Health Care Madness

On December 24, 2011, XMAS eve, we heard that more than 200 employees at 2 bankrupt Hawaiian hospitals learned they lost their jobs. On March 2, 2012 we heard a California (CA) doctor was charged with murdering 3 patients by over prescribing drugs and a Sacramento, CA Mercy General Hospital physician’s assistant won a $168 million sexual harassment suit because doctors called her stupid, stabbed her with needles and routinely slapped her.

On March 1 it was estimated that $60 billion a year is bilked from Medicare because of fraud and Texas is the hotbed; this came right after we heard on February 29 that a Texas doctor was charged with a $375 million Medicare fraud scheme. March 13 we were told 50 million Americans lack health insurance. March 24 thousands across the country protested the mandatory insurance coverage of birth control. April 10 we’re told the President’s Health Care Law is estimated to add $340 billion to the deficit. April 24 we heard Social Security and Medicare is expected to run out of funds by 2033, 3 years earlier than expected. Also on April 24 we heard that 16 million children are on Medicaid and get no dental care; a boy died of a dental infection that got into his brain because no dentist would take him; Florida is the worst state; Medicaid won’t pay dentists what they want so they just don’t take them; Health & Human Services (H&HS) saids the situation is getting better – 40% of the kids on Medicaid are now getting dental care. May 2 there was a Medicare bust of 107 doctors, nurses, and social workers in Tampa and Miami, Florida, Houston, Texas, Detroit, Michigan, Baton Rouge, Louisiana ($225 million), Los Angeles, CA and Chicago, Illinois; these individuals were charged with fraud that scammed taxpayers out of $452 million (this doesn’t include the previously noted frauds or scams).

On April Dr. Atul Gawande reported that he compared 2 hospitals in Texas with similar patients and found that those without so many tests being conducted did as well as those that had tests. Consumer Reports gathered doctors from 9 medical specialties and found there are 45 tests that are done too often, some of them are - EKGs to measure heart rhythm, pap smears to check for cervical cancer and chest x-rays before surgery. ABC’s Dr. Besser said the study should remind doctors of the cardinal rule – first do no harm; Besser suggests asking – what is the test for- what are you going to do with the information – is there another way to get the information; he said doctors often order tests so they don’t have to spend much time with the patient and if you’re not getting 15 minutes of the doctor’s time, you’re not getting enough. All 45 tests are on abc.com.

On February 1 were we told that there are more indoor tanning salons in America than there are Starbucks; the World Health Organization said that indoor tanning is just as bad as inhaling asbestos, swallowing arsenic and smoking. In America Melanoma is the leading killer of women in their 20s, deadlier than lung cancer; nearly 2 years ago the FDA, pediatricians and dermatologists recommended banning tanning for minors but the tanning lobbyist spent nearly $460,000 in the past 2 years defending the industry’s health claims and the FDA hasn’t taken any action. April 12 we heard that Gel manicures are now popular because they’re suppose to last longer; 4 coats of polish is put on and a UVA light is used to dry each layer; the industry said the strength of the UV is less than with tanning and if you got the manicure every 2 weeks it’s equal to 2 minutes of sun every day – this didn’t explain why hands are aging faster; in the mean time - more study is necessary to find out if skin cancer can result but dermatologists suggest that sunscreen be worn on your hands if you get the manicure. May 16 we were informed that there are 2 million skin cancers diagnosed each year in the US-one in 5 will get it in their lifetime.

Okay, let’s look at this situation. The health care law is to add $340 billion to the deficit but we have rampant Medicare fraud bilking $60 billion, doctors over prescribing drugs (January 12 blog), and unnecessary tests (value unknown). In searching the internet I found millions of dollars of Medicaid fraud in every state so I’ll assume it’s as bad as Medicare fraud. Eliminating fraud alone would reduce costs by about $120 billion. The insurance companies said birth control is cheaper than child births (2/13 blog – Catholics v Government), my February 27 – 29 blogs talked about why our medical costs more and ways to fix our system, and my May 3 blog identified that fake pharmacies are driving up drug costs.

It was said 50 million Americans do not have health insurance and I don’t understand why people are able to get elective plastic surgery while others can’t have heart surgery or assistance for a disabled child even if they have insurance (it must be that pre-existing condition loop hole I heard about that will be taken care of with the health care law). Lives are at risk and we need to change the system and our ways (get rid of a tanning industry that causes increases in health costs, eat better, exercise and check your vanity at the door). I believe that if we fix what is broken the health care law will pay for itself and get all Americans insured. If more money is needed then an increase in taxes on the rich should take care of it. 

Setting Back Women's Rights

Let’s talk more about the treatment of females. On March 31, 2012 it was reported that federal prosecutors are going after gangs forcing suburban high school girls into sex slaves; they go to social network sites and bus stops and look for girls wanting to earn money then via violence and drugs they scare the girls into it; gangs are growing in size and area making this problem larger. On April 13 the View said Public Advocacy groups want hospitals to quit giving out baby formula because they say it undermines breastfeeding and makes it look like hospitals are endorsing formula; some women have trouble producing milk, others can’t produce enough for the baby and some babies won’t take it so all of these women need the formula or the baby’s needs would be further hindered. This comes at a time when people get upset if a woman breastfeeds in public with or without covering their breasts (they should be covered). Hopefully you remember that on December 29, 2011 a Michigan mall stopped a group of mothers that wanted to breast feed; the mall said it didn’t object to the breastfeeding just the demonstration atmosphere. Breast feeding Moms united with a ‘Nurse In’ at a Texas Target because an employee was harassing a mother; they hit about 100 stores across the country and what about NASCAR star Kasey Kahne apologizing for tweeting that he finds breast feeding mothers disgusting. I would agree with Kasey if the ‘Attachment Parenting’ people are breast feeding kids in public that can hold a glass by themselves.

US News reported that on April 16 Mississippi passed a law requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital and to be board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology or be eligible to be certified, meaning the physician has completed training in the specialty; it’s set to go into effect July 1. Sam Mims, the author of the legislation and Republican chairman of the House Public Health and Human Services Committee said "the intent is always to have fewer abortions in Mississippi. If the Jackson clinic shuts it's a very positive result". Governor Phil Bryant after signing the bill said "I believe that all human life is precious and as governor I will work to ensure that the lives of the born and unborn are protected in Mississippi". Julie Rikelman, litigation director at the Center for Reproductive Rights, New York, said the center is "taking a hard look at [the law] for potential litigation." In an election year when reproductive issues have already taken a high-profile role, Mississippi could become a flash point nationally if its sole clinic scales back sharply or shuts down. It is one of 4 states—the others are North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming—that have just one clinic providing abortions said Vicki Saporta, President of the National Abortion Federation, the main group representing abortion providers. In 2011 states passed 92 provisions that imposed limits on abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that produces data that are cited by groups on both sides of the debate. That was the most the group had seen in a year since it began tracking bills in the early 1970s; the highest previous total was 34. The Mississippi law is the "only one to require that abortion providers essentially be OB-GYNs," as opposed to simply being trained in the procedure, said Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute.

The Augusta National Golf Club hosts the Masters Tournament every year. Per the www.qualitydigest.com’s April 11 article since 1932 the club’s men-only membership which number about 300 remains a secret. In past years the CEO of IBM has been invited to join the club as a member. Currently, Virginia Rometty is the CEO of IBM. At a recent press conference, Billy Payne, chairman of the Golf Club, deflected all questions regarding Rometty’s admission with silly, inane responses. No doubt the dinosaurs at the golf club will continue to voice their fossilized opinions while the rest of the world looks at their inactions as infantile and comedic. Perhaps there are some members of Augusta who will conclude they don’t want to be associated with a club that excludes women or with members still living in the 1940s. Rometty attended the tournament and hosted a series of events at the club for IBM customers. In Bloomberg’s April 24 article it was reported that a male shareholder asked the IBM CEO, the tournament’s biggest sponsor, if she had been asked to be a member; she thanked him for his concern and moved on (did not answer the question). The club never did answer the question as to whether or not they would keep the good old boys club or follow tradition by asking IBM’s CEO to join.

On April 26 it was reported that a Fort Wayne, Indiana Catholic School teacher was fired last June for getting in vitro infertility treatments (she has a medical condition that causes infertility); she signed a document saying she’d comply with the religion’s beliefs; the school’s pastor said she was a grave and immoral sinner; she filed a complaint with the EEOC and won but it’s thought that a Supreme Court decision from earlier this year will hurt her lawsuit; the church is saying that in vitro kills embryos and the court’s decision now allows religious schools to fire anyone for any purpose and causes discrimination; it’s unknown if she is pregnant.

On April 29 hundreds protested in New York because of the setbacks in women’s rights and reproduction rights. One good thing did happen; on May 1 the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that it’s unconstitutional to give ‘personhood’ rights to embryos. Women need to continue to take a stand on how they are to be treated and teach their girls and other women that they are not there for the whim of men. 

Pledge of Allegiance History

After the Civil War patriotism and a national feeling was at a low. Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, in 1892 originally composed the Pledge of Allegiance (Pledge) of the United States (US) for the nation’s youth to express loyalty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America; it simply said “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and just for all.” Four revisions to the Pledge have been made since (shown in bold italics). From 1892-1923 “I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all”; 1923-24 “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all”; 1924-54 “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all” and its final version in 1954 to now is “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”. The Pledge was formally adopted by Congress in 1942.   

Since the 1930s groups have contended that saluting the flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is contrary to their fundamental religious beliefs and a violation of First Amendment. The US Supreme Court (Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 60 S.Ct. 1010) ruled in 1940 that compelling students to salute the flag did not violate religious freedom; the Court stated that the proper recourse for dissent was to try to change the school policy democratically. In 1943 with a 6-3 vote the US Supreme Court (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624) held that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution protected students from being forced to salute the American flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance in school. The Court primarily relied on the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment rather than the Free Exercise Clause and did not address the effect the compelled salutation and recital ruling had upon their particular religious beliefs, but instead ruled that the state did not have the power to compel speech in that manner for anyone. In October 2009 the Supreme Court would not hear the Frazier v. Smith case of a Florida law that requires all public-school students, Grades K-12, to stand and repeat the Pledge, unless excused in writing by a parent. No reason for the decision was offered but to resolve the case, the justices would have had to clarify the 1943 ruling.

Since adding the words ‘under God’ during the Cold War fight against Communism, there have been several Supreme Court cases: June 25, 1962 (370 U.S. 421, Engel v. Vitale) the Court by a 5-2 ruling struck down New York State's law requiring school officials open the school day with prayer; June 17, 1963 (374 U.S. 203, Abington v. Schrempf) the Court ruled 8-1 that government mandated Bible reading in public schools was unconstitutional; July 5, 1983 (463 U.S. 783, Marsh v. Chambers) by a 6-3 vote the Court permitted the practice of beginning the (Nebraska state) legislative session with a prayer given by a publicly funded chaplain (the practice had been done for many years, it had become a communication of shared values rather than a decidedly religious practice); March 5, 1984 (465 U.S. 668, Lynch v. Donnelly) the Court ruled 5-4 that the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island (RI) could continue to display a nativity scene as part of its Christmas display; June 4, 1985 (472 U.S. 38, Wallace v. Jaffree) the Court decided 6-3 that Alabama's moment of silence statute was unconstitutional; July 3, 1989 (492 U.S. 573, Allegheny County v. ACLU) the Court in a deeply and unusually fragmented decision ruled 5 to 4 (to strike) and 6 to 3 (to uphold) that while the Nativity scene was unconstitutional, the menorah display was not because the ACLU failed to bring up that the menorah is used in religious ceremonies; June 24, 1992 (505 U.S. 577, Lee v. Weisman) the Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that held that “nonsectarian” invocations and benedictions at public secondary school graduations violated the Establishment Clause because high school students even if they were not compelled to attend the graduation ceremony could feel compelled by peer pressure to attend and stand as part of the group and either join in the prayer or maintain a respectful silence out of a sense of compulsion (this approved the student's recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance prior to the prayer) and June 14, 2004 the Court reversed the June 26, 2002 Ninth Circuit Federal Appeals Court’s 2-1 vote in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow dismissing on procedural grounds that a lower court's ruling of a California atheist did not have the legal standing to challenge the constitutionality of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance (it sidestepped the broader question of whether the pledge itself is constitutional). Note: In a separate case the same Ninth Circuit Court rejected Newdow's challenge to the imprinting of "In God We Trust" on the national money, citing a Supreme Court ruling that the phrase constitutes a national motto and "Not every mention of God or religion by our government or at the government's direction is a violation of the Establishment Clause" (Judge Carlos T. Bea cited tax exemptions for religious groups and Nativity displays on government property that have passed high-court review). On January 12, 2012 a Federal judge ordered a prayer mural removed from a RI public high school. The Court has ruled that students cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge or punished for not doing so. The Pledge was written after the First Amendment (1791) and intended to pull us together as a nation; instead it’s now used to hinder our being a nation united, patriotic with the goal of liberty and justice for all. 

Memorial Day History

During the Civil War, Union soldiers who were prisoners of war had been held at the Charleston, South Carolina Race Course; at least 257 died there and were hastily buried in unmarked graves. Freedmen (freed slaves) cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled "Martyrs of the Race Course." Following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, there were a variety of events of commemoration. The first known observance of a Memorial Day-type observance was at the Charleston Race Course on May 1, 1865. Nearly 10,000 people gathered to commemorate the dead (3,000 schoolchildren newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, teachers, mutual aid societies, Union troops, black ministers and white northern missionaries); most brought flowers to lay on the burial field. The ceremony was covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers and was called the ‘First Decoration Day’ (Memorial Day was first used in 1882). On April 25, 1866 women in Columbus, Mississippi laid flowers at the graves of both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.

The Southern states established Confederate Memorial Day with dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June (by 1916 the June 3 birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was observed as a state holiday in 10 southern states). Across the South associations were founded after the War, many by women. The Ladies Memorial Association’s Lost Cause played a key role but the most important was the United Daughters of the Confederacy which grew from 17,000 members in 1900 to nearly 100,000 women by World War I.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization for Union Civil War veterans, issued a proclamation that "Decoration Day" should be observed nationwide and May 30 was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. Events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states in 1868 and 336 in 1869. The northern states quickly adopted the holiday; Michigan made "Decoration Day" an official state holiday in 1871 and by 1890 every northern state followed suit. The ceremonies were sponsored by the Women's Relief Corps which had 100,000 members. In 1865 the federal government began a program of creating national cemeteries for the Union dead. By 1870 the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries located near the battlefields and therefore mostly in the South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC. The ceremonies and Memorial Day address at Gettysburg National Park became nationally well known starting in 1868. Ironton, Ohio lays claim to the nation's oldest continuously running Memorial Day parade (first held May 5, 1868) and the town has held it every year since. However, the Memorial Day parade in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, predates Ironton's by one year.

The Memorial Day speech became an occasion for veterans, politicians and ministers to commemorate the War and at first to rehash the atrocities of the enemy; people of all religious beliefs joined together, they mixed religion and celebratory nationalism and provided a means for the people to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. By the end of the 1870s much of the rancor was gone. Around 1890 there was a shift from consolatory emphasis on honoring specific soldiers; the ceremony's hymns and speeches reflected an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism. By 1913 the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Lost Cause and the speeches praised the brave soldiers both Blue and Gray. In July 1913 veterans of the United States and Confederate armies gathered in Gettysburg to commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of the Civil War's bloodiest and most famous battle. The 4-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, re-enactments and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President Woodrow Wilson (first Southerner elected to the White House since the War). Alabama’s noted orator James Heflin was given the honor of the main address (this choice was criticized as he was opposed for his racism). His speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and goodwill which gained praise from newspapers. By the 1950s the theme was American exceptionalism and duty to uphold freedom in the world.

The Memorial Day name for the holiday became more common after World War II and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill which moved 4 holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a 3-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect in 1971 and after some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply all 50 states adopted the change within a few years. Since 1987 Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, has introduced a measure to return Memorial Day to its traditional date (Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW] and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War also advocate returning to the original date); in a 2002 Memorial Day Address the VFW stated: Changing the date merely to create 3-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day. I believe they may be right. 

War v US Street Deaths

Maybe all of our people didn’t join the military to honor the dead of 9/11; perhaps some joined to pay their way through college, learn a craft or some other reason. In any case, they were volunteers defending our country and our freedoms and they were not alone. Per the militarytimes.com website, Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003 – 2012), Operation New Dawn and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan (October 7, 2001 – 2012) took the lives of 6,433 Americans (in all 3 operations) through May 20, 2012. Not all of our soldiers have died at the hands of the enemy. We had a soldier kill 5 others in an Iraq clinic in May 2009, a couple suicides in 2011 because of hazing incidents, several (the latest On January 20 and February 21, April 20, 2012) were killed because of helicopter crashes due to weather or mechanical failure, on March 29 a soldier gave his life when he pushed an Afghan girl out of the way of a truck, on May 4 a soldier died of rabies after being bitten by a stray dog in Afghanistan and many of our soldiers as well as others died because our soldiers peed on Taliban dead (1/12), burned Qurans (2/12), killed innocent Afghan civilians in their sleep (3/12), and on April 18 photos taken 2 years ago (released to the LA Times) were all over the internet of American troops smiling and acting out with the body parts of suicide bombers. Hundreds perhaps more have died because a few soldiers violated our regulations and core values.

According to the August 22, 2011 Guardian website, over 400 soldiers from 47 other countries had been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn and over 1,300 for the first 9 years of Operations Enduring Freedom. In addition to soldiers, at least 1,500 private contractors died in Iraq alone and local security forces accounted for about 12,000 police killed in Iraq (2003 - 2010), over 3,000 Afghanistan policemen (2002 - the middle of 2010), and between 2,000 and 4,000 policemen have died in Pakistan. As for local military personnel over 11,000 Iraqi soldiers have died, Afghan National Army casualties were running at 2,820 in August 2010, while in Pakistan, around 3,000 soldiers have been killed. Across the Middle East (from the Sudan to the Seychelles and from Tajikistan to Turkey) and further afield in the other theatres that had become part of the 9/11 wars, local security forces paid a heavy price too. For example, more than 150 Lebanese soldiers were killed fighting against radical "al-Qaeda-ist" militants in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon in 2007. There were many others, in Saudi Arabia, in Algeria, in Indonesia. In all, at least 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers and policemen have so far died and rough figures showed a total of well over 150,000 civilians killed; they included more than 400 assassinated Iraqi academics and almost 150 journalists killed on assignment. The approximate overall figure for civilian and military dead was near 250,000 by mid 2010. If the injured are included – even at a conservative ratio of one to three – the total number of casualties reaches 750,000. Add the bereaved and the displaced, let alone those who have been harmed through the indirect effects of the conflict, the infant mortality or malnutrition rates due to breakdown of basic services.

Since entering the wars in the Middle East the number of people killed here in America due to vehicle accidents has been: 2002 – 43,005, 2003 – 42,643, 2004 – 42,836, 2005 – 43,443, 2006 - 42,642, 2007 – 41,059, 2008 – 37,261, 2009 – 33,808, 2010 – 32,885 (the lowest number since 1949); I could not find a total for 2011 however it was estimated to be around 35,000 for a total of 394,582 in 10 years.

On May 1, 2012 a report said many die because we don’t use our turn signals and we know there are deaths because of cell phone use and texting. (Syracuse, NY and Hartford, Connecticut were used for a survey regarding cell phone and texting usage; after 9,000 citations were issued the citations in Syracuse went down 32% and in Hartford a reduction of 57% for hand-held and 72% for texting.) It’s no wonder that on May 7 we heard that Nevada gave Google the opportunity to test driverless cars – cars on autopilot like airplanes – a driver can take control by grabbing the wheel or stepping on the break.

In over 10 years we have lost 6,433 American soldiers in the wars against terrorism; that’s a whole lot less than the 400,000 Americans we’ve lost on the streets of the US. I think that as long as our allies support our efforts to get those that caused the 9/11 attacks killing over 4,000 people we should also support our government’s efforts. The Chicago protestors have a right to be angry but I think their anger is misdirected. Anger because our voluntary military has lost lives protecting our freedom is ironic (disrespectful) especially when we show no anger over our stupidity (lack of common sense) in driving a car or non-working investors becoming rich while 15% of our population lives in poverty; the Occupy Movement has the right idea.

It is said that the decisions you make create your destiny. Americans must remember that this is not the worst times we have survived. We’ve been through Civil and World Wars, 9/11, depressions and several other recessions. Last year, Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osteen said - this too will pass; you’ll come out better than before. 

Chicago NATO Protests

On May 16, 2011 protestors began marching in Chicago (prior to the 2 day NATO summit); many wanted NATO disbanded and/or the wars ended. Three Florida men with an arsenal of weapons were arrested on May 16 and released but on May 18 an undercover cop foiled their plot to use Malakoff cocktails on 4 police stations so the police would be distracted when they took the Mayor’s home, financial institutions and Obama’s campaign headquarters. The protests were relatively peaceful however, on May 19 the hacker group Anonymous took down city websites and rallied other hackers to fire upon the police; there were more arrests as some protesters tried to get through the security perimeter and 2 more plots were foiled. Chicago closed the trains and asked people not to go to work as the protests turned violent when police tried to disburse the crowd; one officer was stabbed and 3 others injured. The Summit went on and addressed continued support for Afghanistan.

All of this got me thinking. The September 11, 2001 attacks resulted in the immediate deaths of 246 victims on 4 planes (there were no survivors) including 19 hijackers, 2,606 in the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City (NYC) including 372 foreign nationals, 292 people killed at street level by burning debris and falling bodies of those who had jumped from the WTC's windows, and 125 at the Pentagon. All the deaths (3,269) in the attacks were civilians except for 55 military personnel killed at the Pentagon (23 were police officers). RT.Com on February 7, 2012 reported - Around 12,000 men and women were dispatched to Ground Zero on September 11 and a decade down the road the number of annual cancer claims has nearly tripled. Today there around 16 police officers each year in NY that apply for cancer-related disability and the statistic has some saying that it is more than a coincidence. The NY Post on September 12, 2010 reported that at least 836 Ground Zero rescue workers and volunteers have died since the attacks, including 345 from cancer. Of the heroes who answered the call at Ground Zero, 15 were killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Over 4,000 people have died because of a single terrorist attack on our soil.

I remembered the September 11, 2011 memorial. We were reminded that the whole world was riveted in 2001; there was an instant solidarity that developed between adversaries and friends of the United States. The French newspaper headline said – We are all American today (93 countries lost people on 9/11 and artifacts from the wreckage were shipped to 8 countries for memorials of their own.) In 2001 NATO invoked its charge that an attack on one is an attack on all. This collective self-defense was seen then and now around the world. Foreign countries stand by us, assisting with anti-terrorism via improved security that deters terrorists from reaching American soil and vice versa. Additionally, they did not leave our country; they remained on our soil at the United Nations, in New York City (NYC) business buildings and more. The NYC memorial has reflecting pools, names not alphabetical but near someone they had a connection with, the lone surviving tree, and the 1776 foot new World Trade Center (finished this year) marking the rebirth of our freedom and housing the museum with the remembrances of the 9/11 tragedy. It was said that Mayor Bloomberg gave $10 - $15 million of his own money to see that the monument was ready as he wanted it to be a monument to building a better world. All of this was and is a story of hope. Former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani said we’re safer than we used to be but not as safe as we should be. We’ve plugged a lot of the loopholes that existed, our airport security is much better, our gathering of intelligence has improved dramatically, the cooperation with foreign governments is better and the decomposing of Al Qaeda with the death of Bin Linden helped but also made them angrier with us. Giuliani said we haven’t done enough with port security; because of company disputes and the FCC not making a decision we still hadn’t given emergency people their own radio frequency to band them all together. Some cities and states were well prepared while others are not so people need to be alert and cooperate with the police. In my opinion, it was not just NYC that needed rebuilding after 9/11; our whole nation did; technically all Americans are survivors of that incident. I heard so many stories from direct survivors and families of the 9/11 tragedy. All were living their lives with grace, pulling their lives back together, trying to honor the departed by being better people.

We were angry when we found out that 10 years after the 9/11 attack the recommendations of the Bi-partisan Policy Center report had not been fixed; a hydrogen peroxide bomb could still make it through security and communications weren’t fixed. And per the WMD Center’s Bio-Response Report Card, the US is unprepared for a biochemical attack despite spending $65 billion in the last decade.

The protestors have a right to protest, they’re lucky they live in a country that allows such without condemnation like in Syria. But the protestors in Chicago should remember why the wars exist. I don’t believe NATO should be disbanded nor do I believe the war should end before its time; we’ve made this mistake before. New Yorkers have done their part and stand as a symbol of our resilience. It’s time for the rest of us to do what they have done; embrace the bravery shown and try to emulate it. As a point of reference tomorrow I will compare the war deaths to vehicle accident fatalities in this country. 

Increased Oil Doesn't = Cheaper Gas

A May 11, 2012 International Business Times website said – According to this month's Congressional Budget Office report on the nation's energy security "Policies that promoted greater production of oil in the US would probably not protect US consumers from sudden worldwide increases in oil prices stemming from supply disruptions elsewhere in the world even if increased production lowered the world price of oil on an ongoing basis". The report outlines possible policy solutions to help insulate (protect) US consumers but they go against the position of the oil industry and of Mitt Romney who have accused President Obama of limiting oil and natural gas production on federal lands and promoting regulatory policies that stifle energy development; they argue that more production means greater national energy security and lower domestic energy prices. The congressional report says the opposite - "In fact, such lower prices would encourage greater use of oil thus making consumers more vulnerable to increases in oil prices. Even if the US increased production and became a net exporter of oil, US consumers would still be exposed to gasoline prices that rose and fell in response to disruptions around the world. In the US demand is relatively unresponsive to price changes in the near term because households and businesses have almost no ability to substitute one fuel for another in their transportation decisions or to substantially reduce their consumption of gasoline at low cost. As a result, households and businesses are limited in their ability to reduce the costs associated with higher oil prices." Should the US increase its oil production, other oil-producing nations could decide to keep prices from falling by cutting back on their own oil production thus making the US policy moot, said the report. Instead, the report suggests Washington could embark on policies and possible legislation that would reduce the nation's demand for oil through the advancement of renewable technologies and vehicles with even greater fuel efficiency and the increased availability of public transportation. The report also suggested the US could release oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve to offset temporary supply disruptions, something that has happened before.

In a nutshell the May 10 Oilprice.com article said - Both the large international oil companies and the smaller independents are finding themselves increasingly locked out of those areas richest in hydrocarbons and that regulations are getting tougher, environmental accountability is rising, and taxes are increasing. State-owned firms now dominate the oil and gas industry worldwide and hold 80% of the world's oil reserves, and the fear of expropriation is preventing expansion or participation in projects in many formerly docile countries. So, the industry is turning back to the US where private development of resources is still possible and legally well-protected. If the industry tells the public and policymakers the truth then the industry's attempt to expand its US operations will almost certainly fail. The truth is that the industry wants to fulfill its primary mission, namely, making money for its shareholders and managers. The industry has pretty much gotten all the easy oil there is to get on private land and the remaining easy oil is on public land and in offshore areas controlled by the federal government. In addition, new methods for bringing both oil and natural gas to the surface such as hydraulic fracturing currently enjoy environmental exemptions which the industry got written into federal law. The exemptions are little more than methods for transferring immense environmental costs onto the public through water, air and soil contamination as well as human and animal health effects--all in order to enhance industry profits. The industry has found that the best way to distract the public from the industry's unsavory motives is to insist that its new zest for drilling America's wilderness and offshore areas is all about helping the country achieve energy independence. US politicians--the non-serious ones, at least--are happy to predict low prices for gasoline once the energy juggernaut gets cranked up but this is all a sham. The oil industry does NOT want the public to understand that no matter what happens, Americans will continue to pay (to the highest bidder) the world price for oil and its products. So as not to get caught in an obvious lie, the industry prefers to focus on how much production could grow if only public lands and offshore areas were open to exploration and drilling, implying, but not saying, that this will somehow bring prices down. It has never been the plan of the oil and gas industry to charge Americans less than it can get elsewhere in the world. And the industry does NOT mean to expand renewable energy sources or to have Americans curtail their use of energy in any way, for example, by driving less and bicycling more, the paths to energy independence. Instead, ill-informed journalists regularly transmit industry claims that are designed to make us believe that American energy independence is at hand and erroneous claims that America now has a 100-year supply. Proven and probable reserves are likelier close to 22 years of consumption at the current rate. The actions of the US are not done in a vacuum and US consumers have little to no alternative to fossil fuels when it comes to transportation (vehicles need gasoline, semis and many trains need diesel, and planes need jet fuel -- all of which are derived from oil). The nation's oil production is in the hands of private firms, companies (unlikely to withhold oil for a rainy day) that sell oil and make a profit. On March 8 Tim O’Reilly said the price of gas doesn’t have anything to do with the President; Presidents don’t solve the problem of speculation. Unfortunately, judging from recent polls, the public is falling for the industry and Republican falsehoods.