Max Eternity - After an entire summer of heated discussions and culture clashes at town hall meetings created by the government as a forum to discuss healthcare reform in America, the specter of Southern white supremacy tied-at-the-hip with a particular slice of the blue collar white, working and middle class, erupted in sea of vitriol; putting on full display the racist slant that a portion of America's collective has of the current state of affairs in the United States and its current president--a bi-racial, black man named Barack Obama.

It recently came to my attention that one of the most serious sources of pollution in Cuyahoga County is literally in my back yard. Less than two kilometers upwind from my home are the coal and natural gas fired external boilers at the power plant shown above, at University Hospitals, operated by Medical Center Company (MCCo), polluting the surrounding neighborhoods since the 1930s.

It has come to my attention that I am overweight (for those that know me, stop laughing).  I have lost weight in the past, only to regain it and add a couple more pounds.

What to do? Adkins... no did that, now I am fatter.  How about the southbeach diet? No, same deal.  Hummm well since I am lazy I will need something easy.

For the 30+ years of my life spent in Northeast Ohio, in childhood and as an adult, University Circle has been at the center of my universe. What Place is at the Center of Your Universe?

Whereas, Universal Health Care was proposed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1912; and

Whereas today, nearly 100 years later, 47 million Americans are uninsured and another 50 million are underinsured bringing great social and economic harm to the American family; and

Whereas, HR 676, authored by Congressmen John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich provides for Medicare for All, a universal, single payer, not-for-profit health care system which means the end of premiums, copays and deductibles; and

Thanks to REALNEO's lmcshane for pointing out one of the most interesting developments in the American "sustainability movement" ever - what appears to be Chicago's real news source, The Chicago Reader, broke the news, September 4, 2009, that "The Green Mayor's Green Policy Maker Leaves for Vancouver". This is the story of former Cleveland and Chicago area sustainability guru Sadhu Johnston, now set to become the deputy city manager of Vancouver.

Max Eternity - Remember Monkey Pox and Avian Bird Flu?  And what was the name of that flesh eating bacteria that was supposed to sweep the nation a few years back.  Oh yea I remember now--Ebola...remember that one?

It's all too bizarre.  And where do all these so-called diseases come from anyway?  But never mind that, because I've got an even better question to ask you. 

Max Eternity - It never ceases to amaze me at how Americans fail time and time again to connect the simplest dots.  How, something as simple as public healthcare can morph into a monstrosity of a conundrum.  This is something so simple a baby could figure it out.  So, case in point...very simply, ask yourself this?  What's the difference between public libraries and public health [care] insurance?  It's the exact same argument.  Hence, why our "socialist" President and the "liberal media" has not been able to articulte th

Max Eternity - I have many criticisms of President Obama, even though I voted for him.  But let me be clear, I voted for him not because I though he was going to save us from all the doom and gloom, but because I thought he had the most integrity of all the candidates that were (by June '08) left standing.  Every president, and indeed every citizen, should be held accountable.  However, the anti-black, hateful, vicious, character assisination that we are all witnessing right now...the slanderous, unsubstantiated attacks on Obama, go way, way, way beyond the pale.

If you know someone who is tempted to believe the misinformation advertising campaign about health insurance reform going on now, a campaign likely financed by your health insurance dollars (if you have health insurance), send them this link to the Obama administration's recently posted "Reality Check" below. 

Of course the anti-health insurance reform campaign is wrapped up in anti-Obama, anti-government and pro-racism sentiment so someone who believes the misinformation is not likely to change through viewing this link.

Find the initial story, these comments and active links plus more at:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111721651

All of the comments below had at least 11 recommendations by readers.

Grant Hurlburt (granth70) wrote:

I got a call last weekend that one of my best friends from high school, Rene Apel, died last Saturday in California where she had transplanted herself soon after high school.  I kept in regular touch with Rene, and when in California would visit with her.  She died from complications of breast cancer that she had treated for in 1993.  Her ultimate cause of death was acute leukemia, occurring after years of continuing chemo treatments that neither shrunk the tumors in her upper torso, nor allowed them to grow (probably brought on by aggressive radiation treatments in 1993.)

Providing health care for all is a complicated situation. An area that needs much more discussion and advocacy is how well people take care of themselves. An old housemate of mine, Jeremiah Sable, is a primary care physician in another state. He entered the field enthusiastic to bring good health care to poor people. And he grew skeptical over time. He told me, "Even though they are told by their doctor how to become healthier many people do not change their ways and grow unhealthier." 

Late on the 4th of July, there was a big fight in my neighborhood. Thankfully, I wasn't there. A friend who was there described it as around 100 people - some from East Cleveland and some from Cleveland - who just plain wanted to fight. No gang or drug issues - no girl in the middle - just a bunch of people so stressed and freaked out by life that they needed to pound somebody. On that night, those folks settled for pounding each other, and little harm was caused.

Examenes De Salud para todos en la familia
--la presion de la sangre
--Examenes de azucar
--Examenes de VIH

Mamografias par mujeres sin seguro medico con 35 anos de edad o mayores de parte
Examenes de los senos
Educacion de Cancer del seno

MetroHealth Cancer Care

Sabado, 1 de agosto
10 a.m.-2 p.m.

La Sagrada Familia
7719 Detroit Ave
Cleveland OH 44102

Contactos de Metro
Ami Peacock al 216-778-8328

Jasmin Santana al 216-778-8347

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This is a great site.  Love to see people coming together innovatively and in a community setting like this.  I'm running for the U.S. Senate.  You can view my blog at http://www.jenniferbrunner.com/index.php/blog  I learned about this site on Twitter (http://twitter.com/JenniferBrunner).  On FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/brunnerforsenate. Check out my state office's latest initiative, "Better Lives, Better Ohio" at http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/betterLives.aspx

Since our founding, in 2004, REALNEO has become a groundbreaking free, open source social network of global interest – recently recognized as one of the top networks of our type in the country, by the Knight Foundation.

In 2008, the members of REALNEO.US formed REAL COOP, an Ohio legal cooperative, which now owns and operates REALNEO.US and REAL.COOP. We are unique in the world of social computing, and a global innovator in the evolution of information systems.

From the REALNEO.US homepage:

Thanks to Laura McShane for posting this morning a comment linking to Will Allen's "Good Food Manifesto" on his Growing Power blog. I, and millions of other people, became aware of Will last Sunday, when he was featured in the New York Times Sunday Magazine article "Street Fighter", but folks who follow local foods best practices surely knew of Will long before.

Over the past 20 years, I've spent most of my "professional" time as an entrepreneur, with world-class expertise conducting multi-dimensional, multi-client relational comparative data and best practice analyses of any aspects of the world's largest and best global enterprises, environments and systems, and developing and consulting on innovations and total quality improvement. This work has generated a wealth of knowledge on large general systems, with a unique expertise in information systems and telecommunications. REALNEO is a product of this highest level expertise, drawn from the best practices of the best organizations on Earth. What REALNEO has developed for Cuyahoga County - what has been generated out of the REALNEO-generated Real Cooperative - takes general systems innovation to a whole new level of making us the brightest greenest place on Earth. So, we really do have a purpose to Cuyahoga County owning the Breuer, and the vision is beautifully expressed in this great rendering above, to be REAL COOP citizen headquarters of the open source capital of this brightest greenest state of Earth.

This summer there's a whole crop of food related films being released. 

Register today for the 2009 Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC) 4th Annual Symposium, “Countdown to 2010: Revisiting the Past and Planning for the Future”, Friday, June 12, 2009 from 7:30 a.m. - noon at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (1 Wade Oval Drive)

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