The Loss of Action

In 1969, the Community Studies department was founded at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This program was a pioneer for experiential/service learning. Students are sent out into the world to participate in "field studies" at non-profit organizations or government programs. They are primed before leaving to look at the organization in which they will work through an intensely critical lens. How does the organization work? What is its mission? Is it effective? Why or why not? Is the way in which the organization approaches the problem appropriate?

This is a way of teaching students to be potent, versatile, critical thinkers, and it connects them with the larger word in a way that traditional education is incapable.

Several weeks ago, Sheldon Kamieniecki, the Dean of Social Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, announce that he would be cutting the Community Studies undergraduate program. The excuse is the same excuse that corporate executives are using across the country to rid themselves of what they deem troublesome or unnecessary - the economic crisis. The reality of the situation is that most corporate entities (I'm forced to include public universities in that category due to the failure of state governments to support them) are willing to shift funds in whatever way necessary to preserve what is valuable to them.

What is incredible to me is that now, months after our new president announced a call to service for all Americans, bureaucrats are going to cut a program that teaches young men and women to do for others rather than to do for themselves.

Are we that far gone? Are our values that misplaced? You'll continue to fund research so that you can have a better shampoo, but you won't fund programs that teach college kids how to run a Boys & Girls Club or how to reach out to people living with HIV/AIDS?

The Cost Is Our Health

Walter Cronkite once said, "America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system." I've just read an article that does an excellent job of pointing out how right Mr. Cronkite was.

The article states that as profit margins narrow, some very large insurers "... will not sacrifice profitability for membership."

When speaking to investors, in economic terms, that just sounds like a hardline position a company is taking.  It sounds like a decision executives had to make to insure profits, but the problem is that this isn't the production of a commodity that consumers can choose to or not to purchase (though that is indeed the counter argument that these insurers would make).

The fact of the matter is that the people who can no longer afford the policy can now no longer afford to be healthy, which will directly or indirectly shorten their lives. How much shorter will it make their lives? Perhaps the mismanagement of their health will shorten their lives from 75 years to 72 years, or it very well could shorten their lives from 75 years to 39 years.

I personally have avoided going to the doctor for numerous things because I was on a stretch in between health insurance carriers. In fact, I think I broke my foot last year. Notice I said "think" because I still don't know.  I was a full-time student over the age of 25. That means that I didn't qualify for insurance through my parents.  I could've gotten coverage through my part-time job (which is a rare exception in the working world), but the amount of money that would've come out of my paychecks would've made it very difficult to pay the rest of my monthly bills. The result? I limped for two months and then off and on for another month or two after that. It wasn't too bad, and after all, that's what we're supposed to do as Americans, right? Tough it out? Heaven forbid that we have a right to anything beyond shooting off our mouths and our guns.

The problem here is that there are people out there with corner offices sitting around large oak tables in control of our health.  Their priority is maximizing profits, and often that is at the expense of the service that they are supposed to be providing.  It's frustrating when it makes the average person's life inconvenient, but when it is actually jeopardizing our lives and the lives of our loved ones, it's nothing short of criminal.  There are few countries in the world where citizens will tolerate, and even justify such actions, but you do it everyday.

There's a great program on healthcare systems around the world that was produced by PBS. It's viewable in segments on their site.