This is the place to leave any non Class related comments.. on anything.. world events.. the weather.. Michael Jackson, health benefits, clean air bills, etc.
Well, hi all y'all. Like Dave Hamlin and a bunch of others, I am sorry I missed the reunion. Thanks for the pics, Milt and Ginger. They were excellent. And thanks, Milt, for this blogspot. HodgePodge: I want to know if anyone else besides me thinks that fireworks are an immoral assault on this fragile planet (the sound-blasts, the smoke). They may be an artful use of gunpowder, but gunpowder and fake bombs, nonetheless. I am most appreciative of the founding fathers and mothers in all their wisdom and sacrifice. I am appreciative of what our soldiers endure. This country is the BEST place in the world, but IMHO, it's time we evolve beyond the shooting off of fireworks. I know I'm not entirely alone in this ... birds REALLY hate them, too. Any discussion? Best to all, and Happy 4th, Sally
AZ just passed a law allowing 16 yr old and above to buy certain fireworks. Not only do I agree Sally with you, I am OUTRAGED that my AZ legislators would allow this! It bad enough that youngsters get illegal fireworks, but now it is legal!
If you had not seen this e-mail sent today by our President, I wanted to make sure you had a chance to read it. He certainly is unlike any President when it comes to mass communication.
milt:)
This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let's also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.
Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty -- a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.
Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation's course. America's greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom -- and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.
As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph -- that pride -- belongs to all of us.
So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm's way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.
With very best wishes,
President Barack Obama
July 4th, 2009
P.S. -- Our nation's birthday is also an ideal time to consider serving in your local community. You can find many great ideas for service opportunities near you at http://www.serve.gov.
I watched on tape yesterday's 4th show from the Capitol. I was impressed with Aretha Franklin who can still show why she is the Queen of Soul and Barry Manilow strutted his stuff.
The President even had a prerecorded message. He took the time to congratulate Sesame Street on its 40th anniversary. No matter what you think of his politics he certainly is a people person:)
Please take the time to leave comments here and in any category!
He certainly was a news icon. I remember seeing him live for the landing on the moon and when Kennedy was assassinated. The younger generation not only did not know him, but have no idea how he contributed to our daily lives in obtaining news on the TV and not on a computer.
I sent this to several people, but it was not a class wide note..
I received a reply from Pam Monitto Petri which will follow.
milt:)
"We lost a true spokesman for the people and health care reform..Senator Ted Kennedy"
This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American...will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it's always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.
— Ted Kennedy
This is Pam's response to me. Of course I accept her opinion.
Please make any comments that you might have by posting them.
Thanks.
"Sorry Milt, I don't agree with the saintly perception being spun around Ted Kennedy. Death doesn't clean the slate.
AND, this account doesn't mention the gang rape thing he was "suspected" in with his nephew, Joseph Smith? Don't quite remember the story but it had to do with a party and alcohol and exactly who had done what and with whom. While I think ultimately the nephew took the heat, Teddy was involved in yet another fiasco The Kennedys have a history of burying facts surrounding incidents, why should we think we were told the whole story this time?
Socialized medicine, I'm not going to preach, is a nightmare, ask anyone who is living with it. Remember I dated Allen Rubin from Montreal? Canada has socialized medicine, I've had Canadian patients come to NY for their surgeries because in Canada they could be forced to wait 6 months to repair a broken hip. Al hates it. If you have the money to pay for your own insurance, I know it's costly, you simply receive better medical care. From what I've read, the proposed plan excludes all members of Congress, it's only meant for peons. Please read everything you can before you "back" any programs.
I know a lot of you will agree with Milt about Teddy, especially those from Mass, but to me and my friends and associates he was a privileged elitist with a very scarred past pushing agendas that don't and won't affect his family.
Pam
Milt please send this to the class for me, I have several incorrect emails on my list and those are preventing me from sending this email to anyone on the list."
Wow.......it's a good thing that an informed majority usually leads our country (unlike the election of 2000 which was mysteriously won by a loser), and be thankful that we can have different opinions without losing friends.
That said, I believe we must have a drastic change in our views on health care...and there will be many who won't like it. However, we can't afford not to make significant changes.
I love you Pam, but I certainly can't allow your comment to go unanswered.
Well, so much for speaking no ill of the dead. While their personal lives were hardly paragon -- who among us fills that bill? -- the principles which the political Kennedys espoused sought to make us all more aware of our fellows, more attuned to those less fortunate and more caring about all. We could all do worse and, too often, we do.
Hi Milt, I have heard only praise for Canadian medicine from a friend who moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchawan with her husband after surviving colon cancer. She is very happy with her doctors, with the promptness of tests and treatments and is constantly surprised at not having to deal with payment. I think there are huge problems with our current system here and that sensible reforms are needed. You can post this if you like.
Milt, Thanks for your wonderful quote from Ted Kennedy. Even in his dying, he reminded us of the power we each had to bring change and to effect the times in which we live. I would like to share a wonderful experience I had regarding Ted Kennedy. One night. I was waiting with several friends to see the midnight show at Feinsteins (Regency Hotel, New York)to see Brian Stokes Mitchell, a consumate Broadway performer, activist and neighbor. The previous show was ending and people started spiliing out of the night club while others, including myself and friends, waited at the top of the stairs for the next and last performance. I was engaged in converstion with friends when someone tugged rather hardily at my arm. I turned to see Ted Kennedy trying to get himself up the stairs, hanging on to my arm and using me as a support. I quickly went to his aid. It was quite difficult for him to handle the stairs and his torso to move in two different directions. As I helped him up the stairs, he chatted with me about the talents of Brian Stokes Mitchell and the wonderful show I was about to see. And then an amazing thing happened. As he reached the top of the stairs, the 40 or 50 or more patrons lined up for the next show, simultaneoulsly saw Ted Kennedy and burst into applause. Senator Kennedy took all this in stride, thanked me, steadied himself, and pushed off to thank everyone with a robust wave and a huge Kennedy smile, continuing on his way toward the hotel lobby. It was a wonderful moment and a quintessential New York one. As I watched the show that night I wondered what provoked the applause. It was more than just a celebrity sighting, not at Feinsteins, celebrities are plentiful there. The audience was not unusual for New York. Mr. Mitchell's family was there, a table of eight seated next to mine also a table of eight. His father fit, but elderly and very proud of his son. And why shouldn't he be. His son, an African-Ameirican had broken race barriers on Broadway. As I looked around the audience, I noticed quite a racial and cultural mix, blacks, Hispanics, Asian, gays. And I thought back to the applause at the top of the stairs. Here was a man who fought for all of us but especially for the disenfranchised. Here in this posh New York nightclub were some of the the recipients of his life-long work. The applause was heart-felt appreciation for this man, for his brothers, for his family, for making them believe that they had a right to be a part of the American Dream. It was a night to remember.
I am a Republican, but not a conservative per se, I can't stand Bill O'Reilly, Rush, and the rest of them. I am a middle of the road on most issues, leaning to the left or right as I see the issue. My husband is a staunch conservative, guns, constitution in stone etc, we argue all the time!
I wasn't trying to politicize! I had gotten Milt's email about this "Great American", which is Milt's view, and certainly ok. I just couldn't stand one more canonizing of Kennedy. All week long the media has been praising him! I just felt "that's enough!!" so I thought I'd send out my opinion that, no, the guy wasn't this great american, he was an elitist, womanizer and a drunk..who just also happened to make his living in congress, no more a worthy or respectable a job than that of a school teacher. We all do good and bad things, I'm not a saint either and wouldn't like any historian digging in my closet. But I've never been kicked out a school, nor had any involvement with causing someone death. If any of you have been involved in a car accident that resulted in a fatality, obviously I don't mean that, unless you were married, drunk, and looking for a little action on the side!
And quickly, the illegals have taken over NY . NO ONE speaks english in NY. I am not exaggerating, it's like we are in a foreign country. I'm sorry, but enough is enough, and yes our grandparents arrived from somewhere else, but i don't hear press one for Italian, two for German.
Do you really think this stampede of illegals did or will affect Kennedy's family? He was an elitist, he was immune, his kids will be immune, these people are hard workers, yes, but low level, they are the welfare, subsidized workers that everyone else is paying for.
Well, got to stop ranting, it is what it is, and I think, sadly going down the tubes
Gail: I'm an ophthalmologist - like most physicians, I do believe that "Sensible reforms" include things like:
1-equalizing payments (Medicare and Medicaid payments vary state to state and region to region based on POLITICS. If a treatment can be performed for X number of dollars in one region why is it that some regions get paid 2-3 times what other regions get paid? If a surgical center can do a procedure for X number of dollars, why do they pay a hospitals almost twice as much note: they did improve that - it used to be over 3X)
2-Pay for quality - Medicare pays the same in any specific region whether a physician uses the safest and most comfortable procedure or he/she uses an older riskier procedure. If they paid more for better equipment and procedures, that would save on the cost of fixing complications
3-Tort reform - although as politicians cite, malpractice premiums are not a large percentage of total healthcare cost (though they are by no means insignificant), what really costs are things like patients going into a hospital ER for a headache and getting an MRI because if they miss the rare brain tumor, they know they've already lost any lawsuit. This also goes beyond healthcare - why should landowners be subject to lawsuits if someone trips on their property? - why should McDonalds be subject to lawsuit when they serve a hot cup of coffee? Any by the way, why should justice be so expensive to the average person - why can't we have a justice system like Canada?
4-elimination of subsidies - for years, there have been subsidies to the HMOs such that for Medicare patients, the government cost per capita has been some 15% higher for Medicare HMO patients than patients on Medicare (Obama did decrease this to some 10% and stated that he will decrease this further later on) The blog only allows certain amount of characters, so this is to be continued Al Gordon, class of '68
5-reform of insurance policies - HMOs should come under the same regulatory rules as ordinary insurance. In our area, Geisinger HMO dropped some 5,000 Medicare HMO patients in the adjacent county around Thanksgiving several years ago giving the patients only 5-6 weeks to get other co-insurance. Patients who had developed medical conditions while on the HMO then had the issue of pre-exising conditions to deal with and were stuck paying a much higher rate. The HMO was happy to dump those patients. Ordinary insurance companies would have been prohibited from dumping patients. HMOs (at least in Pennsylvania) can do it at the end of the contract year
6-Make everyone pay SOMETHING SUBSTANTIAL for their health care - I worked in an Emergency room in Troy, New York for a year while waiting for my ophthalmology program to begin - I saw the abuse of free health care. Medicaid patients regularly abused the system and bogged it down causing both delays in nescessary health care and costing the system lots of money
7- stop the regulatory bullshit - this crap about electronic medical records and electronic prescribing is nonsence. I'm sure most patients have gone to a physician only to find that the time he would have spent talking to them about their conditions is taken up by completion of the record. At the present time Medicare pays physicians based on their charting - not based on what they actually do. The important thing to the government is to code the patients. As far as Medicare patient is concerned, a glaucoma visit is a social security number followed by a visit number 92012 followed by a procedure code - perhaps a 92135, 92083 and 76514 followed by diagnosis codes - likely a 365.11, 365.04, 377.14, and a 368.43 perhaps followed by a hypertension code, an obesity code and maybe some others that I don't happen to know off the top of my head.
I agree that insurance rates are so high that they are difficult to afford and that there is a need to do something BUT how about fixing the obvious problems first - what I wrote about above would save lots of money without any consequenses. Concerning Canada, they may be OK once they diagnose a condition that needs urgent attention like your friend with colon cancer, but most times, they are slow to get the patient into diagnostic testing based on complaints, and for conditions that can wait such as cataract, the average waiting time in Ontario is well over 6 months and approaching a year. (you should also realize that the Canadian system is regulated differently from province to province - Alberta is not very rigid and many private physicians flourish there whereas in Ontario and Quebec, it is very socialized.
Last Thursday the barn frame went up. Here are some pictures of it. I believe it was you that posted that message on the Nasson blog about Ted Kennedy. The person who recently passed away and affected me was Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary who passed away about 2 weeks ago. Peter, Paul and Mary along with Joan Baez, Phil Oaks, Bob Dylan, John Denver, Judy Collins, Jim Croce and the many, many more were symbols of the idealism and unity that our generation had. I had almost forgotten about them until I read of her death, and since then, I've been listening to their music almost constantly with Pandora radio on my Iphone (even in the office where I can hook my Iphone up to the speaker system). It's surprising how many comments I've gotten about the music. I guess many people feel the way I did. It saddens me that the present generation doesn't seem to have the same idealism and unity that we had
Here in Central Pa. we had a frost alert last night and it was 37 degrees this morning (no frost)
When Finnlet was born, at 3.5 ounces and a 10% chance of survival they had 11 puppies to name. Finnlet had a small "fin" of white on her back so they named her Finlet. After four days of emails and hearing her story (her parents were owned by really good friends) they sent a picture of her sitting in a flower pot. Bob called it puppy kryptonite! She was a tiny two month old at the time. When I asked Bob what we should name her, he said we were going to add another N, she became Ms. Finnlet. Bob was Finnish, and she was born on his birthday, no question as to the name! Bob really loved this girl and after he died she was the only reason I got up in the morning. She was with him when he passed so I know he was smothered with kisses.
Many I am sure have either read or seen on TV some of the political news about Maine. Sally Kruger a long time resident in Maine, voiced her opinion in the editorial pages of several Maine newspapers.
With her permission I am showing her comments...milt:)
Sally K Kruger
If you feel like posting this, here is my recent Letter to the Editor (April 6). It was sent to Portland Press Herald, the York Weekly and the Portsmouth Herald. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, but I suppose those who disagree with me probably don't want to say so to my face. There have been no rebutting letter to the Ed so far.
To the Editor: I am finally moved to speak out by Gov. LePage's continued lack of common sense, his poor judgment and his disregard for American history. Among the actions that I consider deleterious to our state and, by extension, the nation, I am appalled by: 1. the effort to reduce the statute of limitations on polluters 2. the efforts to remove arsenic from the list of toxics being tested for in shellfish 3. That awful sign at the Welcome to Maine sign on I 95 that prostitutes our beautiful land for corporate pillage in the name of 'jobs'. 4. the arrogant attitude shown by the comments and proposal to dismantle the Dept of Labor and the murals. 5. His giving his daughter a job for which she is unqualified 6. His family taking tax- and tuition-relief in Florida My list could go on. I am disappointed that others in the Government have not distanced themselves from Gov. LePage, or publicly chastised him, or at least made an effort to rein-in his wrong-headed leadership. It is clear we need jobs in many parts of our state. It is clear we to constrain spending, cut waste, reduce the deficit and achieve a balanced budget. But we must not lose sight of what it is about Maine that is truly valuable, and that it is based on our natural beauty, our natural resources, and our population's good sense, traditional values and a sensible work ethic balanced with honorable values. Thank you, Sally K. Sulloway
From Sol,Factor on an update on his search for his roots..shared with his permission...milt:)
Part 1
Seeking Kin: An Ohio man born in the Shoah’s shadow searches for answers about his past By Hillel Kuttler · March 9, 2012 The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives.
BALTIMORE (JTA) -- Sol Factor recalls a happy childhood in circa-1950s Boston suburbia with his physician-father Joseph, teacher-mother Bernice and younger sister Rachel. His first life, as Meier Pollak, who was born in 1946 near a displaced persons’ camp in Germany, remains in the ether, evasive, ever tantalizing. Factor, who teaches Jewish history at Kent State University, near Cleveland, began poking at the holes 20 years ago in his biography. In 2007, he came close to locating the natural mother who abandoned him in Germany. Factor tracked her to Israel, but Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, notified him that she had rebuffed its intermediary efforts. Factor expresses no sadness or anger toward the woman whose postwar name he has never known. Now, he hopes to discover any half-brothers and half-sisters who might shed light on his roots, tell him about his natural mother and even provide helpful medical information. While his early years and search are “not something I dwell on,” Factor said, assembling these pieces of his life would be valuable “so that I can share it with my children [and say], ‘This is your background.’” An Israeli adviser to Kent State’s Hillel organization last month broadcast Factor’s search on the radio program “Hamador L’chipus Krovim” (Searching for Relatives Bureau). As to whether he has made any follow-up attempts to locate his natural mother, Factor quickly responds, “No, no, no.” But, he continued, “If by some miracle there are other children and we connect, and if she’s still alive and they say to her, ‘You really should meet this guy,’ I’m not going to fight it.”
Only in 2001 did Factor begin digging seriously into the matter, with luck helping mightily. A German exchange student in the Cleveland high school where Factor taught for 36 years was intrigued by Factor’s roots and urged his mother back in Munich to lend a hand. The woman searched local archives and uncovered the identity of Factor’s mother: Roza Pollak, who was born in 1924 in Orosken, Romania, survived Auschwitz and later lived in a displaced person’s camp in St. Ottilien, a village near Munich. Roza delivered Meier at the University of Munich’s Frauen Clinic on June 25, 1946, and was last heard from three weeks later. Meier was taken to the Schwabing-Altersheim displaced persons’ hospital in Munich. On November 21, 1947, he was flown to New York by the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children, which gave him over to the Jewish Family and Children’s Bureau of Boston. A photograph was taken that day in the Munich airport lounge. It is the only image Factor has of his life as Meier Pollak, including the two years he lived in American foster homes before the Factors adopted him at age 4. Factor also does not know his father’s identity. On one document, Roza listed the boy’s father as Schaier Pollak, but Factor thinks that Roza invented the name, if not the man’s entire being, because he has found no record of Schaier Pollak’s existence. A document in the files of the European Jewish Children’s Aid, Inc., states that Canada rejected the infant for immigration “because he was born out of wedlock”; the next sentence adds that “Meier is a very desirable child, irrespective of his unknown background.” William Connelly, a technical information specialist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Survivors and Victims Resource Center, said that the circumstances of Factor’s birth and his search are not rare. Five years ago, a woman contacted Connelly, presenting a similar background and requesting his assistance in locating her birth mother. Connelly asked an Israeli official to look into the matter. He tracked down the woman’s mother, “but she didn’t want to have contact,” Connelly recalled. “The end of the war was a difficult time. Just because Germany surrendered, it doesn’t mean there was a cessation of outrages against human decency,” Connelly explained. “There were rapes in many of the [displaced persons’] camps. People made their way through what can only be described as a chaotic wasteland. [Factor’s] mother could have been too ill or too shattered by her experiences. There could be any number of reasons why a woman would give up her child at the end of the war.” Factor appears at peace with the knowledge he has gained, even if it opens no further doors. But as the last interview for this article concluded, he mentioned having just been told of someone near Boston whose Romania-born mother’s data closely resembles Factor’s mother’s. “It probably would not pan out, but you never know. He could be a half-sibling,” Factor said of a planned telephone conversation with the Boston man. “What’s ironic is that where he is living is next door to where I grew up. It would be very weird.”
Please email the writer at seekingkin@jta.org if you can help Sol Factor locate his relatives or if you would like the help of “Seeking Kin” searching for long-lost relatives and friends. Include the principal facts and your contact information in a brief (one-paragraph) email.
From Sally Sulloway
ReplyDeleteWell, hi all y'all.
Like Dave Hamlin and a bunch of others, I am sorry I missed the reunion.
Thanks for the pics, Milt and Ginger. They were excellent. And thanks, Milt, for this blogspot.
HodgePodge: I want to know if anyone else besides me thinks that fireworks are an immoral assault on this fragile planet (the sound-blasts, the smoke). They may be an artful use of gunpowder, but gunpowder and fake bombs, nonetheless.
I am most appreciative of the founding fathers and mothers in all their wisdom and sacrifice. I am appreciative of what our soldiers endure. This country is the BEST place in the world, but IMHO, it's time we evolve beyond the shooting off of fireworks. I know I'm not entirely alone in this ... birds REALLY hate them, too. Any discussion?
Best to all, and Happy 4th, Sally
AZ just passed a law allowing 16 yr old and above to buy certain fireworks. Not only do I agree Sally with you, I am OUTRAGED that my AZ legislators would allow this! It bad enough that youngsters get illegal fireworks, but now it is legal!
ReplyDeleteJust shooting my mouth off!
milt:)
If you had not seen this e-mail sent today by our President, I wanted to make sure you had a chance to read it. He certainly is unlike any President when it comes to mass communication.
ReplyDeletemilt:)
This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let's also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.
Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty -- a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.
Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation's course. America's greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom -- and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.
As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph -- that pride -- belongs to all of us.
So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm's way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.
With very best wishes,
President Barack Obama
July 4th, 2009
P.S. -- Our nation's birthday is also an ideal time to consider serving in your local community. You can find many great ideas for service opportunities near you at http://www.serve.gov.
Hi all:)
ReplyDeleteI hope everyone had a happy 4th:)
I watched on tape yesterday's 4th show from the Capitol. I was impressed with Aretha Franklin who can still show why she is the Queen of Soul and Barry Manilow strutted his stuff.
The President even had a prerecorded message. He took the time to congratulate Sesame Street on its 40th anniversary. No matter what you think of his politics he certainly is a people person:)
Please take the time to leave comments here and in any category!
milt:)
Walter Cronkite's passing.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly was a news icon. I remember seeing him live for the landing on the moon and when Kennedy was assassinated. The younger generation not only did not know him, but have no idea how he contributed to our daily lives in obtaining news on the TV and not on a computer.
milt:)
I sent this to several people, but it was not a class wide note..
ReplyDeleteI received a reply from Pam Monitto Petri which will follow.
milt:)
"We lost a true spokesman for the people and health care reform..Senator Ted Kennedy"
This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness
last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, "that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American...will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege." For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it's always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.
— Ted Kennedy
This is Pam's response to me. Of course I accept her opinion.
Please make any comments that you might have by posting them.
Thanks.
"Sorry Milt, I don't agree with the saintly perception being spun around Ted Kennedy. Death doesn't clean the slate.
AND, this account doesn't mention the gang rape thing he was "suspected" in with his nephew, Joseph Smith? Don't quite remember the story but it had to do with a party and alcohol and exactly who had done what and with whom. While I think ultimately the nephew took the heat, Teddy was involved in yet another fiasco The Kennedys have a history of burying facts surrounding incidents, why should we think we were told the whole story this time?
Socialized medicine, I'm not going to preach, is a nightmare, ask anyone who is living with it. Remember I dated Allen Rubin from Montreal? Canada has socialized medicine, I've had Canadian patients come to NY for their surgeries because in Canada they could be forced to wait 6 months to repair a broken hip. Al hates it. If you have the money to pay for your own insurance, I know it's costly, you simply receive better medical care. From what I've read, the proposed plan excludes all members of Congress, it's only meant for peons. Please read everything you can before you "back" any programs.
I know a lot of you will agree with Milt about Teddy, especially those from Mass, but to me and my friends and associates he was a privileged elitist with a very scarred past pushing agendas that don't and won't affect his family.
Pam
Milt please send this to the class for me, I have several incorrect emails on my list and those are preventing me from sending this email to anyone on the list."
Wow.......it's a good thing that an informed majority usually leads our country (unlike the election of 2000 which was mysteriously won by a loser), and be thankful that we can have different opinions without losing friends.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I believe we must have a drastic change in our views on health care...and there will be many who won't like it. However, we can't afford not to make significant changes.
I love you Pam, but I certainly can't allow your comment to go unanswered.
Well, so much for speaking no ill of the dead.
ReplyDeleteWhile their personal lives were hardly paragon -- who among us fills that bill? -- the principles which the political Kennedys espoused sought to make us all more aware of our fellows, more attuned to those less fortunate and more caring about all. We could all do worse and, too often, we do.
Hi Milt, I have heard only praise for Canadian medicine from a friend who moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchawan with her husband after surviving colon cancer. She is very happy with her doctors, with the promptness of tests and treatments and is constantly surprised at not having to deal with payment. I think there are huge problems with our current system here and that sensible reforms are needed. You can post this if you like.
ReplyDeleteGail Jensen Sanford
Milt,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your wonderful quote from Ted Kennedy. Even in his dying, he reminded us of the power we each had to bring change and to effect the times in which we live.
I would like to share a wonderful experience I had regarding Ted Kennedy. One night. I was waiting with several friends to see the midnight show at Feinsteins (Regency Hotel, New York)to see Brian Stokes Mitchell, a consumate Broadway performer, activist and neighbor. The previous show was ending and people started spiliing out of the night club while others, including myself and friends, waited at the top of the stairs for the next and last performance. I was engaged in converstion with friends when someone tugged rather hardily at my arm. I turned to see Ted Kennedy trying to get himself up the stairs, hanging on to my arm and using me as a support. I quickly went to his aid. It was quite difficult for him to handle the stairs and his torso to move in two different directions. As I helped him up the stairs, he chatted with me about the talents of Brian Stokes Mitchell and the wonderful show I was about to see. And then an amazing thing happened. As he reached the top of the stairs, the 40 or 50 or more patrons lined up for the next show, simultaneoulsly saw Ted Kennedy and burst into applause. Senator Kennedy took all this in stride, thanked me, steadied himself, and pushed off to thank everyone with a robust wave and a huge Kennedy smile, continuing on his way toward the hotel lobby. It was a wonderful moment and a quintessential New York one.
As I watched the show that night I wondered what provoked the applause. It was more than just a celebrity sighting, not at Feinsteins, celebrities are plentiful there. The audience was not unusual for New York. Mr. Mitchell's family was there, a table of eight seated next to mine also a table of eight. His father fit, but elderly and very proud of his son. And why shouldn't he be. His son, an African-Ameirican had broken race barriers on Broadway. As I looked around the audience, I noticed quite a racial and cultural mix, blacks, Hispanics, Asian, gays. And I thought back to the applause at the top of the stairs. Here was a man who fought for all of us but especially for the disenfranchised. Here in this posh New York nightclub were some of the the recipients of his life-long work. The applause was heart-felt appreciation for this man, for his brothers, for his family, for making them believe that they had a right to be a part of the American Dream. It was a night to remember.
I am a Republican, but not a conservative per se, I can't stand Bill O'Reilly, Rush, and the rest of them. I am a middle of the road on most issues, leaning to the left or right as I see the issue. My husband is a staunch conservative, guns, constitution in stone etc, we argue all the time!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't trying to politicize! I had gotten Milt's email about this "Great American", which is Milt's view, and certainly ok. I just couldn't stand one more canonizing of Kennedy. All week long the media has been praising him! I just felt "that's enough!!" so I thought I'd send out my opinion that, no, the guy wasn't this great american, he was an elitist, womanizer and a drunk..who just also happened to make his living in congress, no more a worthy or respectable a job than that of a school teacher. We all do good and bad things, I'm not a saint either and wouldn't like any historian digging in my closet. But I've never been kicked out a school, nor had any involvement with causing someone death. If any of you have been involved in a car accident that resulted in a fatality, obviously I don't mean that, unless you were married, drunk, and looking for a little action on the side!
And quickly, the illegals have taken over NY . NO ONE speaks english in NY. I am not exaggerating, it's like we are in a foreign country. I'm sorry, but enough is enough, and yes our grandparents arrived from somewhere else, but i don't hear press one for Italian, two for German.
Do you really think this stampede of illegals did or will affect Kennedy's family? He was an elitist, he was immune, his kids will be immune, these people are hard workers, yes, but low level, they are the welfare, subsidized workers that everyone else is paying for.
Well, got to stop ranting, it is what it is, and I think, sadly going down the tubes
Gail:
ReplyDeleteI'm an ophthalmologist - like most physicians, I do believe that "Sensible reforms" include things like:
1-equalizing payments (Medicare and Medicaid payments vary state to state and region to region based on POLITICS. If a treatment can be performed for X number of dollars in one region why is it that some regions get paid 2-3 times what other regions get paid? If a surgical center can do a procedure for X number of dollars, why do they pay a hospitals almost twice as much note: they did improve that - it used to be over 3X)
2-Pay for quality - Medicare pays the same in any specific region whether a physician uses the safest and most comfortable procedure or he/she uses an older riskier procedure. If they paid more for better equipment and procedures, that would save on the cost of fixing complications
3-Tort reform - although as politicians cite, malpractice premiums are not a large percentage of total healthcare cost (though they are by no means insignificant), what really costs are things like patients going into a hospital ER for a headache and getting an MRI because if they miss the rare brain tumor, they know they've already lost any lawsuit. This also goes beyond healthcare - why should landowners be subject to lawsuits if someone trips on their property? - why should McDonalds be subject to lawsuit when they serve a hot cup of coffee? Any by the way, why should justice be so expensive to the average person - why can't we have a justice system like Canada?
4-elimination of subsidies - for years, there have been subsidies to the HMOs such that for Medicare patients, the government cost per capita has been some 15% higher for Medicare HMO patients than patients on Medicare (Obama did decrease this to some 10% and stated that he will decrease this further later on)
The blog only allows certain amount of characters, so this is to be continued
Al Gordon, class of '68
5-reform of insurance policies - HMOs should come under the same regulatory rules as ordinary insurance. In our area, Geisinger HMO dropped some 5,000 Medicare HMO patients in the adjacent county around Thanksgiving several years ago giving the patients only 5-6 weeks to get other co-insurance. Patients who had developed medical conditions while on the HMO then had the issue of pre-exising conditions to deal with and were stuck paying a much higher rate. The HMO was happy to dump those patients. Ordinary insurance companies would have been prohibited from dumping patients. HMOs (at least in Pennsylvania) can do it at the end of the contract year
ReplyDelete6-Make everyone pay SOMETHING SUBSTANTIAL for their health care - I worked in an Emergency room in Troy, New York for a year while waiting for my ophthalmology program to begin - I saw the abuse of free health care. Medicaid patients regularly abused the system and bogged it down causing both delays in nescessary health care and costing the system lots of money
7- stop the regulatory bullshit - this crap about electronic medical records and electronic prescribing is nonsence. I'm sure most patients have gone to a physician only to find that the time he would have spent talking to them about their conditions is taken up by completion of the record. At the present time Medicare pays physicians based on their charting - not based on what they actually do. The important thing to the government is to code the patients. As far as Medicare patient is concerned, a glaucoma visit is a social security number followed by a visit number 92012 followed by a procedure code - perhaps a 92135, 92083 and 76514 followed by diagnosis codes - likely a 365.11, 365.04, 377.14, and a 368.43 perhaps followed by a hypertension code, an obesity code and maybe some others that I don't happen to know off the top of my head.
I agree that insurance rates are so high that they are difficult to afford and that there is a need to do something BUT how about fixing the obvious problems first - what I wrote about above would save lots of money without any consequenses. Concerning Canada, they may be OK once they diagnose a condition that needs urgent attention like your friend with colon cancer, but most times, they are slow to get the patient into diagnostic testing based on complaints, and for conditions that can wait such as cataract, the average waiting time in Ontario is well over 6 months and approaching a year. (you should also realize that the Canadian system is regulated differently from province to province - Alberta is not very rigid and many private physicians flourish there whereas in Ontario and Quebec, it is very socialized.
You pushed my button, Gail
Al Gordon, class of '68
By the way, I'm on Pam's side
ReplyDeleteAl Gordon
Class of '68 (older and wiser)
From Al Gordon Class '68 .. with permission
ReplyDeleteLast Thursday the barn frame went up. Here are some pictures of it.
I believe it was you that posted that message on the Nasson blog about Ted Kennedy. The person who recently passed away and affected me was Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary who passed away about 2 weeks ago. Peter, Paul and Mary along with Joan Baez, Phil Oaks, Bob Dylan, John Denver, Judy Collins, Jim Croce and the many, many more were symbols of the idealism and unity that our generation had. I had almost forgotten about them until I read of her death, and since then, I've been listening to their music almost constantly with Pandora radio on my Iphone (even in the office where I can hook my Iphone up to the speaker system). It's surprising how many comments I've gotten about the music. I guess many people feel the way I did. It saddens me that the present generation doesn't seem to have the same idealism and unity that we had
Here in Central Pa. we had a frost alert last night and it was 37 degrees this morning (no frost)
Take care,
Al
How Mickie Jaissle Vail's dog got her name:
ReplyDeleteWith Mickie's permission...
When Finnlet was born, at 3.5 ounces and a 10% chance of survival they had 11 puppies to name. Finnlet had a small "fin" of white on her back so they named her Finlet. After four days of emails and hearing her story (her parents were owned by really good friends) they sent a picture of her sitting in a flower pot. Bob called it puppy kryptonite! She was a tiny two month old at the time. When I asked Bob what we should name her, he said we were going to add another N, she became Ms. Finnlet. Bob was Finnish, and she was born on his birthday, no question as to the name! Bob really loved this girl and after he died she was the only reason I got up in the morning. She was with him when he passed so I know he was smothered with kisses.
milt:)
Many I am sure have either read or seen on TV some of the political news about Maine. Sally Kruger a long time resident in Maine, voiced her opinion in the editorial pages of several Maine newspapers.
ReplyDeleteWith her permission I am showing her comments...milt:)
Sally K Kruger
If you feel like posting this, here is my recent Letter to the Editor (April 6). It was sent to Portland Press Herald, the York Weekly and the Portsmouth Herald. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback, but I suppose those who disagree with me probably don't want to say so to my face. There have been no rebutting letter to the Ed so far.
To the Editor:
I am finally moved to speak out by Gov. LePage's continued lack of common sense, his poor judgment and his disregard for American history.
Among the actions that I consider deleterious to our state and, by extension, the nation, I am appalled by:
1. the effort to reduce the statute of limitations on polluters
2. the efforts to remove arsenic from the list of toxics being tested for in shellfish
3. That awful sign at the Welcome to Maine sign on I 95 that prostitutes our beautiful land for corporate pillage in the name of 'jobs'.
4. the arrogant attitude shown by the comments and proposal to dismantle the Dept of Labor and the murals.
5. His giving his daughter a job for which she is unqualified
6. His family taking tax- and tuition-relief in Florida
My list could go on.
I am disappointed that others in the Government have not distanced themselves from Gov. LePage, or publicly chastised him, or at least made an effort to rein-in his wrong-headed leadership.
It is clear we need jobs in many parts of our state. It is clear we to constrain spending, cut waste, reduce the deficit and achieve a balanced budget. But we must not lose sight of what it is about Maine that is truly valuable, and that it is based on our natural beauty, our natural resources, and our population's good sense, traditional values and a sensible work ethic balanced with honorable values.
Thank you,
Sally K. Sulloway
From Sol,Factor on an update on his search for his roots..shared with his permission...milt:)
ReplyDeletePart 1
Seeking Kin: An Ohio man born in the Shoah’s shadow searches for answers about his past
By Hillel Kuttler · March 9, 2012
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives.
BALTIMORE (JTA) -- Sol Factor recalls a happy childhood in circa-1950s Boston suburbia with his physician-father Joseph, teacher-mother Bernice and younger sister Rachel.
His first life, as Meier Pollak, who was born in 1946 near a displaced persons’ camp in Germany, remains in the ether, evasive, ever tantalizing.
Factor, who teaches Jewish history at Kent State University, near Cleveland, began poking at the holes 20 years ago in his biography. In 2007, he came close to locating the natural mother who abandoned him in Germany. Factor tracked her to Israel, but Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, notified him that she had rebuffed its intermediary efforts. Factor expresses no sadness or anger toward the woman whose postwar name he has never known.
Now, he hopes to discover any half-brothers and half-sisters who might shed light on his roots, tell him about his natural mother and even provide helpful medical information. While his early years and search are “not something I dwell on,” Factor said, assembling these pieces of his life would be valuable “so that I can share it with my children [and say], ‘This is your background.’” An Israeli adviser to Kent State’s Hillel organization last month broadcast Factor’s search on the radio program “Hamador L’chipus Krovim” (Searching for Relatives Bureau).
As to whether he has made any follow-up attempts to locate his natural mother, Factor quickly responds, “No, no, no.” But, he continued, “If by some miracle there are other children and we connect, and if she’s still alive and they say to her, ‘You really should meet this guy,’ I’m not going to fight it.”
Part 2..Sol Factor's search:
ReplyDeleteOnly in 2001 did Factor begin digging seriously into the matter, with luck helping mightily. A German exchange student in the Cleveland high school where Factor taught for 36 years was intrigued by Factor’s roots and urged his mother back in Munich to lend a hand. The woman searched local archives and uncovered the identity of Factor’s mother: Roza Pollak, who was born in 1924 in Orosken, Romania, survived Auschwitz and later lived in a displaced person’s camp in St. Ottilien, a village near Munich. Roza delivered Meier at the University of Munich’s Frauen Clinic on June 25, 1946, and was last heard from three weeks later.
Meier was taken to the Schwabing-Altersheim displaced persons’ hospital in Munich. On November 21, 1947, he was flown to New York by the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children, which gave him over to the Jewish Family and Children’s Bureau of Boston. A photograph was taken that day in the Munich airport lounge. It is the only image Factor has of his life as Meier Pollak, including the two years he lived in American foster homes before the Factors adopted him at age 4.
Factor also does not know his father’s identity. On one document, Roza listed the boy’s father as Schaier Pollak, but Factor thinks that Roza invented the name, if not the man’s entire being, because he has found no record of Schaier Pollak’s existence. A document in the files of the European Jewish Children’s Aid, Inc., states that Canada rejected the infant for immigration “because he was born out of wedlock”; the next sentence adds that “Meier is a very desirable child, irrespective of his unknown background.”
William Connelly, a technical information specialist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Survivors and Victims Resource Center, said that the circumstances of Factor’s birth and his search are not rare.
Five years ago, a woman contacted Connelly, presenting a similar background and requesting his assistance in locating her birth mother. Connelly asked an Israeli official to look into the matter. He tracked down the woman’s mother, “but she didn’t want to have contact,” Connelly recalled.
“The end of the war was a difficult time. Just because Germany surrendered, it doesn’t mean there was a cessation of outrages against human decency,” Connelly explained. “There were rapes in many of the [displaced persons’] camps. People made their way through what can only be described as a chaotic wasteland. [Factor’s] mother could have been too ill or too shattered by her experiences. There could be any number of reasons why a woman would give up her child at the end of the war.”
Factor appears at peace with the knowledge he has gained, even if it opens no further doors. But as the last interview for this article concluded, he mentioned having just been told of someone near Boston whose Romania-born mother’s data closely resembles Factor’s mother’s.
“It probably would not pan out, but you never know. He could be a half-sibling,” Factor said of a planned telephone conversation with the Boston man. “What’s ironic is that where he is living is next door to where I grew up. It would be very weird.”
Please email the writer at seekingkin@jta.org if you can help Sol Factor locate his relatives or if you would like the help of “Seeking Kin” searching for long-lost relatives and friends. Include the principal facts and your contact information in a brief (one-paragraph) email.