Dominion Over All ~ #ChasingCoral #HowClimateChangeEffectsLives #HowClimateChangeEffectsMe

As a kid growing up in Ohio, I went to church every Sunday. Many times the lessons revolved around how humans, mankind, was given dominion over all. This was drilled into many a Christian head and I think that it has come back to bite us. Heresy, you say…I think not…because no where does God say we have a right to end any of the species on the earth. Too many have taken that version to the point we’re going to end up killing ourselves.

Yes, God gives us his word in Genesis 1:26 that states: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Do any of you read somewhere in there that we’re allowed to cause the death of anything we have dominion over? Didn’t think so.

This is one of the big reasons I stopped going to church. Notice I said church because I didn’t disbelieve in God but I started to not believe in the religious order of any faction. Why you may ask…my God wouldn’t want me to think I’m above the law…especially his law. One of the ten commandments says though shall not kill. In my opinion, it should have said though shall not kill or be killed any person or the creatures that I gave you dominion over all.

Personally, I chose to think that God is rather displeased with the way we are running things. See, we’re killing the planet and frankly, most of the world’s population don’t care. Will you care when we’ve killed the last elephant? Destroyed the last coral reef? Or breathe our last breath of fresh air? Drink our last drop of fresh water?

I’m sure you’re wondering where all this came from and where it’s leading too. Today, I watched a documentary. It was called Chasing Coral (www.chasingcoral.com) and somewhere in the middle, I found myself crying like a baby because of the truth on the screen. A picture can say a thousand words and when you see great portions of the worlds corals dying because of the change in ocean temperature, it’s a sobering thing. A thing that makes me cry because everything is so connected.

And for those naysayers, it’s happening world wide, not just the Great Barrier Reef or in the Carribean or Hawaii but everywhere. EVERYWHERE one of the man producers of oxygen is dying. What? You didn’t know that these reefs produce the very air you breath. It’s done so since the beginning of time, since the moment they came into existence. No matter you believe that is the truth.

Healthy Reef

Dying Reef via Bleaching Event in Thailand

I don’t care who you listen to but the facts are this: rainforests only produce 28% of the air you breath and 70% is produced by marine plants. That only leaves a mere 2% coming from other sources like all the other plants in the world and chemical reactions. No oceans, no people.

We were given guardianship over this earth and we’re screwing it up, people. Frankly, I wanted to use harsher language but I’m hoping that you’ll share this with everyone you can. We need to realize we are killing our own future if we don’t take this climate change bull by the horns and bend it to our will. We MUST change otherwise we will kill our own species along with everything else that is beautiful and wonderful about this place we call home.

The current administration is bad for us because of this one point. They only care for the here and now while we really need to be caring for the future and then. Our kids and grandkids will have a horrible, horrible world if we don’t do what we can when we can. If we don’t fix it NOW, we may never have another chance. In the movie Chasing Coral, it was noted that the world experts estimate we only have about 25 years before the coral is dead. Since coral is the rainforest of the ocean, it’s imperative we slow down global change as much as we can today.

Someone said, it takes a village…now…we all know who that someone was and the fact is that she was correct. These conclusions weren’t done just by people in the most educated areas of the world but worldwide. Volunteers from 30 countries gave information to help make this film.

Watch it and draw your own conclusions. We, the human race, have dominion over it all. Are we strong enough to save it?

How Much Longer - #Pumpkinfuhrer #IamtheResistance #WereNotGonnaTakeIt

Wow...just wow...this president is such a baby.

His popularity has dropped to the new low of 34%.

Add to that the fact he's guilty of trying to obstruct justice and you have a recipe for disaster.

How much longer are the American people going to take this? We didn't give Nixon this much rope to hang himself. #Pumpkinfuhrer needs to grow up and realize he's not the man for this country.

Never was. #IamtheResistance

Why Medicine Should Never Be Capitalistic - #IamtheResistance #NoMoreBigMedicine #Patients1st

One of the areas I’m passionate about is the fact that medical care should be available to all. This is the only area I see socialism working to the total benefit of the people. I think it’s obvious from what gets posted here and on the Facebook Page that I’m a Democrat who believes in an America for all. A place where the American Dream still exists and where people don’t have to die because of lack of medical insurance or medical care. It should be a right for everyone.

But let’s sidestep that issue for a moment here because let’s face it, the bottom line in this country is money in the form of profit and loss. The medical establishment has stepped away from their oath and made it all about making it big on some new drug or piece of medical equipment. This essay is about one specific piece of equipment and the greed of the company who made it.

First, let’s step back a bit and look at something that has been around since Greek times. It’s called the Hippocratic Oath, and every doctor is required to abide by that covenant as he joins the medical establishment. Here’s the modern version that is employed by many medical schools:

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can but I will always look for a path to a cure for all diseases.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

In that oath, there is not a mention of compensation at all. When treating a person, it states that you treat their whole life, including the financial burden it may propose on a person’s family. To me, this speaks directly to the Affordable Care Act, and the fact medicine should be everyone’s right. But that argument is for a different day.

The part I’m particularly interested in is the scientific gains of physicians and what happens when the medical establishment isn’t honest with their patients. This is what happened to Dr. Amy Reed when she went into the hospital for a hysterectomy. Had all the information been given to her, she might be alive today, but sadly, she isn’t. Here’s an article that pretty well sums it up: https://cancerletter.com/articles/20170526_1/

Now, I don’t know Amy personally, but I feel that I do because when her petition came around on Change.org, I signed it. And every other petition she sent me. Why? Because it was the right thing to do. Each of the items coming across my desk told of how the FDA wasn’t regulating things like they should. How the company who made the power morcellator had known since 2006 the actions done by their equipment and that it could spread undiagnosed cancer throughout a woman’s body. Doctors kept touting the facts of how wonderful less invasive surgery was. They all forgot one thing in this equation: the patient and the negative effect of the equipment.

Too many hospitals and physicians had taken the company at their word that the risk was no greater than 1 in 10,000. Actually, the risk was more like 1 in 273 women who were at serious risk of cancer. The medical establishment tried to gloss it over and blame Amy along with her husband when they should have been doing the right thing by starting a fact-finding mission to seek the truth.

But profit and greed won the day, but Amy wouldn’t give up. The FDA was shocked to find that this particular piece of equipment was causing any trouble. Dr. Reed filed her own FDA report concerning the equipment. After her report, they did some research on their own, and their numbers were at least 1 in 300 women had cancer spread throughout their bodies because of this machine. Eventually, the FDA restricted the use of this piece of equipment. Once that happened, the use of the power morcellator went down 80% and under restrictive conditions.

Until that time, Dr. Reed and her husband, also a doctor, were called names and treated like pariahs. Yet, they took their oath seriously and knew they had an obligation to the women of the world. Since then, study after study has come out saying how dangerous the use of this equipment can be to a woman.

Read the article yourself, do the research and I think that you’ll come to the same conclusion I have: this issue was driven by greed. After all, the more doctors who used a power morcellator, the more money the company made. I’m sure that each time it was used, a fee had to be paid to the company. Only one person came to see the issue for what it really was, and that person was Dr. Amy Reed.

All she wanted was to be a doctor and help people. She has helped point out a serious problem that is not uncommon in the medical field. If a piece of equipment or a drug or anything medical is killing people, it needs to be stopped being used. It costs each and every one of us something when bad things happen because of big medicine as we all pay for it in different areas such as insurance, increased doctors’ fees and on and on.

For Amy, it cost her life, yet even as her condition deteriorated, she did the right thing.

Rest in peace, Amy, I for one will never forget you.

We Lost Our Country ~ #IamtheResistance #LoveTrumpsHate #StrongerTogether

I haven’t been around because I felt I lost my country on election night. Things had gone so wrong but in retrospect, there were reasons we lost. None of them are more rational than the fact we had missed a large segment of the US population. We didn’t understand them. In retrospect, we needed to ignore the larger states even though they actually decide the largest share of the vote for the electoral college.

We needed to go straight for the little guy. Straight for the one who can’t pay for their healthcare, straight for the ones who can’t send their kids to college and straight for those who are barely surviving.

With Donald Trump, they thought they would be getting a champion but they were wrong, so very wrong. This man is a disaster waiting to happen. Nothing has said it more eloquently than this post and video.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/13/1620267/-You-Are-Not-Alone-New-Poll-Reveals-America-s-Deep-Disapproval-Of-Donald-Trump  

We are not alone. And this more than anything, is more heartening than anything I’ve heard in a long, long time.

Many of you don’t agree with the incoming President-elect. There are even less of you supporting him than on election day. And that gives me and other people who will always resist hope.

Please take some time to familiarize yourself with what this one says. Knowledge is power and that power can turn the tide on how government looks at the American people. That government needs to know that every American counts. Not the rich, not the few but the many.

As always, #IamtheResistance. Please visit our new Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/IamtheResistanceUSA and we hope to see you there.