Why is this?

It seems that even the mention of President Obama in any context evokes seizures and spastic utterings. These were the White House Choices of the Medal of Freedom, as with any administration's.

I was surprised at the comments.

Patient No.5

Patient No. 5 - I am here for my 2 o'clock appointment.
Receptionist - Sign in and have a seat.

5 minutes later

Receptionist - Patient No.5!... I need your referral and Insurance ID.

Patient No.5 - My referral should be in the system.

Gives receptionist ID and she says, " Sir, you will need to call your doctor, because it is not in the system and have them fax the referral to us.

Patient No.5 calls his doctor and his receptionist tells Patient No.5 that their last submission has been rejected, because his insurance has been canceled. He tries not to lose his cool and ask that his records be checked again. Again the same answer. He is seeing the doctor for a test, he'll see if he can be billed for the test until he straightens his insurance out. The receptionist tells him they cannot bill but he could use his credit card. Wishing not to use his card, he cancels this appointment and reschedules, with the hope that everything will be OK by the time of the next appointment.

When he arrives home and listens to his voice mail. He had missed his doctor's call. He knew that his employer had change their coverage, didn't change insurances, though. How did he fall through the cracks? It must be that the stars had converged to create this bad karma.

Patient NO.5 calls insurance company and tells the representative what has happened. The rep gets his personal information, pulls up the account and tells him that he's been dropped because of a pre-existing condition,

Patient No.5 - That can't be, I have not changed companies, there is a law.

Ins. Rep - Sir, that has not been the case since 2012, regulation governing health insurance had been rescinded. We sent you that info, when we sent your statement of benefits.

Patient No.5 - I want to speak to No. 1.

No.2 - May I help you, Sir.

Patient No.5 - Are you No.1?

No.2 - No! ...

Patient No.5 thinks to himself that he fairly well off, he will do some shopping and after all there is Medicare. Hangs up, downloads a list and proceeds to call the first. The list is rather short, since in the last decade there has been much consolidation. After he's interviewed by the last on his list, he realizes that he can not afford the coverage to include his precondition or he cannot be insured. Since he is 65, and he thinks that program has to take him, although he abhors public insurance, but he has no choice, that test is essential. He calls and finds out that the age he would be eligible had been raised to 70. He had not been paying attention, since what he favored, free market health care with no government influence to skew the system, lower to no taxes on his income and the government he longed for was in power.

Hospital Clerk - PATIENT NO.5!

Patient No.5 - YO!

Shouting is necessary to be heard over the crowd.

Urban Renewal

In recent years "Urban Renewal" had been tagged "Black Removal," because most neighborhoods that were effected were Black, usually mixed income. When I was young most black people hadn't caught on to the gimmick. We truly believed we would get a fair price for our property and that when the highway was built there would be new homes built and low income and moderate housing would be in the mix. This was supposed to improve the neighborhood. In my home town, there were a few apartments built and homes for the aged, but no invigorated neighborhood; that didn't happen until 40 years later when gentrification came. In order to fill in the highway for over 50 miles, not only were homes razed, but two hills. The terrain was totally changed, so the 8 square block area in which I lived disappeared. I can not drive or walk by the old house, show my son where I went to elementary school or walk around the river where one hill was cliff like. I think the pictures that my father had taken years earlier in the thirties were thrown out when my parents had to move to assisted living. There may be one surviving picture of my younger sister and bother with our cousin in front of the house. Not only did that change the neighborhood, the highway changed the city from a walking city to a city like the suburbs. It also disperse black people and created new neighborhoods that would further isolate the poor and create instability. Over time even those neighborhoods became gentrified and the poor Black folks seem to disappear.

I can not go home.

A reader had sent me an e-mail to tell me about a neighbor who had suffered form being displaced from New Orleans and recommends that I read this article, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans. The author William River Pitt, describes the feeling of missing his home and describes the events surrounding hurricane Katrina, then laments the hole left in the Ninth Ward and how New Orleans has changed since this catastrophe.

What does it mean to miss New Orleans? It means knowing that one of the most golden citadels of our shared history - a cradle of multiculturalism, the birthplace of jazz, seed corn of so much that is America - was allowed to die of neglect, disdain, racism, greed and simple stupidity right before our eyes. A city stands where New Orleans once was, but it is not New Orleans, not really.

After Katrina there were many blog voices bashing the poor with all the trite, racist and ignorant assumptions. There was no understanding of the make up of the population of New Orleans, it was seen as a Southern Disneyland, albeit a salacious one. They didn't see any middle class folk as victims of the storm or how most could not rebuild, because insurance companies reneged. They were also blind to folks that were working class or working poor who owned and lost property to the hurricane. They projected the whole of the city as dependent and helpless, because they have been coddled by the government. Their code words implied black folk on welfare, undeserving of any help. This prevented many from seeing victims as they were. This was done while some were saying donate to the Salvation Army or Red Cross. The survivalist came out of the woodwork convinced they would have been heroes. These were such strange messages. I am not saying that there not any bloggers who were speaking the truth about the victims, but it was far too much Katrina victim bashing. I think it had a great impact on how the city was treated and the ineffective governing and policy making could always be shifted to the moral failure of the citizens of New Orleans. I have seen this theme reoccur over four years and expect to see more of it as the anniversary gets close.

William River Pitt said: "All that was the city, all that it gave this country, and so many of the people who lived there, are gone forever. " His city has disappeared. In time, I think sooner than forty years it will become gentrified and the folk who lived in the Ninth Ward will have disappeared and been fogotten. A highway will not have caused Urban Renewal, but a Cat 5 hurricane.

HT JK

As the day goes on, the angrier I get

Salvidor Dali. Crucifixion or Corpus Hypercubicus.1954

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

This morning a white blogger whom I know and a white co-worker were upset over the President's words. I guess many white people were offended or felt embarrassed. This afternoon the President had smoothed over his words.

12 hours they were upset. You know I been upset by racism since I was four. Sixty years and when I have a tendency to forget, there is always something, someone or some incident to remind me.

There was nothing to smooth over. Apparently they didn't understand that the president qualified his statement or the difference between an adverb and a adjective. This is not Jim Crow or slavery where we always, in fear of harsh repercussions, had to make sure white folks were never slighted or even slightly offended.

Black folks are often told that we are way too sensitive. White folks should practice what they preach.

Intuition

noun
the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.
Concise Oxford English Dictionary

This is not a paranormal ability, the understanding comes from experience. From the day we are born our minds are learning, creating connections, and storing important survival knowledge. Our eye give us cues that we are getting close to an edge of a precipice, our noses tell us where there is smoke there's fire and we feel heat as we approach something hot.

We usually don't think of emotion as a sense, but we learn from our reactions to words and deeds, a way to avoid the unpleasant actions. The caustic intonation, the contortion of a face and an aggressive body movement have been learned as a source of distress.

When everyone has been hardwired, so to speak, why do some people have to be smacked in the face with an action, to believe what others have been intuitively saying?

Imagine Today

Draft of the Declaration of Independence
More about draft

This document was written on this desk in 1776.

Portable Writing Desk

Imagine Today

Bamboo Laptop

HT: The Strange Death of Liberal America

Michael Jackson August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

Keyboard
destitute_films
Creative Commons Some rights reserved

Let his light never be extinguished.

Be careful for what you wish for.

I have read some information about the election in Iran and the protest that have followed. Granted that I don't believe the elections were fair and I am upset about those murdered, but I would be cautious in supporting their cause.

There are many blogger who see this as a call to democracy and freedom, the Green Revolution. They see the government's repression as naturally giving the protesters righteousness. I have no problem of those who give the protesters the means to speak, but outside of understanding that they think they have been robbed of an election, I have no idea what kind of government they want.

I question who is this reformer; is he indeed a reformer or the lesser of two evils who would give only superficial appearances? I remember the fervor in which the young people and women embraced the Ayatollah Khomeini after the repressive regime of the Shah. What followed was a disaster in my eyes, something I could not support. The cause just replaced one form of oppression with another. It was another set of people being murdered, not so much of the old political dissidents, but women.

A more rigorous examination.

And your point is?

After the shooting at the Holocaust Museum and the murder of one of the guards, Stephen Tyrone Jonhs, I see responses from bloggers like this and this.

A man is murdered and their response is blame the Negro.

I'm Cold

Today was rainy and warm. At times a heavy downpour. It was the kind of rain one could enjoy sitting on a screened-in porch. The rain was not the kind I wanted to drive in, but none the less I had too.

When I entered my building it was cool and soon as I walked back to my workstation the cold temperature and dampness hit me. A few hours latter, my legs were achy. Later that afternoon I noticed the temperature, 69 degrees F. For me this is cold. It isn't like being outside with the sun shining, generating a little warmth on my skin. It is like being in a cold rain, soaked to the skin.

All day I kept thinking about retirement and that soon I can be warm or be able to keep warm. I was seriously thinking about going to personnel and signing the papers to retire, although I have three months to go. The nineteen years I have work at this place I have hardly ever been comfortable. I am cold all year long. The older I get the less I can tolerate the coldness. I have always tolerated a lot of heat as long as the humidity was low. I grew up without air conditioning and remember the Five and Dime had only ceiling fans in the summer. Now everywhere seems super cold in summer. As for work, I'm sick and tired of being sick and cold.