Easter

Easter is the most precious Christian holiday. When I was a kid, I loved Christmas better. Of course. Tons of toys. Being showered with presents is a great thing. Christmas is about the baby Jesus, and every kid understands birth, because children are near to birth. Brothers and sisters get born, new cousins, friends of Mom and Dad are in the childbearing years, so babies are everywhere. To celebrate a baby's birth, and to get tons of presents, now that 's understandable. Easter was different. A new outfit, of course., and a bunch of chocolate. Coloring and finding easter eggs was a fun game, with the inevitable lost stinky one turning up under the couch in July. Easter is about death and resurrection. Death. Rebirth. The kinds of things that older folks have on their minds. Easter is more real to me now, than as a child. I wonder about death a lot, after my father's death two years ago. Most of his "greatest generation" with their swing music, money hustling and love, are gone. Now we're on the line. It's our turn at the ferris wheel. In my 50's, I feel I'm on top of the ride, with an overview that only longevity can produce. Yet, I know that I'm on my way down, now, ever so gently. I look forward to Easter.

Tort Reform..Preview of things to come.

A year and a half ago, I was in El Paso Texas, when I got a blinding headache, which made me vomit and get dizzy. My eye didn’t react to light. My sister took me to the emergency room and 2 doctors said it was Bell’s Palsy, a temporary paralysis that would go away on it’s own. After an MRI They gave me codine, and told me to check with my doctor when I went home to NY.
The codine made me dizzy and nauseous. I couldn’t eat, just drink cold water and hold ice to my head. Two days later I went back to the ER. They gave me a CAT Scan. Nothing. They said it was nerves, and again they said I should follow up in NYC. They prescribed anti-anxiety medication.
When I got home, I went to my doctor who sent me to a neurologist, who sent me to a brain surgeon who said “ you’re getting operated on in the morning.” He did an angiogram, and found the aneurysm which had been sitting in my head waiting to explode. After cranial surgery, I went home to recouperate.
At one of my many followup visits, the doctor was very angry. He said they had used the wrong tests. As it was, I would probably be seeing funny for the rest of my life. I would be squinting like someone with bad cateracts, and I’d always have to wear sunglasses in bright light, due to a permanently frozen retina. He told me I could have died, and I that I should sue. From a doctor, no less.

My sister recommended a medical malpractice attorney in Texas. I called. The attorney said it was too late. I asked if the statute of limitations had expired. She said, no, it was just that Texas’s tort reform was already in place, making it almost impossible to sue. She said she’d have to deposit 15 to 20 thousand cash, just to have the case heard, and with less than a year to work on the case, she said it was too risky.


I stumble around sometimes, if it’s too light or dark. When I look up, it’s like looking thru a kalidescope. But I am blessed. I’m alive. Those doctors are probably still working in the ER. The next patient who walks in that hospital with an aneurysm may not be so lucky to get a second opinion in New York City. And if they die or are crippled from the aneurysm, their families may not be entitled to any settlement, thanks to tort reform.

CampaignReforms

The Democrats needs to be the party of working families, and needs to stress a populist platform, rather than a centrist, pro-corporate one. The Dean presidential campaign, with it’s unprecedented internet donations, proved that Dems do not have to court corporate campaign funds, or any longer need to promote their interests, when they are in opposition to the well being of the population.
“Working Class” is an antiquated phrase. White collar, blue collar, upper middle, lower middle and working class labels just serve to divide people who earn their living from their wages, as opposed to people who earn their income from stock dividends (ie, from the labor of others). Working Families is an honorable way to define people who earn their living from the sweat of their brow.
We need election reform. ATM machines produce paper receipts, and election machines can do the same. If ATMs can spring up in every bodega and 7-ll in America, then there's no excuse that voters are made to wait for 10 hours in poor neigborhoods to vote. Perhaps we need to get Apple to produce new election machines. Campaign advertising as we know it must be changed. Free air time should take the place of purchased air time. The FCC should mandate that every station licensed thru the FCC must donate equal FREE air time to all valid candidates. We must get corporations to pay taxes, and disallow them to give money to campaigns.
Corporations are not persons. The law must be changed. Corporations don't vote, people vote. Corporate campaign financing money should be viewed as payola, graft, and nothing more.