My column Feb 10

Editor: Reset Mindset

I am on my local school board and on my BOCES board. It’s Budget Season and we are trying to crunch numbers that we made crumbs of last year. We have heard from our accountants, auditors, legislators, and lobbyists that the scarcity of state funding we face is bad, will be much worse next year when stimulus money is gone, and may never get better.

At every legislative conference we discuss unfunded mandates, what state, federal, local, or NYSED law tells us we have to provide to our students and schools but does not give us a bag of gold to pay for. Unfunded mandates are misnamed: they are indeed funded, in NY by our property taxes. I cannot explain in 500 or 5000 words the fairness or efficacy of education funding but do think it is time for smart people to come up with some better ideas. In my district we lost out on grants to decrease class size because we already had small classes. Now, that is about the only place we can look for savings. Meanwhile, we are required to have a principal in every school building.

I believe small classes are good for kids. I believe teachers should make enough to be middle class. I believe music, art, and phys ed should be taught by specifically trained and certified teachers and that these subjects are critically important in child development. I don’t believe it is a good thing to return to what I experienced: overcrowded classrooms, special subjects taught by a classroom teacher with a tambourine, a jump rope, and construction paper, disabled children imprisoned in state hospitals.

I remember my 5th grade teacher: she looked 75. There were 40 kids in the room and they gave her an assistant in the afternoon. She would send one of us to the water fountain with a paper cup, take 2 aspirins, and fall asleep at her desk. I recall her wispy white wig slipping down over her forehead but that can’t have really happened, can it? The classroom mayhem was not educational and I hope we never return to an era when teachers cannot afford to retire.

The PTA issue here is what we are experiencing in our units. Our cash strapped schools expect us to come up with money for computers, books, field trips, playgrounds, receptions, awards, music competition registrations, band instruments, sheet music, prom parties, yearbooks, photographs, honor society, team uniforms, band uniforms, and on and on. None of these is essential for our kids’ education and all of them enrich their lives. None of these are appropriately provided by the PTA and most of them at one time or another are. PTA is a cash cow and should not be.

Meanwhile, membership is down everywhere.

At Founders Day, we played parlor games. One of the games consisted of a quiz to determine personality type. The types were given the name of a color. I was green: bossy, action oriented, always right. We met in groups by color and had to come up with a story. The green team’s story: Some day there will be a PTA that advocates for children, educates parents, and isn’t a bank. The End. What if we all stuck to the Three-to-One rule: one fundraiser for 3 PTA mission-oriented programs? We would get volunteer speakers, we would give 40 people coffee and cookies, we would stop buying a mug and meal for every appreciated teacher every year. We would have to raise $600 per year. The parents complaining about sending $3.50 per person to State and National PTA and clamoring for a PTO could run their own candle sales to fund the playground and the other programs the school should pay for and deal with the liability on their own. And to learn leadership and advocacy, what parenting is about, the importance of arts in education and good health, and community involvement, the PTO parents would join PTA.

From The Beacon, the newsletter of Western Region PTA. Copyright 2010.

My column: The Beacon, November 2009

Thanksgiving

This is my first Thanksgiving without my parents. I know that losing one’s parents as an old lady is not as hard as losing them as a young one. Nevertheless, I feel sort of orphaned.

My parents won’t be tasting my turkey this year. Thanksgiving has always been my family’s favorite holiday. We used to celebrate with another family: a couple my parents became friends with when they were wild and young and on their own in NYC. When the other couple died, their kids inherited the job of family elders but our Thanksgiving tradition did not survive the passing of their parents or the pressures of marriage in the age of divorce.

September 1998, my Mom was diagnosed with lung cancer and, expecting her to be a goner, I insisted on getting a day off on Thanksgiving Friday to travel to make what I thought would be the last turkey cooked under her supervision. (I checked the turkey through carry-on at the airport. I still like to imagine what they thought that child-sized critter in the suitcase was. The age of packing pureed squash in a tote bag is gone. You can’t get more than 2 servings in a quart size zip bag.) Although the past decade has been difficult, my brothers and I and our families have enjoyed many jolly Thanksgivings since then. Ten grandchildren will remember their grandparents: old, at home, eating solid food, driving.

So my Dad died in the spring of 2008 and my Mom made it to the new year of 2009. They outlived their parents by a lot. My parents were great advocates for civil rights and they would have been so thrilled to see the inauguration of a man of color. They were rabid Yankees fans and would have loved this year’s world series. But they became old folks and had they lived, they would now be prisoners of economic fear. They would also have been terrified of catching H1N1 from one of the grandchildren. They were spared that fear.

So what am I thankful for? I have never seen children so ill with flu as I have seen this year, now that I am working part time at Children’s again. Healthy 15 year olds come in with fever and cough and in 1 day, their lungs fill up with whatever it is that makes an xray white. The worst off wind up on a ventilator and the worst of those die.

In my school district, 50% of the kids were absent with “flu-like” illnesses. (The CDC reported one case of confirmed ordinary seasonal flu from April to November. Anyone with a “flu-like illness” in our neighborhood has the H1N1 flu.) None of our kids in my school district were hospitalized. None of them ended up with ruined lungs. None of them died.

When you consider that there might have been 50,000 kids with H1N1 in Western NY, I give thanks this year that so few became gravely ill. And I am so terribly sorry for the ones who did.

Be thankful for small joys.

Editor.

Copyright Western Region PTA

Forum: Do physicians have a role in forming public opinion about health care reform?

As a radiologist, I greatly benefit from the current system. Every day I read xrays that are unnecessary, ordered by paranoid midlevels and primary care docs who can't afford to spend 30 minutes with their patients finding out what is really the matter. I get comfortable on the MRIs and CTs and petCTs ordered by oncologists every 3 months for 85 year old patients who should refuse further treatment. Meanwhile, the same old folks are paying $300/month for essential cardiac drugs (or not filling their scrips because of the cost) and I cannot get an appointment for a checkup or mammogram because all the smart kids went into fetal psychiatric oncology or finance.

A sensible single payer national health plan would get me a primary doc who has the time to listen to my little complaints, pay for my essential meds, and make me more likely to seek help when I am thinking my problems are too trivial to bother with.

My neighbors are all 1 illness away from the poorhouse and I care about them. We on earth are a community of neighbors. Life is more fun when we look after each other. Those who do not feel this way are missing out on a great part of being a human.

I want single payer government run health care

Pelosi Agrees to Allow a Vote on Single-Payer

Source: www.allgov.com

After angering the liberal wing of her party over compromises made to conservative Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has decided to allow a floor vote later this year on a plan creating a single-payer government-financed health care program.



SO I POSTED THIS ON FACEBOOK AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED:

My friend K posted:

As far as I understand it, this type of system is not working in other countries and we lose our freedom to pay for services that are not covered under the proposed plan.

And I said:

In Canada, France, and other countries, the total health care bill is 1/2 of ours, they live longer, are healthier, and provide coverage for rich and poor alike. What services are you looking for that you fear might not be covered? I believe there are no essential ones.

And K said:

The people that I know that live in Canada come here for services because there is a long waiting list to have procedures done. I am concerned about this. As for the services that are not covered...that is not what I mean. Now, people can opt to pay for an MRI if their insurance does not cover it because a doctor will not authorize it. As I understand it, we will no longer have that option. I think freedom of choice is important in our society. I am trying to learn more about the proposed plan.

And I replied:

We currently have the freedom to pay for services that are not covered by our insurance, including our medications. Many people cannot afford their medications, which easily run $300/month for common conditions such as heart trouble.

And:

In addition, very few of us can afford to pay out of pocket for a lung transplant although we certainly do have the "freedom" to pay for services that private insurance might not cover. Having the freedom to pay for services means little to those without the money to buy even minimal coverage.

And:

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," words and lyrics by Kris Kristofferson made famous by Janis Joplin.

And K said:

I believe that people should be covered, but I do not think the government should be in the business of healthcare, auto industry and banking. We are becoming a socialized government, and that is NOT what the founding founders meant us to be, nor a society that I want to live in. I work hard for my money and I do not think that I should have to pay for insurance for those less fortunate. I guess we will agree to disagree.

And I said:

We pay health bills for our elderly. Is that socialism?

And K said:

The government takes my income to help pay for that. I do not like that either - however it was one thing they did. Now they are trying to take over many aspects of our lives...that is socialism.

And I:

They torture and kill with my money. Better to employ and heal.

And K:

You have a point there...



Wow. I feel like I won an argument for the first time in my life. I sure hope K never has to find out how really crappy her health insurance can be.

My friends are mostly Christians. I really wonder what they are hearing in church. It doesn't resemble Christianity, that's for sure. Of course my friend Gordon is a Christian too. He is in Honduras donating his time to provide medical care to the poor as he has done year after year.

The photo

This photo of me is interesting. Not because it is one of so very few (like all but the vain and starved, I think or know that I look horrid in photos) but because of the photoshopping I did. The hand on my right shoulder belongs to............Eliot Spitzer. The photo is from a long ago time when deluded Democrats were proud to have their picture taken with our wonderful governor-elect. How far they fall!!!

My vacation

So I am on "vacation" this week. So far I have done the quarterly NYS employer taxes, no help from their so called online filing which took 2 hours and wouldn't complete (they said it was because I was using Firefox, but when I tried IE it was worse), tidied the house for a party/meeting of the PTA (Harry: the living room table has NO magazines on it), WASHED MY CAR FOR GOD'S SAKE (if you make rain by washing your car, will I make a tornado as I have never been known to wash a car?), taken 100 lbs of paper to the Abitibi box at the school, put in 5 hours moving wood chips to the amazing new elementary school playground, done the PTA treasurer thing, sent Mom&Dad mail to my brother, withdrawn $ from nysaves and sent it to GWU to pay for the 2nd to last undergraduate college bill, called the phone company in Vermont, called IHA to get my gym debit card, filled my scripts, gone to the gym 3 times, and hosted 12 people at our PTA party/dinner. Next: 3 days of PTA camp in Utica!!!!!!!!!

Oh I forgot: I cleaned the inside of my car as well. I didn't find anything I needed there, unless you count the Canadian money. You folks who occasionally ride with me will be happy to know the (brand new) kitty litter is no longer in the car. I did find 3 right hand black winter gloves. Good thing I am right handed. (Hmmm...) Can anyone tell me how you get the streaks off the car? I have no experience with this. I washed with Calgon DW liquid in hot water, which worked really well on the bug carcasses.

So tonight I again tried to get movies of my water snake but again failed. I walked along the edge of the pond running my Flip hoping to get a picture of a frog jumping in. I have a nice audio of plops, screeches, and tractor noise but didn't get a single frog in the picture.

Now it's time to make dinner but since I have all the party leftovers, I can just chill. Wondrous!!

Next vacation: clean the oven. Can't wait.

Al Franken

So what's up with the cuntservative pundits? They think Al Franken somehow stole an election. Will they ever stop epitheting Franken as "comedian" or "SNL comic" and just give it up to Senator Franken? I always thought that Reagan was the functional actor who knew how to act the part of president of the US. Did he actually know anything about foreign or domestic policy? At least Al Franken graduated from Harvard. By itself that puts him way beyond Reagan in qualifying for public office.