Lost Cause

Lost Cause

There was no disguising the pain on the face of the physician when the discussion on the topic of obesity came to a close. Over sixty, he had seen a career filled hard luck cases. Debilitated and dying children were the grist for his mill, yet he remained positive despite the exposure to all these tragedies. Illness in children is not entirely avoidable. A person who works in pediatrics as long as he found peace in helping those he could help, without becoming distraught by the cases where he was helpless to alter dire outcomes.

The conversation progressed from an anecdote of a patient post-op who was accompanied by seven highly trained medical professionals packed into an ICU room. Fourteen drips were running, and another staff member stood before a computer in the hallway, laboring to document the various interventions underway, along with constant assessments being taken and recorded, as well.

How much does it cost to compensate skilled healthcare workers? All are required to complete lengthy preparations that do not come cheap. Just serving the school debts of the people at the patient's bedside is an enormous sum. All tolled, the care for this patient far exceeded any premiums she had paid into her healthcare plan.

Insurance spreads the cost across a pool of people, managing the risk present for each and every one of its members. Some of us will get cancer, and the bills will be born by the lucky people in the pool who are not ill. It works great for diseases that are relatively rare. It doesn't work at all when 35% of the pool has a severe illness.

35% of adults in the United States are obese. That is a pool buster. Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular demise, they all lead to patients in ICUs surrounded by caregivers who are still paying off their medical school bills. That's what was killing the Doc who had seen it all over his distinguished career. Obesity isn't just killing his patients, it is undermining his profession. How are the 65% who aren't obese going to pay the bills of the 35% who are? And, what really wrinkled his brow is the fact that there is no good reason for so many of our children to be so overweight.

He had heard the last beats of the hearts of young ones passing on from diseases no one could cure, and managed to maintain enthusiasm for treating those he could. Now, 35% of the country is putting their health up for grabs, despite the fact that changes in diet and exercise are well known solutions. Our nation has become a patient that could thrive, if only it could muster a will to live.

Downtown Drive-Thru: Abbreviated History of the City of Middletown

Abbreviated History Middletown

1/18/78 – The roof of the Hartford Civic Center collapses under the weight of snow.

89 – The Buttonwood Tree Bookstore and Performance Center opens on North Main Street.

7/28/89 2:20 PM – Nine-year-old Jessica Short of Wallingford is stabbed to death during a street fair on Main Street.

3/93 – Mayor Sebastian Garafalo appoints himself as tax collector. The Republican Town Committee replaces the vacancy in the Mayor’s office with Stephen Gionfriddo.

94 - Oddfellows Playouse, with extensive community support, acquired and renovated the 10,000 sq. ft. historic building that is now its home on Washington St.

3/18/94 – Klekolo World Coffee opens on Court Street.

96 - North End Action Team (NEAT) evolved in 1996 from a city-sponsored Urban Homesteading Task Force, begun in response to widespread concerns about negative conditions in the city's North End.

2/16/00 - John McCain wins a majority at the Middletown Straw Poll

7/1/01 – Middletown’s Downtown Business District, created earlier in the year via a successful referendum, establishes a tax rate of 3 mils.

2/21/04 - John Edwards wins a majority at the Middletown Straw Poll

6/15/05 - Retired Connecticut State Trooper Michael Bochicchio Jr. opened fire in the Middletown Superior Court parking lot on with a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol loaded with hollow-point bullets, killing Donna Bochicchio and seriously wounding Julie Porzio. He then shot himself in the head. The shooting occurred in the middle of the Bochicchios' divorce trial; Porzio was representing Donna Bochicchio.

9/14/05 – Mayor Domenique Thornton charged with DUI by the Middletown Police Department.

9/21/05 – Charges against Mayor Thornton are dropped is Middlesex Superior Court.

11/8/05 – The Mayor loses her bid for re-election. The election of Common Council is subsequently ordered by the State Supreme Court to be repeated owing to the use of a faulty voting machine on this Election Day.

6/23/06 – Former Mayor Stephen Gionfriddo pleads guilty to mail fraud and wire fraud charges in federal court.

8/31/06 – O’Rourke’s Diner burns down. It has no fire insurance.

1/25/08 - Ron Paul wins a pleurality at the Middletown Straw Poll

2/11/08 5 AM – O’Rourke’s Diner reopens with help from the community.

5/16/08 1:30 AM – Middletown Police arrest five Wesleyan university students. Tasers, dogs and pepper spray are used to control the crowd. Two students are sent to Middlesex Hospital, one with multiple dog bites.

4/09 - The City of Middletown issues a cease-and-desist order to the local chapter of Food Not Bombs. Prior to the order, the City Health Inspector had cited the organization for distributing food without a license.

5/6/09 Wesleyan Junior Johanna Justin-Jinich is shot to death as she worked behind the counter of the Red and Black Café in Broad Street Books.

2/7/10 11:17 AM A natural gas explosion occurred at the Kleen Energy Systems power station. The initial blast killed five and injured at least fifty; one of the injured later died in hospital, bringing the total death toll to six. Earth-quake-like tremors are felt ten miles away.

5/18/10 After hastily adjourning a special meeting of the Board of Education in executive session, Board Chairman Ted Raczka walks down the hall to confront a Middletown police officer, assigned to guard the Board of Ed offices against evidence tampering in a case between the City and the Board of Ed. Eventually, eight officers are called to the scene, including the Chief of Police. At the same time, MPD is investigating two homicide cases.

2/2/11 Occupants of 505 Main Street flee the building moments before it suffers a catastrophic collapse, due to the weight of snow piled on the roof. Bricks flung from the collapse damage cars on Main Street.

10/17/11 Deputy Chief Patrick McMahon placed on administrative leave following allegations by fellow police officers that he was drinking beer while in his duty uniform and carrying his sidearm.

11/8/11 The Mayor loses his bid for re-election.

2/9-11/12 - John Basinger performs a one man version of King Lear at the Oddfellows Playhouse on Broad Street. Basinger is renowned for reciting “Paradise Lost” from memory.

12/12 - A grand jury subpoena was served on the Middletown-based Community Health Center Inc. in early December, demanding documents including any emails and paper communications with numerous Democratic officials and political aides, including Wyman, Barnes, and former state House Speaker Christopher Donovan.

12/14/12 - Daniel Persaud is unaccounted for since approximately midnight, when he fell into the river near the East Hartford boat launch.

2/8-9/13 Three feet of snow falls on Middletown. Schools are closed for the following week.

3/19/13 – Police are called to the home of Planning and Zoning Commissioner Molly Salafia in response to an unsolicited visit to her porch by Board of Ed Member Ed McKeon. He is publicly opposed to zoning changes that would make it possible to build a Starbucks on a part of Washington Street that previously only allowed residences.

8/3/13 - Middletown Police recover a corpse in the waters between Wilcox Island and mainland Middletown.

8/12/13 - East Hartford Police identify the body discovered on 8/3/13 (see 8/3/13), as Daniel Persaud, unaccounted for since 12/14/12 (see 12/14/12)

The Koran

To say the least, the Koran is an interesting piece of work. Revered by over a billion people as the word of God dictated directly to the Prophet Mohammed, it is the foundation on which has been built the largest religion of all time. To followers, the very fabric of the book binding merits honorary status requiring owners to place a copy of the Koran in a supreme location, above all other texts, and is to be handled with meticulous care when removed for the purpose of reading. The great sanctity so many render to the Koran separates it from all other literature, surpassing even the Christian Bible in terms of the sheer devotion with which so many commit so deeply. When American troops placed copies of the Koran in a pile to be burned, deadly riots ensued. While a similar act by non-Christians burning bibles would certainly stir consternation, such an act would not motivate masses to seek to murder the offenders. The Koran is more than simply the Muslim Bible. The role it plays in the Muslim world is without compare in any other religious culture. The closest comparison to it might be the way American institutions subordinate themselves to the U.S. Constitution. Servicemembers and politicians swear oaths to it, and it is considered the revelation of self-evident truth of what is right and to be upheld, at all costs. Any incursion on guaranteed rights of expression and freedom of religion is met with opposition by the full forces of the American state, mobilizing people and resources in a manner befitting the ultimate priorities this document commands. But not even the U.S. Constitution proclaims itself divine, and even provides a means of amendment in recognition of its own imperfection. The Koran is a divine entity, believed to be pronounced words both infallible and immutable. It can be discussed, but Islam does not allow it to be challenged or to change.

Deserving Better

When you take on a position of leadership, it comes with the responsibility to be mindful of those who fall within your sphere of influence. You may get elected for who you are, who you know, and what you have done in the past. If you want to go further,who you pay attention to has to change. You have to take into consideration people's legitimate stake in altering the status quo, because whatever we have in place today won't work forever for everyone. It is easy for me to think of a "for instance" of law that doesn't work for people who deserve better from legislators, and in particular those who stood against them.When a person needs medical attention, and there exists a substance that is helpful without being harmful, our leaders should not be standing in the door, keeping physicians from aiding the recovery of patients. An allegiance to keeping around legal barriers to accessing a substance that is readily available through illegal distribution only benefits a few special groups of people: The criminals selling the stuff on the black market, the people banking overtime in a vain attempt to incarcerate the drug merchants, and the merchants of man-made drugs who do not want the competition of an unpatentable, natural occurring agent. My children and yours will or will not smoke dope according to their character development. Availability under the status quo is plentiful, as the black market reaps the high margins sustainable only by the barrier to entry provided by our current scheme of enforcement.It is a tired argument to make that children will be adversely affected by providing patients in need a substance that will help them. Nothing beats the black market when it comes to the distribution of mind altering substances to minors. And kids really do not give a flying frijole what the statehouse has to say about their means of recreation. From the callous way legislators dismiss the needs of ailing patients, our children would be fools to look at the sausage factory in Hartford for moral leadership. Coming from a law enforcement background, it is easy to drink the Koolaid that makes you believe in the goodness of locking up people involved in the marijuana trade. If you want to write laws, you should consider the plight of someone who volunteers to donate a part of their liver to save a friend, then suffers extreme GI issues that are made worse by prescription pain killers. Is this person a criminal for taking something to help her get better? This law is changing due to the leadership of those who saw the wisdom of putting the needs of a patient above the wants and desires of crooks, cops, and pharmaceutical companies. Voters need to be careful to elect leaders who have the agility to change when what we are doing is not working for people whose skin in the game is nothing less than their own skin.

A road well ridden

On the road

On my own

Out of earshot

of other folks.

Free to stop to hear

pond frogs chirping.

I pause to take a picture

of animals along the way

The cattle stop and look

then hurriedly saunter away.

They are used to people

who quickly pass on by.

They must think it strange

to see someone stay.

I took to the path

somewhere in the middle.

I will follow it till I don't

and the path will stretch on without me.

Nothing binds me to travel

where I do not wish to go.

The road rises with the ridge

Until it meets a cliff.

A tunnel carves a passage

through the ancient rock.

It s entrance is dark as night.

The exit far from view.

Make your way with faith and a light

and then see sunlight anew.

Along the way I'll take breaks

as my body tells me to.

I hope to leave before

the journey breaks my body.

The sound of wind through mid-spring trees

arises like a choir of leaves.

Whatever water rested there

is shaken free by the breeze.

I take a detour for shelter's sake

as grey clouds turn black.

Nature has the final say

on how long I ride this road.

Stop funding obesity

Obesity is becoming more and more common, and especially among the poor. This promises to eviscerate the quality of life of people who otherwise could be expected to thrive. This is not a situation where the solution can come from government doing for people what they can not do for themselves. Rather, people, individuals and families, will have to change their own lifestyles from what is prevalent today.

If we are going to continue to share the risk of illness across a greater community, then the incidence of the co-morbidities of obesity must be much lower than what they portend to be, looking at current trends. Failure to improve our nation’s health will undermine radically the extent to which the public can provide healthcare to those without the means to acquire these services on their own.

Simply continuing to provide aid to low or no income people without seeing improvement in their health status is unsustainable. The gravitation to a society where people in good health contribute all of their resources to prop up those in failing health is not likely to proceed long on this path before upheaval undoes the connection between the haves and have-nots.

It is time to require those who receive health coverage from the state to comply with interventions to reduce childhood obesity. We can not afford to take on responsibility for a demographic train wreck, and why would we want to try? Compassion alone should motivate us to put in place requirements that are in obvious need, and absent of which widespread catastrophe can be expected.

Mere objection to change will not prevent changes from occurring. Given the unsustainablility of the status quo with respect to aid to the poor, change is not only in order, it is inevitable. We can actively alter our course, or allow things to drift in high seas towards a rocky shore. And no one is isolated from the ravages of the demise of families in our community.

The Storm before the Calm

The Storm before the Calm

Across the river
from the beach
where cars can come and park
lies a split of land
between the river and the bay
that is swallowed by the sea each day.

A ribbon of sand
is the only land
where the river and bay
stand side by side.

In the bay are rocks and surf
big enough to break a boat.
Although small enough to see across
many sailors have been lost.

The mouth of the river is almost a pond
except the current is strong.
The wind is enough to fill you sails
but only boat wakes make for waves.

This spit is a place on earth
walked only by those
who take a boat to reach it.
The trip makes clear the mind
so the heart is free to enjoy it.

When the tide gets high
foam rises
as waves break against waves
headed in opposite directions.
Then together both bay and river rise
till no land divides them.

When I die
burn me so no water is left within me.
Carry my remains to this spit
so my friends and family will know it.