As we all know, the health insurance situation in this country is a depressing and disgraceful joke. I have a friend who is gearing up for his third round with brain cancer. He just turned 30 last summer. The tumor is inoperable and has been growing deeper into his brain. As you can imagine, he is really looking forward to the 43 days of chemo and radiation that he has in his near future. He knows how he does with chemo (not well), but the radiation is a mystery to him.
As if that's not enough to stress a guy out, he also has to figure out how to pay for everything. He is off work on disability. He does have Medicare, but that's not exactly a free ride: There are still deductibles and co-pays; claims can be turned down if Medicare feels they are not necessary; not everyone accepts Medicare, so you don't necessarily have your pick of doctors unless you want to pick up the bill yourself; and, of course, there are limits. Medicare is not an endless resource. As with other insurance, there is a dollar limit per illness.
Add to all of that his rent, electric, car payment, gas, and all the other normal expenses we all have all the time. As I said before, he's off on disability, so of course he isn't drawing his full pay.
So what is he supposed to do? If you think his case is unique, you are either naive or a fool. It isn't. This happens all the time. In the United States of America, where the majority of the richest people in the entire world live, people have to make decisions everyday about where to spend their money: the doctor or the rent; their prescriptions or food; Christmas for their kids or the hospital for the pesky cough that they just cannot shake.
My friend has opted to have a fundraiser. Yes, that's right. A fundraiser. To pay for his medical care. Only in America.
If you have anything at all that you can give, the link to his fundraiser is below. Even if you can't afford anything right now, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
Steve's Counterpunch to Cancer
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
It's really not that complicated...
A couple hundred years ago, a new society was created. This burgeoning society decided it needed laws as well as a way to uphold those laws. Over the years, this society changed its mind from time to time regarding the specific laws in place, but it never changed its mind about having laws or about having a legal system to enforce those laws.
The idea was that the laws would apply to everyone. The purpose of the laws was to protect individuals and society. Often the intent was to protect from physical harm - though far too often laws were intended to protect from moral harm or were based on the beliefs of a certain religion - in order to provide safety to the citizenry.
Over the couple of hundred years this society has been around, the laws have changed. The laws have changed for different reasons. Sometimes new harms are created or discovered. Sometimes it is decided that people no longer need to be protected from a certain harm. Sometimes morality changes and the laws follow suit. Sometimes different religions and their beliefs take precedence. Sometimes religions themselves update their beliefs and relevant law follows suit.
How the laws came to be changed varies. Most of the time it was an incredibly boring and mundane process. A bill was introduced. People voted. The law changed. Sometimes it was not at all boring or mundane. Sometimes it required blood and sacrifice from countless people. Many slaves were owned, beaten, raped, abused, hanged, and generally dehumanized and many abolitionists were threatened, beaten, abused, raped, and killed before those particular laws were changed. A war was fought. A president was killed. And over 100 years later, life is still unequal.
Over the lifetime (to date) of this society, most people have followed the laws most of the time. This is part of what kept the society running, what allowed it to be successful. Yes, there have been laws that people so objected to that they were willing to lay down their very lives in order to get them overturned. And as long as this society (our society, just in case you didn't connect those dots) continues to base laws on religion-based morality, there will continue to be laws that people object to enough to risk their very lives in their efforts to get them overturned.
But the interesting thing is, these people who will lay down their lives in their efforts to see particular laws overturned generally do their protesting legally. If they march, they get a permit. If they have a rally, they get a permit. They don't resort to hate speech. They don't incite violence. They don't act violently.
Which brings me to my point.
Laws provide order. Laws help us avoid chaos. They are necessary. When there are laws that aren't fair or right or just, when there are laws that need to be overturned, there are legal ways to go about getting that done. And citizens have been doing just that for over 200 years.
So here's where it gets really simple: You don't get to pick and choose which laws you follow and which you ignore. If you don't agree with the law, work within the law to get it changed. If you decide not to do that, if you decide to simply disregard the law and carry on your merry way, be prepared to pay the price. Thinking the law is stupid is no excuse for breaking it. You may get lucky and get away with it. But if you don't, if you get caught, if you get punished, don't be surprised. And don't whine about how unfair it is. Put on your big boy/girl pants and face the music.
It's really not that complicated.
The idea was that the laws would apply to everyone. The purpose of the laws was to protect individuals and society. Often the intent was to protect from physical harm - though far too often laws were intended to protect from moral harm or were based on the beliefs of a certain religion - in order to provide safety to the citizenry.
Over the couple of hundred years this society has been around, the laws have changed. The laws have changed for different reasons. Sometimes new harms are created or discovered. Sometimes it is decided that people no longer need to be protected from a certain harm. Sometimes morality changes and the laws follow suit. Sometimes different religions and their beliefs take precedence. Sometimes religions themselves update their beliefs and relevant law follows suit.
How the laws came to be changed varies. Most of the time it was an incredibly boring and mundane process. A bill was introduced. People voted. The law changed. Sometimes it was not at all boring or mundane. Sometimes it required blood and sacrifice from countless people. Many slaves were owned, beaten, raped, abused, hanged, and generally dehumanized and many abolitionists were threatened, beaten, abused, raped, and killed before those particular laws were changed. A war was fought. A president was killed. And over 100 years later, life is still unequal.
Over the lifetime (to date) of this society, most people have followed the laws most of the time. This is part of what kept the society running, what allowed it to be successful. Yes, there have been laws that people so objected to that they were willing to lay down their very lives in order to get them overturned. And as long as this society (our society, just in case you didn't connect those dots) continues to base laws on religion-based morality, there will continue to be laws that people object to enough to risk their very lives in their efforts to get them overturned.
But the interesting thing is, these people who will lay down their lives in their efforts to see particular laws overturned generally do their protesting legally. If they march, they get a permit. If they have a rally, they get a permit. They don't resort to hate speech. They don't incite violence. They don't act violently.
Which brings me to my point.
Laws provide order. Laws help us avoid chaos. They are necessary. When there are laws that aren't fair or right or just, when there are laws that need to be overturned, there are legal ways to go about getting that done. And citizens have been doing just that for over 200 years.
So here's where it gets really simple: You don't get to pick and choose which laws you follow and which you ignore. If you don't agree with the law, work within the law to get it changed. If you decide not to do that, if you decide to simply disregard the law and carry on your merry way, be prepared to pay the price. Thinking the law is stupid is no excuse for breaking it. You may get lucky and get away with it. But if you don't, if you get caught, if you get punished, don't be surprised. And don't whine about how unfair it is. Put on your big boy/girl pants and face the music.
It's really not that complicated.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Bet you don't know where this is going...
You're so mean,
When you talk about yourself.
You were wrong.
Change the voices in your head
Make them like you instead.
~Pink, lyrics from the song Perfect
So I happen to love this song. If you are not familiar with it, look up the rest of the lyrics. It's a really lovely song.
One of the reasons I love the song, of course, is because I can so relate to it. More often than not, the voices in my head are not particularly kind to me. From time to time I do try to make them be a bit nicer, but so far I have not had much long-term success with this. Depression certainly doesn't help. Just as the negative self talk doesn't help the depression. It's an ugly cycle.
It does help, though, to have people in your life who think you are good enough just as you are. Better than good enough even. I have a couple of friends who think I am wonderful and can do nearly anything. It makes me uncomfortable on the one hand, but all warm and fuzzy and liked on the other hand. It confuses me, makes me wonder what exactly people see when they look at me (when they look at ME that is, not just my candy coating).
The bottom line point here though (I made myself have one) is that I love my friends. The real ones. The ones who know me well enough to know about the stupid things I think and say and do and still think I'm wonderful and can do nearly anything. Because you see, I have some friends who are simply amazing people. And if those people think I am worthy, then I must be!
Friends rock.
When you talk about yourself.
You were wrong.
Change the voices in your head
Make them like you instead.
~Pink, lyrics from the song Perfect
So I happen to love this song. If you are not familiar with it, look up the rest of the lyrics. It's a really lovely song.
One of the reasons I love the song, of course, is because I can so relate to it. More often than not, the voices in my head are not particularly kind to me. From time to time I do try to make them be a bit nicer, but so far I have not had much long-term success with this. Depression certainly doesn't help. Just as the negative self talk doesn't help the depression. It's an ugly cycle.
It does help, though, to have people in your life who think you are good enough just as you are. Better than good enough even. I have a couple of friends who think I am wonderful and can do nearly anything. It makes me uncomfortable on the one hand, but all warm and fuzzy and liked on the other hand. It confuses me, makes me wonder what exactly people see when they look at me (when they look at ME that is, not just my candy coating).
The bottom line point here though (I made myself have one) is that I love my friends. The real ones. The ones who know me well enough to know about the stupid things I think and say and do and still think I'm wonderful and can do nearly anything. Because you see, I have some friends who are simply amazing people. And if those people think I am worthy, then I must be!
Friends rock.
Monday, February 18, 2013
I'm sorry, what year is this?
So I just ran across an article on cnn.com with this title: Lawsuit: Race-based request sidelined Michigan nurse. In a nutshell, a man asked that no African-Americans be allowed to care for his baby. So Tonya Battle -- who has worked at the hospital for 25 years -- was reassigned. A note was even added to the baby's chart that no African-Americans be allowed to care for the baby, per dad's request.
Now, I do think parents have a responsibility to be sure their children receive the best care possible, and I do think parents have a right to question those caring for their children. I even think parents have the right to ask that a particular caretaker stay away, when there is a legitimate reason. Legitimate reasons when it comes to hospital staff are going to be few and far between. If you actually witness someone mistreating your child, that would be a legitimate reason. If someone is just completely inappropriate with you and so you don't want to deal with them, that would be a legitimate reason. And by inappropriate I mean someone who is actually verbally abusive or someone who sexually harasses you. I do not mean someone who is rude or who doesn't kowtow to your every whim.
If a parent doesn't want an African-American or a homosexual or a woman or little green men caring for his child, then he has the right to stand by that choice. But that's something he needs to take into account when choosing a doctor's office or a hospital. If he has difficulty finding a facility that meets his requirements, well, that's his problem. He even has the right to go into the hospital and request that no African-Americans care for his child. However, and this is where this story goes off the rails, the hospital should absolutely have told him they would not honor that request, that they did not making staffing decisions based on the racist whims of their patients.
I don't have children, I admit that. However, it seems to me that if I did have a baby, I would be interested in having the very best caring for that baby. A nurse who has been with the facility for twenty-five years is likely good at her job. If she wasn't, she would have left, been fired, or been forced out before now.
I cannot imagine caring if the doctors and nurses are black or white or brown or blue or green. I cannot imagine caring if the doctors and nurses are Christian or Jewish or Hindu. I cannot imagine caring if the doctors and nurses are total hotties or complete toads. I cannot imagine caring if the doctors and nurses prefer same-sex or opposite-sex bed partners. None of that would matter when it came to the care of my child.* All that would matter would be that my child was cared for.
The article also mentions that the hospital lawyer objected to the hospital's actions, at which point the note was removed from the baby's file and the father was told that his request would no longer be honored. Assuming this was done before the story hit the news, then bravo. Someone in that hospital has a brain.
Finally, it makes me so sad that a parent made this request in 2013 (or 2012 or 2011 or whenever this happened). Sometimes it seems we will never move beyond this kind of stupidity in this country.
*Okay, none of that matters anyway, ever, not just when discussing the care of an infant. Well there is one time when it matters. When you're hoping to invite a particular person to be your bedmate and that person prefers whichever sex you are not... well, that's a bit of a problem.
Now, I do think parents have a responsibility to be sure their children receive the best care possible, and I do think parents have a right to question those caring for their children. I even think parents have the right to ask that a particular caretaker stay away, when there is a legitimate reason. Legitimate reasons when it comes to hospital staff are going to be few and far between. If you actually witness someone mistreating your child, that would be a legitimate reason. If someone is just completely inappropriate with you and so you don't want to deal with them, that would be a legitimate reason. And by inappropriate I mean someone who is actually verbally abusive or someone who sexually harasses you. I do not mean someone who is rude or who doesn't kowtow to your every whim.
If a parent doesn't want an African-American or a homosexual or a woman or little green men caring for his child, then he has the right to stand by that choice. But that's something he needs to take into account when choosing a doctor's office or a hospital. If he has difficulty finding a facility that meets his requirements, well, that's his problem. He even has the right to go into the hospital and request that no African-Americans care for his child. However, and this is where this story goes off the rails, the hospital should absolutely have told him they would not honor that request, that they did not making staffing decisions based on the racist whims of their patients.
I don't have children, I admit that. However, it seems to me that if I did have a baby, I would be interested in having the very best caring for that baby. A nurse who has been with the facility for twenty-five years is likely good at her job. If she wasn't, she would have left, been fired, or been forced out before now.
I cannot imagine caring if the doctors and nurses are black or white or brown or blue or green. I cannot imagine caring if the doctors and nurses are Christian or Jewish or Hindu. I cannot imagine caring if the doctors and nurses are total hotties or complete toads. I cannot imagine caring if the doctors and nurses prefer same-sex or opposite-sex bed partners. None of that would matter when it came to the care of my child.* All that would matter would be that my child was cared for.
The article also mentions that the hospital lawyer objected to the hospital's actions, at which point the note was removed from the baby's file and the father was told that his request would no longer be honored. Assuming this was done before the story hit the news, then bravo. Someone in that hospital has a brain.
Finally, it makes me so sad that a parent made this request in 2013 (or 2012 or 2011 or whenever this happened). Sometimes it seems we will never move beyond this kind of stupidity in this country.
*Okay, none of that matters anyway, ever, not just when discussing the care of an infant. Well there is one time when it matters. When you're hoping to invite a particular person to be your bedmate and that person prefers whichever sex you are not... well, that's a bit of a problem.
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