(2016) WHEN THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE ABANDONED ME...
Kathy's advocacy for Atomic Veterans to the President's office led to President Obama issuing a directive that help be offered to Victoria...
I read a bit of Victoria’s story and was absolutely shocked, I had never heard anything like it, still haven’t.
Reading other wild stories on social media, I found truth was really stranger than fiction in our nuclear community. I’d heard that President Obama had an outreach of reading and answering a few emails or letters a month. I decided, why not me? I wrote the White House various emails every week on behalf of 3 people I didn’t know, a few months in I had a shock. I’d began helping strangers on Facebook in 2015, after attempts to help my father’s radiation exposure claim after he’d lost half a lung, yet still wasn’t qualifying under RECA. |
My first thought was OMG, I don’t know this person.
I had picked their story off Facebook, I’m going to sound like an insane stalker! What I didn’t realize was I had not only chosen a stranger on Facebook, but Victoria was a well-established fine artist in complex cancer treatments laying in a hospital bed at Stanford Medical Center. |
In the end...
The White House had mailed her official recognition and documentation of her communication, yet having spent decades of denials towards my parents, I warned Kathy not to get her hopes up but thanked her for all she had done. Her pro-activism within the Children of Atomic Veterans community got my attention. And while I expressed my skepticism in Mr. Bell's ability to get me any assistance, I optimistically wished him luck. The commarderie turned into a kinship with Kathy durning the weeks or months it took for us to get a response from Mr. Bell stating;
"I' m sorry. I can not find any program or initiave to fit you in."
"I' m sorry. I can not find any program or initiave to fit you in."
Bab·y·lon
"Refers to a place of captivity and the power structures that keeps them there."
"Refers to a place of captivity and the power structures that keeps them there."