ChezSherry

No Education...

2011-10-18T18:21:00.012-06:00

One of our esteemed members of Congress was quoted today as saying, "There's no education from the second kick of a mule." Oh, sir, you may have something there. We have had multiple kicks from the Republican-led House of Representatives and multiple repetitions of the Republican Big Lie that the stimulus didn't work. And the second kick didn't add to our learning.

But wait a minute. Are we sure of that? What if we go back a bit?

I realize that reviewing history is not something the Republicans in the current Congress favor, but hang in there faithful reader, there may be something here...

Congress prevented the full stimulus that President Obama wanted, but it's his fault that the stimulus didn't work.

First kick from the mule. Well, it was the elephant, actually, but still...

What did we learn? Well, the stimulus did work, even as watered-down as it was. How are your roads compared to before the stimulus? How many of your acquaintances working in construction are back to work now as compared to before the stimulus? Any bridges near you repaired or rebuilt lately? Any new construction at all in your town? In your state?

Resist the Republican disincentive and think back. How many of those new jobs and how much of that new construction happened after the housing bubble burst and after the stimulus? How much new employment and new home purchases happened since the Republican-led, national-debt-related cuts in government funding? Anybody laid off find a job in that time-frame?

The stimulus may have kept us from a world-wide depression.

But wait. The national debt increased because of the stimulus.

Second kick. Still from the elephant in the room, but...

The short-term debt has increased, but the Federal Reserve is buying up the debt so we are paying essentially no interest. None. Read my lips. None. This means that there is no larger long-term debt. This means that if we can just improve employment and slow down mortgage foreclosures, taxes from us middle class folks will eliminate the debt in fairly short order. If we can force Congress to tax the top one percent of wage earners into paying their fair share, there will be no national debt problem even sooner.

Sure enough, no additional learning. The stimulus did work and it's unrelated to the national debt problem. Well, I'll be...

So now, President Obama wants an additional stimulus, which the Republicans resist on the strength of the assertion that the first stimulus didn't work.

By golly, kick number three and still no additional learning.

By golly, esteemed Congressperson, you are right. No additional learning from the second kick from the mule. Or elephant. Or third kick. Whatever.

Thanks ever so.

In Memoriam - Barbara Starfield

2011-10-18T13:24:00.008-06:00

There is a memorial today for Dr. Barbara Starfield, esteemed primary care and public health advocate, teacher, physician, and much more. Those of us who are unable to attend share in the admiration and sense of loss for this exemplary human being. Fortunately, the example remains in her research, opinions, and in the memories of those who knew her. Those links are just a few examples. Click on links to Surf Canyon or wikipedia link to learn more. Adieu Dr. Barbara Starfield.

Matt's Post

2011-09-30T16:31:00.017-06:00

Here's the promised post from Matt Phillips:

Older homes can be quaint and charming, and sometimes are located far enough from cities that residents can avoid unpleasant, unhealthy fumes and pollutants. But despite the benefits, living in older homes can be extremely dangerous.

Asbestos is a natural mineral found in older homes and buildings. Asbestos was primarily used because of its fire-resistant qualities. It was a building a material in some dry wall, insulation, fireproofing, tiles, and heating appliances. It can also be found in textiles and some car parts.

Asbestos removal can be extremely hazardous and must be handled with care to ensure the long-term health of those with the mineral in their homes. Here are some asbestos removal guidelines:

1. If asbestos material is discovered and undamaged, it’s often best to leave it intact. If asbestos is disturbed, the fibers are released into the air. When inhaled, these fibers can cause a serious lung cancer called mesothelioma.

2. If asbestos is discovered and already disturbed or damaged, do not touch it. Instead, call in a professional asbestos abatement contractor. They are trained and certified to remove asbestos without causing harm to residents or to themselves.

3. Refrain from sanding, ripping, or cutting asbestos materials. If you do speak with a contractor, discuss the possibilities of sealing up the asbestos rather than removing it. In some cases this option could reduce the risk of mesothelioma.

4. If residents of your home have been exposed to disturbed asbestos, it is vital that they seek a doctor and ask for both a mesothelioma and asbestosis screening. Asbestosis is the scarring of the lungs due to asbestos inhalation. Mesothelioma is a lung cancer. Mesothelioma symptoms are subtle and are usually latent for 20-50 years after exposure. If exposed, because of this latency, mesothelioma life expectancy can be extremely short.

So, if you or someone you know lives or spends time in an older building, remember not to panic and not to ignore the possibilities and dangers of asbestos, asbestosis, and mesothelioma.

Thanks, Matt, for this great post.

Dear readers and net surfers, if you like several sources of information, check out these websites, too:
• More information: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Medline Plus has info on Mesothelioma and Asbestos with links to more information.
• Correct diagnosis: To help us follow Matt's advice not to panic the Medline Plus page on Mesothelioma reminds us that there's also a non-malignant Mesothelioma.
• Asbestos removal: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) makes training and accreditation available for asbestos removal professionals. A page on the EPA website shows who has had that training in your state.
• Cost of removal: If you can't afford the removal of disturbed asbestos or sealing up of undisturbed asbestos, go to this page and scroll down to find your State Health Agency. Contact the State Agency and ask if your local public health department will help you make your location safe for everyone in your community. In these days of reduced spending on public health, these programs may have been cut back, but it never hurts to ask.
Wishing you the best of good health,
Sherry

Redefining Normal

2011-01-12T19:15:00.004-07:00

Hello friends and neighbors back here on this little planet on the left side of nowhere.

Which may be better than being on the right side of nowhere.

As a member of the most predatory, most violent species on this little planet, I wish you well.

I wish you peace, long life, and little violence.

I do not hope for it, because that would be to stretch hope too far.
I do not expect it, for obvious reasons.
I wish it.

I was listening to the public television news today, listening to the principal of the Colombine school talk about redefining "normal." We are always redefining "normal."

Generally we use a definition less violent than the previous one, so this is a good thing.

The definition is generally more violent than many of us would like, and that's a bad thing.

But I, among the many of us, I get far more violent – in speech only, because I'm a pantywaist – than I would like. I don't seem to be alone in that. That is not a good thing, but I'm working on it.

I'll bet you are, too. And that's a good thing.

But my point is, less is more.
Violence is less violent than it used to be. Example: torture is less disfiguring.
Extremism is less extreme than it used to be. Example: the average white person is able to recognize a person of color as a human being. OK. Almost. But still.
Self satisfaction is a little bit less self satisfied.

And that's as it should be, always.

So anyway, how was your Wednesday?

Uneventful, I hope.

Sunday, Sunday

2011-01-09T10:48:00.007-07:00

There are many things to think about on a Sunday morning. But this Sunday, not so very many. This Sunday I will not finish my almost annual, always belated new year's greeting.

This Sunday, I can't think back to last year, only to yesterday. Only to yet another use of firearms to stop beating hearts. Only to this country's separate and separating ideologies that erupt all too often in senseless violence. Only to Judge John M. Roll who was and always will be younger than I am today. Only to Gabrielle Giffords, who is more moderate than most conservatives in Europe, and may she continue to be for may years. Only to those unnamed, grief-stricken families.

This Sunday, I'm thinking about the politicians and reporters who whip up a frenzy of fear, exaggerations, and extremist predictions. And who are probably standing with heads bowed today. And who make me wonder if they feel any guilt at all.

When did we let our disagreements carry us so far? Can we find our way from here to a spirited, sane, honest, non-violent debate of ideas? Devoid of accusatory rhetoric? Silent on the private, personal behavior of others? Mute about the motives of anyone but, for each of us, our own selves?

We can never make this right. Should we try to make ourselves a little more right? This year, I resolve to try -- to be a little more accurate and a little less righteous; to be a little less sure that the opposition has less right to speak than I do; maybe even to consider differences instead of attacking them. I might work up to joking about them. But not today.

Mostly Apologetic

2010-11-16T18:28:00.005-07:00

Well, here I am, just as the quote introducing my last blog warned, happily wrong. Luckily, this is a well-accustomed state, so I can deal with it. I hope you can, too.

Wrong about what, you ask? Well, even if you didn't, here goes.

I stated that "the primary reason [for the deficit] is that President Obama acknowledged that the cost of war should be included, not because the stimulus and health care reform happened." That was inaccurate. I should have said, "the primary reason under the control of the incoming Democratic party is that President Obama acknowledged that the cost of war should be included, not because the stimulus and health care reform happened."

The primary reason for the deficit was that the housing bubble burst. I can, perhaps, be foergiven for this lapse because my husband and I purchased a house just before the bubble burst and are one of those many families suffering the consequences. So how could I have forgotten? That old human capacity for selective memory was operating with its usual efficiency.

Nonetheless, I do apologize for such a gross misstatement. Brought to you from the Department of Redundancy Department: The reason for the deficit is that the housing bubble, unsustainable, burst. Sadly, many, many families are in much worse trouble than mine as a result.

Sadly, too, many of those families voted for the Republican party because the Obama administration did not fix this. This is especially sad because it was largely the Republican administration that caused this problem, although many Democrats are not innocent.

Sadly, finally, anything that could have been done to fix this problem is now less likely because all those Republicans were elected. I'm not against a two-party system, only against a right-leaning middle (Democrat) and a far-freaking-right-wing (Republican) party being the only viable choices.

This is so sad that I can't think of a farbleatziong thing funny to say about it. I hope you can forgive that, too.

Mostly apologetic,
Sherry

Vote after Reading

2010-11-02T10:52:00.009-06:00

"In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong." -John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), economist (Wordsmith.org, AWAD, 9-3-2010)

Here, as promised, and truly at the last possible minute are the...

Not-So-Frequently Asked Questions (NFAQs)

Q: Unemployment is high and people are losing their homes, so why do our politicians say the recession is over and we should cut government jobs and keep tax cuts for the very rich?
A: Well, mostly it's the Republicans saying this. So most likely they say this because they are politicians, not economists. Their job is to get elected, not to develop sound economic policy.

Q: What sound economic policy are you talking about?
A: Letting the government stay big while the private sector is recovering will help all those folks who are out of jobs. Another stimulus for underfunded state governments would increase state government jobs, which have suffered massive lay-offs, until the private sector recovers. Health-care reform policies already in place will keep poor people healthy enough to work once jobs are available - if we leave the health-care reform law in place. And well-designed banking laws might even improve mortgage availability and keep more people from losing their homes. Pushing the Federal Reserve ("Fed") to buy up the debt would virtually eliminate the cost to our children and grandchildren. Finally, restoring taxes for the very, very wealthy would eliminate any added debt for all of this government spending and would let the Democratic administration and congress keep policies that will help the average American.

Q: If all this will help the average American and do all this good, why is anyone against it?
A: Well, come on, now. Because the people not in office want to get elected. The Republicans, who are largely responsible for the large national debt in the first place, want to focus on the present and hope we are silly enough to forget about the past. Understandably, Republicans don't like solutions that make problems of the Democratic-controlled Congress go away, so they fight any policy that might work as the Democrats say it will. They want to get elected, so they fight taxes for the very, very wealthy and health care reform. And are rewarded by campaign funding. Everyone knows scare tactics work, so the Republicans say big government, healthcare reform, and the stimulus are making the debt worse.

Q: Aren't the Republican claims true? Isn't the debt very large and a threat to future generations? Aren't health care reform and taxing the rich socialist policies?
A: The debt is large, but the primary reason is that President Obama acknowledged that the cost of war should be included, not because the stimulus and health care reform happened. The debt is a threat to future generations only if there's a high interest rate and the economy does not recover - so the only way to keep it a threat is to make sure the economy does not recover. Not until the Republicans are elected, at least. Hence the national Republican campaign against sound economic policy. Health care reform is no more socialist than firefighting and emergency services, which help the poor more than the rich. Taxing those who can afford to pay in a time of economic difficulty (can't say "recession" any more) seems more reasonable than forcing more people into bankruptcy and poverty so the rich folks can continue to accumulate wealth. But maybe that's just me.

Q: Why does Federal Reserve ("Fed") chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, hesitate to use what the New York Times calls, "the most powerful tool remaining in the Fed's arsenal of weapons to stimulate the economy: vast new purchases of government debt to lower long-term interest rates"?
A: Well, gee, it beats me. After all, this would totally eliminate the Republican claim that the stimulus didn't work and isn't working by reducing the debt to what was needed to fund new jobs in the government sector. I know the Republicans would have you believe that's a bad thing, but the government sector laid off about 120,000 employees recently because of lack of state funds and the economy is suffering from a net gap of 150,000 more jobless people. If we could just believe that working for the government is better than not working at all, we might re-think this whole concept that – for the moment – small government is somehow a good thing.
I have no idea why an independent, apolitical economist who heads up the Fed would do that.

Q: This doesn't sound like the expert opinion we've been reading; why not?
A: Probably because it isn't the expert opinion you've been reading. According to some, "evidence refuses to cooperate" with expert opinion (Dean Baker. The Soft Bigotry of Incredibly Low Expectations: The Case of Economists. Guardian Unlimited. September 13, 2010)

Q: When "evidence refuses to cooperate" with expert opinion, does it help to state the expert opinion more emphatically?
A: Certainly. That's precisely what's been going on in this election campaign. Note that it also helps to question the loyalty of anyone who doesn't agree when that expert opinion is unrelated to most or all pertinent facts.

Q: When did expert opinion first begin to dominate common sense and scientific evidence?
A: Back here on the Trailing Edge, we suspect it began in the pre-dawn of recorded history when that first political genius convinced the socio-religious community that wealth accrues to those who have a moral right to it. Of course we may be wrong; we were very young at the time.

Q: Why, if we are a representative democracy (otherwise known as a republic), do we allow congressional districts to be determined by the congress just after an election which may have put one party in power because of a recent Supreme Court decision that corporations are persons?
A: Beats the wholly beffrazelatts out of me. I'm just one of the idiots who lives here, in no way responsible for the thinking or behavior of the other idiots. Get back to the main topic.

Q: If the increasingly large national debt were wiped out, would it help the economy?
A: No. Stoppit. These are supposed to be infrequently asked questions, not silly ones.

Q: Why is that a silly question?
A: Oh, all right. Here goes. But don't say I didn’t warn you. When we increased the national debt by infusing money into the economic system, it did not hurt the economy; it helped the economy. We increased the short-term debt to bring about a long term solution (jobs and a stable economic system) that would reduce the debt when the economy improved (because of jobs and stable economy). Even though we did more to help the bankers than to help the economy, it worked a little bit. As with the Great Depression, the problem has not been that we spent too much on that effort, it's that we didn't spend enough.
The reason the question is silly is that no one wants to believe the answer, so it is silly for the Trailing Edge, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, or anyone else to keep explaining it. You can't refute expert opinions that go against the evidence by using evidence. And you can't refute popular opinion by using proof that popular opinion is inaccurate.

Q: Why not?
A: I have no idea.

Q: Maybe this is a silly question, too, but the United States of America is a shining example of democracy. Everybody says so. So why do most of our citizens skip it when it comes to exercising their right to vote?
A: That is not a silly question, it's a frequently asked question. This is NFAQ, not FAQ. Just because it's not a frequently answered does not mean the Trailing Edge should treat it as an NFAQ and answer it. Quit asking so many questions and go vote.

To support future installments of NFAQs, submit your questions now.

Updated Blog Page

2010-10-22T14:37:00.007-06:00

Hello again, you two. Sorry to have neglected you so this year.

While trailing as usual, I've been participating in the preparation for the mid-term election here in the US of A. For those of you who are not from here, we here in the US of A like to spend as many months and dollars as possible arguing, fretting, advertising, and increasing our heart rate and circulation prior to any election. To help us in this pass-time, the press publicizes the outcome of elections long before the event. In the mid-term elections - the one between presidential elections - they tell us the party in power will be ousted. This is a sure thing, they say, because it is the historical trend.

Either the press has never heard of "self-fulfilling prophecy" or they think we haven't.

Sometimes, it does seem that the political decision-making is all in the advertising, mud-slinging, and predictions. So when it comes time to actually vote, most everyone with any sense is so sick and tired of hearing about it that they just don't vote at all. That way, our Representatives and Senators are elected by the remaining 10% of the voting population (about ten in every hundred citizens actually does get out and vote, it appears).

I've begun a blog about the upcoming election that I hope to get published before the fact, so as to join the throng that talks a good game...

You will also note, if you mosey down to the bottom of the page, a counter that keeps track of the number of folks looking at this blog, which might help us (me, anyway) keep track of what happened yesterday. When you get to be old and gray like me, you need these aids to memory. As Mark Twain was reported to have said, "When I was young, I could remember everything perfectly, even those things that never occurred." Now, I need assistance...

If you ever look at or post comments, be further advised that I also deleted advertisements or links to web pages I do not think are appropriate for this blog. If I missed any or deleted a valid link by mistake, please let me know.

them and us

2010-09-10T19:18:00.003-06:00

"We don't differentiate between them and us. It's just us." President Barak Obama, September, 2010.

Before 9-11, I had a tag line that said, "We're all in this together. Luckily."

So then, should I drop the "Luckily," or what?

I dropped the tag line.

On the other hand, most of us know, deep down, that we're all in this life together. Luckily or not.

One of the nice things about being a citizen of the United States of America is that the common abbreviation is "US." You can't fault the sentiment, even if you fault the yelling. Or the frequently unwarranted self-satisfaction.

Nonetheless, I am proud to be an American.

Not so proud about our characterizing ourselves as the only important folks in several continents who should get to call them-/ourselves Americans. Continents where lots of important folks—who are not citizens of the US of A—live. But you can't have everything.

We, on the planet we call Earth, are all in this together. If people in Pakistan are dying, it should concern us, being people ourselves. (As a researcher, I was taught to say "persons" rather than "people" because only scientifically definable groupings are "people." Researchers are not always right.)

What do we mean when we differentiate between "them" and "us"? I mean, we all do it so it must mean something. Maybe it just means that we can't solve and protect everything so we should just work on things that concern "us." OK. So where do we draw the line?

This is the stuff that keeps me awake nights. This and the arthritis pain. So if it keeps you awake too (not, I hope, the arthritis pain—just the other stuff), maybe you can come up with some solutionary ideas.

Since it's just us, I hope you can because I'm trailing again.

Healthcare Reform Update

2010-05-05T11:51:00.017-06:00

Hey folks, we've been missing the main point in this healthcare reform debate. I know, you're tired of hearing about it, but back here at the Trailing Edge, we've hit on the solution!(1) And since this is a blog, we're going to share this amazing discovery with both of you. The solution to the high cost of healthcare and the way to eliminate the need for healthcare reform, which was right in front of us all the time, is…

Stop Being Poor!

That's right! All you poor folks who are getting way too sick before you go to the doctor or hospital, all you poor folks who are eating all the wrong things because healthy food is too expensive, all you poor folks who are smoking, drinking, or using street drugs because you need to face your life in a fog just to be able to face it at all – all of you just stop being poor! Your health problems will be solved!

Amazingly simple! Healthcare costs in all the major city hospitals will drop dramatically! The healthcare reform bill, which does not distinguish well between the needs of the rich and the needs of the poor, will work! The recent increases in health insurance that the insurance companies blame on the healthcare reform bill won't be necessary. They'll continue, but they won't be necessary, and that's the main thing. Why? Because there won't be any poor!

You poor people must quit your selfish adherence to poverty. Just stoppit.

I know it'll take a while; there's a lot of inertia from the rich and well-placed that you'll need to overcome. But don't be daunted. Here are the five simple steps to stopping your dependence on poverty – with a few necessary sub-steps, naturally:

1. Find jobs that pay better.
1.a. To do this, you may have to get somebody to recognize that you can't acutally stop being poor unless you have income from a single, full-time job that is 200% of the current poverty level or more.(2)
1.b. To get a raise to above the laughably low poverty level, you may need to unionize your workplace. To do that you may have to overcome a few problems, but nobody said this was going to be easy. Just simple.
1.b.i. Find a workplace.
1.b.ii. Seek a union that is acceptable to both you and your employer.
1.b.iii. If attempting 1.b.ii. results in your losing access to that workplace, find another workplace.
1.b.iv. Repeat 1.b.ii. and 1.b.iii. as necessary.

2. Make sure your increased income includes the benefits necessary to keep you out of poverty.
2.a. Since half or more of all bankrupcies are due at least in part to the cost of healthcare, you'll need to have health insurance.
2.b. And a primary healthcare provider who makes sure you get high quality healthcare so you can keep working.
2.b.i. As necessary, see 1. b., iv., above.

3. Start eating better – whole grains, lean meats with minimal processing, fresh fruits and vegetables that don't have too many toxic pesticides still in them.
3.a. Some of your fruits and vegetables will need to be organically grown so you can avoid toxic pesticides, but the extra cost is only about double, and believe me, it's worth it.
3.b. You may need to move to a different neighborhood where healthier food is available.

4. See your primary healthcare provider for regular check-ups and health maintenance.
4.a. If your insurance does not pay for check-ups you'll need to pay for them out-of-pocket because in addition to keeping you healthy, these check-ups lower healthcare costs for the rest of us, which is, of course, the point.
4.b. Make sure your income is sufficient to cover health maintenance costs. (See, for example, 1.b., above.)

5. Make the other lifestyle changes that your improved economic outlook and sense of well-being allow.
5.a. Plan for a healthy, loving home environment for your future family before embarking on puberty.
5.a.i. Some attention to your mental health may be necessary to overcome some of the misadventures of your childhood or to stop consuming or otherwise using some substance that is detrimental to your health.(3)
5.a.ii. In some cases, you will perceive a sort of chicken-and-egg phenomenon where you will need to complete step 5 before attempting step 1 but can't afford step 5 until step 1 is accomplished. Just do your best. You're sort of on your own here.
5.b. Make sure your children do the same - that is to say, all of the above. This will do much to eliminate that pesky multi-generational poverty thing.

With our simple 5-point plan, the entire US could be on its way to reduced healthcare costs and true healthcare reform.

Don’t thank the Trailing Edge for generously offering this simple solution. Just envisioning the millions of no-longer-poor healthy, happy children that the tens of millions of no-longer-poor parents can afford to nurture, feed, and love is thanks enough.

Footnotes:
(1) We've always said that one of the advantages of always being late is that we get to hear lots of different viewpoints before making a decision. Of course, we lose lots of potential friends and miss out on lots of useful information, but no system is perfect.
(2) For those of us who are arithmetically challenged, this means that to stop being poor, your income has to be twice what the US Federal government currently defines as being poor. The US government is changing this definition, for statistical purposes at least, but why wait? For those of us who don't know what "arithmetically challenged" is, as a prerequisite to step 1 (that is to say, before undertaking Step 1) you'll need to find somebody rich to support you while you go back to school.
(3) You will likely need to pay for these mental health services yourself, as most insurers include only nominal, inadequate coverage for mental healthcare. In addition, if you happen to reside in one of the states that is medically underserved (that is, there are not enough mental healthcare providers anywhere in the state), you may need to relocate and begin again at Step 1.

Coming soon: How to eliminate inequities due to gender, age, education, and inherited country or countries of origin: Be a young, male, college graduate of predominantly Western European ancestry!

YAAAAAY! Again

2010-03-23T16:31:00.013-06:00

The healthcare reform law passed! YAAAAAY!

Wow! Two "YAAAAY"s in less than two years.

Yes, I know, the bill far from perfect. We Trailing Edgesters know all about being far from perfect. It's what we do best.

And yes, forcing people to deal with health insurance companies is a really poor approach. Especially when a single-payer system would be cheaper, better, and healthier.

But this law does also require that health insurance companies must actually provide health insurance. As opposed to taking money from only the healthy and denying claims when they get sick. Or, in a pinch, charging the unhealthy insured more money than healthcare would ever cost, and then denying the claims. If you wonder why the health insurance companies were so set against this bill, re-read those last two sentences, OK? (Linguistic purists, re-read the last two sentence fragments.)

I do not claim to understand why Congress, in its possibly-not-so-very-infinite wisdom, thought the Massachusetts model of healthcare reform was good for everyone. But it (they? he, she, and it?) did. So now everybody and her cousin (or, in this case, his brother) can sue the Federal Government for promulgating an unfunded mandate.

Mind you, the Federal Government has been visiting unfunded mandates upon the States for lo, these many years. Like "No Child Left Behind" for example. That was an unfunded mandate brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Republicans that guaranteed that non-rich American kids would be kicked out, so as to avoid being left behind.

That was an unfunded mandate. But as we can see, friends and neighbors, it depends a bunch on who's doing the unfunding. Not to mention what is being unfunded and why.

So complain to your Attorney General, if she or he is part of the Daring Thirteen who are suing the Federal Government, that this nonsense is costing you money she or he should save for suing insurance companies who don't comply with the spirit of the new law.

And complain to your legislators - better yet, tell them you won't vote for them - if they don't leave this law in place and fix whatever they don't like. They have until 2014 to fix the "required to buy health insurance" part, so they just might make it. If they hurry. And avoid the sentence fragments.

And if your Attorney General or legislator is a Republican, ask him or her to develop (or beg, or borrow or steal) a position. Challenge her or him to do that instead of spreading fear and discontent. It's a much healthier way of avoiding any actual work.

Or at the very least, tell them all to just, in the wise words of my Great-Granddaughter, stoppit!

Debating Health Care Reform

2010-03-15T21:08:00.016-06:00

I am pleased that Congress has taken up the issue of health care reform.

I wrote that sentence in June of 2009.

In point of fact, everyone here at the Trailing Edge is pleased with the idea of health care reform. All one of us. And we're coming out right now - a mere year late - in favor of it.

Now, that's trailing for you.

But our Representatives are the real experts at trailing.

After all, I'm actually publishing this blog. Congress is lagging behind the entire developed world when it comes to providing for the health of that small group of Americans who don't have a good health care system. That small group is made up of all the Americans who aren't rich. The non-rich Americans, as I like to call them.

Congress is doing what it does best. Nothing. Especially for the non-rich Americans.

And blaming the President for it, of course.

In fact, the only question about finger pointing that remains unclear is which house does it best. As for the most successful finger-pointing party, I think the Republicans are the winning.

Hands down, as it were.

But really folks, passing health care reform seems to be even less popular than passing noxious reminders of the digestive process. And a lot less likely. At my age, at least.

But that's another tale, although not unrelated to health.

Maybe I should stop blathering and focus on what's really at stake here. Perhaps I can even skip asking our representatives if they think it's fair for corporations to be considered individuals but not pay taxes like the rest of us. The answer to that question is pretty clear and doesn't seem to trouble anyone in Congress nearly as much as it bothers me.

Maybe I should ask you this: ask your Representative if he or she thinks it's OK for Congress to let babies die because they're too busy being pro-life to pay attention to living newborns.

Or maybe we should ask if it's OK for a pregnancy to end tragically as long as the reason was a lack of money or insurance for health care and not someone's choice.

OK, that was harsh. And I'd apologize if it were untrue.

You see, when the House of Representatives refuses to vote on the Senate health care reform bill (after which they can add their many revisions that make life wonderful for the health insurance companies), they are agreeing that letting babies die, and letting unhealthy babies be born to unhealthy mothers, is better than spending money on preventive health care for women before and during pregnancy. Even though preventive health care for women before and during pregnancy is CHEAPER than letting unhealthy babies be born to unhealthy mothers.

Really.

For example, it can cost upwards of $600,000 for one baby to be born and live with an incurable health problem that might have been prevented by giving the young woman a daily dose of multi-vitamins. So why doesn't the woman just take the vitamins? Well, if she's like millions of young American women, somebody – like the doctor she can't afford to see – needs to tell her it's necessary. And some organization – like the healthcare coverage she doesn’t have just now – needs to pay for it. On the other hand, if she has the baby with the severe medical problem, the government will pay for the baby's health care.

And that's how the all the Republicans and some of the Democrats propose to save us money.

That's just one example. There are many, many others. The bottom line is this:
Our Representatives are voting in Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor and whining about the high cost of health care reform. Meanwhile, babies and children and adults are getting sick, even dying, because they can't afford health insurance or their coverage doesn't cover what they need. Meanwhile, the cost of providing preventive health care for everyone who doesn't have a regular source of health care is cheaper than the cost of Medicaid/CHIP after the relatively few Americans get dreadfully, heart-breakingly ill because they lacked that inexpensive preventive health care.

Government intervention is not the central issue. Health insurance is not the central issue. Job security for our legislators is not the central issue. Except for our legislators, of course.

Future generations of healthy, non-rich Americans is the issue. Avoiding bankruptcy of individuals, Medicare, and Medicaid because of costly health care for conditions that did not need to happen is the issue.

Tell your Representative that. Please. Do it for the babies.

Economics, It’s What’s for Dinner

2009-02-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

My annual review and predictions didn’t cover the economic situation, and you may wonder why. Then again, you may not, but that’s not my problem.

The reason was that I couldn’t find anything funny to say about the economic situation.

I’m not alone in this, but there you are. I wanted the predictions to have some humor.

When it comes to economics, I do have some strong opinions. (Other people have biases; I have strong opinions.)

I’m in favor of the cooperative economic model.

“Why is that?” you ask.

And I’m so glad you did. Otherwise I’d have to shut up and sit down. Fortunately, I’m already sitting, and shutting up is unlikely.

Well, to answer your question, it’s because the cooperative model operates on the odd assumption that everyone in an economic transaction should benefit.

“What a thought,” you comment. “Who came up with this contrary notion?”

Again, so glad you asked. (As my actress mother always told me, it works so much better when the other fellow knows his lines.)

It certainly wasn’t the capitalists who thought it up. They benefit from their economic model because they’re rich. (Scratch a poor capitalist and you’ll find a dreamer longing to be rich.)

Nor was it the communists, who don’t benefit from anything but totalitarian rule, as nearly as I can tell. And these days, they only benefit from that in isolated, virtually insular, cases.

Nor the socialists, who generally don’t benefit at all, being too entrenched in saving others from capitalism. (I’m not saying this is bad, just that it’s not very profitable.)

No, the cooperative form of economic dealings eschews all that. And please don’t bless me for sneezing; I mean that the cooperative model is just plain different.

“And how is it different?” you continue to help me out by asking.

Well, being based on the notion that everyone involved in a transaction should benefit, this model requires us to pay more for goods and services than it cost to produce them.

No more making shoes for $1.50 a pair, selling them for $1.25 a pair, and making up the difference on the volume. After deducting entertainment expenses and bonuses. (Don’t laugh; this is how banking systems have been working lately. Thirty years ago, it was how insurance companies worked.)

The cooperative economic model also requires that the business transaction do no serious harm to those not involved in the transaction.

Such as destroying the environment on their planet.

Well, you can see why that hasn’t caught on.

But I still favor it. Silly me. Want to join me?

2008 in Review - 2009 Predictions

2009-01-27T23:10:00.003-07:00

Well friends, neighbors, and fan, it’s time to honor long-established tradition of the Trailing Edge and post my second annual summary of the past year and predictions for the coming year.

2008 – The Year In Review
As years go, 2008 really didn’t come up to expectations in many areas; on the other hand, it exceeded expectations in a few key areas. We probably shouldn’t go with averaging here. Despite the USA’s electoral trends (oh, happy day), I think we’ll have to give 2008 a split vote, grade-wise.

Low Scoring Events:
Gag orders continued to encourage countries receiving funds from the USA to modify their health education and healthcare to suit USA officials who are remarkably free of any need for that health education or healthcare.
Gag orders abounded requiring government agencies in the USA to edit scientific reports to remove any undesirable elements, such as research findings.
Gags and other public-spirited messages and candidates assured us all that the only thing to fear is anything that would cause us to vote for a Democrat.
Gag-reflex-inducing antics of confused Robins-definitely-not-of-the-Hood continued to include robbing from “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” (I read that somewhere) to feed the rich.
And so on.

High Scoring Events:
The electorate in the good old US of A finally got the idea that we could actually nominate a candidate and vote for him or her based on ridiculous criteria like merit, stated policies and plans, intelligence, and honesty, thus abandoning time-honored Christian values such as mud-slinging skill, folksy brazenness, homey ethnic humor, and word-twisting ability.
Three or more people in the national picture-window started talking about the nation’s health without focusing exclusively on our healthcare industry. I can’t remember who the third one was, but the then Health and Human Services Secretary Designate and then President-Elect spoke about improving our health without any sign of embarrassment, shame, or need to speak only in compound nouns. And some other public figure talked about health and forgot to add “care.” At least, I’m pretty sure someone else did.
In spite of – or perhaps in order to cope with – serious problems that seemed to compound faster than variable mortgage interest, people retained their sense of humor. For example, while President Elect Obama was saying that there should be only one president at a time, a frank member of the USA’s House of Representatives seemed to think “one” was an underestimate.
And so forth.

Looking Ahead
Now we get to the real issue. What’s going to happen from here to 2010? Well, friends and neighbors, the Trailing Edge is prepared to boldly go where anybody with a lick of sense would avoid like a banker’s solution to the housing bubble. Let the infinitives split where they may!

No, we’re not going to predict the choice of First Dog. This old Trailer isn’t that foolish.

Predictions for 2009 (trumpet fanfare, please)

Somebody will get the idea that if the President can speak in whole paragraphs, other politicians might try a diet of something other than empty sound bites. This new thought will give some politicians headaches, but others will try it anyway.

One or two more people in the USA – who are not public health professionals like me, with an ax to grind – will start talking about the nation’s health without a “care” in the word. Being extremists, they will want things like an infant death rate that’s as low as, say, Cuba’s. They may even think helping people find a job so they can afford safe housing and information so they eat healthy food might be a good approach to avoiding unnecessary healthcare costs. Of course, if this health promotion and disease prevention stuff catches on, there might be a run on our health information banks. Now that bailout would be interesting.

The Congress of the United States of America will avoid for as long as it possibly can making any decision about economic stimulus, bailout, or help for somebody other than the rich. Finally, the Republicans will suddenly realize that in trying to keep President Obama from looking good they’ve made themselves look so bad that they may have already lost the re-election they were so worried about. At that point, they will salvage the situation by taking credit for having forced those spend-thrift Democrats to come up with a really good law. Now, in the past, one party defined a really good law as one that makes the other party look bad. But this is one of those things President Obama wanted us to change as I recall. So let’s keep our fingers crossed about that. Better yet, let’s keep our fingers flexed so we can email our legislators, ask them to play nice, and remind them about who acutally does the voting.

The guy who’s wandering around the country talking to inner city youth about making money by going green – not Al Gore, the other one – will start to build a following of urban entrepreneurs who think there’s a chance that when he talks to them about green, it isn’t because he is interested in money laundering or got lost and wandered into the wrong room.

President Obama will continue to work steadily to undo the damage done in any prior administration that might have immediately preceded this one.

Sadly, it won’t all be beer and skittles. The economy will take more than this year to heal, and so, of course will war-torn regions around the world. The housing market and the banking systems will take longer than one year to revive, and so will our healthcare system. And we do have to talk about health with a care in the word, too, so we can fix it.

On the other hand, if the legislative branch of government in the US of A wakes up to its responsibility to all the voters, some of these ills may heal faster.

And if Rip Van Winkle kisses Sleeping Beauty awake and she and Snow White lead the Seven Mine Workers in forming a collective bargaining association, then Prince Charming can give up his flagrant lifestyle and ride off into the sunset with Little Red Riding Hood.

Or something like that.
Oops, please excuse that inadvertant eruption of cynicism.

Let’s keep working on the good hope. Baby steps, maybe, but with your help and mine 2009 will be a year of small improvements on all fronts.

And that’s really pretty good, as happy endings go.

Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T15:11:00.007-07:00

Thank you, Mr. President
For having become you, Mr. President.
Our president.
It couldn’t have been easy,
Those many steps you took
Before the short, long walks you took today.

Thank you for understanding that our crisis isn’t
Simply in the interests of The Economy,
Solely about global warming,
Just about healthcare,
Merely about education,
Entirely about US.

Thank you for turning defeat into victory,
For turning victory into success,
For requrining success with honor.

Thank you, Mr. President
For an inaugural address that was everything I have come to expect from you
And more.
Thank you for your writing skill that gave us all those sentences
Full of meaning and promise,
For the meaning and promise you use that skill so well to express,
For giving us more than the sound-bite-sentence
Our broadcasters were waiting for.

I could cry today, Mr. President.
I didn’t cry when you were nominated, although many did.
We had not come far enough.
I didn’t cry when you were elected, although many more did.
Not far enough, still.
Today we have not yet come far enough.
But we will.
Today I cried for happy.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Sherry Spence
January 20, 2009

Home for the Holidays

2008-11-20T12:46:00.006-07:00

Well, friends, now that the USA’s national election has been satisfactorily resolved - for me anyway - we can all turn our thoughts to important matters of concern to our nation.

In our town, that means resuming the yearly discussion about how to celebrate the holiday season with appropriate consideration for all religions, sects, creeds, and degrees of non-belief. You probably don’t recall this, but the solution our city fathers came up with last year was to have white lights, as opposed to colored lights, adorning all the trees in our quaint downtown neighborhood, Old Town. This was to celebrate the holidays without overt reference to Christianity so they wouldn't be forced to allow overt reference to some - and potentially all - other religion. I don’t know if our city mothers were involved in the decision. The city fathers (and, possibly, mothers) then backed off a bit and allowed store-owners to decorate their stores as they chose - on the inside. At that phase of this momentous debate, I sort of lost interest.

Before losing interest, I’d spent some considerable time trying to figure out why multicolored lights are religious and white lights are not. It’s important to understand the issues in a debate before weighing in on one side or the other. Now that the debate has resurfaced, I’m back to puzzling over the question of how a light bulb becomes religious. No success so far. If I come up with anything, I’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, other people in this and other towns are puzzling about other things almost as important. Things like how to keep their homes at least through the holidays and whether they have any relatives left who still own - or rent - a place that has room for extra beds. Now, being as that’s not as difficult a question, I came across what seems to me to be a good solution day before yesterday in an article by Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy Research. I’d like to share it with you, in case it interests you more than the lightbulb controversy.

Suppose the congress passed a temporary law that banks could not foreclose on homeowners without offering them the option to rent their home, at current market rates, for the next 10 or 20 years. Then the banks would have a choice: they could collect rent and maintain the home they acquire from the former owner(s). Or they could renegotiate the loan and let the family continue to purchase and maintain the home at a lower cost to the family. The bank would likely get payments above the rental market rate, and the family would pay for the home’s upkeep. (I think this is what’s known in the arbitration business as a not-lose – not-lose situation.) There’s even a law already running around to do this; Representative Raul Grijalva proposed such a change in the Saving Family Homes Act. At least I think it’s running around; it doesn’t seem to be doing anything else.

If we can get Congress to pass this law, then the financial wizards who got us into this mess will have something constructive to do with the money our Treasury folks seem intent on giving them. Maybe there’s a problem with the proposed law. Maybe it makes too much sense to be a law or something. If that’s the case, any number of legislators could fix it.

So what can we do? Well, since the three of you won’t email me, even to join my war on violence, I’ll just ask those of you who are citizens of the USA to email your congresspersons and ask them to support this law without changing the intent too much. Or at all, even.

Of course, I could be wrong in thinking this is a good solution. However, like most people, I don’t often entertain the possiblity that I might be wrong. And even though that possiblity entertains me pretty frequently, I think this is the best approach to handling the situation and I think you should contact your congressperson about getting this act out of the House Committee on Financial Services and into law.

LATE BREAKING NEWS: When we went grocery shopping yesterday, we saw Christmas wreaths on several buildings in Old Town.

Taken together with the election results, is this an indication that common sense can prevail and there’s a glimmer of hope for the nation’s homeowners?

Now I know what I want for Christmas. If there are any middle class homeowners left by then. I can’t wait to see Santa.

Y A A A A A A A A A Y!

2008-11-04T21:16:00.001-07:00

The following is a translation for non-English-speaking readers and bloggers:

YAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Being Democratic

2008-08-29T19:29:00.004-06:00

So one day before Reverend Martin Luther King’s historic “I have a dream” speech, “Senator Barack Obama, the Hawaiian-born son of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, officially [became] the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party” (NY Times News Alert) of the United States of America (USA). On the day of the historic “dream” speech, Obama gave his acceptance speech. Wow.

Today (can you believe I’m actually blogging on the day of the event, albeit late in the day?), we hear of the Republican vice presedential nominee, and we see that the lines are drawn.

On the Republican side:

• Drill, tunnel, scrape, and plant to extract the energy Mother Earth has to offer for the benefit of citizens of the USA;
• Arm, plan, and fight for what we, in the USA, believe we have the right to seek;
• Share our bounty, developed from our free market economy and necessary USA government protection, with those less fortunate; and
• Change the USA’s healthcare system cautiously and carefully, protecting those in need within the framework of the larger economic and social needs.

On the Democratic side:

• Remove dependence on foreign energy resources by spending now on Mother Earth’s solar, wind, and geothermal resources for our energy needs;
• Use diplomacy to bring the global focus back to our shared needs so we can assure what the USA needs for our political, economic, and societal safety;
• Restore economic stability and tax equity and support free enterprise for small or start-up operations rather than for national or global corporations; and
• Improve healthcare for the most needy and make the cost of healthcare affordable for the average citizen in the USA.

I tried to sound unbiased, guys, really I did.

It’s not easy being green.

Or promoting social justice.

Or trying to stay healthy on a fixed income, for that matter.

So while I think of the speech that Martin Luther King, Jr., made so many years ago yesterday, other memories come back to swamp my little pleasure boat:

• When I was twelve or thirteen years old, I went on my annual outing to the State Fair of Texas. This year represented a first: instead of three restrooms (“men,” “women,” and “colored”), there were two (“men” and “women”). In my naïve, pubescent mind, the idea of sharing a restroom with the opposite sex was apalling, so I welcomed the change. However, the two women (generally referred to as “negro” at the time) who were there when I walked in were clearly angry with me. What had I done? Ruined their chance to use a “comfort station” comfortably by my very need to do the same. My 80 pound presence was a real threat to them. They were scared; I felt the need – but didn’t have the guts – to apologize. Silence reigned. What a world.

• Around the time of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago – with all its chaos and drama – my friend Butch (still identified as “negro”) was reminiscing about his supposed friend who was referring to himself and some other white friends as “Americans.” Butch had pointed out that he, too, was an American, to which his “friend” had replied, “You know, real Americans.” I still couldn’t think of anything to say.

So my sense of history is that we’ve come a long way in the last half-century. And I still, all too frequently, can’t think of anything to say. And I still welcome the change. Maybe, someday, we could even do the same for women. You know, real humans…;-))

Join the War on Violence!

2008-08-24T12:41:00.010-06:00

Here it is, friends, the Trailing Edge is proud to announce the promised – delayed, naturally – launch of the war on violence.

Action Alert: Join me in fighting violence! Follow these simple steps:

• Step 1: Remove violence from our language (unless, of course, we are really, really angry).

• Step 2: Remove violence from our language when we are really, really angry.

In the spirit of trailing, we can deal with removing violence from our actions at a later date.

That’s it.

Simple, right? Well, no, not easy. But simple.

So why, you ask, would we want to wage yet another war against one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. That answer is simple, also. Why not?

We’re prevailing valiantly against Pestulence and Famine, aren’t we?

OK, bad reasoning – we’re acutally not doing so well with those fights these days. Small farmers are working to survive by making money off food for fuel and agribusiness is cleaning up – monetarily speaking, of course. World hunger is winning that one. Sadly, the fight on the pestulence front is, in general, less than ideal. For example, in the funding vs. HIV battle, HIV is winning. The federal government here in the USA is working hard on these wars. However, not all funding seems to be on the anti-Apocalypse-Horsemen side, in my somewhat-less-than-humble opinion.

Anyway, back to the front. Our War on Violence. Maybe we can make some headway there. In my search for reasons not to have violence – restricted, of course to violent language for the moment – I’ve come up with the following:

Violent language may lead to violent thinking, which may lead to actual violence, and acutal violence is expensive.

Outstanding thinking, don't you agree? Not to mention an outstanding example of a run-on sentence.

War for example, is very costly by any humane or economic measure. The National Priorities Project has been keeping track of the dollar cost of the war in Iraq for us:

click here to learn more

And even back in January 2007, some folks at the New York Times knew that there were some good non-violent things to do with that money. One thing would be health care for more than 20 million children for more than 10 years. My, my. Perhaps we could just try keeping all the kids in the US of A healthy for 5 years. Maybe longer, if we spent some of the healthcare funding on public health - you know, preventing diseases and accidents being cheaper than healing them. Maybe we could provide healthcare for everyone just by watching the overspending and misspending by government contractors in our war efforts. That is to say, by doing something about over-and mis-spending; some say we have been watching it for a while now.

So join the fight! And just to show you I'm ready for a long siege, I'll start by example right here in this blog. Here goes...

OK. So a quick re-read of the above comes up with seven violent verbs and more than 20 violent nouns (including repetitions).

So I may not be your best example of removing violence from language just yet. You sharp bloggees, you noticed that right off, didn't you? Maybe we all need to band together to fight this tendency to express ourselves violently. No. Wait. What I meant was...

Baby Step 1: Remove violent language from non-violent and/or helpful activities.

We will attack - or rather, cease using - expressions for prevention and cure of disease such as “the war on cancer.” Wanting to make - that is to say, help - people stop substance abuse will no longer be a “war on drugs.” And so on.

Let’s try this together:
Join forces... Not.
Team up to conque... Nope.
Heed the call to arm... Not even.
Email me to sign up.

One baby step for us, one giant step for non-violence. Or vice versa, perhaps. Email your acceptance of the terms of engagement, that is to say, of peaceful activity. (No offerers of purchases or large cash rewards need apply.)

We can do it.

First thing tomorrow.

Pro Life? Pro Common Sense? What’s Ap-Pro-priate Here?

2008-07-16T23:16:00.007-06:00

Have you heard the latest rumor (for example, check out RH Reality Check)? It seems that someone in the current administration is thinking about a rule that would kill all dissenting "birds" (aka women) with two stones:

Aiming Stone: Define abortion as any prescription or procedure that seeks to eliminate a fertile egg from a uterus, before or after implantation.

Killing Stone: Require any organization receiving federal funding to allow any healthcare providing employee to let his or her conscience be his or her guide in the practice of medicine involving said prescription or procedure.

Even for people who don’t believe in killing – at least not pre-birth humans – this is pretty drastic action. Surely, this can’t be true. In the first place, there's no way medical science can tell an egg is fertile until after implantation, so this means that the provider can just decide that a patient might be pregnant and proceed accordingly. Someone, tell me it isn’t true.

Would the next logical step be locking up all post-pubescent women because they might, at any time prior to menopause, be guilty of inadvertently flushing away a fertile egg? This is an urban myth, right?

Like most who believe as I do, my position on birth control (including the “morning after” pill) and early termination of pregnancy (including the RU-whatever-the-numbers-are) is "pro-choice."

I am not “pro-abortion.” I did not want an abortion at age 36, when I had amniocentesis. I wanted to make sure my first and only biological child could survive without constant life support or constant pain. I was very lucky. I was able to have my child.

While waiting for my amniocentesis, I heard a counselor urge a couple not to have amniocentesis, since they planned have the baby in any case. They said that they understood that they were taking a risk, but – given their risks – they wanted to be prepared. I thought the couple had the right to choose the test, even if it jeopardized the pregnancy. I thought the counselor was way out of line to continue insisting they re-think their decision even after they made their position clear.

It seems to me that we post-puberty human beings who have the ability to procreate have the right to have differing opinions. Even opinions that differ from those of qualified healthcare professionals. It seems to me that healthcare providers and counselors do not have the duty – and shouldn’t have a government-protected right – to refuse to discuss anything they themselves would not do. My doctor, bless his heart, will go so far as to say, “Yes, we could do that, but I would strongly recommend against it” and explain why “that” is medically inadvisable. He doesn’t say I mustn’t do it. Just one of the many things I like about him.

But back to the present (even though it seems alarmingly like the early 1950’s). My point is that the middle ground has many cases where choice, not "kill the baby," is the issue. Except, of course, that – if the rumor is correct – the current administration seems bent (pun intended) on eliminating all real estate from the middle ground.

What do you think?

Happy Juneteenth!

2008-06-25T05:43:00.005-06:00

We’re really hitting our stride at the Trailing Edge this month. Here it is practically the end of June, and we’re just now limping up - with hang-dog look and, as Pogo put it, “covered with rue” - to celebrate Juneteenth.

If she were trying to deflect blame, a person might say this is poetic justice. Or irony in social justice perhaps. Juneteenth being a celebration of the very belated recognition in Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation. (We used to live in Texas; maybe that’s where we learned our poor timing.)

For those of us who are still unclear about this holiday, a quick check of our trusty internet search engine - and a small typo - will bring up Junteenth and quite a good description by kzntell (who - name notwithstanding - is a better speller than we are, having titled his/her summary of the day “What is Juneteenth?”).

“Juneteenth,” writes the aforementioned kzntell, “also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, annual holiday celebrated on June 19 in the United States to commemorate the ending of slavery…. marks the day in 1865 when word reached African Americans in Texas that slavery in the United States had been abolished. More than two years earlier, on New Year’s Day, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Delivered during the American Civil War, this proclamation ordered the freeing of all slaves in states that were rebelling against Union forces. The proclamation had little effect in Texas, where there were few Union troops to enforce the order …[until] June 19, 1865, when a Union general backed by nearly 2,000 troops arrived in the city of Galveston. The general, Gordon Granger, publicly announced that slavery in the United States had ended. Reactions among newly freed slaves ranged from shock and disbelief to jubilant celebration. That day has been known ever since as Juneteenth, a name probably derived from the slang combination of the words June and nineteenth.”

Other descriptions are available from the National Black Justice Coalition and from the

Handbook of Texas. (That explains our trouble adjusting to Texas! We didn’t have a handbook.) (In case others have similar difficulties, we are currently engaged in writing a “Life Users’ Manual” as a technical guide to the living.) (Our apologies for these digressions, and now we return to the past:)

“On June 19 ("Juneteenth"), 1865,” the Handbook tells us, “Union general Gordon Granger read the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, thus belatedly bringing about the freeing of 250,000 slaves in Texas. The tidings of freedom reached slaves gradually as individual plantation owners read the proclamation to their bondsmen over the months following the end of the war [in keeping with the spirit of delaying ethics in favor of money which, among other things, characterized the US Civil War]. The news elicited an array of personal celebrations, some of which have been described in The Slave Narratives of Texas (1974).” And so on.

We hope you did something liberating and ethical on the 19^th.

We intended to. But we made strawberry jam. We’d like to say the jam made us think about Mark Twain’s Puddinhead Wilson. But it didn’t.

How Many Politicians

2008-06-16T16:43:00.010-06:00

How many politicians does it take to change a lightbulb?

No, really. You may be thinking this is like the “how many programmers” lightbulb joke. (Answer: No number is sufficient; it’s a hardware problem.) That would be a reasonable thought (or a lame joke; your call). But I’m thinking this issue would call for legislative action (and another lame joke, of course).

First, the bipartisan committee would have to be formed and named something appropriate (say, the Committee for Bipartisan Upkeep of Legislative Lighting while Safeguarding Health and Impact…etc.). Then, the Co-BULL..etc. debate could proceed about wattage, variety (fluorescent or incandescent would be a key issue here and would probably require input from the joint legislative committee on energy policy), contracting requirements, and so on.

By that time, several days would have passed. So someone in Maintenance, who doesn’t have a healthcare plan, a retirement job lined up, or expensive advertising to help keep his or her job, has already changed the bulb. So the committee could debate whether a change of focus is necessary or the Co-BULL…etc. should continue, in anticipation of the next Lighting Fixture Maintenance Event.

In case you're wondering why yet another back-to-back post, my planned tasks for the week are to complete a peer review, work on an annotated bibiliography, clean out my files, and do bookkeeping.

Women's Health in the US of A

2008-06-14T17:11:00.014-06:00

Well, this is something. Two blogs back to back.

We might lose our reputation as laggards. Not to worry; this is worth it.

If you are a woman, married to a woman, involved with a woman, or a citizen of the USA, this might just interest you.

If you don't care about women in the USofA, politics, my opinions, or all of the above, you are probably here by mistake. Go in good health; I wish you well.

Anybody still out there? You might be interested in the Bush-McCain challenge "to see if folks knew where John McCain stands when it comes to protecting women's health," coming to us from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Whether or not you approve of Planned Parenthood, check out this video:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3774&id=12852-635311-Vq5UZ4x&t=5

By the way, if you don't approve of planned parenthood, which one don't you like? The planned part or the parenthood part? Just wondering...

Which puts me in mind of a poem I wrote a while back (who knows why):

Our Daughters
9/6/2005

Our daughters
Sit on the mantel
Mine on the left
His on the right
Grinning
Beautiful
Young women

Our daughters
Younger
So much younger
Frame our bed
His on the left
Mine on the right
Cherubs

Our daughters

How do I greive so
For the one I never met

If there’s no flour for bread, make biscuits…

2008-06-13T15:15:00.008-06:00

Revised - per valid, reasonable request - from blog posted 6/13/2008; please use and/or quote this version. Thanks, Sherry, ChezSherry:

So how, you may ask, have we spent our time since mid-May? And why, for that matter, didn’t we acknowledge the earthquake in China, Memorial Day in the USA, or Barak Obama’s nomination? An enormous ongoing loss, a reminder of personal loss, and the greatest cause for hope in my lifetime. They all went by without a murmur from the Trailing Edge. Now that’s trailing for you!

If you haven’t asked yourselves those questions, continuing to read this is optional – as it ever is, was, and shall be, of course...

But enough about you; this is about me.

I have been doing battle (interesting how so many of our metaphors are war-related, isn’t it? Join our soon-to-be-posted “War on Violence” campaign…). Battle has been joined with those well trained, well-intentioned voices in the ether(net) available to help us 24/7 with our electronic difficulties.

It started simply enough: we lost our electrical power and our internet services on Thursday, May 22, because of tornado-strength winds. We were so lucky not to lose more as a tornado that passed within 20 or 30 miles (30-50 km.) of us. So lucky to only watch the enormous, black cloud bank as it blew past less than 5 miles (8 km.) away in a few, frighteningly short minutes. So lucky that losing electrical services was the least we could do.

After our power was restored – but not our internet service – we called the help line, waited through the recording assuring us we could get faster service at www.helpful-service-providers.com, punched all the right buttons (mostly), said all the right words (several times), and got to an actual person. She was very nice. She said nicely that our service was indeed still interrupted by the tornado. We were so lucky after all that it seemed churlish to complain when the she asked us, helpfully, if there was any other help she could provide. Upon hearing that there was not, she reminded us sweetly that we could get service quicker and more easily just by going to www.helpful-service-providers.com.

Yes. Well. So lucky, all the same.

After we saw by the green light on our heretofore trusty modem that our internet service was restored, we tried to get on-line. “Server not available,” reported our trusty Windows browser.

We waited.

Friday morning dawned with our trusty modem cheerfully flashing its green Internet light. We mis-trusted it. Rightly so. We pressed its reset button. Once resot, light green, browser at the ready, we clicked. “Server not available,” replied the browser. We took away the modem’s power. We rebooted the computer. “Server not available,” stated the browser, the modem flashing its green internet light. Mockingly.

We did the help line tango again, got our helpful “go online” suggestions, and spoke to another nice person. She explained that while our modem could connect to the network, the internet server was down. It would be restored in two to 24 hours, she said helpfully, so we should check periodically throughout the day. And we should provide our email address so we could comment on her help. We tried unsuccessfully to keep her from adding “msn.com” to the end of our email address, and listened politely to her reminder that we could get really fast help at www.helpful-service-providers.com.

After lots of fun interaction with the “Server not available” module on our browser, we greeted a new day. Within the predicted 24 hours, give or take 4 hours for building our character, the server became available. Yay! While hopeful, we still couldn’t get on the internet. We called our trusty hot-line, executed the now-familiar dance, got to a person, and in mere hours reestablished internet connectivity on both the desktop and the laptop. We were so happy to have internet service that we didn’t even comment when the helpful person sweetly told us that if we encountered this problem in future, we could go to www.helpful-service-providers.com.

These kindly folks are so well trained.

We used our internet and tended to our garden, literally and figuratively. We began to contemplate a world in which we in the United States of America can finally, maybe, hope to get over our pre-Civil-War greed and post-Civil-War Reconstruction and see people when we look at people.

We developed a false sense of security.

One day, we left the house to run errands, being among the shrinking number of folks on this planet who can buy food whenever we like. We returned through the wind to a powerless home. We understood the feeling.

Once the power and internet were restored, we did some actual paid work, weeded our garden, and turned to maintenance of our electronic garden. Our new handheld device was not playing well with our desktop devices.

We had a new one-sided conversation with our desktop.
“! Windows – System Error
“There is an IP address conflict with another system on the network”
said the hidden icons at the bottom of our screen and refused to explain further.

Knowing what would happen if we telephoned our helpful 24/7 handheld device and cell phone service provider folks, we went online. The following exchange occurred:

Ourcellphoneservice.com: Enter your device description
Poor user: Click on handheld, find and select our handheld device.
Ourcellphoneservice.com: Enter your question
Poor user: Find list of service needs and click on “e-mail.”
Ourcellphoneservice.com: Enter your device description
Poor user: Click on handheld, find and select our handheld device.
Ourcellphoneservice.com: Enter your question
Poor user: Find list of service needs and click on “e-mail.”

We repeated this exchange from several start points on ourcellphoneservice.com.

Having now established that Poor User has met one of the criteria for insanity – repeatedly performing the same actions, getting the same results, and expecting different results – we stopped and moved on to the next cycle.

We called 1-800-ourcellphoneservice for 24/7 help. We listened to the friendly advice to go to myourcellphoneservice.com. Forearmed, we danced through the phone system to a person. He was very helpful and understanding. His accent was almost incomprehensible because he was not from our country. He was from Texas.

But he was happy to repeat himself, and we got along nicely. We didn’t solve the problem, but we did get logged into ourmycellphoneprovider.com. Of course, our computer wouldn’t display anything but the login screen where we entered our brand new password. Repeatedly. Once our helpful person made us understand that he could see we were logged in already, we stopped demonstrating our insanity in that way. He tried to talk us through setting up email on our handheld device. We worked through our language barrier and established that if the handheld is unplugged from the computer or the Wi-fi connection is deactivated there is no service on the handheld device. (We already knew that actual cell service was only possible if one went outside and stood in the county road, but our helper didn’t.) We tried, but in our cell-towerless neighborhood the signal wasn’t strong enough to connect to the internet, no matter what risky behavior we undertook.

After following various other instructions, we got our handheld device to the point that it would do even less than before, even when re-Wi-fi’ed. Without, of course, setting up email. Our help person had a suggestion: we should drive to the cell phone service provider nearest us and they’d help us restore the menu options we need and add email service, for which he assured we are already paying. Because he understood our frustration, repeatedly, our helpful trouble-shooter offered us 50 free minutes. When we pointed out that we couldn’t currently use our cell phone’s existing minutes, he understood our frustration and awarded us 50 free minutes.

After a few more attempts at fixing things, which he did at our request because they hadn’t worked so well the first time, we agreed to stop repeating this activity. Our helpful person said once again that he understood our frustration at not getting either the handheld device or myourcellphoneservice.com to work. He forbore reminders about our free minutes and asked if there was anything else he could do for us today. We thought that he had done enough. Before wishing us a great day, he reminded us that we could get fast, easy service at www.myourcellphoneservice.com.

I recounted these woes to my husband.

“If there’s no flour for bread, make pancakes,” he said.

So, being – as has previously been established – insane, I waited a day before trying again. Oddly enough, the login to myourcellphoneservice.com worked, and the first attempt to select help with email setup on the selected handheld device yielded a new result! It was:

“It appears that the page you have requested no longer exists. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you.”

And the hidden icons added,
“! Windows – System Error
“There is an IP address conflict with another system on the network”

I am not going to telephone anyone.
I am not going to go anywhere else on the internet.
I am going to stay home (ChezSherry) and make pancakes.
Or maybe biscuits.

Quiet Neighbors

2008-05-13T17:39:00.001-06:00

We have two Colorado Blue Spruce trees in our front yard.

One, a taller, sparer tree lives slightly West of the best water. She’s the Mama tree, producing Spruce-cones, protecting the Papa tree from the harsh West wind, and giving of herself – to the point that she almost died of thirst one summer while her mate prospered.

The shorter, plumper, fuller Papa tree to her east provides a home for birds of many species. His many branches hide them so well that we can’t find the nest if a chick falls in the spring or summer. He is very prosperous, our Papa tree, and grows out, not up, so Mama can catch the early morning sun on her cone-laden upper branches.

Respecting their natures, we put the bird-seed in the Mama tree and stay away from the Papa tree, so as not to disturb the many families.

When we did a bit of decorative landscaping last spring, laying down fabric and bark in a newly-created aluminum circle, Papa was careful not to scratch my back with his low branches. He kept his sharp needles away. Mama, on the other hand, was much more interested in protecting her babies and wasn’t so worried about my back – or the weeds and grass we removed from around her trunk. Her needles were sharp, although not hurtful. I do think she was grateful that we’d noticed how thirsty she was and remedied the situation. Grateful, but wary.

So far from their mountain home, and such good neighbors. It would be heartless not to be thankful for the pleasure of their company.

If It Looks Like a Duck...

2008-05-10T11:15:00.003-06:00

and talks like an ultra-conservative, maybe it's Bruce Tinsley's Mallard Fillmore. But when it comes to his views on what's racist, maybeee...

The Trailing Edge version of "What's Racist Today" says:

Number One: Endlessly calling attention to the race of one of the leading candidates for President when there are so many real issues we need to consider...

That would be racist.

Or do you object to what Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are really doing - calling attention to those serious issues when your favorite party wants us to ignore them and keep hiding under our beds?

You know. Access to healthcare, the state of our economy, a break for the working poor, the US standing in the world... Stuff like that.

Or is that left wing liberal thinking?

2008-05-02T17:58:00.004-06:00

Hi you two. How have you been this last month or two? Did you miss me? Me neither.

But I missed you.

Somebody told me last week that Lent has been over for a while, so I can be as righteously indignant as I want.

How about that? Lent ends when Easter Sunday celebrates a new way of thinking about God.

Hoodathunkit?

Speaking of new ways of thinking, I’ve been thinking about the revolution in politics in the good ol’ US of A.

We Democrats are actually registering to vote.

Try a browser search on Voter Registration if you don’t believe me.

Of course you’ll have to wade through the statistics state by state, so don’t blame me if you miss the next 47 appointments and commitments you have.

If you get to page 12 of your search engine choices, let me know what’s there.

In any case, Democrats can't possibly win according to recent press releases.

Perhaps the unbiased free press thinks this is because we are contemplating electing a woman or a member of a minority group. Senator Clinton is not a member of a minority, by the way, because "in 2005, women and girls outnumbered men and boys by 4.4 million—150.4 million compared with 146.0 million" according to the US Census. Minority is an accurate designation for Senator Obama, according to same source; about 67% of US residents say they're white, not any other race and not Hispanic, and Senator Obama says he's not in that group. (These are admittedly old statistics, but not the sort that change very fast, so let's proceed.)

But that's probably all beside the point anyway - or at least it's beside the pressing point, to coin a pun. The point is that Obama and Clinton are arguing over details, as candidates in the same party do, and methods, as everyone does, and our independent, unbiased reporters think this is dangerous to their success.

Personally, I have a preference. And I'll bet it's just as well justified as yours. If we disagree, is that dangerous to our success?

Meanwhile, back at the Republican election campaign:

According to Roger Hickey as posted on Our Future Community aka Campaign for America’s Future, Arizona Senator John McCain “…wants voters to think he is going after health care cost inflation. In reality, he wants to dismantle the employer-provided system that now covers over 60 percent (or about 158 million) of non-elderly Americans, forcing millions of us who now get fairly decent health insurance on the job to instead buy whatever they can find on the individual market controlled by unregulated and predatory insurance companies. And he would drive health care costs upward, not downward."

Speaking as an ex-employee who has had to pay first about $680, now more than $800, per month (yes, I did mean PER MONTH) for health insurance ever since health issues forced me to take early retirement, I don’t think McCain has a very good idea. I had the luxury of paying that amount for health insurance only because COBRA required my employer’s insurer to make that insurance available to me. Otherwise, my insurance would have been whole dollars cheaper. But then, of course, my existing conditions – those pesky ones that forced me to leave my job – would not have been covered for the first year. Or at all. An insurer can always exclude them altogether if not a COBRA or employer-provided insurer, you see.

Does either of you live outside the US of A? I forget. If so, please enjoy your healthcare. And contact me for an explanation of all this insanity if you'd like to have a headache.

Or if you might reconsider trying to emigrate to our wonderful land.

None of this applies to you if you plan to remain in perfect health for the forseeable future.

Oops. That sounded a lot like righteous indignation, didn’t it?

So glad that Lent is over.

Eschewing Dignation

2008-03-10T19:30:00.001-06:00

I'm giving up righteous indignation for Lent.

Oh, I know what you're going to say. We're over half-way through Lent and besides you're supposed to give up something you really enjoy. Like chocolate. Or pleasant activities that we used to suppose didn't involve children or domesticated animals.

Well, that's as may be, but I maintain that giving up something halfway through Lent is better for two reasons. First, I do really enjoy being righteously indignant, especially in this blog, so I am following the spirit of the season, even if belatedly. Second, it's much easier to stick to the give-something-up resolution if you don't have to do it for very long. So I am following the practice of the season.

And my timing befits one at the foreback (antonym of forefront). This is the Trailing Edge, after all.

OK. Three reasons. I was slow at arithmetic. No surprise there.

For clarification, I offer the following:

"Indignation," according to my 3 volume Webster means, "typically intense deep-felt resentment or anger aroused by annoyance at or displeasure with or scorn over something that actually is or is felt to be unjust or unworthy or mean."
"Dignation," according to the same dictionary, means, "the act of showing esteem, especially to an inferior."

Well, imagine my surprise when I was doing the usual extensive (i.e., "minimal") research for this blog. "Dignation" is an actual word, although obsolete (but, then, so am I). And the opposite of its meaning is closer to what I intend when saying "indignation."

You can see my dilemma right off. On the other hand, if what you saw right off is that my dictionary is out-of-date and the definition of "indignation" is far too complicated, perhaps I should explain. My point is that I was going to try to stop with all these holier-than-thou, public diatribes against those who disagree with my well-informed and/or firmly-held opinions. My thought was to give up the superior tone.

But it turns out I also gave up being really irate about legitimate ills.

So what do I blog about?

Ideas lentenly accepted...
No sunshine and puppies, please. I love them, but don't seem able to expound on that theme. Perhpas it's the allergy to puppies.

Another Day Breaks

2008-02-21T11:38:00.002-07:00

Good morning, friends. Out here in cold, overcast Northern Colorado (or back here on the Trailing Edge; take your pick) I’ve been busily reviewing my email SPAM filter and unearthing gems from the muck. Yes, it’s true. Hidden among the wonderful, plentiful, rejected offers that I enhance anatomical features I don’t have, is my notification of having signed up to join the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Bravely overcoming the fact that my only advanced degree is in French Literature, as well as other errors of my youth, I forged ahead. (The head was needed for scientific endeavor and the forging was necessary because of my aforementioned lack of appropriate training papers.)

While busily updating my profile, dutifully changing my password, and responsibly reviewing possible courses of action, I discovered that the deputy administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Marcus Peacock, has a blog. Can you imagine? Here he was putting his career on the line, and I didn’t even know it. Check it out and let him know how you appreciate the EPA’s efforts – and his willingness to go out on a limb over troubled waters, as it were, to describe them to you.

Luckily, this risk-taking behavior got Peacock an invite to the White House, so all is well. For him. Not so sure about how well all will be for his grandchildren when his daughter grows up, has children, and wants to find a nice planet for them to live and play drums on.

By then, under the gentle leadership of our apolitical, science-biased, US federal government agencies, the only thing on this planet fit for human consumption may be the corn… But wait, that will be fuel for the rich folks’ vehicles…

Well, let’s hope the career choices of bureaucratic offspring assure they are as well off and well connected as their parents. I’m sure there will be someplace safe right here on earth. Think of them, our future leaders and followers, living and working in safe havens while developing programs to feed, clothe, and provide dangerously inadequate shelter for others less fortunate. Who knows? Perhaps these havens of leadership will be known, in those distant future days, as Environmentally Protected Asylums, or EPAs…

Eenyhoo, the sun has started to shine, and life as we know it continues unabated…

Be well if you can and write if you find work.
Or solutions.

Achieving Equity – November, 2007 and February, 2008

2008-02-02T16:58:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about equity one evening last November as I was washing the last of the winter lettuce from our small garden. Thinking about talented, beautiful women who call themselves actors. My mother was an actress. That’s what she called herself. And she was. A talented, beautiful actress. Now that they are likely to wear a great deal less than my mother ever wore on stage (or film or videotape), they are actors.

From what I have been allowed to see that’s not accurate. Which is OK, but I wonder if it’s the best way to go. Oh, I understand the idea – talent is not gender-specific. Males, females, and other genders should all be subject to the same criteria when it comes to performing arts (or anything else, of course).

But where is the right to glory in the differences? If I am seeing the movie – not to mention TV – screens clearly, someone certainly wants us to glory in the differences. So what does our speech seek to hide? When did the quest for equity – fair treatment without regard for irrelevant differences – become a quest for uniformity – treatment of all persons as though they were exactly the same without regard for skill, interest, personality, biology, preference, intelligence, talent, training…

Does all this political correctness really help us accomplish anything other than learn to pronounce and perhaps even spell increasingly longer words?

Don't get me wrong; I think we must bend over backwards to give people a chance to prove themselves if they have historically been deprived of the chance to even try. But that's a search for equity, not uniformity.

I know two Letties. One is a classic beauty. She has the style, spirit, and grace of a queen. The other Lettie is imminently huggable. Comfortable and unruffled are adjectives that fit her well. Both Letties project a clear sense of who they are. They are equal in their value as friends. In all other things, they are very different. And I think they deserve to be treated differently. I can ask plain-dealing Lettie for her opinion if I really want the unvarnished truth. I can ask smart Lettie if I have a question requiring brain power.

Of course, this dissimilar-but-equitable treatment rashly assumes that I’m able to figure out which one really has which characteristic. (Or that either Lettie will straighten me out if I’m not smart enough to get it right – which, luckily, she will.)

But my point is that they should be treated differently; they’re different people. But they shouldn’t be treated inequitably. From each other or anyone else. Beautiful Lettie shouldn’t get better job opportunities because she is better looking or worse health care because she is African American. Comfortable Lettie shouldn’t get better job opportunities because she is less imposing or worse health care because she is less assertive. And so on.

So here we are, shortly after celebrating the life and works of Martin Luther King, Jr. The lettuce is long gone (but not, fortunately, the Letties), and I’m again thinking about equity. But speaking (or writing) of my thought processes leads me to think about them. How can I tell when I’m not assuming a difference that doesn’t exist? Being human assures that I’m never unbiased. For instance, if I’d be inclined to ask the thinner, more physically fit Lettie for advice on diet and exercise, what am I – the overweight and under-muscled I who knows quite a bit about nutrition and physical activity – assuming about knowledge and behavior? I’m interpreting the data available according to my preconceived notions, which I know to be erroneous.

And I’m not alone in that. Although…
“…scientists have repeatedly reported that whites have larger brains than blacks. [Stephen Jay] Gould shows that when the preserved brain is measured before the race of its former owner is revealed, this difference disappears completely…What is important about [Gould’s] essay is not that it reveals what we already know to be true about the existence of racism and sexism, but that it shows how any claim that something is ‘scientifically demonstrated’ should be treated with the same skepticism that we invoke when there is any reason to think that the investigator has something to gain, either ideologically or professionally, as we do when financial gain is involved…” (excerpted from The Triumph of Stephen Jay Gould by Richard C. Lewontin, Volume 55, Number 2 · February 14, 2008.)

But don’t we all have something to gain, either ideologically or professionally, whenever we state an opinion? Especially if it’s supported by science? I certainly do. I want you to believe me and be over- (rather than under-) whelmed by the incisiveness of my thinking and the scientificity of my method. And oblivious to my biases.

So how do we achieve equity?

I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure we don’t get there by pretending we’re all carbon copies of one another. It should be OK for us to delight in the differences. They keep us from getting bored. It should be OK for us to call persons with evident feminine traits – and talent – actresses.

What should not be OK is using the differences to justify inequities.

After all, one of the actors’ unions is Equity.

P.S. According to my mother, you could join Actors’ Equity only if you were cast in an Equity show. And you couldn’t be cast in an Equity show unless you were already a member of Equity. You couldn’t get Equity unless you already had Equity. It’s probably still that way. It is everywhere else.

Global Warming and Our Health

2008-01-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Now that we've accepted that 2008 is really here, we turn our attention to global warming. And social justice. Again.

What we Trailing Edge enthusiasts lack in promptness, we make up for in repetition and sloth.

So we want to urge you to join us in observing Global Action Day - January 26...
[Nota Bene: Trailing Edge Significant First! Announcement of an event about 8 hours before the fact. Significance: p=.0001 (that is, the probability that this prior notification is a random event, likely to occur any old time is vanishingly small).]
...by not doing stuff.

You can visit the World Social Forum 2008 website and find out about lots of things we can stop doing.

We will start stopping by quoting - rather than rewriting - all the good information that Lanny Smith (the excellent Dr. Clyde Lanford Smith, that is, not the excellent basketball player) posted to the Spirit of 1848 Group.

But in the interest of sloth, we will first summarize the stuff we can all stop doing. (Of course, as mentioned, we can wait until tomorrow, January 26, 2008, to start stopping.) (Although if you’re too lazy to wait, that’s OK, too.) (We certainly are.) As of whenever, we can:
· Take a break from doing all sorts of things that keep on costing: quit using not-so-extra energy, stop throwing reuseable stuff away, forget to plug things in or turn on the electronics, give ourselves a rest from toxic products, delay buying until we find local and/or green stuff, and like that;
· Don’t bite our tongues when we see Environmental Racism – defined as dumping our dregs on those of our neighbors who have plenty of dregs already;
· Quit worrying about the difference between home and abroad when it comes to environmental or social justice issues, so we don’t have to bother keeping track of how fast the world is shrinking; and
· Stop closing our minds’ eyes to the link between our health and what we breathe, sip, munch, float in, and snooze on.

And we quote [although we added hyperlinks, dropping the related web address text, and shortened and reformatted a bit]:

Global Action Toward Environmental Health and Social Justice 26 Jan…
Posted by: LANNY SMITH
Posting Date: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:34 pm (PST)

Dear Members, Supporters, AND Everyone dedicated to Environmental Health and Social Justice, here is an invitation to be with the People's Health Movement-US and Global, 26 January 2008 on World Social Forum Global Action Day:
Global Action Day is this year’s World Social Forum Global Action toward “Another World Is Possible,” and will be held around the world on 26 January 2008 (and during the following week).

We hope that each of you will join either this specific activity (put together initially by Doctors for Global Health [DGH] Board Members Emily Rosenberg, Maureen McCue and Lanny Smith—in view of the DGH Board Meeting on 26 January 2008--and inviting your input) or another of your making or choice. In some places around the world (for example Egypt and Lebanon), the People’s Health Movement is having day-long conferences around a specific Social Justice topic. Whatever you do for Social Justice on a daily basis, try to educate other persons about it (including all of us) always but specifically this day, focus and join together with others, look for ways to synergize expertise.
...
Please consider [sharing this blog with] your local activist, student and educational groups and list-serves. We would like for them to invite the People’s Health Movement to become a partner in solidarity with their daily Health and Social Justice activities.

Proposed Activities (see below for details):
Promote Environmental Health and Social Justice;
Expose Environmental Racism being done near you;
Expose pseudo-pro-environmental anti-immigrant policies and what environmental destruction does to people’s health world-wide;
Promote your personal awareness toward Environmental Health
…
Special thanks to Jennifer Cox of the PPEHRC (Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign - a Member of the International Council of the World Social Forum) and Kensington Welfare Rights Union for her encouragement that “Another World is Possible” in the United States of America…

1. Promote Environmental Health and Social Justice. Another Way
Many people who have seen The Story of Stuff have asked what they can do to address the problems identified in the film. Each of us can promote sustainability and justice at multiple levels: as an individual, as a teacher or parent, a community member, a national citizen, and as a global citizen. As Annie says in the film, “the good thing about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention.” That means that there are lots and lots of places to plug in, to get involved, and to make a difference. There is no single simple thing to do, because the set of problems we’re addressing just isn’t simple. But everyone can make a difference, but the bigger your action the bigger the difference you’ll make. Here are some ideas:
10 Little and Big Things You Can Do
1. Power down! A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by installing solar panels on your home, bravo!
2. Waste less. Per capita waste production in the U.S. just keeps growing. There are hundreds of opportunities each day to nurture a Zero Waste culture in your home, school, workplace, church, community. This takes developing new habits which soon become second nature. Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace….the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!
3. Talk to everyone about these issues. At school, your neighbors, in line at the supermarket, on the bus…A student once asked Cesar Chavez how he organized. He said, “First, I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” “No,” said the student, “how do you organize?” Chavez answered, “First I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” You get the point. Talking about these issues raises awareness, builds community and can inspire others to action.
4. Make Your Voice Heard. Write letters to the editor and submit articles to local press. In the last two years, and especially with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the media has been forced to write about Climate Change. As individuals, we can influence the media to better represent other important issues as well. Letters to the editor are a great way to help newspaper readers make connections they might not make without your help. Also local papers are often willing to print book and film reviews, interviews and articles by community members. Let’s get the issues we care about in the news.
5. DeTox your body, DeTox your home, and DeTox the Economy. Many of today’s consumer products – from children’s pajamas to lipstick – contain toxic chemical additives that simply aren’t necessary. Research online (for example, Skin Deep) before you buy to be sure you’re not inadvertently introducing toxics into your home and body. Then tell your friends about toxics in consumer products. Together, ask the businesses why they’re using toxic chemicals without any warning labels. And ask your elected officials why they are permitting this practice. The European Union has adopted strong policies that require toxics to be removed from many products. So, while our electronic gadgets and cosmetics have toxics in them, people in Europe can buy the same things toxics-free. Let’s demand the same thing here. Getting the toxics out of production at the source is the best way to ensure they don’t get into any home and body.
6. Unplug (the TV and internet) and Plug In (the community). The average person in the U.S. watches T.V. over 4 hours a day. Four hours per day filled with messages about stuff we should buy. That is four hours a day that could be spent with family, friends and in our community. On-line activism is a good start, but spending time in face-to-face civic or community activities strengthens the community and many studies show that a stronger community is a source of social and logistical support, greater security and happiness. A strong community is also critical to having a strong, active democracy.
7. Park your car and walk…and when necessary MARCH! Car-centric land use policies and life styles lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel extraction, conversion of agricultural and wildlands to roads and parking lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we don’t have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout U.S. history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising awareness about issues, mobilizing people, and sending messages to decision makers.
8. Change your lightbulbs…and then, change your paradigm. Changing lightbulbs is quick and easy. Energy efficient lightbulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That’s a no-brainer. But changing lightbulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, believes and values that together make up a community’s way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values of sustainability, justice, health, and community.
9. Recycle your trash…and, recycle your elected officials. Recycling saves energy and reduces both waste and the pressure to harvest and mine new stuff. Unfortunately, many cities still don’t have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you’re pressuring your local government to support recycling city-wide. Also, many products – for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics company who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!
10. Buy Green, Buy Fair, Buy Local, Buy Used, and most importantly, Buy Less. Shopping is not the solution to the environmental problems we currently face because the real changes we need just aren’t for sale in even the greenest shop. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like “all natural” to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps more of our hard earned money in the community. Buying used items keeps them out of the trash and avoids the upstream waste created during extraction and production. But, buying less may be the best option of all. Less pollution. Less Waste. Less time working to pay for the stuff. Sometimes, less really is more.

2. Expose Environmental Racism being done near you.
What is Environmental Racism? “Intentional or unintentional racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, the intentional or unintentional targeting of minority communities for the siting of polluting industries, or the exclusion of minority groups from public and private boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies. The term was coined and defined in 1987 by Reverend Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. Executive Director and CEO of the United Churce of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. (wikipedia) Look around you for signs of Environmental Racism, and write or call your local elected officials (they may know already, and may well be receiving campaign donations from whichever entity is doing the oppression), write an Op-Ed, make a noise, make a stink, find community action groups and work with them to amplify their voices). Ex: As I write from El Salvador now, I contemplate the destruction of entire communities of Native Salvadorans as the World Bank plans to build a series of dams on the Torola River in Morazan. Ex: near where I live in the Bronx (end of the #4 train), the City of New York is building a “water-treatment plant” over the protests of community members, most of whom are people of color, in what used to be part of Van Courtland park. Signs warn us not to use cell phones because blasting caps may go off. Signs warn us not to drink the water in the ugly fountains built to appease the community, stating that the water is not fit to drink. These are recipes for some serious creative anger action. Look around you and see what you can see. Then “Observe, Reflect, Act and Evaluate” toward Liberation Environmentalism.

3. Expose pseudo-pro-environmental anti-immigrant policies.
Realize what Environmental destruction does to people’s health world-wide.
Support the People's Health Movement (PHM) Right to Health Campaign
…
Note: Some Presidential Candidates have already signed a position of oppression concerning undocumented persons (put them in jail; send them back to their countries; make it impossible for them ever to become US Citizens). Try and make those candidates regret their declared position. Try to keep other candidates from joining the fascist way.

Infamous Sierra Club motion: Remember that in 2004 some members of the Sierra Club decided that undocumented immigrants coming to the US were an environmental problem, and urged curbing immigration. Write the Sierra Club to thank them for no longer supporting that motion. Their official stand on Migration now includes the following:
As Americans progress in promoting conservation laws here at home, we inadvertently export much of the environmental burden [we created] to developing countries. These countries—and the communities within them—are often less capable of resisting such exploitation…The North American Free Trade Agreement, for example,…has been blamed for pushing more than one million small-scale Mexican farmers off their land since its 1994 implementation…As a result, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of former corn growers from Mexico are now in this country, some illegally, harvesting our crops. The Sierra Club wants a trading system different from the corporate “free trade” model, which is destroying lives and livelihoods around the world… Recently, the Sierra Club teamed up with Amnesty International to…help ease the plight of people who might otherwise become environmental refugees…

Earth Day and Nixon: Remember that the original Earth Day was made in 1971, under the eyes of Richard Nixon, in what some believe was an attempt to divide the left (then fighting to stop the American War in Vietnam) and divert a significant percentage of activist energy toward potentially less radical endeavors (and probably not counting on the likes of the Greenpeace that was then, when its founders tried to stop a US nuclear test on Amchitka island, off Alaska’s coast). The Earth Day buttons and chants said “Give Earth a Chance,” echoing the rallies of “Give Peace a Chance” from the Anti-War Marches. Turn the clock and educate toward an Environmental Justice perspective, “Justicia, Tierra y Libertad,” (Emiliano Zapata, viva!)

Environmental Refugees A Cause for Concern
Made by: Jenna Armstrong, Amanda Lee, Chelsea Butler, and Amanda Irish-Key.

Definition: People who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their homelands because of drought, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental problems of population pressures and profound poverty (1).

· Scholars are predicting that 50 million people worldwide will be displaced by 2010 because of rising sea levels, desertification, dried up aquifers, weather-induced flooding and other serious environmental changes(2).
· The environmental refugees total may very well double by the year of 2010. An estimated 200 million people could be affected by global warming by refugees of water-related disasters alone.(3) Some Examples:
o 530 residents of displaced persons camps in northern Kosovo face the lead poisoning health effects from lead pollution in an abandoned lead-smelting site. This was well-known in 1999, when the camps were set up by the UN, but to this day many local people have not been informed(4).
o Reoccurrences of history are a fact. 3 million “Okies” from the southern Great Plains left during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Failing crops moved forced them to seek homes in California. Recently, the 1999-2002 national drought was one of the three most extensive droughts in the last 40 years(5).
o Heat waves have been more frequent and intense. In 2003, heat waves were the cause of more than 35,000 deaths in Europe and India (5).
o Rising seas is a source of huge refugees. For example, a just a 1-meter rise could wipe out half of Bangladesh’s Riceland. 40 million people will be displaced in an already densely populated country (3)
o Nutritional concerns could be immense. In sub-Saharan Africa, 80 million people may be starving, and this is primarily due to environmental factors (1). Could it be agriculture-related? In Nigeria, 3,500 square kilometers of land become desert every year. Farmers and herdsmen are forced to leave and share land or live in cities. In Kenya, nomadic tribes that were formerly enemies now share water and pastures(3). Sana’a, Yemen’s water table is falling by an overwhelming 6 meters a year, and the World Bank is predicting it will exhaust its water supply by 2010. Yemen already houses 66,000 refugees. How can we measure the possible health consequences of such an event?
o The ILO estimates that the tsunami of Sri Lanka in 2005 forced half a million men and women from their homes, taking the lives of an estimated 31,000 and injuring 24,000 individuals (6). This shows how one event caused by climate change can be a health emergency. What can we do? We all play a part.
· World Refugee Day, on June 20th, is a great time to promote awareness and educate the general public about the cause for environmental refugees in particular.
· Lobby for more about global migration policies that transcend national boundaries, and the establishment of rights for these displaced persons.
· Educate your own community about the presence of environmental refugees worldwide.
· No longer the “Not in My Backyard” problem. By concentrating on sustainable living and doing our part to lower our impact on global climate changes, perhaps we can save others’ lives by saving our own.
[Pictures included in the original text – websites or pictures may not currently be available:] Comparable maps showing water scarcity and deaths attributed to climate change; map from BBC world news, Humans 'affect global rainfall,’ July 23 2007; and map from World Health Organization.

References:
(1) Myers, Norman. Environmental Refugees: An Emergent Security Issue. 13th Economic Forum, Prague 23-27 May 2005.
(2) Simms, Andrew. “Environmental Refugees,” The Guardian. New Economics Foundation 2003.
(3) Statistics from Earth Policy Institute. www.earth-policy .org
(4) Statistics from Amnesty USA at www.amnestyusa.org
(5) Natural Resources Defense Council, Jan. 9th, 2006.
(6) International Labor Organization, www.ilo.org
…

4. Promote your personal awareness toward Environmental Health.
Low Carbon Diet: a 30 day program to lose 5000 pounds [describes] actions: Drive Earth Smart; Scrub-a-Dub Tub; [and] Wear It Again Sam.
(The book has a whole lot more actions to take, but these three are available for free and in an email-able format. I [Lanny Smith, that is] particularly like the drive earth smart one as an awareness-raiser.)

Call for Day(s) of Action and Mobilization - January 26th 2008
We are millions of women and men, organizations, networks, movements, trade unions from all parts of the world; we come from villages, regions, rural zones, urban centers; we are of all ages, peoples, cultures, beliefs; but we are united by the strong conviction that ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE! With all the richness of our plurality and diversity and our alternatives and proposals, we struggle against neo-liberalism, war, colonialism, racism and patriarchy which produce violence, exploitation, exclusion, poverty, hunger and ecological disaster and deprive people of human rights. For many years we have been resisting and constructing innovative processes, new cultures of organization and action from the local to the global, in particular within the processes and Charter of Principle of the World Social Forum from which this call emerges. Aware of the need to set our own agenda and to increase the impact of these thousands of expressions and manifestations, we are committed to strengthening the solidarity and convergence among our struggles, campaigns, and constructions of alternatives and alliances. We commit ourselves to a week of action which will culminate in a Global Day of Mobilization and Action on January 26, 2008. With our diversity which is our strength, we invite all men and women to undertake throughout this week creative actions, activities, events and convergences focusing on the issues and expressed in the ways they choose.
ACT TOGETHER FOR ANOTHER WORLD!!
See: WORLD SOCIAL FORUM 2008 - another world is possible [to add your voice of support].

So let’s hear it for the 8-page quote (and hope he doesn’t mind my shortening and editing it a bit). Not to go on at length or anything, but we could all trail along and stop doing things that will get us poor health, grumpy neighbors, limited visibility, costly tomorrows, and – if we live in any of the world’s real population centers and manage to survive for another 20 or 30 years – wet feet.

I’ve not done enough today; think I’ll take a nap.
Lengthily and respectfully submitted,
Sherry

January, 2008

2008-01-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings, dear readers, and Happy New Year to both of you.

Here on the trailing edge, we’re all set to greet the new year in our typical fashion.

A little late and looking backward.

So read on, and, like the man said, try not to take seriously what is poked at you in fun.

In January of 2007, we were worried. If people didn’t accept the reality of Global Warming, we couldn’t begin to reverse the process. Silly us. Virtually everyone agrees that Global Warming is at least partially our fault. Now, we can worry that the world-wide efforts to do something about global warming are being successfully thwarted by US procrastination. Ain’t progress grand?

In February of last year, we were worried. We were afraid the cost of war would exceed our capacity to pay (and pay, and pay, and …). Silly us. Now, we see that if we just collected one dollar from every man, woman, and child on the planet, we could almost pay for the cost of war to the US. Of course, we better get the collection folks on it pretty soon, or we won’t have enough. And we have to figure out how to collect from people who only earn a dollar a week and have five kids under the age of nine. And don’t live in the US, so we’ll have to cover travel and per diem.

In March, 2007, we were hopeful. Spring was just around the corner, to coin a phrase. We hoped the children of incarcerated parents (forget Swift boats and think Swift meat processing) were OK. Silly us.

In April, we were so filled with the spirit of Spring that we didn’t even post a blog. April, April… Wasn’t that when author Ray Bradbury and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane receive special Pulitzer Prize citations, and the White House had a bunch of upbeat press releases, and we thought all was right with the world? According to Greenpeace, on the other hand, “Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world as a result of global warming.” Silly, silly us.

In May of 2007, we were still slacking. Not for nothing have we named ourselves The Trailing Edge…Actually, we were working hard on our organic garden – planting them seeds and setting them pots on the enclosed back porch. We felt so righteous, planting organic seeds, one packet of which costs more than that half the starving world makes in a day… “When will they ever learn?” to coin another phrase.

In June, Post that blog! Lift that bale! Get a little drunk and…
At the Trailing Edge, we were nothing if not self-righteous.
Fortunately, we have never landed in jail…
We do suffer mightily from mixed metaphor syndrome, however.
So cut us a little slack.
Very little.

In July of 2007, everything was coming up roses, organic vegetables, and bio-identical weeds. We Trailers were so busy harvesting and weeding that we rested on our bloggy laurels. Meanwhile, back in the world, car bombs exploded, cocaine was confiscated, President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence. And that was just in the first few days. How is a person expected to keep track? I ask you. Both.

In August and September, it was too warm and pleasant to do a blog. We went fishing. And procrastinated. Actually (our new favorite word), we caught one fish. But it got away.
That’s OK. Nobody else believed us either.

In October 2007, we awoke to the fact that the US national health situation is in critical need of repair. Especially for our children. Others had awoken to that fact several decades earlier, but – once again – we remind you two that this is the Trailing Edge. Do try to keep up. On this site it really isn’t that difficult.

November and December were, once again, months for slacking. We will try to do better in the coming year, but you know how it is…
Actually, the last months of 2007 were very interesting. In the US, it’s clear to one an all that change is necessary. Candidate Obama has said so. And it’s clear that women have a role in politics. Candidates Clinton and Bhut.. Pardon us. Candidate Clinton says so.
Oops. We’re slipping over into 2008, and that’s not calendrically correct.

Perhaps we can be forgiven for looking forward, just a bit. After all, we will turn 65 this year, so looking forward has a short half-life.

For 2008, here are our predictions – trailing behind the others as befits our station in cyberspace:

· President (George W.) Bush will leave office having bested President (Bill) Clinton in every way:
o Impact on the national debt – greater (especially if you sum the absolute value of Pres. Clinton’s positive impact and Pres. Bush’s negative one)
o Embarrassment of spouse – greater (admittedly, for different reasons)
o Foreign affairs – far different (get your minds out of the gutter)
o Impact on world peace – far greater (wandering into another gutter?)
· The US presidential campaigns will reassure citizens of the world (just kidding)
· Citizens of the world will move on to more important topics (still kidding)
· Global warming will become a thing of the past
· The Trailing Edge will be revamped, revitalized, and renovated

The likelihood of the last several predictions actually happening are somewhat diminished by reality. Hopefully, dear readers, you are not.

Our Children, Our Future

2007-10-16T10:41:00.000-06:00

Congress passed an excellent, bi-partisan bill to fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). President Bush vetoed it, claiming we can't afford it. (Any guesses about how many days' funding for the president's war for oil it would take fund this bill fully?) Congress is scheduled to vote to override this veto on October 18. I just received an automated telephone call today from the US Chamber of Commerce claiming that this bill would help too many children - not just the poor ones. Balderdash! SCHIP is intended to provide healthcare coverage for children of working poor families; they and only they will benefit from this bill. Here are a few questions and answers for your consideration:

Is this SCHIP bill really necessary?
Yes. Almost one third of our children are receiving healthcare under a program paid by our taxes. This SCHIP bill offers our best hope for healthy, productive, self-supporting families.

Our Protection for Working Americans -- With SCHIP, parents can keep working even when their salaries and benefits can’t pay for healthcare for their children.
* 70% of the children now enrolled in SCHIP are in families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level (about $40,000 for a family of four).
* This bill limits states' ability to enroll children whose family income is more than 300% of the federal poverty level. It prohibits enrolling undocumented immigrants.
* About 45% of new enrollees will come from working families living in poverty (about $20,000 per year for a family of four).
Our Children's Safety Net -- SCHIP helps families purchase private healthcare for their children. Four million children are eligible for SCHIP but not enrolled.
* You do the math: aren't most, if not all, of these the 45% of expected new enrollees who are now eligible for SCHIP but for whom there is no funding? States need the federal funding this bill provides to reach out to those children, and this need is growing.
* The percent of children younger than 18 with public health plan coverage, including SCHIP, increased from 22% in 1997 to 32% in 2006. (Source: National Health Interview Surveys, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1997 – 2006.)
* The 2006 National Health Interview Survey results showed for children younger than 18 years are 9.3% uninsured, 59.7% with private insurance, and 32.3% with public health plan coverage at the time of interview (Source: Early release of selected estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, tables 1.1-1.2, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006.)
Our Insurance for a Productive Future Workforce -- Regular and timely healthcare is a necessary part of development to our children's full potential as productive adults.

Is SCHIP really a good solution?
Yes. The availability of health insurance coverage continues to decline. Our children’s access to healthcare is better than for adults, but healthcare coverage for children would be worse if it were not for SCHIP.

More than 17 million Americans younger than 65 years – almost a third of whom are middle income – have not had health insurance to help cover their medical bills for at least 4 years. (Source: “The Long-Term Uninsured in America, 2002-2005: Estimates for the U.S. Population under Age 65,” aAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality, MEPS, Statistical Brief # 183.)
* “Had public programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) not enrolled more individuals, the number would have been higher.” (Source: State of the States, January 2006, Finding Their Own Way, Alice Burton, et al., Isabel Friedenzohn, ed., publication of AcademyHealth, national program office for State Coverage Initiatives, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.)

Can we afford it?
We can't afford not to have SCHIP, and we can't afford to reduce funding for this critical program.

There is no general tax increase in this bill.
* SCHIP will be partly funded through an additional 61 cents per pack of cigarettes (federal tax).
* Increased tobacco taxes have been shown to have the greatest impact on decreased smoking in youth.
* The President’s Cancer Panel recently recommended imposing an excise tax on tobacco products to help discourage youth smoking.
* This plan redirects children into privately managed plans and should increase the total number of children enrolled in private plans.
* According to the Congressional Budget Office, this plan is “as good as it gets” when it comes to reducing the danger that families will choose SCHIP over their current health insurance program.

We owe it to our children.
Our future depends on the health and well-being of our children. Our moral and ethical values require that we help those who are working hard to help themselves. Our humanity demands that we take care of our young.

Rising Gas Prices?

2007-06-09T08:07:00.000-06:00

Now that summer is almost officially here, we at the Trailing Edge are thinking about getting ready for it. As it turns out, thinking about it is pretty much all we can do. For instance, we thought about taking one of our periodic treks into the uncharted (by us) vastness of the US highway system. Then we thought about the three figure gas prices. Then we thought about our failure to ever attain a three-figure salary. So we turned our thoughts to the partially-charted vastness of our back yard.

And then it struck us. There is a solution to the rising gas prices, the summertime desire to get away from it all, and the failure of the US auto industry to understand the need for vehicles that are at least slightly more fuel efficient than a European half-ton pick-up truck.

Our stellar idea:

Turn your gas guzzler into functional yard art.

For example:

** Grow an environmentally sound, organic flower garden in and around your recreational, all terrain, armored tank.
The weeding alone will keep you happily occupied all summer.

** Put your SUV up on blocks, run electricity from the house, and convert it over to a rec room for the kids.
Gone are the day camp fees and the “turn that thing off and go outside” fights.

** Remove the body, invert it, set it in the ground, and use it for a kiddie pool.
Think of it as your mechanical/hydro-electric engineering project for the summer.

** Set the chassis, engine block and seats intact, in the sunniest spot in the yard.
Your cats can sun themselves and use the seats for scratching and nesting.

We’ve just thought of these few applications, but we’re sure you can come up with many, many more. Post your ideas here! Your property line is the limit! (Together with any structure, height, and size restrictions.)

Maybe we should have a contest…

The Trailing Edge will accept decommissioned recreational tanks for use as consolation prizes, but can not be responsible for transportation costs.

If you think our energy use isn't funny, check out some sustainable living ideas, with historical perspective, here. Or look up "THE DENIAL INDUSTRY," published in The Guardian on Tuesday September 19, 2006. The article gives an edited extract from Heat, by George Monbiot, published by Allen Lane. Whatever you do, don't read about what's happening to the Kyoto accord. It will just depress you.

Thinking Positive

2007-03-12T17:17:00.000-06:00

Today’s Frank & Ernest cartoon pointed out that blogs focus on the negative. Sad but true. However, back here at the Trailing Edge, we don’t have to follow the pack – at least not too closely. So we can focus on the positive:

Positively reported in today’s news:

Responding to the crisis in temporary (i.e., 18 months, for some) (and counting) child care for women in temporary (i.e., less than 19 months – so far) custody, Massachusetts, one of the states involved, sent social workers to interview incarcerated women in Texas to find out whether their children have appropriate care. These women are being held on suspicion of being in the U.S.A. illegally (remember the Swift Sweeps on December 12, 2006?), and, presumably, are up-to-date on the care status of their children.

[Oops, that was pretty negative and sarcastic – I’m just getting used to this positive stuff. Better start providing links to the news, too.]

Nearing the end of his five-day, multi-nation tour south of the border, President Bush had a favorable reception today in Guatamala City.

“The earlier-than-usual arrival of daylight-saving time confused only the odd computer and annoyed only the occasional human,” which is – I think we can all agree – far better than confusing the normal computer or annoying the frequent human.

Science News picked up the Reuters report on the use of discarded cooking oil to run your car or heat your home. The article describes “a small industry of conversion kit installers, [including]some [who] also supply the oil for their customers.”

And last, but not least, in an attempt to change its image as an uncaring and greedy giant, Wal-Mart plans to sell sustainable electronics – built and sold, no doubt, by persons enjoying the benefits of sustainable employment practices.

Which brings us back to the sweeps, doesn’t it? And to me being snide. Ah, so much of our existence is circular. In the noble (translated) words of Eugene Ionesco, “Take a circle, pet it, and it will become vicious.”

Coming soon: New Definitions for the Trailing Edge Dictionary - Reader Survey...

In keeping with today’s positive theme, I’m asking for positive feedback on this blog. I think you can now post comments without revealing personal information or joining any group (I’m almost positive about that).

Take care. Write if you get work (as they used to say during the Great Depression) that has health insurance benefits (as we say now).

Global Warming – Are We Too Late?

2007-01-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

Back here at the Trailing Edge, our guidestones for new ideas may not be what one might hope and expect. Be that as it may, since President Bush has acknowledged global warming, maybe we should start thinking about it.

Oddly enough, what started this line of thought was some good news – at least I hope it is. It seems there may be a cancer treatment in the wings. Check out:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10971-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.h

An effective, cheap cancer treatment? Hooray! Does this mean we can all start eating like hogs, drinking like fish, and smoking like chimneys? You bet it does, except that no self-respecting hogs, fish, or – for that matter – chimneys are likely to be as self destructive as we delight in being. (Well, maybe not you, but me for sure.)

Anyway, I guess thinking about my self-destructive behavior – and the opportunity to engage in it – got me thinking about global warming. It appears that mostly all scientists in the know think that global warming is a fact. Seems they have thought so for some time. And pretty much all of them think it’s our fault. (Well, again, maybe not yours, but mine for sure.)

Released this week:
An Associated Press article by Angela Charlton, World scientists meet to finish up long-awaited global warming report, 6:30 a.m. January 29, 2007, quotes one of the report authors:
" 'We're hoping that it will convince people that climate change is real and that we have a responsibility for much of it, and that we really do have to make changes in how we live,' said Kenneth Denman, one of the report's authors and senior scientist at the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis."
However, the article goes on to say that…
"Some critics worry that the IPCC scientists did not take into account shifts in Greenland and Antarctica."
http://go.sosd.com/servlet/nrp?cmd=sty&cid=RIM&pgn=1&ino=957129&cat=Science&lno=1

So what, I ask myself (and both of you), is this about Greenland and Antarctica that didn't figure into this comprehensive report?

An article on Antarctica published in Earth Island Journal’s Summer 1998 issue (Vol. 13, No. 3), Antarctica's "Deep Impact" Threat, by Andy Caffrey, covers the ice melting at both the North and South Poles (pun intended only a little bit):
"On April 17, US government scientists reported that a 75-square-mile chunk of the Larsen ice shelf had broken loose and blamed the break-up on global warming. 'This may be the beginning of the end for the Larsen ice shelf,' said US National Snow and Ice Data Center research associate Ted Scambos….
"Meanwhile the mile-thick sheet of ice covering 85 percent of Greenland is vanishing at the rate of 2.5 centimeters a year and the Bering Glacier, the world's largest temperate glacier, has been retreating at a rate of 1 kilometer per year since 1990. Over the past 30 years, Western Arctic temperatures have risen 1 degree C….
"In the August 1995 Scientific American, Christina Stock reported how 'for a geologic nanosecond - a century, in other words - some 120,000 years ago, the earth underwent climatic havoc.' New findings show that sea level records, imprinted in limestone of the Bahama Islands, rose 20 feet above that of today and then plunged to at least 30 feet below modern levels. These erratic 100 years came at the close of the last interglacial era, a time when the climate was somewhat similar to ours.”
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/summer98/wr_sum98d.htm

Two other online articles, written this month by Catherine Brahic for the NewScientist, present a pretty exciting – and accurate as far as I know – discussion of both ice melting and global warming:
Major climate change report looks set to alarm, published 11:54 29 January 2007
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11049-major-climate-change-report-looks-set-to-alarm.html
Melting of mountain glaciers is accelerating, published 18:36 30 January 2007 http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11064-melting-of-mountain-glaciers-is-accelerating.html

So maybe we shouldn’t just turn over and go back to sleep – which is surely the right thing to do when it comes to most scientific reports.

What should we do instead, I ask you (or myself, if you’ve both gone on to more interesting blogs)? Should we actually think about changing the way we think about energy consumption. Should I - right now before it's too late - turn off my comput…(session interrupted)

Politically Confused

2007-01-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

January 10, 2007.
OK (which, by the way, was how an earlier president abbreviated "all correct"), am I the only one here who didn't see any sensible statements of position this evening from anyone currently holding a political office in the federal government?
I started to use "clear" instead of "sensible," but that wasn't accurate. Democrats, Republicans, even our Commander in Chief, were frequently clear in what they said. So that's Oll more or less Korrect, as far as it goes.
However, clarity, while necessary, isn't sufficient. Foreign policy should also be sensible. Otherwise, foreign powers (like, say, European ones) might all go off and start something without us (like, say, an economic and political union that shows signs of working better than ours). (To be clear, I am not happy to worry that the US will someday soon be a lesser power, just trying to be sensible. Although I may be straying from the point a bit. Excuse me, please.)
To be sensible, the various positions of our newly and previously elected leaders' would have had to be grounded in reality - at least to some extent. So let's test that:

Position A: We should get out of Iraq as soon as feasible and commit no more troups or funds to the effort of bringing peace and democracy to that region, because that's what the Iraq government wants and what will safeguard American lives.
This position is OK, except that there doesn't seem to be a general political will in Iraq with a clear "want" when it comes to American troups. The people in Iraq seem to want the mass killings and chaos to diminish, which only happens when American troups are around. The government in Iraq wants to be left alone to run things. Each faction and sect appears to want that.
Also, it could be that refusing to send troups to help the troups currently in Iraq may not be the best way to protect the Americans there. Being understaffed, underfunded, and underprotected is a difficult position from which to succeed at pretty much anything. Even getting out alive.

Position B: We should increase our efforts to bring peace and democracy to Iraq by increasing troups and costs, because that's what the government of Iraq wants and what will secure a lasting peace in the region.
That position is OK except that the government in Iraq doesn't want us there, nor does pretty much anyone in power in that region. That may be the single thing that all the many factions and sects agree on. Oh, and the lasting peace thing. Well, really. Anyone know how to erase the last 40 years or so and handle the whole thing sensibly?

Now, I've said before that, back here on the trailing edge, we're used to being confused, but this is a new high (low?). We may not have the answers back here, in fact, we rarely do. But at least we can recognize when no one is asking the right questions. That's probably why our version of PC is "politically confused."

Early Christmas Present

2006-12-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

Early Christmas morning I saw a deer in the neighbor’s back yard. Quietly, seemingly comfortably, browsing under a spruce tree pruned just high enough to serve as an umbrella. The neighbor – away recovering from knee surgery – could not have left a better guest, or provided one with a more comfortable shelter. While the snow was still three or four feet deep in places, the wind had blown it away from the grass under the two, carefully pruned spruces. The yard is large enough for a bit of wandering and well enough fenced to keep out the neighborhood dogs – who were strangely silent about the deer. And there was the large, covered patio where the dear could rest between snacks and ruminate. (Puns intended.)

As long as we didn’t stare too long or make any really loud noises, the deer was content with having us for neighbors. And we were content to watch from the kitchen or bathroom window as our living Christmas card, peaceful and beautiful, enjoyed the day. At times, the deer seemed more at home in its surroundings than we did in ours – gazing around from its nest on the patio as we bumped and rushed to finish preparing our Christmas feast.

I keep saying “it” because it could have been a doe or a buck. Our ignorance of its gender didn’t stop me from calling her “she” nor my husband from calling him “he.”

Apart from gender bias, we didn’t really read anything into this Christmas vision. It was just a deer. With the blizzard nipping at her heels and ears, she had found this temporary housing. Just a lucky fluke that the neighbor was away – also safe, warm, and well fed, but away. Just chance that let an unexpected silence fall on the neighborhood which, the day before, had been the scene of our digging noisily out as we emerged from the storm-covered houses, manned our four-wheelers, and shoveled and cleared paths for our larger vehicles. We, on our street at the edge of town, were all too well tucked into our homes to bother scaring off a stray deer.

What could we have read into it? It was just a deer. The day after Christmas, it left as silently and peacefully as it had come. I miss her.

The Future Just Ain’t What It Used to Be

2006-10-26T18:23:00.000-06:00

Back when I was young (which was probably not before there was dirt; I’m only saying I don’t remember seeing any), I thought that all problems could be solved and everybody could be nice. That was before I decided I shouldn’t be an inventor, because everything had already been invented, and after I decided I could do anything if I just tried hard enough.

You might think I became depressed upon learning that all of these things I’d decided were false. However, being mostly wrong did not dampen my optimism. (Fortunately. I’m wrong about as often as you get heads when you flip a coin an infinite number of times.) (Roughly 50% of the time, I'm told, although I've never checked it.) In fact, it took a lot more than being wrong to depress me. (Unfortunately, the “lot more” has happened, but I digress.) (Again.)

Now that I am older (than dirt, possibly), I no longer think that solutions are easy or that people, given half a chance, are nice. On the other hand, I now think that some solutions are a lot easier than anyone suspects – just not profitable. And that many people are nice even when not given half a chance. Which really says a lot for humanity when you think about it.

Nonetheless, I am still depressed about our future. This is at least in part because I am, and it seems our species is, locked into the notion that profitability is the measure of success. And that it’s a “good” measure. I don’t know much about other religious leaders, but I’m pretty sure that Jesus didn’t think that. Almost as sure as I am that many (most?) Christians do think that. Along with pretty much all of us other believers and non-believers, as near as I can tell.

What if we’re wrong about that? What if there isn't a general lack of things to invent?

What if we’re just suffering from a narrowing of the arterial thought channels?

What could we invent after we invented a different measure of success?

If we just tried hard enough.

Voting and Thinking: Do They Mix?

2006-10-24T15:42:00.000-06:00

Seems I have so many thoughts about the upcoming U.S. election and so little talent to do them justice…

Perhaps a look at what’s already out there is best. The following are three perspectives on current politics and the upcoming election:

http://theferrett.livejournal.com/804454.html

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=128588

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1019-25.htm

And a quote, courtesy of A.Word.A.Day
(http://wordsmith.org/awad/):
“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” -Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third US president, architect and author.

So remember, VOTE WITH YOUR VOTE.
(I know, this is yet another sound bite even though, dear readers, both of you were too polite to call me on my anti-sound-bite sound bite. In the words of the immortal Pogo, “I am covered with rue.”)

Speaking of other web pages: In a week when the stock market is reaching new heights, it might be well to look back at a commentary on other changes in the U.S. economic scene:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/08/29/
poverty.health/index.html

And another: To the exhortation for a World Day to End Extreme Poverty, Chuck Levenstein offers: “Perhaps we should ask for a World Day to End Extreme Wealth? Since inequality is linked to health, we should work away at both ends of the problem.”
Now there’s a thought.

And a final few thoughts, mostly my very own, brought to you by the Trailing Edge Dictionary of Modern American, which proudly announces two additions – the Politically Correct Section, 21st Century Bush Era, and the Neo-Conservative Section. (NB: While seeming redundant, these sections are, in fact, wholly and completely similar-but-different.)

The Politically Correct Section, 21st Century Bush Era, offers the following new definitions:

preventive war (idiom, adjective+noun) – war of aggression against a nation that holds an opposing socio-political view

NB: Not to be confused with imperial hegemony, please.

Sample Sentence: Upon reflection, President Bush declared a preventive war against the heinous dictator sitting on top of the most oil available in a non-Christian country.

homeland (noun) – geopolitical territory, constituted as a republic, in which no one may object to any word, activity, or legislation undertaken or contemplated by the Executive Branch on pain of being labeled “pro-terrorist” and/or having all available evidence of one’s free enterprise activity crushed under the wheels of large, low-mileage vehicles.

NB: Not, we trust, to be confused with the Politically Correct Section, Stalin Era, definition of dictatorship of the proletariat in which an entire political party was exempt from objection and more harmful means were used to quiet the citizenry.

Sample Sentence: Having made the homeland safe from an increasingly large number of terrorists and other dissidents abroad, the President, Cabinet, and key advisers moved on to the homeland’s internal issues, giving the same skilled attention to natural disasters, immigration, interpersonal relations, and so on.

The Neo-Conservative Section has the following new definition:

moral high-ground (phrase, adjective+compound noun) – the territory occupied by right thinkers (and far right thinkers), from which vantage point all unlike thinking is seen to be a sign of evil.

Sample Sentence: Having reached the moral high-ground, the pro-Creationists and procreationists determined that “evidence” and “faith” are indeed synonyms.

These additions put us in mind of the much older Missing Positives Section, which brought us the following definition:

munity (noun) – lack of protection, resistance, or exemption; political or legal vulnerability

Sample Sentence: Upon reflection, President Nixon granted munity to his entire staff.

And a final bit of free advice: If your logic isn’t circular, who can follow it?
And worth every penny, too.

Sound Bites, Healthy Bites, and Other Things that Bite

2006-09-09T20:08:00.000-06:00

I am an avid reader of cereal boxes. Always have been. Always will be.

Our cereals are all healthy, nutritious, and all natural. (One wonders what an unnatural cereal would be like, but I digress.)

However, faced with a cereal box that is trying to inspire me to better myself, I am bemused. Nay, affronted. And it’s not even my cereal box. It’s my husband’s. It urges me to complete the sentence, “ I will…” – with several examples of exemplary, life-improving behavior. I supress the impulse to shout, “I will buy an expensive sportscar and use it to snub all my friends and neighbors!” This is not a difficult impulse to suppress, because my arthritis prevents me from getting into a sportscar, regardless of its cost. Besides, my husband, peacefully eating his cereal, would worry.

Nonetheless, I resent the cereal box’s presumption. Am I not in charge of what I will or will not do? Do I need the assistance of cardboard and grainy consumables? That I can’t even consume? (Arthritis is less painful if I don’t eat wheat, don’t you know.) Am I prey to the whims of market researchers and advertising copywriters? Probably. But do I need my milk and soupspoon rubbed in it? Not on your Betty Crocker coupon I don’t!

And breakfast food is not the only thing that presumes to guide my behavior. What about television shows that pretend to purvey news? What about politically-motivated science that is neither scientific nor accurate? But is truly believed and consistent with some religious doctrine? What about Internet exchanges of would-be truth that are based on urban myth? What about a whole culture that depends upon reduction of complex problems and difficult ideas to a thirty-second summary?

Sound bites bite! Don’t you know it. Sound bites bite! Shout it out, now. Sound bites bite! A little louder. Sound Bites Bite!

You know, it’s amazing how ego-centric and irritable a little constant pain makes you. I imagine psychic or emotional pain is just as bad. Worse, maybe. Luckily, the physical therapy is working and I’ll be better soon.

But I won’t be improved by a slogan on a carton! Sound Bites Bite.

Slow Viewing and Moving Experiences

2006-07-05T13:42:00.000-06:00

Well, the view from the trailing edge is farther out of focus than usual. The Spence family moved a distance of several miles from temporary (leased) to permanent (bank-owned) housing-with-office-space. Theoretically, the move occurred on June 29. In point of actual fact, the move began in mid-June and is still under way. Naturally, the usual conditions apply:

Dates on the calendar are closer than they appear.
Contents of boxes trade places in the night.
Keys, power cords, and other critical items step briefly into the Twilight Zone only to re-appear when someone else is looking for them.
Important events such as the birthdays of yours truly and of our nation get mired in the maze of boxes.
Much is owed to the kindness of strangers - especially the telephone and cable installation techs who went above and beyond the call of duty.

All sentient life consists of having experiences and learning lessons from them. Yep, we always learn from experience. The trouble comes from learning the wrong lesson. So you be the judge (because the learner is incapable of guessing the appropriateness of the lesson learned) - this is what Sam and Sherry have learned so far:

No matter how tired you get, you can still muster up enough energy to blame the other person for the current source of your irritation.
When exhausted and hungry, it is better to leave and go to a restaurant for an hour or so than to reaffirm the truth of lesson 1.
Before leaving for a restaurant - other than a cardiac-condition-enhancing-drive-through - check each other over for cuts, rips, and unusually large or strategically placed stains.
Do not tease your partner about any slip-up, breakage, or strategically placed stain; these are not laughing matters.
There is a place for everything, and if you look everywhere, you will find it.
"Everywhere" is an area that exceeds the square footage of your new home by some unknown and variable amount.
Make frequent stops for hugs and back-rubs.
All agreements on furniture placement or item storage are subject to change without notice.
Time estimates are the work of the devil; do not heed them.
Keep your sense of humor with you at all times; otherwise, it'll take months to find it.

I would say more, but we're leaving for a restaurant.

2006-06-10T12:53:00.000-06:00

Back here on the trailing edge, some may be slow to react to the ever changing pattern of news. So forgive me if it's a bit late in the day (as it were) for commenting on immigration to the USA. I won't bore you with all the facts that demonstrate – and theories that postulate – that everyone in any of the Americas is an immigrant. Let's take that as a given. But let's not take as a given that the USA was built without opportunism and imperialism, OK? The French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, all fought each other and themselves for the spoils. And many of the earlier immigrants, from the North American plains tribes to the Incas, used the imperialist Europeans to help them fight each other (poor choice of allies, but oh well...).

So nobody was any rose, OK? At least not when it comes to opportunism and imperialism. And I can't see that – since then – any of us has learned much from our own experience or that of our forebears. Scratch that, we appear to have learned a lot, but maybe mostly the wrong lessons. At least, I can't see that I've studied up very much on what our religions and ethical belief systems appear to value of human behavior. At least not when it comes to practicing what those systems say about human rights or free enterprise economy. I reject human slavery while buying products made in sweat shops in countries where workers earn pennies a day – and buying them from US transportation and retail sales enterprises that cheat their employees out of the basic worker rights, which U.S. laws are supposed to assure. I buy – and tout – healthy, organically grown food while realizing that, if the whole world produced food that way, half the world would starve even faster than it is now. I whine about having to pay more than $1,000 per month for health insurance for a family of two while most of the U.S. population has little or no access to that care. And while we argue about the small percentage of illegal aliens who should or shouldn't have access to healthcare, instead of arguing about whether U.S. citizens should have that access.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world seems divided into the more-healthy-than-the-average-US-citizen (case in point: all other things being equal, a baby born in Cuba is more likely to survive its first year of life than a baby born in the USA) and the mortally unhealthy. I could go on, but it's too depressing. The readership would dwindle. (What readership?) Perhaps this all goes without saying anyway, given that our ancestors were all human...up to a point...and so are we.

It just seems to me that it's pretty cheeky of some of us to decide that our rights, morals, or antecedents are any better than those of any of the rest of us. Or that we have a right to refuse something of someone who snuck across a barren, dangerous piece of ground (and whose ancestors may have been on this continent the longest – or not) based on the idea that our desire to own and acquire more than that sneaking someone has is more "right" than that someone's desire to own and acquire more than another someone who didn't try a risky exodus. This kind of thinking is not only cheeky, it's confusing. Which someone was I?

Never mind, here's a new definition for the Trailing Edge Dictionary, used with permission of the email author, origin uncertain:
'From: Cat Bieber
'Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--erg
'Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/erg.html
'This word [erg] spawned a great one-line joke that I heard often while in school at MIT: the lesser known "arg" which is "the unit of work done incorrectly"...'
Another comment on that week's words (see http://wordsmith.org/) had to do with standardization, which the Trailing Edge Dictionary defines as, "the practice of forcing everyone in a given discipline to use the terminology, processes, and basic concepts that I learned in Graduate School." One query was whether the use of "erg" is acceptable when there is a standard, the Joule ("a rose by any other name...," said Jouliet, but I digress, and I have no energy left to ergue about it).

Memorial Day - for Real

2006-05-30T12:19:00.000-06:00

Today is really Memorial Day (as compared with yesterday, which was "Memorial Day Observed" according to my trusty Canadian-born calendar purchased at Rocky Mountain National Park (in Colorado, USA). So I want to really puzzle, today, over the loss of lives expended in the seeking of national (or political) objectives. It's my country, right or wrong, and I honor those who died defending its right to exist, including its right to behave as a republic run by elected officials. Even while I regret, and am sometimes ashamed of, the decisions of my country's elected officials. (Who said that citizens of the USA "get precisely the government they deserve"? A Frenchman, I think.) I honor their willingness to risk themselves for causes they probably did not originate and possibly do not support, their commitment to set aside their personal lives for an unknown period of time to face an unpredictable series of sometimes unfathomable events, and their willingness to suspend feelings and see through what has begun. If the behavior of some is sometimes abhorrent, I will try, today, to remember that what they face is frequently abhorrent and mostly unpredictable. And to remember that, for most, their behavior is heroic. And that I am, every day, so sorry that the fallen warriors had to die when and where they did. Regardless of their nationality.

Debut: A View from the Trailing Edge

2006-05-26T09:51:00.000-06:00

Well, now that I've gone and done it, here it is - what every writer fears - the blank page.

Life here on the trailing edge of the information highway is filled with mystery. You'd think that by the time the ideas got to me, they'd be all worked out - all clear - but it's not so. By the time they get to me, they aren't even ideas, so far as I can tell. They're a group of acronyms hooked together with the most unlikely verbs you ever saw: "You can't run that JAVA using XP" and "Email me the URL for my wiki." And those are the easy ones.

And I work with computers. Of course, anymore, that's a bit like saying, "I work with telephones." Anyhow, since I work with computers, either to manipulate and analyze data or to help public health professionals define what systems they want to work for them and how they should work, you'd think I know how they work, but I don't (you'd also think I could have fit one more "work" into that run-on sentence, but I couldn't - not without the help of my trusty parenthetical expressions). But, come to think of it, I don't know how the telephone works either, so I guess it's OK. It's all magic. (According to the Trailing Edge Dictionary of Modern America - copyrighted and unpublished - magic is defined as "improperly understood technology."

Back to the blank page. Coming toward the middle of my sixth decade, I have many comments on many things, some of which are shareable. So I'll start this blog out with my favorite form of expression - poetry - about some of my most deeply felt issues. There is no conceit in my not naming the issue. If you have a different name for it than I, it means both/all, doesn't it?

South San Francisco Haiku
Lock-step houses climb
The hill - look out to
See if there are any trees

Cobwebs
Caught in cobwebs,
Silver cobwebs,
Sparkling, shining, silver cobwebs.
For one problem on solution -
Shining, silver, sorry cobwebs.
Each solution traps a problem -
Shining cobwebs,
Trapped in cobwebs.
Major problems, easy answers -
No attempt to stop the deathmarch.
Silver cobwebs, shining, cobwebs,
Pretty answers, all are cobwebs.

Now, weighted down with snow the trees
Hold out their arms with heavy pride
With lacy cotton fingers pointing down
In green and white they reach
The blue white sky
Christmas card beautiful
They struggle to survive
The cold the windy beetled pestulence
Of life
Once taken in and offered back
All shelter food and warmth
Of living lives in them
Enduring all
They dure
In beauty unimaginable

If you made it this far, you'll be happy to know this will be a weekly or monthly event, not daily. P.S. Please don't copy or publish the poetry without checking with me - feel free to tag, link, comment, or critique....