a subset of derek

But the fact of the matter is, is until we move to a single-payer system and get rid of the profit motive in financing of health care, we will not be able to fix the problems that we have. They will be impossible to fix.

Which candidate said this? Clinton? Obama? McCain?

No, no and no.

This statement can be attributed to one Dr. Rocky White, a conservative doctor out of Colorado, who is advocating for a single-payer health care system. I couldn’t agree more. In an interview with Amy Goodman, Dr. White goes where it seems Sens. Obama, Clinton and McCain fear to tread: single-payer health care and he extricates that from “socialized medicine”.

I think that some of the burden of our economy would be lifted if it wasn’t for the expense of paying for health care in the scattershot way we do now.

I posted this at BFD.

It’s about mass transit and Summit County, Ohio.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever aman soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7 KJV)

I am not a biblical scholar but this statement has been proven true way more than it hasn’t. (That God, she’s pretty smart, you know.)

I thought of that phrase when I heard about the beating of Kevin McDermott of Shaker Heights a few days ago around E 146th and Onaway, near the Shaker – Cleveland border by multiple assailants. Articles such as this one, took a really sad tone, a tone that said “Oh my God, senseless crime in the suburbs? How could that be? This only happens to them…over there“. Listen, our world could be a lot safer and many people, like Mr. McDermott, are casualties of miscreant perpetrators. With any issue, we have to find its’ source and its’ source is… the very suburbs that were supposedly immune to these types of acts.

Why? How? The American suburb, for many, was used as an escape hatch to flee the poor, the less educated and the different, for some. Some people had growing families and didn’t have the room to expand in the city, which happens. But many people, didn’t run to the suburbs as much as they ran away from the city. Instead of helping to solve the problems, they ran and left it to those that couldn’t to solve the problems. Lack of educational opportunities and lack of hope turn hopeful, imaginative children into guys that walk around looking for some guy to beat up in Shaker Heights.

I am sure critics are thinking “Oh sure, blame society. Why couldn’t they be more responsible.” I think they should be too but it’s pretty hard when you were never taught or if you felt like being negative was a better choice than being positive. It’s too late for Mr. McDermott’s attackers, they must reap the consequences of their violence once they are apprehended. But, as long as people run from neighborhoods instead of working with and respecting the people in them (it’s not just about fixing housing stock, people) better, we will continue to get what we get.

Some first post of the year, eh?