Liberal or not too liberal?

Aloha . . . I forget the quote and will look it up but it was perhaps by Churchill (?) who said something about as you get older you get more conservative. I used to think I was very liberal. In comparison to my Aunt Karen in Houston, Texas I am. Compared to many people I am conservative. I think we need a sliding scale. Is it liberal to advocate for universal health insurance?

But I must face facts - I am not as liberal as I think I am or would like to be! I try to be critical in my thinking and of precise nomenclature when I speak. I attempt to be intellectually rigorous in my examination of public policy and other endeavors. I fail a lot and tend to be reactionary, my passions inflame me.

Anyone have leads on websites where you can search for quotes like the one I am thinking of?

Thanks for reading,

D.

Staying in Touch - GrandCentral.com

Aloha . . . in the interest of staying in touch . . . while in Fiji I will have my mobile with me but the roaming charges are $3.49 a minute since ATT has no real agreement with Vodaphone. Data roaming is cheaper.

Note the GrandCentral.com button off to the right. Hit that button and it will connect you with my GrandCentral voice mail and allows you to leave a message. You can also set it to automatically forward the call to any phone anywhere. I used the button and it works well thus far.

I joined GrandCentral.com years ago before it was acquired by Google since I thought it was a great idea - especially since in those days you were not allowed to keep your mobile number if you changed companies. I have a permanent number through GrandCentral that I do not really use that much . . . till now I guess! The beauty of this is that I can forward all calls from my mobile to my GrandCentral number automatically. GrandCentral then saves the message as an email to me and I play it over the net when I get access, either through my mobile or laptop.

I wait for the day when I can use Skype from any phone anywhere. While I was aware of GrandCentral I want to acknowledge and thank David Pogue of the New York Times for prompting my memory on how useful the voicemail to email option is.

So while I am working in Fiji I will not have to pay ridiculous charges for my mobile service and still be able to pick up my voice mail from ATT via the web.

Thanks for reading and if you do call, thanks!

D.

David McCullough

Applications going out!

Aloha - I applied or rather, reapplied to the International Medical Corps tonight. Although I leave for Fiji for three weeks on January 12 I made myself available to IMC by March 1. I will follow up with a phone call tomorrow.

The weather in Sebastopol, California is cold, wet and dreary . . . a bit tiring to be sure. Tomorrow I plan to drive up the the coast and stay at my family place to do some mountain biking - either that or begin getting my things together for my trip to Fiji. I won't take many clothes but do have to take a number of gifts.

I don't know what to expect except that it is wise not to expect anything. Talked with an old friend last night who was recently in Samoa for the first time in years. Most of the people she knew are gone but out of the ones left, many are alcoholics or have serious problems. I know the type and as Judy said to me, many people who come to the South Pacific are running away from something or trying to find something they will never find. I saw that in Fiji, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea and so forth. There is some of that in me.

Finally though, I am going to do something against Bush, against the wanton specter of madness and destruction that Americans are pursuing under his leadership. No, I am not so hellishly innocent that I think this will change under a new administration but it is my hope that we will be doing less harm. Nor do I proclaim my innocence in the scheme of things.

Thanks for reading.

David

Leaving for Fiji January 12, 2008

Bula Vinaka,

I am leaving for Fiji on a medical mission for three weeks from January 12 to February 4, 2008. It has been eleven years since I have been in Fiji. The last time I left the United States was in 2003 when I was on a medical trip to Mexico . . . which I absolutely loved. In the future I am not sure that I can stay away from being overseas for so long. Many say we are lucky to live here and in some ways I can understand and in some ways agree. Yet I look at how much we consume in America - as living proof I am going to take my ipod and my computer so I can blog, check email, post photos of my trip and so on and so forth. Mainly for me I think as I am not sure how many people I know will care enough to read my ramblings.

Work at Sutter continues to be problematic in the sense that Corporate either does not know or refuses to tell our hospital if it will stay open or not. So the employees and community live in a constant state of uncertainty and hence concern about if they will continue to be able to pay their mortgage or rent and if medical care will be available for the community (in a timely manner!).

Late here and I work tomorrow for another 13 hour shift. Thanks for reading.

David

Updates

I finally cleared up the domain mix up but got no help from blogger staff at all even after three emails vis a vis their payment systems. I searched for a long time for a direct link to send an email directly to them and never found one. Frustrating to say the least. I finally just went through the process again and it obviously worked.

I continue to make loans on www.kiva.org and repayments continue to roll back in so far. I have about six loans out now and all for various small amounts from $25 - $100. I leave for Fiji on a medical mission with wwww.lolomafoundation.org January 12 - February 4 and hope to see if their are any projects/groups in Fiji that Kiva can become involved with.

My frustration with hospital nursing continues so I am am going to start a slow search for medical work that can combine my medical experience with my Masters in Community Psychology. Ideally I would like to live here (in the United States) part time and spend the rest of my time working overseas. I am thinking about the Gates Foundation Malarial program and things like that.

I think of my friends in Iceland (who work with the State Department), my friends in Australia, Fiji, Germany and so forth. I miss them all.

Thanks for reading . . . .

David

Domain name Changes

Aloha - I am trying to change my URL to davidmichaelmccullough.net but had some expired card problems with my billing. Hence I am stuck in limbo at the moment and cannot access my blog to read it. I am waiting for the staff at Blogger to email me a fix!

Taking action

So it is not Burma/Myanmar I know. I joined up with www.lolomafoundation.org and am going to Fiji to do volunteer medical work January 12 - 27, 2008. My overall goal is to make this type of work my main job and not have to simply stay in one place in Santa Rosa, California at Sutter Hospital taking care of alcoholics and drug addicted people. Detect a note of burned out cynicism - well there you have it.

I do know some people that will go to a border rufugee camp in June of 2009. I plan on going.

If I can do this type of work - just maybe I won't go insane!

Check out the loloma foundation.

Mahalo and Vinaka . . . .

David

Conscience

I wrote the following in response to an email from someone urging me to sign a petition online for Moveon.org about the crisis in Myanmar.

My reservations regarding the lack of response (in Myanmar, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Vietnam, Turkey, Cambodia, Chile, you name the country and century) by the rest of world lies in my own sense of frustration and anger, but especially my OWN inaction and perceived lack of power (or inability) to truly 'make a difference'.

It is all VERY easy to sign petitions, wave signs, be offended and yes, even shed a few tears. It is easy to rage (as I often do), to shout in frustration, to join campaigns . . . but yet as Shakespeare put it . . . 'full of sound and fury, yet signifying nothing'. We (not just you and I), all of us, salve or attempt to salve our conscience by outward signs and displays of caring and indignation.

It is VERY easy to placard the back of one's car with the signs and exhortations of an outraged majority lulled into somnolence by their satiated lifestyles. To delve (and delve deeply) into those issues seems to be too difficult, too time consuming, too hard to accomplish while I am sucking down another latte while I write this.

The simple fact is however that most of the people (me) continue to live their wasteful lives, unencumbered by any discomfort of any kind in the richest nation in the world. They don't suffer for the most part except for the supposed pangs of their conscience while they complain loudly about the state of 'state'.

What shames me the most? I am one of them at this point. Maybe I always have been. So I get angry, at myself, at America, at the supposed liberals who have no challenges in their lives except to worry how much retirement they have built up. It is easy to be liberal when you are not hungry, not thirsty, have shelter and health care.

No, I don't think people have to suffer to learn humility, to assist others (but it sure might make the world a better place and provide much needed perspective). It would help if people gave things up, if they would donate significant amounts of money, if they would simply volunteer time in their community or especially abroad.

We live such insanely comfortable lives and I am so uncomfortable in this.

People give up part of their lives to provide aide and comfort to others. Why don't more of us do so? We should. Or rather . . . I should.

Am I saying we should not be outraged? No. Should we not rant and rave? No. Should we not plaster our cars and hearts with placards protesting the injustices of the world? No. Should we sign petitions? Yes. Contribute, sign, talk, study.

Most of all though we should take action. We should get out of our comfortable lives. We should give up some things. We should travel and live outside of America, outside of wherever, outside our zone of comfort. We should shut up and do, stop talking about outrage but DO something outrageous about outrage. We should stop indulging ourselves in flapping our gums about those "poor people in XXXX country" when we are not prepared to really do anything except sign a petition in 30 seconds (I just signed it myself . . . but do I feel better?).

I know that for you (and maybe others) I am preaching to the choir. But in the end (whatever that may mean) it will only matter if you or I or anyone takes concrete action. Nothing else matters, especially these words that I write, here and now.

If you have even read this far . . . my thanks.

Talking with Governor Schwarzenegger and . . .

I wrote Governor Schwarzenegger and his staff this morning . . . .

It was front page on the New York Times today that California Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing health care reform. Most of us in the business are cynical about the prospects of serious or 'true' reform until the rich start to suffer and die from a deteriorating health care system. Money helps to insulate you from suffering - at least for most people and for awhile. I am not rich but consider myself insulated only because I am a nurse and have health care (only when working).

However this front page news coincided so well that the hospital I work with announced that after 130 years it is closing down by the end of the year. It contracts with the county so that at least 25% of it's business goes to serve the indigent (those poor enough to need the help of others). Of course the hospital loses money and reimbursement is too low to help.

I faxed the governor's office suggesting they somehow capitalize on my communities bad news to drum up support in the legislature to pass health care reform. Doing away with the insurance companies would be a good start, sack them all, cut their pay and let them work with the indigent for awhile to learn and empathize.

Do I expect an answer? No. Do I expect real reform? No. Do I expect to suffer? No. Will others suffer and die from this hospital closing and our inability to act . . . hell yes. I don't know what else to do other than write and offer my help. Write me if you hear of anything good. Till then I am throwing my support toward this plan and against the insurance companies.

Thanks for reading,

David

Dying Days of Rage

I will rage against my dying day,
till the day I can rage no more.
Tis the day I will die I think . . .
the day that rage will live no more.

It is youth that does not know the anguish of growing old
when bones and flesh weaken your resolve.
It only thinks of youthful pleasures,
with no cares for tomorrow.

I hope to accept my death so gracefully,
to welcome it with a lovers embrace, no less.
The pain of unrequited anguish and loss,
will hold no sway nor dominion over me.

It is compassion that will triumph (that is my hope),
I shall save the rage for when it is needed most.
Tis the least of burden's borne,
but when embraced too much . . .
is the heaviest upon one's heart.

David McCullough

Copyright January 7, 2007

I wrote the above late last night or in the wee hours of the morning . . . call it what you may. Many of my patients are older and dealing with the issues of failing bodies and a life that is shorter than longer. So this came to me, as poems often do, seemingly out of nowhere. However, I know that is not true. I am enraged myself at the injustices we all face, not only of growing older but so much else I have written about in the past. I am torn, struggling to accept what cannot be changed versus all the things that should be changed. The old adage of change beginning with yourself is an apt one in this instance. I won't say more here about that in this moment. I get frustrated with myself so much! Lots of talk, no action . . . and I despise that in myself. So many of us know what is right, all the 'shoulds'. I will take action, in some way, somehow, not only for myself but in hope of benefiting others at the same time.

Thanks for reading, be it even one.

David