Glass House

Over spring break I traveled to Louisiana with my family. While we were there we visited New Orleans and took some time to walk around the lower Ninth Ward where so much devastation occurred 2 ½ years ago due to Hurricane Katrina. Here are some of the pictures I took:

These are the flags that were flying on the day I was there. Tattered but still proud.

This wreck of a house is STILL THERE after 2 1/2 years. Is this Iraq or America?

One picture is worth a thousand words. I wonder if the walls in this doghouse are emitting toxic formaldehyde fumes?

It was surprising how little anger I was exposed to while I was there. This sign seemed to distill some of what must be bubbling under the surface in this land of southern hospitality.

Notice the letters 'TFW' encircled on the front of this house. Thats stands for "Toxic Flood Waste." This is someone's home, still waiting for help.

How many billions have we spent to blow up someone else's country while allowing our own citizens' homes to languish, unrepaired and moldering into irreparable? The injustice is shocking to view personally and yet, as a country, we have seemingly mostly forgotten.

Posted by Laurie Feldman at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I’ve been thinking often lately about an article I read in the paper a few weeks ago. It was about another harebrained idea for balancing the California State Budget. The scary thing about this harebrained idea was that it came from Governor Arnie. In a nutshell, Arnie proposed requiring all MediCal recipients to complete re-qualifying paperwork every three months instead of the every 6 months that is currently required. This would double the paperwork burden for the agencies that administer MediCal too, such as the Department of Employment and Social Services. Which already works like a well-oiled machine, right?
Now I happen to have a job working with people who are mentally ill. Who I like a lot. And who I’ve watched struggle with the paperwork that we require of them.
Some of these are folks who can not read or write, often because their mental illnesses began in childhood and interfered with their ability to learn. Or sometimes because their tweaking crank addict parents were too busy starving them and exposing them to toxic fumes to have the opportunity to help them with their homework. Some of them are survivors of wars in their home countries and grew up speaking another language that does not have a written form, thus they are not so good at writing. Some of them have to spend their days listening to internal voices while navigating our complex world.
And Arnie, with all of his counterfeit compassion, knows that by requiring more paperwork of these tormented souls, that many of them will simply give up and forfeit their MediCal coverage, stop taking their psych meds and slip into an even worse state of body and mind. But it will save the state some money! Arnie thinks it’s a marvelous idea to balance his budget on the backs of these folks. Because he’s too chicken, I’d guess, to do the real work of governing. Which involves making considered, difficult choices and implementing them.

Posted by Laurie Feldman at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)