A healthy solution

             As I write this I’m not sure what the outcome will be of the current Republican plan to repeal and replace “Obamacare”. The media talking heads are all over the board depending on their ideological or political leanings but what I still don’t hear is any talk about actual healthcare reform. I’m talking about figuring out how to get American healthcare costs down to the international average.

            Why are Americans paying almost double the world average for pretty much the same quality care and why is the healthcare debate primarily just about who pays? If you remember my column from a few years back, I was bitching about how Obamacare was really just Corporatecare in that it mainly just focused on health insurance and provided a windfall to the companies the sell it.

            Not only was it a windfall for the insurers but it was for me as well. That’s right, I benefited from Obamacare because my income is just below the threshold and allows me to receive premium assistance. Even though I personally benefit I still think the system is way messed up. As an example when the law went into effect my insurance premium (that I only pay a fraction of) doubled in cost from the year before when I was paying the full amount. Why did that happen, it’s not like healthcare costs doubled in a year.

            Anyway for the sake of argument let’s say that the American healthcare system is broken and that any new proposals from Congress are probably just going to make it worse. So what’s the answer? Well I’m glad you asked because I think I’ve got a workable solution. No, really, listen to me.

            Before I reveal my plan let me give you some background on where my thinking comes from. Someone I know is a huge fan of the late economist Milton Friedman and has got me reading some of his theories on “Free Market” economics. In very basic terms, if the government stays out of the way and doesn’t over regulate, the consumer driven markets (and society) will do what’s best for the greater good.

            Another thing of note is that my father was a physician who sold his practice because he was tired of dealing with the insurance companies. This was back in the late Seventies so I can only imagine how much worse it’s gotten. The other thing that caused him to want to quit was the increase in malpractice lawsuits that were prevalent in the seventies. Malpractice insurance is one of the reasons that American healthcare is higher than in other countries.

            Before I go any further let me state that I think the real long term solution is Socialized Medicine but that would make us Socialist and isn’t that the same as Communists? So, since that’s off the table let’s try a compromise solution that I think everyone can live with.

            Now obviously I’m just a regular layperson, not an economist, academic, or medical professional for that matter. I can’t foresee all the ramifications or small details of my plan but I can see the problem from the consumer’s side and I think I have a simple workable solution. The other thing I want to clarify is that the solution I’m proposing is to replace the government subsidized program, not anyone’s private plans. So here goes, drum roll please.

             What I think we need is SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE! Say whaaat, isn’t that kind of boring? No, I’m talking about SPHC with a free market twist. First twist, the SP doesn’t have to be the government. The insurance companies can compete to be the sole provider but they have to agree to certain criteria. These “regulations” would include covering pre-existing conditions, tying premium increases to inflation, and most importantly, limiting their profits to a certain percentage.

            Another twist is that anyone signing up for the insurance would have to agree to “binding arbitration” instead of being able to sue the medical practitioner. This would reduce the cost of malpractice insurance and in turn reduce healthcare costs.

            And my last big twist, in the spirit of free market capitalism and globalization allows the SP to outsource the patient’s services if the local provider can’t match the price. If it’s less expensive to transport and give equal quality care to the patient in Mexico, Canada, or even the EU then so be it. If we can fill prescriptions for less out of the country then we can do that as well.

            All in all I don’t think it’s a bad plan considering it came from my twisted mind. So if you see any merit in it, send a copy to your legislator, tell your friends and family or post it on social media. Because we the consumers are what drives the free market and we should get what we pay for.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 12 of the following link. Winters Express 7/20/17

The human drive to evolve.

            Living and working in Winters I don’t get an opportunity to drive much, I usually only get in the car once a week and the extent of that drive is often just down to Vacaville. I’ve always loved driving and I’m good at it too (if I do say so myself). I started drivers training shortly after turning 15 and got my license the day I turned 16. I’ve never been in an accident and my one and only speeding ticket was when I was 18 during the Carter years when the maximum speed limit was 55 and I was doing 80 in my dad’s Mercedes. To me Driving feels natural, like the car becomes an extension of my body even to the point where a lot of my actions are “unconscious”, kind of like being on autopilot.

            I know I’m not unique when it comes to being one with the car and that’s what I want to reflect on today. Recently on one of my drives I was deep in thought as I cruised up the 505 and was thinking about human evolution. In particular I was thinking about the question of how over our million plus years of evolution we humans developed the physical and mental skills to do something like drive a car, something that’s only become possible over the last hundred years.

            How is it that my brain and body can react to an action that is happening at over 10 times the speed that I could normally run at? Where does the coordination come from to make a decision based on something that’s happening a mile ahead? Why can I make a split second decision without even thinking about it when something happens right in front of me?

                And that’s just me, an average human, driving an average car. What about racecar drivers who are doing everything even faster? Or for that matter what about flying? That takes the concept of driving to a whole other level, it’s like going from two dimensions to three dimensions by having to not only think about front and back but also up and down. How did we develop that skill set? It’s not like our ancestors were riding around on birds instead of horses.

            Or maybe they were… what if somewhere back down humanities evolutionary path our DNA combined with humanoid visitors from another planet? That would probably give us the ability to do things we wouldn’t have naturally evolved to do. OK, OK, just kidding. With the modern science of DNA testing I think alien DNA would be a big red flag. I would also hope that if we had been visited by aliens they wouldn’t have just screwed us and left. But now that I think about it, that’s actually a fairly common human trait.

            But seriously, let’s get back to human evolution. Some people worry that modern technology is changing too fast for us to keep up or that children multi-tasking on computers and phones will affect their brain development. I’m not sure about the short term effect of our rapidly changing technology but I’m confident that humans will adapt. That’s the thing about our evolutionary journey; it’s made us a very adaptable species. It’s given us the ability to go from horse power to space flight in the blink of an evolutionary eye.

            Now I bet some of you are wondering why I’m talking about evolution as a given and not considering God’s roll in this. The simple answer for me is that the theory of evolution is backed by empirical evidence and God is a product of faith. I personally believe in facts not faith but that’s just me and I know I’m still in the minority.

I think that the reconciliation between fact and faith is the next major evolutionary hurdle that humans must face if we are going to advance and survive as a species. Especially since Faith is the driving force behind most of the violent conflicts we still see in the world today, the conflicts that could possibly cause our extinction. Also the science of Human history, anatomy, and psychology is becoming almost indisputable in its explanation of how and why we got here as a species.

My hope is that the more indisputable the science, the harder it will be for rational thinking people to still believe in an all mighty higher power and that the Human drive for knowledge and truth will win the race against religions need to prove that “my God is the one God, or else”.

Oops, almost missed my exit, I shouldn’t fantasize so much while I’m driving.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 11 of the following link. Winters Express 6/22/17

The Sixties and my age of awareness.

            Today, (if you’re reading this on the actual Express publishing day) is my 60^th birthday. Let’s pause on that thought for a moment because I’ve been trying to figure out how I feel about this milestone. As most of you that know me or regularly read my columns can attest, I tend to lean towards a pessimistic view of life and getting older sure hasn’t swung the pendulum in the other direction.

            Thinking about sixty actually got me thinking about the “Sixties” and when I started to become self-aware. If you do the math, I was born in 1957 so I was just a pre-teen kid during the sixties. But isn’t that the age when you start to notice the world outside your family and to develop feelings and attitudes about life in that world.

            I’ve often wondered why I see the negative side of most things first. I think it’s because of my personal history, especially during those formative sixties. My very first recollect able memory is from 1961 when I was 3 ½ and it was the morning my baby sister died. The memory is fuzzy but I can still feel my mother’s anguish. My next major memory was 2 years later, while sitting in first grade class. An announcement came over the P.A. that we should all stop to bow our heads and pray because President Kennedy had just been killed. The main reason I remember it is because of the awkwardness I felt at not knowing how to pray.

            The sixties were also when TV news becoming more graphic. I saw images of the Vietnam War from afar and of racial suppression, murders and riots at home. There was the start of the “Cold War”, the six day war in the Middle East, and the almost war from the Cuban missile crisis. There was the evil of Sirhan Sirhan, Charles Manson, the Zodiac killer, and the My Lai Massacre. All that combined with the threat of mutually assured nuclear destruction was enough to make me want to hide under my bed for the rest of my life.

            I did poke my head out long enough to go crazy for the Beatles, the Monkees, Star Trek, and an early fascination with Playboy pinups. I also watched live when the first human walked on the moon (if it wasn’t faked) so yes, the sixties weren’t all doom and gloom but still enough to lean me towards the dark side.

            Oh, did I mention that during the sixties my father uprooted our family 3 times to follow his bliss. Not a very stable environment for an already anxious kid but what the hell, we were just baggage anyway.

            So now we have to answer the question, how did I survive almost 5 more decades without totally succumbing to the darkness? I think the answer is simply “Naive Optimism” because that’s almost always been my actions verses my thoughts. In other words, even though I think the worst of the world and I know that we’re all going to die I still say, “Today this will be OK” and go ahead anyway.

            A few examples are:   Not going to college and instead going to the school of hard knocks by becoming a door to door meat salesman.

·         Becoming a forklift driver then moving into management just because someone asked me to.

·         Getting married even though I saw my parents fail at it and I had no desire to start a family.

·         Buying a bagel shop with $2000 barrowed from credit cards because heigh, how hard can it be?

·         Giving up friends and comfort to move to California and then soon after buying a house I couldn’t afford here in Winters.

·         Giving up an easy, stable, and decent paying job to open a coffee house because there wasn’t a good place in Winters to get a cappuccino and again, how hard could it be?

·         Selling the coffee house after the economy tanked to become executive director of the dysfunctional chamber of commerce.

·         Last but not least (but hopefully last) going to work for a startup winery in an undeveloped wine region and without a sure tourism/customer draw.

            Like I said, I’m not sure how I feel about turning sixty other than not liking the real aches and pains by body feels, especially after manhandling a few cases of wine. The reality is that even though I never contemplated or imagined being sixty years old, I am, and I’m naively optimist that I will continue for another decade and I really can’t wait because if you think the Sixties were rough, wait until I tell you about the Seventies.

To view the column in it's original form go page 12 of the following link. Winters Express 6/8/17

For all the Mums out there on this special day.

            This Sunday is Mother’s Day and I was wondering why this isn’t the biggest holiday of the year. Aren’t mothers more important than dead Presidents or fallen warriors? Why do religious holidays take precedence over the ones who give us life? Shouldn’t the fireworks celebrations be for the woman who birthed us instead of the birth of our nation? Even a silly moment where we transition from one year to the next is taken more seriously than Mother’s Day.  What I’m saying is that Mothers should be the most important thing in the whole world, isn’t that why it’s called Mother Earth?

            I think the reason Mother’s Day isn’t a high priority is because just like many of our own mothers we take it for granted. That’s right, I said it, I take my mother for granted. But then again why wouldn’t I? For as far back as I can remember she’s always been there for me.

            In my columns, I’ve never really written about my mother, tending to focus on my father instead. I always thought that I took after him more than her, physically or genetically that may be true but I realize now that I’ve got a lot of my mother in me and it’s mainly in my head. Not like crazy in the head but more like in the calm steadiness of mind and a realistic view of life.

My mother is a straight shooter, not afraid to ask tough questions or voice her opinions. At 87 years old she’s politically, socially, & environmentally active. On any given day you’ll find her driving her Prius to the gym or a meeting of the local Democratic club or helping other seniors with social services needs. In her spare time when she’s not painting water colors she’s ushering at the theater or leading hikes for the Sierra Club or just spending time with her much younger boy friend.

I guess all that activity is part of the reason I take her for granted, meaning that I don’t really worry about her. If anything, she still worries about me. I just finished reading an article she sent me in the mail about adolescent Marijuana use and its effect on brain development, so yes mother I know, I shouldn’t have smoked so much pot in high school.

I was listening to NPR a few days ago and the commentator was saying about her own mother that as far as she was concerned her mother’s life didn’t exist before she was born. Of course my mother had a life before motherhood; I just don’t know that much about it. What I know is that she was born in the north of Argentina, across the river from Paraguay where her grandfather owned a Mate’ plantation. She grew up and went to school in Buenos Aires, after graduation she traveled to Europe with her mother, meets a guy and almost got married. Back in Argentina she met my father who was a friend of her brother’s and after a short courtship marries him. She got pregnant and had my older brother a couple of months after turning 25. My parents then immigrate to the U.S.A. and after a year or so I became the first American born Lis, THE END.

Like I said, as far as I’m concerned her non-mom life ended when mine began. It’s been all about me (and my siblings) for the last 60 years and I didn’t make it easy for her. It’s not that I was a troublesome child; it’s more about becoming emotionally distant as I got older. I remember as a kid something that in Spanish we called “mimos” where I would lay with my head in my mother’s lap and she would stroke my forehead, nothing since has ever felt so soothing. Unfortunately I became a teenager and started to rebel, then my parents divorced and my mother moved to California while I stayed in Michigan with my father.

For the next 20 years I just had a long distance relationship with my “Mums”. We would call each other on birthdays and holidays, I would fly out to visit every few years and that was it. That’s why I say that I get some of my emotional traits from her in that neither one of us felt the need for more contact than what we had. Even now that I live much closer we still don’t see each other all that much but that’s what’s great about our relationship in that we’re OK with it because we have unconditional love and that’s all that anybody needs.

           So on this most special of holidays, whether you’re with your mother or she’s with you at a distance or in memory, say thanks because none of us would be anything without our Mums.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 18 of the following link. Winters Express 5/11/17

From Infamy to Respect through Forgiveness.

             This last December 7^th was the 75^th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. All the news and commentary got me thinking about all sorts of things related to world and American politics. Those of you that are familiar with me and my writings know that I tend to lean towards a negative or pessimistic view of things. That’s why it will come as a surprise to you, almost as much as it did to me, that the reminder of that tragic “day that will live in infamy” actually brought me hope for the future of mankind.

            Before I explain, let’s do a quick recap. The “sneak” attack on the naval base in Hawaii killed over 2000 Americans and forced the United States into World War II. Over the next 4 years in the Pacific, thousands more from both sides were killed. There were countless battles big and small with dehumanizing actions and rhetoric from all parties involved. This all culminated in the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japanese cities that killed another 130,000 people effectively ending the war.

            That was the war against Japan, the war in Europe had an even greater toll and if you combine them the total deaths of civilians and military equaled 3% of the total world population of the time. It was also just an average human life span ago, so really not that much time has passed.

            So how is it that the death of millions of people just three generations ago gives me hope? In a nutshell, it’s called forgiveness. If you think about the men and women that were most affected, most involved, that group that’s been labeled “the greatest generation”, not only did they sacrifice but then they helped rebuild their enemies.

            Japan and Germany are now two of our closest allies in world politics, economy, and culture. That couldn’t have happened if everyone had held on to their pain and anger or just wanted to subjugate the defeated. I think it’s a bright spot in our national history and something that shouldn’t be forgotten, especial in this time of polarized national politics.

            Like the old adage goes, to err is human to forgive divine. Not only is forgiveness divine, it’s also hard work and somewhat counter intuitive. I know this from personal experience, first with my father whom I blamed for so many things in my youth. It took me years of therapy and more than a few emotional confrontations with him before I was willing to forgive. It also took me a few years to forgive my best friend who fired me after 11 years of working together. And sure I know that forgiving friends and family is hardly comparable with forgiving someone who tried to kill you but hey I’ve got to try and relate somehow.

            So knowing that in the past, collectively, as a nation, we’ve had the capacity to forgive our enemies, I wonder can this generation do that. I think about a phrase that’s been uttered countless times over the last 16 years, “Never Forget”. I totally understand the need to remember and commemorate those involved in national tragedies, but I think that for many Americans “never forget” equals never forgive. At what point are we going to stop blaming all Muslims and Arabs for what a radical few did on 9/11?

            And what about here in the United States? Can we forgive the police for the actions of a few bad cops? Can we stop stereotyping all black men for that same action of a few thugs and drug addicts? Can we quit blaming the rich for the plight of the poor or for that matter can we stop blaming the poor for being poor?

            In my opinion, one of the major steps to forgiveness is to take responsibility or at the very least stop blaming others. Let’s collectively own up to our part in this dysfunctional two party political mess we have in Washington. Through ignorance, greed, intolerance, and just plain laziness, we’ve let ourselves get pitted against each other and against our own self interest.

            Now is the time to forgive our neighbors and ourselves for what we’ve done in the past and to move forward in a positive way. It’s a new year, a new administration, and a totally new unknown. I personally didn’t vote for Donald Trump for many reasons but he being a Washington outsider wasn’t one of them.

I will give him the respect and the time to prove himself with his actions. Because as I can attest based on what I get paid for these columns, talk is cheap.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 16 of the following link. Winters Express 1/26/17

The All American-Super-Championship-Series.

             I’m not much of a sports fan and I don’t have any teams that I regularly follow or root for. I know this is in part because my father was an immigrant who wasn’t into American sports and he also wasn’t very athletic. I remember once as a kid seeing him kick around a soccer ball and yes I mean once, that was it.

            In school I was never encouraged (or discouraged) to play sports. I went to a very small Junior & High School where there were hardly enough willing students to even make up a team. Our basket ball teams were a joke and our soccer team was co-ed. I did play for a couple of years but like my father I also wasn’t very athletic and didn’t see the fun in loosing or practicing or being yelled at by the coach.

            Eventually in High School my friends and I took up smoking, both cigarettes and pot so any thoughts of physically running around literally went up in smoke. About the most athletic thing we did was pass a joint, oh and occasionally toss around a Frisbee.

            In my early 20’s I started working for a friend’s family business and most of his family were University of Michigan alumni. The sales manager had been a kicker on the U of M football team and they were all huge fans. The company had season tickets on the 50 yard line and access to a parking lot a half block from the stadium so I got to go to a few games a year. It was fun, on crisp fall Saturday afternoons we would wear our Maze & Blue hats and jackets, bring food & drinks for tailgating and then join over 100 thousand people in the stadium to watch Michigan Football.

            When you’re surrounded by 100,000 excited fans it hard not to get caught up in the excitement as well. So yes, I cheered, yelled, booed, sang “Hail to the Victors” and even did the wave. It was fun and I was happy when “our team” won and disappointed, even a little sad when they lost. But unlike the diehard fans around me, winning or losing didn’t make or break my day, week, year, or life. It was just a game of which I had absolutely no control over no matter how much I yelled and cheered. It was a few hours of emotion filled entertainment, then on with real life.

            Other than the fact that Michigan just lost to “our” arch rivals Ohio State in an exciting double overtime game, why am I writing about sports? Because watching that game and thinking about the competition between teams from different schools, cities, and states that is such a part of American life made me realize that we just witnessed one of the greatest spectacles of our lives.

            Let’s call it “The All American-Super-Championship-Series”, that event so big we can only handle it every 4 years, the event that should be called “The Running of the Bullshit”, that national competition for the presidency of these here United States of America. Oh, and don’t forget the winner also get to be the “unelected” symbolic Leader of the Free World.

            That’s right, the election we just had was just a big friggin game. First we had all the players jockeying for position, then we had a year of playoffs where we picked the champions of the red team and blue team. The champs picked their co-captains and then we were off and running. They faced off in debates, gave speeches and rallied the faithful around the country. The pundits, commentators, and pollsters (as well as our friends on Facebook) told us who was winning or losing and why.

            Then on the final day of play, we the fans got to vote for our favorite team or maybe just vote against the other team. I say team because the reality is that many of us would rather have had someone else leading our team but we lost those preliminary games months ago. We watched the results come in and it was a nail biter. In the end, for one side it felt like an upset loose, for the other it felt like justice and vindication. For me it was just relief that the game was finally over.

So just like after one of those big emotional games in Ann Arbor, the next morning I got up made my coffee and went about life as usual, comforted in the thought that no matter win or lose there was a new season and a whole new ball game just around the corner, oh joy.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 17 of the following link. Winters Express 12/29/16

On Death, Driving, & the Digital Age.

             Today (as I write this) is the 14^th anniversary of my father’s death and it gives me one more reason to think about death. I don’t know what it is about me but I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t for one reason or another reflect on my own mortality. Sometimes I wonder if it has to do with my lack of religious belief. I don’t believe in heaven, hell, or an afterlife so I know that this is it, my one shot, my only life. I also know firsthand that life can be cut short with one sister dying at one month of age and another at 15 years old.

            You would think that with that attitude and experience I would be one to live life to the fullest. Unfortunately you would be wrong because I just live life on cruise control and at this point I’m closer to the end of the road than the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t and hasn’t been a bad or too bumpy of a ride but on the other hand it hasn’t been all that great either. Sometimes it feels like I’m spinning my wheels, driving in circles, stuck in a rut, or just plain not getting very far. Other times I wonder how did I get here so fast and who the hell was driving?

            To continue with the driving metaphor, my life’s always been like bumper cars, go until you hit an obstacle then just head off in another direction until you bump again. That’s been the dance of my life, cruise – bump – turn –cruise – bump – turn, over and over. What I never thought about while cruising down the road was that some cars come equipped with GPS. All you have to do is enter a destination and follow it until you get there, yea right, life is that simple.

            My problem is that I’ve always known that the final destination is just that, and I’m in no hurry to get there so I’ve just been taking a leisurely drive, sometimes taking the high road other times the low road. Nowadays that drive also includes the “Digital Highway” so let’s explore that road a little as well.

 Recently a good friend of mine’s older sister whom I’d known since I was a teenager died of cancer. She was a wonderful person and even though I hadn’t seen her in years I kept up on her with Facebook. Last year when she was diagnosed with cancer she posted it on Facebook and continued to post about her treatments and how she was feeling. This spring she posted that she had decided to stop treatments and just wanted to enjoy her family and friends in the time she had left. On August 20^th her brothers posted on Facebook that Mary had peacefully passed away and that’s how I learned about it.

That whole experience seemed kind of weird to me because traditionally death and dying has been mostly a private thing for the family and close friends. Now with the advent of social media it has become much more public. I’m not just talking about a natural death like Mary’s but also all the crazy police shootings posted from cell phones, the child refugee drowning, the collateral damage from bombings in war zones, and even the terrorist beheading videos. It feels like its nonstop death 24/7, no wonder I’m always thinking about it.

Another weird thing about death and social media is what does or doesn’t happen after you die. Since I started on Facebook in 2009 I’ve had four of my facebook friends die. Two of them still have profiles up, one of which reminded me to wish her a happy birthday this year even though she died 2 years ago. The other 2 have disappeared as if they never existed which is also kind of strange, in the conversations archives they are just labeled as a faceless “facebook user”.

          One of the things I wonder about when I’m pondering my mortality is my legacy or maybe lack thereof.  I never had any children so there won’t be any kind of genetic line carried on but what I do have is all these columns I’ve written for the Winters Express. Since I’ve posted all of them to the internet they should “live on” forever or at least until someone or something pulls the plug.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 17 of the following link. Winters Express 11/17/16