I live in a relatively small city and work in a relatively public field (health care). Up until very recently I've made an effort to keep my political life separate from my work, social and social media life. But a few weeks ago I came to the conclusion that continuing to "silo" my convictions was not helping anyone - not me or anyone wh…
I live in a relatively small city and work in a relatively public field (health care). Up until very recently I've made an effort to keep my political life separate from my work, social and social media life. But a few weeks ago I came to the conclusion that continuing to "silo" my convictions was not helping anyone - not me or anyone who might read them. If my employer takes umbrage I'll deal with it. If I'm terminated it's their loss. I'm almost 72 and very, very good at what I do, and have been holding on through hard times out of loyalty as much as anything else. If freed from work obligations I'll have more time (though less money) to put into supporting the things that are important to me: the survival of our democracy and a fairer society for all of us. And knitting to stay sane.
Go for it! Throughout my healthcare career, we have always been cautioned against bringing politics into our work. I have always discussed politics with my patients and coworkers, but only in terms of healthcare - we talk about insulin costs these days, I talk with my older patients about how our young staff won’t get the same retirement benefits as they did and may not show up because they need childcare, or have to quit because they cannot afford the gas to get here, we talk about Big Pharma profits, and Big Law missing the mark on growing, expensive, unfunded regulations. We talk about the lack of Internet access for patients to communicate, and we talk about algorithms when searching for medical information on the net. We talk about supplement deregulation (thanks Orrin Hatch, R-UT), unfair drug patent extensions (thanks Dianne Feinstein, D-CA), and we talk about healthcare ethics (for many, their first exposure to ethics in general). And, we talk about the importance of voting. So, come sit by me, I can help people understand how politics permeates their lives, while their algorithms are blissfully ignorant. And for all that, I find the young people more open and more interested, and my older patients more rigid and closed minded.
Joyce “didn’t know enough, or didn’t care” describes most anyone that would vote for tfg after all that’s gone down. Many tfg voters are so blissfully unaware of so much that readers of Civil Discourse eat for breakfast.
Well said John. Medicine is in sorry shape despite (or because of?) our amazing technological innovations. The profit motive supersedes everything. The medical and education fields should be less about profit and and more about serving the greatest number of people possible. Lifting society rather than crassly profitting from the suffering of others (or ignorance of others). Prisons should be about humane treatment of individuals with an eye toward whether they could be capable of dignity again, rather than a purely for profit pejorative exercise. Call me Frank Capra I guess. Some facets of our society need to be about more than profit.
Covered a lot of ground I know. I know I probably covered too much ground with this rant. So sue me…
A fine missive... and sadly, spot-on. The reality: our "unbridled Capitalist" society encourages greed and forsakes humanistic principles (especially people's health and well-being) for profit - the most disgusting aspect of which is our Healthcare-for-Profit system. We are the only major nation with this abomination... and it is all driven by an almost completely unregulated Health Insurance system - which should be nationalized like other countries. Off my soapbox.
I agree with you completely. Capitalism is the first problem of human society. Some people hoard money. They feel paying taxes is not fair because they can afford to buy anything they need or want and other people are just living off them. For some reason they don't realize that without the "other people" they would have nothing. The "other people" make their goods and services available. The "other people" buy their goods and services. And they try to pay them as little as possible so they can hoard more. There is something wrong with a system that allows this. My rant is complete... for now.
Indeed. You make good points. It is all too apparent to me that there is a "threshold of money arrogance" effect on some (many) people... i.e., as soon as some are fortunate enough to acquire a lot of money (some by hard work, some by getting lucky, or some born into it) their psyche "others" those at a lower level of income and they then become quite condescending and "overtly wealth protectionist" in nature... and do all possible to "screw over" anybody they deal with as completely justified in a pure capitalist society. To them profit is a #1 priority, all other agendas are secondary.
Many traditional Corporations do it disingenuously and gleefully under the guise of "our Fiduciary responsibility to investors" or, if private, as "necessary to ensure the growth and prosperity of the company". The reality: Capitalism needs to be bridled, i.e. better regulated to counteract this and mitigate the resulting huge financial inequities that have created our Plutocracy. Thankfully there is the "B Corp" concept that espouses social responsibility and the value of the people that make up a company - a sense of business ethics and empathy. The percentage of such companies is not surprisingly, quite small. We collectively need to devise a way to incentivize the transition to B Corps and penalize those traditional companies that make windfall profits at the expense of the working class. "My rant is complete...for now" 😉👍👍
I have done the exact same thing throughout my healthcare career, kept political separate from work and social media life. But after leaving healthcare in July 2023, I realized that now I was free to be me, so to speak. Looking for a long-term job in a different field but also finally feeling free to speak up again about the things that matter, including our democracy, and animal welfare, climate change and the environment.
Trial attorney here in NorCal for over 30 years. As a Ttrial Attorney you don't talk politics -- you talk admissible evidence & common sense.
But as a Cal state Attorney you have an obligation to do Pro Bono work (free Lawyer).
I worked Pro Bono for over 30 years solving medical billing hassles for all kinds of folks including negotiating a run-off policy for a police officer with a degenerative autonomic disease (MSA).
I had to shame the County because they had no excess coverage over $1 Million Dollars.
Still at it after retirement expanding into political-legal hassles.
Bless you for sticking it out in health care. I certainly wouldn't blame you if you decided to retire, but I am very grateful for health care workers, even more so if they're good and experienced.
My mother was an RN up until the day she passed. Even in retirement it never left her. It's in the blood. In fact she apologized to her nurses for being cantankerous as a patient when she needed them most.
That said, she understood the politics of the medical field and the insurance issues more than most. Her son heard every bit of it and as a pragmatic vet - knew the politics of big money destroys much. The privatization attempts of the VA by TFG still boils my blood. His three buds down in Mar-a-largo that worked to usurp the Cabinet Secretary (and got him relieved) shows the criminal aspects of the hunt for greed and profit over health care.
Today Ex-General Flynn pops up with mutiny by 261 signatories that he's connived into believing they are the patriots. Their court martials will be another notch in #ETTD. The threat from the Christo-fascists is as real as the TFG attempt to outrun his charges.
Mom and dad did that for me and I sort of grew up outside DC. So, at least in the past, I've had a big mouth and was told that :) but it sure worked.
Years ago, a woman (a stranger) walked into Petco with an overweight corgi. I nicely (but promptly) explained why overfeeding corgis was very bad. The problem these days is reaching out in the cold with rising covid numbers to talk to neighbors who voted for rumpf in the past to see where they stand now (and add my inability to hear which I frequently forget :) and I'm in trouble but I keep trying). Right now, I'm in my silo mostly.
I also grew up in a family where we spoke about politics at the dinner table. This has meant that I am less traumatized by reading the news than friends who did not. One learns how to manage the information. What I find is that when there is a crisis, I want to know a lot about it until I can understand what I need to about it. My daughter did not want to hear the news until she was in about 7th grade, and I am sure her algorithms are more about Taylor Swift than Rudy Giuliani, but she has heard me read enough political substack letters aloud to her, that she has some idea of events too. However, she is going to University in Germany and I am living back and forth between here and Germany, so we have to basically be global in our political understanding and discussion.
That's why an intelligent, young and globally popular celebrity like Taylor Swift who appeals to almost all ages, can be and has been a difference maker in voting. I hope she'll continue to speak out not only about registering to vote, but recently against Marsha Blackburn of TN. POTUS should keep her message front and center and... loud!
Yes. She has gone up in my estimation because of her positive activism around voting. It makes up for the stress of trying to get tickets to her concert with 5 other mothers as we wanted this to be their graduation present.
Yes, but not by 2.5 days of trying to. Ironically, a boy my daughter knew, got front row tickets for a cheap price and sold them for $30,000. My daughter was not worried because she assumed closer to the time tickets would become available. I did not think so. However, the dad of one of the girls in her group who were going, had a contact, and once they had given tickets to people ahead of him in priority in Chicago, he got them tickets for a reasonable price. Still, I would have rather had to wait in line in person, then have to handle the software that was used because it was terrible, and no explanations on how to use it. They were so happy. Then, when Taylor Swift's movie came to Germany my daughter and I went to see it together, and had a very nice time. She and a friend who also decided to study in Germany were the biggest Swifties in their grade in high school. In fact, for a holiday gift her classmate gave her a t-shirt. It was just kind of known in the school that they liked her music, and would be up late when her new albums dropped. My husband and I have been quizzed on songs and things like that. Big enthusiasm for her music. We are both glad that she is supporting Biden. My daughter worked the phones on his first campaign, so she feels connected in that way too. We just updated her mail in vote, so she can get her ballot in Germany to vote in both the primary and the general election.
Well, yay!!!! I don't have children (couldn't) so to be candid, I couldn't even tell you one of her songs, but I always thought she was a good role model for girls long before she encouraged young voters to register. The large donations she has made throughout her tour to food banks in cities in which her ERAS tour performed as well as the bonuses she gave to her truck drivers on the tour at its conclusion is commendable and again - a great role model. You did good Mama in raising a daughter who actively supports her candidate. Well done!
Thanks. I also heard that she and Beyonce provide for health insurance for their dancers and singers and the people that work for them. There is care there.
"We've got to do everything we can." says Joyce. I am 82 and, since 2017, have been doing what I can to support Democrats. Take a look at Len's Political Notes https://lenspoliticalnotes.com -- a free newsletter which encourages support for Democratic candidates who need support (money or postcards or other volunteering). We all need to do what we can.
They need you more than you need them. Get your retirement papers and affairs in order and if they give you a bad time, pill the plug, Boom. Gone, but pensioned, hopefully.
Keep working, if you can and have a reason too, retiring seemed a bit scary for me but it was a new beginning. I found time to be relevant, when used knitting or actively toward a result, accomplishment of any kind is as much fuel for living as bread and water.
Making phone calls to voters is practically free! If you connect with a campaign, Common Cause, Activate America or any other get out the vote organization, you can learn to make calls to support candidates or Democrats in general. All you need is an Internet connected computer and a headset. Or you can use the computer's audio functions without earbuds or a headset. The organization provides training. Good luck!
Some do. And there is a box to check for no answer. But you are better off answering these calls and asking to be taken off the call list. Otherwise you are called again.
I was told in my young adult life that "Life is Politics" and that I should not be afraid to speak my position on a given subject. It was good advice, and it did take me a few years to better understand the concept and make it part of my life.
I have a close friend in another state and a neighbor across the street who both voted for Trump in 2016. I knew a political discussion would not be welcomed by either of them. And I didn't know anyone else that I could "enlighten" about the malignant narcissist wannabe dictator.
However, I recently spent a month in four different hospitals. I was able to talk to one nurse and two certified nursing assistants about the dangers of Trump. None of them knew much at all about him. Once I got home, I saw my gardener's oldest son and did my best to impress upon him the importance of voting and the reasons not to vote for Trump.
I don't know if any of those I spoke to will take my words to heart, but they all listened politely to my long list of dangers in another Trump presidency. If nothing else, I planted a few seeds. That's more than I was able to do in the past 9 years. Fingers crossed that I drummed up at least one vote for President Biden. Every little bit helps.
I live in a relatively small city and work in a relatively public field (health care). Up until very recently I've made an effort to keep my political life separate from my work, social and social media life. But a few weeks ago I came to the conclusion that continuing to "silo" my convictions was not helping anyone - not me or anyone who might read them. If my employer takes umbrage I'll deal with it. If I'm terminated it's their loss. I'm almost 72 and very, very good at what I do, and have been holding on through hard times out of loyalty as much as anything else. If freed from work obligations I'll have more time (though less money) to put into supporting the things that are important to me: the survival of our democracy and a fairer society for all of us. And knitting to stay sane.
Go for it! Throughout my healthcare career, we have always been cautioned against bringing politics into our work. I have always discussed politics with my patients and coworkers, but only in terms of healthcare - we talk about insulin costs these days, I talk with my older patients about how our young staff won’t get the same retirement benefits as they did and may not show up because they need childcare, or have to quit because they cannot afford the gas to get here, we talk about Big Pharma profits, and Big Law missing the mark on growing, expensive, unfunded regulations. We talk about the lack of Internet access for patients to communicate, and we talk about algorithms when searching for medical information on the net. We talk about supplement deregulation (thanks Orrin Hatch, R-UT), unfair drug patent extensions (thanks Dianne Feinstein, D-CA), and we talk about healthcare ethics (for many, their first exposure to ethics in general). And, we talk about the importance of voting. So, come sit by me, I can help people understand how politics permeates their lives, while their algorithms are blissfully ignorant. And for all that, I find the young people more open and more interested, and my older patients more rigid and closed minded.
Joyce “didn’t know enough, or didn’t care” describes most anyone that would vote for tfg after all that’s gone down. Many tfg voters are so blissfully unaware of so much that readers of Civil Discourse eat for breakfast.
Well said John. Medicine is in sorry shape despite (or because of?) our amazing technological innovations. The profit motive supersedes everything. The medical and education fields should be less about profit and and more about serving the greatest number of people possible. Lifting society rather than crassly profitting from the suffering of others (or ignorance of others). Prisons should be about humane treatment of individuals with an eye toward whether they could be capable of dignity again, rather than a purely for profit pejorative exercise. Call me Frank Capra I guess. Some facets of our society need to be about more than profit.
Covered a lot of ground I know. I know I probably covered too much ground with this rant. So sue me…
A fine missive... and sadly, spot-on. The reality: our "unbridled Capitalist" society encourages greed and forsakes humanistic principles (especially people's health and well-being) for profit - the most disgusting aspect of which is our Healthcare-for-Profit system. We are the only major nation with this abomination... and it is all driven by an almost completely unregulated Health Insurance system - which should be nationalized like other countries. Off my soapbox.
I agree with you completely. Capitalism is the first problem of human society. Some people hoard money. They feel paying taxes is not fair because they can afford to buy anything they need or want and other people are just living off them. For some reason they don't realize that without the "other people" they would have nothing. The "other people" make their goods and services available. The "other people" buy their goods and services. And they try to pay them as little as possible so they can hoard more. There is something wrong with a system that allows this. My rant is complete... for now.
Indeed. You make good points. It is all too apparent to me that there is a "threshold of money arrogance" effect on some (many) people... i.e., as soon as some are fortunate enough to acquire a lot of money (some by hard work, some by getting lucky, or some born into it) their psyche "others" those at a lower level of income and they then become quite condescending and "overtly wealth protectionist" in nature... and do all possible to "screw over" anybody they deal with as completely justified in a pure capitalist society. To them profit is a #1 priority, all other agendas are secondary.
Many traditional Corporations do it disingenuously and gleefully under the guise of "our Fiduciary responsibility to investors" or, if private, as "necessary to ensure the growth and prosperity of the company". The reality: Capitalism needs to be bridled, i.e. better regulated to counteract this and mitigate the resulting huge financial inequities that have created our Plutocracy. Thankfully there is the "B Corp" concept that espouses social responsibility and the value of the people that make up a company - a sense of business ethics and empathy. The percentage of such companies is not surprisingly, quite small. We collectively need to devise a way to incentivize the transition to B Corps and penalize those traditional companies that make windfall profits at the expense of the working class. "My rant is complete...for now" 😉👍👍
Thank you, Marc, for helping me express how I feel about these matters.
I have done the exact same thing throughout my healthcare career, kept political separate from work and social media life. But after leaving healthcare in July 2023, I realized that now I was free to be me, so to speak. Looking for a long-term job in a different field but also finally feeling free to speak up again about the things that matter, including our democracy, and animal welfare, climate change and the environment.
Trial attorney here in NorCal for over 30 years. As a Ttrial Attorney you don't talk politics -- you talk admissible evidence & common sense.
But as a Cal state Attorney you have an obligation to do Pro Bono work (free Lawyer).
I worked Pro Bono for over 30 years solving medical billing hassles for all kinds of folks including negotiating a run-off policy for a police officer with a degenerative autonomic disease (MSA).
I had to shame the County because they had no excess coverage over $1 Million Dollars.
Still at it after retirement expanding into political-legal hassles.
Bless you for sticking it out in health care. I certainly wouldn't blame you if you decided to retire, but I am very grateful for health care workers, even more so if they're good and experienced.
My mother was an RN up until the day she passed. Even in retirement it never left her. It's in the blood. In fact she apologized to her nurses for being cantankerous as a patient when she needed them most.
That said, she understood the politics of the medical field and the insurance issues more than most. Her son heard every bit of it and as a pragmatic vet - knew the politics of big money destroys much. The privatization attempts of the VA by TFG still boils my blood. His three buds down in Mar-a-largo that worked to usurp the Cabinet Secretary (and got him relieved) shows the criminal aspects of the hunt for greed and profit over health care.
Today Ex-General Flynn pops up with mutiny by 261 signatories that he's connived into believing they are the patriots. Their court martials will be another notch in #ETTD. The threat from the Christo-fascists is as real as the TFG attempt to outrun his charges.
WAITT
Love this, HCR enabled me to find my voice a few years ago. My current mantra i pass along: silence is now complicity.
And, as we used to say back in the day, "Your silence will not protect you."
Mom and dad did that for me and I sort of grew up outside DC. So, at least in the past, I've had a big mouth and was told that :) but it sure worked.
Years ago, a woman (a stranger) walked into Petco with an overweight corgi. I nicely (but promptly) explained why overfeeding corgis was very bad. The problem these days is reaching out in the cold with rising covid numbers to talk to neighbors who voted for rumpf in the past to see where they stand now (and add my inability to hear which I frequently forget :) and I'm in trouble but I keep trying). Right now, I'm in my silo mostly.
I also grew up in a family where we spoke about politics at the dinner table. This has meant that I am less traumatized by reading the news than friends who did not. One learns how to manage the information. What I find is that when there is a crisis, I want to know a lot about it until I can understand what I need to about it. My daughter did not want to hear the news until she was in about 7th grade, and I am sure her algorithms are more about Taylor Swift than Rudy Giuliani, but she has heard me read enough political substack letters aloud to her, that she has some idea of events too. However, she is going to University in Germany and I am living back and forth between here and Germany, so we have to basically be global in our political understanding and discussion.
That's why an intelligent, young and globally popular celebrity like Taylor Swift who appeals to almost all ages, can be and has been a difference maker in voting. I hope she'll continue to speak out not only about registering to vote, but recently against Marsha Blackburn of TN. POTUS should keep her message front and center and... loud!
Yes. She has gone up in my estimation because of her positive activism around voting. It makes up for the stress of trying to get tickets to her concert with 5 other mothers as we wanted this to be their graduation present.
Were you able to get the tickets?
Yes, but not by 2.5 days of trying to. Ironically, a boy my daughter knew, got front row tickets for a cheap price and sold them for $30,000. My daughter was not worried because she assumed closer to the time tickets would become available. I did not think so. However, the dad of one of the girls in her group who were going, had a contact, and once they had given tickets to people ahead of him in priority in Chicago, he got them tickets for a reasonable price. Still, I would have rather had to wait in line in person, then have to handle the software that was used because it was terrible, and no explanations on how to use it. They were so happy. Then, when Taylor Swift's movie came to Germany my daughter and I went to see it together, and had a very nice time. She and a friend who also decided to study in Germany were the biggest Swifties in their grade in high school. In fact, for a holiday gift her classmate gave her a t-shirt. It was just kind of known in the school that they liked her music, and would be up late when her new albums dropped. My husband and I have been quizzed on songs and things like that. Big enthusiasm for her music. We are both glad that she is supporting Biden. My daughter worked the phones on his first campaign, so she feels connected in that way too. We just updated her mail in vote, so she can get her ballot in Germany to vote in both the primary and the general election.
Well, yay!!!! I don't have children (couldn't) so to be candid, I couldn't even tell you one of her songs, but I always thought she was a good role model for girls long before she encouraged young voters to register. The large donations she has made throughout her tour to food banks in cities in which her ERAS tour performed as well as the bonuses she gave to her truck drivers on the tour at its conclusion is commendable and again - a great role model. You did good Mama in raising a daughter who actively supports her candidate. Well done!
Thanks. I also heard that she and Beyonce provide for health insurance for their dancers and singers and the people that work for them. There is care there.
"We've got to do everything we can." says Joyce. I am 82 and, since 2017, have been doing what I can to support Democrats. Take a look at Len's Political Notes https://lenspoliticalnotes.com -- a free newsletter which encourages support for Democratic candidates who need support (money or postcards or other volunteering). We all need to do what we can.
Thank you, Len. I subscribe, and will pitch in in 2024! Our lives depend on it, literally.
I bookmarked it and will do what I can. Thanks.
My primary care doc wears a button that lets her patients know that she is an inclusive ally. I chose the right doc.
Yes, knitting!
They need you more than you need them. Get your retirement papers and affairs in order and if they give you a bad time, pill the plug, Boom. Gone, but pensioned, hopefully.
Keep working, if you can and have a reason too, retiring seemed a bit scary for me but it was a new beginning. I found time to be relevant, when used knitting or actively toward a result, accomplishment of any kind is as much fuel for living as bread and water.
Thanks so much for your response, Deborah.
Making phone calls to voters is practically free! If you connect with a campaign, Common Cause, Activate America or any other get out the vote organization, you can learn to make calls to support candidates or Democrats in general. All you need is an Internet connected computer and a headset. Or you can use the computer's audio functions without earbuds or a headset. The organization provides training. Good luck!
Who answers the phone when you don't recognize the caller?
Some do. And there is a box to check for no answer. But you are better off answering these calls and asking to be taken off the call list. Otherwise you are called again.
I was told in my young adult life that "Life is Politics" and that I should not be afraid to speak my position on a given subject. It was good advice, and it did take me a few years to better understand the concept and make it part of my life.
I have a close friend in another state and a neighbor across the street who both voted for Trump in 2016. I knew a political discussion would not be welcomed by either of them. And I didn't know anyone else that I could "enlighten" about the malignant narcissist wannabe dictator.
However, I recently spent a month in four different hospitals. I was able to talk to one nurse and two certified nursing assistants about the dangers of Trump. None of them knew much at all about him. Once I got home, I saw my gardener's oldest son and did my best to impress upon him the importance of voting and the reasons not to vote for Trump.
I don't know if any of those I spoke to will take my words to heart, but they all listened politely to my long list of dangers in another Trump presidency. If nothing else, I planted a few seeds. That's more than I was able to do in the past 9 years. Fingers crossed that I drummed up at least one vote for President Biden. Every little bit helps.