When hurting people is hurting people. Period.

          PHOTO CREDIT: Jair Lázaro, Unsplash

This quote,  in reference to the hammer beating of the husband of Nancy Pelosi may provoke a "pause" to reflect, consider and then change something about a system so flawed as ours:

"There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her back to be with him in California.”

Those words are spoken on a campaign trail speech to voters by a person seeking a top re-election office.

I recall living in DC passing the National Cathedral where John McCain was lying in state and protesting signs were being held up as the motorcade drove by ... this where a spouse and child of their loved one would have to read or be exposed to damning words of their family member.

Police are killing citizens and citizens are killing police.

Lawyers are bringing down lawyers and dirty laundry is flying about everywhere.

Our country is so divided that even the lives of humans are sacrificial to supposed winning and losing causes.

When will the sides stop and the people become a we?
Have "we" ever really become a "we" in the US?
How is it that winning is the goal - almost only?
How is it that hating is justified - to counter hating?

Real people - hurting real people is hurting people.

These words, regardless of what side you're on or what race you're in or what top office you hold are not >the< problem - to be clear.  They are definitely wrong.

A moral judgment here?  Yes. Wrong, as I am calling it, is the right word, when the spouse of an attacked 82 year old spouse is flying home to a brain operated attack victim - and a governor wanna be simultaneously speaks about "...sending her home to be with him in California" in election jargon which was not endearing at all.

Not sure you agree? 

Read the Yahoo story and look at the context with which these words were spewed ... during a life and death kind of day for a married couple in the US.

Burnout or moral Injury?

A phenomenal read...burnout is not the only issue impacting mental healthcare.... here the concept of "moral injury" is addressed... not for patients,  but for providers.  A disconnect is noted between payors, administrators and providers - trickling down to patients.  This author highlights the micro and macro perspectives that intersect in both hope and change.... and mostly in change. 

 

PHOTO CREDIT: Jackson Simmer, Unsplash.

https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/practice/moral-injury-broken-system/

Research discussing healthcare debt ...

Photo Credit: Towfiqu Barbhuiya, Unsplash

The healthcare and health insurance debate in America seems to overlook this very significant detail.    I've said it for years,  in my podcasts,  in my blog,  in my book,  in many posts for many many years the insurance debacle is making people sick.   Something must change.

https://news.yahoo.com/1-5-households-medical-debt-173420850.html

Mental health and law enforcement - slowing down will be part I ...

       PHOTO CREDIT: Josh Couch, Unsplash

This story is an escalation if it's own - readers will jump in and pick sides....but the last 8 words of this one quote is worth a second take:

"De-escalation tactics are no longer suggested or preferred — they are mandatory prior to using force to effect an arrest unless it would be unreasonable to do so..."

Mental health professionals on the ground with crisis phone calls makes sense but this mental health and de-escalation campaign (and again, I'm all for it) must be grounded in the reality of science.   The brain takes over when death or the threat of death is real ... for all humans.   You cannot untrain an automatic trauma take over of the logical brain when adrenaline,  cortisol,  and norepinephrine take over during life threatening events.  This is not trainable.  What is trainable is slowing down.   I'll say that again ... what is trainable is slowing down.   

That slowing down thing is about all humans,  particularly in the US.  High stress is a disaster for everyone.   Now add unsafe careers to the mix of high stress.  Then add a 911 call for the police.   Next add a grab for a gun.  This is a horribly tragic tragic story.  And it saddens me immensely. 

To summarize this event,  by media,  political action and/or by race is only a few factors that,  to me,  makes this story even more depressing (to an already very depressed culture).  To call it a mental health only thing,  a de-escalation only thing is also yet another factor. 

In my own training of de-escalation to schools,  teachers,  to patients going back over a decade... this technique works where the safety (and the safety perception) is present. If someone, even a well trained de-escalation seasoned professional is unsafe - or perceives being imminently in harms way - deescalation techniques will fail as the literal (not fear or scared or uncertainty or even bias) biological hijack of fight/flight hormones splashes the logical brain making it largely - well - kind of dumb if you will.  

The only if I can see time and again in these kinds of stories is that ... IF EVERYONE COULD SLOW DOWN A BIT IN ALL HUMAN INTERACTIONS  this stress response will drop.  

Bias training will help.   De-escalation training will help.   Mental health will help.  

This is not an all or nothing thing.   And the saddest thing of all is that people are dying. 

https://news.yahoo.com/police-video-fatal-encounter-shows-233117194.html 

Insulin price caps - making the news: the argument is wasted money frankly.

For the past week there has been this ruckus over price caps on insulin.  The two party system is blaming the other as bad.  And the masses seem to be on board with the two party blame game.  Here's a different perspective .... there was a report that the pubs voted to block a $35 cap on insulin. Presumably the good idea here was the price cap and presumably it was from the other side ... the dems. Now consider this two party solution for a moment.  $35 for insulin isn't a really a cap; it's still a rip off.  If the pubs voted no,  and the dems put this on the table,  neither set of "representatives" were intending on making a change here.   You see,  $35 isn't the item that should have been in the law ... $8 would be reasonable (and still high frankly).  When the pubs are pushing for change and when the dems are too (#workingtogether) then real laws will be voted on.   It seems like we're continuing to look at the two parties as if they (either one) are really helping the people.     That's not a dem or a pub debate you know?  Helping people; that this is even a debate is telling too, isn't it?  Think about it... people are arguing about a cap that is not affordable for the most vulnerable and most in need... as if excluding some people from needed medical care is reasonable?!?  It's time for real change - like we the people seeing us as allies, not foes.  Narratives are just that ... pitches to convince and sway.  If you had a job for two years and you couldn't improve things ... would you still have that job?  If you had a 77,000 page tax code as your direction manual - could you even begin to get something done?  The ping pong of one side or the other bashing it out closer to elections where billions (read that again - billions) are trashed (into "the other side sucks" marketing) could be changed. Billions into people programs would destroy a BS price cap argument by both parties. Idealistically, we the people could consider that what is being placed into the media narratives continues to divide us as we lash out at one another.   Help is only helpful when it helps.  Can you and I and help? PHOTO CREDIT: Towfiqu barbhuiya, unsplash.

Equality, idealism, mysticism - the law and politics

Equality is so much simpler than our country - myself included - make it.   As PRIDE  and protests abound on this very day -  I simply long for equality.   For you,  for my neighbors, my friends, my family - and for me too.  Idealism, a personality trait that at times seems to hinder and feed my passions of care, and then the nostalgia of my high school youth studying constitutional law and things like indepedence and revolutions for freedoms - I have come to realize how sacred mysticism can blind a soul.  As you and I post hate messages, as we say divisive words against one another we overlook our majority power - caused by a few.  Let that sink in a moment ... "caused by a few" I said.  You see privileged, seasoned, lifetime positioned lawyers and lifetime positioned men and women of wealth on any side of the aisles - a few unaware people of power who cause our collective and cyclical divides. Equality is too too simple - even if some document of anitquity espoused that all are equal - all have inalienable rights ...  The problem is that "all" with any exceptions (and there are so so many exceptions in the rules of law and in the rules of politics - ran by a so very few people) makes equality a falsehood - not an ideal - not a passion - not a truth. And we continue to divide.  Our hate spewing, our side taking and our rock throwing enables the few to continue.   Ideally, we,  the majority would gather in hand holding,  in equal judgements for the greater collective -US- and being to tell the few that they no longer have the power.   We do - as a majority of equals - who when blame is quieted - can begin to see our role in creating change. #equality

~Kurt LaRose

In Her Words and Not Theirs; A Supreme Court Justice Speaks

      PHOTO CREDIT: Anna Sullivan and Unsplash

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These words are so powerful...[I have tried to do my] “best to stay in my lane and to reach a result that is consistent with my understanding of the law and with the obligation to rule independently without fear or favor.”  Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson.  

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Note: I did not hear these words myself ... I read them in an online article that I chose not to reference due to its political spin.  I do believe these are her words however ... that was credible enough.   I also found these words powerful ... while the slant in the media article tragic.

Courts, Cases, Costs and Care: What about that Care Thing?

This legal case started in 2015; that was 7 years ago.  Get this - this case is said to be heading "back to the supreme court."  I'm curious about the money spent,  the time spent,  the stress of all involved.

         Photo Credit: Eric Mclean and Unsplash.

Americans continue to give away money over terms like "Republican, Democrat, Christian" and in supposed "principled arguments" standing on some ground - to limit previously decided laws.  And then to change a word or two,  to retry cases and attempt to hair line tweak cases to find the next precedent on which to stand.
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Do you know that we keep spending money to fight over freedom - supposedly in the freest country in the world?  Has anyone considered how expensive our divisions are?
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A Christian believed that God needed help in a court room?  4 people who wanted to be married had to go to court to get the system to anti-sanction, religious freedom, sexual freedom and marital freedom laws? 
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Does any of this make any sense?
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Look I know that many things in life must be fought for.  
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But you and I remain palpably divided.  Why?  Who benefits when these divisions distract us from liking each other and us simply getting along?
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Our country has the high honor of more covid deaths in the world than any other country.   We are arguing over gender and race and education.  The number one cause for bankruptcy in the US is healthcare costs.  Homeless people need housing.   Retired people need actual healthcare.  Schools need money to teach.  We have gazillions of folks in prison for non-violent crimes.  We argue and continue to perpetuate laws rooted in racism, oppression and inequality - in a democracy where 51% supposedly is considered sufficient cause to establish anything as "legal."  Our foods are soaked in carcinogens and our water is so cloudy we can see things floating about.  The tax system is a mammoth 70,000 pages (where more lawyers are needed).
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We are not divided solely by principals.  We are divided by nearly everything we read and the talking points we grab onto.
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Nearly every article I read labels the republican or the democrat in the one up and one down (opposing and binary) arguments.  Nearly every story I read talks of the next legal implication about to unfold.
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One day,  idealism will shape reality.   The idea that you and I, as a majority, really do care - and can care - about each other will begin to sink in.   The idea that love is unconditional not conceptual - but practical - where actions to drive love first will be in the communal consciousness. One day,  any reason to justify the non- caring and the non-protection of another human being will become the rejectable - instead of the cause.
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I hope even in dismay.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/kim-davis-lawsuit-violated-rights-of-same-sex-couples-ruling/