Terminology - Sticks and Stones

A few days ago I posted my reasons for planning to vote Democratic on Tuesday. In that piece I used the term "Republicants" as a response to the habit of GOP members to call my party Democrat instead of Democratic.

My intent was to make a point with a bit of humor. Response to my post caused me to second guess the use of this word. The attention of those opposing my positions tended to focus more on this one word than the points I was trying to make. My own, visceral response to the term "Democrat Party" should have warned me that would happen. Not long ago I listened to an interview with a Republican candidate on the radio. Much of what he said sounded reasonable and well-thought out. But he kept interjecting the term "Democrat Party" into his responses and every time he did, it made me less inclined to accept him at face value. For that reason, I have reconsidered using the term "Republicant."

I established this blog to state my positions (opinions) on issues that matter to me, hopefully in a manner that will convince those who differ to at least consider another side of those issues. Most opponents will be unmoved by my prose, some will react with anger and vitriol no matter how much logic and temperance I employ, but perhaps some few will pause and think "so that's where the other side is coming from."

I try to listen to different viewpoints. I even occasionally adjust my thinking after listening to those viewpoints. I do not come to my positions lightly and I do not expect others lightly to come by theirs. Screaming at each other in an attempt to drown each other out solves nothing, but oh, it is an easy pitfall in which to fall. I know it well. It is the reason I stated my intention to try to tamp down on my own tendency to rant when starting this blog.

Why I will vote Democratic on Tuesday

On November 2 I will vote Democratic because:

• I believe Senate Republicants had a genuine opportunity to positively affect legislation over the past 24 months and sacrificed it for political gamesmanship.
• I believe Republicant cries for fiscal responsibility lack credibility.
• I want to fix Social Security, not toss it on the tables of Wall Street casinos.
• I believe infrastructure investment is essential to this country's economic future.
• I believe in pro-active energy and environmental policies and regulation of food, drugs, the financial industry, trade and product safety.
• I am pro-choice, pro-gay rights and believe in the separation of church and state. I do not think the Republicant Party supports any part of this "agenda."
• I believe the 2008 presidential election was fairly won and I resent conservative right claims it was not.
• I believe the Democrats have a superior human rights record.
• I believe the interests of the super-wealthy and multinational corporations are more important to the Republicant Party than the interests of the American voters.
• There is no viable third party.

Note: When the Republicants stop using the term Democrat Party, I will stop using the term Republicant.

Getting Medical Attention

It hurt. It was late evening. I drove myself to the emergency room, parked and walked in. Registration asked if I needed help. I replied "Yes, please."

As I gave my insurance information and described my complaint, someone took my blood pressure, temperature and pulse. I was ushered into a cubicle, interviewed further, and the diagnostic tests began - blood, urine, ultra sound, MRI, X-ray. An IV was started. Yes, there was waiting between tests. But there was a process. I was being attended to. A diagnosis was made. Arrangements were made for admission. There was a further wait for a room. In the early morning hours I was taken to that room. Admittedly it was a bare bones affair in the section reserved for "overflow" patients, but I was receiving care.

After two days of care and additional tests, I got the operation I needed. A day and a half later I was discharged with careful instructions and meds.

I admit it. I take it for granted that if I am really sick, I will be able to get the medical help I need.

I worry about the recovery process and the arrival of the bills for the care I received because that is what I do - worry I mean. BUT, the health insurance my company struggles to pay each month will cover most of the costs. I am fairly confident I will be able to manage the rest without too much hardship.

I feel very fortunate. I cannot imagine how I would handle not being able to get that care. Yet I know that this country's health care resources are strained. We are not training enough physicians and other medical professionals to adequately serve our population and that population is aging. We have a new health care system that theoretically will make medical care available for just about everyone. But will we have the hospitals and personnel to back up that promise?

This past week brought home to me personally just how important that promise is.

Three Cheers for the Nursing Staff

As I sit here waiting for my final clearance from the surgeon so I can leave the hospital, I hear two different patients abusing the long suffering nursing staff. The patients are in the hospital because they are sick or injured. But their misery and complaints kept me awake all night and tried the patience of the nurses and aides. Health care professionals who already were over burdened by staffing shortages caused by illness and budget cuts. As I listen to staff's patient courteous response to these difficult patients I am impressed.

Given the long tough hours, difficult working conditions and sometimes downright abusive ingratitude, it amazes me anyone actually sticks to the profession. I am very, very grateful they do. I am especially grateful to all the RN's and health care professionals at Columbia Memorial Hospital who contributed to my care and comfort over the past week.

Campaign Finance: When you cannot follow the money... .

When you cannot follow the money behind hundreds of millions of dollars paid for election campaign ads on TV, radio, in the newspapers and the daily mail, you know the following:

• There are people and institutions that are willing to spend a great deal of money to get their candidates elected.
• These contributors do not want the public to know who they are.
• Even the shareholders of public companies cannot learn to whom and how much their companies are contributing.

Some concerns arise:

• Are the institutions using their funds in an attempt to "buy" the government?
• Do these anonymous donors have a secret agenda of which even the recipients of their largess are unaware?
• Since the donors are anonymous, is it possible foreign institutions, even foreign governments are trying to influence the U. S. elections?
• Many of the ads contain inaccuracies and out and out lies that only the well informed can discern.

When I, as an individual, contribute over $100 to a candidate's campaign, it always seems to become public. When these huge contributors, hiding behind so called charitable institutions, contribute millions, they appear able to do so without public fanfare.

This does not feel like American voters are engaged on an even playing field.

Foreclosure Moratorium Bad?

I hear the reasonable, soft-spoken voices of experts voice concern that a moratorium on foreclosures will prolong the housing crisis and delay the eventual recovery of the real estate market. They fear it will put the mortgage lenders in a difficult position. (Click on this post's title for a Wall Street Journal article on the subject.)

Just because these lenders forged paperwork when they could not locate the mortgage documents. Just because they attempted to streamline the foreclosure process with a tiny bit of perjury and skipping over a few minor details, like providing proof they owned the mortgages, surely is no reason for Draconian measures?

We all know they own these mortgages, right? Didn't they tell us so? Why should the lenders seeking foreclosures be tied up in red tape just to protect a few million homeowners and property titles for any new purchasers?

Ah, but wait. Wasn't it the mortgage lenders who tied up those mortgages in all that red tape to begin with?

Why Chile's Mining Rescue Grabbed Worldwide Attention

Mining is a dangerous occupation, carried on in narrow dark places deep in the earth's bowels by tough, hard-working people. Mining disasters rarely end with good news. The extraordinary effort made at Chile's San Jose mine that resulted in the rescue of all 33 miners and six rescue workers riveted our attention because it was technically difficult, there were many, many opportunities for missteps, until the last rescue worker returned to the surface there were no guarantees and it was an unprecedented event.

I often bemoan the media's obsessive inability to cover more than one story at a time. On Wednesday I checked in on the story throughout the day, rejoiced as the miners began to reach the surface and sighed in relief when the last rescue worker was once again safely above-ground.

In April 2010 no survivors were found and 29 miners died in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. It was the worst U. S. mine disaster in 40 years. The explosion came in the wake of eight citations of the mine during the preceding 12 months for methane-related mine safety violations. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/10/us/10westvirginia.html

On August 6, 2007 six miners were killed as the result of a catastrophic coal outburst at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah. Ten days later, three rescue works died in another coal outburst and rescue operations ceased. The U. S. Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) subsequently fined the mine operator (Genwal Resources, Inc.) $1.64 million, citing violations that "directly contributed to the deaths of six miners... ." The operator was cited for 11 additional, noncontributory violations. Engineering consultant Agapito Associates Inc. was fined $220,000 for faulty analysis of the mine's design. http://www.msha.gov/MEDIA/PRESS/2008/NR080724.asp

Coal mining, with its vulnerability to catastrophic explosions is especially dangerous. In addition to the West Virginia accident last April also saw an accident in China's Shanxi province in which 153 miners were trapped when an underground pit flooded. Most were rescued. But in another province 40 were killed in an underground explosion. By some estimates China loses thousands of miners to accidents every year. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1978668,00.html

So witnessing the spectacular rescue of 33 men who had been trapped 2300 feet under the earth's surface for 69 days was an intense, memorable experience we can only hope may somehow, someway improve the odds for all miners.