I was listening to the radio the other day (NPR, of course) and there was a story about an elderly woman who could barely afford to buy the medication she needs to be able to stay alive. She actually was not that old - I think they said she was 70 or so. But she was on Medicare and slowly but surely, over the past several years, her prescription drug coverage has diminished and now she pays some obscene amount for medicine that keeps her alive. "Again, this health care crisis," I thought to myself. But as I heard the woman list off the various medications she takes, I started to have a different point of view. She has one pill that helps lower her cholesterol. Another helps her control her adult-onset diabetes. And another helped keep the bood flowing to her heart. And then it occured to me. We don't have a health care crisis in this country. We have a disease care crisis. Because we don't have a health care system, we have a disease care system. We spend time and energy helping people get better once they get sick; we focus on curing disease. And we call it health care. But that's disease care. Why don't we spend more energy preventing the disease in the first place? Seems to me that would cost a lot less money and help keep the health care companies in business longer. Instead, we spend all our money trying to UNDO the damage people have done to themselves by not eating properly, by not exercising, by smoking. And then we spend a ton of money medicating ourselves so we won't get too depressed by all our illness and disease.

A health care system would focus on educating people from a very early age about proper nutrition, exercise and lifestyle habits that promote wellnes. A health care system would be designed to help families figure out how to pursue healthy lifestyles with limited resources. A health care system would encourage research about how to stay well, not how to get better. A health care system would thrive when people are disease free. And a health care system would ensure everyone has access to these services so that fewer people succumb to diseases that could have been avoided.

Nope, we don't have health care in the United States. We have disease care. And our disease care system sucks.

What I don't understand is some Democrats' obsession with the idea that we have to put forth a candidate who is electable, rather than a candidate who can give this country what it needs. I fail to see the two as mutually exclusive!

Since when did standing up for human rights, civil rights, women's rights, families' rights, children's rights, the right to health care, the right to an education, the right to a fair justice system, the right to be told the truth by our elected (and appointed) leaders, etc. make a candidate UNelectable?

It is this mindset - the alarming trend towards making all candidates so similar that the difference between them cannot be seen with the naked eye - that has gotten us where we are today...saddled by a system in which only the money wins and in which the masses simply do not participate.

We should not have do dumb down our candidates because media consultants think they know what the American people want. The American people know what they want - they want jobs that pay them well enough so they can at least feed themselves and their families, they want health care that won't break the bank, they want the government to stay out of their private choices, they want a justice system that's fair, they want their kids to have educational opportunities, they want to know that the words coming out of their leaders' mouths are more likely to be the truth than not, they want to feel safe in their homes and in their communities and on airplanes!, they want to pay their taxes - their fair share of taxes, and they want to know that when they retire, someone will be there to make sure they aren't left out in the cold.

That's what Americans want. Now we just have to vote for it. The candidate that offers it is the one that is electable!

I am very concerned that at the end of the summer, one of the current Supreme Court Justices will retire. And if it doesn't happen this summer, it is bound to happen some time before the Bush Residency ends..which means, of course, that some wing-nut will probably get nominated to the bench. But I must say, though I am often disappointed with the current right-leaning majority on the court, today we as a nation have reason to celebrate. Affirmative action has been preserved. By a 5-4 decision. While special points systems have been struck down, the central tenets of affirmative action have been upheld by the court. HALLELUJAH.

It's been a while since I had an engaging discussion with anyone about affirmative action. It is such an emotional issue for me. It is one of the issues about which I feel most strongly. I am not sure why I feel so strongly - I am a middle class white girl. Sure, I am Jewish...but that has only contributed to my opportunities in life, not hindered them. Yet, I feel it in my bones, the way I do a woman's right to choose or the injustice of the death penalty. I worked on the campaign to save it in California...and when we lost...when all the people of California lost...I was so dejected I quit politics all together and went to work in the private sector where I would not grow so emotionally attached to my work.

Many years ago, I decided to keep my feelings about affirmative action to myself. It was easier to bait me into a heated argument about affirmative action than it is to give candy to a child. And invariably, I would become so enraged and feel utterly crushed if the person I was arguing with did not believe that affirmative action is necessary; that the ridiculous phrase "reverse racism" would be used; that they would conjure up some story about how a deserving white person was on the losing end of affirmative action...someone always knew someone who lost a spot at a school, on a team, in a club because a minority candidate got it...that offensive belief that the only way a white person could be rejected was because some undeserving minority was accepted in his place...and the other side of that equation being that the only way a minority person could be accepted was by displacing some more deserving white candidate, but not because he or she was deserving in his or her own right. These arguments would make me nuts. I even found myself one day arguing...practically screaming...at the top of my lungs in the middle of California Street after getting off the bus from work one day. I was arguing with a friend who claimed that he was the "victim" of affirmative action. I didn't understand. He went to private prep school on scholarship. Then he attended Princeton on a football scholarship. And he got his job because he knew someone from Proinceton who knew the person doing the hiring. Yet somehow he believed that he was victimized by affirmative action. Because he didn't get into his first choice prep school and some nameless, faceless minority person did and therefore they took his spot. Nevermind this guy was, as my sister would say, "dumb as a box o' rocks." We haven't spoken since. That was 1997.

And when A___ and I started dating we would get into political discussions and he would express his opposition, or at least ambivalence, to affirmative action. And I would find myself talking down to him, then getting angry with him and losing respect for him. So I decided to keep my affirmative action feelings to myself. Race issues are very hot...chances of me convinving someone to see my point of view are as slim as me seeing theirs. So I determined that it is simply not worth it to argue, strain relationships and lose friends.

But today is a happy day. Nuanced as it is, the decision is unequivocal...as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said, "Student body diversity is a compelling state interest in the context of university admissions...Race-based action to further a compelling government interest does not violate the [Constitution's] Equal Protection Clause."

Until I figure out how to put links to other sites in the sidebars of this page, I have to keep putting them here. I found this site today. I like it.