💙 For Those that didn’t hear, wouldn’t hear or chose not to hear tonight’s Democratic Convention (August 18th, 2020) – missed the rally call of the nation…In EACH and every speaker, video and person – just like you and I – that have been affected by our world, as it stands, TODAY and what we have to lose….what we’ve already lost and what we will lose if we don’t take a stand, right what is wrong and fight against a tyranny that is threatening our existence as a democracy in this great nation. It is no longer party against party – this fight is against the downfall of moral decency, freedom and equality, economic and health survival and honor. There is no place now to hide or bury our heads from the truth that is displayed every single day – in our streets, in our communities – around our nation. Hate, violence and division is not the call of a moral president and administration that wants to build a better nation. It is the call to destroy a nation and take power over the freedom and liberties that we know, that our forefathers knew and freedoms that our children and grandchildren may Never know.
I may be 1 voice…but many voices together build villages and nations that are good and righteous – that recognize each and every individual as part of the whole. Some say: All government is corrupt – All politicians are the same. But what is a country without a free democratic government?: A dictatorship. It is chaos. It is totally corrupt and built on fear and power. The speakers tonight didn’t speak of hatred, they did not speak on the furtherance of bigotry and division. They didn’t hold up Bibles as props. THEY didn’t LIE. They brought issues to the forefront that are indisputable. While the current president Tweeted his anger at the truth and facts – these candidates and national supporters were imploring people to rise up and BE BETTER than THIS….and to be able to look their children….or their maker….in the eye and say: I did what was right for all people and for the generations to come.
💙I WILL VOTE BLUE – I WILL SUPPORT JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS – I WILL SPEAK UP and I WILL CONTINUE TO HELP REBUILD THIS COUNTRY ALONG WITH PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AND VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS. And I will sing a song of freedom and democracy again. – Donna Freeberg 💙
Category: Education
SEARS: The end of the era of Brookdale Mall
I remember watching Brookdale Mall (Brooklyn Center, Minnesota) being constructed as we all eagerly peered out the school bus windows, on our way to Northport elementary. (It was my kindergarten year, and everything was bustling with “newness”.)
It was magical – Just imagining a mass of stores, under one cover, in a luxurious setting with restaurants attached – called: A MALL!
So many shopping firsts and fashion firsts were acquired at Brookdale Mall: Dayton’s, Penney’s, Donaldson’s, Snyder’s and……..Sears. I worked at Sears throughout High School….. it was a grand place to work. I can’t remember a time as a little girl when I didn’t look forward to the “Christmas Wish Book“, or going with my Dad to get a “Craftsman” tool. And when Mom’s washer went on the blink – off we’d go to Sears for a replacement. Sears was the store for the Everyman. 
The demolishing of Brookdale Mall a number of years back left one vestige standing: Sears. But now – it will soon be demolished as well.
I visited my flagship job/store/memory maker – in the last final days, and it was heartbreaking. Below are a few pictures on the history of Sears – as I remember it and photographed it.
Nothing stays the same.
And, at times, they simply vanish.
DIVERSITY
It’s a harsh world we live in.
Diversity acceptance should be the norm – but it’s not. We rarely accept our own differences – the ones that make us unique, let alone accept what is foreign to us or is a challenge to our norms.
How we deal with encountering diversity will measure us:
- We can either look the other way,
- Engage awkwardly as if some “kindly act”,
…..or perhaps we simply open our arms and hearts and listen and learn.
That’s humanity.
HEART ATTACK survival – when alone – can be a cough away!
Please pause for 2 minutes and read this. It could save your life!!
- Let’s say it’s 7.25pm and you’re going home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job.
- You’re really tired, upset and frustrated.
- Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. You are only about five km from the hospital nearest your home.
- Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far.
- You have been trained in CPR, but the guy who taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.
- HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.
- However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
- Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.
- Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!!
FINALLY………………
- Cardiologists say that if everyone who reads this would forward it to 10 people, you can bet that we’ll save at least one life.
“I have an autoimmune disease…..
“I have an autoimmune disease…..
I just wish more people understood . . . what I have is not a cold or the flu. I will never get better. A nap won’t help. I’m on meds to keep me alive because my cells attack all cells thinking all cells are bad – but this kills good cells which are in the body to help me.
Please, in honor of someone who is fighting Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Sarcoidosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hepatitis, Diabetes, Celiac, Lupus, PBC, CIDP, UC, Crones, Hashimotos . . . (copy, and paste).” -author unknown
In RESPONSE: At Dignity by Design*, I work with ALL of the diseases that are mentioned above – and many, many more.
It is true – people are not aware of – nor cannot truly empathize with – the inner struggles associated with individual disabilities (nor outer struggles for that matter). It’s difficult for anyone dealing with a disability to be patronized, or awkwardly sympathized with, or to have to “describe” or “qualify” one’s self over and over, day in – day out. When the world doesn’t see a “cookie-cutter” human – they often turn away or literally act incapable of natural human interaction – simply due to their personal discomfort.
Here is my advice: GET OVER IT! Deal with all humans with respect and actual INTEREST in them as human beings – not diseases. Get to know the PERSON – not the disability….. then all else will fall into place. Maybe… a new friendship, maybe…. Better understanding of your partner or child or parent.
Diversity is what makes the world go round – Embrace it!
donna@dignitybydesign.com
www.dignitybydesign.com
Howling to the Moon…(as in Congress.)
Thought of the Day
(or 143 days to be exact)
We are working under a madman – a lunatic and coup – a rogue Congress that does NOT serve the people, and our planet is up for grabs. The press keeps trying to make SOME sense to this madman, his nonsensical speech, his…..crazy – and there is none to be had.
Are WE all insane? Is that what was and IS wanted by the Republican National Committee? What is the purpose of driving this country, its’ laws and respect into the ground and taking the rest of the planet with it?
Moral compass and humanity is in decay and we are being herded like Lemmings off the cliff – with evidently no voice or power to our millions of voices, as we howl to the moon (while there is one).
For the Indigenous people of Standing Rock: The Government and Big Oil has betrayed you, millions of Americans, Clean Water and Mother Earth.
After months of protests by the Peaceful Water Protectors and the Indigenous peoples of Standing Rock (rightful owners of this treaty land) – the Militarized Police squads representing #DAPL Energy Transfer Partners Big Oil have forced the Indigenous off of their own land, arrested and brutalized the #Natives and Water Protectors – forced them at gunpoint onto nearby reservations, raided those reservations and continue to push them off of each reservation that they go to. This is not justice – this is not upholding US/Native Treaties.
This is a fascist Government protecting one BIG OIL corporation for profit.
We as Americans, and the World, are watching – watching as this Government allows terroristic attacks against the Indigenous peoples – and allows our CLEAN WATER supplies to be poisoned, all for corporate greed and immediate profits.
Now is the time to persevere – with the Letter of the LAW, fighting this in impartial courts. It is our sacred duty – to our land and to our people! Aho!
Lakota Law Project: http://ourchildrenaresacred.org/
Let them eat cake….New Mantra
Today I read a response to a meme that shook me to the core.
By now, we’ve 
all seen the meme:
I wasn’t enraged because the response was vicious or cursed – on the contrary: It was elitist and dismissive and only one sentence:
“Mountains,out of mole hills….typical.”
Thus…it garnered an immediate response. But NOT my typical response. NO:
“It might be an entirely different “mole hill” if your daughter, wife or son was: black, gay, Jewish, disabled, sexually assaulted or abused, killed or raped.
Of course that never happens, does it? Or maybe it just doesn’t happen to you. And the defense of the assaulter can always state that “It’s just a mole hill” – can’t they? Now they can – now they have a green light.
THAT may now be the “typical” – let them eat cake. The Twitter feeds were lit up with “The minute T wins, I’m gonna grab me the nearest pussy.” (Hundreds literally) NONE of this is typical – and I’m offended to my very core.”
YES: I’m offended.
YES: I’m scared that hate, bigotry and permissiveness is the new Mantra of our highest office.
And if YOU’RE not scared – your mountain must be very high indeed.
I’m right…you’re wrong.
I recently read the following:
(Note: Below was a post from FB. I’m deleting the name to protect the fool that wrote it….)
“What do people who reject the God of the Bible become? In America they have become the Liberal/Left Socialists. In Russia and China they became Communists. How about those who create another God, what do they become? In the Middle East they have become Muslims who enslave, torture and behead people.The choice of who to become is so crystal clear. It really only depends on who you want to be and how you want to live. It doesn’t take any imagination at all…the evidence is all around us.”
My response is as follows:
A) The president of a Virginia Ku Klux Klan group claims that “the KKK is a faith-based Christian organization that does not condone violence.”
B) The oldest reference to Allah (“God” Islam/Muslim) – was discovered in Northern and Southern Arabia dating back to the fifth century B.C. To state that all Muslims enslave, torture and behead is beyond radical. Muhammad was a peaceful prophet.
C) Buddhism was founded in 624 B.C. Buddha was a peaceful prophet.
They all had their “God” and Prophets and Bibles and martyrs to the faith, long before the Christian Bible.
Also, to claim that all non-Christian bible thumpers (NOT non-Christians, mind you) are Liberals/Socialists is incorrect. However, I do think it might be a great compliment: If not for the Socialists of this country our forefathers and children would not have the Unions – which protected the middle class and poor during the industrial revolution through today. Also, the Socialist Party has no combined or recognized affiliation with Communism.
To be so pompous and self-righteous as to state that one’s beliefs are more correct than another’s beliefs is purely ignorant. And, to attach misguided lies to support one’s superiority, or belief, is egocentric – not religious.
If I choose to believe that blue eye shadow is an abomination to me – does that mean that those who choose to wear it are wrong??
Gun Control, Political Agenda, Human and Disability Rights…….
To all of my FB, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram followers and friends:
Hereby unfriend, untweet, unpin and unchat me……if you want to sway
my opinions and convictions on:
A) Massive gun control for assault and automatic 
weapons – I believe that they do kill people. Period.
Also, If you spend more time defending your
weaponry than you do defending and assisting the
daily rights and options for disabled, homeless and
poor – or fighting bigotry
………….Please unfriend me.
B) Women’s rights and Planned Parenthood: I believe
that women have the right to own their reproduction.
Period. I believe that the organizations that uphold
these hard earned rights and medical services should
be supported and upheld.
C) That political agendas should be unmasked
(on all sides) and only work for the benefit of all people – not the wealthy –
but for the average working American. I also believe that there
will never be a true democracy without socialized medicine and
uniform drug and pharmaceutical regulations.
If it is your opinion that the thought of the day is more important than a friendship or a human’s well being – if you think that your “post” will sway ethical and moral convictions that have taken 60 years to develop………..absolutely, unfriend me. I’ll survive…. guaranteed.
Dignity by Design 