Washington Square Park, NYC

Just back from a great, albeit brief, New York City. My daughter wanted to see Greenwich Village and so we were able to drive down the westside highway almost directly to a parking space one block from Washington Square Park. Weather was perfect and a small street festival was taking place so we strolled, listened to the various musicians around the park, drank fresh lemonade and soaked up the atmosphere.

Having entered the counter culture world just at the end of the beats and early, early hippies, Washington Square Park was always a strong spiritual beacon for me...for my daughter I am not so sure what the attraction...whatever the case, the park was all one could expect on this day.

That evening there was an extensive retrospective on the life of Pete Seeger including many pictures and even movies of him and his wife and various folks in and around the Park "back in the day" as they say...Seeger and his wife apparently lived directly across the street from the park in their early days together.

I did a great deal of reflection on the 'movement' and where it is today...mostly nowhere near the type of ideals that were espoused in those times. There has been much erosion and co-option of the core but on the otherhand the reflection of the election of Barack Obama, is everywhere in NYC...Manhattan seems to be pretty much a happy mix of black, brown, beige, yellow and white folks (cannot speak for some of the other areas outside of Manhattan).

Looking at Seeger's pacifist work as well as his environmental initiatives (one actually can swim in the Hudson River north of the NYC again) and then looking at where we stand today as a people, one is forced to think about the progress and get back to work...but that is all grist for another mill on some other day...Washington Square Park and NYC were glorious on this summer day.

On Canadian Health Care

Once Upon A Time

In 1969, after the assassinations of M.L.K. and R.F.K.; followed by the monstrous democratic convention in Chicago; and with another undeclared war grinding on, crushing a country that barely had homegrown technology sufficient to manufacture a ball point pen; I decided it was time to consider alternatives. I went back to S.F. Haight-Ashbury…just in case…it was a mess…so I moved to Canada.

I was a vet so I wasn't running from anything but I decided that I would rather have a share of my taxes going to something like say…a universal health care system…rather than more guns, bombs, helicopters. I moved to Canada and, have lived as American ex-patriot ever since; I still bleed red, white and blue but I do not regret my decision. I have lived as a landed immigrant in Canada since 1970.

Health Care

The birth of my first child in 1971 cost $2.00 (for a bracelet). My sisters ‘non-eventful’ child birth in the great state of Montana at the same time cost $800.

My second child (approx. two years later) cost $0.00 (no bracelet)...my sister’s third ‘non-eventful’ child birth at about the same time cost $2,000.00.

Eight years ago a large tumour was found in my wife's breast...surgery was booked and performed within two weeks followed by nine rounds of chemo and radiation. Today my wife is healthy and vital and the only costs have been the post treatment drugs my wife had to take as well as our vitamin bill. (A friend of mine in the states of approximately analogous income and insurance had her spouse engage with cancer and, despite decent health care, they will be paying for this treatment for at least as long as he lives. And if he lives another thirty years he will still be paying so pray for no more illnesses. Now this cannot happen in Canada!

My wife and I subsequently bought additional private health insurance (yes we were approved, even with cancer in the picture) that also covers that medication. [(It also covers eye doctors, glasses, and most basic dental...it's a good deal) (There are also self insurance options-affordable-that would even cover our vitamins if they were prescribed by a Naturopathic or Chiropractic practitioner.)]

Is the Canadian system perfect? No. Is it abused? Probably! Frankly most Canadians, not withstanding the cost, understand and willingly provide coverage to that small percentage of illegal or new immigrants that abuse the system. Why? Because it is the right thing to do! We do together what we cannot possibly do on our own and we can share a little.

I am still an American and I feel great and indescribable pride that the country where I was born has evolved to the point where we have elected a black man...universal health care would be a supreme victory...keep that hope alive.

It really should be a single payer system…Elizabeth Edwards has it right…this is not socialism, it is people working together to provide what they cannot afford separately. Social democracy works and it ain’t socialism so let that go.

I have no idea who, if anyone will actually read these thoughts but I will keep writing because it is enjoyable to me, it is the right thing to do and now is the time.

A brief reaction to the provincial election in Nova Scotia / June 2009

So, as an American expat politico who really loves the Canadian political system regardless the occasional sluggishness; I think that I would call our Canadian balance a social democracy.

It is a great system over all! Though I do wish I could really take heart in the NDP, I do not think that north Americans are inclined toward anything too overtly socialistic.

In Canada I would love to see two parties for awhile…the unfortunate current inhabitants of the Conservative Party on the one hand and the Liberal/Democrats on the other…I think we could really whoop them if we were working together and I think it would be worth it to unite and rid ourselves of Steven Harper and all the dangerous henchmen of his who have followed Karl Rove and the neocons down this dangerous path…but congratulations to Nova Scotia for a fabulous victory…GOOD LUCK

An open letter to Max Baucus, Senator from Montana, on the issue of a single payer health care system

Max, as you may know, I no longer live in the Helena, Montana neighborhood where we both grew up. I moved to Canada in 1970 and, although I remain an American Citizen, I have never regretted my decision to live in Canada.

One of the strongest reasons for my move to Canada was universal health care. My reasons then were that if we Americans had the resources to sustain undeclared wars that cost of millions of dollars a week (now millions of dollars a minute) then we certainly should have sufficient resources to provide basic health care to all Americans. In Canada we actually have a good single payer health care system that works.

Contrary to some of the current negative publicity by insurance companies and HMO's that continue to fleece Americans in absolutely outrageous ways and at outlandish prices; the Canadian system of health care, while continually pressed by the increasing costs of providing health care, is an outstanding example of people doing together, what we cannot afford to do individually.

I implore you to listen to Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of one or your ex colleagues, John Edwards.

Elizabeth Edwards has got it right! A single payer system is the only way that the government of the United States can provide a balanced, universal health care system.

If universal health care can be provided in Canada, a country of less than 40 million people with other infrastructure demands almost as great as the U.S. and if Cuba, one of the poorest countries in the so called developed world can provide universal health care then surely the United States can do the same.

A single payer system is really the only way. This is social democracy...not socialism...in action; people working together to provide what we cannot afford to do individually.

In Memoriam
Dr. Abram Hoffer
1917-2009

I first met Dr. Hoffer in the mid 1960's at a lecture on psychedelics at the University of Montana...to say meet at that time is a slight overstatement…it was a very small group of students and so, quite intimate…so it was as if we actually met. I learned a bit about how B vitamins could be very helpful in working with young people who would get lost on psychedelic journeys and who could be assisted in reestablishing stasis with these vitamins.

I had no idea at that time that here was a man whose path I would cross countless times in the country and subsequent life path I would choose. In 1980 I commenced my career selling vitamins in Canada. At that time the company I was with was almost completely orientated to the professional market of doctors and pharmacies and we not only did some direct work with Dr. Hoffer supplying high potency pure vitamins; specifically niacin; we also attended the schizophrenic conferences that Dr. Hoffer’s Canadian Schizophrenic Foundation held every year as an exhibitor.

Through these events I was afforded the opportunity to meet Linus Pauling on a number of occasions, as well as another pioneer medical doctor in the U.S. by the name of Dr. Robert Cathcart. Meeting these people and listening to their discussions on the use of vitamins and nutritional supplements as adjuncts in the truly wholistic approach to human health have been a great benefit to me in my career.

I do not mourn Dr. Hoffer’s passing so much as celebrate the life of a man who never took the easier path, who did not simply practice medicine so much as fought vigorously to expand the practice to include nutrients and a man whose legacy has left a mark on us all. Thank you Dr. Hoffer.

is this retro or just stupidity

The government of Ontario has just decided that the solution to some perceived problem is to allow tractor trailors on our highways that will be approximately 80 feet long...this will consist of a tractor and not one but two 40 foot trailors.

I suspect that this is a reaction to the Canadian trucking industry that wants to adjust for the increased cost of fuel...what it does not account for is that the time to take over the road trailors off the road in favour of trains is now.

A steel wheel on a steel rail has the lowest coefficient of friction as opposed to rubber tires on asphalt highways. Further one train with four internal combustion engines can haul more freight than one hundred tractor trailors with one hundred internal combustion engines. Finally, it is substantially cheaper to build and maintain a rail bed as opposed to concrete or asphalt highways.

So what is with the Ontario legislators?