#175 – Dick Bernard: The Nuns, the Bishops and Rome

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Teaching Nuns at Sykeston ND ca 1960


In the weeks just past the Catholic Hospital Association and a coalition of Catholic Nuns, leaders of their orders, basically changed the conversation on the Health Care Reform legislation by coming out in support of the Health Care Reform proposal which passed tonight.
On the other hand, the Catholic Bishops and Rome didn’t have a particularly good week last week.
I’m a lifelong Catholic, and an active one. Personal circumstances years ago have made me a pro-choice Catholic. I spent my first six school years in Catholic grade schools, and in the years since I’ve had some great friends who are, and who were, Sisters. I offer my own thoughts, from my own experience.
Statistics indicate that perhaps one-fourth of the population of the United States might be Catholic. I’m always intrigued by this statistic: I wonder how they arrive at these numbers.
But, assuming that it’s true, three-fourths of the population has no reason to care or understand how the Catholic Church works. Most Catholics don’t either. I’ve had an interest in the topic for years, and even after years of seeking, I have only an imperfect understanding of the topic of “the Church”.
Nuns – also called Sisters, and Religious – were a huge influence during my growing up years. They were our parents during the school day, if we were attending Catholic Schools. We lived with them, in small towns and large. They are the stuff of legend.
I never had a bad experience with Nuns (nor with Priests, but that’s a different story). Nuns were our every day teachers, counselors, disciplinarians. They were powerful people, in our eyes. So we remember them. They never had easy conditions. They had large classes, often more than one grade, and I don’t recall one of them being sick – at least no calling in sick!
Priests were not nearly as visible or as truly influential (they don’t appear in my title for a reason). Altar Boys (one of which I was in my youth) had a closer connection. The mysterious Bishop was the real “father”, who came by once a year for confirmation, and one time in one’s adolescence a kid might have a personal moment with the Bishop, when the Bishop asked some softball question about the Catholic Catechism. The Pope and Rome were a picture on the wall: in my day, it was Pope Pius XII.
In Catholic Hospitals, it was the Nuns who were the “boots on the ground” folks. In most cases they established and staffed the hospitals, and helped them grow into pillars of thousands of communities in this country and others. Hospitals and Catholic Nuns are virtually synonymous everywhere.
Without Catholic Nuns, there would not have been Catholic Hospitals; nor would there have been Catholic Schools. Nuns are largely elderly now, and they’re not being replaced. There are good reasons for this; when they are no longer around, they will be missed. Four of my great Nun friends have died in recent years; a fifth, near 90 now, no longer knows who I am. It is sad.
I’ve had extended conversations with Nuns from time to time over the years, and what is apparent is that the assorted orders of Nuns, while generally obedient to the Bishop and thus to Rome, are not necessarily subservient to the dictates of their local Bishop.
In the case at issue, health care reform, I think the tipping point for the Nuns was finally reached where the leaders of numerous orders of Catholic Nuns, as well as Catholic Hospitals, could no longer stay below the radar, and felt a need to speak out in favor of what was plainly needed by our society.
The Bishops took a strident and rigid position on a single aspect of the reform question, and allied themselves with others taking a strident position.
This led to a significant parting of the ways. For most of history, the orders of Nuns have stayed in the background, silent, doing their jobs. There could be an illusion that they were completely obedient.
(At times during the civil rights movement, they also violated the rules by participating in civil rights marches in the south, while the local Bishop specifically prohibited their participation. But this is one of the few times they’ve taken an overt stand.)
No one questions the respect for life these Nuns have.
For that matter, those of us who are pro-choice equally respect life.

#173 – Dick Bernard: Health Care Reform Round One – the last few days

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I write and will publish this post before I know what Rep. Dennis Kucinich says this morning. Except for correcting the usual punctuation and grammar maladies that affect an amateur writer, the content will remain identical. Any new content will be in a specific update.
Barring unforeseen calamity’s, Mr. Kucinich will have the spotlight on himself. It is a most desirable position for a politician.
Depending on what he says, and depending on the point of view of the person or constituency which wants to know his position, he will be a hero, an unsung hero, a goat, or irrelevant. (The unsung hero status will be reserved to his enemies, who hope he says heroic things advancing his own ideology, which can be useful to kill his objective on health care reform.)
Propaganda under any of its names (“spin” is a very common one) is always fascinating. I have been an amateur student of propaganda for many years, dating back to teaching junior high kids about advertising tactics in the late 1960s, to being an intended victim of propaganda in the early 1970s, to being formally taught about it in later years. I know how propaganda works, and how it feels.
Of course, speculation is rampant about what Kucinich will say. Whatever he says, doubtless partisans on all sides have primary and alternative messages already prepared, and roll them out, instantly.
As to the actual vote, whenever it happens, and whatever it is called, and however it happens, nobody knows absolutely for sure how it will go, since a number of Democrats are playing coy with their position. Last night Ezra Klein of the Washington Post observed that this is the normal lying that happens in advance of an important vote. This is the time, members reason, to attempt to extract this concession or that as the price of their vote. It is something of a dangerous game but it is just another proof that just because some legislator carries a label of this party or that, he or she is a free agent, hopefully voting correctly for a majority of his/her constituents as measured in the next election.
Rep. Kucinich is just one of 535, only with a little more spotlight at the moment, and a little more risk.
My personal prediction: Kucinich will say he’ll vote yes, but with a probably long list of expectations and demands. Health Care Reform Round One will ultimately pass House and Senate, and will be shown to be a major (if inadequate) improvement over what is, and will be a platform for future modifications.
Round Two is the November election, and we the people will be asked to decide our future course. My bet is that enough of us will respect the results of Round One, and the risks taken to pass it, that we will not choose to go back to the good old days.
Now I’ll see if I can find out what Kucinich said this morning…I publish at 10:06 a.m. CDT. Update will include a comment about the recent Michele Bachmann anti-Reform rallies in St. Paul and Washington.

#165 – Dick Bernard: the End Game for Health Care Reform

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NOTE TO READERS: I have had to disable the “comments” feature due to serious spam problems. My apologies. You can find my e-mail address on the “About” page of this site.
Over night came some poll numbers, purportedly from CNN, which show that 25% of Americans are in favor of the current Health Care Reform proposal; 73% apparently want it scrapped, and Congress to start over.
To the 73%: there could be nothing more ill-advised, or against your long-term interests, than for Congress to follow your own advice.
Over the past year I have followed the Health Care Reform issue about as carefully as it is possible for a “civilian” to do. I have written a lot about various aspects of the issue at this space (they are all gathered in the Health category accessible at right, beginning July 24, 2009). There are a great number of posts. This is an issue in which I have a deep and very personal interest (I have been on Medicare for a number of years).
Coming from a long career of representing (including negotiating for) people, I can fairly say that I know more than a little bit about short-sightedness, threats, fear and all of the negative aspects of any negotiation. People can be easily convinced to sell themselves out, and to attack the very people who are advocating for their long-term best interests.
This particular Health Care Reform negotiation, of perhaps the most complex topic imaginable for over 300,000,000 people, is well suited to fear-mongering, lying, misrepresentation, and on and on and on. I would guess that those in Congress (including many Republicans who dare not say so) know that deep reform of our Health Care and Insurance delivery system is essential, but are terrified of the consequences of voting for any version of it. It is too useful as a potent political ‘divide and conquer’ issue.
I hope and pray that the “American people” do NOT get what they apparently richly deserve, which is nothing. There will be no starting over, except for pitiful tinkering. The train will continue on the track to health care disaster for ever increasing numbers of us.
Of course, I have no idea why the 73% polled by CNN yesterday want to scrap the bill and start over.
I would guess that 73% includes a large percentage who don’t think the proposal goes far enough; and lots more who think it goes too far.
Then, there are lots and lots of people on Medicare and Social Security who, back when they were young, would have voted against both Medicare and Social Security (“socialist” programs, you know), but now are terrified that these “socialist” programs they have become accustomed to (and depend on) might be changed in some disadvantageous way to them. (As that woman railing against socialist medicine so famously said last summer: “don’t touch my Medicare“.)
There are some who believe that reform will unleash a swarm of baby-killers, killing fetuses with abandon. A lie, but a saleable one. And many, all of whom should know better, believe the “death panel” mythology that has been trumpeted loudly (and quietly) along the way.
And some who think it’s no problem: they’re young, healthy, have good benefits at work.
Meanwhile, life goes on its merry, uncertain way.
Tuesday – two days ago – was the last day at work for my 45 year old son-in-law. Laid off from his corporate job. Single parent. Ten year old son.
I asked his Mom, my spouse, what he’d be doing for medical insurance. She’s not sure. He’s probably okay for a month or two or three, but unless he gets very, very lucky, he and his son will soon be joining the ranks of the tens of millions of uninsured in this country. He can only hope he doesn’t get sick.
Bottom line for me: the people who vote against Health Care Reform, even the inadequate bill that will ultimately be voted on, deserve to never serve in Congress again.

#152 – Dick Bernard: Who deserves medical care? A personal experience.

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Recently I attended a greatly informative information meeting on the realities about, and need for, Universal Health Care. The meeting was facilitated by the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition.
The experience led me to recall my own personal history, which was published as a column in today’s edition of the Woodbury (MN) Bulletin. The column follows:
Forty-five years ago this month my wife, not yet 22, was actively engaged in the very difficult work of dying. Our first child was not yet one year old. We lived in a tiny apartment in the small town in western North Dakota where I was teaching school.
Barbara, who had kidney disease, was too weak to take care of her son; she was in the hospital about as much as she was at home. I took our son to the babysitter each morning.
At the end of May, 1965, I came home to pick up some materials I had forgotten, and found Barbara unconscious on the floor. I carried her down the stairs to the car, drove her to the local hospital, where she was transferred immediately to the hospital in Bismarck.
She had no alternative, they said, but to have a kidney transplant.
We had no insurance.
Finally University Hospital admitted her; she was there for almost two months, and she died July 24, 1965, leaving me with a year old son and medical debts equal to almost four times my to-be teacher salary.
I was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy, but was saved by North Dakota Public Welfare which agreed to pay the University Hospital portion of the bill; and by one hospital which forgave my bill with them. When it was all over, I owed about a year’s salary worth of bills, which then became manageable.
Six days after she died, two days after she was buried, Medicare was signed into Law, July 30, 1965.
To me, that government action was totally irrelevant, then.
Years and years have passed, and now I’m well into my Medicare years, and, if anything, over-insured with things like Long Term Care insurance, hoping that I have the right coverage. Unlike most, I can afford this luxury.
Back then in 1963, two weeks out of the Army and in a new job and in a new marriage, I passed on signing up for Blue Cross coverage so, somebody can say, it was my fault we were uninsured. Truth be told, even then, knowing what I know now, my wife would have been excluded due to an unknown (to us) pre-existing condition. The kidney disease did not manifest until shortly after I declined to sign up for the insurance.
I look at the current health care debate, the information and the abundant misinformation, through the lens of my own past. It is, I guess, a luxury that I have.
Now there’s group insurance – for the fortunate; and because of government foresight in the same year my wife died, Medicare for we fortunate elders.
There is absolutely no excuse for us to quibble and squabble over who deserves to be insured in this still wealthy country of ours. It is – or it should be – a basic and equal human right for every one of us, no questions asked.
At minimum, our kids and grandkids, faced with greater future uncertainties than we had to face, deserve our foresight more than our selfishness.
I urge you to learn more, and truly dialogue more, about this most critical issue. An excellent source of information is www.muhcc.org, a group dedicated to moving us from a patchwork and unfair system of health care, to more universal care. Doubtless there are other sources of information, but this is a place to start.

#139 – Dick Bernard: Part II Real Time Health Care in the U.S. from another perspective

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Part I, yesterday’s post, turned out to be a very positive experience. The exam revealed nothing worthy of note – the next appointment in five years. Everything was very efficient and the five medical staff who worked with me were very friendly, from the person who checked me in, to the doctor who did the procedure. The bill, when it comes, will be paid by someone else. All I’ll see is the basic paperwork.
I was apparently the doctor’s last appointment of the day. We rode down in the elevator together and chatted. He’s been a specialist for over 25 years. Not always do procedures go so well. Part of his reality, he said, is the need to deliver sometimes very bad news to patients….
Yesterday’s appointment was at a hospital on the bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Over 44 years ago, July 24, 1965, at another hospital on the other side of the river, less than a mile from where we were visiting in the elevator, I personally encountered the bad news side of medicine when my then-wife died late at night of kidney disease. She was only 22. We were uninsured. Hers/Ours was the second story I wrote in what has turned out to be a long series on Health Care Reform.
That night I left the hospital – I was there by myself – and went to the local Western Union office in deserted downtown Minneapolis, and sent telegrams to relatives in California, telling them of her death.
My wife had received outstanding care in 1965, but it was to no avail. And we had no insurance.
The very last thing on my mind that night in 1965 was how I’d pay the medical bills. I had a year and a half year old son; three days earlier I’d signed a teaching contract for the fall, so I had a job upcoming, in a town and metropolitan area I’d never lived in or near before. But all those details wouldn’t hit me until a few months later.
First, my car broke down early in the fall. When you have money, no problem. I didn’t. Problem. I needed a functioning car to get to work – both jobs.
In October, 1965, it finally hit me that I would have to file bankruptcy, and I prepared the balance sheet for an attorney (a copy of which I still possess). Succinctly, almost all of my debts were medical bills from one place or another; those debts were almost four times my then-teacher salary.
Not long after that, I got very lucky. North Dakota Public Welfare agreed to pay the largest portion of the bill, which amounted to two-thirds of the total that I owed; and our last local hospital – a community hospital -forgave our bill there. Suddenly the remaining bills became at least manageable. I was lucky because I couldn’t even establish with certainty that we were legal residents of North Dakota. Somebody had to bend some rules.
Life went on, and now I’m at today.
I’ve lived, literally, in both worlds of American Medical Care – the present one where, at least in my case, care is assured and largely paid for; and the one where care is accessed only at some unseen person or committees whim.
In both worlds, the care was and is excellent: I have huge respect for medical professionals. But there was a world of difference.
There is absolutely no excuse for today’s situation where medical care is a privilege and not a right for all; where we engage in endless debate about who qualifies for health care. We have our policy priorities mixed up.
I think that a very substantial part of today’s American medical system – probably a substantial majority – agrees with me on that.

#138 – Dick Bernard: Real Time Health Care in the U.S. for a Member of the Privileged Class

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Overnight I’ve been involved in the never-pleasant preparations for a Colonoscopy. I’m a veteran of the procedure – family history, precautionary. If past is prelude, the preparation for the Big Event later today has been worse than the Event itself will be.
And afterwards I can eat again!
I’m a Medicare veteran, and the Colonoscopy is a Medicare procedure. My deductible has been satisfied, and most of the cost will be covered by Medicare and supplementary insurance, which we can afford to pay.
The care today will be high quality, as it was before I was on Medicare.
Just prior to Christmas, I had my annual eye exam. I’ve had cataract surgery a couple of years ago – one of the most common Medicare procedures, I hear. There, too, the care is top notch, and the cost basically covered.
I’m definitely a member of a privileged class.
Why so many of my class refuse to grant others the same access to medical care that I have is an outrage.
There is cost to medical care. Nothing is “free”, and this goes for “pensioners” too.
Recently I heard a number, sort of off-hand, that was causing concern: that every person would be forced to pay at least 8% of their income for health care. (Don’t hold me to that exact number, or what it covered – but I heard something to that effect, as we sometimes hear things.)
At any rate, this caused me to look at our family health care cost situation.
Health care is a tax deductible item in the U.S. tax code. Last year, to deduct medical, pharmaceutical and health insurance costs, those costs had to exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income. Everything above that 7.5% was deductible.
For our family, those costs, last year, were 12%, so we had a deductible amount, and we’re basically a fairly healthy family at this point. We do have ample insurance, at our own expense, and none of it covers everything.
People on Medicare – by definition, those over 65 – have an automatic deduction from their Social Security for Medicare insurance, so Medicare isn’t “free” either. And I don’t count in the above calculation the $18,000 or so that I paid into the Medicare system in the working years before I retired 10 years ago.
Basically I have only a couple of points:
1. Every one should have to pay something for the privilege of having health care insurance. That amount should be based on how much they can afford. And, yes, they should have insurance – how that is administered is open to discussion.
2. Every one, in our supposedly world class society, should have the opportunity to have health coverage, no questions asked.
People without insurance get colon cancer, and have cataracts, too. The difference between them and me, I suppose, is that they may feel forced to wait for an exam or treatment until it’s too late….
I am happy there is an indication on the horizon that there will be substantial Health Care Reform in the making, even if it is imperfect, and just a start.
But until there is equal care for all regardless of personal financial circumstances, there is no true “justice for all” in this country of mine.
Off to coffee (without cream). It’s legal….

#128 – Dick Bernard: Health Care Reform. Death by a thousand cuts?

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I have been following the Health Care Reform debate as carefully as any ordinary person reasonably can. I’ve written often about the topic in this space since about July 24 of this year (see the Index under categories.) There is a particular reason for this interest: when my first wife died of kidney disease at age 22 in 1965, we were basically uninsured, and without kindness of many local hospitals and doctors and, yes, public welfare, I would have begun my life as single parent of a year and a half year old son by going through bankruptcy. Ultimately the “crushing debt” of uninsured medical expenses was made manageable and my son and I could survive. (see July 26, 2009, post: Story #1).
Barbara’s two years of what turned out to be a terminal illness, and the time following for me, was not pleasant. One does not soon forget such a close call with catastrophe….
“As we speak”, through the magic of television, we are witnessing selective parts of the dirty business of making Law. Political Sausage Making has always been nasty business. Putting all of us within recliner-distance of somebody or other’s “spin” does not necessarily contribute to good policy. Just because the latest ad, or news conference, or talking head says it is so, doesn’t necessarily make it so. But we all make off-the-cuff, spur of our own moment, highly biased decisions on what we may know very little about. Hopefully there are adults somewhere, making some wise long-term decisions….
It seems consensus in the knowledgeable class (the medical community, for instance) that deep reform of Health Care is essential. This is not a “liberal” issue, and has not been a liberal issue for a long while. The status quo is an invitation to long-term disaster for people like ourselves.
As best as I can determine, when the 2009 Health Care Reform bill actually passes, however watered down it is, there will be, within it, a great number of positive, indeed essential, changes in public policy. They are found within those 2000+ pages that critics demand be read page by page (but which same people would never think of actually reading, much less trying to comprehend.)
The bill will squeak through with, likely, no Republican votes…or perhaps one or two. Whatever the Republican vote, it will be strictly a tactical one. We are guaranteed ten months of dishonest rhetoric that the bill is a disaster, the fault of Obama and the Democrats. There is everything, politically, to gain by defeat, or by enlisting outrage; ironically, outraged supporters have everything to lose from going back to the status quo that existed before the bills passage. but never mind that.
Too many people my age – the Medicare age – will lead the conservative charge against the evil of things like “public option”, forgetting what they take for granted – Medicare – our biggest “public option”, and forgetting that the same kind of sordid debate now happening took place when Medicare was passed in 1965. And forgetting that arguably the most efficient medical system America has devised, Veterans Administration Hospitals and Clinics, are entirely public. The critics of reform don’t want certain kinds of people – “those people” – to be publicly insured; or certain kinds of treatment available….
As a long-retired citizen, and union representative, I know that people like me are extremely vulnerable to the whims of private policy. We have excellent and affordable insurance – now. All it takes is a memo from somewhere to cancel what we have, or make it so expensive as to be unaffordable. This is not paranoia. The worst case examples are possible, and they can touch us quickly. That’s why strong government policy on public issues is essential.
Two particular examples (I have more) come to mind as I consider this issue:
1) Big Business, led by groups like U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the insurance industry and the profit sector generally, are the ones who have the truly big bucks to lobby against Reform. Their self interest is Profit, period. Ironically, their ‘base’ of support is the very people who will be most adversely affected by their whims and caprice. They are the ones who pay for those old and dishonest “Harry and Louise” and “crushing debt” ads. “Consumers” are, after all, the ones who generate “Profit”.
2) My supplementary insurance is through my wife’s company – she, too, is on Medicare. We have excellent insurance now. Recently the company has been urging people like us, and its active employees, to lobby against the Public Option. Less than a year ago, all of we retirees were summoned to an almost mandatory corporate meeting of retirees so we could be introduced to an array of – as I recall – 11 Private Options which we could elect if we wished. We stayed with the status quo, rather than deal with the vagaries of some new option which may be different than what we thought it was, or might turn out to be worse than what we had when we actually needed the insurance – an inevitability as one ages. Why lobby us about Private Options earlier this year, and lobby against Public Option now? The answer is pretty obvious to me.
Others with considerably less than the public interest at heart have their well-financed and finely tuned “oars” in the anti-reform and anti-public option “water” as well.
Caveat emptor. Keep the eye on the public interest.
Something will pass, likely soon. If it doesn’t, we will rue the day we celebrated failure.

#121 – Dick Bernard: The significance of 60 votes

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Saturday night the U.S. Senate voted 60-39 to avoid filibuster on the Health Care Reform Issue. Every Republican voted “no”.
The realistic expectation from here on out is that the Republican mantra will be to make sure Health Care Reform fails; indeed, that anything that the Democrats and/or President Obama wants will fail.
It’s a dangerous game because, through failure, we will all fail. We can let failure happen, or do something constructive.
Back in 1994 when Health Care Reform was debated, the vote was unanimous to avoid filibuster (“debate”). Of course, Health Care Reform died that year, and a comfortable Democrat majority (Senate 57-43 and House 258-176) became a nearly permanent minority as a result of the 1994 elections. It was not until 2006 when total Republican dominance of Congress and Senate was tamed (though barely: Senate tied, House 235-198). And not until 2009 – 10 months ago – when House, Senate and White House became Democrat for the first time in sixteen years. The new administration inherited a catastrophe.
Yes, it has been a Democrat majority for all of 10 months now. The Republicans dream of again scuttling critically needed Health Care Reform, and repeating 1994.
I think that this time the fear-mongering will not succeed, and reform will begin, though not nearly as strongly as I would like, or we need.
It was a useful and healthy exercise for the Democrats to go through the agony of fashioning a 60 vote majority last week.
It is not fun to watch sausage being made in legislation, and the exercise of coming to a reasonable consensus that led to 60 votes was very important I think.
The next votes, after seeming interminable debate, will require only a majority in both houses. There will be endless debate and posturing, but sooner or later a conference bill will be agreed on and there will be an up or down vote by the total Congress. Odds are that there will be a Health Care Reform bill, and however inadequate it will be made to appear at passage, it will be an essential and long overdue first step in saving our nations health care system and making it more accessible and less exclusionary than it has been in the past.
I have no idea what the final bill will look like.
The Republicans have cast their lot on working for failure, not reform, on this and other issues, I hope that a bright light shines on their negative efforts to obstruct necessary improvements in many areas of public policy. The residue of the last many years was truly a train wreck needing to be repaired. It is time to let the repairing begin.
And by the way, for those who might forget, the Republicans did pass an incredibly expensive Health Care bill in 1996. It was a windfall for big business and it is the looming disaster for us all; ask seniors about the infamous ‘donut hole’ in Medicare part D. Hardly anyone who follows the issues carefully would disagree that the cumulative impact of neglecting reform, and subservience to business (and profit) interests has left our entire Health Care system battered and broken.
Those who happen to have “good” coverage now, without Reform, beware. For those who don’t want reform at all because they have that “good coverage” and don’t care what happens to anyone else, think for a moment about the people around you: relatives, friends, yourself – what if you fall through the hole in the safety net? Because, of course, you can….
A PS:
Who’s running things in Washington?
Last February I made a little chart to help educate myself. Here it is:
The print is small, but if it’s Red, that means Republican control; Blue, Democrat control. Occasionally there were ties.
U.S. Governance 77-09001

#114 – Dick Bernard: Iraq revisited October, 2009

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“Iraq” is one of those words-never-uttered-in-polite-conversation these days.  Even in the protest community, out-of-Afghanistan is more in as the issue du jour.
Iraq does come up, but only indirectly, and not by name: there is worry about our horrible national debt…but not much focus on where much of that national debt came from: almost a trillion dollars in off-the-budget money spent on our now eight year “War on a Word” (See #mce_temp_url#).   To focus on that would be bad form…we must look forward, one would protest.
Ho-hum or not, we went, last night, to hear Sami Rasouli and his son,Tariq, talk about Iraq.  Sami is well known in my area; I know Sami, though not well.  He’s Iraqi, left Najaf for the broader world back in 1976; ultimately settling in the U.S. in 1986.  He became a successful restaurateur here, an American in all the conventional ways.
2003 was the time of the shift in attitude for Sami.  He went back to Iraq for a family matter, intending to stay only a short time.  His visits lengthened; he sold his restaurant; he committed what life he has left to rehabilitation of Iraq and relationships between Iraqis and the U.S. which has essentially destroyed their country.  On his most recent trip, now ending, he brought 15 Iraqis to see in person his part of the U.S.  The city of Minneapolis has recently become a sister city of his hometown, Najaf.  He founded a group called the Muslim Peacemaker Team, modelled on and assisted by Christian Peacemaker Team.  His internet place is #mce_temp_url#.  Do visit.

Sami Rasouli October 27, 2009

Sami Rasouli October 27, 2009


Last night, his 20 year old son, Tariq, spoke first.  Sami said, later, that he never thought that Tariq would even have an interest in going to Iraq, a country he had no direct relationship with – much like a person of German ancestry has no direct relationship with Germany.
Nonetheless, Tariq went to Iraq.  About the first thing he said was this: “Iraq is a third world country because of the U.S.”  It’s a rather jarring indictment, but true.   From an historical seat of civilization in the Middle East, Iraq has joined the Third World…and we did it to them, and would rather not notice….  Even during the worst times of Saddam, times were far better than now or the past several years of war.
Tariq showed a few minutes of video that he took in Iraq, the seeds of a documentary, then his Dad took the podium.  I’ve heard Sami speak before.  He spoke with conviction and passion.  He is well informed.
There have been immense casualties of war in Iraq; the 1991 Gulf War and the current nearly 8 year conflagration have essentially destroyed the country.  There is a website that attempts, diligently, to track the body count.  It is #mce_temp_url#.  It tracks only violent civilian deaths since 2003.  In all, since 1991, it is estimated that well over 1,000,000 Iraqis have died from the cumulative effects of the assorted wars and sanctions against Iraq by the U.S. and its supposed “coalition of the willing”.
But the disaster is much, much greater:  depleted uranium, from weapons of war, kills quietly and persistently and will continue to kill on into the far distant future, even if not used directly.  It is in the sandstorms, and in the water, and in the vegetables….
Potable water is in short supply, leading to epidemics of diseases like hepatitis, and premature death of children; electricity is scarce.  What was the middle class has largely left, and slow to return.
Sami talked about the three wars that have cemented Iraqi ideas about Americans like you and I.  I have mentioned two.  The first Iraqi image of America was, he said, “John Wayne movies”.  We are a society that celebrates and exports violent images.
He said something else well worth pondering: in his view, 5% of the population are inclined to peacemaking; 5% endorse the war philosophy; the other 90% tend to gravitate towards whoever has the power.  I believe he’s generally correct in his assessment.
The inclination is to follow the War crowd – the one’s who were in charge.  The consequence of our forever-wars is certain for humanity, and it is not for our good, whether we temporarily “win” or not.  We are paying the price now; we are only beginning to pay the total bill – that’s for our grandchildren (we seem to say).
It’s a tough struggle to commit to peace, but only we can do it….
For a rather stark comparison of what we spend on War as opposed to what this money could be used for, check out the downloadable postcards at #mce_temp_url#
Iraqi Art October 2009

Iraqi Art October 2009


PS:  A striking comment I remember hearing a number of years ago was via a person who was selling Iraqi art, a sample of which is above.  A visitor was admiring the work and said, “I didn’t know that Iraqis did art”, as if they were somewhat less than regular people.

#112 – Dick Bernard: "La Grippe"

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This morning a New York Times bulletin said “Obama Declares H1N1 Flu a National Emergency“.  The summary said “Mr. Obama had signed a proclamation that would allow medical officials to bypass certain federal requirements.  Officials described the move as similar to a declaration ahead of a hurricane making landfall.”
Preparedness is great.  But my initial reaction to this is it’s time for us all “to get a “grippe”, to not over-react.  (“The grippe” is how I remember my grandparents describing the illness that we know as the flu.)
Last night on the national news the resident doctor expert was asked about the significance of the current flu outbreak, and the fact that so far 1,000 people have died in the U.S.  He more or less “mumbled” an answer that the outbreak is very serious and unusual.  Best I recall, the camera angle was from behind the doctor, with a concerned-looking anchorman listening earnestly to him.  He wouldn’t be pinned down on how bad 1,000 deaths thus far actually was (an average of 20 per state over a period of some months.)
The news narrative is that this flu outbreak is a crisis.  It is almost a lead story: little kids crying when they get their flu shots; schools closing….
I don’t doubt the general problem or the need for concern, but I wonder to myself how much we are manipulated by those with a vested interest in this crisis, particularly economic interest.  (The same news program seems largely funded by pharmaceutical ads.)
We need to “get a grippe”.  Back in April on this blog I commented that my mother nearly died in the 1918 flu pandemic which, as pointed out at #mce_temp_url# affected 28% of Americans and killed 675,000 (in a country with a then-population of about 100,000,000, compared to today’s 300,000,000.)  (Her recollections of that near-death experience are in my April 27, 2009 blog post #mce_temp_url#
Absolutely, there is reason to be concerned and to be prudent.  (I’ve had my flu shot; we’ve had one grandkid get the flu and throw up at our place while kid-sitting recently…and my spouse became his caregiver when he had to stay home from school…it’s hard to avoid reality.)
But, I think it is also prudent to keep in mind that there is also a LOT of money to be made by milking public hysteria.  And as we’ve learned over the past decade, fear is a potent weapon.  The flu shots and mist are not totally without risk either.  This we tend to forget.
Obama’s caution, as noted in the NYTimes article, is prudent; I have a bit less confidence in the headline, and the spin….
My two previous blog postings on this issue can be found at #mce_temp_url# and #mce_temp_url#.