Their neighbors knew. The New York Times knew. But it took four months for John David Allen’s parents to find out he was dead and to recover his ashes and those of his wife. They were about to be, “disposed of.”
Allen’s parents got no answers when they called the Red Cross; too busy with the living to list the dead. Worse yet, FEMA had, “no information,” for months. Finally Allen’s father asked, “Where do you take the bodies?” He was told to call the local coroner. He finally got an answer. The coroner’s office had known for two months. The bodies of John David Allen and Susan his wife had been cremated.
When questioned by the media about this shameful episode, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said it was the local medical examiner's job to call next of kin. If that does not work? They might have ''some discussion in the future of ensuring that the local coroner has the ability to do that.''
''We grieve with this family,'' he said.
Hello, is anyone home?
Why? With all the technology available today, why would the coroner and FEMA not have a central list? Why after being told that “Brownie” was, “doing a great job,” is there still so much incompetence in an agency that is integral to our response not only to natural disasters, but to terrorist attacks?
The Bush administration thought that FEMA was unimportant. Because of their radical ideology, they thought that disaster response was the work of faith-based (read churches) groups. Even after 9/11/2001, they downplayed FEMA’s work. They gutted the agency and replaced disaster professionals with political cronies. After all, Brown knew Arabian horses!
It is part of a pattern driven by the Bushies right wing ideology. Conservatives think that government is part of the problem giving us things like welfare fraud and lack of personal responsibility. To those who think I am a conspiracy theorist I offer a quote from a conservative guru, Grover Norquist. He says, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." So FEMA became one of their targets. What they gave us was shameful incompetence in the face of tragedy.
There is something ironic about this administration. They are social conservatives, even fundamentalists, but they are not true conservatives in the classic sense. They have not made government smaller and leaner. They have created bloat and deficits for as far as the eye can see. Don’t take my word for it; read George Will the columnist, he is fed up. Now there is a smart conservative!
Although the conversation may never be resolved, I welcome a discussion of the proper role of government. I get frustrated and indignant when the Bush administration cuts away at vital programs without public debate. Not that we should expect dialogue! This administration excludes alternative viewpoints and cordons opponents behind distant barricades whenever Bush appears.
What are proper government roles?
Faith-based groups have been nothing short of heroic in the face of the Katrina tragedy. My own brother was in the Gulf Coast region for about a week with a church group. There is a place for disaster response by churches, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other charities.
However, they cannot provide the overall management that must be the responsibility of government, specifically FEMA. Each level of government; municipality, state and federal have their roles. When a major disaster strikes, someone should have a plan and someone should know who is in charge. FEMA has to know what the plan is and FEMA bears the burden of coordination. Only the federal government can bring enough resources to bear, both on the eve of impending disaster, and in the aftermath.
It seems to me that there are two issues here. First, we need a public dialogue about government roles. We could use the help of Congress here. Second, we need competence in government, not cronyism. Maybe we should hire some of the professionals who run their churches better than this crowd runs our government.
Now, if we could get the other party to see the light and provide a vision for change.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Friday, January 13, 2006
Take That Wal Mart!
Legislators in Maryland took a novel approach to Health Care reform yesterday. Both the Senate and the House voted (registration necessary) to require that an employer with more than 10,000 employees spend at least 8% of their payroll on health care for their workers. Absent the 8% the employer must make a contribution to the state’s Medicaid program.
Apparently Wal Mart is the only company known to meet the criteria of the bill. Legislators seem fed up with Wal Mart’s corporate policy to finance “Always Low Prices” on the back of low wage associates. As many as half must take Medicaid because their wages are too low to afford health insurance. “The taxpayers are giving a health-care subsidy to the largest retailer on earth,” according to Democratic Kumar Havre who voted for the bill. The vote on Thursday, January 12, 2006 provided an override of governor Robert Ehrlich’s May 2005 veto.
Certainly Wal Mart should be a better corporate citizen. Did they not once advertise that they sold “Made in America?” Now what they sell is made in China because they chase after the lowest possible price and they pay the lowest possible wage. One can hardly blame Maryland’s legislators for being tired of a giant who feeds off the public trough by forcing their workers to take Medicaid. Their shady employment practices have included denial of lunch breaks and mandatory overtime off the clock.
Is this law good public policy? Why should a person’s employer be responsible for her health insurance? True, union efforts led to health insurance coverage in many industries during the previous century. Union members are justifiably proud of contracts that include complete health care coverage and other benefits.
However, we live in a world of global competition and giants such as Delphi and their former parent General Motors are beginning to choke on the competitive burden of health care. Face it; health care in the U.S. is broken. Just this past week I visited a high-rise office building owned by a local health insurer. Each person in that building is part of our health care system, but not one of them is providing health care, either preventative or curative. Instead they are pushing papers and interfering in doctors’ lives:
President George W. Bush believes that global competition is good, that it will engender jobs in the end. Low paying jobs, that is. No wonder he has admitted that he does not understand the struggles of the poor. He was born not only with a silver spoon, but also with a free pass to the oval office. It is time that our government did something to protect the American way of life and stop the shrinking of the middle class. Health Care must be one of the first priorities in this effort.
The American worker and her family don’t have time to wait for the federal government to fix health care. Krugman points to ideology and vested interests as the two barriers to real reform in the Washington of the Republicans. So, the Maryland approach to corporate leeches has one thing going for it. The fix must begin at the state level. Thirty other states are reportedly watching Maryland closely on this one. You could also look at Kansas where Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius recently unveiled CommunityRx Kansas, to make medications more affordable to lower income citizens. Like Maryland’s efforts these are just beginnings.
I am no expert on health care reform, but I am working on learning all I can. What I have learned so far follows.
First, we need to begin at the state level as Maryland has done. We may be able to bring change to Washington, DC but it will take too much time. I am a member of the Working Families Party of New York (see my links). The party has made health care reform in our state our focus for this year.
Second, and this pains, we will have to have some private sector involvement. My Aunt, who spent her life in health care and was married to a physician, would kill me if I called for single carrier coverage by the government. Nevertheless, I believe that the richest country in the world should not have 46 million uninsured, many of them children. So, given the current political climate, the pragmatic approach is to involve the private sector. One caveat, we have got to get the administrative costs down.
Third, there needs to be some incentive for individuals to control the costs of their own care. Choose generic drugs instead of pricey new pharmaceuticals and visit the doctor regularly but not too often. Such choices should be a personal responsibility and rewarded in some way to help keep costs down.
Fourth we can no longer put the burden of health insurance on the employer alone. Toyota is building a new plant in Canada at least partly because of the stability of health care there. Global competition is by nature an unlevel playing field. To protect the American middle class and care for those most in need, we need to view health care reform as a national priority.
We also need to be proactive and speak for the poor laborer in China to ensure human rights and equity in the global marketplace.
I owe some of these ideas, including the one about involving the private sector to the Progressive Policy Institute. If you are interested in further study, check out the link at the end of this post.
Apparently Wal Mart is the only company known to meet the criteria of the bill. Legislators seem fed up with Wal Mart’s corporate policy to finance “Always Low Prices” on the back of low wage associates. As many as half must take Medicaid because their wages are too low to afford health insurance. “The taxpayers are giving a health-care subsidy to the largest retailer on earth,” according to Democratic Kumar Havre who voted for the bill. The vote on Thursday, January 12, 2006 provided an override of governor Robert Ehrlich’s May 2005 veto.
Certainly Wal Mart should be a better corporate citizen. Did they not once advertise that they sold “Made in America?” Now what they sell is made in China because they chase after the lowest possible price and they pay the lowest possible wage. One can hardly blame Maryland’s legislators for being tired of a giant who feeds off the public trough by forcing their workers to take Medicaid. Their shady employment practices have included denial of lunch breaks and mandatory overtime off the clock.
Is this law good public policy? Why should a person’s employer be responsible for her health insurance? True, union efforts led to health insurance coverage in many industries during the previous century. Union members are justifiably proud of contracts that include complete health care coverage and other benefits.
However, we live in a world of global competition and giants such as Delphi and their former parent General Motors are beginning to choke on the competitive burden of health care. Face it; health care in the U.S. is broken. Just this past week I visited a high-rise office building owned by a local health insurer. Each person in that building is part of our health care system, but not one of them is providing health care, either preventative or curative. Instead they are pushing papers and interfering in doctors’ lives:
"Above all, a large part of America's health care spending goes into paperwork. A 2003 study in The New England Journal of Medicine estimated that administrative costs took 31 cents out of every dollar the United States spent on health care, compared with only 17 cents in Canada." (Paul Krugman, NY Times Op Ed Columnist, April 15, 2005)
President George W. Bush believes that global competition is good, that it will engender jobs in the end. Low paying jobs, that is. No wonder he has admitted that he does not understand the struggles of the poor. He was born not only with a silver spoon, but also with a free pass to the oval office. It is time that our government did something to protect the American way of life and stop the shrinking of the middle class. Health Care must be one of the first priorities in this effort.
The American worker and her family don’t have time to wait for the federal government to fix health care. Krugman points to ideology and vested interests as the two barriers to real reform in the Washington of the Republicans. So, the Maryland approach to corporate leeches has one thing going for it. The fix must begin at the state level. Thirty other states are reportedly watching Maryland closely on this one. You could also look at Kansas where Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius recently unveiled CommunityRx Kansas, to make medications more affordable to lower income citizens. Like Maryland’s efforts these are just beginnings.
I am no expert on health care reform, but I am working on learning all I can. What I have learned so far follows.
First, we need to begin at the state level as Maryland has done. We may be able to bring change to Washington, DC but it will take too much time. I am a member of the Working Families Party of New York (see my links). The party has made health care reform in our state our focus for this year.
Second, and this pains, we will have to have some private sector involvement. My Aunt, who spent her life in health care and was married to a physician, would kill me if I called for single carrier coverage by the government. Nevertheless, I believe that the richest country in the world should not have 46 million uninsured, many of them children. So, given the current political climate, the pragmatic approach is to involve the private sector. One caveat, we have got to get the administrative costs down.
Third, there needs to be some incentive for individuals to control the costs of their own care. Choose generic drugs instead of pricey new pharmaceuticals and visit the doctor regularly but not too often. Such choices should be a personal responsibility and rewarded in some way to help keep costs down.
Fourth we can no longer put the burden of health insurance on the employer alone. Toyota is building a new plant in Canada at least partly because of the stability of health care there. Global competition is by nature an unlevel playing field. To protect the American middle class and care for those most in need, we need to view health care reform as a national priority.
We also need to be proactive and speak for the poor laborer in China to ensure human rights and equity in the global marketplace.
I owe some of these ideas, including the one about involving the private sector to the Progressive Policy Institute. If you are interested in further study, check out the link at the end of this post.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
No Respect!
Rodney Dangerfield said, “I don’t get no respect!”
Jim Rice could say the same thing and occasionally did in his younger days. With 382 home runs, 2,452 hits, 1,451 RBIs and a .298 lifetime average, Rice missed the Hall of Fame today. He played in 2,089 games from 1974 to 1989. According Boston Red Sox historian Dick Bresciani, Rice’s numbers exceed all players active in his time frame.
In his rookie year (1975) he hit 22 home runs and batted .309 with an on base percentage of .350. We need some perspective here. The steroid-fueled home run totals of the ‘90’s cannot be compared. On any other team that went to the series (I am not going there) Jim Rice would have been MVP. Trouble was he arrived the same year another young outfielder did. Freddy Lynn was both Rookie of the Year and MVP with numbers a bit better than his.
Fred Lynn had a good career, but not near as good a career as Rice, who stayed with the Red Sox for the duration.
Today he received 64.8 percent of the vote. Each year he has gained votes keeping him on the ballot. But, next year Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken will be on the ballot. They will go in their first year.
There will also be a guy named Mark McGwire on next year’s ballot. He will have to await his fate.
Jim Rice don’t get no respect. He belongs in the Hall!
Jim Rice could say the same thing and occasionally did in his younger days. With 382 home runs, 2,452 hits, 1,451 RBIs and a .298 lifetime average, Rice missed the Hall of Fame today. He played in 2,089 games from 1974 to 1989. According Boston Red Sox historian Dick Bresciani, Rice’s numbers exceed all players active in his time frame.
In his rookie year (1975) he hit 22 home runs and batted .309 with an on base percentage of .350. We need some perspective here. The steroid-fueled home run totals of the ‘90’s cannot be compared. On any other team that went to the series (I am not going there) Jim Rice would have been MVP. Trouble was he arrived the same year another young outfielder did. Freddy Lynn was both Rookie of the Year and MVP with numbers a bit better than his.
Fred Lynn had a good career, but not near as good a career as Rice, who stayed with the Red Sox for the duration.
Today he received 64.8 percent of the vote. Each year he has gained votes keeping him on the ballot. But, next year Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken will be on the ballot. They will go in their first year.
There will also be a guy named Mark McGwire on next year’s ballot. He will have to await his fate.
Jim Rice don’t get no respect. He belongs in the Hall!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
