I've been thinking a lot about the evolution of Christmas, and I've been thinking that there is a lot about the current practice that we can admire.
Peace and good will, of course, and cookies and candy canes, and happy kids - and this is also the time we think the most about those less fortunate, as do Jews and Muslims, who also have holiday celebrations this time of the year that include a component of charity.
But if there is anything that I could change about the modern practice of Christmas, it would be the installation of Santa Claus as an icon of consumer spending, more or less to the exclusion of everything else.
As an intellectual exercise, I started thinking about what a different Santa might be like; today's story lays out who a few candidates might be for "Santa 2.0" and why.
So go grab a cookie, and, perhaps, a refreshing beverage...and let's have some post-Christmas fun.
Nothing better symbolizes the corruption of the debate about healthcare reform than the rhetoric about "government-run" healthcare. Or, for that matter, the related argument that we need a "uniquely American" solution which precludes a public system like Medicare for all.
Two reports that notably received scant coverage from either the media or even those advocating the public plan "option" in Congress, reveal the seldom told truth.
Medicare is a "uniquely American" solution, and it works.
We have been busy, these past two weeks...and we deserve a bit of a break before we get right back at it tomorrow...so to that end I have two "mini-stories" for you that will give you a chance to be ahead of the curve, to jump in on something new-and in one case, to help pull a major public prank.
Along the way, I have some "don't miss" video for you to see-including a 1960s classic that is utterly and completely disconnected from politics in every way...but is still the perfect thing for a Monday.
And just to show what a help I can be, I'm even going to leave you with a story idea you can run with that has been almost entirely ignored by the larger media.
My grandmother was just released from the hospital this morning. She nearly collapsed in the bathroom on Wednesday morning, and she's had to spend the last two days in the hospital. She was severely dehydrated. She had diarrhea. She couldn't eat. She was extremely weak. Basically, this is what happens to a ninety-two year old diabetic woman all too often.
So we had to drive Grandma to the hospital. We got a bed for her in the emergency room pretty quickly, but then we had to wait forever in the emergency room until the hospital finally had a room ready for her. Grandma finally got her room, she was able to sleep, and she was able to recover over the next 36 hours.
Thank goodness we caught Grandma in time, before she lost consciousness. Thank goodness Grandma's feeling better. And thank goodness she has good health insurance. What would have happened if things weren't as good for us?
(Events of the weekend... - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Think that SiCKO isn’t already changing healthcare politics in this country?
Just through the California Nurses Association & National Nurses Organizing Committee, 15,000 nurses from across the country have signed up to help organize on the opening night of SiCKO, as part of the "Scrubs for Sicko" campaign to drive one million nurses to see the film. . More are signing up every day. Even more caregivers and patients have mobilized through Healthcare Now, Physicians for a National Health Program, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and an unprecedented coalition of activist nurse groups from around the country. Real energy on behalf of guaranteeing healthcare on the single-payer model.
We’ll take a look, below, at what it all means. But first, we need you to Go here, download some flyers, and hit your theater Friday night (warning: pdf). Say hi if you see any nurses in their red “Scrubs for Sicko” scrubs.
After yesterday's national debut of SiCKO, 1,000 nurses from the California Nurses Association and across the country rose as one, roared, and continued roaring for 8 full minutes. I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes at the same time, and so did everyone else in the theater.
It was an emotional conclusion to a historic day: the campaign kick off for an extraordinary month of health care activism that aims to cure our nation of the health insurance corporations who are doing so much damage to all of us.
The media, nurses and doctors, Moore, and healthcare activists gathered together because this—-this-—is our opportunity to finally change the healthcare system in this country. We'll recap what happened and plans going forward below…
Cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED Healthcare--thanks to SiCKO.
(Please read this review and make friends with your friends and family to attend the movie when it opens and support SB 840 - promoted by blogswarm)
Well, we went to SiCKO last night, and since we didn't get back until after 1AM, I didn't write a review then. You can check out my Flickr set by clicking the photo.
Few movies were better titled. Now, I'm not sure if Moore intended the title as in "make you sicko" or "treating the sicko" but either way, it works. I'm not what you would call a Michael Moore fanboy. I mean, his tactics can be grating and more than a little annoying. But, I think this movie makes his strongest statement yet. To put it shortly, this movie made me sad and frustrated, yet I feel more determined to work for change than ever.
The movie specifically disclaims those who are uninsured, as the opening credits roll, Moore states that the movie is not about those who do their own sutures at home, or those who die waiting for assistance at the few public hospitals. Rather the movie is about the weakest link in our health care delivery system, the insurance companies. Follow me over the flip...
The day after America's nursing movement announced its plans to use the tragedy and horror of SiCKO to spur people to action, the attacks are already beginning.
Fortunately, for you, me, and most people the attacks are best described as unintentionally hilarious. What moviemaker doesn't want crazy anti-patient Web sites pumping our press releases about their product?
Cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED Healthcare--thanks to SiCKO.
Bring your red scrubs to SiCKO's opening night and help the nurses turn this movie masterpiece into a social movement—this pop culture into political change.
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is acting as co-host of the opening night of SiCKO at 3,000 theaters around the country. We are working with an unprecedented national coalition of nurse and doctor and health care activist groups to ensure SiCKO has a long-term impact on our nation’s healthcare system and politics. It’s an incredible opportunity for patient advocates and it’s only missing one element: you. What are you doing the evening of Friday June 29th?
This time, Moore is counting on the blogosphere to help promote his film and its "call to action" against the health care industry. Which might explain why when the movie opens in the United States over the July 4th weekend, Moore and his PR team are planning a premiere fundraiser in San Francisco benefiting -- what else -- the blogging community.
Kinda odd for Chris Lehane to release this to a newspaper, instead of...you know, the blogs. But we'll see who and what soon enough I'm sure.
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is going to be hosting premiers for SiCKO across the country next June. We're so excited that I've read every single review published. The consensus: book the Oscar suite, it's a masterpiece. More importantly, the reviewers are stressing the non-partisan nature of the film and saying it will appeal to R's and D's; are treating health corporations as the pariahs they should be; and are examining the possibilities for action, organizing and change that this film contains. The film is already changing our national debate about healthcare and re-aligning healthcare politics---and it doesn't open FOR A MONTH.
The lone dissenter? Rupert Murdoch's Times o' London.
(CNA joining the AFL-CIO over the SEIU or staying unaffiliated is a big deal. - promoted by juls)
Synergy = Momentum! Yesterday the 75,000 members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee joined the AFL-CIO. No big deal you think? Wrong. The 325,000 RNs now consolidated in the labor movement have become a corps of committed activists for guaranteed healthcare on the single-payer model. Don't underestimate them-especially as SiCKO continues to roil the national debate over healthcare.
