Hi - sorry it's been a while... I'm pregnant with twins & haven't been feeling well - and, trying to ignore the news and anything remotely political in the interest of healthy babies!
HOWEVER, I heard something on public radio this morning that made this social worker's blood boil. In case you missed it, the Supreme Court had their last session of the "year" yesterday, Monday, June 27th. One of the decisions was in regards to a person's ability to sue the police when a valid restraining order is not enforced by same police department. This case stemmed from a situation in Colorado where a woman's three children were murdered by her estranged husband after he kidnapped them from her front yard and allegedly took them to a Denver amusement park, and in which the local police did not alert the Denver police or have the amusement park searched for the man and children. (Castle Rock, Colo., v. Gonzales, 04-278)
"Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police enforcement of the court order against her husband", the court said in a 7-2 opinion. Further, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said, "The creation of a personal entitlement to something as vague and novel as enforcement of restraining orders cannot 'simply go without saying.' We conclude that Colorado has not created such an entitlement.''
WHAT THE HELL?! Here's the rant: so tell my why on earth we have such a thing as OFP's (Orders for Protection) and restraining orders, if the person who legally requests and receives one from a judge cannot reasonably expect police enforcement of said legal order?! Seems to me this completely strips away the very limited options that abused women (and their children) have to stay somewhat safe from their abusers. Most abused women already won't stick their necks out in a courthouse to request said OFP's & restraining orders, because it would require them to come into contact with their abuser at the courthouse - can you imagine the impact this ruling will have on their future choices?!
Now, I have to point out that there were two lone voices of reason in this decision. Justice John Paul Stevens was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in dissenting this decision (note: the ONLY woman on the bench!). Justice Stevens wrote in his dissent that the woman's "description of the police behavior in this case and the department's callous policy of failing to respond properly to reports of restraining order violations clearly alleges a due process violation.''
I simply cannot fathom this. Further evidence of male domination and the squashing of women and children's rights... and I'm not a firm believer in systemic misogyny!
It's also worth mentioning that the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has been pending reauthorization in Congress this year, and, as of today, has only been introduced in the Senate. It not only has to make it's way not only through both Houses of Congress, but also must first pass through the Senate Judiciary Committee. Don't know much about VAWA? Check out this link - the good folks at Wellstone Action! have an entire portion of their website devoted to educating people about VAWA and tracking the bill as it moves through Congress:
http://www.wellstone.org/swinstitute/category_page.aspx?catID=3800
If VAWA interests you - contact your Congressional representation in Washington and urge them to sign on as co-authors of VAWA and work to get it passed.
Well, that's my rant for today. Maybe I'll be back in the blog business, since this has really rattled my cage. Also, our state goverment in MN is set to shut down at midnight thursday, since our fabulous Governor (President Bush's golden boy, I might add) is NOT budging even a centimeter on his infamous "no new taxes" pledge... THAT ought to give me something to rant about in the month of July!
Oh - and Happy 35th Birthday to me! :)
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
"Welfare Healthcare" in MN
Here's a wonderful idea: develop a low-cost health insurance program, run by the state, for low-income working adults and their dependents. Sound like a good one? Well, it is - it's called MNCare - and THOUSANDS of people in the state of Minnesota over the last decade have saved the state BILLIONS of dollars by having preventative healthcare coverage.
MNCare was designed to prevent their other option: wait until they're so sick they need emergency care, so they go to the emergency room and need (and are provided) far more intensive diagnostic services, most likely an expensive hospital stay, and expensive aftercare and medications. All of this, by the way, the "community" hospital is required by federal law to cover if the patient can't afford it or they don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. These costs also get passed on to the hospital's other patients in the form of really high healthcare costs. And, since a lot of hospitals now own HMO's (or vice versa), our health insurance costs also go up.
Don't believe me? I worked in one of the largest Midwestern teaching hospitals for 4 years, on the largest adolescent psychiatric unit in a 5-state region. Trust me - I saw it happen nearly every day.
So anyway - why am I all fired up about MNCare, if it's such a marvelous thing? Well, here in MN we have a republican governor (Tim Pawlenty - you may have heard of him - he's apparently one of the rising stars in the GOP), who took a "no new taxes" pledge when pressured by his right-wing wealthy cronies at the Taxpayers League. He has not only single-handedly (okay, with the help of our republican-dominated state House) dismantled our progressive, nationally recognized system of taking care of the people of our state (otherwise known as social or safety-net programs). To balance the budget without raising taxes, he has cut and cut and CUT funding to health & human services programs, closely followed by our education system.
His new proposal is to tighten the criteria to qualify for MNCare - which he has loudly proclaimed to be "welfare healthcare." This proposal would effectively cut 27,000 working adults and their dependents off the program. I remind you: these are working adults, merely taking advantage of a program that was specifically designed for them, to save the state billions of dollars! Now, to top it off, the republican chair of the House Health Committee (Rep. Fran Bradley) has proposed a bill that would knock another 2,700 off the program! (I know, when you're talking thousands, what's a few more, right?!)
So there it is. "Welfare healthcare." Another well-planned and implemented social program, that is doing exactly what it was intended to do (dual purposes, actually), branded negatively and being dismantled by the almighty "I pulled myself up by my bootstraps so why the hell can't you" crowd... And THAT'S why I'm so fired up today!
MNCare was designed to prevent their other option: wait until they're so sick they need emergency care, so they go to the emergency room and need (and are provided) far more intensive diagnostic services, most likely an expensive hospital stay, and expensive aftercare and medications. All of this, by the way, the "community" hospital is required by federal law to cover if the patient can't afford it or they don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. These costs also get passed on to the hospital's other patients in the form of really high healthcare costs. And, since a lot of hospitals now own HMO's (or vice versa), our health insurance costs also go up.
Don't believe me? I worked in one of the largest Midwestern teaching hospitals for 4 years, on the largest adolescent psychiatric unit in a 5-state region. Trust me - I saw it happen nearly every day.
So anyway - why am I all fired up about MNCare, if it's such a marvelous thing? Well, here in MN we have a republican governor (Tim Pawlenty - you may have heard of him - he's apparently one of the rising stars in the GOP), who took a "no new taxes" pledge when pressured by his right-wing wealthy cronies at the Taxpayers League. He has not only single-handedly (okay, with the help of our republican-dominated state House) dismantled our progressive, nationally recognized system of taking care of the people of our state (otherwise known as social or safety-net programs). To balance the budget without raising taxes, he has cut and cut and CUT funding to health & human services programs, closely followed by our education system.
His new proposal is to tighten the criteria to qualify for MNCare - which he has loudly proclaimed to be "welfare healthcare." This proposal would effectively cut 27,000 working adults and their dependents off the program. I remind you: these are working adults, merely taking advantage of a program that was specifically designed for them, to save the state billions of dollars! Now, to top it off, the republican chair of the House Health Committee (Rep. Fran Bradley) has proposed a bill that would knock another 2,700 off the program! (I know, when you're talking thousands, what's a few more, right?!)
So there it is. "Welfare healthcare." Another well-planned and implemented social program, that is doing exactly what it was intended to do (dual purposes, actually), branded negatively and being dismantled by the almighty "I pulled myself up by my bootstraps so why the hell can't you" crowd... And THAT'S why I'm so fired up today!
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
The swing to Conservatism
This is really a response to Greg's comments (see Virgin Voyage)...
I am really troubled with the swing to conservatism, and was actually having a conversation along these lines about the time you were typing your thoughts... I struggle when I know intelligent, good people that truly and deeply care about the people in their communities, and/or care about having green trees & blue skies & healthy green spaces, and firmly believe in "all men were created equal" - yet they choose to vote for very powerful and charismatic people that absolutely do not share these beliefs, or at least prove that they do by passing laws congruent with those beliefs! It makes no rational sense to me - and I can only assume that people are lulled into complacency and CHOOSE to believe that they are not being lied to.
Re: Christianity - my own faith is deeply personal, but I also have a pretty hard time with the whole concept of "faith" (i.e., it's hard to walk off the edge of the proverbial cliff and trust that God's going to take care of me, and that He'll "work all things for good..."). So, looking for a smiling me isn't always going to reassure someone that I trust I'm going to Heaven when I die! I do believe that God allows us to have knowledge when we, as a race, can mostly handle it. This kind of ties into your (Greg's) philosophy of revelationary, I think? But I also firmly believe that the Bible is the true, inspired Word of God, and that it must be understood within the cultural and historical time in which is was written - and that is the step that most Christians miss.
I can guess that this is where a lot of the current trend toward conservatism is coming from, along with the fact that people are truly fearful of things they don't understand (the human condition). It's simply much easier to hide behind a grey area of the Bible than to do the very hard work of figuring out how God's word really fits into our modern society.
Bush flat out scares me - PERIOD. As a mental health practitioner, he strikes me as diagnosably narcissistic, and this type of person can be extremely dangerous. And, he's the leader of the free world, who is convinced he is ordained by God to be leader, and therefore all his decisions must therefore be blessed by God, right?! SCARY doesn't even begin to cover it...
As for our new Pope, Benedict XVI - apparently he's going to pick up right where John Paul II left off, and I didn't expect anything more than that from the conclave... His philosophy is literally all these men know! Think about it - JPII is the only Pope that I can remember in my lifetime, and he served one of the longest papacies ever. He was well-liked and well-spoken, and yet he ruled with an iron fist. I can hope and pray for a Pope more "in tune" with our modern world when we go through this again in the next 5-10 years (because, face it, Benedict XVI won't live forever)...
I am really troubled with the swing to conservatism, and was actually having a conversation along these lines about the time you were typing your thoughts... I struggle when I know intelligent, good people that truly and deeply care about the people in their communities, and/or care about having green trees & blue skies & healthy green spaces, and firmly believe in "all men were created equal" - yet they choose to vote for very powerful and charismatic people that absolutely do not share these beliefs, or at least prove that they do by passing laws congruent with those beliefs! It makes no rational sense to me - and I can only assume that people are lulled into complacency and CHOOSE to believe that they are not being lied to.
Re: Christianity - my own faith is deeply personal, but I also have a pretty hard time with the whole concept of "faith" (i.e., it's hard to walk off the edge of the proverbial cliff and trust that God's going to take care of me, and that He'll "work all things for good..."). So, looking for a smiling me isn't always going to reassure someone that I trust I'm going to Heaven when I die! I do believe that God allows us to have knowledge when we, as a race, can mostly handle it. This kind of ties into your (Greg's) philosophy of revelationary, I think? But I also firmly believe that the Bible is the true, inspired Word of God, and that it must be understood within the cultural and historical time in which is was written - and that is the step that most Christians miss.
I can guess that this is where a lot of the current trend toward conservatism is coming from, along with the fact that people are truly fearful of things they don't understand (the human condition). It's simply much easier to hide behind a grey area of the Bible than to do the very hard work of figuring out how God's word really fits into our modern society.
Bush flat out scares me - PERIOD. As a mental health practitioner, he strikes me as diagnosably narcissistic, and this type of person can be extremely dangerous. And, he's the leader of the free world, who is convinced he is ordained by God to be leader, and therefore all his decisions must therefore be blessed by God, right?! SCARY doesn't even begin to cover it...
As for our new Pope, Benedict XVI - apparently he's going to pick up right where John Paul II left off, and I didn't expect anything more than that from the conclave... His philosophy is literally all these men know! Think about it - JPII is the only Pope that I can remember in my lifetime, and he served one of the longest papacies ever. He was well-liked and well-spoken, and yet he ruled with an iron fist. I can hope and pray for a Pope more "in tune" with our modern world when we go through this again in the next 5-10 years (because, face it, Benedict XVI won't live forever)...
Monday, April 18, 2005
Virgin Voyage
My husband has been after me to start blogging, mostly because he gets a little tired of all my ranting and raving about the state of our society here in America. I'm a masters-level clinical social worker that has chosen to move into "macro-level practice" (to the non-social work world, that means no individual client contact, but more "big picture" stuff), and focus on social justice, politics, and all things policy-related.
I'm uniquely positioned to provide interesting view-points on the world: I was raised in the Evangelical Christian church (and the Republican Party!) and yes, consider myself to be one of those "born-again Christians"; I hold both bachelor's and master's degrees in social work and have worked in the field of adolescent mental health for more than a dozen years; I'm a die-hard Progressive Liberal Democrat and worked on Senator Wellstone's last campaign; and, I'm a happily married heterosexual woman that is firmly allied with the gay community, having several dear friends and family members in the GLBT community. I guess I'm kind of an enigma of sorts, actually - I can see the world from a lot of different angles, but am quite thoughtful and knowledgeable about where I choose to come down on the issues.
So, here we go. It'll be interesting to put my ideas down where someone - anyone, really, can read them! Things like, oh, the Terry Shaivo case that about drove me out of my mind (let the woman die in peace, for pete's sake!!); the same-sex marriage debate that we can't seem to let go of here in Minnesota (what's being threatened, anyway?! aren't divorce rates over 50%?!); and Tom DeLay's strange idea that being an unethical politician is okay and somehow fits into his strong "moral values" that won both him and Bush their seats again last fall (and made me nauseous for weeks on end)! Maybe someone out there will actually appreciate my rantings?!
I'm uniquely positioned to provide interesting view-points on the world: I was raised in the Evangelical Christian church (and the Republican Party!) and yes, consider myself to be one of those "born-again Christians"; I hold both bachelor's and master's degrees in social work and have worked in the field of adolescent mental health for more than a dozen years; I'm a die-hard Progressive Liberal Democrat and worked on Senator Wellstone's last campaign; and, I'm a happily married heterosexual woman that is firmly allied with the gay community, having several dear friends and family members in the GLBT community. I guess I'm kind of an enigma of sorts, actually - I can see the world from a lot of different angles, but am quite thoughtful and knowledgeable about where I choose to come down on the issues.
So, here we go. It'll be interesting to put my ideas down where someone - anyone, really, can read them! Things like, oh, the Terry Shaivo case that about drove me out of my mind (let the woman die in peace, for pete's sake!!); the same-sex marriage debate that we can't seem to let go of here in Minnesota (what's being threatened, anyway?! aren't divorce rates over 50%?!); and Tom DeLay's strange idea that being an unethical politician is okay and somehow fits into his strong "moral values" that won both him and Bush their seats again last fall (and made me nauseous for weeks on end)! Maybe someone out there will actually appreciate my rantings?!
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