What would honest Abe say?

How are we doing?
I wonder what he would think if he were here with us today?

Now set forever in Marble, in the Rotunda of the US Capital, you can almost see Abe coming back to life

Hand-tinted photograph © by Bennett Hall

Health Care or Health Care Insurance?

People need HEALTH CARE

People do NOT need HEALTH CARE INSURANCE ( except as mandated by the City of SF, state of MASS and soon Planet Obama)

If you watch the messaging of the Pols, what I so often hear sounds like they are all working for the INSURANCE industry - that it is all about protecting their system of distributing the dollars by pooled risk management, to enable MD's to spend millions saving one child.

As is oft pointed out -this system is failing.

SO - what if you eliminate the paperwork, the adjusters, the brokers, the executives, the bean counters- and merely focus on HEALTH CARE - and send the others home to join the unemployed?

this would reduce the cost of HC by 30% and make doctors happy once again, as they could SURPRISE be doctors, and heal the sick vs the 3:1 Staff to MD ratio now common.

Add to this mix - a change in qualifying that allows millions to spent on exotic diseases. Maybe, if your number does come up - it could be OK to let go of life so that others can live - as unfair as this may sound - but the MD's Oath of doing everything to "Save a life", or as you hear that cadence of "We lost the patient", forgets completely that death is an inseparable part of the life journey.

And, those 8 octuplets on the public dime......PLEEEEZE, I should not get started on that one.

Roses for the Gatekeeper

In the cold wind, the dead roses were for the unmovable that guarded the temple of the state, the guardian of the forces that govern and control, and determine who lives and who dies in the name of freedom or democracy or whatever is the Politics of the day

Hand-tinted photograph by Bennett Hall © 1976 • Washington D.C., The Pentagon

Portrait of a Famous Lady

Here is the spirit, the one who knows...but I think She wonders whether we have lost the plot. Does the small coat worn by a child no longer fit the growing man as Jefferson foresaw - this writer thinks so  

Time to try something new She says. Please listen to her

Hand-tinted black and white photography © by Bennett Hall

Ex-Cops take responsibility for their crime in uniform, a RARE moment

I remember when I first read this story, the shock and sadness that came over me was overwhelming - the horror of such a woman to leave the Earth under these circumstances, shot by police in her home, given how she had made it through 92 years to reach this point - how could this happen - yet it seems that this kind of thing happens every day.  

That said, in this rare case, the officers are asking for forgiveness.  It seems also that they truly mean it, they feel the victim's pain, they know what they did, and are taking responsibility, rather than partnering with other officers to make up stories to cover up the crimes committed under the Oath of their failed use of authority. 

Could this be a beacon of hope, wherein, members of our law enforcement choose a path of honor, and own up to their mistakes when they make them? Perhaps they [law enforcement] may tread lighter on the no-knock SWAT attacks, maybe they will use Google a little more, verify their facts first, so maybe they will not feel compelled to break into a Mayor's house in Maryland and kill his two beloved dogs?

these two plead guilty  - they know what they did, and they could not live it.

Good on them. 

February 23rd, 2009
Awaiting sentencing, ex-cops apologize for deadly drug raid

From CNN, http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/23/awaiting-sentencing-ex-cops-apologize-for-deadly-drug-raid/
Posted: 06:56 PM ET
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — A disgraced former police officer tearfully apologized Monday for killing an elderly Atlanta woman during a botched drug raid, while another told a judge that he prays daily for his victim.

“I used to think I was a good person,” ex-cop Greg Junnier said before breaking down on the witness stand during sentencing proceedings in a federal courtroom, CNN affiliate WXIA reported.

Junnier and two other ex-officers, Arthur Tesler and Jason Smith, face prison in the November 2006 raid that left 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston dead in a hail of gunfire. Investigators later determined the raid was based on falsified paperwork stating that illegal drugs were present in the home. The killing prompted a major overhaul of the Atlanta police drug unit.

“I pray daily for Ms. Johnston. I also pray other officers in Atlanta will have the moral fortitude I didn’t have,” Smith testified, according to WXIA.

Smith, Junnier and Tesler pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to violate civil rights resulting in death. Smith and Junnier also pleaded guilty to state charges of voluntary manslaughter and making false statements, and Smith admitted to planting bags of marijuana in Johnston’s house after her death.

Sentencing was expected to last two days.