We Need a Public Health Insurance Policy

I really only know what's happening to the Americans that I know, and I seem to know a lot of people from a variety of socio-economical backgrounds. 

Some have wealthy parents or good jobs, and never had to think too much about money. Others might still have good jobs, yet be buried in credit card debt, watching their savings dwindle, or have no main job, yet be working three or four side jobs just to get by. Still others have lost their jobs, and their homes due to foreclosure. Some have moved in with their parents; other are living with roommates.  

Yesterday my mom sent me a link to a newsletter that she was featured in from a D.C. organization that provides financial assistance to defray the high costs of prescription medications for the growing number of underinsured in our country who are dealing with difficulties that they never could have predicted. I didn't even know she received assistance from PAN, or what it was, or that she wrote a testimonial, though when I read her story I tried to take the fact I was her daughter out of it, and see her as a hardworking, employed-until-recently widowed 63-year old  woman that just needed to find a way to pay for her medication that relieved the pain caused by arthritis.

How can anyone afford $600 per month on medication on top of already high costs for COBRA?

Sure, you can just opt out and be one of the 24 million, and growing Americans that doesn't have any health insurance at all, or you can go broke figuring out a way to be insured, or you can just live with debilitating pain, or in some very tragic cases even die from lack of insurance at the age of 22 like this Ohio college graduate who put off going to the doctor b/c she did not have health insurance. If you're determined, and informed, you can take the time to apply for grants and assistance as my mom did, buried in paperwork, and constantly calling this person or that person to get a reference note, or a letter written, and then of course following it up with her notes of heartfelt thanks that might not be worded like a writer's, yet nevertheless convey her sense of sincerity, and gratitude. 

So, that's what we are- grateful to organizations, that if we know the ropes around we can ultimately do the hard work of navigating the appropriate channels to find the assistance that we need through these agencies, and then move on so others who are experiencing greater amounts of need than us can be helped. How many people, though, are suffering from extremely painful arthritis right now, or other ailments, but not battling the paperwork like my mom, or reaching out? How many feel undeserving of assistance, or too ashamed to ask for it? How many are embarrassed to admit that they are facing hard times? 

Every day in America, and in my neighborhood I see people working their asses off, people that could work 24 hours a day at the rate they're going, and still not be able to financially recover from a surgery, a long illness, or even a visit to the emergency room.  Are these people not entitled to the right to have health insurance coverage? Is my mother who raised two children, and worked full-time for decades, and contributed to her community not worthy of being fully covered? 

Our government's interdependence with pharmaceutical industries is an unhealthy pre-existing condition. Why aren't we focusing on treating that, instead of why all of our people aren't all deserving of coverage? 

Subway in the Blood

Dear Jared, 

I know it's been forever, and a day, and then another day or two, but I just wanted to touch base with you, and let you know where I'm at.  

The Hello Kitty stickers were getting too expensive, and I grew tired of sending pre-driven unmentionables to you that were never acknowledged, or reciprocated, forcing me to buy six packs of Fruit of the Loom at Walgreen's about every month when I was writing to you too much, or just not mustering the strength for laundry.  I figured that if you, and your humongous pair of blue jean pants were going to tour the country together promoting the importance of eating healthy, and doing it with the help of Subway, than you didn't need me. Talk about a third wheel! 

So, I've been hooping. A lot. I ordered a fire hoop online, and I've been losing weight through exercise, as well as by eating a six inch turkey on wheat with no mayo, or no condiments just like we used to do together back in Indianapolis when we were losing all the weight together, but before you went to Subway and made your story famous, leaving me behind with my every other week unemployment telephone call, a hula hoop, a bathrobe, and a TV converter box I haven't figured out how to hook up because I'd rather just invent stuff in my head like a psychotic person, or writer. 

With the hula hooping has come a new life, with new projects, free of irritable bowel syndrome, and lonely nights thinking about what would have happened if Subway hadn't of been such a life changing opportunity for you.  I admit that I have been collecting the little contest stickers affixed to soda cups for the online Scrabble game, and I am well aware of the contest's Oct. 18th deadline, and I do plan to participate in that, but other than that Subway has frankly faded less, and less from my life these days, along with you.  Please don't take that the wrong way!  This period of my life will always hold a special place in my heart as will you. 

Sincerely, and I swear to the Heavens This-is-My-Last-Letter, 

Aly Louise Hensler 

P.S.   I just read in the Boston Globe that you are in early talks to maybe have your blue jeans exhibited inside the Smithsonian museum? Is that awesome, or what?! 

P.P.S.  I also read that you said Subway is "in your blood!" 

P.P.P.S. Are you OK? 

Blogging is Stupid

I read somewhere that 95% of blogs are abandoned by their owners-- and presumably for good reason. Who are the 5% that trudge forward? Are they the most truly narcissistic of humankind, feeling the need to report on the mundane and trivial and perfectly ordinary aspects of their life?

Like clockwork, every three or four or five months I turn my back on blogging, and vow no mas. This time I have some very exciting projects I am working on, some only in pipe dream, others in incubation stages, and still others more clearly defined like the weekly newsletter. In regards to always having so many things going on, I've never known any other way so in a way it's normal.

No doubt it's a scary period for America. We're also entering into- whether we consciously notice it or not- a new era of usefulness, and utility. Every dollar spent needs to matter, every new item of clothing must need to be worn right now, or else it wouldn't have been purchased.  What services will be removed for not producing an ROI? What kinds of companies will suffer? 

Books vs. Movies

No offense to film makers, and movie buffs (buff, what a weird word!), but I feel like in most cases, a book is usually better than its screen adaptation. Not in all cases, but possibly most.

Why?

Books take much longer to read than to sit passively watching a movie, thus a longer time investment promoting a sense of shared space between the reader, and the book, or novel's world, is achieved.

Books allow you to get inside of the character's head, whereas that is not as easy to convey on the big screen.

Readers ARE casting directors. A reader casts the characters via imagination, and if the character on the screen is not at all how the reader had imagined him/her, than the reader will feel as if the movie is inauthentic due to preconceived notions.

In general I enjoyed The Reader, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Towelhead, Thank You for Smoking, Bridget Jones Diary, Atonement, The Bone Collector, The Outsiders, Tuck Everlasting, and many other movies more in their book vs. movie edition, with the possible exception of Charlie, and the Chocolate Factory.

Maybe I'm pigheaded.

Standing Corrected- Again

A lot can happen in three days.

The laid off workers of Republic Windows and Doors were given three days notice that their jobs, and benefits were ending, as well as their factory being shut down, which prompted a sit in, political spotlight, and each worker receiving 6K of basic benefits, vacation, and severance pay owed to them.

In the movie in which the Republic story appears, among other eye opening stories of real Americans, Capitalism: A Love Story, the union organizers here in Chicago found out only three days ago that they'd be able to show Michael Moore's movie in prescreening benefits around the country.

It's no surprise that they got to work, again, and last night the theater was nearly packed at the Kerasotes Western 14. It was a cozy crowd. Most knew each other through the union. Some of the very faces features on the big screen were sitting among S. and I. In many parts of the movie there was not a dry eye in the house. Only a small portion of the movie was about the story of the people of Republic, yet as is the pattern these days, what's happening in one spot in America is also occurring in 10 others, so it was a very relatable movie, as all Michael Moore movies are, which is what makes him an important part of America. I stand corrected to what I wrote yesterday. MM's good work far outweighs his shock value, and in America, it's shock, awe, and sex that gets noticed. MM isn't very sexually appealing, so he uses shock to get his valid points across. Or, at least this is my latest reflection on MM.

I had read, or rather skimmed information on the pre-screenings that a friend posted a link on, and misconstrued that the movie was free to people that have lost their jobs, or had fallen on hard times. I had been doing two things at once, and was rushing out the door, otherwise I wouldn't have made such an idiotic pronouncement, and then posted it even more idiotically, only to return home seven hours later to a few personal emails like this one, "Hi, it is playing tonight at 8 pm at Western, but it is not free, it is a benefit for united electrical and radio workers of America, you may want to amend your blog."

In retrospect, I feel very foolish as I often do, as I was not clear on the terms, and after watching the movie would give $1,000 if I had it to the labor organizers that helped orchestrate the sit in, and not just the $10 donation.

A friend who wishes to remain unidentified said the the following to me as we left the theater: "Every time I see a Michael Moore movie I am reminded of how little I know about our country."

Unlike my friend, I had been following the Republic story in the news, though I did not feel the depth, and immediacy, and impact of the sit in until I watched it on the main screen, and learned more about what kinds of things the labor organizers in Chicago are doing for our city's 110,000 plus warehouse workers. Not in the movie, but an organizer that spoke before it started said that a pregnant warehouse worker at Great Kitchens, which provided pizzas to Sam Club, or Wal-Mart, had asked her supervisor for a stool, and the supervisor said no, and told her to get back on her line. Three days later she lost her baby due to miscarriage. These are the kinds of things the labor organizers are fighting for--basic, human, inalienable rights-- and in light of sweeping Immigration reform that I've been writing about here the situation is getting even worse as an increasing number of hardworking immigrants are now out of jobs, at Republic, at American Apparel, at Pizza Hut, and no doubt thousands of other companies under the radar if it were not for union organizers, and the very few executives and politicians speaking out against immigration reform. What kind of impact will the loss of these workers have on American manufacturers? Will it force them to use offshore employees? Will they bring immigrants back on the lines, but illegally, and at the risk of facing fines, and imprisonment? There are no winners here except the 1% at the very top of our country's food chain who are ushering in these reforms, and offering no solutions, just a sweeping broom with no dustpan.

And yes, admittedly our country is a bit too preoccupied at the moment to think about immigrants, though what's happening to immigrants is the same thing that will be happening to nonimmigrants soon, if not already. The few, the happy but-not- -with-a-light-conscience few at the top are embroiled in a love affair with capitalism, and I say affair, and not love story like the movie's title because an affair is illicit, and wrong, just like what is happening to our country on so many levels. When did it become better for banks to win, and for empty storefronts, and empty homes dotting our landscape to be the image so many of us think of when we think of what's happening to our neighbors, and neighborhoods? When did it become okay for some of us to know someone that lost a job, and then to know someone that is homeless, and then to know someone that can't afford to eat?

Economic hardship, foreclosures, job loss, the scarlet letter that is the pre-existing condition that makes many of us, myself not excluded, scared to go to the doctor for fear of more bills, and loss of coverage, or an inability to be covered at a new job, yep, it's all here in America, yet as Moore's movie reminded each, and every one of us-- there's far more of us than there are of them-- and this is the comfort I am taking away from Capitalism: A Love Story. Numbers don't lie, and if there's not a revolution happening right now, it's around the corner.

Giving Capitalism: A Love Story Away

CORRECTION It is playing tonight at 8 pm at Western, but it is not free, it is a benefit for united electrical and radio workers of America, you may want to amend your blog

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Just when I think I'm not sure about Michael Moore-- his motivations, his skewing of facts to heighten stories, his profiting so extremely off being somewhat of a red carpet gadfly-- he does something totally awesome like make his latest movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, free tonight for those living in select cities like Chicago that have been hit especially hard by the downturn in the economy.

In a way, it's odd that I'm about to start my day by going to a trunk show downtown for a designer specializing in fashions for the fuller figured woman of affluence, and, after a few stops in-between, end the day by seeing a free movie by our nation's leading provocateur.

Both the designer, and Michael Moore serve underserved people, and they are shedding a light on a different America not seen in the mainstream despite the fact that 60% of American women are plus sized, and about one out of every 10 Americans do not have a full-time job.

As for Michael Moore, I too was born in Flint, Michigan, though my family moved from Flint shortly thereafter, so I have no memory of the city MM made famous via Roger & Me, yet many years ago I chatted with him on the phone, as well as emailed him an idea for a movie that I thought he should explore, about a small town in Illinois that ran a factory that had employed three generations of townspeople, and was closing because it appeared to be cheaper for Johnson & Johnson to manufacture its feminine maxi-pads in Canada vs. the midwest. He thought I should explore it further on my own, and while I visited the town for a day, hung out in its library reading newspaper clippings about the factory, and interviewed a bunch of people at a bar, and a woman from the historical society, at the time I had too much other stuff going on, and didn't end up trying to write a story. Now that I have a bit more time on my hands I might go see what has happened to this town over the past 10 years. It was around 1999 when the factory was closing. If I recall correctly, the factory had employed about 10 to 12% of the small town, thus making it an interesting study because close to that same percentage of Americans are not working today. Hopefully the economy will be vastly improve 10 years from now, but curiosity is already leading me to that town again, to see what it looks like now, 10 years after the maxipad factory shut its doors.

Little Helper

Actually, he's not helping. He's everywhere I don't want him to be, and now being almost 1 a.m. with a meeting in the morning I am admitting defeat, and giving myself some slack on not getting as far along on the newsletter as I'd hoped due to Yom Kippur. I actually got a fair amount done in spurts between services, and the suburbs today, though for the most part I was unable to string a sentence together.

Last night during the storm around 2 or 3 a.m. I went to close a window, and gasped when I saw yet another humungous raccoon outside, and it's true, I read somewhere that they are getting bigger this year. The raccoon looked almost as big as my cat, and had a similar walk, and looked a lot how my cat looks in this photo. For a split second, as I was disorientated, I thought, "Did my cat get outside?!"

As I panicked, and realized my cat would not have such a bushy tail, I almost stepped on him. He was right by my feet. It's probably too late to rename him Shadow.