Friday Peace Vigil, Youngstown, OH, and surrounding area:

PEACE VIGIL
YOUNGSTOWN, OH
Friday, July 1, 2011
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Courthouse at 125 Market St.

Ray Nakley (330-506-1999) and Ron Dull (330-518-9881) will hold their weekly Peace Vigil this Friday, July 1, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Courthouse at 125 Market St., Youngstown, OH. They invite anyone who is interested in showing their support for ending conflict in the world to join them. Hold out positive thoughts for that!

This week:

I’m kind of busy around here trying to wrap up several things this summer to get us ready for Jim’s retirement from full-time work in the fall. We have several things on the to-do list in just three months, then it’s going to be good to have him around here more often. Fortunately, there’s little chance that we’ll get to be like those couples where the wife wants the husband to find something to do so he’ll get out of the house and out of her hair. He’s got his painting and his computer drafting, I’ve got my writing, and we plan on spending some shared time trying to get our home in shape, for the first time since we moved in four years ago. About time!

Meanwhile, let’s all send out our most positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers to support and benefit all those suffering in so many parts of the world!

Don’t put them off. Get tested for colon and breast cancer.

After my struggle over the last couple of months trying to obtain proper medication for my ongoing medical conditions, I’m happy to say I finally had a great experience with a medical test that no one looks forward to but everyone should eventually have done. Yes, this week I had a colonoscopy.

With a history of colon cancer in my family, I’ve made sure my husband and I have had regular colonoscopies since we turned 50. Since we’re anesthetized for the procedure--not to mention the prep process, which doctors admit causes a certain “discomfort”--we have to schedule our tests a week apart so we can be each other’s driver for the trip home afterward. That’s why Jim’s test will be next week. We’ll both be delighted when we can stop worrying about our insides for another few years, depending on the results of Jim’s test.

And while I’m at it, the same advice applies to regular mammograms. With breast cancer in my family too, I’ve been getting that procedure done every year since I was in my early 40s. At least there’s no prep involved for this rather simple procedure. I just have to show up for the test, and any “discomfort” only lasts a few seconds at a time. Besides, if you want real discomfort, just ignore these handy tests and see how bad it feels to deal with either of these terrible diseases.

So, if you’re 50 years old (possibly as young as 40 for mammograms), have a family history of colon and/or breast cancer, or have suspicious symptoms, talk to your doctor about getting a colonoscopy and/or mammogram. I can’t deny that these tests involve a certain “discomfort,” but it’s definitely worth the peace of mind you’ll have when the doctor says everything’s clear and you don’t have to bother with the test again for a while. No excuses. Get checked!

Friday Peace Vigil, Boardman, OH, and surrounding area:

PEACE VIGIL
BOARDMAN, OH
Friday, June 24, 2011
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Boardman Canfield Rd. (Rte. 224) and Glenwood

Ray Nakley (330-506-1999) and Ron Dull (330-518-9881) will hold their weekly Peace Vigil this Friday, June 24, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at Boardman Canfield Rd. (Rte. 224) and Glenwood, Boardman, OH. They invite anyone who is interested in showing their support for ending conflict in the world to join them. Hold out positive thoughts for that!

This week:

I’ve been concentrating on another health issue this week, which I’ll explain in my next posting later today. At least this one turned out more happily than my other recent medical adventures. It’s about time I had a bit of good health news!

Meanwhile, let’s all send out our most positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers to support and benefit all those suffering in so many parts of the world!

Repeal Obamacare? Over my dead body!

Actually, in the title above I reversed the order of potential events. A recent battle convinced me this dire prediction isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the back story:

I’m sick. Really sick. I’ve dealt with serious illness all my life. I don’t usually mention it, except when it comes up naturally in conversation, I need accommodation for my condition, or it’s relevant to my writing about the economic necessity for the country to provide comprehensive and preventive health care for everyone without exception.

My experience shows the profit-driven medical industry is irreparably broken. That’s why I’m sharing this account of my latest conflict with Big Business. The problem occurred because of two factors:

• The few drugs I take are vital for my survival. Previously, doctors gave me other drugs, but serious reactions proved I’m taking the best, safest drugs for my combination of conditions.
• I have an extreme allergy to the chemical food dyes--red, yellow, blue, green--that make pills pretty. Two years ago, I took two colored pills one at a time almost two months apart and landed in ICU for two days.

That’s why I’m so careful about drugs. No pretty pills. One drug comes in capsules, but I transfer it to clear gelatin capsules purchased separately. The process is tedious, but it beats ICU.

My sensitivity began gradually years ago until it became life-threatening. I’m well aware another exposure could send me straight to that windowless basement room with refrigerated compartments. That’s why I’ll never eat another bite of food or take another pill that’s pretty enough to die for.

Meanwhile, drug companies are cutting product lines, so it’s hard to find certain medications; insurance companies designate where clients can purchase drugs; and people like me get caught in the vise. Two months ago our designated mail-order supplier (which I’ll call MO, for convenience) informed me generic capsules were unavailable and my “choices” were pretty-colored tablets. When I explained tablets are verboten, I was told to find a source myself.

I contacted the manufacturer that produces the brand drug in capsule form. When I called MO back, I learned they only buy drugs through authorized suppliers. No exceptions. After two months they finally said my local pharmacy could order the brand drug, but when my drug store did that, MO denied payment.

Then someone at MO sent me a bottle of pretty blue pills! My initial reaction was that they were so tired of hearing my complaints, they wanted me to take the pills and die! Then they wouldn’t have to hear from me again.

When I called MO about it, I mentioned the “poison” pills often. Finally, MO said my local pharmacy could request an override of the payment denial. Finally! Of course, now I have to pay five times as much each month as I used to pay every three months. Meanwhile, MO did charge for those poison pills, and they’ve made no attempt to pay it back or credit our account.

But there’s a bright light ahead. My husband is retiring soon. Medicare and supplemental policies allow greater choice, including our local pharmacy’s mail-order service. They were our provider several years ago, and their customer service is superb. We can’t wait.

This experience demonstrates two vital points:

• Just as with all battles I’ve had to wage to obtain diagnoses and care, the time and energy I spent on this quest for a simple but necessary treatment has made me sicker and kept me from doing my real work.
• The only way to correct our fractured medical industry is to establish a universal single-payer health care system in which anyone may choose any provider and all providers must adhere to a national standard of care and serve each individual’s medical needs.

If I hadn’t had to spend so much time and energy researching, educating, and fighting for every little thing I needed for my care over the years, I wouldn’t be as sick as I am today. And my experiences are not unique. Numerous reports indicate this kind of thing, and worse, occurs to thousands of people all over the country.

We must stop wasting human resources and start helping everyone enjoy the most productive lives possible. Instead of repealing Obamacare, Congress should improve it and expand coverage to everyone in the country.

Friday Peace Vigil, Youngstown, OH, and surrounding area:

PEACE VIGIL
YOUNGSTOWN, OH
Friday, June 17, 2011
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Elm St. and Madison Ave. (near YSU)

Ray Nakley (330-506-1999) and Ron Dull (330-518-9881) will hold their weekly Peace Vigil this Friday, June 17, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at Elm St. and Madison Ave. (near YSU), Youngstown, OH. They invite anyone who is interested in showing their support for ending conflict in the world to join them. Hold out positive thoughts for that!

This week:

Recently, I’ve been going through what turned out to be a traumatic struggle to be able to continue the correct treatment for one of my medical conditions. Sadly, my experience is not unique. It’s also not the only such fight I’ve had to wage in the decades I’ve been dealing with chronic illnesses. The scariest thing is that problems like this will continue to occur as long as corporations continue to have the power to make decisions that put profit ahead of patient needs. I’m not quite ready to finish writing the report I feel compelled to share in order to educate people about what’s going on. When I’ve reached the end of this particular battle, I’ll try to put it all together as a first-person report. Watch this space. I hope I can get to that step soon!

Meanwhile, let’s all send out our most positive thoughts and, for those who are believers, prayers to support and benefit all those suffering in so many parts of the world!

Friday Peace Vigil, Salem, OH, and surrounding area:

PEACE VIGIL
SALEM, OH
Friday, June 10, 2011
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Giant Eagle Plaza, 2401 E. State St.

Ray Nakley (330-506-1999) and Ron Dull (330-518-9881) will hold their weekly Peace Vigil this Friday, June 10, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at Giant Eagle Plaza, 2401 E. State St., Salem, OH. They invite anyone who is interested in showing their support for ending conflict in the world to join them. Hold out positive thoughts for that!

Ignorance and Want: Why Dickens Wrote “A Christmas Carol”

Years ago, families gathered round the fireplace at Christmastime to read “A Christmas Carol” aloud. Now they sit around the wide-screen HD TV to watch one of the myriad dramatizations of the book Charles Dickens wrote so long ago.

The story has been recycled so often that most new versions are updated satires of other-worldly adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge. No longer viewed as a serious parable of social corruption and redemption, the drama has been so eroded, it’s become a sanitized fairy tale. Many versions don’t even feature two of the most critical characters in the book: the children hidden beneath the robes of the second of three Spirits Jacob Marley foretells.

Though Dickens wrote the book to educate people about the dangerous influence of greed, the lesson people generally take away is nothing of the sort. Instead of changing attitudes toward poor people, his seminal work sparked renewed interest in ancient traditions of secular holiday celebrations that had been ignored since the days of Puritan asceticism.

People still believe the story encourages seasonal materialism. They think Dickens wanted us to exchange expensive presents and binge on Christmas dinner. They forget that besides treating the Cratchit family to gifts and goose, Scrooge raised Bob’s wages and promised to pay for his family’s medical needs, with the wretched Tiny Tim being the first beneficiary. He also swore that as long as he was alive, the Cratchits would never again be poor.

The real lesson of Dickens’ story is that employers and governments must ensure the well-being of workers in exchange for their labors. Instead, companies and politicians are doing all they can to cut wages, medical benefits, and retirement funds, and politicians pass laws that minimize corporate responsibility when workers are injured or killed in dangerous work environments. They eagerly cut benefits for people in the middle and lower classes in order to enhance the financial standing of people who are already wealthy.

Dickens must have been sorely disappointed that little had changed for the working poor by the time he died 26 years after publishing the book. Indeed, he’d be just as sad if he were resurrected today and learned that for the past three decades, corporations and politicians have been eagerly reversing so many of the hard-won rights and benefits that were established for workers, one by one, throughout most of the 20th century.

That’s why I’m suggesting we revive a Dickens tradition, with a twist. Rather than watching endless TV reruns of this classic story each December, I’d like to hear the book being read by groups of people in public places around the country. One venue could be Wall Street, that center of commerce and greed which spawned the economic meltdown that spread across oceans and borders throughout the world.

The headquarters of major banks would be significant locations, as would statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, and any other states where conservative governors and lawmakers are stripping away rights from hard-working people. I know there are so many other significant locales where people could gather with friends and loved ones to read this moving story.

And the biggest twist of all: Besides volunteers taking turns reading, at least one girl and one boy, dressed in rags, could listen to the story being read aloud. When a reader comes to the point where the second Ghost reveals the hidden waifs dubbed “Ignorance” and “Want,” one boy and one girl could stand up to represent these symbols of our social failures.

These two youngsters could have signs hung around their little necks identifying their roles. More children could stand with signs reading “fear,” “oppression,” “war,” and any number of other conditions that mark the worst abuses of society. Children could even choose their own “names” or other relevant social messages.

Finally, I’d love to see a slew of videos posted on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, even news i-reports pages, showing that the next generation is finally beginning to understand the lesson Charles Dickens hoped to teach the world nearly two centuries ago.

Perhaps if we start early enough to spread the word about this simple plan, something might actually come of it when the holiday season rolls around. It would be a truly blessed thing to see people finally begin to understand how Scrooge really “knew how to keep Christmas well” throughout the year and for the rest of his natural life.

When will Weiner’s weiner story deflate?

This morning, a news anchor asked a bipartisan panel how long the collective media would continue to cover the issue of Representative Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) tweeted “naughty” picture. Since the guy in the middle, both literally on the panel and politically, often finds the funny in the serious, I was holding my breath, hoping he’d be the one to state the obvious. But again, everybody’s missing the best joke in this pun fest:

How long will Congressman Weiner’s tweeted picture continue to be news?

I don’t know, but if it lasts more than four hours, they should see a doctor.

Bah-dum-DUM!

Sorry, but this story just cries out for sassy remarks. In fact, it’s really a non-story. Even “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” have probably run their course on this one. Let’s get back to some real news and forget about Congressman Tony’s bony . . . uh . . . sorry, couldn’t help myself!

Anyway, here’s why people should let it go and get back to the real world:

• Whatever happened did not rise to the level of a crime, so most of the questions being asked are beyond the scope of anybody’s right to know.
• Congressman Weiner has assured everyone he did not send the photo. Unless further evidence proves otherwise, we should take him at his word and get on to more substantial issues.
• Instead of leaving the issue at that, reporters keep asking him if the picture was actually a photo of his “men’s business,”as Craig Ferguson is wont to say. Instead of responding with yea or nay, Weiner says he has no idea and he has people looking into the issue. That is exactly the point where everyone has gone beyond the bounds of decency.
• It’s important to remember that Weiner is a healthy 46-year-old man who married for the first time only last year, at the age of 44. It’s doubtful he was a virgin upon his marriage, which of course, is very much his business. Since his premarital activities never rose to the level of public scandal, anything he did in private is none of our business.

That’s exactly why no one now has the right to ask where the picture might have come from or whose “equipment” it might be. The only point at issue now is who sent it, and that’s something the news media and the public might never know, or need to.

And guess what? The sun will still come up tomorrow. The tides will come in and go out. The world will continue to spin on its axis. And people are still dying in wars and from hunger and thirst.

That is what we should all be concentrating on from now on.

End of story.

Friday Peace Vigil, Youngstown, OH, and surrounding area:

PEACE VIGIL
YOUNGSTOWN, OH
Friday, June 3, 2011
4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Courthouse, 120 Market St.

Ray Nakley (330-506-1999) and Ron Dull (330-518-9881) will hold their weekly Peace Vigil this Friday, June 3, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Courthouse, 120 Market St., Youngstown, OH. They invite anyone who is interested in showing their support for ending conflict in the world to join them. Hold out positive thoughts for that!

Personal: This week I'm still busy at those little life chores, but I'm hoping to get past all those distracting things on the personal agenda and back to tackling more of my writing that I can post here. It'll happen, if I just keep at it. Meanwhile, at least I enjoy posting weekly notices of the Peace Vigils that our winter friend, Tony Fasline, and his friends are involved in while he's summering in Ohio. Good to know people all over the country are continuing to work for a better world than the one we have now Pray for the end of poverty and war all over the planet.