Will the same Supreme Court that gave us Citizens' United and decided the 2000 Presidential election overthrow the Universal Health Care Act? It is beginning to look like it might.
The argument is that citizens cannot be forced to buy a product. But we already are forced to buy car insurance if we drive. Businesses must buy unemployment, disability and workers compensation insurance. Businesses and individuals must pay into social security and medicare insurance.
Don't get me wrong. I was not a big fan of the Health Care Act. I wanted a single-payer system and did not believe that control of our access to health care belonged in the private sector. But after roughly a century of attempting to pass health care legislation, Medicaid, Medicare and the Health Care Act were all this country could achieve. Is it really a good idea to discard it and return to the bad old days when insurance companies could pick and choose who they insured and for how long?
Unless hospitals and emergency rooms actually begin denying care to the uninsured, we will continue to pay for that health care. We will pay through higher health care costs to those who can afford it and higher insurance premiums for everyone who is willing to pay for insurance and can manage to afford it.
Are we willing to stand by as accident victims are left at the curb? As the grievously ill are turned away? As those carrying contagious diseases are left untreated? If the Court decides it is every man, woman and child for themselves, we will be faced with bitter costs indeed - costs that will be assessed on our quality of life and the stability of our social conventions and public institutions and our increased victimization by private insurers and big pharma.
Shoot, maybe the Court will declare Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid unconstitutional too while they are at it.
Here's what I think...
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
IMO Lee - The Playing Field is NOT Even
Lee (1945-2005)
New York State
In the 1980’s he received a lump sum settlement for injuries he sustained in an accident. He used part of the proceeds for a down payment on a house on the street where I live. His house was the second on our 2-block street to be owned by a black family. I first became aware of Lee during my walks. I frequently came across him doing yard work for my neighbors and we started to exchange polite hellos in passing.
One day, I asked him if he was interested in caring for my yard. I wanted to give my husband of a summer free from yard chores as an anniversary gift. From that time, until the winter before he died, he took charge of our yard. Lee loved tending gardens and soon convinced me to plant a couple of trees and put in more flowers. Sometimes he hired someone to work with him. Lee and another (white) neighbor divided the care of about 80 percent of the houses on my block. Since I worked from home in those days, Lee and I gradually became friends through our chats on the days he did my lawn.
I can still hear his voice calling “Hey, Mare…” as he came around the back of the house (where I had my office) to remind me of some task that required doing or to ask if I had any extra jobs. Lee worked constantly at a multitude of different jobs. In the winter he did snow removal, in the spring, summer and fall, yard work, basement and attic cleanup, air conditioner installation and removal. He also regularly worked out at the local gym, where he was something of a legend for his prowess at weight lifting.
In May 2002 he and his crew moved my office from my house to downtown office space. He would sometimes drop by the new office to chat with me and my assistant.
When Lee bought his house, he took out a mortgage with a local bank. The bank sold his mortgage. During the 1990’s after property values in our neighborhood rose sharply, the mortgage company raised his interest rates and began charging heavy fees and penalties. It was only through the help of a good lawyer and the woman who loved him that Lee was able to pay off the mortgage and have the excess charges dropped. He came very close to losing his home. If the strange investment vehicles that have been developed since that time had been in existence, he probably would have lost his home, because the vehicles (like credit default swaps) are virtually impossible to unravel.
To this day I believe (1) the bank sold his mortgage because he was an uneducated black man; (2) the new mortgage company deliberately tried to foreclose on him and thought he was an easy target. My mortgage was with the same bank and until the day I paid it off, I was able to make my payments directly to the bank. Once Lee’s mortgage was sold, the place where he was supposed to send payments was changed several times and he confided to me that he received notice of the changes late and was given very little time in which to get his payments to them. Since credit card companies frequently use the tactic of shortening the grace period in order to collect exorbitant late fees and higher interest rates, I believed him. Additionally, time and again I saw evidence of his honesty.
When I hear of the obstacles people face trying to get their mortgages refinanced; paying escalating interest rates; balloon payments on loans they did not understand; inability to locate the current holder of the mortgage note, I think of what happened to Lee. This is part of the reason what has transpired in the financial industry over the past several years angers me. Money does not buy happiness. I know that. But I have yet to figure a way that folks can put a roof over their heads, food on their table, light and heat in their houses and clothes on their backs without it. And for the unwary, indebtedness is a form of involuntary servitude.
Every spring when the hyacinth and tulips bloom in my front yard, I see his face and believe that somewhere he is tending a beautiful flower garden under a bright but gentle sun. Lee was a friend of mine.
July 30, 2009
Lee was one of 19 children born to couple of sharecroppers in the Deep South. Twice as a young man he ran away. Twice the landowner had the sheriff bring him back in chains. Lee told me this story, informing me that into the 1960’s slavery still effectively existed in this country, but it had a different name – debt. The sharecroppers were tied to the land they worked by debts owed to the landowners for the shelter, food and seed they were forced to purchase from them.
Lee’s third attempt to escape was successful. He made his way to In the 1980’s he received a lump sum settlement for injuries he sustained in an accident. He used part of the proceeds for a down payment on a house on the street where I live. His house was the second on our 2-block street to be owned by a black family. I first became aware of Lee during my walks. I frequently came across him doing yard work for my neighbors and we started to exchange polite hellos in passing.
One day, I asked him if he was interested in caring for my yard. I wanted to give my husband of a summer free from yard chores as an anniversary gift. From that time, until the winter before he died, he took charge of our yard. Lee loved tending gardens and soon convinced me to plant a couple of trees and put in more flowers. Sometimes he hired someone to work with him. Lee and another (white) neighbor divided the care of about 80 percent of the houses on my block. Since I worked from home in those days, Lee and I gradually became friends through our chats on the days he did my lawn.
I can still hear his voice calling “Hey, Mare…” as he came around the back of the house (where I had my office) to remind me of some task that required doing or to ask if I had any extra jobs. Lee worked constantly at a multitude of different jobs. In the winter he did snow removal, in the spring, summer and fall, yard work, basement and attic cleanup, air conditioner installation and removal. He also regularly worked out at the local gym, where he was something of a legend for his prowess at weight lifting.
In May 2002 he and his crew moved my office from my house to downtown office space. He would sometimes drop by the new office to chat with me and my assistant.
When Lee bought his house, he took out a mortgage with a local bank. The bank sold his mortgage. During the 1990’s after property values in our neighborhood rose sharply, the mortgage company raised his interest rates and began charging heavy fees and penalties. It was only through the help of a good lawyer and the woman who loved him that Lee was able to pay off the mortgage and have the excess charges dropped. He came very close to losing his home. If the strange investment vehicles that have been developed since that time had been in existence, he probably would have lost his home, because the vehicles (like credit default swaps) are virtually impossible to unravel.
To this day I believe (1) the bank sold his mortgage because he was an uneducated black man; (2) the new mortgage company deliberately tried to foreclose on him and thought he was an easy target. My mortgage was with the same bank and until the day I paid it off, I was able to make my payments directly to the bank. Once Lee’s mortgage was sold, the place where he was supposed to send payments was changed several times and he confided to me that he received notice of the changes late and was given very little time in which to get his payments to them. Since credit card companies frequently use the tactic of shortening the grace period in order to collect exorbitant late fees and higher interest rates, I believed him. Additionally, time and again I saw evidence of his honesty.
When I hear of the obstacles people face trying to get their mortgages refinanced; paying escalating interest rates; balloon payments on loans they did not understand; inability to locate the current holder of the mortgage note, I think of what happened to Lee. This is part of the reason what has transpired in the financial industry over the past several years angers me. Money does not buy happiness. I know that. But I have yet to figure a way that folks can put a roof over their heads, food on their table, light and heat in their houses and clothes on their backs without it. And for the unwary, indebtedness is a form of involuntary servitude.
Every spring when the hyacinth and tulips bloom in my front yard, I see his face and believe that somewhere he is tending a beautiful flower garden under a bright but gentle sun. Lee was a friend of mine.
July 30, 2009
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Atheists in Foxholes
The first atheist I ever personally met was my husband's grandmother. Her daughter was not an atheist. Her grandsons were not and neither was her son-in-law. I remember my future husband mentioning in passing that his grandmother was a nonbeliever. He mentioned it in passing, flushing out his description of a person whom he loved and admired.
She was a tough lady. In 1939 she faced down the Nazis who attempted to block her emigration to America with her 15 year old daughter. She was a woman of enormous charm who had no illusions whatsoever about her fellow humans. She loved her daughter possessively and her grandsons devotedly. She was a dynamite bridge player, skilled at needlecraft and lived to work rather than working to live. She dined on steak and salad and drank Napoleon brandy straight-up.
I remember well how she detested growing old and crippled with arthritis. When her younger sister died in her mid-seventies, she declared her sister "had all the luck." Unable to give up or give in, she hated being OLD.
She did not bring up the subject of her unbelief or atheism unless you asked her. If you did, her answer was simple and straight-forward - I do not believe in God - period - end of discussion. No hint or suggestion you should emulate her. No attempts to proselytize her disbelief. Just a simple statement of fact - she did not believe in God.
I have never been in a foxhole and have no idea if atheists have existed there or not. But I did know one interesting, witty, non-conforming woman who remained an atheist through the holocaust, her years of struggle and success in post World War II United States and a brave and painful old age that ended just shy of her 100th birthday.
She was one of the two most interesting people I have known in my life (the other is my own mother). Somehow I do not feel the need to say RIP (she died in 1991). She lived and died an atheist - no fanfare about it - just a simple statement of unbelief.
She was a tough lady. In 1939 she faced down the Nazis who attempted to block her emigration to America with her 15 year old daughter. She was a woman of enormous charm who had no illusions whatsoever about her fellow humans. She loved her daughter possessively and her grandsons devotedly. She was a dynamite bridge player, skilled at needlecraft and lived to work rather than working to live. She dined on steak and salad and drank Napoleon brandy straight-up.
I remember well how she detested growing old and crippled with arthritis. When her younger sister died in her mid-seventies, she declared her sister "had all the luck." Unable to give up or give in, she hated being OLD.
She did not bring up the subject of her unbelief or atheism unless you asked her. If you did, her answer was simple and straight-forward - I do not believe in God - period - end of discussion. No hint or suggestion you should emulate her. No attempts to proselytize her disbelief. Just a simple statement of fact - she did not believe in God.
I have never been in a foxhole and have no idea if atheists have existed there or not. But I did know one interesting, witty, non-conforming woman who remained an atheist through the holocaust, her years of struggle and success in post World War II United States and a brave and painful old age that ended just shy of her 100th birthday.
She was one of the two most interesting people I have known in my life (the other is my own mother). Somehow I do not feel the need to say RIP (she died in 1991). She lived and died an atheist - no fanfare about it - just a simple statement of unbelief.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Leave Disaster Relief to the Professionals?
The tide of volunteers rushing to assist victims of the recent tornadoes evidently is complicating operations for professional disaster relief organizations and Homeland Security.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/05/10585734-disaster-volunteers-please-curb-your-enthusiasm
The linked article makes it clear only trained rescue workers who are registered are welcome. Understandable to some extent. There are downed power lines, leaking gas lines and other hazards. Unauthorized, unorganized visitors can hamper efforts to deal with them.
Setting up locations that provide clearinghouses and registration of incoming volunteers makes sense as long as the process does not become more important than the mission. It is hard not to remember the aftermaths of Katrina and Haiti where trained volunteers were turned away and government agencies and the large nonprofits appeared more interested in protecting their turf than using any means possible to deal with staggering calamities.
I am not completely convinced that a "leave it to the grownups" approach is productive. People helping people, banding together in joint efforts during times of struggle and disaster, is a survival skill - and one we lose at our own peril.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/05/10585734-disaster-volunteers-please-curb-your-enthusiasm
The linked article makes it clear only trained rescue workers who are registered are welcome. Understandable to some extent. There are downed power lines, leaking gas lines and other hazards. Unauthorized, unorganized visitors can hamper efforts to deal with them.
Setting up locations that provide clearinghouses and registration of incoming volunteers makes sense as long as the process does not become more important than the mission. It is hard not to remember the aftermaths of Katrina and Haiti where trained volunteers were turned away and government agencies and the large nonprofits appeared more interested in protecting their turf than using any means possible to deal with staggering calamities.
I am not completely convinced that a "leave it to the grownups" approach is productive. People helping people, banding together in joint efforts during times of struggle and disaster, is a survival skill - and one we lose at our own peril.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Rush Limbaugh is full of organic fertilizer
He ridicules women who want contraceptives covered by their health plans, suggesting they "hold an aspirin between their knees."
He suggests they should post tapes of their sexual encounters online.
He refers to them as sluts and prostitutes.
Only one conclusion occurs to me. Rush Limbaugh is full of organic (avian, bovine or equine, take your pick) fertilizer.
As the mother of two long since grown and married daughters, I can still remember how important it was to me that they be informed and comfortable about contraception options both before and after their marriages. Bringing an unplanned, unwanted child into an overpopulated world is not a responsible act. Yes there are women and girls barely out of childhood who chose to do this when faced with the "oops" of an unplanned pregnancy. Some small minority of them (one person in particular comes to mind) end up doing a great job raising their child. Many, many more make a sad hash of it.
Teenagers and unmarried young adults will be sexually active. Of course they will. To think otherwise is to live in an alternative universe. Depriving them of the tools that enable them to prevent pregnancy fails them personally and fails society.
Traditionally it is the female that pays the price for unwanted pregnancies. Misogynistic pundits like Rush Limbaugh do not deserve and should not have a voice in the matter.
Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are full of organic fertilizer.
He suggests they should post tapes of their sexual encounters online.
He refers to them as sluts and prostitutes.
Only one conclusion occurs to me. Rush Limbaugh is full of organic (avian, bovine or equine, take your pick) fertilizer.
As the mother of two long since grown and married daughters, I can still remember how important it was to me that they be informed and comfortable about contraception options both before and after their marriages. Bringing an unplanned, unwanted child into an overpopulated world is not a responsible act. Yes there are women and girls barely out of childhood who chose to do this when faced with the "oops" of an unplanned pregnancy. Some small minority of them (one person in particular comes to mind) end up doing a great job raising their child. Many, many more make a sad hash of it.
Teenagers and unmarried young adults will be sexually active. Of course they will. To think otherwise is to live in an alternative universe. Depriving them of the tools that enable them to prevent pregnancy fails them personally and fails society.
Traditionally it is the female that pays the price for unwanted pregnancies. Misogynistic pundits like Rush Limbaugh do not deserve and should not have a voice in the matter.
Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are full of organic fertilizer.
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