LILL's LIST

Everyone is weighing in on what type of health care plan we should have. Some people think it should be universal – a government funded and run system that covers everyone from cradle to grave. Other people think that’s too radical and prefer a system that more closely resembles what many people have now – privately run, for-profit health care insurance companies funded by employers and employees. My opinion is that it doesn’t much matter which of the current versions of health care plans eventually gets through Congress and into circulation. None of them will help very much because they don’t address the real health problems in America.

They’ll work for the pharmaceutical and food companies, who are the real cause of our health care crisis. They’ll work for the lobbyists who make sure that the drugging of America and the sorry state of our food supply aren’t even mentioned as a contributing factor in why so many people are sick in America or not as healthy as they could be. They’ll work for the Cancer Society and the Heart Association and the other organizations that have people wearing pink and donating money to “cure” the big diseases that kill so many of us. But they won’t help most of us get cured or – more importantly – prevent cancer, heart disease, diabetes and the conditions that are so intimately connected with the “Big Three”: Obesity and Poor Nutrition. Nor will they do anything to address the fact that almost half of the population takes at least one prescription drug and almost all of us eat way too much sugar, empty calories and food with pesticide, fungicide and herbicide residue in it.

How in the world can we expect to be healthy when we eat crap? Sometimes, in the case of animals that have eaten feed made from other animals – literally. Does no one else think that it’s ironic that so many people take prescription medicine for heartburn, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type 2 diabetes rather than make better food choices, eat less or exercise so that they’d lose enough weight to reduce or eliminate these problems?

And, even if everyone of us gets a health care plan, where are the doctors who will care for us? There aren’t enough general practice physicians now to see everyone who can afford to go to them. So, if all of a sudden there are millions more people able to go to a doctor, how will this work? It’s obvious that the educational system we have for producing doctors needs an overhaul immediately and that should be part of any health care plan. However, there are still quotas for how many doctors can be trained and it still costs way too much for that training. How about if doctors could get subsidies if they “gave back” to communities that need physicians? That would allow them to start their professional lives without the burden of huge loans to pay back.

And, how about if we go back to billing for doctor’s visits and not for procedures? That all started when insurance companies got involved, because the bean counters needed to have a code for every little thing that happened during a doctor/patient visit. It’s also how visits went from around a half hour to between ten and fifteen minutes.  And, back to increasing the number of doctors again, that also would help with the time factor. A doctor just can’t get to know a patient in fifteen minutes. A patient can’t cover everything they need to say in that amount of time. Maybe if doctors had more time to talk to patients about eating healthier, losing weight and exercising, more people would get the message.

Unfortunately, because most people spend a lot more time watching TV than they do in their doctor’s office, it’s the drug companies with their endless commercials that are listened to and taken to heart. When did we accept the completely irrational idea that most of us need a prescription drug every day? Think back to as recently as twenty years ago. How many prescriptions did it take to keep you alive then? How many pills did our parents and their parents take? My grandfather lived to be 89 and never took so much as an aspirin. My mother lived to be 87 and, until the last few years of her life, never took anything except for two prescriptions for antibiotics for a urinary tract infection.  When I heard about it, I told her about how cranberry juice can prevent them and she started drinking a small glass daily and never had any more problems.

And this leads to my last concern about how health care is viewed in this and other industrialized nations. Natural is bad and unreliable and only doctors and pharmaceutical companies know what’s good for us. Now, I’m not advocating that we completely avoid allopathic drugs. There’s a place for them in modern medicine and it would be foolish to say that they’re bad or worthless. On the other hand, I’m really tired of reading about how dangerous it is to rely on natural methods, because they’re unproven, don’t work and are outright dangerous. Dismissing all naturopathic treatments, herbs and home remedies as worthless is just wrong. There are many time-proven natural remedies that work as well – or better – than anything. I’m thinking of a recent study I just read about that found that dark honey worked better than dextromethorphan for coughs in children and another study on Manuka honey’s ability to cure MRSA infections – even ones that are resistant to Vancomycin.

I know from personal experience that drinking vinegar and honey helps my digestion and lowers my blood pressure. I also know that ginger helped my friend’s morning sickness and that cinnamon lowers blood sugar. Not all natural treatments are worthwhile, but then again, neither are all allopathic drugs and treatments. We need to use common sense for health care, which brings me back to why our nation’s brand of “health care” doesn’t care for our health. It focuses on fixing what’s wrong with us, instead of preventing what goes wrong if we don’t eat and live the way we should. Until we understand that, we’ll just keep getting sicker and no amount of drugs or money will be able to save us.

If I had to come up with a one-word synopsis for the summer of 2009, it would be “rain.”

In Maine, we had one week of sunshine in August and nothing but rain for 99% of June and July. Now, it’s in the 40′s at night and the low 70′s in the daytime. Great fall weather, except for two things: We didn’t have a summer and it’s not fall.

Still, it’s nice weather and we’re taking advantage of it. Daughter and Son are stocking up on Vitamin D and the dog is back to chasing tennis balls instead of deer flies. Unfortunately, for most of the kids in our area, school started just as the sun came out, so they’re missing out on the best days of summer right now. Unschooling is a wonderful thing when the weather gods send gray days, let me tell you.

Another wonderful thing when your weather stinks is to look at what people are having to put up with in other parts of the US and the world. We might have had weather that only a mushroom could love, but we didn’t have forest fires, droughts, high winds or tornadoes or days in the triple digits like the southwest had. We did have a few hot, humid and hazy days when the ozone level was high even in Acadia Park, which should set off warning bells for everyone who cares about climate change. But we’re lucky to live on top of a hill where there’s always a breeze, even on the hottest day, and we’re surrounded by thousands of acres of trees.

I recently read that stress is the number one killer in America. In the same article, the author said that people who manage to find the slightest bit of good in bad things avoid the physical and mental damage that stress does and live longer. Okay, I can do this. This summer wasn’t that bad. We’ve had worse. We saved on A/C. Didn’t have to put it on once. Of course, the only A/C unit we have, which is barely big enough to cool a closet, is still in a box out in the garage.

But there’s also the fact that we won’t have to worry about a water shortage for a long time, and that’s a big plus, especially for the farmers. Perhaps, after drowning us for three months, Ma Nature will soften and give us a mild winter. That would be nice. Hey, I’m looking on the bright side here, something that doesn’t come naturally to Mainers who have lived through decades of mud, snow and black fly seasons.

So, to relieve stress, I’m completely ignoring the few days of summer that we have left. Instead, I’m looking forward to the gorgeous fall days that we almost always have here in Maine. Golden October and Nippy November. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I hope.

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This is a post from my other blog: News From Hawkhill Acres. I wrote it for Bloggers Unite For Refugees. It’s very much a “Green” post, because there’s no way the Earth can heal and recover with war raging and ravaging populations all over the planet.

Pumpkins are melting into sodden orange lumps on doorsteps. Womens’ magazines feature yet another recipe spread for a low-fat Thanksgiving dinner, which seems terribly surreal to me. No matter what anyone may say to the contrary, eating real food instead of the processed fast food we eat the rest of the year is the whole point of Thanksgiving for most of us. Well, that and waiting for Santa to arrive and open the official Christmas shopping season after we’re entertained by huge, inflated creatures bopping each other and threatening to injure spectators. (This could be a description of either the Macy’s Parade or a football game. Take your pick.)

Yes, once again, the season of goodwill and peace on earth is upon us, which means it’s time to get out our skinny little wallets and shop for America. Unfortunately for the retailers, this year things may be a tad less remunerative both online and off. I’m not buying the hype that online sales will be higher than last year, because people can’t afford mall prices. I think online and offline sales will both be smaller than last year.

I know my budget is having a hard time stretching to cover oil and gas and food and I assume I’m not alone. I know this because of the posts in parenting forums where mothers are trying to figure out how to have the Christmas they always have on a third of the money they usually spend. We don’t overdo on Christmas. As a matter of fact, we celebrate more of a Solstice-y, Winter Holiday as an excuse for celebrating sort of thing and presents aren’t a big part of it. But we’re still cutting back.

Perhaps as we all tighten our belts around our bulging American bellies, it might help us to feel a little less deprived if we consider the families around the world who aren’t having a problem figuring out how to fit toys into their December budget. I’ve been doing that a lot lately and it really gives me a different perspective on the holidays and our whole way of life.

Even if you don’t watch the news, it’s impossible to ignore what’s happening in Darfur, Rwanda, DR Congo, Iraq and so many other places. That the brunt of this falls onto the already overburdened shoulders of women and children is what bothers me. As Slaid Cleaves sings,

” Women cry as the men kill
Always have and always will
You know we’re never gonna run out of blood to spill”

But while the men fight the wars, women are left behind to try to feed and shelter their children. You see them digging up roots in Africa, even though the roots make their children sicken and die. There’s just flat out nothing else to put into their bellies, and the roots do keep them alive a little longer. I know without being told that I’d do the same thing, hoping that the war would end and food would come from relief organizations in time to save my child.

They’re starving to death in tiny rooms in Iraq, because if they go out without a male family member, they’ll be beaten and maybe raped. We’re texting in our cars and IM’ing our friends about the latest surprise on Survivor. Their orphan sons are foraging in gangs and getting kidnapped by rebel armies where they’re taught to kill by the people who killed their parents. We worry that our sons spend too much time online playing World Of Warcraft.

Their toddlers are watching their mothers starve while ours are watching their mothers try to stick with the latest diet. We obsess about picking the best pre-K for our daughters. Their mothers gave up on school for their girls when the teacher was gunned down by militant fundamentalists in front of the class for teaching their daughters how to read.

We have so much stuff that we need books to help us figure out where to put it all. They cling to a battered pan, scraps of cloth to cover their children at night, a cracked cup just in case they find something to put into it. Their husbands, sons and brothers are lost to them, whether or not they’re killed in the war or missing or prisoners, or just too tired and dispirited to come home. Ours are in the living room watching sports, stealing marshmallows off the sweet potatoes in the kitchen and cuddling with kids on the couch watching the parades.

But what can we do, eh? We didn’t start the wars. Well, maybe the one in Iraq, but really it was Saddam’s fault for saying he had weapons of mass destruction. Besides, the people are a lot better off now than they were then, just like we’re better off now than we were before the Iraq War. Or not.

Maybe, though, we’re a little less smug and a little more able to sympathize with what’s been happening in so much of the rest of the world all this time. As we slide back on the scale towards where so many women and children are trapped in poverty, war and disease, maybe we can understand a little better a tiny portion of what they feel when they can’t give their kids what they need.

In their case, of course, it’s food, shelter and health care. In our case – this year – for most of us – it’s toys and luxuries and the standard of living we and our kids are used to. Next year? Who knows. Maybe things will turn around and we’ll be back to “normal”, if normal means consuming over a quarter of the world’s oil and ruining the environment in the name of jobs.

But maybe, just maybe, things won’t turn around. Maybe things will get worse and next year we’ll be even closer to a Rwandan or Congolese mother, unable to afford medical care for a sick baby or heat for our house. Worse, maybe we won’t be able to afford a house at all. If we’re forced to go into an apartment or even a homeless shelter, where will we put our stuff?

Is that why we turn away from the despair and hopelessness on the faces of women who cradle babies who are so still that even their mothers can’t tell if they’re still alive? Is it because we know that it’s only a fluke of fate that keeps us from what they’re going through, and fate is very fickle?

They could be us. She could be me. I could wake up some morning and find that my world is gone, taken by war, taken by losing all my wealth, taken by disease. You could too. That’s why I’m doing what I can now to help the women who can’t help themselves. My first present this holiday season was to the Women’s Commission For Refugee Women and Children. Quick, affordable and I didn’t even have to wrap it.

I would be so chuffed if this post got one other person to donate or to write a post in aid of aid to women and children who are displaced by war, threatened with starvation, subjected to gender-based violence or forced to live without food, shelter and peace for any reason. I know how lucky I am no matter how bad things get for me financially. I hope that the small gifts I make will give another woman a little bit of what I’m so fortunate to have.

As I write this, Wall St is melting down in spite of government bailouts from borrowed money that will have the taxpayers in hock to foreign countries until the end of time or the end of the US empire – whichever comes first. Maybe with global warming being denied by the current administration and so many corporations, the end of time will come first.

If I sound cynical, depressed, discouraged or all of the above, it’s because it’s so obvious to any sentient being that ecology and economy are so intertwined that we can’t separate them. Consumerist culture, which was practically invented by the government to boost the US economy, is a major factor in global warming and the destruction of the earth.

It’s also the reason why so many of us have piles of stuff that we don’t really own. Houses with mortgages, cars with loans, clothes and toys and lawnmowers and furniture and even pets we still owe credit card debt on. Many of us are still paying 19% interest on restaurant meals we ate last spring. That’s insane.

It is my humble opinion that we’ll never get a handle on climate change or habitat loss or peace or justice or social equity until we get a handle on our spending – both personal and institutional. I think it would be a wonderful idea if the fat cats who got million – and in some cases, billion – dollar golden parachutes had to give the money back to the people whose pension funds have disappeared because of the CEOs’ mishandling of funds and companies.

That would be a start toward fixing a system that rewards people who lose other peoples’ money and has taxpayers foot the bill for it. Then, because it’s almost impossible to pay down debt that has the high interest rate that most credit cards have, we should put into place regulations that ban usury i.e. credit card interest rates over 10%.

That would allow many people to pay down their credit card debt and get out of the financial traps they’re in. Of course, that would only apply to those who still have jobs, so we’d need an extension on unemployment benefits and food stamps and a better support system for unemployed people, especially those with families to feed.

I don’t think that Barack Obama reads my blog and I know John McCain doesn’t, so none of this is likely to happen. That is, unless everyone in America suddenly comes to their collective senses and decides that saving the US and the planet is a really good idea, votes Democrat, and lobbies for change from the grassroots level to the halls of Congress and the auditorium of the UN.

That could happen. Now, you tell one.