Duty to Warn
Harvard researchers say 1.46 million working-age vets lacked health coverage last year, increasing their death rate
A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.
The researchers, who released their analysis today, pointedly say the health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not significantly affect this grim picture.
The Harvard group analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2009 Current Population Survey, which surveyed Americans about their insurance coverage and veteran status, and found that 1,461,615 veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008. Veterans were only classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals or clinics.
A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.
The researchers, who released their analysis today, pointedly say the health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not significantly affect this grim picture.
The Harvard group analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2009 Current Population Survey, which surveyed Americans about their insurance coverage and veteran status, and found that 1,461,615 veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008. Veterans were only classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals or clinics.
Around 3PM this afternoon I was one of 12 single payer activists who were
escorted from the reception area of Nancy Pelosi's office in the San
Francisco Federal Building and arrested by members of the Federal Protection Service of U.S. Homeland Security.
Just before noon we went to Pelosi's office to ask Dan Bernal, the district director, make a phone call either to Pelosi herself or Terri McCullough, Pelosi's chief of staff in Washington. We wanted to directly communicate two demands: that the Kucinich amendment be included in the health care bill that will soon be brought to a vote in the House and that the Weiner amendment be voted on by the House, as previously promised by Pelosi.
Just before noon we went to Pelosi's office to ask Dan Bernal, the district director, make a phone call either to Pelosi herself or Terri McCullough, Pelosi's chief of staff in Washington. We wanted to directly communicate two demands: that the Kucinich amendment be included in the health care bill that will soon be brought to a vote in the House and that the Weiner amendment be voted on by the House, as previously promised by Pelosi.
In the aftermath of two of the biggest rock concerts in history, an exhausted Joel Peresman tells me "now the REAL work starts."
The first task for the head of the foundation that runs the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is turning somewhere between eight and ten hours of prime musical footage into a four-hour show for HBO.
On October 29 and 30 the Hall filled Madison Square Garden with the crème-de-la-crème of rock and roll, a set list that included Jerry Lee Lewis; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and James Taylor; Simon & Garfunkel; Aretha Franklin; Annie Lennox; Bruce Springsteen; Billy Joel; Jeff Beck; Ozzy Osbourne; Patty Smith; Sting; U2; B.B. King; Mick Jagger and many, many more.
The staggering array of historic talent filled the news media and internet for two solid nights in a benefit event designed to raise a permanent endowment for the Museum. "We think it will be between $4 million and $5 million," says Peresman "We won't know for a while."
The first task for the head of the foundation that runs the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is turning somewhere between eight and ten hours of prime musical footage into a four-hour show for HBO.
On October 29 and 30 the Hall filled Madison Square Garden with the crème-de-la-crème of rock and roll, a set list that included Jerry Lee Lewis; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and James Taylor; Simon & Garfunkel; Aretha Franklin; Annie Lennox; Bruce Springsteen; Billy Joel; Jeff Beck; Ozzy Osbourne; Patty Smith; Sting; U2; B.B. King; Mick Jagger and many, many more.
The staggering array of historic talent filled the news media and internet for two solid nights in a benefit event designed to raise a permanent endowment for the Museum. "We think it will be between $4 million and $5 million," says Peresman "We won't know for a while."
Let me begin by saying that I don't have any desire to be arrested. I am a pediatrician with 3 teenagers and a husband who would prefer that I do not spend time in jail. I have never actually spent the night in jail and I imagine it’s not very pleasant. To be honest, I am a bit frightened. But, I expect that these are normal feelings and I am dedicated to act despite my reservations because there comes a time when our conscience dictates that we act. That time is now (or "way past now" as doctors and patients whom I've met in my travels have told me).
In short, I am going to be arrested because I believe that it is my professional responsibility to advocate on behalf of those patients who are suffering and because it is clear that traditional advocacy tools are not working. The phrase that runs continuously through my mind is "To be silent is to be complicit." I cannot be complicit in the face of an industry that profits at the cost of human lives and in the face of an administration and Congress that are too dysfunctional to stop this practice.
In short, I am going to be arrested because I believe that it is my professional responsibility to advocate on behalf of those patients who are suffering and because it is clear that traditional advocacy tools are not working. The phrase that runs continuously through my mind is "To be silent is to be complicit." I cannot be complicit in the face of an industry that profits at the cost of human lives and in the face of an administration and Congress that are too dysfunctional to stop this practice.
Ramzy Baroud is a veteran Palestinian-American journalist and former Al-Jazeera producer. He also taught Mass Communication at Australia's Curtin University of Technology, is a frequent speaker, a regular media guest, and is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle, a leading resource for information on Israel/Palestine and much more.
He's also written numerous articles, commentaries, short stories, and authored several books, including "The Second Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle," and his latest and topic of this introductory review, "My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story."
Baroud knows his subject well, having been born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp where he saw Israeli soldiers regularly oppress, harass, humiliate, and attack young Palestinians like himself in an attempt to crush their spirit and break their will to resist, to no avail no matter how hard they tried.
He's also written numerous articles, commentaries, short stories, and authored several books, including "The Second Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle," and his latest and topic of this introductory review, "My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story."
Baroud knows his subject well, having been born and raised in a Gaza refugee camp where he saw Israeli soldiers regularly oppress, harass, humiliate, and attack young Palestinians like himself in an attempt to crush their spirit and break their will to resist, to no avail no matter how hard they tried.
In a statement today directed to the U.S. House of Representatives, President Obama and its membership, Veterans For Peace urged its chapters to demonstrate opposition to the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan by doing two things:
1) Take the actions listed below within the next several days, before President Obama decides to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and
2) Plan acts of even greater resistance during the two days following any such decision.
· Continue writing and calling our representatives and demanding peace.
· If we’ve done that: take to the streets
· If we’ve done that: sit down in the streets
· If we’ve done that: sit down in Congressional offices
· If we’ve done that: sit down, clog up, incapacitate, call in sick, withdraw consent and generally bring the nation’s business to a halt, wherever and whenever we can, with any peaceful means available.
To President Obama and the House of Representatives:
As veterans of our nation’s wars, we insist you hear our call.
1) Take the actions listed below within the next several days, before President Obama decides to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and
2) Plan acts of even greater resistance during the two days following any such decision.
· Continue writing and calling our representatives and demanding peace.
· If we’ve done that: take to the streets
· If we’ve done that: sit down in the streets
· If we’ve done that: sit down in Congressional offices
· If we’ve done that: sit down, clog up, incapacitate, call in sick, withdraw consent and generally bring the nation’s business to a halt, wherever and whenever we can, with any peaceful means available.
To President Obama and the House of Representatives:
As veterans of our nation’s wars, we insist you hear our call.
No one likes being caught in traffic. No one likes being stuck in the same spot and moving five feet at a time for hours. Could you imagine if there were no cars and the only movement going on would be you from one place as a slave to another place as a slave? That would basically be no movement at all. Many women are victims of human trafficking. Many of these women are taken off of the street and away from their families from ages as early as thirteen.
As terrible as these heinous crimes are, there is hope. There are many programs and organizations dedicated to the rehabilitation and protection of human trafficking victims.
“Rahab’s Hideaway” is one of those roganizations Denise Robertson, is one of the managers who is deeply involved and attached to the program. Ms. Robertson described the targeted age group” as eighteen to twenty-five, because they are mostly at a fork in the road.”
As terrible as these heinous crimes are, there is hope. There are many programs and organizations dedicated to the rehabilitation and protection of human trafficking victims.
“Rahab’s Hideaway” is one of those roganizations Denise Robertson, is one of the managers who is deeply involved and attached to the program. Ms. Robertson described the targeted age group” as eighteen to twenty-five, because they are mostly at a fork in the road.”
Remarks at Who Decides about War conference
Who actually does: the media, weapons companies, the permanent government, presidents (including simply by decreeing a "war on terror", through misspending, lying, simply acting, signing treaties), political parties, culture (the one Biden lives in, in which Israel's sovereign right to attack Iran is uncontroversial), soldiers who obey illegal orders and the culture that leads kids to that place.
Who should decide: we the people of the world, through democratically created and enforced international and national and state laws.
This is complicated by another question: what does the law say? But we may give too much importance to that. Laws violated for decades can be as hard to enforce as laws not written yet. But getting old laws enforced and new laws created has to be part of our strategy.
Who actually does: the media, weapons companies, the permanent government, presidents (including simply by decreeing a "war on terror", through misspending, lying, simply acting, signing treaties), political parties, culture (the one Biden lives in, in which Israel's sovereign right to attack Iran is uncontroversial), soldiers who obey illegal orders and the culture that leads kids to that place.
Who should decide: we the people of the world, through democratically created and enforced international and national and state laws.
This is complicated by another question: what does the law say? But we may give too much importance to that. Laws violated for decades can be as hard to enforce as laws not written yet. But getting old laws enforced and new laws created has to be part of our strategy.
Cynthia gives a radio interview under the watchful eye of her Aunt Hazel.
I never want you to take the journey that I’m currently on. So, I want to tell you about it. It starts on the front of the refrigerator: “The Healthiest Foods on Earth,” a two-page primer from apple to watermelon, touting issues from immunity to male fertility support. Inside the refrigerator: natural and organic foods only. On the countertop is the Jack LaLanne juicer, the Magic Bullet, the handy food chopper plus, the food saver vacuum sealer – all items familiar to us because they are constantly hawked on the midnight cable channels. Hanging from the kitchen cabinet door are plastic bags for recycling: one for plastics, the other for aluminum cans. The house and car are filled with reusable shopping bags made of recycled materials.
I never want you to take the journey that I’m currently on. So, I want to tell you about it. It starts on the front of the refrigerator: “The Healthiest Foods on Earth,” a two-page primer from apple to watermelon, touting issues from immunity to male fertility support. Inside the refrigerator: natural and organic foods only. On the countertop is the Jack LaLanne juicer, the Magic Bullet, the handy food chopper plus, the food saver vacuum sealer – all items familiar to us because they are constantly hawked on the midnight cable channels. Hanging from the kitchen cabinet door are plastic bags for recycling: one for plastics, the other for aluminum cans. The house and car are filled with reusable shopping bags made of recycled materials.