dissaray? Because if it is, we better find a way to step up and reorganize our ways to look out for one another.
I am broke but I am not poor. WE are trying to tighten belts as hard as we can but this wonderful person will get some help from us I hope to sustain them a little while and take some stress off. I am broke but I am not poor. Neither is he. He just feels that way living here in Florida, dealing with our lovely governor and trying to bear burdens under a disappointment of the election of Trump. Go here and give a dollar or two if you have it. Just know our vet’s org can help vet’s families like his widowed WWII Mother. I could start a go fund me but I had rather go this way so people can take it off as a tax deduction.
It will help Brother Robert and his family here at Christmas.
forum4.aimoo.com/… Go to the top and click on the donate.
The Kossacks who met Brother Robert and his wife know they are real good folks and more than that… they are REAL and sincere on equal rights and progressive values.
We need to try and reorganize and this is one of my main go to people for the vets in the African American Community, here in this red red state. No president Obama...You are wrong… There are still red and blue states ..especially counties made up of Trump lovers.
Thanks ...please know we should help this man. He came out for our meetups and has always tried to back my efforts here at Daily Kos.
Hey people we are in this together. I explained if we don’t really watch out for one another we will surely die… He and his wife are not out of the woods yet. He is gonna call me back with a status of how things are. he said. I cannot trust him to do that because he know we will try to help him...So he may call or I may have to go over there and let him know HE IS NOT ALONE. He has no clue I want to do this for his family.. I know his daughter is there at the house from another state and probably there for Christmas, now but I really do not know how bad things really are. Probably really bad for him to tell me as much as he did.
We have invisible people. We really do. There has never been a time that I called on Brother Robert and asked for him to try and gather people together or GOTV or whatever that he didn’t find a way to do so. I am so hurt over this whole situation because I am broke as well. I know how he feels. We used to be the kind of people who could slip $50 or $100 to folks in need but those days are long gone.
Our own Rev. Barber… Brother Robert..Daily Kos meetupI am now calling on any Kossacks to help me help this family. I especially want to thank you all in advance as I have no monetary goal fixed here. I just want us to show our love to him and his wife. I don’t even know if the church is even operational at this point. Every person who attended there, he was trying to help as well so it is a poor people’s church and this is a poor people’s campaign. Help me.
You can read up on diaries back when we were writing about the meetups, the candidates and the people who contributed to Florida but we are still oppressed down here.