Storytelling
Storytelling
It’s been three years since our children were killed
Three years ago today my daughters, Yusor and Razan, and my son-in-law Deah were murdered by a neighbor with hate in his heart. This is the story of how they lived.
Six weeks before my daughters, Yusor and Razan, and my son-in-law, Deah Barakat, were murdered, I danced with Yusor at her wedding.
Less than two months later, all three of my children were savagely shot execution style in their own apartment by a neighbor. They did nothing to warrant the attack. They did not deserve the horrific way they died. They were simply targeted by a man with hatred in his heart.
That was three years ago today. Some people now associate the names of my children with how they died, but Yusor, Razan, and Deah should be remembered for how they lived.
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The reality of being poor and sick in America.
Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress want to take away 22 million Americans’ healthcare. I’m one of them. That’s a reality I won’t survive.
The moment I finally realized what it meant to be poor and sick in America, I was sitting by myself in the cancer center an hour from my home. I had arrived early for my infusion that day, checked in and gotten that day’s hospital bracelet. Before I could be hooked up to an I.V., I was pulled into a side room, and told my insurance had declined my claim. Unless I could pay the $15,000 the single infusion would cost, I had to go home — without my medicine.
Without insurance, my treatment would cost me $130k a year—more than four times what I made annually. I thanked the woman and pulled the hospital bracelet until it snapped from my wrist.
I managed to make it downstairs to wait for my ride before I started sobbing. I was 25 and had just been told the countdown to my death had begun — all because my life was bad for their bottom line.
This is the reality that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans want to take us back to. It’s the reality that Paul Ryan and Donald Trump celebrated together in the White House Rose Garden. And it’s a reality in which I cease to exist.