Товарищ

Kamilah Hauptmann · Nov 15, 2021

Kamilah Hauptmann · Nov 19, 2021

Accidentally Товарищ

Kamilah Hauptmann · Nov 20, 2021

Free · Nov 20, 2021

Kamilah Hauptmann said:

Kamilah Hauptmann · Nov 24, 2021

Innula Zenovka · Nov 24, 2021

Kamilah Hauptmann said:

The first Christmas I spent in the US, back in the early 80s, there was a big Christmas news drama about the plight of a young child who was terribly burned when the Christmas tree candles set fire the trailer home she shared with her mother, and the propane gas heater exploded.

The little girl survived, but first they had to find somewhere able to treat her massive injuries, and to do it for free, and to offer her long term rehabilitative therapy, and long term accommodation there for her and her mother while she received it, and also find some way for the mother to support them both.

Various hospitals and charities pitched in, with some of the top pediatric and burns units in the country volunteering to help, and eventually everything was arranged (including accommodation for them and a job of some sort for the mother local to the the rehab unit, so she had a source of income) and the only remaining obstacle was transferring the girl and her mother from Louisiana to the North East (can't remember where) until the Governor of Louisiana had them flown there in his gubernatorial private plane.

I was amazed that the media, at least, seemed to see this as a heartwarming Christmas story rather than being -- as was I and the other Brits and other Europeans I knew there -- shocked and outraged that, in a country as wealthy as the US, all this hadn't been available to her and her mother as of right, rather than as an act of charity.