America is not great in the eyes of some. I was born in 1953 on Spring Street. You know, Avalon Nursing Home.

It was known as the Colored Hospital back then. It was great for Mama, with the best medical care available and everything.

I didn’t know much about any of it then, but it sure was a great place for a colored woman, or any woman, for that matter, to give birth.

For sure, there were people around who felt that access to competent medical care for colored folk was foul and unnecessary.

But thanks to norms, human rights laws, constitutional freedoms, Hippocratic oaths, and basic decency and dignity, it was great for Mama. I didn’t know how great things were for her, nor how great life security was for me, only an infant.

Not knowing how great life was for me, and with Mama being

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