PRISON REFORM IN AMERICA

Dear George...Modern humans are now twenty years into the 21st Century - so what have we learned about crime and punishment? 

More importantly what have we learned about the cause of crime? Two hundred years ago stealing bread was punishable by prison or losing a hand or both - but the criminal was hungry not violent or selfish. And, over our last 100 years of human history the vast majority of criminals have also been mostly hungry [metaphorically] not scheming or corrupt...Modern day hunger has it's source in sorrow and desperation.

Nearly every night television networks [local and national] lead with some form of crime. The crime is usually tied to a type of firearm - a gun. This daily 'news' is so common that any life-form visiting from another galaxy would quickly refuel and leave, likely heading for the refuge of a nice black-hole somewhere else in the Universe. 

Around my kitchen table one evening from crime and criminals going to prison, the discussion naturally cycled around to America's 2nd Amendment - then ran amuck from there.

But we can't  r-e-a-l-l-y  discuss the 2nd Amendment without first understanding 'why' it was included in the Constitution of our newly formed Republic. Just as important the original intention and meaning behind the wording of the 2nd Amendment in 1787 is quite removed from the tweaked interpretation the NRA would have everyone believe 233 years later - today.

Very simply, from the perspective of the leaders who organized 13 rebel colonies - the founding fathers had just thrown off the burden of a tax happy parliament and an oppressive king. The founding-fathers also intended that not only should ordinary citizens have the right to share in governing themselves, the individual citizen had a right to defend themselves against [a rogue] authoritarian government...So, in the future, if members of our Congress arbitrarily suspended the U.S. Constitution then began to block freedoms - We The People - not only had the right to protest--we had the responsibility to protest...

*"A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

During the Revolutionary War era, "militia" referred to groups of men who banded together to protect their communities, towns and later States, when the newly formed United States declared its independence from Great Britain [1776]. Colonists at that time witnessed rulers and governments use soldiers to oppress people and believed the [new] federal government should 'only' be allowed to raise arms [with full-time paid soldiers] when facing  foreign  adversaries. For all other purposes citizens believed the government should turn to part-time militias or ordinary citizens using their own weapons.

Problem was, local county militias had proved insufficient against the well trained and well organized British military. [So would not have prevailed without a great deal of help from France and native Huron tribes.] Addressing that weakness, framers of the new constitutional then gave the new federal government authority to establish a trained, standing army even in peacetime. However, opponents of a strong central government [anti-federalists] argued that a federal army might deprive individual states of their ability to defend themselves against possible oppression. In short anti-federalists feared Congress could someday abuse its constitutional power.

To address that issue, shortly after the U.S. Constitution was officially ratified, James Madison proposed the 2nd Amendment as a way to alleviate concerns for state militias. But - nothing Madison or any of our founding fathers set down in any constitution could anticipate irrational logic of an individual. In 1789, citizens with weapons owned single shot muskets...Two centuries later rapid fire semi-automatic and automatic weapons are owned by many ordinary citizens. 

The first mass shooting that began with 21 deaths at the San Diego McDonald's in 1984 - was not the work of a citizen protesting a rogue Congress. And the weapon used by the delusional shooter was not what James Madison intended by the 2nd Amendment, regardless of NRA propaganda. Decades of copycat mass shootings meant, essentially, with the development and sale of military style weapons that any single individual has gained the ability to function as a one-person militia.

Which brings this l-o-n-g account to Prison Reform In America--Which also brings us to the individual who uses a gun to threaten human life - the source of citizen gun violence. But easy availability [of so many types of guns] is only one means of wounding or ending a human life. People shooting people is the result of a mental and emotional void with their own violent roots established long before we meet them on the 6 o'clock news.

*"Children are influenced by the society in which they are born and raised. They in turn influence society." David Liederman   So, if this society, this Republic is to 'shine' as it should we can't address crime unless we address punishment. The way to address punishment is to address DESPAIR...And desperation begins in childhood, years before anyone is arrested and/or sees a courtroom.

America, indeed no society can afford to have even one child lose heart by the tender age of five! 

Each and every one of the people in prison today was once a cute toddler with promise until something derailed their life - like some form of abuse...[America's level of criminal incarceration is the highest in the developed world at 716 per 100,000.]

Amazingly, it's preschool and elementary school where our Prison Reform should begin. On any given day in America there are 440,000+ children in Foster Care and the average child lives in Foster Care from two to five years, removed from dysfunctional homes. Too many kids are in Foster Care much longer than five years with no family or permanent home of their own. But worse yet when a foster child turns 18 - ready or not - they're out on their own.

There is hours of national television coverage and advertising for homeless pets needing rescue - but that same effort is glaringly absent for homeless and foster children who need rescue and adoption. Why is that? 

Social Workers are asked to do much with dwindling resources for long hours and marginal pay. Their caseloads are typically 19 families with an individual file load of 24 to 31 children.

State and federally elected representatives cut budgets in the very [social] areas that should never see resources diluted. Socially we need more not less coordinated programs in our schools where teachers can identify families and kids at risk - better coordinated with social services - working with community police. And 'service' oriented not punitive, so parents who need help actually seek help for themselves and their kids. [Typically kids in crisis are born to parents who grew up in crisis.]

With a childhood of abuse and/or shame from neglected neighborhoods that don't receive the same education/tax resources as middle class areas - kids can grow up feeling despair and resentment. By the time they meet-up with police they've already been 'punished' in many forms, so prison isn't such a deterrent. 

*A trend toward privately run prisons is less incentive for important rehabilitation programs because private prisons are a for-profit business - it's all about the headcount. Since 2000, the number of private prisons in the United States increased 39%. 

Society watches the news appalled at reported crime[s] and crime statistics, when much of that could be prevented at a lesser loss in people and financial cost. Our society expects a great deal from police, teachers and social workers who need expanded annual budgets and greater community support - not less. [And certainly 'not' de-funding!] If America's professionals in law enforcement, education and social services have what they need - America benefits. Should prison reform also be part of updating our [social] infrastructure?

We can't rescue everyone, because we can't identify all the people needing rescue, but presently we're not even doing our best - so we throw away thousands of perfectly good people who don't need to end up in a prison... 

https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery-suspense novelist and former journalist.

Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com

*Romantic Mystery-Suspense: "Fine Points Malice And Payback"

*Romantic Mystery-Suspense: "Shadows And Light" 

 

  

POLITICS IN AMERICA

Dear George...Isn't a Democracy--a Vote--supposed to be a Choice? However, upon reflection what the voter gets to choose works more like the gradual narrowing of a funnel...

When my daughter aged closer to turning three, exerting some independence now and then I developed a somewhat devious 'choice-method' to deal with her budding liberty. For breakfast and lunch meals, she could pick one of two choices. And each morning I set out two complete [weather appropriate] outfits for her to select. Technically, she got to choose - but her selection was narrow and limited and chosen for her.  Like democracy - technically voters get to choose, but our selection is limited and chosen for us...

From a vast field of qualified people only a few people desire the level of public influence that comes with public office. And of those few people what is the motivation behind their desire? Politics essentially is supposed to be the governing of accepted policy - however, in our quest for a choice via democracy - in the course of centuries of human distortion our politics evolved from beliefs and principles to strategy and maneuvers. 

It's not that those pesky principles got in the way as much as surrendering a few ethics here and a few values there offered an even  faster shortcut to a higher level of influence - much sooner.

Like a prickly skin rash - contrived schemes passed from one tainted person to another following the human species right out of the gate: "In the beginning..." right from The Book if Genesis to present day.  [And no it wasn't Eve! The female character was maligned by a male chain of command in charge of the Old Testament - which has been yet another political exploit...]

Stay with me now - because the direction of my rambling IS linked to Politics In America. More to the point it's linked to the evolution of politics in America. Our present day political roots [actually classless rule on Planet Earth in many places] took hold after the French Revolution.

The British parliamentary system that leaders of America's original 13 colonies rejected in favor of a republic like France - was the House of Commons [elected] and the House of Lords [appointed]. It was also a two-party system with the liberal Whigs and the conservative Tories flinging the usual insults - that has since evolved to 10 federal parties for the UK and 5 for Canada.

In America's beginning there were no parties - our Founding Fathers intended partisanship--cohesion--unity of purpose. [Which is logical when starting a new nation from scratch.] George Washington was not a member of a political party when elected [by the new Congress] nor during his 8 years as president. But after George - though Hamilton and Madison both wrote about the dangers of domestic political factions - the Constitution only cited "We the people..." so that door was wide open. 

*IF we used 'history' more effectively it could be like having  future-hindsight... So, why don't we?

The Democratic Party founded in 1828 was dominant among white southerners with it's origins most associated in defense of slavery and so focused on domestic issues. The Republican Party was founded much later in 1854 by northern anti-slavery activists that became business-oriented, but it floundered as a secondary party until the election of Abraham Lincoln. 

We have besides the Libertarian Party, four others as well, but due to Constitutional Amendments and the Electoral College reaching the 270 required Electoral votes needed to become president is a high bar. Which brings us right back to voter choices. We have basically two choices, but those choices are made for voters via party Primary Elections to which you must be registered as a member in one of the two major parties. If you are a registered Republican you can not [for some reason] vote in a Democratic Primary. If you are a registered Democrat you can not vote in a Republican Primary. If you're a registered Independent [as I am] you can not vote in either primary election.  

There was a skillfully progressive book published in 1969 titled "The Peter Principle". The basic premise of the work by author Laurence J. Peter was--"In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his [her] level of incompetence." In our quest for achievement, status, rank, etc. -- too many people work their way up the ladder-of-success until eventually too many people get promoted to a position for which they are not qualified.

And the weakness in modern day politics - afforded to people who seek public office - is that far too many candidates begin 'at' their level of incompetence from the starting block. 

America has far too many politicians who never learned as they rose through the ranks of a business or a department because for them there was no bottom, only a top. They start out as The Mayor or The Governor or State Legislator or Senator or Congressman/woman. Adversely they don't care that the office they seek to occupy requires 'big-shoes'...Too many only care that their shoes are in that office and they don't mind walking over nearly anyone to get there - then 'stay' there.

In nature evolution typically means an adaptation over time intended as an improvement. Like the changes over hundreds of years for example with the Arctic Fox. The fur coat of the fox is less dense and a grey-brown color in summer changing to white as a camouflage against the snow in winter - that sort of thing.

But with the human species - rarely satisfied with having enough - over hundreds of years having more than one individual needed - evolved. This form of evolution has nothing to do with adaptation toward improvement, only a quest toward personal advancement - pure and simple. Well maybe not pure - and personal advancement is usually anything, but simple...Especially if your ambitions for personal advancement take the form of assembling an army to invade an adjoining country or assembling investors for the hostile takeover of a company. The aftermath of forced-hostile events can complicate nearly everything that follows for years or decades or centuries.

History has an energy that 'wants' to be our teacher - but we're ignoring our coach. 

We're ignoring history that has-not worked in the past in favor of falling back onto old habits - hoping to be lucky. Really, we're that stupid?  Yes, actually ego blinds reason. History proves that too. Over and over and over similar decisions from the same motivation brings us around full circle then we're caught in a hole of our own making. 

Once upon a time there were kings and queens, emperors and empresses, princes and princesses. There were lords and ladies, counts and countesses and all sorts of other grand sounding titles. From 1765 on metaphorically and literally the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker along with the farmer and thousands of other oppressed and exploited peasants - rebelled.

Systematically throughout Europe, royal families became an endangered species - some actually went extinct. But even that attempt at leveling life's playing field became undone. And once again the authenticity of The-Peter-Principle came into play with people who led various rebellions losing focus then becoming dazzled by their own image - like, Bonaparte, Lenin and Castro. [America's rare exception was George Washington.]

However, amazingly regardless of  weak, corrupt and/or inept rebel leaders - the butcher, the baker. the candlestick maker, doctor, book keeper, teacher, inventor and farmer - thrived. 

In America governing by royal decree was replaced by; government of the people, by the people, for the people...In the new republic of America there was no 'class-system' per say - on paper that is; "...all men are created equal..." However, not all men are treated equal. Women [who have always been 50% of the world's population] had no rights with other exclusions like the Irish and the Chinese - and - people from the continent of Africa.

With the enslavement of one human by another the progress of our collective souls was sent backwards - fast. Though slavery had been part of human history for thousands of years throughout Africa from Egypt to Mozambique, the country of Portugal led a parade of European counties that took the forced labor of captured cultures to a more atrocious level. 

And when the land owners of our developing American colonies seized on the idea of using people like livestock, a divine line was crossed--except--by 2021 that ignorant mentality should have progressed well beyond our three previous centuries.  However, it hasn't because that same ignorant mentality persists in the actions and minds of too many people who seek and hold public office...

People in politics for personal advancement, glorification and enrichment are easy to spot. They're not accountable, they blame someone or something else, they have accomplished little for others, there is no action in partnership with their speeches, they evade direct questions and they feel entitled. They come to believe typical rules and laws don't apply to them.

The 1980s singers Hall & Oats recorded a song with the lyrics; "...it's easy to hurt others when you can't feel pain..."  Who - has been voted into office fitting that description! Well my fellow voters 'we' gotta stop doing that. 

It's not a okay when we throw up our hands in philosophical tolerance of; "that's politics". Why have we given away such an important standard of our own principles?  Ethics and morality in politics should be a given just as it is in every other aspect of our lives from relationships to business. Why isn't there severe consequences for bureaucrats and politicians who transgress by breaking public trust? Consequences like complete shunning--not the offer of a million dollar book deal followed by thousands of dollars more for national speaking tours. 

When the vast majority of peasants in most countries couldn't read or write, were kept poor and dependent on a king or landlord or church then political and social control of the masses was easier. Culturally in America in the 21st Century peasants don't exist. After WWII America moved beyond the peasant class into an exploding Middle Class [lower-middle-upper] that shot up like a bullet.

Returning soldiers, went back to work as a civilian-army and they bought houses, cars, large appliances, went to college, invented and started new businesses. Over three decades in the 1950s, 60s and 70s there was a giant mass with millions of well educated, well informed and financially secure humans - who voted. Women weren't content with just the vote they wanted their vote to matter and the great grandchildren of former slaves weren't satisfied with paper promises either - they demanded  a seat at the table - every table. Martin Luther King demanded desegregation and true voting rights and equal opportunity. Women's Liberation demanded equal rights and equal pay. And this vocal group of protestors were a block. Which brings us to the election year 1993 and a systematic dismantling of that influential-majority-Middle Class.

This massive Middle Class was a threat to an increasing number of calculating political Social-Climbers, from the ranks of regular folk. [Insecure people are dangerous people.] Ambitious politicians seeking personal advancement, glorification and enrichment knew exactly how to regain control.  First, to conquer - divide - hence the media concentration of women and minority news designed to reduce one large block into fractured smaller blocks. Second, if an advanced and well functioning public education system had created the problem of a powerful Middle Class then diluting key parts of public school education could slowly reverse it. [The initial push toward removing cursive was part of that.] 

Besides two straight decades in which Middle Class wages stagnated - vital components like diluted history in public school education, worked to produce three entire [school] generations of voters in their 20s, 30s and 40s - technologically advanced, but weak in critical thinking. [See: Education In America]  Because of that, inept mayors and governors from specific states decided defunding their police budgets made sense. It's also how federal politicians [riding a personal enrichment-train for decades] were able to convince voters they could fix our social crisis - when it was they who created much of our social crisis...Gotta luv irony...

Regardless, voters aren't helpless and no political situation is hopeless. [See: Term Limits In America] 

If the candidate you voted for didn't win - no matter - the person who did win still works for you. Email, write and/or call [over and over and over] to the public servant who represents your district - federal, civic, state or county and let them know - with facts and logic what you expect from them. 

https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery-suspense novelist and former journalist.

Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com 

Suspense Thriller: "24 Sussex Drive"

Suspense Thriller: "Woodrow & Wren" The Rule Of Three

 

  

IMMIGRATION IN AMERICA

Dear George Washington...is any person on Planet Earth, here illegally?

Our 2021 Immigration numbers are ballooning -and- our Border Patrol Officers are under greater [daily] siege than our overseas military - why is that? 

Everyone should be welcome anywhere they wish to go on this planet - but there is a backstory to America's immigration issue not shared with all legal citizens by politicians who don't have their farms and ranches and local communities invaded by tens of thousands of immigrants e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y. Are there refugee tents on the front lawn of the White House or the grounds of the Naval Observatory or on the estate of the House Speaker?

AND unaccompanied minors in July of 2020 [that CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS highlighted as a disgrace] numbered just over 2,000. However, are those same networks screaming about the 2021 numbers that are well over 18,000 unaccompanied minors? No. Are all the orphanages in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala - being emptied out for America to feed, clothe, educate and raise? Will this flood of unaccompanied minors get citizenship before the "Dreamers"? Is that [another] one of the back-stories kept from WeThePeople?  

Around my kitchen table one night [a while ago] those present, drinking strong coffee and eating pie with too much whipping cream, got to talking about America's immigration issue. [Other countries might have immigration issues too, but CNN made better [2020] theater from ours.]

After about an hour, far from solving anything our congress might consider noteworthy, the discussion came to an abrupt halt when someone [it could have been me] asked a question that stopped the other five people in mid swallow and bite. "In our beginning--who laid out the borders? For that matter, who was responsible for dividing up land within those borders that became farms or city lots then suburbs and shopping centers? Who?" 

What really happened in our beginning--was it Adam?  Or--was Eve our planet's very first land developer?  Or, was it Mosses as he crossed the desert? Was Mosses a squatter pitching his tents anywhere there was space--anywhere he liked across Egypt's fast miles of sand?

In the beginning Adam and Eve [with their two boys] had Eden/Earth all to themselves. Then sometime later the emergence of more humans [aka: Mesopotamian, Sumerian, Minoan etc...] and territory in which to settle became important. Further, not only was settled territory important - also important was the clan and the lineage of those ancient clans.

As more clans formed [like beehives] each clan was protective of their territory and their clan connection. Strangers were rarely or cautiously included. Early on within an established clan were generalists with everyone able to grow their own crops, root vegetables, manage stock and hunt their own fowl, rabbit or fish. 

Eventually though specialists emerged like the farmer who made better chairs, tables and beds then he stopped farming to make furniture for everyone else. There was the farmer who baked better tasting bread who eventually made bread for everyone else. Okay - but what happened to the land that was their farm? Well, the farmer who grew better crops - grew even more crops on the carpenter's land and the baker's land so the carpenter and the baker could still have some harvest.

Ahhh, but disputes arose [naturally] over the value of furniture versus the value of bread versus the value of crops and one farmer's access to a larger piece of land to grow more crops than the other farmers...Enter a wise Elder in the clan to settle disputes and create value.

Years slipped by and the Elder's time was taken more and more with resolving so many other disputes that it cut into his ability to farm - so he became the official appointed clan leader. Besides a leader, the clan had other specialists who wove yarn into fabric that became robes, there evolved tanners who made leather sandals for everyone's feet. This is simplistic, but you get the idea.

However, humans being humans there were some clan members who didn't always agree with the Elder's decisions so some clan members left and started a new clan in another valley or on another hilltop. Still others challenged the Elder by convincing other clan members 'they' were wiser with better ideas.  Ta da!  The birth of politics!  And with that awkward birth came making sure that everyone with land had an equal 'value' amount to cultivate and an equal 'value' for baked bread and equal 'value' for leather, woven fabric, wood and so on.

It's at this point in our sketchy human, social evolution that we can see more and more evidence of a complicated system steadily developing. Someone [another specialist] had to assign a value to land, bread, crops, chairs, sandals, fabric, pots - and if that person did that task full time how were they compensated?

Don't leave me yet - we're getting close to unmasking that illusive WHO.  

Suffice to say that over time Elders evolved into monarchs like kings, queens, emperors, and leaders like mayors, governors, premiers, prime ministers and presidents etc...Those who assigned value became money changers, tax collectors, bankers and brokers.  That's WHO!   There isn't 'one' single person who we can point to and blame for dividing up perfectly good scenery into taxable real estate. There was a  s-l-o-w, but steady blossoming among certain upright humans into a growing number of people/who were born with an enterprising ingenuity. [[Ethics, sometimes optional.]

Okay! What - you ask - does any of this frail skip through history have to do with America's immigration tangle?  Everything - because - all the clans now living in the 21st Century are just as territorial as their ancient ancestors. Problem; in the 21st Century we have thousands of Elders with thousands of 'different' ideas and they have created an even more complicated system with arbitrary borders and even more arbitrary regulations to protect territory...

When pioneer/immigrant/settlers first arrive on the shores of North America the Native Indians were confused then later appalled that the new pioneers were paying for and then taxed for land that Mother Nature already offered freely. Our spiritually advanced and wise First Nations People possessed a highly evolved understanding that the Universe had provided water, soil, animals and plants for everyone to 'share'.  Well, we soon set them straight...

Which brings us right back to WHO again and America's immigration tangle. From my kitchen table on that fateful night, we all agreed that no one is on Planet Earth illegally. Therefore, perhaps we need to redefine illegal immigrant, when what we really see in the vast majority of people are; frightened, desperate humans seeking to join our Clan in order to live and prosper without fear. 

The U.S. Mexican border is 1,954 miles long and one suggestion was we open more ports of entry with smaller offices along America's [arbitrary] southern border, perhaps every 100 or 150 miles. More entry ports [14 to 20] would allow more frightened, desperate people, whose backgrounds we could check, to join our Clan. [Another suggestion to 'slow' illegal crossings was introducing Alligators into the Rio Grande River...Hmmm.]

And the Dreamers! Oh for goodness sake - let them register - take a test and grant them U. S. Citizenship. They have and already are finishing their education as teachers, engineers, business majors, entering medicine...They already contribute with energy and enthusiasm. And - while we're at it let's get the parents of Dreamers into the system so they may apply and become legal too - then pay taxes too! Since the parents of Dreamers obviously raised some great kids they'd be a future asset as well--or is that logic flawed?

Anyway, the vast majority of the people coming to America contribute to America by making furniture or sandals or bread - or - perhaps a  medical breakthrough. [I have bone marrow cancer and my doctor was born in Mexico City, do you think I'm thrilled he's here?] New Americans might invent effective cyber security or compose song lyrics or create a unique form of art or find a scientific means to breakdown and reuse plastic or write a new literary classic OR live a quiet productive life...

Since my grandparents [and likely yours] came to America in a century past how do we want immigration managed in this century going forward?  More ports of entry along our southern border [where our border patrol can work safer behind a finished wall] could allow for better checks of the people seeking future citizenship. We do NOT want a continuous cycle of criminals from other countries [bringing children taken from those streets or orphanages] posing as families, then abandoning these children here to grow up in American foster care.

America should be a welcoming nation, but 'only' to those with ethical intentions, we have enough of the other kind born here already. Sadly some have run for public office...Ohhh, sorry I digress. Okay, where can voters go from here? We can email, call, write then email, call, write - over and over and over - to those we elect to serve us --not the other way around...

AS well, we're all Americans--not African-American, not Asian-American, not Hispanic-American, not Norwegian-American or Muslim-American or Jewish-American...just American...If not then why live in America?

 https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery-suspense novelist and former journalist.*

Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com

Romantic Suspense-Thriller: "Dream Gate...Grabbing Air"

Sequel: "Dream Gate II...Grabbing Time"

INFRASTRUCTURE IN AMERICA

Is America the greatest country in the world? Absolutely not - it needs serious rehab!

For this discussion I hope you're sitting down though pacing might help you shed pent up frustration while you read. With what I discovered...I know pacing helped me! 

America does have the greatest PR machine. And, MainStreet voters continue to buy into a vast mass-marketing program from every state and federal politician - working diligently to keep the following realities as quiet as possible.

Ahhh, but on the heels of Election 2020 [and a midterm election around the corner] armed with even a tiny slice of information, voters can ask serious targeted questions and insist on serious targeted answers - not double-talk excuses or vague; "I'll look into that."

It is the People living on MainStreet America who make America great - America's political leadership not so much...MainStreet functions with a practical, logical straightforward approach - while [most] politicians do-not. 

When candidate Trump labelled DC a "swamp" - he was mistaken. The Hill in the District of Columbia is actually one  l-o-n-g  and  w-i-d-e  BUFFET  from which far too many ranking employees and federally elected, fellow citizens, who hold a public position of trust - FEED...

Members of Congress and the Senate are busy shuffling budgets-supported by our taxes. From one ledger column to another pet projects that only make a difference to a campaign contributor or lobbyist; like banks, military contractors, insurance, medical research, etc...[and hundreds of others] get far more attention than the general voter...Unless - voters become more aware between elections.

AIRPORTS...The last time America's national airports received a major overall update was in the late 50s and early 60s. Since then many systems have been patched together not even on a regular schedule - but too often only after a malfunction that narrowly averted an incident. And, it wasn't due just to aging radar or technology, but a stressed electrical grid. [Nationally an investment of  130 Billion or 26B a year for five years, would bring our airports up to 2015 technological standards.]

ELECTRICAL GRID...If you don't want to lay awake nights terrified then don't read Gretchen Bakke's book; "The Grid".  Between the mid 1950s and 1980s major power outages averaged less than 5 in a year. In 2007 there were 76 reported. By 2011 the increase was more than 300 a year. Though taxpayers have invested millions in subsides for the development of renewable energy, America isn't able to take advantage of green-energy like more solar and wind power because most of it can't be integrated into the aging grid. Our electrical grid is not capable of 'storing' the additional power. Worse yet, our national electrical grid is a national security risk - weak and unstable - a fact not secret to factions with the capacity of crashing it.  [The estimated cost to update America's electrical grid is a cheery 5T. That's Trillion, my fellow travelers!] 

MASS TRANSIT...One hundred years ago the public transportation system in America was the envy of the world. One hundred years later - much of America's mass transit is still 100 years old. Most rural communities once relied on train service that moved people and goods between towns and cities. Much larger urban areas also enjoyed an above ground trolley system that ran off clean electricity later converted to buses that ran on electricity as well as the underground subways. However by the 1920s a gasoline powered motor car for every family had become almost a quest, more so than even a house. This new form of mass-transportation was spurred on by a growing lobby structure. Vehicle and petroleum industry executives - who golfed with or had lunches with, or vacations with or contributed to elections were influential. The lobby-pitch held influence with politicians with the lure of higher employment - for voters. Naturally, with higher employment came an increase in tax revenue [enacted in 1913] - from voters. Ohhh, but wait, where did all our tax money go? Was it or has it been spent wisely? Hmmm...In each state, depending on population, updating and restructuring public mass transit varies greatly from city to city. [Regardless, the minimum $ price tag starts with a 'B'] Though more change centers around turning it over to private enterprise so that public-transit becomes true user-pay. But, would it be affordable?

U.S. SEA PORTS...Our ports have become another open border option for disturbingly illegal conduct. From sea to shinning sea our east coast, west coast, along the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes - America's ability to keep pace with the rest of the shipping world peaked in the mid 1980s. We have an archaic technology security structure with tracking procedures that hold water like a coffee filter. If the U.S. could export farm crops, manufactured goods, natural gas, oil and raw materials more efficiently, at a higher volume it could also mean a better balance of trade. [The cost here, relatively speaking, is only in the millions of dollars for updated general technology that could interface with what factories and shipping companies already have in place for their own inventory. Structurally at ports, companies also keep their own warehousing and storage facilities sound.]

WATER...Through the 1920s, but slower in the 1930s and 1940s - then resuming through the post war boom of the 1950s and 60s - a vast sewer system of  POTWs [Public Owned Treatment Works] and clean drinking water, was the pride of every community from small towns to large cities. However, less than 12% of the sewage POTWs or pipes carrying drinking water have been replaced in original areas since. Unless there was a main break that required localized repair the issue never rose to the surface [excuse the pun] which is what happened in Flint, Michigan [2018]. Even the 'newer' water systems engineered in our ever expanding suburbs during the 1970s, 80s and 90s have remained out of sight, out of mind for most municipalities. And since we're already 20 years into the 21st Century every pipe laid prior to 1980 is now an exhibit for the Antique Road Show. [I don't like this number either, but the estimate for a national-overdue-plumbing update is - 384 Billion.]

Beyond the water needed for all neighborhoods to homes and businesses, is a threat to our water source itself that is vulnerable. The average age of America's 91,000 Dams is 52 years. 

**With slashed budgets causing inadequate maintenance factored with environmental issues, we can expect that any dams built between 1930 and 1970 are already - or on the verge of being structurally compromised. 

The dams that failed [May, 2020] in Midland County, Michigan caused 10,000 Edenville residents to evacuate. All had poor federal inspection reports for twenty years straight! WHY? Who was the federal inspector and why after five years or eight years wasn't structural weaknesses corrected by the Army Corp of Engineers or FEMA then the cost subtracted from some of Michigan's federal funding? Was someone paid off or pressured to look the other way? If the population of Edenville had been 100,000 instead of 10,000 would that have made a difference? Perhaps Midland's federal representative John Moolenar could answer that...[In the meantime the cost to correct dams that if they failed would threaten significant loss of human life, is estimated at 45 Billion. To properly correct all structurally compromised dams, the cost estimate is at 64 Billion.]

BRIDGES...The vast majority of America's 'newer' bridges are already 60 years old. Just addressing the backlog of tackling those maintenance and improvement projects would take five consecutive years. [The cost to correct all presently unsafe bridges is 189 Billion.]

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY...If you have been impressed with the stats so far then you're gonna luv how our government departments are running. The latest I.T. was first installed and in use when Nixon ran for President! I kid you not! This - besides being connected to an aging grid - is also a National Security/cyber security issue. Which is why so much outsourcing is done to private contractors - but is that a cost savings, they need to update technology too and who are these private contractors? How do we monitor them with antique technology?

Federal I.T.-A..Our Defense Department has a 53 year old [backup] system to send and receive nuclear emergency action messages running on a 1970s computer that uses 8-inch floppy disks incapable of anywhere near the storage of modern flash drives. Replacement parts are difficult to find so thank goodness for 3D printers. It was set for a complete replacement in 2020 however, the Chief Information Officer reasoned that the system was secure - because - it was a closed system. [An outhouse is a closed system too, but let's see a show of hands for those who want one.]

Besides an aging federal information technology gap, local civic overspending followed by severe budget cuts in nearly every state in the Union [since 2008] has been exposed publicly due Covid19. 

When millions of people applied for Unemployment Insurance Benefits - it wasn't the number of people applying that caused nearly every state system to freeze - it was aging technology unable to handle increased traffic. [5G may be possible, but not at any government department near you...] Once again who gets inconvenienced? Who gets inconvenienced are the very people whose taxes pay for state and federal infrastructure. Mismanaged public funds has been chronic for decades because there is no voter oversight and mismanagement continues because there is no consequences for careless fiscal performance. 

Federal I.T.-B...The master file at the Internal Revenue Service where the public's taxes are assessed and refunds are generated runs on a 1950s 'assembly-language-code'. This early code can only run on a single computer that is difficult to maintain and is a main reason the IRS makes mistakes and has difficulty addressing refund fraud.

Federal I.T.-C...Our Social Security Administration has a slightly 'newer' system that is only 31 years old. However, it has been patched together with no less than 162 subsystems - some of which run on an early 1960s programing language called COBOL...[See also IBM museum archives!] And if you have a weak heart then don't read about Medicare.

Federal I.T.-D...A 26 year old computer system used by the State Department to track and validate annual visa information for about 55,000+ foreign nationals is no longer supported by the original vendor. And - its system like all the other government departments eats up a large chunk of the annual budget in maintenance that would be significantly reduced and more efficiently used if replaced completely then kept updated. Gosh - do you suppose we might need to track who shouldn't be here like, oh I don't know - someone who's a possible criminal or national threat.? 

Federal I.T.-E...Then again the cost of maintaining the Transportation Department records to monitor thousands of companies that make, and ship, and store hazardous materials has steadily increased annually - with a database record system that pretty much parallel's that of the Sate Department. It too is patched, outdated and vulnerable.

**February 2018 [then] President Trump presented an Infrastructure Plan to the 115th Republican [majority] Congress. The proposal was a cost savings for voters with joint spending of $200 Billion in federal funding and 1.5 Trillion from the private sector. Democrats opposed that Plan due to its structure of state and local funding with private investment. 

So - was that desperately needed Infrastructure Plan so flawed that the Republican majority couldn't work with most Democrats? Though at the time - there was a persistent undermining Republican faction led by John McCain [R-AZ] supported by Jeff Flake [R-AZ] and Mitt Romney [R-UT]  and  a government shut-down and  the Muller Investigation of President Trump...This meant, that once again, what was 'best' for America as a whole was sacrificed and by both sides.

Far too many politicians don't look ahead beyond 'their' next election campaign. For the record I'm a registered Independent who voted for Bush George H. [1st term], Clinton B. [1st term], Bush George W. [both terms], Obama B. [both terms] then yup - Trump D. [1st term]  because  he wasn't a career politician.

Moving on...The important point here is that year after year - decade after decade - generation after generation voters were born then died while infrastructure that needed regular budgeted attention, was neglected.

The 10 best states for maintaining basic infrastructure: Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Georgia. The 10 worst states for infrastructure: Mississippi, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Naturally each of the other 30 states [not including our 5 U.S. Protectorates] fall somewhere in the middle. Look up your state - know what is weak then start making phone calls and writing emails to your elected representatives...Even if you didn't vote for them you still pay their salary so they work for you.

Think of your voter responsibility like any task in your life that requires upkeep. It would be nicer if we only needed to mow our lawns once in the spring or toss clothing and linens out when they need laundering. However, the grass needs cutting each week and our clothing and lines need cleaning each week. It would be nice too if our carpets never needed vacuuming or our cars never needed to be washed...you get the idea.

America is vast and complicated, but WeThePeople have either been too trusting or too complacent for too long. We can no longer leave unlimited, valuable assets in the hands of too many people in positions of authority who have truly let MainStreet down either through incompetence or compromised ethics. Each voter needs to become a rational, but persistent vocal energy. With steady involved effort voters can't be ignored.

In relative infrastructure areas: *U.S. Trade - Katherine Tai  *Secretary of Defense - Lloyd Austin  *Secretary of Energy - Jennifer Granholm  *Commerce Secretary - Gina Raimondo  *Homeland security - Alejandro Mayorkas  *Secretary of Transportation - Pete Buttigeg  *Treasury Secretary - Janet Yellen 

 https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

Sherrie Todd-Beshore is an award-winning mystery suspense novelist and  former journalist...

Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com

Mystery-Suspense: "Come Sit In My Kitchen"

Suspense-Thriller: "24 Sussex Drive"

 

JOURNALISM IN AMERICA

Dear George...Perhaps Ted Koppel meant the Press as Gatekeeper in a good way, but print and television news over the last sixty years has ceased to 'serve' the People in favor of serving greater advertising dollars and far too many governing in public office who more and more, are extreme. 

In my 55+ neighborhood we are not members of Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation" -  we are their offspring - known statistically as Baby Boomers.

Boomer-Babies began arriving in 1946 [Harry Truman was President] after men returned from WWII and women returned from factories. Bundles of babies continued to arrive at the rate of about 4,000,000 a year for eighteen years until 1964 [Lindon Johnson was President].

In total 76,000,000 Boomers invaded this nation triggering an explosion of schools and housing construction through three decades from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. 

Well into the 21st Century Boomers are now aging at the same pace we arrived, but still relevant. Well--as of 2019--71,200,000 of us were never the less taking up considerable space and still consuming and voting, though the stats for 2020 may show a significant drop in our numbers.

Regardless, Boomers remember when President John F. Kennedy was elected and assassinated and when, to our horror, the same fate ended the life of Martin Luther King then Robert Kennedy. Boomers were the free-love Flower Children of Woodstock with its marijuana infused music as an escape from so many college riots, Watergate, civil injustices and the Vietnam War.

Boomers went to college in greater numbers than any generation before. We navigated a major social shift provided by the birth control 'pill' and ironically protested at the same time for safe abortions. We marched for the ERA - equal pay for equal work...Something females still don't have. But, these events and hundreds more since our years in school have been relegated to the pages of the history books our grandchildren read. However, we not only lived those events - we remember them vividly. 

Okay - so how you ask - does any of this relate to Journalism in America?  It relates to how investigative journalism has become smear, rumor and innuendo journalism. Because as kids, teens then young adults 'we' remember a time when journalism wasn't theater for TV ratings or print sales. We remember when journalism could be relied upon to include facts in reporting. We remember a time when liable laws and ethics kept spoken and printed speculation in check. 

Perhaps Boomers remember too much making us an inconvenient witness to mid-century history and too much news we recognize as openly slanted. The last noble act by our Fourth Estate was Watergate - most everything since is in doubt.

The Boomer generation also has a highly developed ability for critical-thinking which causes us to question the motives behind contradictions from one news segment to the other. In 1971 Judge Gurfein stated; "A cantankerous Press, an obstinate Press, a ubiquitous Press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the greater values of freedom of expression and the right of People to know." [But not an inconsistent Press.]

Further lending an even greater responsibility to the Press itself for their privileged place in our First Amendment - Justice Hugo Black later wrote; "The Press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the People. Only a free and unrestrained Press can effectively expose deception in government."

But:  WHO CAN EFFECTIVELY EXPOSE - DECEPTION - IN THE PRESS?

The last five years media so openly hostile and biased as to fervently report [repeatedly] prejudicial and unverified accusations that tiptoe across slander laws. [Example: the melodramatic attempt to block an appointment of Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kavanaugh had such an exemplary personal and professional record that desperate smear-hunters had to dig all the way back to an obscure party from his high school years - to charge him with a single created accusation by one person whom Kavanaugh vaguely remembered as attending his old high school.] 

Question: where was CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS or PBS during the Benghazi hearings? State Department staff lost their lives in a brutal attack - but Hilary Clinton's arrogant dismissal of events didn't earn the same intense circus coverage as Stormy Daniel's narrative. And - where was the New York Times or The Washington Post investigative reporting when thousands of Hilary Clinton's Classified State Department emails ended up on the personal laptop of convicted sex offender Anthony Weiner?  Just asking...And regardless of your political party leaning - you might ask too.

Like Trump - don't like Trump makes no difference...I get that most of Trump's Tweets have been well beyond cringe-worthy. Then too his unscripted remarks [eg. Rocket Man] cause us to shake our heads until we're almost dizzy. Regardless, it's the Office-Of-The-Presidency and Voter-Rights at the heart of our Republic to which, open Fourth Estate attacks only work to 'serve' far too many of the governors like the majority seated in our 116th Congress.

People with the ability for critical thinking can only guess at how that media loyalty is made worth while in order for so many radio and television networks and print news associations - to continue to compromise their First Amendment responsibility. What is the significance of that hidden value?

One would expect that not all journalists agree with their producers, editors or publishers. [I spoke up to my Life-Style Editor when I wrote for the Calgary Sun and lost a job I dearly valued.] WeThePeople should be able to rely on the ethics of an individual journalist.  When NBC viewers listen to the reassuring voice of Lester Holt - whose predecessor was Brian Williams caught exaggerating his experiences - we wonder. Then what happened to CBS Anchor Jeff Glor? Was Glor too conservative so abruptly replaced by Nora O'Donnell whose liberal views stepped in line with executive decision makers?

I have noticed that of the six major television news networks FOX is balanced the best, featuring both liberal and conservative guests not even remotely considered on ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS or PBS. Even so, FOX's Tucker Carlson can get carried away and every bit as passionate as CNN's Jake Tapper or Chris Cuomo. However, at least People can tune into FOX and then perhaps PBS to maybe hear both sides of an issue. [Every voter should be seeking their news information from more than one source.]

Going forward...Voters can push for a First Amendment insert in the form of a Standard Clause that: no member of any Press be allowed to either endorse or oppose any candidate seeking public office. [Simply report accurate documented facts - evidence, not hearsay.]

The Press isn't protected by our First Amendment to function with impunity...

Newspaper publishing of The Pentagon Papers was almost compromised by a longstanding social relationship of Washington Post Publisher, Katherine Graham [and her late husband] and America's then Defense Secretary, Robert McNamara [and his ill wife]. The Press in partnership with Politicians creates a conflict of interest by which objectivity - stands at risk.

What news media does too often now is 'feed' People a version of the truth from media perspective - as media see it. But partial information still creates mass ignorance that if the masses knew - the masses could make more informed decisions. [Or is that the point?] Releasing only some of the information some of the time is still a lie - massaged by a Press that only seem to hold conservative People accountable.

A healthy economy needs a balance of small, medium and large business to support and employ People. A healthy republic needs a balance of both liberal-social programs and conservative-corporate profits.

At this crossroads how does America turn present toad-journalism into a fact-prince that serves the People for which it was originally intended? With public pressure that process must come from within by principled publishers, editors, producers, field journalists and news researchers - who care.

In the meantime People can call and/or write their state and federal representative, because many politicians have been misquoted and/or misrepresented by journalists. In newspapers and on TV make note of the advertisers then call or email them with your concerns, threatening to 'not' buy their product if the network or newspaper doesn't put facts before creative-writing.

It is the 'job' of every citizen of every free nation to ensure their nation remains free - and to do that - The People need to patrol the activities of journalists and those elected to serve in public office. People can stop print and electronic Press from using innuendo, slander, rumor and barefaced lies as legitimate news - replacing it with plain, simple facts and restoring the Fourth Estate to the respected profession it once was. 

https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery suspense novelist and former journalist... 

 Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com

Romantic Suspense-Thriller: "Shadows And Light"

Romantic Suspense-Thriller: "Behind The Sun"

EDUCATION IN AMERICA

After raising children - who attended various Canadian and American public school systems I have a genuine concern with the present quality of education for future generations.

What are they learning? 

If it's true according to a survey by the Jewish National League, that 40% of recent college graduates do 'not' know about the Holocaust, then do those same graduates know there 'was' a World War II - or even WWI?

What is currently being taught from kindergarten to grade 12? Or - worse - what is 'not' being taught?

In 1990 the United States was ranked 6th globally in Education. So, what happened, but more importantly why?  Question: Is it easier for those governing to convince voters that 'politicians-know-best' IF entire generations of voters don't have anything to compare what 'looks/sounds' good now with what is not good for the longer term?  Scary concept. 

Personally - I'd want to govern a country [as vast and diverse as the U.S.] packed with wise, well informed, well educated, well experienced people. Wise people can look after themselves. Wise people are able to understand layers of different concepts. Wise people start and run businesses. Wise people contribute with ideas, innovation, research and development... 

When former President Bill Clinton [D] came into office in 1993 America was still ranked in the top ten globally. Regardless; Improving education was a cornerstone of the Clinton-Gore administration...Okay, what was improved? Because -- when Clinton left office in 2001 America's global education ranking had dropped to 17th. 

Clinton was followed by President W. Bush [R] [married to a former educator] who developed the catchy: No Child Left Behind, program. Well, something got left behind, because funding for education was cut everywhere federally, overshadowed after 9/11 by a vast increase in military spending. 

That steady decline in funding state public school curriculum created a surge in Charter Schools that competed with so many [failing] public schools. America's global education ranking by 2018 was even lower still at 27th. [Interesting to see which countries were a head of the U.S.]

IF, the United States is to 'keep-up' let alone complete in a world of medicine, technology, efficient [natural] food production, clean[er] energy etc...America needs an entire nation of well educated or well read or well informed people with the ability to use critical thinking. Henry Ford understood the value of creating shared autonomy when he not only increased pay for his assembly workers from $1 a day to $5 a day - he paid all of his workers the same including minorities.

Which brings us to the subject of how income affects education. Does higher income/more tax money make better schools? Let me answer that question by asking another. Using New Jersey as an example; how many schools face seriously deferred maintenance in lower income districts compared to higher income districts? Answer: Paterson, New Jersey [median income $32,915] needs an additional $500,000 just to meet base safety standards, but in Tenafly, New Jersey [median income $140,923] no schools have deferred maintenance.

Would a national federal standard requiring a fairer distribution of education tax dollars mean that schools in Paterson get their school roofs inspected every five years like Tenafly? You bet. Would it mean teachers are paid better? You bet. Would it mean that school supplies are supplied by the school and not the teachers? You bet. Would it mean that music is as important as math? You bet. 

Using simple math [because I'm a writer] lets pretend New Jersey and all 49 other states [and 5 territories] averaged all incomes then created a national standard for the same amount of each education tax dollar collected, from each taxpayer to each school - regardless of district median income. 

 ..........

 Ammunition for the War-On-Poverty is an 'equal' primary education - followed by equal opportunity to certify in a trade or earn a two year associate degree or full four year degree.

...........

President Trump [R] [who didn't go to public school] appointed Betsy DeVos [who also didn't go to public school] as Education Department Secretary. Was DeVos okay with the status quo of a diluted, inequitable public school funded curriculum? Apparently so, because what did Betsy do with some of her budget? Betsy scrapped guidance that attempted to reduce suspension rates for students of color; she eliminated how districts could consider race in school integration plans, but nothing about ensuring every student had enhanced learning or a clean, safe building in which to learn. 

*Education budgets are routinely cut, but somehow Congress found $8.6B to allocate for Covid19 relief. 

Let us now take a look to Miguel Cardona [who did go to public school] the pick for Education Department Secretary, by President Biden [D]. Perhaps [if confirmed] Cardona might consider a few What-Ifs :

*What if music, yoga and team sports was standard in all primary K-12 public schools?

*What if a Life-Skills program was standard [girls&boys] for grades 9-12 with home budgeting/using credit, simple investing, a simple tax return, cooking, sewing, nutrition, simple electrical, plumbing, carpentry? 

*What if History was K-12 with American History K-4th then World History 5th-12th with how America came to fit in? How about world geography too - Fischer Price toys makes nice map puzzles!]

*What if a second language and English [with grammar] was K-12?

*What if we actually showed our kids equality by supporting all schools regardless of zip code?

*What if we addressed the sources of school bullying by helping the bullied and the bully?

*What if the nation was standardized so no matter where kids lived they received the same high quality primary education?

*What if our kids were taught TO think not just fed limited-diluted information of 'what' to think?

*What if the same education standard we had in the mid 20th Century was returned to all American primary schools in the 21st Century?

*What if it was unconstitutional to cut primary school budgets? [Perhaps cut the salaries of administrators instead...]

*What if America brought back the 'DRAFT' but with a focus on conscripting our youth to complete a Gap-Year of domestic-public-service immediately after high school graduation?   [Teens in the northwest would be sent to the southeast and reverse - then teens in the southwest would be sent to the northeast and reverse. Kids in foster care wouldn't be dumped out on their own at 18 and homeless teens would have a place to go with purpose. Kids from higher income families would work with kids from middle and lower income families...Each new generation of senior teens would develop greater maturity while they experience other parts of America, working anywhere there is a need for volunteers in any community. The teens would get a distinctive uniform - their food and logging provided - earn $1 an hour - and their first year of college or training for a trade, paid for.  Just a thought...]

And now we come to the zoom upward in college and university tuition...What's 'that' about?  Starting in the late 1990s and for a runaway decade into the early 2000s, pseudo colleges popped up in office spaces on side streets and in strip malls offering 6month, 10month and 18month  'certificate-classes' in a variety of fields in everything from medicine to real estate to food and then some.

Somehow these schools got authorization to offer second-tier diplomas and their students got the ability to qualify for student loans. Though getting a job after graduation was not so easy. However, millions of dollars in fees for student loans were funneled to hundreds of these businesses for classes taught by people with marginal experience or qualifications.

Observing the lucrative diversion of student loan money heading in the direction of so many smaller and 'pop-up' colleges - prompted the larger established state colleges and universities to steadily raise their tuition rates [almost] with every semester. The result [so far] has been twenty years of graduates with artificially high student loan debt and interest rates.

Because of fractured standards America falls behind. And too many people elected to serve in public office [employed by us/their peers] patch programs that will leave the vast majority our next generations poorly prepared to compete with the rest of the globe - because - they won't know what they don't know - until they discover they can't keep up.

But anyone on Biden's new cabinet and anyone who represents your state and county is only an email or phone call away. So let your federal and state representative know you exist and how you feel and what's important to you. Be informed and stay informed.

"KNOWLEDGE IS POWER" Elizabeth Smith Friedman  

 https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery suspense novelist and former journalist... 

Via amazon.com or patchworkpublishing.com 

MG/YA Mystical-Adventure: "The Crow Child"

MG/YA Mystery Series [Mosquito Creek Detective Club]: Book1 "Mosquito Creek Inn"

 

 

 

  

HEALTH-CARE IN AMERICA

Around my kitchen table for the topic of healthcare the air gets somewhat 'hot'...And rightly so, but not a good idea for the blood pressures of my aging 65+ neighbors - even though we have healthcare.

And before I tell you about the amazingly positive experiences I have known [firsthand] with healthcare provided in four other countries [Mexico, Canada, Cyprus and France] I will tell you that America has a healthcare plan already in place. 

 

Surprised?  I was too after I read Peter G. Peterson's book [1st edition 2002] "RUNNING ON EMPTY".  Then, after my astonishment wore off, I was furious...

 

From Chapter 9 - titled, 'Move Toward Managed Competition' - page 208 [you may want to sit down for this] Quote: The Federal government knows how to operate an efficient health care system and it knows how to do so without forcing everyone into HMOs.

 

[Since 1959!] The Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan [FEHBP] provides federal employees and retirees, including members of Congress, with a benefit package that preserves consumer choice, holds down costs, and promotes quality care. Beneficiaries get to choose from among a wide range of competing plans offered by private insurers. These range from traditional high-cost "fee-for-service" plans in which patients get to see any doctor or specialist they like to low cost HMOs. All these plans compete for customers on both price and quality, which is their biggest advantage over Medicare's monopoly position.  Unquote. [For the shock of this, I can't give you oxygen - just take slow deep breaths!]

Sooo - with the FEHBP in place and functioning for 54 years prior to Obama's cumbersome 'Affordable Healthcare Act' - one wants to ask WHY wasn't the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan simply renamed then expanded to include the rest of the country? You know, to the people who pay taxes? Why reinvent a more complicated 'wheel'?  [Answer: besides a lucrative legal and software contract - others made out financially too! Others except, WeThePeople.] 

However, since Trump was so critical of Obama's 'Affordable Healthcare' plan then why didn't he correct this major oversight?  DJT had to have known about the Federal [Employees] Health Benefit Plan...?

Moving on...With some tweaking - everyone with a valid Social Security number and/or a legal Green Card would automatically get a Federal Health Benefit card. For basic coverage [say for a single person] there could be a minimum of $25 added to your Social Security deduction that every employer matches even if you work part time. For the self employed it could be a percentage of your annual income divided by 12 - or something. I'll let the bean-counters handle the details - I'm only a writer. But by expanding the FEHBP every citizen paying into SS would be covered.

And - requiring 100% participation makes this plan no more unconstitutional than filing a tax return - or why states require everyone who drives a car to have liability insurance - or why all roads and highways have speed limits to follow etc... 

In 1990 America ranked 6th in the world for healthcare, but in 2019 America ranked 27th [curiously the same drop occurred with our education ranking too]. 

 

Anyway, America has the most expensive healthcare system of any industrialized nation on the planet - it's a circus fueled by three main problems: trash, litigation and profit.

 

Trash...Hospital and clinic cleanliness has suffered, becoming chronic because medical staff rely heavily on [throwaway] single use prepackaged items. Many instruments and supplies like gowns, blood pressure cuffs, syringes etc...can be designed to reuse;

Litigation...America is the only developed country that allows burdensome litigation to add a higher cost to all treatments that does not benefit any patient, but actually drains resources away from serious medical conditions. If litigation wasn't factored into the 'billing' of every aspect in our medical system we could cut costs 70%.

Profit...And - only in America do citizens need to fear filing for bankruptcy or risk the loss of their homes or loss of insurance due to the high 'markup' for all procedures. Other countries don't run their medical systems entirely 'for-profit'. Treatments are provided at cost and are the same cost from region to region.

...While visiting relatives in Alberta, Canada my husband [who had two heart stents] felt a tightness in his chest and believed he was experiencing another blockage. We were in Calgary which is five hours or 320 miles to the nearest U.S. hospital in Great falls, Montana. We decided to head for the cardiac unit in the Foothills Hospital in Calgary, only five miles away - expecting that under the circumstances, Medicare would certainly cover this situation. We were met by the resident cardiologist on staff and Hubby was treated immediately, while I tried to work with Medicare [long distance]. Over the course of five hours of tests, monitoring and observation Hubby had two X-rays, two MRIs, a blood draw each hour and the cardiologist checked it all. 

 

Meanwhile back at the admissions office I spoke to a Medicare specialist who argued we should have driven to the nearest U.S. hospital therefore Medicare couldn't guarantee any payments directly to the [foreign] Canadian hospital or our reimbursement. When I asked if the specialist had a map or knew how far the 'nearest' U.S. hospital was - she claimed it was 'policy'.

By late afternoon, the cardiologist declared Hubby cleared for release. What the doctor concluded was acute dehydration also causing indigestion. Regardless, the cost to spring Hubby totaled $1,618.56 CDN - which when factored into the monetary exchange rate came to just over $900+USD on our VISA!  I could hardly believe it. After we returned home our claim to Medicare was turned down twice. But curious, I discovered that had we made the drive to the Great Falls hospital the same five hours and test procedures and cardiologist would have cost Medicare just over $8,000+ in U.S. dollars!

 

...A cousin vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico developed an ear infection. She went to a local clinic where she paid $25.00 CDN to see a general practitioner. When the doctor saw her, he thought she should see a specialist. She paid the ear, nose and throat specialist $45.00 [which included a follow up visit] who prescribed an antibiotic that cost her $18 and after ten days she went back to see the specialist, feeling fine.

 

...While living on the island of Cyprus for a couple of years my mother came to visit and she developed pneumonia. I took my mother to the local hospital where they referred us to a local doctor's clinic. The doctor took my mother's chest X-ray personally then prescribed two medications and sent her home for bed rest. Together, the clinic visit and X-ray was $65.00. Both prescriptions totaled $21.00 and the doctor made two house calls during the ten-day course of my mother's recovery. After bed rest and medication a second X-ray showed mother's lungs clear. The second clinic visit with X-ray was another $65.00.

 

...My daughter was a Rotary Exchange Student in France for a year and while there she caught a nasty European flu virus. I was beside myself with worry, but the French Rotary covered all healthcare issues and one of her host mothers assured me that my daughter would be well looked after - and she was for eight solid days. We never saw any bill after my daughter recovered - fully. 

 

No politician here needs to convince me that America has the 'best' healthcare in the world because I know otherwise...

 

What can WeThePeople do? Well the 2020 election is behind us, but even before our new reps are sworn in [there's still a midterm in two years] all voters need to make themselves heard! Write - call - email - then write and call and email again and again and again.

 

There IS a functioning health plan in place that can be expanded to include the entire country. Do your own research and if you're comfortable let your feelings be known to your elected representative, regardless if you voted for them or not. It's time - it has been time for decades - long overdue. America needs to catch up to the rest of Planet Earth - because we are far behind 'that' curve too... 

 

https://medium.com/@BraveNewFilms.org/heres-how-to-contact-all-535-members-of-united-states-congress-call-email-tweet-20b8a1c54195

 

*Sherrie Todd-Beshore is a mystery suspense novelist and former journalist... 

 

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Romantic Mystery-Suspense: "Fine Points Malice And Payback"