de'ja' vu

When a cousin shared this video with me, I thought it was as topical and relevant today as when it was first produced a half century ago. I wish it had focused more on the hazards of blindly following any absolute "ism," ranging from socialism and communism all the way to.....yes, capitalism. I believe our society remains among the best in the world, but it requires keeping informed and engaged in our communities.

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History Calls

Certain words or phrases have a way of collecting baggage that causes us to embrace or reject the concepts they represent. Such seems to be the case in the current din about health care reform. Good neighbor Lorraine Collins offers her views on this timely topic.

Quite a few years ago a friend told me that the last ten days of her mother’s life cost a quarter of a million dollars. She was in anguish as she told me this, not only because of the financial burden, but because the last ten days of her mother’s life were not improved by this huge expenditure. She was either unconscious or suffering during the entire time. It was cruel for everybody, and there should have been some way to prevent this from happening.

These days we know about living wills and powers of attorney for health care, and when we go to a doctor’s office or the hospital we may see pamphlets dealing with end of life issues. In fact, if we sign up with a new clinic or are admitted to the hospital we may be asked whether we have drawn up some kind of end of life document giving our preferences about how to treat us in the final extremity. This is not exactly a radical idea.

This is why I was so outraged by people who appear to object to any health care reform talking about “death panels”, trying to scare us oldsters about how the government wants to more or less send us out on ice floes into the Arctic Sea to get rid of us because we cost a lot of money.

Elderly people generally do cost a lot of money. One reason Medicare is predicted to be in financial straits is that the dread Baby Boomer generation is about to become old enough to qualify for it. So, what do you think we should do about this situation, other than having the government convene death panels deciding who gets that extra week of life and who doesn’t?

Well, health care reform might be a good idea. It may even take care of other problems, such as the millions of people with no health insurance, the millions who show up at emergency rooms to be treated by hospitals whether they ever get reimbursed or not, the millions who go bankrupt because of medical expenses. By now, if we don’t know the statistics, we must have been living in a cave next to Osama Bin Laden, who, so far as we know, has no health care insurance plan other than an AK47. The statistics tell us we have the most expensive health care in the world, but leave the largest number of citizens without health care. We are a society that relies on rummage sales and chili feeds organized by neighbors to help people pay for the cancer treatment or the operation or the rehab after a tragic accident. We are a society that says if you have a job that provides affordable health insurance, you’re lucky, and if you lose your job, well, good luck.

There are a whole lot of problems with the current way we deal, or fail to deal with health care problems in the United States, and you must have heard of some of them by now. For instance: the lack of preventative care so small problems don’t become big ones; a lack of primary care physicians who aren’t reimbursed as handsomely as specialists; paying doctors on the basis of how many procedures are done, which encourages more procedures; defensive medicine that requires more tests than necessary to protect from malpractice suits.

Health care reform in the United States is a very complicated, long overdue and extremely necessary process for us to undergo. Our nation will go broke, to heck in a hand basket without it. We don’t need scare tactics, or lies, or TV ads by those who make money in health care. We need a patriotic, compassionate and rational discussion. As Republican Senator Olympia Snow said last week, “When history calls, history calls.”

For heaven’s sake, lets answer the phone.

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Our thanks to Spearfish writer Lorraine Collins.

An American's Creed

Some folks may remember seeing this "American's Creed" in Reader's Digest in the 1950s, or reading it -- as I did -- in their local newspaper.

Chadron (Nebr) Record publisher Don Huls printed the item in almost every edition, sometimes on the front page. I suspect it was a creed to which he ardently adhered. It was originally penned by one Dean Alfange, a lawyer and educator, who also dabbled in politics. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Alfange reportedly grew up in New York state and served in World War I. He earned his law degree at Columbia University.

The creed continues to be a point of contention between liberals and conservatives as they try to shout one another down. Its message still resonates well after more than half a century.

The $25 million jailhouse

Congressional strategies to win favor for “stimulus” monies as a way to solve our economic woes have met with mixed results. Doubtless there has been some success; otherwise, we suspect there’d be a whole lot more hoopla over the insanity of spending money that we don't have. This wrong-headed strategy arose last fall in an effort to “jump start” the economy by spending enormous amounts of money – trying to rejuvenate the stock markets and get people back to work.

Well, since the Treasury Department prints it, we’d have to concede that the money’s there. But so is the debt……and it’ll be there for generations to come.

One of the real casualties of this fiasco is common sense, which has been smothered by the availability of TARP funds. When you and I overspend the family budget and realize that we’re in a world of hurt, common sense tells us that it’s not time to go out and buy a new car. But that's the kind of logic employed by the administration and Congress.

By spreading the money around – everything from the "Clunkers" program to public works projects – Congress has deflected much of the criticism that they really deserve.

Take, for example, the $25 million grant for a jail on the Rosebud Reservation here in South Dakota. I suspect that closer scrutiny of the project would result in determining that there is questionable need for such a facility – at least, not $25 million. And already, tribal officials express concern that they may not have enough money to operate the facility!

There are real needs in our American Indian communities, but this “economic stimulus” fiasco would be easier to stomach if it were for a facility focused on education and training – one with a thoughtful road map and the funds necessary to operate it.

But both on and off the reservations, it seems easier to just take the money – pat yourself on the back for getting it – and ignoring both common sense…… and future generations. They’re the ones who’ll have to pay for it.

I used to avoid writing about the economy lest it becomes obvious that I don’t fully understand it. However, it’s become painfully clear that Congress and many government bureaucrats don’t have a clue either.