Child Dental Care? Bah!

The New Year must feel like a trivial day for some when they are faced with struggles like this:

Many Illinois children who are covered by government-sponsored insurance programs often go without much-needed specialty dental treatment or wait for extended periods because of an ailing Medicaid system.

The biggest issues, advocates say, are Medicaid reimbursement rates in Illinois that are among the lowest in the country for specialized care and administrative hassles that go along with treating low-income patients. Dentists say they can't make ends meet.

Barriers to specialty dental care for low-income children remain a problem almost seven years after a federal judge ruled that the state had violated the rights of several hundred thousand poor children in Cook County.

Do tell how after a federal judge shows that the rights of poor children in Chicago and surrounding communities are being violated, how DOES this continue to happen?

And I didn't quite know that dental care is "specialized care".  People have and do die from untreated dental illness.  But hey, if you're poor then you don't really deserve this "specialized care".

Chicago IS a world class city.

***

On another personal note, I am a new uncle!  It's very exciting news for my sister and our family.  She gave birth to Jordan Itai on December 24th.  We went to his Bris on the 31st and the little guy handled it like a champ!  I will post pictures of the little guy once I have the clear from my sister, but I will just say this.... he's freakin adorable.

Mazal Tov!

PEACE

p.s.  Sorry for linking to fox news, I won't ever do it again

Pick a Side!

With the protests happening around the country and the lines being drawn pretty obviously, I think its time to challenge those who haven't picked a side yet.  Especially those who belong to the so called "middle" or the few remaining "independents".  Whose side are you on?

The lines seem pretty clearly drawn.  On one side you have the 99%, "We the People".  The people who are getting screwed by the system.  The poor, the elderly, the youth, the middle class, the small business owner, the student, so on, and so on and so on. 

On the other side, you have the 1%.  The Wall St. Bankers, the corporate interests, and the super-wealthy.  These are the ones who have committed fraud, lobbied our government representatives to the point of controlling them, received bailouts when they have fucked up, and stolen money from the people.

What side will YOU be on?

Will you stand with the 99% when you see that 49 million Americans live in poverty?
Will you stand with the 99% after you find out that the top 1% earning Americans saw their income increase by 275%?
Will you stand with the 99% after you find out that America ranks in the bottom third of how equitably family income is distributed within each nation?
Will you stand with the 99% after you hear this story and this story and this story?

Or will you stand with the 1% and their tax cuts, their bailouts, their crooks, and their destruction?

No standing in the middle.
No saying "I don't want to talk about Politics."
No more saying, "I need more time to make my decision."

This isn't about politics.
This is isn't about Republicans or Democrats.

This is about HUMANITY.

Humanity is suffering, in this country and around the world.  And the 1% continues to make off like kings.

Will you stand on the side of humanity?  Or will you stand on the side of wealth?

I know which side I stand on.  I challenge everyone to pick a side. 

PEACE

Young Americans Suffering Disproportionately

This morning I found an article which discusses the record "wealth gap" between the young and the old in this country.  I have no problem with older Americans having wealth.  I have a problem with the youth of this country suffering like this.  

The following article from this morning's Associated Press:

"WASHINGTON (AP) — The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.

The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.

While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation."

 First of all, lets not call it a "wealth gap".  Young people in this country are poor.  I have no shame saying it. 

It's the kind of poor where you can barely get a minimum wage job that forces you to live paycheck to paycheck. 

It's the kind of poor where you have to get two, maybe three jobs just so that you can pay rent, bills, and buy food because you don't want the internal shame of being on public assistance.

It's the kind of poor where you can't save for your future, because every cent is going to student loans that got you that college education that you were told would make your future.

It's the kind of poor that doesn't allow you to have any health insurance.  Hospital visits are out of the question.

It's the kind of poor that forces a young couple with a new kid to sell their home, thinking they were secure in their jobs until Wall St. destroyed the economy and any sense of your future with it.

Meanwhile, the old are being forced to stay in their jobs longer just so that they can keep their health insurance while politicians talk of raising the social security and medicare ages.  They are forced to delay a well deserved retirement just so they can remain in their homes for fear of foreclosure. 

***

The current state of affairs is no good.  High unemployment is crippling young people.  Student loans are making them slaves to the system.  Poverty is creeping in to their lives across the board at an alarming rate.  Meanwhile the government cuts education programs, public assistance programs, food stamps, child health insurance, and more.  They are coming for social security and medicare as well.  People are suffering and their suffering is increasing.  If you are young and experiencing this, it is frustrating, angering, but often just damn depressing.  If you are old, you are watching your life's work whittled away at while your children and grandchildren suffer needlessly. 

We're not leeches.  We don't expect much.  We just want a fair chance at achieving our dreams (you know, that "American Dream").  We want to have that chance without being saddled by crippling debt, whether student or medical.  We want to have that chance without having the corporate owned government putting obstacles in our way.  We want to have that chance without the corporate owned media belittling us at every turn.

We want a FAIR chance.  We deserve the same opportunity as the 1% is given.  The same opportunity to try, to succeed, and to fail without fear of death.  The same fair playing ground for everybody, not just the 1% or even just the 99%, but for ALL.

Isn't that what we used to say everyday to start the school day?  "Liberty and Justice for All"!

 

PEACE

 

Can't Pay the Bills? Tear Out the Lights

After my last post, I received a comment on another blog.

"The problem with numbers is that everybody's got some, and almost nobody knows what they add up to.  The system is intentionally obscure.  If you use numbers, you are just going to get buried with other people's numbers.  Better to stick with visceral evidence.  Who is suffering?  Who is dying?  How?  Why?"

That is fair.  My last point addressed the unfairness of the current political system in numbers.  But what does this do to people?  How does it affect them?  And BLAM!  This morning I find this article about what happens when a Michigan City can't pay the electric bill.

"HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. (AP) -- As the sun dips below the rooftops each evening, parts of this Detroit enclave turn to pitch black, the only illumination coming from a few streetlights at the end of the block or from glowing yellow yard globes.

It wasn't always this way. But when the debt-ridden community could no longer afford its monthly electric bill, elected officials not only turned off 1,000 streetlights. They had them ripped out -- bulbs, poles and all. Now nightfall cloaks most neighborhoods in inky darkness.

"How can you darken any city?" asked Victoria Dowdell, standing in the halo of a light in her front yard. "I think that was a disgrace. She said the decision endangers everyone, especially people who have to walk around at night or catch the bus."

THIS is how the greed of the 1% affects the people of this country.  This is a neighborhood deep in poverty and has had a debt crisis.  It has more people than jobs, burnt out lots, vacant houses, and unused buildings.  Population levels have steadily decreased and the community is in decay.  Most of these local debt problems arise from the banking, housing, and other criminal corporate behaviors.

And yet, the same corporation that is holding Highland Park, MI to its debt, is DTE energy.  DTE energy had a negative tax rate this year, meaning they made billions in profit AND received money from the government.  They hold this community hostage to what is essentially chump change for them!

They have torn out two-thirds of this city's lights.
Torn out.  Nice short term solution.  Lets not think of the long term needs.

Would you like to walk home through the city in the dark?
Would you like to worry about your kids coming home safely?
Would you like to fear every dark space where your home is?

All for what?  Because DTE demands that this city immediately pay off their debt?

The only numbers that are ultimately important here are 99%... and 1%.  The 1% steals our money, and takes money from the government that they control through their lobbying.  The 99% have to suffer as a result of their greed, criminality, and inhumanity.  Are you going to stand for that?  Are you going to watch as the communities of the masses are destroyed?

I look again at the comment the other person left me.  Who is suffering because of the 1%?  How are they suffering?  Why?

Don't let the corporations destroy the social contract that the government has with its people.  It's "We the People" not "We the 1%."