Please Pass The Bread & Water When I was a young kid growing up in a single parent household, I would often have to ask before I randomly grabbed a snack from the kitchen cupboard. Mom was on a really tight budget in those days, and the weekly allotment of food had to last until […]

60 Minutes, the popular CBS news magazine show, recently did a story on the issue of frozen embryos, stem cell research, and the seeming discrepancy between President Bush’s ‘pro-life’ policy which prohibits federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research because it causes the destruction of the embryo and the fact that thousands of embryos are […]

For those of you out there who still stand in support of your elected federal officials, I have only one question: Why? This is the America they have brought to reality today: Education is falling farther behind the rest of the world, including some third world countries. Science and math scores are at all time […]

The first time my dad died I was only two or three years old. In fact, he died several times that day. My father has the misfortune of being born with a congenital heart defect. The aortic valve that he was born with couldn’t quite do the job it was meant to, so at the […]

Waging War on Americans According to the FBI’s latest annual uniform crime report, the Bush Administration is doing a spectacular job in combating what is surely this nation’s number one problem- marijuana users. In fact, more people were arrested for marijuana offenses last year than at any time in this country’s history. Over 770,000 people […]

Proponents of comprehensive national health care fall short of the mark when it comes to proposing an equitable plan to pay for it. Naturally, the first thing we can do about making sure people can afford health care is to reduce the entire price structure, focusing medicine back on care and less on profit. And, […]

One of the most frequent complaints about our medical system is the lack of availability to doctors and facilities, commonly referred to as “access to care.” Several factors have converged to create this problem, not least among them a decreasing number of doctors, a decreasing number of facilities, an increasing population, and a greater demand […]

Health care costs are the fastest growing expenses for businesses and families. Even those with health insurance can find themselves in serious debt after one medical emergency. Office visits, treatment and medication costs, co-pay’s and monthly premiums add up to thousands of dollars each year, yet the covered care options lessen. What drives the costs […]

Despite our individual differences, there is one fundamental aspect of being human that everyone shares- we all experience illness at some point in our lives. Some people are lucky, and only succumb to a cold every few years. Some people are accident prone, often getting scrapes, breaks, or bruises. Still other people suffer from debilitating […]

I remember learning back in school about the basic necessities for human life: food, water, shelter, and clothing. While the latter may at times be a matter of prerogative, the former three are indisputable necessities. When these are not available to us, we become incapable of functioning within societal parameters. When whole areas are afflicted […]