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I had a very strange morning with my RW mom in the hospital yesterday. First a little background, my mom is 82 and generally a sweetheart, kind and compassionate to people, an accomplished flower arranger and judge and does all the mom things expected from women of that generation excellently. She has a degree in English with a Drama minor. In most ways she is very intelligent. However, she is a wingnut. She's religious but not a fundie. I think she was just raised that way. My dad has been partially brain washed by her but he grew up in the depression in the inner city of Chicago. His dad was a carpenter, WWI vet who participated in the Bonus March on DC and I recently found out, joined the communist party. However, he was frequently out of work and my dad knew what it meant to scrape through life. My mom grew up downstate. Her dad had a PHD in genetics and was a corn breeder for Funks-G. She never knew that there was a depression growing up. Looking back she remembers her mom giving alot of food to homeless people but she never wanted for anything.
Anyway, like I said, in almost every way she has the heart of a liberal. My sis married a mostly homeless gay man down on his luck infected with HIV. She did it with eyes open wanting to give him some stability. They have since divorced but my mom, sis and Mike are still best friends, they shop together, talk on the phone all the time, Mike stays at my parents for long weekends, they have vacationed together, etc.
My dad has lung cancer, not real advanced yet but not good. He went in for a back problem but the pain medication affected his BP and breathing to the extent that they put him in ICU on a respirator last Monday. This morning they were supposed to take him off the respirator and since he has a do not resuscitate on his chart if he wasn't able to breathe on his own it could get dicey.
So my sis, mom and I are sitting in the waiting room (as opposed to waiting in the sitting room) and she has her transistor radio tuned to WLS, the local Chicago hate radio station, she never travels without it. Don Wade and Roma are on (mild fascists) apparently discussing the scripted photo-op from yesterday.
So, my mom says, "ooooh well Clinton staged every damn thing he did and wouldn't allow any protests, some lady said boo to him and got arrested on the spot." I roll my eyes and say, "at least his supporters didn't have to sign a loyalty oath to get in the door." She just shrugged in ignorance.
I then suggested she switch stations to 850 am (local AAR.) It took her a little while but she then said, "you don't listen to HIM, do you? He's crazy!"
It being Springer's time slot i say "Springer?"
"Oh, I hope to God you don't listen to that idiot."
"Springer?"
"No, that crazy guy Franken, he's not right upstairs!" (You must know she is a dittohead, rush is her god. After Agnew, Nixon and Ronnie Raygun.)
"Well, he's a Harvard grad, has taught at Harvard and he's hardly crazy. He meticulously documents everything he puts forth."
"He just makes stuff up, slants everything. Rush is the one who documents everything."
"Well, Franken is eying a Senate run sometime, is friends with many RWers like G. Gordon Liddy and seems well respected, but he is too moderate for my tastes."
"MODERATE? Are you kidding me? he's the left of the left, he's a communist!"
She turns the radio off, Deborah Roe (inarticulate, uninformed mild fascist) is subbing and she doesn't like her. (thank god!)
We both know it's best not to talk politics so we change the subject to my Dad. She says that at least he is getting nourishment through a feeding tube now because he wasn't eating hardly at all. The chemo has killed his appetite. I mention medical marijuana is supposed to help the appetite. As I do so my sister rolls her eyes and prepares for another onslaught. Both my sisters and I grew up in the 60's and 70's and partook liberally, but NEVER broached the subject with our parents.
So my mom says, "I'd like to try that."
Needless to say, sis and I were floored. My mom went on to ask if I knew a source. I replied that many of my old friends still partake and I could ask around. My older sis was the real hippie and druggie back in the day. She moved out to Salt Lake to clean up her act and quit drugs, went vegan and organic, got reborn into fundy-ism (you should have heard some of our conversations, whew) she got married and did all the fundy church things. Unfortunately she developed breast cancer. My mom went out and stayed with her for the last 3 months of her life and apparently sis resumed toking to help her cope. My mom said it was a godsend. I mentioned to my mom that you don't have to smoke it, you can bake in in brownies. She asked for the recipe.
So, on a day I thought may be my Dad's last I had one of the strangest conversations in my life. My old fashioned, apple pie baking, bunnypants adoring mom wants me to score some weed for her,illegally of course. She really has the heart of a liberal (graciously accepted a gay man into the family, open mind on pot, compassionate in deed if not in talk) but has been terribly brain washed. I don't think I will ever bring her around to realizing this but at least she is harmless except for her vote.
I guess that there is not really a point to make here, just that even rabid wingnuts sometime keep an open mind. The thought of my parents getting high at this stage is just too weird to keep to myself. If anyone has brownie recipes or experience with using pot in this manner any insight would be appreciated.
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