I thought about making this post personal, but this article is stronger and backed up by a hell of a lot of studies, more eloquent all around, so just click through.

It’s all well and good to say you don’t intend to shame fat kids or their parents, but the reality is, by framing this as an obesity prevention initiative rather than one with benefits for children of all sizes, by emphasizing BMI over fitness and setting a goal of, quite literally eliminating fat children — could you send a clearer message to big kids that they’re unwanted? — you’re tapping into a deep vein of fat hatred running through this culture.

This is a culture in which fat people can’t get health insurance or adequate medical care because of prejudice, where teachers, nurses and medical students report having “very strong anti-fat attitudes,” including that “obese people lack self-control and are lazy, obesity is caused by character flaws, and failure to lose weight is due only to noncompliance.”

I was about to say I try to stay out of politics, but the truth is I’m a passionate, opinionated person, so no I don’t. But I do like to look at multiple sides of an issue. That’s why I decided to do this post, because I think that with all the pros and teabaggers fighting over this issue a lot of us who are in the middle are getting lost.

Let me first start out by saying I am a 30 year old uninsured woman who is currently also unemployed (traditionally. Ask any care takers of a special needs child if it’s a job, and they’ll say hell yes. It’s more than a full time job, it’s one I can’[t turn off, can predict the workload of. It’s all consuming. My priorities are the last to get factored in, and only in between everyone else’s needs. But I’m not complaining, because I love my family very dearly and honestly I love the challenge. As hard as it might be there is no question in my mind when it comes who to put first.) I’ve been on Medicare twice for pregnancies, one of my kids is on SCHIP and one is on Medicare. Jason is on a traditional HMO (The traditional HMO actually, yes the one that pops right into mind when you think “insurance”.)

For me not having health insurance is a mixed bag. I get reduced cost visits at a local clinic that take care of all of my basic needs (yearly paps, birth control, etc). But two years ago I fell into a hole in our yard, dropping a weed wacker on myself and wrenching my ankle. I couldn’t walk on it for almost two days and it didn’t stop hurting for about three months afterward. I’m pretty sure I had a chip or a small fracture because of the grinding quality to the pain. But since after two days I could walk in it going to the hospital wasn’t an option.

Do I worry about it? When I go down the stairs. When I get in the car I think of how I hope nothing goes wrong because we can’t afford medical bills. Jason has been in the ER a few times the past few years. I get statements from when the kids have had stuff done at the hospital. I see how much it costs and pay what insurance doesn’t. I know I can’t afford for anything to happen to me.

On Twitter today someone posted this link explaining why health care reform is good. I absolutely believe that. I know it’s true because if you skip right to the PS that’s where I am. Two years ago things were tight, but workable. This year chances are good we’ll have to go to a food bank at some point. There was no pay raise this year, but the cost of living is up, so now suddenly we are living on the edge of the hole. We’re taking steps to cut down costs, but there’s only so much you can do when you have loans still to pay off and legal obligations.

We are doing worse every year despite Jason having been at his job for 7 years now and me bringing in more money through freelancing and writing as well. That’s a shitty feeling that you you are doing better when it comes to working harder and having more stable income, but somehow your finances are getting worse.

I am absolutely in favor of health care reform. However, I also have little confidence in the government. Yes, I’m worried about how we’re going to pay for this. I don’t think we can as long as we are still fighting two wars and have a struggling economy.

I also think health care reform should include capping malpractice suits, maybe even doctor pay, hospital costs, and I’m in favor of 24 hour urgent care centers as alternatives to ERs. (I like the idea of an urgent care clinic being close to or part of a hospital and only emergency patients are funneled into the ER. Sort of like triage.)

I think we need reform on every level. This isn’t a simple fix, and furthermore there is not perfect option. There’s just doing it better, and dammit we should be doing it better.

What I’m scared of is that instead of any real reform they’ll just require everyone to have insurance, like they do with auto insurance. Then, I’ll be screwed because there is no way we can afford it. But like so many, my voice is getting lost behind political rhetoric and half truths. And I suppose it’s too much to expect people to stop and listen for a bit, rather than just repeat what their favorite media mogul or spinner says.

I had more to comment on, regarding Avatar and the trends surrounding it. But then came one of those moments that throws you to make you think.

In the middle of a conversation a person being black comes up. I don’t even remember what I was saying, just that my 5 year old daughter sudden shoots me a horrified look. “I’m not black am I, Mommy?” She asks.

“No, you’re not.” Then I have to ask, because her reaction really bothers me. “But if you were why would that be a bad thing?”

“Because if I was black I couldn’t ride on the bus!”

Now, she has been bringing home the first hints of Black History Month activities (a Connect the Dots worksheet of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, which in a way is darkly ironic because of how many people in the past and present fail to “connect the dots” about the man and his message.) We talked about Martin Luther King, Jr last night and I said he was a great man, a real super hero who stood up for people who needed it, and for what was right, even though a lot of people got really angry at him for it. She said “And they shot him.”

Yes, but she didn’t get the standing up for equality and human courtesy and decency. She understood he was famous because he got shot. And today’s conversation clearly reflected Rosa Parks’s entry into the discussion. So I can tell the school is teaching my child Black History except all that she’s absorbed is no idea of what black is, and the idea that black is bad.

How can this be good for racial relations?

Normally I have about the same opinion of the Vatican that Penn & Teller so eloquently portrayed in the most recent season finale of their Showtime show, Bullshit. (Fantastic show by the way, even when I disagree.) However, there was something I found interesting to come from the Vatican–their review of James Cameron’s Avatar.

I haven’t read the actual review, I’ve just read summaries of it, and I’m taking it all with a grain of salt. But (not that I’ve been paying attention) this is one of the first pro-published reviews of Avatar I’ve heard of that has called Avatar on their BS, both the lack of meaty story, and the tired environmental message. It’s pretty easy in the SF/F world to find some people seriously upset with Cameron’s “white man gone native” tale of a race blue kitty minorities who need the strong white warrior’s help defeating the evil white people who want to rape their planet. Jeez, just typing out the pitch makes me want to yawn. It’s a piss poor story that we’ve seen before, a lot, and that we should all, white or not, be insulted by.

But, racial issues aside, what I find interesting is that the Vatican leveled an interesting charge at Avatar. It accused James Cameron of encouraging people to forget about God and instead indulge in nature/environmental worship. We all have heard the “Taking God out of the world” whine, but the idea of environmental/”green” worship is very interesting to me.

At this point anyone who knows me is going to say “But Michele, you’re PAGAN. Isn’t that nature worship?” It can be, but not the way I do it. I mean, I don’t pay to trees, or birds, or the dirt. I do thank my meat for feeding my family. I do offer plenty of space in my area for plant growth. I feed the birds our stale cereal and bread ends.

But when a treeling starts growing against my house I remove it. And when weeds sprout in my garden I pluck them. I spray for pests if needed, and I use a washer and dryer.

The thing is there is A LOT of pressure, and a lot of misinformation out there. There are massive debates on exactly how much energy, after transport and everything is factored in, recycling saves. The current green movement pushes people to buy pretty expensive (at least to my budget) cars, appliances and products that “save energy” then upgrade immediately in a year or two when something more efficient comes along. Today’s brand new washers might save a lot of water, but at $1k or more for just the washer, plus manufacturing costs, transport costs and the eventual transport away and disposal cost how much does it really help? And at that price I can tell you it is completely impossible for a large section of the populace to afford the energy saving appliances in the first place. Often these are the exact same people who would use, to their lifestyles and pocket books, that kind of energy efficiency. Ironic that I could save a lot of money if I upgrade my dryer, but when I was forced to do so last year the bottom of the line, least effcient dryer was all I could afford.

Likewise, my house, built in the early 1900s, has uneven floors and drafty windows, old doors that don’t seal right, and no insulation in the walls. I could save a lot of money on my winter bills if we jacked up the foundation, got foam insulation, replaced my windows and doors, but I’m too busy trying to make sure I can shell out the $300+ a month it takes to keep my home at a level where my indoor plants don’t die due to frost to make my home more energy efficient.

Yet the the movement has no sympathy, or understanding, for people who cannot keep up with this incredibly capitalistic “Green movement”. Look around, take inventory of how much of the “be green” equates to “buy something” to be green. And if you aren’t you’re not just “not with it” You’re personally killing the environment.

Even the relatively new carbon credits say if you give these companies money they “promise” to use it to fund alternative energy programs. Right, like so many companies promised to pay their employees. And promised balloon payment mortgages and subprime loans were a great idea. Al Gore also notoriously used 12 times the energy of an average American home, and sure he, when taken to task, could afford to make changes to improve his consumption. (Would he have if he hadn’t been taken to task?)

So I have to ask when did “Buy this shiny new thing” become part of Reduce Reuse and Recycle? And when did Reduce and Reuse stop being a part of it.

Environmental responsibility isn’t about living out in a commune where you poop in bucket and bury it (which by the way, led to some serious health issues in the past times where this was our only option.) And it’s not about buying stuff. If anything it’s about NOT buying. It’s about buying local. Buying small. Or using what you already have, even if it needs to be repaired, or reimagined first.

But ask most people and they’ll say to be green you have to ditch the car and buy a hybrid (for $26k or more), ditch the old appliances, even if they still work and buy new ones, buy canvas bags instead of using plastic ones (at my local Kroger these are $2-$5 each), make sure to recycle everything you can that you buy… etc. The television and mainstream movement has taught us that shell out money can relieve us of our responsibility and shame at over using.

How often to you hear, buy less? Compost? Start a neighborhood garden instead of feeding the grocery store’s pockets? Use the hell out of what you have? Buy clothes and canvas bags, etc at a thrift store, or garage sale instead of going out and buying new? Use glass jars for storage, newspaper and junk mail as mulch, or wrapping paper, or in place of paper towels (great for window and mirrors). Use old rubbermaid containers as pots for small veggies, herbs, or just oxygen producing house plants.

And what happens if you offer skepticism to a dyed-in-the-wool greenie? Heck, you don’t even have to encounter an activist in order to be asked why you aren’t doing more to Save the Environment and go green.

I think the Vatican, when summarized, has a point that environmentalism, like capitalism has become more of a driving force in our lives that religion. Even if it trades one set of “Holier than thous” for another the problem is still the same. We revolve so much around a certain definition of environmentalism and “green” that anything outside of it is summarily dismissed, and the ideals within the belief are marked as unquestionable and absolute. So much of our daily stimulation is “Be green–as long as you do it this way, and if you don’t you should be ashamed!” that it might as well be approaching a religious like fever where healthy skepticism, questioning and alternate views are not allowed. And that is an absolute shame.

Sometimes you wake up and not five minutes into the day all you plans and hopes and goals shatter like so much ice sliding off the roof top (or exploding out of the pipes as the case may be). The day becomes just a frenzy of doing what needs to be done. Some times it don’t end at that day, but carries on to the next and the next. You barely have time to breathe or think, just to act.

Then you collapse into bed at night and you realize that despite everything you have a clean house, healthy happy children, a well rested husband and you’ve just spent the day with a good friend. And you realized crisis or not, you enjoyed the hell out it.

Sweet dreams and I’ll see you tomorrow.

First some resources:

• The Official Friends of the U.S. Marine Hospital page
• The Wikipage
• An Excellent collection of neighborhood pictures and history- Portland is a unique community because it’s one of the oldest in Louisville and yet because it became a “dumping place” for Irish immigrants, and now for the poorer Louisvillians. It’s a “between” neighborhood, not downtown, yet also not the West End so it often gets ignored both by developers and the city. (Portland’s zoning is complicated, which adds to the difficulty developing it.) Here you find people who take massive pride in their homes, many of which date back a hundred years or more, side by side with derelict abandoned properties and poorer families who simply cannot give the homes the care they need. (Keeping up with a home in good shape is a constant process, any homeowner will tell you. Keeping up with one fifty to a hundred years old can be significantly more trouble. Our own home  was built in 1900, renovated in the 80s sometime and stood empty over 8 months before the mortgage company in California that took it in a foreclosure sold to us. I only mention all this because it’s a typical story in this area, which commonly overlooked by historical preservation and city rehabilitation programs, continues to struggle.)

Also, if you notice the gorgeous yellow two story house with white trim and black shudders in the street and home pictures. My friend Kube lives there.

Anyway, for effect I’ve borrowed the following picture of the Marine Hospital cira 2004.

Gorgeous, regal old beast. Well not long after this photo the city began restoring the building. This is what it looks like now.

I’m cutting the rest of this post so it doesn’t dominate my blog, but there is much more under the cut.

Keep reading…

Political post. Skip if you don’t want to hear it.

Keep reading…