Medicare for ALL

I support Medicare for all, in fact, this may be the single issue that is motivating me to be excited about the 2020 election. That is not withstanding my long time love and affection for Papa Bernie Sanders.

Why do I support full Medicare for all? One huge reason is that I have Stage 4 (metastatic) breast cancer. Cancer treatment in the United States bankrupts thousands of Americans every year, and kills many thousands who cannot afford cancer treatment. This is in part due to the very high cost of medications and the cost of medical doctors and nurses. It is also due in part to the inaccessibility of medical insurance that is affordable. Not only that but cancer patients need psychological help to deal with the overwhelming stress of the disease and treatment. And they need nutrition support to ensure that the immune system is functioning. All these costs add up and the lack of money is the root of many people not being able to receive adequate help.

I was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer 6 years ago, this after faithfully completing self breast exams every month and regular female checkups. Less than one year of treatment bankrupted me even with some health care. Unfortunately this happens to too many people in this country. I love my country, but the health care system needs to change.

This leads me to a thought I had yesterday about the need for M4All that I have heard no one talk about yet. Patients like me are limited right now to what our healthcare plan dictates. If the hospital or clinic we are attending runs out of treatment plans for us, we cannot just pick another hospital and go to it without it being in our network or paying for it out of pocket. M4All would solve this problem. One could search for the best treatment out there. Without having to go bankrupt to do it.

I now have metastatic breast cancer that has moved into my bones. My history is too long and convoluted for this post today. If M4All had been around 6 years ago, I am not sure I would have gotten stage 4 (terminal) cancer. This is a sad recognition that I have had to come to terms with, and compassion tells me that I do not want any other person to feel this way. No more unnecessary bankruptcies or deaths due to preventable diseases.

Compassion dictates that I support Medicare 4 All, What does your conscience tell you to support?  https://berniesanders.com/issues/

Quit for Peace

First, let me say that even though I don’t know you, I probably will never meet you, I do, with all of my heart, love you. This is why I want you to live, not die, nor to live a half-life filled with regret and hatred of yourself, nor for you to kill other people. I, too, once believed in the greatness of the United States. I believed with a fervor that serving in the military was the highest calling I could imagine. I proudly served my country, until I started to see what was really going on.

I served on active duty from 1992-1996, during what I thought was peace time. I have never been so wrong. The United States military, along with NATO and the UN, had been engaged in 15 military campaigns in 4 short years. Some of these were humanitarian campaigns, but most were out and out shows of force and bombings of sovereign nations.

I started to realize the US Government tricks people into believing that nationalism is good and dying for your country is the highest honor. Is dying for a flag and leaving behind your family really the highest honor you could give? How about staying around to take care of your parents and/or children and wives/husbands? Who really benefits from your death? The US war machine does and it is the only one.

Young men and women, please quit for peace. You do not know how murdering others will haunt you for the rest of your life. Do you really want to murder someone just because they look different or sound different than you? All governments seek to divide people, this is the way they keep us under control and domination.

Older men and women, you also can quit for peace. You may know the difficulties presented when you believe you have to kill someone. You know the stress this places on you, which in turn places stress –on your family, your friends, and your colleagues. Save yourselves and the countless others that find themselves ground under the boot of the US war machine.

YOU do have a choice, you can choose to quit 4 peace. Make your stand and stand up for peace. We can achieve peace in our lifetimes if you take your place in history and Quit 4 Peace! Do it now, do it for yourself, do it for all humanity!

Movement for a People's Party Platform: Economic Bill of Rights

I have recently joined the team of Movement for a People's Party (MPP) and want to share with you the People's Party platform in a series of posts. This first post in on the Economic Bill of Rights. This was first posited by FDR as he asserted that we have a Bill of Rights that guarantees us certain rights, but that it is increasingly evident that to ensure actual security and happiness we need to add an Economic Bill of Rights. The MPP has incorporated this into the party platform.

The platform explains all of these key items in detail and I urge you to take a look for yourself at the MPP website  to read the platform in its entirety.

• Shorten workweek to 4 days
• Universal Basic Income
• Federal Jobs Guarantee
• Work and Retraining
• Repairing and modernizing infrastructure
• 21st century energy system
• $15 minimum wage indexed to inflation
• Ensuring paid maternity, paternity, family, sick and vacation leaves
• Guarantee affordable housing and rent control for all
• Reverse the consolidation of industries into trusts and monopolies
• Lift the cap on taxable income into Social Security and extend solvency to 50 years. 

* Medicare for all has its own platform section

Americans are in desperate need for a viable 3rd party that truly seeks to give us what we all want and need as we venture into this unknowable future. With your help we can get there. Note: this is an all volunteer organization. Thank you!