The Garab Chronicles

Hope XXX

If it weren't for the courage of this:

We might not have had this:

So, from the bottom of my grateful, joyous heart, thank you...

Thank you...

Thank you.

#Iran, #neda, #EGYPT, #peacefulprotest, #hope, #thetweetismightierthantheriotstick, #January25

Hope XXIX

Egypt is free. I'll write more when I'm coherent. Right now, it's all about celebration.

#EGYPT, #Mubarakresigns, #thetweetismightierthantheriotstick

Hope XXVIII - He Go Bye Bye

Mubarak has resigned.

 

 

#EGYPT, #EGYPTWINS, #DANCENAKEDINTHESTREETS

 

The Speechless Post

I've got nuthin'. I've been a shameless fan for a while, and this just ensures that I will be for a long time to come. If I could vote for this President a hundred times over, I would at this point. Bravo doesn't even begin to cover it. But bravo, bravo, and bravo!

 

It Gets Better Says The Garab

 

10/20/2010

                                                        Tyler Clementi

                                                        Asher Brown

                                                        Seth Walsh

                                                        Justin Aaberg

                                                        Raymond Chase

                                                        Billy Lucas

Prop 8 Takes a Savasana

"A Big Fucking Deal"

Last year, two of my friends were diagnosed with different types of cancer. One was working for a small production company, and had just purchased a basic individual health insurance policy with an out-of-pocket premium that cost a sizable percentage of the little funds he had available. But, he was covered in case he got hit by a bus, or got some life threatening disease that required a whole lot of care. The other friend worked full time for a small company that couldn't afford to provide health benefits to its employees, let alone pay them enough to save for a sick day.

Both friends were artists. Neither of them was too stupid or lazy to get a job that might have provided them with better salaries or compensation packages that might have included generous insurance protections, like my mother who was laid off from one such job for the better part of a year and lived in fear that her expensive coverage, which she was now solely responsible for with no income, would expire.

My first friend, the one with insurance, noticed a lump on his body that disturbed him enough to see a doctor. Upon examining him, my friend's physician made a "holy shit, how are you still standing go see the radiologist right now" face, and sent him on his merry way for a battery of tests.  Within a few weeks, the cancerous tumor was removed from my friend's body, and all he had to do while recovering from surgery and going back to work (his job provided no sick days) was decide which might bankrupt him faster, chemo or radiation. He ultimately opted for the more affordable chemo, and is currently cancer free. It's taken over a year, and he's paid off a good amount of his medical bills. Through all of it, my friend feared that he would be dropped by his insurance company or denied coverage. After he first discovered the lump, he strongly considered delaying a visit to the doctor for a few weeks to be in better standing with his insurer (whatever that means) before seeking care using his new policy. Some screaming friends, and the pain that kept him up at night helped convince him otherwise.

My second friend had a less apparent type of cancer, and no coverage. When he started feeling ill, he put off going to the doctor because a routine visit, even at the moderate $90 rate, was the difference between whether or not he could pay the rent that month. Like many of us who've lived on a Spartan income without health insurance for years at a time, he learned to ignore symptoms that might just turn out to be something minor like indigestion or a cold, or the Bubonic Plague, and keep working to keep the bills paid and a roof over his head. When he was finally diagnosed, my friend's cancer had spread to internal organs I didn't know existed. A close friend took him in, and through email and social networks like Facebook, was able to raise funds to help cover groceries and basic expenses since he could no longer work. My friend died in hospice earlier this month.

Almost everyone I work with has no health insurance. Neither did I, up until a couple of years ago, when I decided that living on the edge wasn't for me anymore and I went out and bought a policy that covers little to nothing of my monthly medical expenses, but which I keep nonetheless in the event I'm faced with some unforeseen disaster, in which case my insurance company may pay to bury me. I shopped around and bought this particular policy from a small company that had a reputation for actually paying claims and not dropping individual policy holders when they got sick. I still couldn't afford a decent plan because my seasonal allergies were considered a pre-existing condition that would add another 40% to my premium. I'm not complaining by any means, and I know I'm lucky. One of my coworkers, who can't get covered by anyone at any price, suffers from debilitating migraines that have landed her in the emergency room on several occasions. She's gone so far as to subject herself to medical studies where she receives care that might provide her with elusive relief in exchange for playing guinea pig for doctors conducting tests for new treatments that may help others suffering from what ails her. Never mind that if such treatment was available, she probably wouldn't be able to afford it without insurance.

Around the same time I bought my pauper's policy, a friend of mine was fortunate enough to land a job with a well-endowed institution (8.5, uncut. There, I said it for you), and he was showing off the brand new insurance card that came standard with the gig. The policy had every bell and whistle you could imagine, and by the way my friend enthusiastically described it, I was certain you could have a doctor paged to wipe your ass without a co-pay, all because of the piece of plastic he casually held between his fingers. All of that went away, of course, when my friend was laid off last year, along with millions across the country.

Earlier today, I came across some post on a  Facebook page reminding Rush Limbaugh of his now famous statement that if health care reform passed, he would leave the country and move to Costa Rica. Shortly thereafter, a conservative commentator explained that Rush never said he'd move, but that he would just go there to get his health care, where he could pay for it where it wouldn't be rationed. "How nice for him," I thought, "to be able to charter a plane (or even fly commercially for that matter) and have your boo boo patched over in paradise". I'll make sure to tell all my friends without health insurance, who fought so hard for, and celebrated the banishment of pre-existing conditions and basic access to medical attention for all Americans, that all they ever had to do if they got sick was book a flight somewhere exotic.

Except for my one friend, you know, 'cause he's already dead.

Yes We Can...Yes, We Muthafuckin' Can!

I don't know about you, but I'm celebrating.

Like most Americans, I'm not crazy about how we got here, or that it took as long as it did, and the bill passed by the House of Representatives falls short of what I imagined and hoped for last November. All the same, I'm thrilled.

I'm beyond thrilled...and proud. I'm damn near effervescent...

I'm hopey changey, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Congratulations to the 300 million+ of us, who don't have to be scared of going to the doctor for fear of going bankrupt acquiring treatment, to millions of Americans who won't have to take on second and third jobs the way my friends and I have in order to pay for medical procedures when we weren't covered by insurance because we couldn't get it. And congratulations to all of us, regardless of which end of the political spectrum we live on, for collectively banning the term "pre-existing condition" from our national vocabulary.

So here it is, a little reminder, from an oldie but goodie:

Hope Meets Anti-Hope

Here's the good news: There are still peaceful protests happening in Iran, and those opposing Dinnerjacket's police state remain uncowed 8 months after his illegitimate "re-election". Now, the bad (Via Andrew Sullivan):

There's also THIS, which seems to support the narrative that Iranian security forces have been cracking down on journalists and potential protesters ahead of today's mass rallies to commemorate the 22 Bahman anniversary of the Iranian Revolution.

This one***, also from today. Basiji militiamen have reportedly been bussed in by the thousands, and, along with uniformed police, have descended on areas where protesters were likely to have gathered:

There are also reports, with accompanying video and images courtesy of Iran's State TV and media outlets, that large crowds of pro-government supporters have taken to the streets, with identical posters featuring a pair of Ayatollahs made to look like they were separated at birth, except one died a couple of decades ago and the other one is so senile and feeble-minded that he thinks he's the living incarnation of his dearly departed un-twin. This begs a simple question - scratch that, it's a two-parter:

a) What on earth would compel a happy, productive, employed populace to turn out on the streets en masse, in the middle of a Thursday (Muslim holy day is Friday, so I'm assuming people have jobs to go to, even if it is the anniversary of the Revolution), when they have nothing to complain about? And b) Who is this pageant supposed to impress?

If you're Iraqi, Israeli, Lebanese, Egyptian, or Saudi, you probably have even less love for Iran's regime than the people living under Dinnerjacket and Khamenei's boot, especially since the pair of them like to use their Revolutionary Guard and intelligence services to undermine the entire region's stability through groups like Hezbollah (proxy war in Southern Lebanon, anyone?). Not to mention the game of "which hand might I be holding the nuke in" that Iran's leaders have played on the world stage, which no doubt brings a certain level of attention to a country isolated by decades of sanctions, only it's not the kind of attention any of its inhabitants or neighbors actually want.

If you're China, India, Russia or any other emerging economic super power looking for a massive market opportunity East of the UK that may give you the necessary political foothold to tell the George W.'s of the world where to stuff it, you can't be happy with the fact that said market opportunity, with its 70 million+ potential consumers, is about as stable as a nascent nuclear reactor or the temperment of the average Basij thug. Add to that the volatility of the entire region - and thus market opportunities #2, 3, 4, and 5 - brought to the brink of anxiety by the activities of market opportunity #1, and you might be  ready to throw a book of sanctions at the nimrod, with his late 80's stache and BO* that stinks to high heaven who's now costing you billions in revenue, and tell him to stop being an asshole and use some deodorant.

But here's the thing, and at least so far as I'm concerned (which doesn't mean much, I know) the most important part of this whole mess: This is about the people of Iran, who've suffered needlessly for the pleasure of a few guys with small dicks** and overblown delusions of grandeur. This opposition movement, comprised largely from the ranks of millions of Iran's young women and men, who make up a majority of the population and face staggering unemployment, has endured months of censorship, intimidation, beatings, arrests, show trials, rape, and murder. It's not the kind of thing that can be swept under even the most beautifully crafted rug. The same grievances expressed by hundreds of thousands of protesters after the disputed June elections of 2009 exist today, and they've only multiplied after the government's violent attempts at suppression. No matter how many armed goons Dinnerjacket and Khamenei pay off, or how long they try to crush the people they're supposed to govern, those grievances remain under a very thin surface, and they'll be just as ugly when they finally see the light of day as they are now.    

*There have been numerous reports over the years that Ahmadinejad smells by people who've been close enough to experience it and tell the tale, though I'll happily withdraw this statement if someone that doesn't work for Iran State Media tells me that I'm wrong. 

**I will happily withdraw this as well if anyone who doesn't work for Iran State Media can authoritatively tell me that the authoritarians in Iran are swinging more that 4.5 inches between them.

***An earlier video posted this morning, showing a uniformed police officer hauling off a shirtless man and beating him over the head and shoulders on the sidewalk, was removed from YouTube.

#Neda (yes, Dinnerjacket, people still remember that one too).