• Dateline: At my desk, again.

Just a quick note. There has been much said lately about the amount of money, history-making, being raised and spent by Barack Obama. It’s interesting to note that when navigating to the JohnMcCain.com the home page has an embedded video and a clean format of available links to make a contribution or to find information about the senator or his running mate. There is another website that leads directly to a secure site for supporters to contribute to the McCain campaign.

The top listing on a Google search for Barack Obama, or Obama-Biden, led to BarackObama.com (other than a sponsored CafePress link at the top of one search) where those seeking information about the candidate are taken directly to a page soliciting donations.

Hmm.

• Dateline: At Home

I knew, with the first welt, that I needed to see a doctor. Without any insurance, however, the idea turned in my head registering with dollars and cents. This was going to be expensive. (more…)

• Dateline: In the Living Room

Let’s see, I am a 42 year-old white male, of average height and weight and exercise only occasionally. I avoid the obvious, no soda or excessive salt, try to eat only meals made at home with ingredients I can pronounce, drink green tea and plenty of water and take several vitamins and minerals daily. If you follow this blog you will also notice that I bake, at home, pies and cookies and breads. Baking is usually a weekend indulgence and, again, I know everything going into that pie because I made it. Perhaps this is a off-kilter view of healthy living, but it is my life and I feel pretty darn good over all.

When I was a kid, we didn’t get candy except on Easter, Halloween and Christmas. That was it. There were no store-bought cookies in the kitchen cupboard and no soda in the refrigerator. When she had the time, and we had the money, my mother would bake pies or cookies or bread (zucchini and banana were my favorite) and at Christmas the younger kids would help to make candies. Perhaps this is a way of life that doesn’t fit for most people any more. I can believe that. But I am also likewise convinced that, at least for myself, the option to instead buy off the shelf pre-made meals is quite literally off the table. (more…)

• Dateline: In Front of the Television

Campbell Soup, based here in New Jersey, announced quarterly earnings that were better than expected for the final term of it’s fiscal year, ending in August. Quoted in another source, not the one linked above, chief executive Douglas Conant said it was difficult to know if the higher posted earnings were due to new, lower-sodium, products being introduced to the market or because soup was an attractive option for hungry people facing higher food prices. That’s not an exact quote, I inserted “hungry people facing higher food prices” for Conant’s “lower-priced meal options, like soup, because of the weak economy.” But, it’s basically the same idea. Families need to stretch their budgets and make sure there is something on the table, or in the cupboard, when the kids get off the bus. (more…)

• Dateline: At the Desk

Waiting on the examining table, sitting on paper that crinkled with my every move, I thought about my surroundings. It was the same room I had been in a handful of times before. The same commonplace, everyplace poster on the wall intended to give a comforting touch to the otherwise suppressing fluorescent blankness in the room. A few medical charts hung on the wall for the patients’ edification, if a physician should need to direct them there for a medical condition requiring colorful pictures to better illustrate a diagnosis or treatment. The table, small rolling stool for the doctor, a nearby sink, cabinet and counter top stocked with glass jars of tongue suppressors and gauze all as I remembered it. Something was different. It was me. I felt different. I didn’t belong here. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have medical insurance. (more…)

• Dateline: At My Desk

I have worked with adults who have Down syndrome and those with schizophrenia in a Georgia group home, assisted developmentally disabled adults with dual sensory impairment in New Jersey, provided respite to the parents of an emotionally impaired, developmentally delayed youth in Missouri, provided behavior and language modeling to Deaf children in Alaska and managed a shelter for abused and neglected children in rural Alabama. My life and my heart has touched the lives of those who are special in our society in communities and states literally from coast to coast. I also have seen the effect of waste and mismanagement in many of those places. Sarah Palin promises to be an advocate in the White House for parents of special needs children. But, what kind of advocacy is really needed? (more…)