A new day is here!

A new day has arrived in the United States. A black man has become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States! I never thought that I'd see that happen in my lifetime. I still too painfully remember the days of the civil rights struggle, of Selma, of Birmingham, of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of Bull Connor and of all the ugliness of the 1960's racial strife. What saddens me is to hear people still say that they still will not vote for a black man for President, period. It makes me wonder how far we've really come after all. It confirms to me that despite the advances of the civil rights struggle, that racism still divides this country and probably always will in some way, shape or form. Still, the fact that Barack Obama has, in effect, sealed the Democratic nomination for President is a remarkable accomplishment for such a young man who has come so far in the past four years. In 2004, none of us knew this man who electrified us with his keynote speech at the Democratic convention, and here it is, four years later, and this man is our nominee for President. I'm elated, excited, thrilled....and just a little uneasy that race will still be a factor in this election. I think that the best move that Obama can make right now is to add Hillary Clinton to the ticket for his running mate. She can bring on board the blue collar and older female voters who have thus far supported her. She has, after all, won the majority of the popular vote, and that is critical to the Democrats winning the White House this fall. And having black man and a woman for the Democratic ticket, in my opinion, can heal the deep rifts that have been exposed in the Democratic Party through this heated primary season. We need that healing so badly right now so that we can unify, be strong and move forward to the general election in November. There is just too much at stake right now to risk losing another election to the Republicans. An unpopular war is raging, the country's infrastructure is crumbling, schools are suffering from lack of funding, the health care system is irretrievably broken and needs a major overhaul, climate change is threatening the entire world and quite frankly, Republicans aren't going to address these issues. So we've got some hard work ahead of us to urge Obama to pick Clinton for his running mate to heal and unify the party so that we can win in November.

BACK TO PT.......

And they thought that they were rid of me in physical therapy! Well, today I go back for the beginning of post-surgical rehab on my left index finger, which is still stiff and swollen even after nearly a month post-op. I finally got my sutures out yesterday because they were still in there and I was concerned that I would heal up too well to get them out comfortably, and as it was, it was plenty painful when they came out. I had my primary care doctor's office do it yesterday and they recommended some rehab on the finger so that scar tissue wouldn't develop that would make it even harder and longer to get it moving again. I've begun to joke with the PT staff that I seem, like a bad penny, to keep returning to them, and they joke that yeah, I provide them with plenty of job security. Hopefully, this won't take but a few short weeks to get things moving again and return function to that finger. I'm dismayed at how painful it still is this long after surgery, but I guess this is normal, given that fingers are often very sensitive, given the proximity of nerves to the surface there. After all, with this surgery, tendons and bone were involved in removing the ganglion, so naturally it's going to take a while and be rather tender during my recovery, so I guess I just need to be patient and keep plugging along until it's healed and moving and no longer painful. In the meantime, I do have to keep pressure bandaging on it, but my surgeon let me choose the color of the bandaging that I wanted, and I chose a lovely royal blue color that is my favorite, so I have this pretty blue bandage on my left index finger that brightens my mood every time I get a little down about how long this seems to be taking just to fully recuperate from. Hopefully, physical therapy will help not only to get my finger moving normally again, but to alleviate some of the pain that I am experiencing. I guess I'll know more this afternoon when I go and find out what kind of regimen I am in for and just how long it's going to take.