Of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness: ramblings

Bailey (my son's dog) goes home today. I have to say that Bailey has endeared himself to me, especially after I had him groomed and the massive hair sheds stopped. I remember how much I loved dogs now. I will actually miss him.

So much going on in the world. Today is just a ramble, no rhyme or reason. Farrah is gone. Knew it would happen, yet sad. She became a symbol of fighting a rare form of cancer with no defined cure or remission treatment. Her documented struggle was both inspiring and sad. Yet she could fly across a continent because she had money to do this. Health care coverage would not cover this in our country. For most of us, the catastrophic coverage clause would have kicked in and been maxed out. We need health care coverage NOW. And, if the government does implement a public plan as an option, Medicare as we know it should stop and be combined in the public plan.

In a country where age discrimination is not endorsed, why do we have separate health coverage for those over 65? There should just be a health coverage plan for those who do not have access to employee or group health coverage. The risk could be shared among the 42 million Medicare recipients and the 40 million uninsured. 80+ million subscribers/members of a health coverage plan would be the largest group in the US. Private plans should be allowed to offer coverage to this group also. And all health plans should be staffed by health professionals who actually have experience in health care. No bureaucrats should be allowed!

Moving on to Michael Jackson...I said this was my rambling. I remember the Jackson 5 and Micheal. Yes, I loved their music. Yes I thought Michael was a genius but his loss of childhood, his eccentricity, his obvious psychos0cial needs were unmet and not supported. No child in a normal family would have been allowed to do or participate in what he did. The enormous unstructured purchases, the lavish spending and the desire to be with children were symptoms that were allowed to go unchecked because he surrounded himself with leeches who never helped him but enabled him. A very tragic figure....a musical genius and by some accounts, a great strategist with business acumen that was contradicted by his insatiable needs. And, probably killed by a narcotic overdose administered by a physician who sadistically enjoyed being a personal doc to a very needy human being. Obviously these are all my opinions. Time will tell. I hope the media backs off and especially leaves his kids alone. They are already pontificating about doing DNA to see if these kids are really Michael's. Who cares. Let's just listen to the music and forget the rest.

Iran: too much to fathom. I feel for the Iranian people who are struggling to make their voices heard. So much going on..........

More to come.........................

Ain't Dead Yet: Joining the Voices for Freedom

When I was in college, I was very involved in the civil rights movement. I was at University of Maryland when the then Governor of Alabama, George Wallace came to speak. I was one of the hundreds who marched in a candlelight service for freedom and support of the Bill of Rights for all.

I marched in Washington during the first Bush administration for women's' rights and their right to decide their destiny in Roe vs. Wade.

Some people referred to us as ultra liberals. I refuse to be labeled anything more than a human being who cares for people. Along the way, I stopped marching and became a complacent American citizen though became more active again during the last election; not marching, but donating and ultimately voting. I am happy to say I think I have voted in all elections since the time I could vote.

I have been watching the elections in Tehran. I am on Twitter.com/nkbe. I cannot believe the use of Twitter in a way no one could imagine. It is the only way for Iranians to show/talk about the election there.

The scenes of violence as people struggle for their freedom and right to choose is unbelievably compelling to watch. For that reason, I joined a site that would add my picture from Twitter to a green wall of freedom for Iranians. To find out more, visit http://www.greenthumbnails.com/.

Support of freedom, people to people, not government telling other governments what to do, is important. It shows our support of our fellow citizens of this earth. I hope you will join me.

You see, by my writing this, and your reading this, is the purest form of our freedom. In Tehran, the government is trying to block the Internet...Iranian citizens are using Twitter to get the word out...so, here's to freedom, yours, mine, and theirs.