With all the uncivil discourse that has been going on of late, I thought I would follow the adage that if you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all. (I do though still get a kick out of how Alice Roosevelt Longworth had it paraphrased and embroidered on a pillow she brought to parties - if you can't say anything nice about someone, come sit next to me.) So I haven't been saying anything, because there is not a lot of good out there.
But a friend expressed some concern yesterday that I hadn't written anything in a month. I am alive and as healthy as always. Maybe even more so, though I don't feel it. My central nervous system feels as if it was put together by my cheap father, with faulty, below code wiring. I have reduced my daily cigarette intake from about three packs a day, to a little below one. Which puts me back at the level I was smoking during Nixon's second term. And I feel the same angst and anger at politicians that I did then.
There are a lot of jerks out there right now, being jerky on a lot of topics. It's OK. I am saying something nice when I only call them jerks. Joe Wilson is one of them. The rudeness he displayed aside, he pulled a switch and side-tracked health care reform, turning the process towards immigration reform. Which is a separate topic. But he has welded them.
If you exclude illegal aliens from receiving any federal health benefits in a reform bill, than they are going to receive federal, state and local health benefits by showing up sick at a county health facility. Mr. Wilson, if you don't want them treated, work out a feasible policy for immigration reform. Till then, shut up.
All my lily white friends at Morning Joe have been up in arms about Former President Carter's remarks. It's beautiful the way they, and numerous others in the media, distort exactly what Mr. Carter said, and then shoot it down. He talked specifically about the most egregious of the demonstrators, and how many of them were racially motivated. But Joe and his buddies make it seem as if he called all non-liberal whites racists. And they vehemently deny that.
But the worst of the jerks out there are those conservatives who continue with the non-denial denials about death panels. John Meacham has a good intro to this week's Newsweek, "I Was a Teen Aged Death Panelist." I just do not believe how these people treat end of life issues! You would have thought that the travesty that was the end of Terry Schiavo's life would have had people re-think the issue.
Near the end of my mother's life she was asking everyone she could to get her drugs to end her life. She couldn't walk, hear very well, see very well, the use of her hands was limited, and she was in almost constant pain. I cried and told her I couldn't do anything for her. It was heart wrenching. Eventually she asked her home health care worker. The medical system then, all of four years ago, responded by hospitalizing her for depression. I was livid at her doctor. The only quality she had in her life was knowing that she was at home, the familiar smells and images. And they took that away from her! Sadly, they were not able to cure her of her depression, her "suicidal tendencies" before the stroke relieved her pain.
These end of life issues need to be addressed. There was little I could do then. Just as there was little I could do this morning when a beautiful 34 year old woman whom I love dearly said, "If you really loved me you would make the pain stop." I cried, caressed the few parts of her body that don't ache, and told her I couldn't. All I could do was pour her another shot of Jameson's. I want her around forever, and I want her to feel no pain. And I can't have both wishes. And we could truly use some end of life counseling. Unfortunately, because of her preexisting condition, she has no insurance.
Joe Scarborough is constantly telling me that seventy some percent of Americans are happy with their health insurance. Fucking good for them!
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