Freedom, Peace and Justice

A Fireman’s Story

Posted on the January 29th, 2010 under Articles, Government by Pete Gaeta

Once upon a time, in the small town of Palookaville, there was a fire department.  They weren’t very good firemen. They let their firefighting equipment fall into disrepair, failed to enforce the fire code, and allowed a few careless citizens (who were big donors to the Fireman’s Fund) to store highly flammable materials in places that would cause great harm to the townspeople if they were to catch fire.

The townspeople saw this and decided to hire a whole new fire department, starting the next month.

On the last day of the month, sure enough, a spark hit the flammable materials. The fire chief and his captains went to the townspeople and said, gravely, “We need the whole town to pitch in and help fight this fire, otherwise the whole town will be burned to the ground.” The townspeople saw that they were right. They left their homes and comfortable beds to help fight the fire.

The next day, the new fire department took over, and announced a plan to fight the fires. “Yes”, they said, “the townspeople will need to continue helping to fight this fire, for we have not seen a fire like this in many, many years and the risk of this fire spreading is just too great. We know how much of a strain this is on your busy lives, but there is no other way. It will take time, but we will fight this fire with all our might and rebuild the houses that could not be saved, and we will put in place new measures to ensure that this does not happen again.”

The former fire department heard this and refused to help. They yelled and screamed at the new firefighters that they should hold their hoses at a different angle, they blocked the new firefighters from accessing the hydrants and they went around the town pulling alarm boxes to distract the new firefighters from their work. They went to the townspeople and said, “See? These new firefighers are no good! Why should you have to help fight the fire? If they weren’t so incompetent, they would have it all put out and rebuilt by now and you could go back to your beds! Give us another chance and we will show you how much better we can do!”

Despite their hindrances, the new firefighters managed to get most of the fires under control, but a few still burned here and there. They got started rebuilding what had been lost, and made proposals to keep the town safe from this kind of disaster in the future, all the while continuing to fight the remaining fires.

Some of the townspeople (who were not necessarily the brightest bulbs in the drawer) began to listen to the former fire department members. “They are right”, they said, “Why should we have to help fight these fires? Isn’t that what we hired the new guys for? And all these newfangled fire-safety proposals are nothing but a drain on the town treasury!” They repeated these things over and over to anyone who would listen, and some of the other townspeople who weren’t quite as dim-witted, but maybe hadn’t been paying close attention, started to agree with them.

All of the townspeople were weary from fighting the fires. Some knew that it was hard work that had to be done, but others’ memories began to get foggy over what was to blame for the fire in the first place. “We are tired of this”, they said, “let’s bring back the old fire department and see if they can do a better job!” The others listened in amazement that such a thing would even be considered.

Tune in next time to find out if the old fire department is reinstated.  Better yet – get active in YOUR community to make sure that bums like these are never allowed near YOUR fire department again!

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear About Healthcare And The Stimulus Bill

Posted on the March 6th, 2009 under Government by Pete Gaeta

My friend Tony was alarmed by some claims made about provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Stimulus Bill) by Betsy McCaughey in an article on Bloomberg.com (and possibly from other sources, but that’s the one he cited). My response wouldn’t fit in a Facebook note, so I’ll post it here instead.

Couple things first – the version of the stimulus bill cited in the article is the House version and NOT the bill that was passed, that being said, there is nothing in either of them that addresses the doctor/patient relationship or what kind of treatments can be covered. The topics in the bill address the creation and maintenance of medical records and the creation of an IT system to handle them. There will be a LOT of IT work there to keep schmoes like us busy.  It also includes some funding for studies to provide information to doctors so they don’t have to rely exclusively on pharmaceutical and medical equipment salespeople to keep up with current treatment options.

Though I can’t deny the need for such a system, my big concern is privacy, and there are extensive stipulations in the bill about privacy and access, including recourse and penalties if there is a breach.

The reference to  “Meaningful users” refers to payments to be made to healthcare professionals as incentive for adopting the government system. I’m not sure what McCaughey was getting at with that, but she totally mischaracterized what is in the bill.

The funding in the bill for comparative effectiveness research supplies grants to public and private organizations to provide information needed by healthcare workers, but does not stipulate any form of  restriction or limitation on how that information is used.

There is no mention of “means-testing” in the bill, as the bill is not a health care plan. In any case, means testing (in a health care plan) would affect how much people of various incomes pay for their coverage and NOT what is covered.

The only reference in the healthcare section to “protocols” is a recommendation that open-source solutions are used.

Conclusion:  Either Betsy McCaughey didn’t read the bill, read it wrong, or just hoped that YOU wouldn’t read it and accept her paranoid ideological viewpoint as fact.

And there’s my Friday night – thanks Tony!

Intellectual Property and the Need For Rapid Innovation

Posted on the November 22nd, 2008 under Politics by Pete Gaeta

President-elect Obama emailed me to ask for my thoughts on a long-term plan for the economy. Instead of riffing on bailouts, public-works programs and the like, I went with something else that has been bouncing around my head lately – the hoarding of intellectual property. While not a fully-formed plan, I believe it is one of the meta-issues that is preventing new ideas and technology from fulfilling their greatest promise to our society. Here is what I wrote to him:

The Obama Era Begins

Posted on the November 10th, 2008 under Politics by Pete Gaeta

When the race was called for Barack Obama last Tuesday I was happy, no – more like relieved. The October Surprise never materialized, no message from Bin Laden, no new war with Iran, Syria, Russia or N. Korea, no new lie from the right-wing hate machine that went viral, no gaffe or slip of the tongue that gave people a reason to vote against their conscience. What I did not feel was the emotional catharsis that seemed to grip people all around the country.