A Week in Review and One Scary Day

By paulgibson51 on December 3, 2018 • ( 1 )

When healthcare is a theory and a policy, it is possible to be a tad removed or to be dispassionate. But when it is suddenly life and death and you receive the best possible and most compassionate care imaginable, you realize what a Medicare for All system could do for our country.

As Roxanne and I debated about whether we should head to the ER on Saturday night, it never occurred to us: What could this cost? For some, perhaps many, the thought of ER bills may have caused them to decide to wait til Monday, a decision that well could have cost them their life. I will write more on this later this week, but just realized I left the power cord to my laptop at the hospital and I have about 30 seconds to hit publish. I guess someone is trying to get me to lay low. Apologies if there is a typo or two as I need to hit publish now. Thank you so much to the many of you who send healing thoughts. I’ll be fine. More later. Glad it is the laptop whose battery is about to expire and not mine 😉

Because I am supposed to lay low for a week, the planned Roundhouse Team meeting for this Thursday may be pushed back a week. I will announce this in the next blog. Need a cord though 😉

Be sure to listen in Saturday at 8:30am on KSFR 101.1 FM, for my interview with Stephanie Garcia Richards, Land Commissioner elect and Ashley Sanderson, Emerge NM. More later. Time to hit publish.

A Week in Review

A Call to Action: Humanitarian Crisis in Mexico, Words from Allegra Love Outside Tijuana

Really bad people? Or really desperate people?

Tuesday, November 27.The post provides a reminder to make a contribution to a local non-profit today, as Tuesday was a Give-Back Day, a welcome relief from the litany of shopping day specials that litter the calendar during the holidays. The post also provides a summary of the New Mexican Our View on the gas & oil industries’ wanton disregard for regulations protecting the land. Post also include a shout out to a student-developed Chaco exhibit, our coming Roundhouse organizing meeting (last Th), and a powerful eye-witness plea from Allegra Love, on the crisis in Tijuana, Mexico. The plea from Allegra is particularly worth reading if you missed this blog. This caravan is only a glimpse of what is to come as millions will begin fleeing uninhabitable lands, lands either flooded, overheated, or otherwise unlivable. How will we respond then if this mere 3-5000 asylum seekers are deemed an invasion worthy of a military response? Click here to review the full post.

ABQ Journal Points to NM State Senate as Impediment to Serious Progressive Legislation in 2019 Roundhouse

Thursday, November 29. The post excerpted and referenced an ABQ Journal report indicating that a handful (in truth there are more than 5) NM State Senators who have a history of being good, albeit moderate Democrats to be relied upon for many important bills, but who too often stray, voting with the GOP or simply failing to attend a critical hearing and missing an opportunity to vote to pass forward an important piece of progressive legislation. This will be a focal point of Retake reporting and advocacy as our Roundhouse Team will be working with other advocacy groups throughout the state to mount pressure on these Dems, to stand up for their constituent priorities. The Post also featured a report on outgoing Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn and his action to fire his appointee to the Oil Conservation Commission, a powerful commission overseeing the degree to which oil and gas can expand extraction activities while despoiling and desecrating Indigenous land and sacred sites and the land of ranchers who rely on NM land for grazing. In each piece a recurrent theme is our current opportunity to change how our legislature and our state regulatory systems are about to change and how New Mexico can be a national beacon of progress. Sounds strange typing those words. Click here to review this post.

The World’s Addiction to Coal–A Blog Completed from My Hospital Bed at St. Vincent

Sunday, Dec. 2. My oldest son’s birthday and what a day indeed. A most unusual 24 hours, a delayed blog, and a scary 24 hours. One of the more unusual blog posts I’ve done with a personal focus on healthcare and an international perspective on coal. The short description of my stay at St. Vincent frames a larger discussion of healthcare as a human right and the impact on families that comes from being deterred from care by fears of crippling costs. The piece on coal examined how deeply engrained in Asian economies coal has become, how much of the world’s coal is consumed in Asia and how much work we have to do to have any hope of avoiding at least some of what it to come. The blog ends by pointing to capitalism as the root cause of so much of what afflicts us, from healthcare to climate change. A next system is needed, an entirely new approach to local, national and international governance and sovereignty. And we don’t have much time to invent it and then get a world that is deeply divided to join. Click here to read the full post.

Again, Roxanne and I thank all of you who commented on the blog or wrote personal emails to me, wishing me well and asking me to take the time needed to fully recover.

‹ The World’s Addiction to Coal–Post is almost 2 days late and was completed from the hospital

The Wizard Behind the Curtain Subverting Efforts to Address Climate Change and Economic Injustice ›

Categories: Personal & Collective Action