FOR WANT OF A NAIL: CHILDREN’S NURSERY RHYME
Louise Annarino
March 16, 2012
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
-“Confesio Amantis” – John Gower- 1390
-Benjamin Franklin – Poor Richard’s Almanac
“During World War II, this verse was framed and hung on the wall of the Anglo-American Supply Headquarters in London, England.” http://www.rhymes.org.uk/index.htm
Pick up your hammers and drive the message home that we cannot allow a misdirected effort to reduce deficit allowing the United States of America’s middle class, the glue that holds together any democracy, to be lost “for want of a nail”. David Cameron, Prime Minister of Great Britain,who recently paid a state visit to the United States,and President Barack Obama probably did not recite together the nursery rhyme “For Want of a Nail” during their talks; although it has long history on both sides of the pond. Many Americans and Brits seem to have forgotten it, and are failing to heed its wisdom. Vice-President Joe Biden’s speech to UAW workers in Toledo indicates that the Obama Administration has not forgotten the rhyme’s wisdom, and has the strength of conviction to supply the nails to keep the country working.
There are those who cry President Obama does too much; he’s a socialist! There are those who say he does too little; he’s in bed with Wall Street! I would remind each side of another nursery rhyme, “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. President Obama is helping our economy, our energy development, our environment, our health care protections, our food-water-air safety, immigration reform, women’s rights, LGBT rights, voting rights etc. “just right”. Would the president like to see less obstruction and more cooperation from House and Senate Republicans for even better outcomes? Of course. But, the Republicans have indicated since the election, even before President Obama was sworn into office and daily since, that their primary goal is a failed presidency; thus, the country’s failure. Republicans continue to withhold the nails needed to build the country and ensure its economic security. Holding back the nails males it difficult for the president to rebuild America. The fact that he has accomplished so much despite such obstruction is because as Joe Biden put it, the president is “tough as nails”.
We must elect those who agree we cannot suffer the U.S.’s failure “for want of a nail” to the House and the Senate. Support the Obama-Biden ticket. Support Democrats willing to hammer some nails alongside Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Elect Democrats who are tough as nails.
Help get out the vote. Help others to obtain the I.D. they will need to vote, get them registered to vote, then provide transportation to the polls. BE the hammer! BE the nail!
annarino writes 
THE LONG HAUL
Poetry saved me once thirty years ago when CFS laid me low. So low, I could no longer stand, sit up, kneel, walk nor talk. In fact, speech made no sense to me. When others spoke I heard noise, not language. Exhaustion over took every cell and the energy needed to operate cell function. It was an “all systems fail” experience that lasted for decades. Speech slowly returned after several months, as bits and pieces dropped from my lips, grammar-less and word substitution raising eyebrows when I attempted communication. It took one and one-half years to complete a single Easy Crossword puzzle. One puzzle, not the entire book. I relearned numbers and their relationships playing solitaire as I lay in bed. I learned to stand, then walk again; first with a walker, then years with a cane. I learned to read and write again, haltingly at first.
Poetry saved me. It gave me my first words. One morning I woke and picked up the empty journal by my bed, lifted the pen by its side and for the first time in more than a year I wrote nonsense for two pages until a poem suddenly appeared. This is the poem:
Snippets
like puppets
of the imagination
strung together
in the mind,
all mine.
With you they dance
in the breeze
of conversation.
Disjointed,
unanointed by grammar.
Flailing, distracted
emotion woodenly enacted.
Words tossed
together and apart
from the wound that is my heart.
what a performance!
I walk without aids now, 1-2 miles at a time. I garden. I paint. I write a blogs of poetry, commentaries, political essays. Before health restricted my ability to engage in personal contact with others I was able to be socially and politically active, personally. Now, I rely on words to show love and move others to action. Words I once lost are now my only connection to a fully lived life.
I worry for Covid long-haulers and what they will go through. At least they will be believed. Those of us with CFS(sometimes called ME, CFIDS etc) have seldom been believed. Only within the last year has my illness been given an ICD code although it has been a recognized disease by the CDC for decades. The reason this happened is because researches recognize the same symptoms in Covid long-haulers and thought it prudent to look at those with CFS. However, no data was organized enough to research since without an ICD code there was no effort to track patients like myself. Our medical histories are hidden and untraceable. My records will show only “easily fatigued.” That is the least of the symptoms; the result of the struggle against the underlying systems fails. Fatigue is not the disease itself. My hope is that we will not dismiss nor diminish the long-haulers who seek medical care in the decades to come. My hope is they will find the words needed to connect them to more fully lived lives. Life is good. The struggle is worth it. I pray they never lose hope. I pray they find the poetry of their lives.
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Tagged as CDC, Covid, ICD codes, long haulers, ME, poetry, recovery, rehabilitation