Cold Spaghetti

Not sure of the origin of this, but I got it from my friend Amanda.

“Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.”

– Albert Schweitzer

Thursday was Albert Schweitzer’s birthday and chances are, if you’re under age 40, you have absolutely no idea who I’m talking about.

Not too long ago, Schweitzer was a household name.  A globally respected, Nobel-honored physician and humanitarian, Schweitzer was so well-known that even the Jungle Cruise ride in Disney World makes references to him.  (The ride schtick, while passing a waterfall: “… and here we see Schweitzer Falls, named for the famous doctor, Dr. Albert Falls…”)

At the dawn of the 20th century, Schweitzer was a musician and a theologian.  Through his early professional career, he specialized in Bach and wrote about the nature of Jesus Christ, putting emphasis on non-literal interpretations of the New Testament (controversial of that time).  Then, at age 30, much to the disappointment and frustration of his family and friends, he dropped it all to go to medical school.  In 1913, armed with medical degree and every penny he had, he and his wife traveled 200 miles (14 days by raft) upstream from the mouth of the Ogooué River into the French colony of West Africa (in what is now Gabon).  There, in Lambaréné, a spot where several tributaries combined into the river, Schweitzer built a hospital in a old chicken coop.

The rest of his life involved much of the same.  Schweitzer toured Europe playing concerts to raise funds for his hospital and then went back to care for the patients who came to the facility.  He continued to write as well, searching for a philosophy that unified all types of people.   Eventually his personal philosophy (which he considered to be his greatest contribution to humanity) hit upon the idea of “Reverence for Life” (“Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben“).  (“Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.”)  He felt that modern times, characterized by World Wars and hate and weapons, had lost it’s ethical foundation.  And that the universal principle uniting us was that we simply seek to live.  Because of this universal experience, Schweitzer argued, our respect for life leads us into service for the lives of those around us.  He felt that showing respect for life by serving others to fulfill their own was not only the highest calling for all humanity, but the one true way people could find peace and happiness.  (“One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”)

With colleagues Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russel, Schweitzer was a harsh critic of nuclear testing and nuclear weapons.  In 1952, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the speech he gave at that ceremony, “The Problem of Peace” is still considered one of the greatest speeches ever delivered.

What a shame that Schweitzer’s teachings, philosophies, and examples have fallen into pages of history.

The man wasn’t perfect.  And he continually argued that he wasn’t anything special or unique (“a man doesn’t have to be an angel to be a saint”)… just someone who decided to do something and did it.  It’s an example from which I personally draw a lot of inspiration.  (“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”)  And one that I think could do much of the same for others.

“You don’t live in a world all alone.  Your brothers are here, too.”

—-

The hospital built in 1956 in Deschampelles, Haiti, and named after Albert Schweitzer is the one I mentioned in the previous post.  This weekend, it became more clear that this facility appears, in fact, to be the closest facility to Port-au-Prince with surgical capabilities.  You can keep track of how they are handling the deluge of patients at the HAS blog.  The website is equipped to accept donations.

—-

A note about giving to Haiti…

Many have asked my thoughts on donating to Haiti in the aftermath of yesterday’s terrible earthquake.  My preference is to give to smaller organizations.  In particular, I like to have contacts at the organization whom I trust.  In the Haiti example, we donated to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer.  Deschapelles is located north of Port-au-Prince and is currently treating patients from the suburbs of the capital.  As now homeless residents of Port-au-Prince travel for medical care and shelter, I imagine that this community will grow in size and in medical need, beyond the injured they are currently treating.  I do have a professional relationship with the managing director, and have heard compelling stories of the programs and projects they undertake at this center.  The medical staff at the Hôpital is Haitian.  When you give, you give directly to this center, to this community, to these people, within this country.  For those reasons, I feel, based on my experience, that my donation will go the furthest.  It is my recommendation for giving.

—

December 2009 Just Posts:

• Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven with:Some Thoughts on the Princess and the Frog
• Country Girl of Country Girl/City Girl with Can we talk?
• Emily of Wheels on the Bus with A letter to the peeps in Copenhagen
• Erika of Be gay about it. with Everybody hurts., Merry Christmas to all. and Shine your light, share your story …AND WIN A CONTEST!!
• Ginny at Praying to Darwin with: A Tree Grows in the Psych Ward
• girlgriot at If you want kin… with: I’m asking again: How long? again-how-long/
• h.e.g. of Faith and Aids with Speaking out against Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009
• Kitty at The Show Must Go On with: See Ya in Your Nightmares
• Magpie of Magpie Musing with Charity vs. Democracy
• Meloukhia at This Ain’t Livin’ with: Glee: Sectionals and Antifeminist Spam
• submom of The Absence of Alternatives with” All things on cable TV considered, I wish my hotel had porn…
• Thailand Chani of Finding My Way Home with Sacred Life Sunday: No Slime Zone!
• wrekehavoc with world aids day 2009

Thank you for reading, nominating, and thinking about Just Posts!

Alejna (Collecting Tokens) and I happily offer up Just Posts for a Just World for November 2009.

If you work with an organization that is looking for help in a certain area, feel free to post some ideas in the comments for places we can do some just work.  In the spirit of the season, if you give to a group, help with the homeless, cook in a kitchen, contribute some cash… write about it and consider sending it on for December’s list.

The November Just Posts:

• Ali of callapipper tree with Up on my horse, it’s not really high, it’s more of a mid-size horse
• Amanda Mueller from Amanda Mueller Blog with Mohammad Othman’s Administrative Detention Upheld
• Claudia of The Bottom of Heaven with This (Black) American Life
• Em of Social Justice Soapbox with Take Action #6- 5 things you can do without leaving the comfort of your computer chair
• Erika of Be gay about it. with Maine., Opening doors, come what may. , and This post is not about health care reform.
• girlgriot of If you want kin, you must plant kin… with Disappointment, Anger, Impatience, Remember that wishbone I was choking on?, Maybe seeing will be believing …, Connecting the dots. and And if I’m gay, what’s your point?
• Jay of Ill Doctrine with East Coast Cats and Christopher Street Boys
• Kimberly of The Gav Menagerie with Women’s Work
• Kitty from The Show Must Go On with Movember
• laloca of baggage carousel 4 with Bart Stupak doesn’t understand what “quality, affordable health care” means
• Magpie of Magpie Musing with Stigma//Taboo
• Mary G. of Them’s My Sentiments with A Voice from the Back of the Queue
• Mary of The Eleventh with The High Cost of Saving Money
• Mouse of The Mouse’s Nest with In a fishbowl
• Shokufeh from Shokufeh is… home with Ahem
• Tami of What Tami Said with Stuff black folks don’t do: Creating our own oppression, Civil rights, but just for me, When allies fail – Part One and When allies fail – Part Two
• Thailand Chani of Finding My Way Home with Okay. What in the world was I carrying on about?
• XUP of XUP (Ex-Urban Pedestrian) with Cows for Christmas

This month’s posts were submitted by:

Mary G.
Stacie
Holly
Alejna

Welcome to the October Just Posts!  This monthly roundtable features blog posts written on personal blogs on issues of social justice.  Alejna and I are host to the JPs and encourage anyone to participate by writing and nominating posts.  All participants are encouraged to use the Just Posts button on their own websites.

Thank you to all this month’s participants!

• Alejna, at Collecting Tokens, with: Celebrating 5+ Years of Marriage in Massachusetts
• Em, at Social Justice Soapbox, with: Venting
• Emily, at Wheels on the Bus, with: Glamorous
• Erika, at Be Gay About It, with: Stuffings or No Stuffings, We’re Getting Some Kids and President Obama Fierce Advocate of Rousing Speeches and the Status Quo
• Fatboyfat, at Make Lard History, with: Inverted Reality
• flutter, at by flutter, with: forgiveness
• GirlGriot, at If You Want Kin You Must Plant Kin, with: Tall and Tan, Young and Lovely and Attention White Folks
• Hedgie, at Princess Hedgehog Chronicles, guestposting at Talkin’ with the Teenie, with: The Unbearable Tenderness of Boys
• Holly, at Cold Spaghetti, with: October Awareness and Get It? Got It? Good.
• Kitty, at The Show Must Go On, with: Working the Cracks
• Kristina, at Everyday Public Relations, with: Does Sensationalism Help or Hurt Conservation?
• Magpie, at Magpie Musings, with: Meat
• Mary, at the Eleventh, with: Ma: Little Bigot On the Prairie
• Mary Beth, at Cats…Books…Life is Good, with: Are We Losing Our Humanity?
• Meagan, at Hades Arrow, with Frozen
• Megan, at Missing in Iraq, with: Uncensored II
• thordora, at Spin Me I Pulsate, with: In Health there is Freedom, Health is the First of all Liberities

Nominators:

• Alejna
• Emily
• Holly
• Meagan

Be sure to send love to Alejna, who has a great history of making music in her JPs!

It’s Navy Week in New Orleans.  Who knew?  I didn’t, until a representative from the U.S. Navy sent me an email.  Here’s an excerpt:

I’m writing on behalf of the U.S. Navy about Navy Weeks. As you may know, Navy Weeks are events hosted by Sailors in cities across the country as a way to spread the word about what the Navy does and to thank communities for their support.  After reading some of your blog posts that mention growing up in a Navy family, I thought you might be interested in learning more about the upcoming New Orleans Navy Week, which will take place from November 2-7, 2009.

The New Orleans Navy Week events, including Navy Band performances and Blue Angels F/A-18 Flight Simulator, will give the public a personal look at the men and women of the Navy serving throughout the world in different roles.  The involvement of Sailors will also be a major part of the week, including quite a few from the crew of the USS New Orleans. More about New Orleans Navy Week can be found here.

As part of the week’s events, a Joint Color Guard and 25 Sailors will unfurl the American Flat in the New Orleans Saints Military Appreciation game on tonight’s football game (Saints vs. Falcons).

See, I told you cheering for the Saints was patriotic!  Go Navy! Beat Atlanta!  Or something like that.

Here is my take on Navy Week and why I think it’s worth talking about.  I’ve not hid that I am from a military family, tend to run extremely left, and have pursued intellectual professions.  Sometimes, folks confuse these things, thinking that one can’t be liberal and supportive of the military.  Intellectuals (to my great frustration) tend to either ignore the military as some sort of unwashed mass or look down upon them as uneducated brutes.  But here is the reality: serving in the United States armed forces is one of the most honorable things a person can do.  Those who give the themselves and their families to duties that ask more than many of us (me included) can even imagine often do so for reasons based within the class, race, and socio-economic distinctions that divide and subdivide our country.  It’s important to talk about the sacrifices of service men and women — and the sacrifices of their families — so that we can be clear that taking care of those who give that much is a national priority.  It hasn’t always been, even by the most conservative of governments.

To give others a hint of what it is like to be a part of the service, each day this week I am going to post short interviews with various Navy Servicemen and Servicewomen.   The interviews come from the Navy (full disclosure) and feature individuals who are part of this week’s celebrations in New Orleans.  It’s hard to describe what being a part of a Military family is like without experiencing it first hand, but maybe reading a few profiles will help.  To that end, I give you:

Petty Officer First Class Tomas Davila

Petty Officer First Class is a “plank owner” of the USS New Orleans, meaning he was a part of the ship’s crew even before the vessel was officially commissioned. This strong affinity for the ship extends to its namesake, the city of New Orleans. Davila called the city home for a short time while serving in the Navy and ever since has had a fondness for the place he calls the “Queen of the South.” He currently manages 13 technicians onboard the USS New Orleans but will get a break from troubleshooting computers and repairing navigation system on November 2-7, when he takes part in Navy Week. Here are some of his thoughts on Navy service and New Orleans:

Connection to New Orleans:

“I had the opportunity to live in New Orleans for a short time while at the pre-commissioning detachment. While there, I was amazed at the city’s charm and the hospitable nature of her people. I consider New Orleans as the Queen of the South and will always keep her close to my heart.”

Most memorable experience in uniform:

“The day I came home after my tour in Iraq; the sounds of my mother’s tears and my father’s joy will always stick with me. That day my dad, a Vietnam veteran, told me how proud he was of me and opened up for the first time about his times in the Army. Our relationship has only grown stronger since.”

What Navy Week means to me:

“Navy Week is a great opportunity for me to show others what it means to be in the Navy. To demonstrate how our core values – honor, courage and commitment – are not solely military terms but life values for anyone. Additionally, these events give communities a chance to see firsthand what we do and allow Sailors to express our appreciation for their support.”

For more information on Navy Week, and to learn about events where you can meet Sailors like Petty Officer First Class Davila, visit: www.navyweek.org/neworleans. You can also become a fan of Navy Weeks on Facebook. Just search “Navy Weeks” or follow this link.

Tina asked for bloggers to participate as guest bloggers for October, on the theme of Breast Cancer Awareness, in honor of her Mother, a breast cancer survivor.  Here is my cross-listed post.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  It is also Hispanic Heritage Month.

And breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among Hispanic women.

The Hispanic population is the largest minority group in the United States.  Hispanic Americans make up roughly 14 percent of the U.S. population, but they are the fastest growing segment, estimated to reach 20 percent or more by 2050.

Even when access to health care is adequate, for Hispanic women in the United States, breast cancer is more often diagnosed at a later stage, when the disease is more advanced.   Further, approximately two-thirds of breast cancer found in Hispanic women is discovered by accident – not by screening or mammogram.

Actually, according to a Kaiser Permanente study, the news gets worse.  When compared to non-Hispanic white women, Hispanic women are more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age, have cancer that has already spread beyond the breast, have tumors with cell type that have a poorer prognosis, have larger tumors, and have tumors that cannot be treated with some of the most effective medicines.

What’s the public health response?  Interventions aimed at increased screening, access, and education.  But is it enough?

If early detection and survival is the goal of Breast Cancer Awareness Month – then there has to be a conversation about an individual’s ability to access health care information and services.  Central to that conversation is the reality that those very life-saving information and services are unjustly linked to one’s racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and immigration status.

How do these dynamics play out?  Here is a local example.  If a woman cannot demonstrate access to or eligibility for some type of insurance (or have the ability to pay) – programs can deny her a screening for breast cancer.  Why?  The argument is that it is unethical to provide a screening for a disease when the patient will not be able to access treatment for it.  In the past year, one of the screening programs in New Orleans was shut down for this reason.

What is more unethical?  Denying screening?  Denying treatment?  Or needing any of coverage or eligibilities in the first place?

The bottom line is that women in our largest ethnic minority group do not have a good outlook when it comes to breast cancer.   And improving the outlook is about more than screening programs and access to medicines.  Striking at the heart of a serious disease means a serious look at our entire system of care and asking where treatment for breast cancer and survival of women lie within our values.

It’s flu season and as predicted and anticipated, H1N1 is back and stronger than before.  This extra nuisance gives little indication over who it will strike down and who it will simply inconvenience… but it does seem to have a particularly strong affinity for children.  And one way or another, every single one of us is going to be exposed to it.  We are all potential host of this virus and we all will have the opportunity to unknowingly passing it along until the virus has neutralized itself within our collective systems.

Sound scary?  Well, it should.  Let’s say that 25% of us come down with those uncomfortable flu systems.  And let’s say that of those 25%, half will need IVs for dehydration, a common side effect of flu.  What would happen in your city’s hospital system if more than 10% of the total population needed some sort of medical assistance?  That’s a 10% excess rate — a percentage of people needing services over the usual load of illnesses and injuries.  And what if your child is the one of the ones who becomes REALLY ill?   What will it be like to get them care within a system that is that overburdened?  If the situation turns life-threatening, does your medical facility have the resources, equipment, and experience to handle advanced flu-related symptoms and infections?  And can they carry all of that out with a significant increase in patient demands on the system?

But good news!  WE HAVE A VACCINES!  One for seasonal flu and (impressively!) one specific to H1N1.  It’s effective.  It’s safe.  It’s being made in large numbers and supplies are available or en route to your city!  WOW.

So seriously.  I respect individual rights to make decisions.  I do.  Truly and honestly.  And while there ARE good reasons for a few people to think about passing up a life-saving vaccine that not only protects them, but everyone around them — for the vast majority of us hemming and hawing and doubting and worrying, the decision is a really easy one to make.

You get the damn shot.

I’m not your doctor and I’m not open to any liability, so I’m not going to sugar-coat it.  Here is the advice from the Center for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Here is what your doctor would say if they weren’t obligated to neutral, open, and supportive bedside manner:

Get the damn shot.

Okay, okay, there IS a caveat.  Some people are considered priority in the vaccination recommendations.  If you’re young and not around kids and don’t work in medicine and have no other health issues and have little history of getting seasonal flu ever… well, maybe y’all could hang out for awhile.  Just until we use our supplies to those more likely than you to get sick and pass it around.  But the rest of us?  Let’s get in line.

But let me back up a bit.  This is NOT judgmental or crazy or blaming.  I’m a straight up person and I’m calling the spade a spade.

I understand that it is hard to make a choice about things like vaccines and viruses and strains all over an illness that we’ve all had, or we think we’ve had, at one time or another.  The fact that it is so familiar (what’s a little flu?) minimizes it’s importance in our minds.  When faced with a “choice” to vaccinate, we take on the responsibilities that come with it whatever we decide.  We must weigh the cost of the inconvenience, the fee, the appointment… and any risk, no matter how minuscule.  The perceived risk of flu seems less innocuous than the unidentified maybes and pseudo-scientific rumors of getting a shot.  After all, we’ve all had flu risk in the past.  Why not just take flu risk again?  Save myself the hassle?

The “decision” of whether or not to get a flu shot, particularly with a novel virus spreading, is not just a personal decision.  It’s not just about you.  The decision, your decision, impacts not only you and your family — it impacts EVERYONE AROUND YOU.  Personally, I feel that part of considering the responsibility of whether or not to vaccinate includes considering the responsibility we have to our communities, friends, neighbors, and relatives.  The plain and simple reality is that vaccines save lives.

An excerpt from Slate:

One of those who died in Colorado was 8-year-old Joseph Williams. He had been perfectly healthy before the sudden onset of a stomach ache and high fever. His parents took him to the emergency room, believing they would bring him home quickly, but a brain inflammation brought on by the influenza killed him in hours.

The day after Joseph’s death, his parents held a tearful news conference to beg everyone in the community to get flu shots. If more people had been vaccinated, they argued, their child might have never contracted the infection in this first place.

Damn straight.

One of us — you, me, my kid, your kid, the woman at the deli, the UPS delivery guy, your newborn niece — anyone of us could be the next one who falls suddenly and irreversibly ill.  And the risk of that happening is much, much greater than any risk from a vaccine.

To address some common concerns:

Worried about thimerosal?  Read this.  There are different kinds of flu vaccine, some without preservative.  Vaccine for children under age 2 is preservative-free — just as all routine vaccines have been since 2001.  If you’re concerned, find out which vaccines are being given, to whom, and at which locations.  Ask questions.

Have a homeopathic treatment?   If it makes you feel better, great.  Just don’t think you’re protected, or that you’re protecting anyone else.

What about antivirals?  Antivirals (oseltamivir = Tamiflu, or zanamivir = Relenza) are recommended for folks who have serious symptoms.  A recent British study recommended extreme caution in it’s use, as the side effects of the antivirals are often worse than the actual flu.  Antivirals temporarily prevent a virus from doing what it needs to do to reproduce in your body… it doesn’t stop you from getting the flu forever.  It’s not a substitute for vaccine.

Think a shot gave you or your kid the flu?  Young children are more likely to have mild side-effects from a vaccine (things like fatigue) because their bodies have a lot more work to do to build immunity.  Those side effects will minimize as the kids grow older and have more illness exposure and greater immunity.  But no, no, no, for heaven’s sake NO — you cannot get the flu from the flu shot!  If you developed the flu after a shot, it was because you already had it.

How many to get?  For the novel H1N1 virus, 2 doses are recommended for young children because they are not “immunologically primed” — this means that they have had limited flu exposure in the past and therefore do not have a lot of antibodies built up in their systems.

What’s the whole thing about paralysis and flu vaccine?  In 1976, 35 million Americans were vaccinated against a flu that broke out in New Jersey (a H1N1 swine flu) which ended up not having the mutations necessary to cause an epidemic, despite a widespread public health warning campaign.  Those vaccinated were tracked very closely and seven cases of Guillian-Barre Syndrome were reported within 10 weeks of the vaccine.  Just because you are diagnosed with something after a vaccine does not mean that the relationship is causal (that one caused the other), it means it’s temporal (one happened to come before the other). If you have a car accident at noon and happened to eat breakfast that morning, your eating breakfast didn’t necessarily have anything to do with your car accident.  Nonetheless, the cases of GBS were studied to great degree.  No evidence of causation has ever been shown, despite research which included an active GBS surveillance program through the early 80s that showed no association and no risk of GBS from vaccinations.

For those in New Orleans:

To my knowledge, supplies of the 2009 H1N1 vaccine are not yet available in our community.  However, the seasonal flu vaccine IS… and it’s not too late to head it off.

Welcome to the lastest Just Posts roundtable, the monthly list of blogger writing on topics of social justice and activism compiled and hosted by Alejna and me.

It’s taken me 5 days to get this post up.  Does that say enough about life in Cold Spaghetti land?

Some of the delay in posting is due to a conference presentation I gave over the weekend about health and infrastructure in New Orleans.  Using a lot of maps, charts, and pictures, I gave the context for Louisiana, one of the poorest, least developed, States in our United States.  (Enter joke.  Our State motto: “Thank goodness for Mississippi,” lest we be last on ALL measures.)  The level of vulnerability among those in the Gret Stet is extreme by any measure and when further defined by race, becomes unthinkable.  But as far as we are down the hierarchy of outcomes, we are not so different than the rest of the country and indeed, not so different than the rest of the world.  The images of inequality and despair burned into our minds after Katrina are not indicative of New Orleans.  Those memories do not define or create a distinction for the rest of the country to use to separate themselves from our reality.  Every place is just waiting for that moment when it all falls apart, when our inequalities, vulnerabilities, and differences can no longer be invisible.

And now, the all important list: The September Just Posts.

• BipolarLawyerCook with My best friend’s wedding…
• dmariemart of Argot with Minds of Our Own
• Emily of Wheels on the Bus with No More Hall Passes
• Erika at Be gay about it. with and Iowa: a proposal. and Iowa: mawwiage, that dweam within a dweam.
• flying tomato of Flying Tomato Farms with Quit the Bullsh*t–Public Option Now!
• girlgriot of if you want kin… with Street walking and Danger, Will Robinson! Don’t Go “Down There”!
• jen at one plus two with bob marley has definitely left the building
• Jenn at breed ’em and weep with Hi, I’m somebody
• laloca of baggage carousel 4 with the politics of counting and thinking about miscarriage
• Magpie of Magpie Musing with From the Rain Comes Hope
• Neil of Citizen of the Month with Tales of Health Insurance
• Painted of Painted Maypole with Why isn’t this a non-issue?
• Tami of What Tami Said with I’m saving my cheers over new, “authentic” black Barbie line
• wreke of wrekehavoc with guilty pleasure monday: millworker (james taylor)
• Zach Ford at Zach Ford blogs with Coming Out Might Be Easier, But It’s Still Hard

The posts of this month’s roundtable were submitted by:

Slouchy
girlgriot
Holly
alejna

Thanks so much for reading! We really appreciate your support. And not just appreciate it. We need your support to keep the Just Posts going. Please drop by Alejna’s to see what she has to say this month. If you have a post in the list above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Collecting Tokens. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.