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Tag Archives: As I see It

No More


No More sound bites, buzzwords, catch phrases please! These snippets do  more to obscure and obfuscate the facts than an outright lie. It appears that the media and the people who write or invent these snippets seem to think that the readers are unable to understand a complete thought or sentence. The politicians for years have hired writers who in their push to grab headlines write like ad writers (no offense). Ad writers express ideas to get your attention as they have a limited time to get your attention (often seconds). This writing method has  crossed over to political writers who through the attention grabbing style of writing tell the public nothing but hint at something which leads to speculation and self-definition based on innate biases. Apparently truth is not as comfortable as a lie (we should recognize that as we have been hearing it from legislators for years). It is unfortunate that telling lies and  shading the truth has become the order of the day for many folks running for office. If your message cannot stand alone then perhaps it’s not a good message or its incorrect according to public sense. The electronic age has brought us to the point of receiving these  targeted messages seemingly forever. We see them online when we do anything, on the tube, in movies and on and on. We need to smarten up and recognize what we are receiving daily in the most innocent ways. Our electronic devices may just be our worst enemies.

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Hard To Find Justice


The path to justice has many side roads, yet these side roads have travelers who through their various views do not see the clear path until the unthinkable happens, then it is still difficult for them to see that their destination is the same. These divergent beginnings often do not immediately allow for a connection which could  lead to a unified front bringing about a permanent and just solution. Even when the sides agree there is still the original anti part of the agreement which colors the known facts and evidence. This applies to many areas such as Politics, race relations, religious issues and human relations. Let’s have Justice for all or justice for none, there is no middle ground. 

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Eye For An Eye


I just had cataract surgery on both eyes ( one at a time), results are very good. I would like to commend the staff in recovery and surgery as well the Surgeon. The staff at the Springfield clinic are all great and always  do a great job. My little issue with the clinic in general are the surveys you get after a visit or procedure. This survey appears to one of the many designed to provide information to the administrators or higher-ups who may or may not be  medically trained. These surveys in my opinion are useless in that they do not directly relate to the staff involved in the procedure so I have decided not to reply to them. A survey to get general information is kind of useless as there is no specificity on the staff. In this case there should be some questions or opinions related to the individual parts of the surgery. The surgery consists of a receptionist who checks you in, verifying who you are and why you are there (she or he already has this information on-screen in front of them but this is part of the check system). After that you see another  check in person who also verifies who you are and why you are there along with who is there with you. At that time the person with you receives a pager so they can be notified  when you are in recovery. Next  you see  what I call the prep nurse who again verifies who you and what you are there for. At this point you are outfitted with the remarkable and appropriate hospital wear (you know-the open back gowns that everyone loves), insert an IV line if required. Again all information is verified. This seems like a lot of  informational repetition but suppose at any point this was not done, things could go really wrong! Next up an anesthetist who verifies who you and what you are having done while telling you what state of consciousness you will be in and that some will be there to monitor your state at all times, this includes your oxygen levels, BP and the effect of the anesthesia. The surgery, well you usually do not know what’s happening there but consider that you wake up in recovery (a good sign) and some of the same questions come around again. Once you are fairly lucid you are offered a drink and perhaps a snack until you completely aware of what’s going on around you and where you are. After everyone is sure you ae able to understand what is happening you are allowed to leave. The next day you will receive a phone call asking how you are. None of these areas are covered on the “survey” which makes the survey in my opinion a waste of paper, postage and not much use in evaluating the real story, that is the story of the staff who actually  take care of you before, after and during your short stay.

You Never Had To


Americans who are what I call regular people are the Americans who grew up white may or may not understand the following statement: “You never had to face discrimination due to skin color so you do not understand what it’s like”. The reason for this is that you as normal people are color blind and are reminded sometimes of color or ethnicity when it is put before you. This is not a failing  but more a lack of exposure to the issues  that face non white Americans. We all hear and see the same news and information from the same sources generally but there are pockets of information on both sides that would enlighten and unite us all as Americans. The title “American” should be worn with pride by all of us and unfortunately we have allowed our leaders to keep an implied or even specified difference between us aside from the natural differences inherent in all humans. These implications are what has allowed the rise of the Donald Trumps as viable candidates for the Presidency of the United States. Those of you old enough to look backwards a number of election cycles will understand that our two-party system is flawed and too often do produce the best leaders (not necessarily the President) via the Congress. The real problems in a Democracy is  weakest when  the people we elect to serve are allowed to remain too long in office and then cross over the private sector to further influence the lawmaking process. Our true power as voters is to forget the hot button issues and buzzwords such as Race, religion and citizenry but to look at the long serving legislators who so easily use “the American People” as a reason for not doing their job. If you were able to get a straight answer from any of them you would find that they have not asked too many of “the American people” for their opinion. This is a classic case of “when I want your opinion, I will give it to you”. Our focus as “Americans” is to begin the process of reasonable assessment of our legislative leaders at the State and Federal levels and ignore the reality show atmosphere of modern politics. Beware of the man behind the curtain.

Veterans Administration


The VA has been in the news regularly with some misinformation, some real information and some vague information. The facts are hard to find and even looking at the website, many times information is illusive. The reports and stories about lack of or poor service to vets all over the country are for the most part true. The real issues lie with the Congress of the United States. These are the same 535 who have done little or nothing of merit for the past 10 plus years yet extol their accomplishments at election time.  There are some areas where the VA shines but usually they are located near a major city with a large Hospital presence (civilian or military) or a major military base. The problems are with the outlying facilities that just have an out patient presence or no good connection with local medical facilities. The Medical staffers are as frustrated as the veterans as their hands are tied by what ever rules are in place and often they are uninformed on new procedures or methodology. One area where the failure has occurred is the check in process, it took over a year to get the ID card kiosk to function properly and even as changes were made , all facilities were not online at the same time. The learning curve is steep since the how to’s are not completely formed until after they are rolled out and then the mad scramble to fix it begins. Meanwhile  the medical staff and their clients flounder in the surf of incompetence from above. Medical professional leave in frustration, others remain because of the nearness of retirement and out of duty. The rules are more like laundry list in Chinese (unreadable) and takes a seminar to understand them. All of this because we have a Congress that has the habit of not reading  or being properly read into the rules or laws governing the care of veterans who have given so much in actions sanctioned by the same Congress who do little beyond offering  lip service between elections. I compare our current Congress to the “pointy haired” boss in a nationally known Cartoon strip, clueless!

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Rape As A Tool


Recently a Presidential candidate spoke about immigrants being rapists. This sentiment has been brought forth before in the words of segregationist whites who stated with complete confidence (but no proof) that Black men will rape White women and thereby cementing the idea of the evilness of Blacks. This sentiment was apparent in ancient times and recent times until today with the various mini wars around the world. To get back to the American Black white rape deal, does anyone remember or chose to remember how many times Black women were raped when captured in Africa, on board the slave ships and after reaching America on the plantations. Since the White masters felt they were better than the Slaves they “owned”, there was no guilt associated and the general population paid no mind because the Blacks were considered sub-human. So what made these “master” and the populace in general fear the Black male so much? Could it be an innate “human Guilt”?  The Rapes were used as a tool to control the population of slaves by demeaning them as people and a control (This is the same method used on native Americans during the “settling” of the West). The long-range effect is and has been a long line of mixed race folks whose original ancestry is often lost to the ages due to poor record keeping possible on purpose or through ignorance. The best that can be said is that we are all Americans   and the bias minded Americans need to get over it and move into this Century.

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Demagogues, Witch hunters and Charlatans


It has become clear to me that many current and past well known figures in politics and the public eye are not who they purport to be. We have over the years been enthralled or distracted by seemingly larger than life figures who have turned out to be less than most of us ordinary people. We have had Jim Jones (Jonestown) who induced hundreds to commit suicide or be murdered , Senator Mc Carthy who sent the nation on “red” witch hunt and ruined lives, We had Several Evangelicals who fell from grace after information on their personal and financial misdeeds came to light, we have had several Federal legislators ousted and imprisoned over  official and personal misdeeds. Years ago in the 1600’s we had the “Salem Witch Trials”. All of these things have to do with people who took upon them selves the mantle of  leadership under the guise of administering justice and religious right. Our current political climate appears to be running in the same vein. We have a congress lead by Right wingers who without our explicit consent doing what “they” want and ascribing it to the “American people”. We have a leading Presidential aspirant with unknown affiliation or motivation who has excited the angriest (gullible?) elements of the country into a mob who are covered with a blanket of hate for anyone not like them in mindset and skin color. This is the same type of mass sentiment that created the witch hunts ala Salem and the McCarthy eras. It is of great concern to me that the media coverage no matter how the middle of the road is flavored and often overshadowed by  the extremes of the right and left of center outlets. With all of the truth being available not enough people avail themselves of it and become entrapped by the Demagogues, witch hunters and charlatans whose sole purpose is to incite discord which in turn hides their own agendas which do  include the good of anyone but themselves and their cohorts. Remember the following Names: Joe McCarthy, Dennis Hastert, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Spiro Agnew, Jim Jones, Cotton Mather, Tom Delay and many others. They have all been (or are currently)  high in the public eye and (or will fall) fell after their true nature or purpose is exposed. If we become and remain vigilant we will be wary when the lies sound like the truth according to someone with a high public profile.

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Snake Oil


Listening to NPR news this morning there was segment of an interview with Mitch McConnell. This inter view was much like listening to a snake oil salesman. The questions while being straight forward were answered the way you would expect a not so honest person to respond. Mr. McConnell came through with flying colors. His responses while being extensive were not true answers as much as they were talking points. His use of the phrase the “American People” has been a mainstay of his party for years but only means the people we can fool. Mr. McConnell is a polished speaker but an inveterate liar whose sole objective is and has been for years to gain power in the Congress. Now that he has it he will do no good for the country as a whole. His remaining in the Senate is a tacit OK to poor government and a unilateral shift to the right which will impact us all for years to come and in no good ways. It is unfortunate that his disciples fail to see the true face if their hero.

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Disrepected by 535


The Presidential race is an issue in its self. The uproar over Hillary Clintons emails and servers has been blown way out of proportion. No one is investigating the previous Secretaries of state (Condoleezza Wright and Colin Powell) for their use of private servers, apparently its ok for one political party but not for the other or is this just another part of the dirty politics we are experiencing ? If we the people (voters) allow these political misdeeds to continue then shame on us! It is understandable that a lot of us (if not all) are angry and dissatisfied with our government and have been for a long time but that anger is misplaced. The energy in that anger needs to be placed on the doorstep of our Congress. These are the culprits in our broken politics. For too many years we have voted these people in without questioning what they are doing and have done, all the while they have mislead us and made us like it. How many coal miners lives have been lost due to the personal ambitions of their representatives? How many disasters and climatic problems could have been avoided or lessened by these representatives if they spent less time politicking and setting up their future lives with their “cronyism” ? The easy yet seeming hard question is are we willing to take a stand and vote against these political ne’er do wells and begin the shift to a more practical government much like the one offered (or perhaps required) by the Constitution? There will be no major shift towards better government until we demand it in the voting booth. Keep in mind that change in government does not begin or end with the President, it begins and ends with the Congress and if we do not take a stand against them then our fate is tied to 535 reckless and often feckless representatives.  The current vile and vicious language of the Presidential race is not a joke and we need to rise above the awful, hateful rhetoric to understand who we really need to elect even if that choice is not our primary one. Remember we have a broken Congress and we need to understand that whoever is in the Oval office will not prosper until we begin with election to replace the  535 seat fillers who have demeaned the office for years and at our behest.

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Validation


The ongoing tragedy of Veterans care explained in a recent interview with researchers into the issue. It appears that our noteworthy? Congress mandated a change in procedure  (outsourcing care to local civilian medical facilities) but only gave 90 days (3 months) to get it done. Several prospective providers declined due to the small window of time provided. The companies that accepted the challenge are still struggling to implement the system. The Congress has been on the attack against these companies for failing but the failure is on the heads of Congress for not understanding what was involved in a huge undertaking such as this. Their intent was good but flawed , this is indicative of the offhand manner of legislating for “the American people”  they are so fond of citing. Our veterans have been suffering for years with poor medical treatment but not from medical staff but from the oppressively convoluted system of administration. The medical staff suffers as much as the Veterans since they have to follow the often inept and seemingly insane rules. This was supposed to make getting medical care easy to get in areas where there was or is no VA full service  medical assistance, instead we have the same clusterflak that brought us to this stage. There is no reason a veteran should have to travel 500 miles for treatment when there are qualified facilities within a 2 to 10 mile range. In Illinois there is a full VA medical complex in the St. Louis Area and Chicago but people are sent to Danville and often to Indianapolis (if Danville cannot take care of them). There is a provision for travel expenses but that system is not working that well either. The current news covers the upcoming Presidential election but if we do not pay attention to the smaller races  for Congressional seats we are failing make the needed changes in Government. The validation is that I have talked about this before but apparently no one is listening. I am a vet and fortunately do not have the serious illnesses suffered by others but I have had conversations with many and the stories you have heard are true. My experience was a series of appointments cancelled, reset and cancelled (one with no notice) and provider  changes . For a moment look at the plight of the providers, they get the brunt of the abuse being the “front line”. This role causes turnover and poor service. Whether you are a vet or if you know one, you need to be aware that our Congress is more at fault for many of the countries issue being unresolved or under resolved than any President we elect.

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