I have trouble getting my mind around this

Mildred Loving died today. Who is that? I'd never heard of her so I went on to read her obituary.

This is what blew my mind away:

Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws banning racially mixed marriages in at least 17 states.

We're not talking about 1900 or 1930 or even 1950. This was 1967 and I was 12 years old. Did I have my head buried like an ostrich or something? And how could there have been laws against interracial marriages as late as 1967 anyway? How barbaric is that?

That just brings to mind a few other things that blow my mind away:

how late in this century it was before there was such a concept as civil rights for all, regardless of color, religion or handicap

how we, too, interred citizens in camps

how there was mass murder and extermination here ...

in the United States.

The idea that so many people were killed by the cyclone in Myanmar blows my mind too but I am sure lots of people are blogging about that.

Mildred Loving just kicks me in the gut though.

When I was a kid, I remember when Columbia, Maryland was being planned and then built. I remember talk of it being a haven for people and I wondered what that was all about. Now I get it. Columbia was actually way ahead of its time.

From Wikipedia:

It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not just in terms of economics and engineering. Opened in 1967, Columbia was designed to not only eliminate the inconveniences of then-current subdivision design, but also eliminate racial, religious, and income segregation.

Mrs. Loving and her husband actually got married in 1958...and they were arrested not long after that. They didn't go to jail but they did have to leave Virginia where they'd both been born and bred. They were exiled for like 25 years. That's a long time to be forced away from your home. I just can't imagine that it would happen because a person of one race loved a person of another enough to marry.

WTF?

I'm very glad that we don't have stupid laws like that anymore ... or do we?

Reality Bytes: I had my echo today. I don't know the results yet but everything went okay.

TB went back to the doctor for his legs. The doctor wants him to take double the dose of antibiotic and also sent him for an ultrasound of his legs to make sure there are no clots. We are grateful to everyone for their good wishes and prayers, we need more prayers for sure!