RECENTLY ON TOL:
TOL Our Town
- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
TAGS:
May's comments:
on Reporting Abuse
The death of this teenager is horrific. Sixty-five thousand calls per year reporting child abuse in Oregon means a lot of unwanted kids are going through living hell. A health care system emphasizing family planning, and free coverage of abortion and mental health services would help to stop the cycle of abuse. Demand these in our health care system!
posted 3 years, 4 months ago
view in context
on The "P" Word and Climate Change
It is not doing children a favor to bring them into the world now. Childbearing is often a selfish act: the parent intends that the child will take care of the parent in their old age. And kids are so cute, not to mention most often a result of unprotected sex. In some parts of the world and the US, children contribute work and money to the family, while single people die poor and helpless. We need to change this by creating good care for people who do not have family to care for them. When people can feel secure that they will be provided and cared for without children, then perhaps people will be more reproductively responsible.
We are not taking care of the present population well enough to add to the burden on the environment. It is completely illogical that US health care reform may omit abortion funding-- this perpetuates overpopulation and unwanted children in our country.
posted 3 years, 5 months ago
view in context
on As We Are: Child Free
Hey people who chose not to have children should get nice big tax credits! Why on earth does the government give tax credits for people who have children? Do they want to be assured of more soldiers to fight in future wars?
I chose not to have children because I did not want to exploit anyone, didn't have the right partner, did not have a supportive family background, developed health problems that could have been passed on genetically, and I thought that OVERPOPULATION was out of control, environmental destruction on the horizon, and decided to make the buck stop with myself. More time for meditating.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
view in context
on Rx: Individual Mandates
SINGLE PAYER will simplify health care and make it affordable. Insurance companies may say they are non-profit, but their executives make a lot of money. For example, the Oregon Public Employees Benefit Board decided to self insure starting in 2010. PEBB figures it can put the 3 million Regence would have made in profits to better use. Also to the man on the program who said that his emergency room pays 40 million per year for ininsured patients-- it's my experience that unless you can prove you have health insurance, the emergency room doesn't give you the tests that an insured patient would have. For example, a wonderful 54 year old woman went to the emergency room at Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis last month not feeling well. She no longer had health insurance. They said she was fine and sent her home. She died about three hours later at home from a heart attack. She died because the hospital doesn't take care of people with no insurance. This in the country with the most wealth in the world. We need nationalized, single payer health care.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
view in context
on June Show Ideas
Is it discriminatory for PEBB insurance companies to limit coverage to western medicine for member employees for whom western medicine is not an acceptable option? Many people from various ethnic groups use natural medicines such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupunture, chiropractors, and Naturopathic Doctors (ND) because of strong cultural or religious beliefs. These are evidence-based treatment modalities. Then why won't insurance companies cover these medical systems as much as western medicine, if at all?
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
view in context
on As We Are: Sex Workers
Sweden has it right-- prostitution is a crime against women.
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
view in context
on To Burn or Not to Burn?
I see this as a matter of the inability of the grass field farmers who still burn their fields to empathize with the many people the smoke from field burning sickens. That, and that the remaining field burning grass seed farmers don't want to change.
And I cannot be convinced that growing grass seed for golf courses is a worthy industry, more important than the health of people living in the southern Willamette Valley. Those extremely sterile looking, control freak lawns waste a lot of water and use a lot of chemicals, not to mention "spoiling a good walk," as Mark Twain described golf. I remember driving through Boise one summer when the water supply was extremely low-- people had been rationing water-- but the sprinklers were going on the golf course. I would say that just about anything is more important than playing golf, and that the air does not exclusively belong to grass seed farmers.
Many other crops can be grown in Harrisburg and the Willamette Valley-- clay soils are rich in nutrients. How about orchards, hops, or other food? My grandparents were Willamette Valley farmers, and they grew wheat and fruit, and raised dairy cattle. They didn't burn their fields.
posted 4 years, 1 month ago
view in context
