Perspective

I write this while waiting for a plane in the Grand Junction, Colorado, airport. Such a nice town, such nice scenery, such nice people. Wineries within biking distance of downtown, a sweet little main street with sculptures (some that move!), great little restaurants, funky little antiques stores, and some of the best of God's Country within a 10 minute drive. I'm here less than 24 hours at a time usually, for hearings in the old courthouse (that I can walk to from my Main Street hotel), and always promise I will come back for a longer stay, yet never seem to get around to it.

Anyway, here are today's observations to lend perspective:

Rented a car here, total cost with tax, fees for this and that, and basic rental totaled $30.

Refilling the gas tank with the 6 gallons of gas I used, almost the same amount, $28.

Meanwhile, I read in the paper that gas in France is setting those fine folk back a whopping $10 a gallon (best not to ask what it is in Euros). Had I been buying my 6 gallons there, I would have spent $60, twice the cost of the rental of the car.

Last week, filling up my van's gas tank, (a vehicle which I hardly ever drive anymore due to its relatively low gas mileage), cost $61, which means that if I worked for minimum wage, I would have had to work 10 hours (more than that if you are counting taxes) to buy that tank of gas.

Whew! Solutions, of course, include more public transportation, more efficient cars, etc., etc. We know what to do, and have known for many years, but now that the economics are in place, perhaps we will finally get serious.

Love to all from the High Desert,
Ann

Today's epiphany: We Matter

I surf The Huffington Post and Mike's occasional blogs on Open Left primarily as a way to procrastinate when faced with another pile of tedious medical records involving a client's L4-5 spondylosis and/or fibromyalgia and depression. (After 22 years of this, if you've read one, you've read them all.) So I don't claim to be an expert, or a pundit, or anything other than a casual observer, but this morning I was reading a Washington Post story and had a revelation about why this election has grabbed the country by the throat.

It is, simply, that formerly disenfranchised people suddenly realized that they matter, and they have some control and thus, some power. And they don't want to give it up, now that they've tasted it.

Majority Whip James Clyburn, a representative from South Carolina, points out that Hillary argues that she wins the white vote in PA, but only 8% of the black vote, and Obama can only win 35% of the white vote, and that's supposed to make everyone support Hillary, because Obama can't win without the white vote. I.E., the black vote doesn't matter. And Rep. Clyburn, who is African-American says, "I matter."

Hillary and her people say, look, she can win the big states, and frankly, "we're not going to win Wyoming anyway" (where Obama took 2/3 of the vote, which was, let's face it, mostly white). Well excuse us, say the Wyoming Democrats, but we matter.

Standing on the shoulders of Howard Dean's 50-State Strategy, Obama has inspired millions of formerly disenfranchised voters of all races and ages to get out and make a difference. The Wyoming Democrats were thrilled to be able to make a difference in their caucuses, as we lonely Arapahoe County Dems were here in the increasingly "purple" State of Colorado. And what do you mean you can't win in Wyoming? Wyoming has a Democratic governor, which belies the argument that a Democrat cannot win a majority of the Wyoming general election vote. (Same for Montana and Colorado.)

And not only does writing off the "small states" offend those who came out to make a difference in their caucuses this year, it ignores the fact that the races "down ticket" matter, and for the person on the top of the ticket to disregard that state is just bad politics. He/she is going to need those "down ticket" office holders in order to function effectively once in office. Why offend those you will need to do your job?

So what we have here is a common sentiment brewing among such diverse people as an African American representative from South Carolina and the good-ol-boy rancher in Wyoming. They say, "we matter, and you ignore us at your political peril."

Okay, back to the medical records!

I'm sure Comcast hates me now

One of my clients, a nice, intelligent lady, called to say she was having trouble paying her health insurance premium, and was considering dropping it, and did I think that would be okay? Of course I did NOT think that would be okay, because she needs a lot of treatment and possibly surgeries in the near future, before her Medicare will kick in.

In discussing possible solutions, the conversation turned to her bills, possible bankruptcy, and her other household expenses. Turns out she is paying a big cable bill each month. I suggested she drop the cable, as her health insurance was surely more important.

Silence.

"But that's all I have left to do every day--watch TV!" (She is rather severely disabled.)

I encouraged her to think of some other way to obtain the same programming (our libraries here lend out DVDs of just about everything, movies, series, etc.) and pointed out that my husband and I, in 27 years of marriage, have never had cable, even though we could certainly afford it.

Another silence.

"Never?" she asked incredulously.

Nope. Never. Haven't missed it. If I hear about some HBO series I want to watch, I check out the complete season set at the library. For free. Frankly, if I had cable, I would spend all my time watching MythBusters and While You Were Out and Dirty Jobs and whatever is on The Food Network. I catch these whenever we stay in a hotel, and get my fill, and that seems to hold me until the next time.

We are not in the sticks. We live in a large metropolitan area with broadcast TV that includes all major networks, 2 PBS stations (one of which has 3 subchannels in HD with bizarre programming such as Austrailian Rules Football--I'm a big fan now--and news programs like the English version of "Russia Today"). We have 2 Spanish language stations, one of which seems to run nothing but soccer games, the other one nothing but telenovellas. So what cable adds to this besides MythBusters and FoxNews is beyond me.

So I told my client to think about it, and she promised she would.

Sadly, she called back and told me she was dropping her medical insurance premium, not her cable.

Sigh.