For the Sake of Kids Now!

We hear politicians hell bent on destroying any governmental “social” programs saying that we have to make these drastic cuts for the sake of our children or grandchildren.  Hinting that we are placing a burden on their future, “mortgaging” the future is the term most stated.

I think they and us need to be grounded to the reality of the “Right Now” when it comes to children in America.   Let us consider facts and not rhetoric.

There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.  Food insecurity is the household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. Food insecurity rates among households with children are substantially higher than those found in the general population, reports Feeding America, which along with network members supplies food to more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million children and 3 million seniors.  In Washington D.C., the “child food insecurity rate” is 32.3%.

Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.

It is estimated that up to half a million children may currently be homeless in the United States.  Perhaps the greatest victims of the economic nightmare that is unfolding right in front of our eyes are our children.  The overall economic numbers are really bad, but when you examine the impact that this economy is having on children things get really horrifying.  Today, 1 in 5 American children live in poverty and 1 in 4 American children are on food stamps.  Experts tell us that about 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point before they reach the age of 18.  Up to half a million American children are homeless even as you read this.  And yet we continue to insist that we are the wealthiest nation in the world.  Well, if we are so wealthy, then why are so many millions of our children suffering so desperately?  More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

There are more than 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States every single year.  A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds.  Almost five children die every day as a result of child abuse. More than three out of four are under the age of 4.  It is estimated that between 60-85% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates.

90% of child sexual abuse victims know the perpetrator in some way; 68% are abused by family members.  Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education. 31% percent of women in prison in the United States were abused as children.  Over 60% of people in drug rehabilitation centers report being abused or neglected as a child.

About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse.  About 80% of 21 year olds that were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological disorder.  The estimated annual cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States for 2007 is $104 billion.  Abused children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy.  Abused teens are 3 times less likely to practice safe sex, putting them at greater risk for STDs.

How can we even consider ourselves “civilized”, let alone thinking we are the “best” in the world as a civilization when we currently face realities like we now face?    In fact, we should be doing the exact opposite of cutting programs, and instead should be heavily investing in our CHILDREN NOW!!

How long do we remain silent as the education system, Medicaid, and school nutritional programs are being slashed beyond bare bones?  How long do we allow the imbeciles to dictate the current and future course of the very foundations of the principles that made America…. America?

It is my strongest hope that the next election cycle, each and everyone of us will step up to the full responsibility of being a citizen.  That means we will all vote and we will all vote based on being truly informed.

Budgets Lies, Manipulation, and Other Criminal Distortions

As the US faces massive deficits and the wealthy continue to raid both the Federal and State coffers unchecked.  As the social “safety net” is ripped to shreds and the assault continues on the middle class globally.  The most defenseless and poor of the world are bearing the brunt of this unchecked greed, power, and hubris, the facts are most grossly distorted.

In the US, but in other countries as well, the mantra is the social programs will be the downfall of the fiscal equation and are the cause of the current financial crisis.  In the US, it is Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare will be the ruin of life as we know it.  That is the biggest lie of all!

Consider this from Sherwood Ross who heads a public relations firm “for good causes” and also runs the Anti-War News Service.  You can reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com if you would like more details.

“As long as the $1.2-trillion annual budget for the military-security complex is off limits (to cutting), nothing can be done about the US budget deficit except to renege on obligations to the elderly, confiscate private assets (which includes the physical gold and silver hoarding that is afoot)or print enough money to inflate away all debts,” Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Treasury Secretary under President Reagan warns.

In an article titled “Stealing from Social Security to Pay for Wars and Bailouts,” published in the April issue of the “Rock Creek Free Press” of Washington, D.C., Roberts says that Republicans are calling Social Security and Medicare “entitlements”—making them sound like welfare—when, in fact, workers over their lifetimes have contributed 15 percent of all their earnings to the payroll tax that funds these benefits and have every right to them.

And far from Social Security being in the red, between 1984 and 2009, Roberts writes, “the American people contributed $2-trillion…more to Social Security and Medicare in payroll taxes than was paid out in benefits” but “the government stole” that sum to fund wars and pork-barrel projects!

What’s more, under one realistic estimate, far from crashing into the red, “Social Security (OASDI) will have produced surplus revenues of $31.6-trillion by 2085, Roberts says.

Americans, apparently, are unaware of how the federal government’s illegal, foreign wars sap the economy and rob every household. The Iraq war cost alone is 20 percent of the size of last year’s entire U.S. economy. Instead of investing that sum at home, “which would have produced income and jobs growth and solvency for state and local governments, the US government wasted the equivalent of 20% of the economy in 2010 in blowing up infrastructure and people in foreign lands,” Roberts says.

“The US government spent a huge sum of money committing war crimes, while millions of Americans were thrown out of their jobs and foreclosed out of their homes,” he added. Viewed another way, the Pentagon continues to expand and put people to work to modernize its 700-800 bases abroad in order to dominate every corner of the globe while public works and public employment in America are going into the toilet.

“When short-term and long-term discouraged workers are added …the US has an unemployment rate of 22%,” Robert says. A country with that large a percentage out of work “has a shrunken tax base and feeble consumer purchasing power.”

The U.S. media, he claims, is only reporting one-third of the real cost of the wars, leaving out the sums needed for “lifelong care for the wounded and maimed, the cost of lifelong military pensions of those who fought in the wars, the replacement costs of the destroyed equipment, the opportunity cost of the resources wasted in war, and other costs.”

President Obama’s budget, if passed, doesn’t reduce the deficit over the next 10 years by enough to cover the projected deficit in the fiscal year 2012 budget alone, the financial authority writes. “Indeed, the deficits are likely to be substantially larger than forecast,” as the military-industrial complex “is more powerful than ever and shows no inclination to halt the wars for US hegemony,” Roberts says.

Add to this the fact that the FED is sitting on its largest excess reserve in history Federal Reserve Aggregate Reserves, over $1.4 Trillion dollars and corporate cash reserves are at historical levels, one really must start questioning what is really afoot here.

Understanding this reality exposes the PTB and their political hacks for what they really are up to in this effort to strip governments and make them appear inept.  Don’t buy it.

If you look at the so-called “budget crisis” in Wisconsin, New Jersey, etc, these so-called large deficits are equal to the tax breaks passed into law for corporations and the wealthy.  Just do the math. Just do the math.

There is no question the US government will have ongoing deficits of $1.3 to $2.2 trillion annually for some time to come. If this is the case there is no chance of the debt of government ever being paid. That means official devaluation and default, although it will be done jointly by many countries. The US debt limit will be raised. The Republicans are playing politics and remember the same group of thieves overwhelmingly controls both parties. It will also be interesting to see how, before the end of the year, the Treasury places more than $2 trillion in bonds. We bet the Fed buys about $1.7 trillion. This has to push up real interest rates by ½% to ¾% by the end of the year and the same should happen in 2012. Foreigners and even PIMCO does not want to purchase Treasury bonds, notes and bills. In order to entice such buyers, yields will have to move up a point now and a point later. As part of that sequence of actions by buyers quantitative easing would have to end, as well as stimulus, and budget deficits would have to be cut realistically, not by $33 billion paltry dollars. Incidentally GDP growth under those circumstances would be minus 3 to minus 6 percent. The Fed has little trouble holding up and manipulating the short end of the bond market, but the long end is another matter. It is not only QE2 and manipulation, but also the Fed’s continuing to purchase CDO’s and MBS, which are toxic waste from banks to get the debt off of banks’ books and to liquefy them. The purchase of US dollar denominated bonds, especially Treasuries, is coming to an end. We cannot expect the Fed to continue indefinitely to do what it is doing. It can only end in hyperinflation. We might add that JPMorgan Chase soon will forge a civil settlement concerning fraud relating to CDOs and MBS. Again no jail time; it is a national disgrace. Those people should have been prosecuted criminally. As you can see money buys everything. If QE3 is implemented, and we believe it will be, classical economics says the result, hyperinflation, is inevitable.

I would contend hyperinflation is already here, given the price of oil and food commodities.  These are the factors that is flaming the fire of global revolution, which will soon be in a town near you.  There is an ancient saying that states, “if a man cannot choose the manner of his living, he will choose the manner and time of his death.”

There is time, very little time, but still time to wake up as a people and demand fiscal responsibility and regulations; time to legislate a re-distribution of the wealth that has been illegally taken from the people.  The time has come to begin the criminal investigation of those banksters, politicians and lobbyists who have perpetrated this fraud and corruption on the people of the world.

Are Small Farmers and Co-Ops Under Attack?

I am getting concerned as to what is happening in relation to food and water.  What I mean specifically is three things.  First, it seems our government, especially the FDA, but also Homeland Security, is busting organic farmers and dairies all over the country.  Collecting rainwater is now illegal in many states. Secondly, it seems that our seed markets are being controlled by a few big ag producers and they are being very aggressive to insure you and I don’t own the seeds we develop from our growing.  And finally, there is pending legislation that seems to extend this control even further.

Stories like the following example are cropping up all over the country.  Swat teams, cars of police ascending with guns drawn on co-op farmers and independent small grower’s farms, taking everything like computers and farm equipment as “evidence’.  Raiding organic food stores. A sign of new times?

Collecting rainwater is illegal in many states, especially western states, such as Utah where it is illegal to collect rainwater without a “water right” permit!

And now S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010, which may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the US.  It is to our food what the bailout was to our economy, only we can live without money.

“If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes.  It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God,” according to Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower.  It is similar to what India faced with imposition of the salt tax during British rule, only S 510 extends control over all food in the US, violating the fundamental human right to food.

Monsanto says it has no interest in the bill and would not benefit from it, but Monsanto’s Michael Taylor who gave us rBGH and unregulated genetically modified (GM) organisms, appears to have designed it and is waiting as an appointed Food Czar to the FDA (a position unapproved by Congress) to administer the agency it would create — without judicial review — if it passes.  S 510 would give Monsanto unlimited power over all US seed, food supplements, food and farming.

History

In the 1990s, Bill Clinton introduced HACCP (Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Points) purportedly to deal with contamination in the meat industry.  Clinton’s HACCP delighted the offending corporate meat packers since it allowed them to inspect themselves, eliminated thousands of local food processors (with no history of contamination), and centralized meat into their control.  Monsanto promoted HACCP.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton, urged a powerful centralized food safety agency as part of her campaign for president.  Her advisor was Mark Penn, CEO of Burson Marsteller*, a giant PR firm representing Monsanto.  Clinton lost, but Clinton friends such as Rosa DeLauro, whose husband’s firm lists Monsanto as a progressive client and globalization as an area of expertise, introduced early versions of S 510.

S 510 fails on moral, social, economic, political, constitutional, and human survival grounds.

1.  It puts all US food and all US farms under Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, in the event of contamination or an ill-defined emergency.  It resembles the Kissinger Plan.

2.  It would end US sovereignty over its own food supply by insisting on compliance with the WTO, thus threatening national security.  It would end the Uruguay Round Agreement Act of 1994, which put US sovereignty and US law under perfect protection.  Instead, S 510 says:

COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS.

Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization or any other treaty or international agreement to which the United States is a party.

3.  It would allow the government, under Maritime Law, to define the introduction of any food into commerce (even direct sales between individuals) as smuggling into “the United States.” Since under that law, the US is a corporate entity and not a location, “entry of food into the US” covers food produced anywhere within the land mass of this country and “entering into” it by virtue of being produced.

4.  It imposes Codex Alimentarius on the US, a global system of control over food. It allows the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the WTO to take control of every food on earth and remove access to natural food supplements.  Its bizarre history and its expected impact in limiting access to adequate nutrition (while mandating GM food, GM animals, pesticides, hormones, irradiation of food, etc.) threatens all safe and organic food and health itself, since the world knows now it needs vitamins to survive, not just to treat illnesses.

5.  It would remove the right to clean, store and thus own seed in the US, putting control of seeds in the hands of Monsanto and other multinationals, threatening US security. See Seeds – How to criminalize them, for more details.

6.  It includes NAIS, an animal traceability program that threatens all small farmers and ranchers raising animals. The UN is participating through the WHO, FAO, WTO, and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in allowing mass slaughter of even heritage breeds of animals and without proof of disease.  Biodiversity in farm animals is being wiped out to substitute genetically engineered animals on which corporations hold patents.  Animal diseases can be falsely declared.  S 510 includes the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), despite its corrupt involvement in the H1N1 scandal, which is now said to have been concocted by the corporations.

7.  It extends a failed and destructive HACCP to all food, thus threatening to do to all local food production and farming what HACCP did to meat production – put it in corporate hands and worsen food safety.

8.  It deconstructs what is left of the American economy. It takes agriculture and food, which are the cornerstone of all economies, out of the hands of the citizenry, and puts them under the total control of multinational corporations influencing the UN, WHO, FAO and WTO, with HHS, and CDC, acting as agents, with Homeland Security as the enforcer.  The chance to rebuild the economy based on farming, ranching, gardens, food production, natural health, and all the jobs, tools and connected occupations would be eliminated.

9.  It would allow the government to mandate antibiotics, hormones, slaughterhouse waste, pesticides and GMOs. This would industrialize every farm in the US, eliminate local organic farming, greatly increase global warming from increased use of oil-based products and long-distance delivery of foods, and make food even more unsafe.  The five items listed — the Five Pillars of Food Safety — are precisely the items in the food supply which are the primary source of its danger.

10. It uses food crimes as the entry into police state power and control. The bill postpones defining all the regulations to be imposed; postpones defining crimes to be punished, postpones defining penalties to be applied.  It removes fundamental constitutional protections from all citizens in the country, making them subject to a corporate tribunal with unlimited power and penalties, and without judicial review. It is (similar to C-6 in Canada) the end of Rule of Law in the US. In addition to this act, keep in mind the designed “Anti-Hoarding Act” making it illegal to store more than 30 days food supply.

Even without S510, it seems that the big ag companies already believe they are in control of our food supply.  Consider this by Jack Kaskey:

June 25 (Bloomberg) — Monsanto Co., the world’s biggest seed company, is being investigated by West Virginia over possibly misleading growers who were promised improved yields from its new Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seeds.

“My office is concerned that West Virginia farmers are paying much higher prices for soybeans with the Roundup Ready 2 trait when the yields do not live up to the claims and do not justify the increased prices,” West Virginia Attorney General Darrell V. McGraw wrote in a letter dated June 24 and posted on his website.

Monsanto last year began shifting growers to the new seeds by promising a 7 percent to 11 percent bigger harvest compared with the original Roundup Ready soybean seeds, which loses patent protection in 2014. Iowa State University, Pennsylvania State University, a farmer group and investment researcher OTR Global found the latest seeds failed to boost yields as promised, McGraw said in the letter.

The St. Louis-based company may have engaged in unfair or deceptive acts under West Virginia law and be subject to penalties, McGraw wrote. He invited the company to meet before the state possibly begins litigation. Monsanto has data demonstrating the improved performance, it said in an e-mailed statement. Roundup Ready 2 soybeans increase yields on average by 3.6 bushels, more than 7 percent, according to 40,000 comparisons the company conducted between 2007 and 2009, it said.

Purchase Decisions

The attorney general’s letter “is based on a misunderstanding of our national marketing materials,” Monsanto said. “Growers measure the performance of these products on their farm and make their purchase decisions based on what’s right for them.”

Roundup Ready 2 soybeans were planted on 1.5 million acres last year and cost growers $74 an acre, 42 percent more than the older product. West Virginia growers bought enough of the new seeds to plant fewer than 50 acres in 2009, Monsanto spokesman Lee Quarles said. Sales this year aren’t yet available, he said.  West Virginia grew about 18,000 acres of the nation’s 77.5 million acres of soybeans last year, making it the smallest soybean-growing state tracked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

On the regulatory side we are hearing more and more stories like below:

Earlier in June, agents of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, escorted by police and also bearing search warrants, raided and shut down Traditional Foods Warehouse, a popular food club in Minneapolis specializing in locally-produced foods. They also raided two farms suspected of illegally selling raw milk. And in a national first among such raids, agents searched a private home and made off with computers; the family’s offense appears to have been that it allowed one of the raw dairy farmers to park in its driveway to distribute raw milk to area residents who had ordered it.  The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has declined comment on such raids, saying they are part of an ongoing investigation into raw milk distribution in the state in lieu of eight illnesses in May linked to raw milk.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection has launched three raids over the last three months on the dairy farm and farm store of Vernon Hershberger, near Madison. The day after DATCP agents placed seals on his fridges storing raw dairy products in July, Hershberger cut the seals, and announced he was going to challenge the agency’s contention he needs a dairy and retail license to sell his products. Obtaining such licenses would be problematic, though, since Wisconsin prohibits sale of raw milk, except “incidental” sales, and defining “incidental” has been a bone of contention for many years. In any event, Hershberger contends he sells only to consumers who contract privately for his food.

What’s behind all these raids? They seem to stem from increasing concern at both the state and federal level about the spread of private food groups that have sprung up around the country in recent years — food clubs and buying groups to provide specialized local products that are generally unavailable in groceries, like grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, fermented foods, and, in some cases, raw dairy products. Because they are private and limited to consumers who sign up for membership, these groups generally avoid obtaining retail and public health licenses required of retailers that sell to the general public. (For more on what’s behind the raids, see this new post.)

In late 2008 and early 2009, the representatives of state agriculture agencies in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois met via phone conferences with representatives of the FDA to map a plan for targeting raw-milk buying clubs in the Midwest. The meetings came to light after Max Kane, the owner of a Wisconsin buying club who was subpoenaed by Wisconsin authorities for the names of his customers and suppliers, obtained email accounts of the sessions via a Freedom of Information request to Wisconsin’s Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection department. (Kane has since been prosecuted by Wisconsin authorities for contempt of court for failing to give up the names; his case is under appeal after he was found guilty last December.)

Now, the Midwest program seems to have gone national, and the recent spate of raids suggests a quickening pace and broadened scope. While most raids before the Midwest government meetings had been related to raw-milk distribution, some, like a December 2008 armed raid of Manna Storehouse, an Ohio food club near Cleveland, have been about licensing issues. In that raid, armed law enforcement officers held a mother and eight young children being home-schooled at gunpoint for several hours while they searched the home and food storage areas. A legal challenge to the raid by the family is still tied up in court.

The current uptick has Pete Kennedy of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund concerned, not only about the spreading of the raids, but about the seemingly easy willingness of judges to hand out search warrants. While the U.S. Constitution’s fourth amendment suggests judges should exercise tight controls over search warrants (“no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause…”), Kennedy observes, “I haven’t seen an agency turned down yet” over the last four years in requests for search warrants connected with raw milk and other food production and distribution.

Is this some government conspiracy to take over the food supply?  No , I don’t think so.  What it is however, is large private corporations using their influence to insure their domination in the market place.  I have very strong fundamental problems with that modus operandi when it comes to food and a private individual’s right to grow food and to share food.  It is simply over the line by any standard.  If we can’t agree on geo-politics or the economy, surely we can be united when it comes to our food, can’t we? Oh God I hope so.

A Deeper Look at Some Disturbing Math

Last week, I did an article concerning the plight of a lot of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, and for that matter and 35 years later from Vietnam.  The real story, as I dug further,  is even worse than I imagined and none of it is being elevated in MSM. The truth is we are losing more soldiers to suicide on a daily basis after they return than we are losing soldiers on the battle field.  On average 18 per day, every day!  There are, on average, 30 attempted suicides by returning veterans every day. The suicide rate among war veterans is extraordinary, new data reveals reported by The Army Times .

“Of the more than 30,000 suicides in this country each year, fully 20 percent of them are acts by veterans,” said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki at a VA-sponsored suicide prevention conference in January, Inter Press Service reported.

The Times noted that “In general, VA officials said, women attempt suicide more often, but men are more likely to succeed in the attempt.” The report cites access to health care and age — younger veterans are less likely to try — as two major factors in the suicide rate, and notes that the VA is seeking to strengthen its suicide prevention programs.

According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, “Roughly 56 percent of all homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 12.8 percent and 15.4 percent of the U.S. population respectively.” The struggle among veterans to return to everyday life has been documented over the years.

As a veteran of the Vietnam War and a multiple tour medic, I struggled with my demons for several years.  I never sought help or treatment, as so many of us did not.  Any soldier will tell you that “civilians” simply do not have a frame of reference to even begin to understand what a soldier is even coping with as he or she struggles to re-assimilate into civilian society.  Yes friends and family can be sympathetic and empathetic, but they have no frame of reference to say “I understand what you are going through.”

I have had a sense however, that the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were having even a rougher go of it than my alumni from Vietnam because of two factors.  First, there are a lot higher number of “drafted soldiers” in these campaigns.  No, there isn’t a draft, but so many people were placed into active combat duty because they were serving in the reserves, more than in any other war.

Secondly, there are so many older troops.  These are men and women who are not single, but have families, jobs and careers.  Suddenly they have been yanked from their lives and do three or four tours in combat zones.  Even the term “combat zones” have a very different meaning in these campaigns.  At least in Vietnam, we had some semblance of front lines and combat zones, but not in these campaigns.  No chance to hunker in a “hooch” and get a little R&R.  It is 24/7 on your toes in these campaigns.  The numbers are really showing it too.

The Associated Press reported in November 2007 that one in four homeless people across the nation is likely to be a veteran, even though veterans constitute a mere 11 percent of overall adults in the United States.  “And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans,” AP added. “Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.” Homelessness among women who served in Afghanistan and Iraq is on the rise.

The Boston Globe reported last year that “number of female service members who have become homeless after leaving the military has jumped dramatically in recent years.” One in ten homeless veterans under 45 years of age is a woman, statistics showed in July of 2009. “Some of the first homeless vets that walked into our office were single moms,” Paul Rieckhoff, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America’s executive director and founder, told the Globe.

Troubling new data show there is an average of 950 suicide attempts each month by veterans who are receiving some type of treatment from the Veterans Affairs Department. Seven percent of the attempts are successful, and 11 percent of those who don’t succeed on the first attempt try again within nine months. The numbers, which come at a time when VA is strengthening its suicide prevention programs, show about 18 veteran suicides a day, about five by veterans who are receiving VA care.

Access to care appears to be a key factor, officials said, noting that once a veteran is inside the VA care program, screening programs are in place to identify those with problems, and special efforts are made to track those considered at high risk, such as monitoring whether they are keeping appointments.

A key part of the new data shows the suicide rate is lower for veterans aged 18 to 29 who are using VA health care services than those who are not. That leads VA officials to believe that about 250 lives have been saved each year as a result of VA treatment. VA’s suicide hotline has been receiving about 10,000 calls a month from current and former service members. The number is 1-800-273-8255. Service members and veterans should push 1 for veterans’ services.  Dr. Janet Kemp, VA’s national suicide prevention coordinator, credits the hotline with rescuing 7,000 veterans who were in the act of suicide — in addition to referrals, counseling and other help.

”We have now nearly two million vets of Iraq and Afghanistan and we still haven’t seen the type of mobilization of resources necessary to handle an epidemic of veteran suicides,” Aaron Glantz, an editor at New America Media editor and author of “The War Comes Home”, told IPS.  ”With [President Barack] Obama surging in Afghanistan coupled with his unwillingness to withdraw speedily from Iraq, it means we have more veterans who have served more and more tours and as a result we have an escalating number of people coming home with PTSD, depression and other mental health issues,” Glantz continued.

Health officials have pointed to the multiple tours of duty served by many U.S. soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq as one of the stresses placed on military personnel that differs from previous wars fought by the U.S.  ”The unfortunate truth is that the real challenge begins when these service men and women return home and readjust to day-to-day life,” said Rep. Michael McMahon, co-founder of the Congressional Invisible Wounds Caucus.

“The Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs must be prepared with the appropriate staff and funding to conduct post-deployment psychological screenings with a mental health professional for all service men and women,” he said. “Evidently, the paper questionnaires currently in use simply do not suffice. How many more young men and women must die before we provide the necessary mental health care?”  The VA estimated that in 2005, the suicide rate per 100,000 veterans among men ages 18-29 was 44.99, but jumped to 56.77 in 2007.

FAQ about Homeless Veterans

Who are homeless veterans?

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states the nation’s homeless veterans are predominantly male, with roughly five percent being female. The majority of them are single; come from urban areas; and suffer from mental illness, alcohol and/or substance abuse, or co-occurring disorders. About one-third of the adult homeless population are veterans.

America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq (OEF/OIF), and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era. Two-thirds served our country for at least three years, and one-third were stationed in a war zone.

How many homeless veterans are there?

Although flawless counts are impossible to come by – the transient nature of homeless populations presents a major difficulty – VA estimates that 107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only eight percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans.

Why are veterans homeless?

In addition to the complex set of factors influencing all homelessness – extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income and access to health care – a large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse, which are compounded by a lack of family and social support networks.

A top priority for homeless veterans is secure, safe, clean housing that offers a supportive environment free of drugs and alcohol. Although “most homeless people are single, unaffiliated men… most housing money in existing federal homelessness programs, in contrast, is devoted to helping homeless families or homeless women with dependant children,” as is stated in the study “Is Homelessness a Housing Problem?” (Understanding Homelessness: New Policy and Research Perspectives, Fannie Mae Foundation, 1997).

Doesn’t VA take care of homeless veterans?

To a certain extent, yes, but VA’s specialized homeless programs served more than 92,000 veterans in 2009, which is highly commendable. This still leaves well over 100,000 more veterans, however, who must seek assistance from local government agencies and community- and faith-based service organizations.

Since 1987, VA’s programs for homeless veterans have emphasized collaboration with such community service providers to help expand services to more veterans in crisis. These partnerships are credited with reducing the number of homeless veterans by more than half over the past six years. More information about VA homeless programs and initiatives can be found here.

What services do veterans need?

Veterans need a coordinated effort that provides secure housing, nutritional meals, basic physical health care, substance abuse care and aftercare, mental health counseling, personal development and empowerment. Additionally, veterans need job assessment, training and placement assistance. NCHV strongly believes that all programs to assist homeless veterans must focus on helping them obtain and sustain employment.

What seems to work best?

The most effective programs for homeless and at-risk veterans are community-based, nonprofit, “veterans helping veterans” groups. Programs that seem to work best feature transitional housing with the camaraderie of living in structured, substance-free environments with fellow veterans who are succeeding at bettering themselves.

Government money, while important, is currently limited, and available services are often at capacity. It is critical, therefore, that community groups reach out to help provide the support, resources and opportunities most Americans take for granted: housing, employment and health care.

VA has approximately 4,000 agreements with community partners nationwide. These types of partnerships have demonstrated that groups are most successful when they work in collaboration with federal, state and local government agencies; other homeless providers; and veteran service organizations. Veterans who participate in these collaborative programs are afforded more services and have higher chances of becoming tax-paying, productive citizens again.

These numbers are so disturbing that we all have to intervene.  Of all of the issues we are facing as a nation, this issue should have a top priority.  They are our sons and daughters.  As families, I know that they also are at a loose as to how to deal with the problem.  But this definitely an issue we can deal with in our local communities.  We just have to care and then find out how to act. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans suggests the following guidelines.

What can I do?

• Determine the need in your community. Visit with homeless veteran providers. Contact your mayor’s office for a list of providers, or search the NCHV database.
• Involve others. If you are not already part of an organization, align yourself with a few other people who are interested in attacking this issue.
• Participate in local homeless coalitions. Chances are, there is one in your community. If not, this could be the time to bring people together around this critical need.
• Make a donation to your local homeless veteran provider.
• Contact your elected officials. Discuss what is being done in your community for homeless veterans.

In a world where we seem insignificant and helpless most of the time to affect a positive outcome, this is one area where we are empowered.  Get to know the situation in your community. Find out how you can volunteer.  My personal example was to identify the homeless veterans in our area.  The next step was to insure they are got enrolled for VA care.  Then it was to make sure they sought the care they needed.  We did a few fund raisers and bought a van to make sure they all could have transportation to the VA hospital.  We were just a few folks who cared, but I think we made a big difference in people’s lives.  You can do the same.

Some Very Disturbing and Shameful Math

Lost in the hoopla concerning the financial markets and volcanoes and their economic impacts is a truly sad and disturbing story.  It is a story about heroes and people who have made the most important sacrifices for our freedom.  These are the veterans of the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Some of those veterans have completed three or four tours of combat.  This is especially true in the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns.  In Vietnam, two tours were the norm and three and four tours were rare exceptions involving people with critically needed skills.  I did two tours in Vietnam, but a third was not allowed.

But the story today is about how these people are being cared for AFTER their service.  The disturbing math is obvious from the following stories that have been posted lately.  I think the most important facts just aren’t adding up.

For example, one story talks about the fact that of 100,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, 31% of them are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorders and a slightly larger number from the residuals of head injuries.  That is about 31,000 veterans.  However the second story is telling a more disturbing story that 22,000 of these soldiers are imprisoned for “personality disorders (PD)” and only released from confinement if they sign a PD discharge which then denies them of care or benefits.  If I do my math right that means 22% of the people who have served often multiple tours and in the illustrated case 12 years of service are imprisoned and subjected to ridicule and psychological abuse until they acquiesce and sign PD discharges.  You be the judge of the facts.

This from the Chicago Tribune:

Corey Gibson’s right leg bounces when he sits. At 29 he sleeps fitfully, with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle mounted above his bed. “That’s my sense of security,” he says. Laurie Emmer, a 47-year-old mother of four, shuns crowds and strangers. She always sits facing the restaurant door when she goes out to eat and, before sitting down, makes sure to identify the quickest route out. And Eric Johnson, 62, who revisits Vietnam nearly every night in his head, escapes the demons who rob him of sleep by patrolling the streets of his South Side neighborhood with his yellow Labrador retriever, Che.

The veterans come from different generations and different wars, yet they share a common and increasingly costly wartime affliction — post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of psychological damage. Last year, mental illnesses accounted for 35 percent of the $22 billion spent on disability payments to veterans who served in the Vietnam, Persian Gulf and “global war on terror” eras, according to a Tribune analysis.

Compensating veterans with psychological scars has helped fuel a 76 percent surge in service-related disability costs since 2003, the Tribune found, burdening an already overwhelmed system and underscoring the reality that the biggest costs of war are not often immediate or visible. Studies suggest costs will continue to soar. The percentage of military evacuations from Iraq and Afghanistan that were attributed to mental disorders has increased sharply in the last four years, a recent Defense Department study shows. Another survey of about 100,000 Afghanistan and Iraq veterans found that 31 percent had been diagnosed with mental health or psychosocial problems. “When you look at the epidemic of PTSD, you see the future,” said Harvard University‘s Linda Bilmes, co-author of the 2008 book “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.”

The Tribune’s analysis of claim records from the Department of Veterans Affairs found that vets’ psychological wounds are by far the most expensive type of disability. Compensating wartime veterans since Vietnam for PTSD and other mental conditions is four to five times costlier than the average for all disability categories, the Tribune found. Victims of PTSD also are more likely to suffer other serious and costly health problems than other disabled veterans. In short, they are sicker.

Gibson, Emmer and Johnson represent veterans at different stages of an evolving psychological struggle.
Johnson is a reminder that psychological damage can consume an adult life — in his case, 40 years. Johnson left South Vietnam in 1970, returning to Chicago after a year of tracking and killing the enemy in the jungle. He says he was ill-prepared for an abrupt transition to civilian life.

“I felt stripped naked without a gun,” said the burly, dreadlocked Johnson, who after his return would wear twin shoulder holsters carrying .45 automatics. When Johnson showered, he always took a gun, sealed in a plastic bag. He slept with a gun under his pillow. His first wife, Cookie, knew not to shake him awake or touch his feet. For years he couldn’t acknowledge he had a problem, but in 1979, Johnson was diagnosed with PTSD.

The VA spent an estimated $5.6 billion last year compensating Vietnam veterans like Johnson for mental disorders, according to the Tribune analysis. That’s $4 of every $10 paid to disabled veterans from that war. Johnson also reflects the reality that compensation payments to Vietnam veterans with psychological damage are, on average, 134 percent higher than payments to other disabled Vietnam vets. Johnson receives compensation for diabetes, high blood pressure, an intestinal disorder and a back injury sustained during a helicopter crash in Vietnam, in addition to PTSD.

PTSD has changed Johnson, a guarded man who is slow to trust strangers and rarely socializes. He ignores holidays and birthdays (including his own) and avoids family functions. The night terrors of Vietnam have receded but not gone away. Johnson still returns to Vietnam nearly every night.  Johnson’s second wife, Erma, has learned to recognize and deal with the enemy he’s chasing in his dreams. “She’ll wake me up and say, ‘Don’t go — I got him,’” he said.  A retired postal worker who worked through his injuries, Johnson said he does not drink or take drugs, beyond pain relievers for his back and legs and medications to treat his diabetes. “Mentally, I’m a survivor,” he said with a smile. “I’m more fortunate than the average veteran because I’ve figured a few things out.”

Gibson is today where Johnson was in 1970. Volatile and solitary, Gibson tallies his losses after his tour of duty in Iraq — his fiancée; three jobs from which he was fired; an active, engaging life that seems forever lost.

Gibson is part of a generation of younger vets whose problems are only starting to emerge. Last year, veterans of the war-on-terror era received $329 million in disability payments related to mental disorders, or 34 percent of the money paid to all disabled vets from the same era.  A paramedic from Terre Haute, Ind., Gibson signed up in 1999 for a five-year stint with the Army’s 555th Forward Surgical Team, whose job was to penetrate deep into the battlefield and provide emergency treatment for wounded soldiers advancing to the front. He entered Iraq in March 2003.

Gibson chooses not to dwell on what happened in Iraq, other than brief mentions of mortar attacks, taking prisoners and being blown from a truck during an attack on the way to Baghdad. When he returned home in 2004, “My fiancée knew right away. ‘You’ve changed, you’re different,’ she kept saying,” he said. There were night terrors and flashbacks. He became hypersensitive to perceived slights. “It doesn’t help that I’m a male nurse,” he said.

Gibson sleeps little and spends a lot of time alone, walking the neighborhood with his dog, Gibby. One night, while his fiancée slept with her head resting on his chest, Gibson had a terrible nightmare and curled his body, putting her in a powerful headlock. She pounded on his chest to wake him up. Soon after, she left him, Gibson said.

He has been diagnosed with PTSD but also complains of other troubles, such as dizziness, a loss of long-term memory and back pain, which he says stems from his being thrown from the truck. After returning in 2004, he often slept less than an hour a night until he bought and mounted the rifle above his bed. “My sleep went from 45 minutes a night to about two hours,” he said. He calls the gun “an extension of my arm.” Gibson, who receives compensation for PTSD, recently filed a claim with the VA for traumatic brain injury. He spends most of his time at home, on his computer or watching videos. The shades are drawn.

Emmer, a retired Army sergeant, is among about a quarter-million women who have served in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. But the number that speaks to Emmer’s life-changing experiences is $50 million, the amount spent last year by the VA to compensate all female veterans from the war-on-terror era for psychological damage, according to the Tribune’s analysis.

A medic in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, Emmer waited 20 years to get an overseas combat assignment. Within a couple months of arriving in Afghanistan, her career as a skilled medic began to unravel. Emmer reported being raped by a coalition officer in Kandahar Province in spring 2003. In a separate incident, she injured her head falling off a military vehicle.

Today, the combination of PTSD and traumatic brain injury, or TBI, has enveloped Emmer in a light fog marked by physical imbalance, disorientation, anxiety and a round-the-clock headache. As a result of her injuries, Emmer is at a higher risk of stroke and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The ultimate costs of her maladies are unknown.

A pleasant woman with a boyish smile, Emmer appears on her front porch nearly every morning to plant the American flag and reappears to remove it at sundown. There is little physical evidence to suggest she is a severely wounded veteran. But these days, when Emmer leaves the house, she writes down where she is going and why for fear that she’ll forget.

“Unless you lose a limb, I don’t think other injuries resonate with the public,” Emmer said in the living room of her Civil War-era home in rural Sycamore. “Relatives wonder if we’re just making this stuff up, to get free money.” She still longs to jump out of airplanes, which she did about 60 times during her 23-year military career with the 82nd. But that won’t happen. Emmer said she wants to go back to college and get a degree in history, so she can be a substitute teacher. But her doctor has advised against it, saying college might be too stressful. Emmer, who has two children enlisted in the military, is determined to regain much of her old self. She finds support in other veterans “on the roller coaster” who are working toward the same goal. “They want the old normal back,” she said. tmjones@tribune.com
jgrotto@tribune.com

Caring for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses is costing the federal government billions of dollars a year, and will continue to do so for years to come. According to an analysis of Department of Veterans Affairs’ records by the Chicago Tribune, the VA spent $5.6 billion last year to treat mental disabilities. While these costs included treating veterans from previous wars, such as Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, the ballooning expenses have been driven largely by soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One military survey of about 100,000 veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars showed that 31% had been diagnosed with mental health or psychosocial problems. But the following story casts a very disturbing light on things and how our military is dealing with this overwhelming situation.

By Sherwood Ross – BLN Contributing Writer

An army sergeant who had received 22 honors including a Combat Action Badge prior to being wounded in Iraq by a mortar shell was told he was faking his medical symptoms and subjected to abusive treatment until he agreed to a “personality disorder”(PD) discharge.

After a doctor with the First Cavalry division wrote he was out for “secondary gain,” Chuck Luther was imprisoned in a six- by eight-foot  isolation chamber, ridiculed by the guards, denied regular meals and showers and kept awake by perpetual lights and blasting heavy metal music—abuses similar to the punishments inflicted on terrorist suspects by the CIA.

“They told me I wasn’t a real soldier, that I was a piece of crap. All I wanted was to be treated for my injuries,” 12-year veteran Luther told reporter Joshua Kors of “The Nation” magazine (April 26th). “Now suddenly I’m not a soldier. I’m a prisoner, by my own people. I felt like a caged animal in that room. That’s when I started to lose it.” The article is called “Disposable Soldiers: How the Pentagon is Cheating Wounded Vets.”

Luther had been seven months into his deployment at Camp Taji, 20 miles north of Baghdad, when a mortal shell exploded at the base of his guard tower that knocked him down, slamming his head into the concrete. “I remember laying there in a daze, looking around, trying to figure out where I was at,” he said. Luther suffered permanent hearing loss in his right ear, tinnitus, agonizing headaches behind his right eye, severe nosebleeds, and shoulder pain.

The sergeant took a Chapter 5-13 PD discharge in order to escape his confinement, becoming one of 22,600 soldiers so separated since 2001, a discharge that relieves the Pentagon of the responsibility and cost of long-term care for the wounded. An Army major told Luther to sign the discharge papers or “you’re going to be here a lot longer.” Luther recalled, “They had me broke down. At that point, I just wanted to get home.” Many of the PD discharge recipients are soldiers who have served two and three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, author Kors writes.

Sgt. Angel Sandoval, who served under Luther, said Luther’s insistence on his wearing ceramic plates strapped to his bulletproof vest saved his life and described Luther as “one of the greatest leaders I had.” Yet this is the man the Army imprisoned when he requested medical treatment. “This should have been resolved during the Bush administration. And it should have been stopped now by the Obama administration,” Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, is quoted as saying about PD discharges. “The fact that it hasn’t is a national disgrace.”

Luther’s case is no isolated example, writes Kors, noting that in the past three years “The Nation” has uncovered more than two dozen such cases. “All the soldiers were examined, deemed physically and psychologically fit, then welcomed into the military. All performed honorably before being wounded during service…Yet after seeking treatment for their wounds, each soldier was diagnosed with a pre-existing personality disorder, then discharged and denied benefits,” Kors writes.

This past December, he reports, VA doctors found Luther to be suffering from migraine headaches, vision problems, dizziness, nausea, difficulty hearing, numbness, anxiety and irritability—and diagnosed him with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, declaring the veteran 80 percent disabled. The diagnosis cleared the way for the sergeant to receive disability benefits and lifetime medical care.

With his health improving, Luther has vowed to fight the military on behalf of other soldiers who got a raw deal like himself.  He founded Disposable Warriors, a one-soldier operation near Fort Hood, Texas,  that assists soldiers fighting their discharge and those appealing their disability rating, Kors reports. Luther says the base had 12 suicides last year as of June 2nd but reported only two. Luther is quoted in a November 21, 2009, article on “Truthout” as saying there is only one mental health professional for every 1,263 soldiers “and that is the first failure.”

After opening Disposable Warriors, Luther found a threatening note on his car windshield that read: “Back off or you and your family will pay!!” Whoever wrote that note doesn’t know Chuck Luther very well.

We cannot and must not forget these brave men and women who have sacrificed themselves for us.  I personally did a lot of healing when I saw how much more respect our country and its people showed to the returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.  I remember the yellow ribbons and the bumper stickers.  Somehow these shows of support healed my experiences of returning to SF and getting off the plane to experience people spitting on me.  I was once again proud of being a medic and a soldier and my service.

However, the reality of what is going on now within our military concerning these individuals cannot and should not be tolerated by any of us.  We should all be outraged by these actions.  If you know any of these people or their families, support them.  Get involved.  Write your CONgress members and let them know there should not be a SINGLE soldier confined for PD.  NOT A SINGLE ONE! PD is a medical condition and should be treated as such.  This is a cost management exercise and damn the costs.  If we can spend trillions bailing out fat cat banksters, we can certainly spend billions taking care of those brave individuals who fight for our peace and security.

Can We Have a Civil Dialogue?

I have not made a post for several days as I was traveling around the country a bit talking to people about the current health care debate.  Ran into more than a few people who are on the Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Lyndon LaRoche bandwagons.  I listened to the well developed themes on both sides of the issue.  I will say, unlike either side, that I found the people themselves as very concerned and while a few might fit into the retard category on the right and the the fanatic on the left, for the most part all sides are reasonable, well educated Americans who love their country.

For those who wish to inject images and vitrole such as invoking Nazi symbolism or racists incitements, I say we simply just ignore these idiots.  However, those politicians who should know better and are using these fools to their political advantage, we should send a simple message.  You have a responsibility to the protection and safety of this great nation and you are flagrantly violating that oath.  Enjoy your last term in office.  We must, as a nation, hold above all things that we are ALL Americans and we should conduct ourselves in a manner that once again elevates our image in the world as the best and freest place to live.

As to where I stand on health care?  Well for me it is very simple.  I am for universal health care for these reasons:

1).  We are the ONLY developed nation without it.  I have lived in England, France, Kuwait, and Malaysia, all with universal care.  Do they have their issues and problems, yes.  However, everyone understands the need, no the right, to have access the health care.

2). I cannot, as an intelligent (some might debate that) human being ever tolerate a reality that allows my fellow citizens to suffer and die because of a lack of access to health care.  How could any other intelligent compassionate human being think otherwise?  This is a potential reality for 50 Million people in this country and those roles are expanding at the rate of 17,000 EACH DAY!  The question should not be that how can we afford it.  It should be how do we correct this problem!  How can we label ourselves civilized until we do solve this problem.  BTW, 50% of this group is age 55-65 and 25% is under the age of 12.  Really think about that for a moment.

3). No one should have to make a decision between bankruptcy and health care.  So many of our best citizens who have contributed the most to the well being of the country are the very people who are faced with this reality.

OK, that’s my position.  How, you ask, are we going to accomplish this goal without breaking the bank?  First, if you haven’t noticed, the bank is already smashed to smitherines, so this is the BEST time to do it.  Secondly, we do have the best health care system in the world, but it is being dismantled by greed that we all know intuitively exists.  WE ALL KNOW THIS.  So let’s address it.

The three major health care industries (insurance, medical products and devices, and the pharmaceuticals) need to be regulated.  The three major ways to accomplish this is simple.  First, eliminate the concepts of pre-existing conditions, policy $ caps, and policy cancellations. Period, verboten.  Secondly, cap price increases to COLA (cost of living) same as social security.  Lastly, institute meaningful tort laws and eliminate all of this defensive medicine that is being practiced in this country.  If we really did those things, we would reduce our overall costs by at least 40%.

The best systems in the world operate as both public and private health care delivery (France, Sweden, Netherlands, for example).  We do not need to have to choose between public or private.  We do, however, have a moral imperative to insure access to universal care.  we could also make great strides forward by simple acts, such as extending Medicare to 62, limiting total out of pocket expenses and adding those who have met that obligation to Medicare.  How hard is that?

To those on both sides of the issues, stop using politics and examine honestly the issues.  This is NOT a political issue, it is an issue of humanity and we all should approach this issue in that manner.  Think about this.  I am absolutely certain that any man or woman out there would be close to suicidal if they had to watch their wives, husbands, children or parents die because they could not provide health care.  Not a single one!  Time to get real.

Anyway, here is Uncle Willie’s thoughts for the day:

The On-going Jefferson Dialogues

“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.” –Thomas Jefferson

His point seems very contemporary.  However, these thoughts also helped me think more clearly as well.  Dialogue, even rowdy dialogue, is EXACTLY what we need right now.  The debate over the National Health Care Plan has done more to wake us up than 9/11, two wars, and a collapsing economy!

I say we keep it up!  In a previous blog, I had stated that if 20% of every congressional district in this great country would email or call their representative, it would scare the bejesus out of them.

However, why limit the dialogue to health care?  Let’s put it all on the table.  WTF. I would like to know a few other things while we are at it.  Like:

1). Just what is the goal in Afghanistan anyway?  And what is the exit strategy?  Ah….. when the heroin trade dries up?

2). Did we secure the oil in Iraq or not?

3). When are we going to get a public campaign finance law?

4). Are the banksters clean or not? If not when are they going to be indicted?

5). Does the health care industry PAC money donated to you affect your decision on developing a real national health care plan?

If everyone emailed those questions to their congress person or senator, I am sure we would have an immaculate spontaneous behavioral modification in the beltway.  I will say it again.  We are powerful because we have a vote.  We would be more powerful if we encourage everyone we know to get involved.  It doesn’t matter HOW you feel about the issues, only that you do feel and act on those feelings. Finally, we would be most powerful if we were all well informed about the issues.

That last point is the most significant point for today. Get informed.  Make it fun, involve your children.  As a teaching lesson, have them collect the daily headlines and then discuss the issues with them.  Everyone learns, and more importantly everyone becomes more informed.

What was saddest to watch concerning the town hall meetings was the true level of ignorance being demonstrated by those who shouted the loudest.  I mean that in the most respectful way, because I understand the feelings were genuine.  To allow someone to upset you to the degree I saw some people, and to know they really haven’t read or understood anything on their own seems odd to me.  Disturbingly so.  We can do better than this, can’t we?

Anyway here’s some more food for thought from Uncle Willy….

More of the same or is it?

As we watch these pitiful town hall meetings unfold, we are witnessing the best and worst of what we call the American landscape.  On one hand we are watching people, especially the elder and well let’s be kind and say the most susceptible among us being methodically victimized by special interest groups on one hand, and we are watching Democrats on the other hand capitulating when they pose a clear majority.

As we watch this not so pretty melodrama play out, I am wondering if we as the collective America are really catching on here.  In one instance our elected officials on both sides of the aisle are demonstrating to us all that in America we have the best government money can buy as we watch senior senators actually say the government is planning to pull the plug on Grandma.  How sad is it that we watch people who should above all assure the public of the truth of the process and the debate, not whore themselves on stage in front of us all.

In the second instance, we have 40% of declared Republicans stating they believe these shock jocks and paid prostitutes!!  Oh yeah, sorry North Carolina, but 12% of you didn’t know that Hawaii is a state!!  C’mon people.  We get the government we deserve, but can’t we be a little better informed?

Let’s tone the rhetoric down a few notches and get serious about universal health care.  You know, jump two centuries and get back in the 21^st century with the rest of the world!  By the way, we don’t need 1100 pages of legislation either.  Here is the plan in 4 bullets.

1). Health Care is a universal basic human right, and no profit shall be derived from the delivery of health care.

2). Both public and private payers shall have the right to compete for subscribers in an open market.

3). The estimated cost of universal care has been estimated at $1.2 trillion over 10 years or $120 billion per year.  The elimination of administrative burden covers $40 billion per year, the reduction of profits covers another $20 billion per year, and finally focusing the health care delivery system on wellness versus crisis care could account for about $30 billion per year in additional cost savings.  So without any additional sources, we have reduced the annual unfunded cost to about $30 billion per year.  Let’s see. Hmmmmmm what did we spend in Iraq and Afghanistan last year??? It is about priorities!

4). We shall focus on recruiting our brightest young people into the field of Health Care delivery.  We will subsidize their education and assure them rewarding futures. In addition, as a part of this effort, we will establish federal accreditations and audits of all health care systems and operations and reward those that demonstrate that their patient body is as healthy as it can be, given the demographics.  This will be measured by the incidence of chronic diseases such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease within the group being measured.

That’s it.  It is as simple as that.  Of course, these are thoughts stripped of all political bu**sh*t and focused on the issue of quality health care delivery. Yes, we could have just that. I also believe that if we gave such a system a five year run, we would find we would really have a quality health care system ( not ranked 37^th globally), and I believe  the total cost would be less than today’s 14% of GDP.

Please really, get yourself informed and get involved in the dialogue. Those who are constructing the barriers to a truly quality health care system are counting on us remaining uninformed and non-involved.  They really have no defense for a total citizen involvement.

P.S. a note to all you fatcats of the “health care industry” that have raked in all the dough on Grandma’s cancer and Uncle Roy’s diabetes over the years, you had a good run, but it is over! Remember the next time you are flying from New York to LA in your private jet and eating that gourmet meal that was so meticulously prepared for you, you too could be fired, run out of unemployment, lose all your stash to the IRS, and be homeless.  Do the right thing Man/Woman Up!

A new feature is added to my blog starting today.  “The Whole Universal Truth by Uncle Willy”  Daily tidbits of thought food.  I hope you enjoy it.  Let me know what you think.