It's Time For Me!

    




     The second annual Women’s Symposium sponsored by US Congresswoman Alma Adams was a huge success! Women comprise more than half of the population of Mecklenburg County and our nation yet we are still having to fight for equal representation, respect and rights. The symposium brought together a diverse group of women representing education, healthcare, business development, entrepreneurship; a range of women’s issues. I was there representing our local chapter of NOW of which I am the newly elected Vice President.

     Alma Adams set a record the moment she took the oath of office. For the first time in history, there were 100 women in Congress. Congresswoman Adams has a PhD in art education, but she is perhaps best known for her collection of hats which she wears in style.  Congresswoman Adams ran for Congress at the age of 68. When asked ‘Why run for Congress now?”, Congresswoman Adams replied, “I’ve worked all my life and I’ve served all my life, and I still felt as if I had a lot to offer. I had done 40 years as a college professor. It was time for me.”

     "Time for me." She wasn't talking about time to retire and sit in a rocking chair. She was talking about time for her to do something more to make the world a better place. Congresswoman Adams doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. She is an inspiration and role model for all of us. She is energetic and focused, yet warm and welcoming.  Women could be a powerful force, but we must stop making excuses and like Congresswoman Adams get in the game. We all need to say, “It is time for me.” It is time for women to speak up and be heard.  There is something that each one of us can do to change the direction and move women’s issues forward. As we work for women’s rights, we work for the common good.  Women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights.  It is imperative that we speak up and advocate for the positive change we hope to see in our neighborhoods and across the country. Thank you, Congresswoman Adams! We could not have a better representative in Congress!

Rough Road for Healthcare

     Trump/RyanCare failed and Republicans want to blame the Democrats when it was their own party that shot it down. Republicans had seven years to come up with a plan. They claimed to have a secret plan and refused to allow legislators the right to read it until the very last minute.  When revealed, the plan was disastrous for millions of Americans which pretty well proves Republicans never really wanted a plan for everybody! We are  now at a perilous time.  If they really had our interests at heart, they would take a break, reflect on lessons learned and get back to work. But we probably won’t see that happening. Congress and insurance companies are going to try to destroy Obama-Care at the peril of our most vulnerable citizens. Republicans will refuse to do anything to repair Obamacare and then blame the Democrats for what Republicans refused to do. They will sabotage every aspect of Obamacare and then play the "blame game" as they watch it implode.   Don’t be surprised and don’t be fooled by what lies ahead for healthcare. It is going to be a rough road. These are people that thrive on revenge and vindictiveness.  This is the time to get behind a single payer plan. Now is the time to call our representatives and demand healthcare for all! We have a fight ahead!

Everybody In! Nobody Out!

My friend, Dr. Charles Van Der Horst, and fellow doctors

and medical students during a mass rally in Raleigh, NC

in support of Medicare for All!

     I received two letters in the mail recently from my health insurance company.  One letter informed me that insurance will not pay for testing that was ordered by my primary care doctor and done by a Pulmonary specialist. The second letter was informing me that insurance would no longer pay for a medication that I have taken for years. My doctors and I are battling the insurance company for payment of the $2,000 testing. On Saturday, I talked to my pharmacist about the cost of paying for the medication myself. The cost will be in access of $150 a month. I also told the pharmacist that my doctor had suggested that if the cost is too high, he will assist me in ordering the medication from Canada.The pharmacist informed me that he is from Canada, thus a conversation regarding health care ensued. He said that he has many customers who order medications from Canada to avoid the high costs here in the US. He made it very clear that the majority of the bad things we hear about the Canadian healthcare are untrue. In Canada, pharmaceutical companies are told how much they will be paid for a drug and the pharmaceutical companies have no control over the cost. On the other hand, here in the US, the pharmaceutical companies set their own prices for the drug and we pay it or do without the medication. He ended the conversation by saying that he just wished every American had the kind of health care that Canadians have and he doesn’t understand why we would keep rejecting single payer health care that has been proven successful.

We have been attending the Health Care Justice group meetings and have heard some of the most knowledgeable physicians in the country speak about health care. Practically every developed nation in the world has some form of government-managed universal health care.None of these nations have gone to single payer, decided it didn’t work and switched back. According to the latest report of the O.E.C.D.(Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), an organization of mostly wealthy nations, the United States does not have a higher quality of healthcare than other countries. In reality, the US has a shorter life expectancy, a higher infant mortality rate and fewer doctors than most other developed countries.  Doctors in the US are frustrated because they spend more than 50% of their time with paperwork and battling insurance companies partly due to situations like mine. And sadly, Americans spend more money on their health care by a huge margin than any other country, yet we do not get better results. Stephanie Woolhandler, M.D. Harvard Medical School, has concluded that 62.1% of all bankruptcies are medical bankruptcies and over 75% of Americans who file medical bankruptcy have health insurance.

Many Americans choose to go to other countries for healthcare. I have a friend who moved to Costa Rica and one factor that drew him there was their excellent healthcare. Costa Rica provides universal healthcare to all of its citizens and permanent residents. The Costa Rican health care system is  highly rated internationally and the life expectancy is higher in Costa Rica than in the US. My friend, who is a US citizen, is able to buy into universal health care for $60 a month. That covers all medical needs including dental and medications. Costa Rica has seven internationally accredited private hospitals and ten world class public hospitals including a children’s hospital that is also rated as one of the best in the world. In every community there are small clinics called EBAIS for non-emergencies.  EBAIS is short for Equipos Basicos de Atencion Integral en Salad and in English means Basic Terms of Global Health Care. In Costa Rica, healthcare starts at the EBAIS, the local clinic that is accessible to all. On one trip to Costa Rica, I stepped on coral and developed an infection. I was able to see a doctor immediately at one of the EBAIS. I received excellent care for a minimum cost and to my delight, the doctor had attended Bowman Gray Medical School at Wake Forest University right here in NC. On another trip to Costa Rica, my daughter became ill with what we thought was a stomach virus and we had the exact same great experience at an EBAIS.

I just wish that as Americans, we could have the freedom of knowing that our health care needs will always be met with a high quality of care. I wish we knew we could count on good healthcare being there for us regardless of our employment status or other life circumstances. I wish we did not have to put jars in restaurants, sponsor bake sales or have GoFundMe pages to pay our medical bills. I wish our doctors could spend their time taking care of our health needs instead of doing paperwork. I wish we had the freedom of knowing that we will not have to battle insurance companies or order medications from another country. I wish we did not have to worry about being one illness away from bankruptcy. I agree with my pharmacist. I don’t understand why we would reject quality universal healthcare that is a proven success around the world.  We deserve better!

Useful websites:
www.healthoverprofit.org
www.pnhp.org

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/18/opinion/the-fake-freedom-of-american-health-care.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0

It's Not A Dirty Word

Volunteers from the UUCC serving a meal at the Uptown Men's Shelter.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, the first meaning given for “entitlement” is getting an actual title as in a profession or noble designation. The second definition derives from the first in that a person with a specific designation is “entitled” to being addressed a certain way and receives the rights and privileges that come with that designation.  There are many forms of entitlements such as a homeowner being entitled to the legal rights of his home.  A bank customer is entitled access to his/her money. A customer of an insurance company is entitled to the protection for which they have paid premiums. An infant is entitled to be fed and cared for. A veteran is entitled to our appreciation and support. Workers are entitled to their agreed upon wage. The list is endless.

The word entitlement is in the news a lot today and has developed a negative connotation. The word has been paired with government programs that help citizens.  There are two types of entitlements. One type is need based and the other is contribution based. “Entitlements” are looked at as a “dirty” word by those who believe that “entitlements” are government expenses that give support to “lazy bums” who have not paid into the program at the expense of their hard work. Typically, however, a person’s lack of contribution is not voluntary but is the result of some condition of their life that makes financial contributions impossible.  Many of us regard those individuals as “entitled” to our help because they are our fellow human beings. They are in need and unable to assist themselves. Thomas Jefferson said that we are endowed with the inalienable rights of (entitled to and cannot be taken away) “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” These words express the entitlement of every human being regardless of who they are or where they may be. Entitlement and human rights are at the very foundation of our nation. “Entitlement” is not a “dirty” word. Each of us was born into this world and were entitled to be cared for without contributing a single thing. We were needy and dependent on our mothers and families. We may grow and become more independent but we are still interdependent in our need for others.

Most entitlement programs are contribution based and the great majority of people contribute whether they are citizens or not. There are not large numbers of people saying, “If the government is going to take care of me, I will just live in these “slummy” conditions and let them take care of me. I don’t want a car or nice house with plenty of food and comforts. I like worrying every day about how I am going to eat.”   But if you listen to a certain segment of our misinformed population, you would think that multitudes of people felt that way and chose to live in poverty. They say people just don’t want to work; we are making it so easy on the poor that we are becoming an “entitlement society.”  They have twisted their thinking into the idea that we should just take everything away from the poor and make them repent of their slothful ways. Those who hold that point of view are certainly “entitled” to their opinion, but those people are doing a grave injustice to the principles upon which this nation was founded, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Are there changes that need to be made in the system? Of course, there are. There are institutional forces that have stifled people that may have otherwise blossomed. The system itself has oppressed them. Then we have all the “isms” to deal with- racism-sexism etc.  We must continue to work for Voting Rights, Equal Pay for Equal Work, Health Care Justice, Immigration Reform, Gender Equality, and equality for our LGBT community, etc. We must address the income inequality in this country and raise the minimum wage. We need to promote policies that help all children advance and discourage efforts to further concentrate wealth at the top. We must level the playing field so that all people have the opportunity to be successful.  We need more creative ways to break the cycle of poverty and lift people up.  But, I will never believe that concentrating the wealth at one end of the spectrum while taking away life support systems from others, will ever have any chance of lifting anyone up, nor will this country benefit in any way for doing so.  

Enough!

                                                    Enough!  by Melba Evans

When will it be time?
Are we not tired yet?
We stand so proud
But we follow like sheep
Rhetoric that proclaims
Anything but unity
And judges us
And divides us.
When will we say enough

When will it be time?
Are we not tired yet?
When will we come together
And stop taking sides
And stand side by side
And look at each other with new eyes
And tear down the walls the past
Has erected?
When will we say enough?

When will it be time?
Are we not tired yet?
When will we stop fighting each other
And fight for each other?
When will we break the bonds of
Religion and culture
And run to each other
Not away from each other?
When will we say enough?

When will it be time?
Time to say enough.
Pas plus, non piu, no mas!
When is it time to
Not just talk the talk
But walk the walk
Hand in hand
Together
For the common good!

By:  Melba Evans 11/2016

Home

The "Mill Hill Gang" at my 8th birthday party. I am standing on the right beside the table.

Home for me is what was once termed the “mill hill.”  The “mill hill” is no longer there for me to return to. The houses were torn down and the once booming textile mill stands silent. The mill village consisted of the mill owner’s residence, a cluster of wood frame single family dwellings for the mill workers, a church, a school and a company store. The homes were owned by the men who employed them.  Everyone who lived on the “mill hill” attended the same church and the same school and bought their groceries in the company store. My dad was the minister at the little Baptist church on the “mill hill.” My memories of the mill village consist of my “little rascals” gang of friends, fierce marble tournaments, playing “Mother, may I?”  by the street lamps and getting a few pennies to go to the Shack for a cookie or ice cream. The Shack was a little store right outside the entrance to the mill where workers could buy drinks or sandwiches.  The mill whistle established the patterns for everyday life in the mill village. The mill ran three shifts 24 hours a day and the whistle told everyone when to go to work and when to go home.  Everyone’s lives were controlled by that mill whistle.  The United States Bureau of Labor reported in 1910 that “all the affairs of the mill village and the conditions of living of all the people” seemed to be “regulated by the mill company. Practically speaking, the company owns everything and controls everything, and to a large extent controls everybody in the mill village.” The mill village kept workers under their employers’ watchful eye and denied them a voice in their own affairs. The creation of the company village was intended to be seen as the benevolent philanthropic actions of the mill owner and the workers were supposed to appreciate and respect him for all he did for them.  In reality, the actions were tied to their hunger for consistent profit by ensuring employee loyalty by controlling every aspect of the workers lives. Every feature of the village was controlled by the mill management.  The buildings, street layouts, housing and parks were all the product of careful thought and planning.  It was a world unto itself.

 But the mill village was more than that for the people who lived there. It was family. Everyone knew everyone else and everyone looked out for everyone else. Windows were wide open in the hot summer months and everyone knew everyone else’s business.  We all hung together and we survived and many of us prospered and became very successful adults. But there was one thing about the mill village that really puzzled me as a child. There was one little street of one row of about 8 houses that was separated from the rest of the mill houses. That little street was at the bottom of the hill beside the railroad tracks.  The mill houses on that street were smaller and more run-down than the other mill houses. The people living on that street mostly worked for the wealthy mill owners. We never went to that little street to play and the children who lived there never came to our street to play. The families on that street didn’t go to our church and the children didn’t go to our school and I never saw them in the company store. Yet, there was someone who lived in one of those little houses that was very dear to me and I loved with all my heart. Her name was Mary Bell and I will tell you more about her in a later blog.  It was my love for Mary Bell that fed my curiosity about that street.  As a child, that little street was a mystery. We would drive by that street in the car on the way to town and I would strain looking out the window trying to see the children who lived there wondering what they were doing and especially hoping to catch a glimpse of my dear sweet Mary Bell.  I wondered what their lives were like and where they went to church and school and where did they get groceries! I wondered why they were not part of the mill village family. Why didn’t I ever see them at the Shack for cookies or ice cream ? Why couldn’t I go to Mary Bell’s house to play? I wondered if the children liked to jump rope or play “Mother May I?” like we did and why they never came to play with us under the street lamps. I often asked “why?”, but never got any answers that made any sense to me.  “Just because” and “It’s not the way it ought to be, but it’s the way it is.” rang empty. What does “just because” mean ? Why is that the way it is?  Why shouldn’t things be the way they ought to be?  Why couldn’t things just change and be right?  As a child, it all seemed so simple, so easy to fix.  Harper Lee in “To Kill A Mockingbird” said "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view..until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it." I wanted to climb into the skin of the people who lived on that little street and I wanted to climb into the skin of the white grownups who made them live on that street. I wanted to understand. I wanted real answers.

 For me, today that street still remains a mystery. It still seems so simple to me to fix. I still wish I could crawl into people's skin and see what they are thinking and see things from their point of view for just a day so maybe I could understand. Why 50 years later are we still talking about race? Why are we having to carry signs and wear shirts that say "Black Lives Matter"? Black lives have always mattered to me. Why are our schools becoming more segregated? Why are we hearing rumblings of the KKK? Why? Why? Why? So many questions and still no answers. All I hear are empty echoes of "Just because." "Just because was not an acceptable answer then and it is not an acceptable answer now.  I just wish everyone had a Mary Bell and maybe things would be different.  We have a lot of work to do.  

Reflecting

This blog is about reflecting. I love reflecting on the past; the good times and the bad times.  I like revisiting events from a long time ago and shining a light of true essence on the experiences as to how that particular part of my past shaped my feelings and attitudes as an adult. Natalie Goldberg, American author who has studied meditation and Zen Buddhism for 30 years, says,  "It takes a while for our experience to sift through our consciousness. For instance, it is hard to write about being in love in the midst of a mad love affair...our senses are dumb. They take in experience, but they need the richness of sifting for a while through our consciousness..."   I think this quote explains my fascination with reflecting. Historians say you can't really rate a president until a 25 year interval to see the ramifications of his administration.  That's what I hope to do on this blog: reflect and make connections.

Here’s your homework assignment...class..oops..sorry …bad habit  I have!   Spend a few minutes reflecting on some good or bad experience of 10  years ago or longer and see how your view of that experience has changed.  For extra credit share it with us..Oops there I go again... I will get my old red grading pencil out…..ntil a 25-year interlude to see the ramifications of his administration.

I like revisiting events from some time ago and shine a light of perspective on the true essence of the experience. Can be fascinating.

Here's your homework assignment , class...oops...sorry...habit 😆😆☺️☺️spend a few minutes reflecting on some good or bad experience of ten years ago (or longer) and see how your view has changed. For extra credit, write about it. I'll get my red grading pencil out 😀

A Perfect Stranger

    A perfect stranger just made my day! A nicely dressed young man, probably in his mid 30s, rang our doorbell and when Larry answered  he asked about the sign in our yard. We began to explain to him that we are both very politically active and that the sign expresses our beliefs. We had a brief discussion about each tenet and he seemed to agree with each one.  He went on to say that he is not  politically active and just believes that people need to respect each other and let others live life in peace as long as they don't interfere with someone else's ability to do the same.  I responded that if everyone did just that, it would be a wonderful world. However, I continued, in today's environment that doesn't happen and it's imperative that we stand up for each other and make sure that all people are treated equally and justly. If ever there was a time to stand up and speak up, this is the time.  As we stood in our front yard, we had a good discussion about race relations, immigration and several other issues. I offered him a bottle of water and as he left he kept saying that we were the most amazing people he had ever met (sure that was an exaggeration). He said our sign and our conversation had inspired him and given him a lot to think about! He expressed that it was wonderful to meet someone who stood up for what they believe in. We thanked him for stopping. Probably not a life changing moment for him, but so glad he stopped, came to the door and at least we were able to give him something to think about. Wish more people would stop by for a chat. I'd offer them a moment's rest in our big porch rockers, a fresh cup of coffee and some neighborly conversation!