Five years ago today, my then partner, Craig Hamrick, passed away after a long battle with colon cancer.  He passed early in the morning, around 7:30am, following ten days in hospice.

Craig fought his cancer valiantly for almost four years after his diagnosis.  He survived a colon resection, a liver resection, the removal of a brain tumor, and rounds and rounds of chemotherapy.  He had an incredible will to live, and I learned after he passed that his doctors hadn’t really expected him to survive much beyond a year. 

Fourteen-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer took his own life on Sunday after years of bullying.  Ironically, Jamey recorded a video for the “It Gets Better” campaign back in May of this year.  Anderson Cooper recaps Jamey’s story in the video below, and he reveals several politicians and organization leaders who believe that bullying isn’t a problem.

With the emphasis on “attempting.”

Barack Obama revealed his deficit plan today in a speech in the White House Rose Garden.  The New York Times reports that Obama is seeking $1.5 trillion in tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.  Of course, Republicans screamed “class warfare” which sounds like a white person yelling “reverse racism.”  I love how these people in positions of power appropriate the language of the oppressed to describe their positions.  Makes absolutely no sense at all.

In yesterday’s New York Times, Erik Eckholm shed some important light on a community in Wisconsin struggling with bullying and homosexuality.  Here’s the article.  The Anoka-Hennepin School District has faced eight student deaths attributed to suicides over the past two years, and it’s believed that four of those students who killed themselves were struggling with issues of sexual identity.  District policy states that teachers must remain neutral on issues of sexual orientation, which means that teachers cannot discuss or mention sexual orientation in any way.  Many teachers and administrators contest that this is preventing them from stopping the bullying in their classrooms and schools.

The days leading up to the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy have been filled with stories of loss and focused on the negative effects of that day.  Granted, the world as a whole changed drastically, and countless individuals’ worlds changed to something beyond their recognition.  I woke up this morning, just ahead of the time that the first plane hit the North Tower back in 2001, and I noted that moment.  I started my day thinking that I might succeed in avoiding some of the media coverage, but before long, I found myself in front of the television, watching and listening to people read the names of loved ones lost.  I made it through about 30 names or so, and then changed the channel.  It was too much, and I felt a bit like I was choking.