This one's for you!

NURSES

When someone I loved almost died, nurses took them from my arms into their own. They scrambled and they were flat out pros. They knew exactly what to do do and how to do it, and they saved that precious life.

When I was a fifteen-year-old, pregnant child in labor, told I’d have to have a C-section, I was terrified. But there were were nurses who took care of me. There was one nurse, an older woman, who would give me a back rub with Jergens Lotion every night. She'd tape a little sandwich to the bed-tray so I could reach it.

I can’t tell you how much I rely on the nurses in my life, or how many lives are made better, and even saved by virtue of their existence.

Nurses, I hope you know how deeply you touch lives. I am sixty-tree years old, and I’ll never forget that nurse who cared for me when I was a teenage mom without anyone else to do so. And I’ll never ever be able to thank enough, the team at the ER the night I nearly lost someone precious. I could have lost them, but I didn’t lose them because of those nurses.

TEACHERS

I remember learning to read my very first word. I remember the teacher with a big freestanding flipchart with those huge metal rings through the top. The first page had the letter a, the small one. No sense confusing us with capitals just yet. The second page had a b, and the third page a c.

As we examined each letter, the teacher told us the sound it made, and we all repeated after her. This was incredible to me. I felt like I’d been looking at the text in books and wondering how to decipher it forever. It was important, and frustrating, and absolutely killing me.

But that day, it all changed, when the teacher flipped to the fourth page, where the three letters we’d just learned were put together to form the word “cab.” "

“Who can read this word?” she asked.

My hand shot up so fast I might’ve dislocated my shoulder, and she called on me, and I read. I read! I read a word! I was maybe 6 years old. I remember it so vividly I’m crying as I tell you about it. That teacher unlocked the mysteries of the universe for me that day. And I’ve written countless words since—115 books full of them!

Teachers, you are the most intimate companions of our children besides ourselves. You are some of the most important adults in our kids’ lives. Your influence lasts for a lifetime. You open minds, you change lives, you guide our children in way even you might not fully appreciate. It goes deep and lasts a lifetime.

WOMEN

I bet there are lots of you out there who could write similar lines in appreciation of all the other professions the barely literate wrestlemania lady says are no longer “professional.” The architects, and accountants, the physicians assistants and physical therapists, the audiologists and social workers. If these folks were not professional, bad things would happen to us and the people we love. But most of them are professional and they keep bad things from happening. And for that, I am grateful.

I think most of us feel the same way. You folks in those jobs, most of whom are women and other minority groups, are vitally important to the lives of all the rest of us. Every last one of us has relied on the people in many of these positions.

I hope you all know, you professionals, that you are loved, appreciated, and deeply respected. We understand your education and your expertise and your experience make you the right person for the right job and the right time, without which life would be chaos.

I hope you all know that the purpose behind this "demotion" is obvious. It makes it harder for some people (non-white, non-male people) to get an education and a good job. Taking away the “professional” designation from those careers removes eligibility for federal student loans beyond bachelor level and disqualifies folks in those jobs, who are mostly women and People of Color, from receiving a single cent of federal loan forgiveness.

We all know that this isn’t about your skills or professionalism. It’s clearly about racism and misogyny. We aren’t idiots.

You are consummate professionals and the whole world can see it!

Nurses and teachers got us through a pandemic. Many of you got sick multiple times, and had to stop going home to your families to keep them safe. You gave up so much during those awful years! Many of you died.

The people disrespecting you are the ones who are unworthy of their jobs. This nonsense is destined to be reversed, but in the meantime please know how much all the people you help appreciate and respect your skill, your caring, and your professionalism.

I am so deeply sorry for this insult our government has hurled at you, but you must know it’s not how the rest of us feel.

We love you and moreover, we need you.

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SPECIAL RELEASE! Multi-Author Omnibus

6 Amazing Authors

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