No, no knitting. I'm going to read more Sun magazines and get even more radicalized than I was in the 60s. This is not the time to quit trying to get, for the children to come, a better life and better world.
Earth Day is Today. *insert sigh* For some reason I thought Earth Day was the 21st of April but maybe that day was taken already? There are some major First Day of Spring celebrations already going on that day.
But, I was thinking of the Earth last night. I was wondering what happens when the magnetic poles reverse. Does the thin crust spin right off, carrying everything with it that we know and love, well, even things we hate or don't care that much about, too? The crust of the Earth is no thicker than the skin of an apple in relation to the apple. And it's rushing through space at an incredible speed while it spins away, faster than any turbine invented by puny mankind, Ruler of the Universe, Pissant in Reality. I mean this planet is little more than a dust mote in the Universe.
So, anyway, if this does happen, this shift, will all of life on Earth, as we know it, spin out and coalesce into a new and somewhat closer second Moon? Does it all happen in the twinkling of an eye simply because there are no eyes left to see it happening? New Heaven, New Earth, twinkling of an eye and all that.
And this melting going on of the polar caps, that means Antarctica's land mass is rising, and what is that doing to the rest of the crust. I mean, look how BIG that sucker is!
I wonder about all these things, lying awake in the dark when I cannot sleep for the torments of wondering just where my country is going with all this "stuff" the government is "up to".
This has been a strange week. But having learned that my daughter is going to be alright (Waiting For Godot), and learning that the kitchen is going to be finished -at last- threw me such a curve that the middle ground between up and down hit my mind with such anxiety that I've given up arguing in KR about health care.
Healthcare: Even if no one affected wants to get behind the movement to change, it seems short sighted, and foolish to assume that we can do NOTHING about it but talk, talk, talk about why going after what we need won't succeed in getting changes made. We sure as heck CAN do something about it.
But moving out the country to a better place or time no longer seems like the wisest thing to do, though I did consider it. What seems wisest is to stand up on those sturdy back legs and FIGHT! We need this change before we slide even farther down into gritty, grinding levels of poverty per capita and drag a lot of others in the world with us.
To be totally honest, I haven't listened to the Frontline broadcast about health care yet. I can only deal with one major spleen meltdown a week. (currently repairing said spleen after the broadcast about credit cards. even though it is from '04 it really really speaks volumes now in '08. will watch it this week)
ReplyDeleteBut one thing I want to say about healthcare. IF we are such a hot shot nation, and we still consider ourselves as an example for the world, and that Everyone wants to live here...then why:
aren't people ensured decent health care
babies, children, the elderly dieing due to lack of care
the working poor and the real middle class risking everything when there is a medical situation
Ahh! Only the financially better off can afford insurance...and to many times that is turned into a shell game. Only the wealthy can pay for good health care without worry of loosing everything.
But our "leaders" will not do anything about this inequity because they are afraid of the lobbies. Yet the people who voted them into office continue to suffer.
Damnation.
One more thing I want to get off my chest. These people who do NOT believe in universal health care are actually practicing economic Darwinism. Curious that so many of our elected leader do not believe in Darwin, but are blatantly excercising his theories!
Meribeth
Indeed Meribeth, they are! Everything you say is true about those who stand in the way of our country doing it's duty to the people. We are becoming a second rate nation in a spectacular slide down the statistical wall.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am going to fight for this one thing. The war is self evident in it's ruin, mockery of democratic values, and it's illegality. It will collapse on it's own and the ones who are responsible will be made to bear the scorn of it.
Health care, now, is something we can work on everyday with a clear goal. We have working models, we have the brainpower, we just have to have the will to face down greed. Not wanting anything they have but our own money should make the job easier. We just want our OWN money back to put it into something that will benefit our nation much more than their sucky warmongering. Follow the hand when it reaches into the politicians pocket for public money... cut off the supply, HUGE job but simple. What have we got all these government accountants for that we never seem to listen to? I'd bet they would LOVE to tell watchdog committees what they know.
Why would anyone want to cahnge a system where 80%+ of the people are perfectly happy with their coverage? It isn't going to happen now or anytime soon because 80%+ do not want it to change.
ReplyDeleteIf that is the case, that 80% are happy with their coverage, then it won't change anytime soon. It would be illogical for 59% of the doctors and other health care givers to want it to change, also. But they do. And it isn't because they are greedy, it's because many of them have different goals for their skills. They want to do medicine without the middle man. If I were a doctor I would want that.
ReplyDeleteSorry dear that 59% was a bogus poll if you looked at the way and what the questions asked. There was another one done by Gallup right after that one that asked directly about government funded coverage and 69% of healthcare professionals said no to it. There would be one "benefit" to it though, the governemnet could now tell anyone over the age of 65 that they were too old for treatment and there would be nothing anyone could do about it like in Canada when they tell them the same thing. Would take care of the looming social security problem. The benefit is in quote marks because it is something people should think hard about. It is the dirty little secret no one likes to talk about with socialized medicine.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I've been looking for anything on the web that said 80+% were happy. I really came up with some interesting sites, like the one you say is not accurate, but not one addressing a happiness issue. I really did try, too.
ReplyDeleteYou know, what I'd really like to see is a poll of all the people, no holds barred, everyone, insured, underinsured and not insured but alive in the US of A. Then we would know exactly where we stand on this issue. I know.. Like that is going to happen. So, we are stuck with "scientific sampling polls" for something this darn important.
I'm going to go look around for your latest Gallup poll and see how it's configured. Thanks for the info.