C Berg's Open Salon Blog

Chicken Kisses

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:10:02 -0400

Some days are just too wonderful for words.

Natalie, Butters and Gobbles last night. Giving a real face to loving and "special needs."

I have spent the last two months outdoors in the odd weather that is becoming common to Iowa. We had a cold August, warm, then cold, September. October seemed like it was going to host winter early, and now....sixty degrees. We needed an Indian Summer, a time of warm dry weather for the crops, and for Natalie and the chickens.

Natalie, one of my twenty-eight year old twins, is now living with me, in spite of the fact that she said she would NEVER NEVER live with me. I have spent the last several years of my life worrying about her, and thought that by this time maybe I could quit worrying about her. It's my choice, right?

Natalie is different. She never liked her hair combed or her nails clipped as a child. She would NEVER pick up her toys. She ran away when we were all doing a work project, or whenever I asked her to do anything. She still does. When I give her a work assignment, she disappears without doing anything. I have tried every method I can to support her getting work done.

She has gotten better since going to an adult day treatment program that works with people with mental issues. She said she didn't like it much, and called it the "crazies class." It did give her some perspective on her own life since many of the people in her class were totally impoverished, or stuck in abusive relationships. She is neither.

She's stuck with me. It could be worse.

After a few sleepless nights, and a conversation with her very young social worker, I have decided with quit fighting with her. The social worker informed me in a very kind voice that "people who are depressed just can't be expected to do anything."

I told her that I understand depression....I understand "not doing anything," BUT....if our family had quit doing anything because we were depressed or angst ridden or bipolar...we would have died out long ago. There is no person in my immediate family who is NOT depressed on some level. We have to learn to work with it and do what's necessary to make it. THAT is what I want to support in HER.

Natalie is happier. She is beginning to participate in "The Farm" community that I am creating here. She is wonderful with the little kids, and has had two babysitting jobs with them. They adore her.

We are beginning to collect farm animals for our organic permaculture cooperative. Chickens are our first real farm animals, besides the horses. We now have thirty-seven chickens...or maybe thirty-eight? Most of them are hens.

When we began buying them, we ended up accidently buying a few that were "special needs" chickens....or "culls," as they say. Natalie saw that they were starving, and couldn't stand it. She began carrying them around, and 'took them under her wing,' so to speak. She made an appointment at the only bird vet in town, and had their beaks filed to partially correct for their scissor-beak condition.

Forty dollars and three weeks later, we have two Aracana roosters who come running every time the door opens, wanting their special cooked oatmeal mixture of food which is about all they can eat and darting into the house to get warm. They still try to peck things even though their beaks don't meet. Their names are Butters and Gobbles, after the South Park characters.

Natalie cares for them, getting up early and letting them out of their pet carrier, and making their oatmeal. At night, putting them to bed so they won't be eaten by predators in their vulnerable night roosting. Her dad offered to kill them if we couldn't, since they were "useless."

You know...I think everything has a use, even the culls. If there is chicken love, this is it. Love should never be culled.

I'm glad we have Natalie, and that she has us, and the "special needs" chickens.

I'll just take some time off from worrying about her...okay?

Carted off by Police, and In Trouble Again

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:08:10 -0400

Carted off by Police, and in trouble again. Before you see me on FOX NEWS or in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, let me tell you what REALLY happened at the Loebsack's Town Hall Meeting in Cedar Rapids that left me with a twisted knee and crying as I left the meeting.

There were over five hundred people at the meeting, more of them doctors and doctor's wives than I have seen in one place at one time anywhere except the medical society meetings at the Country Club. As a former doctor's wife, many of my old friends waved and talked to me. Susan Haupt and her husband Dr. David walked in with me, talking about horses. Sue asked if I was here to raise a ruckus, as they were. I said that I hoped I wouldn't have to. So much for that.

The mood in the room was charged. A few right-wingers started chanting, and health care reformers tried to out-shout them. It seemed to be divided about evenly.

I sat toward the front, with anti-reformists behind me, and to my right and in front were two large men. The man beside me, Mr. Weems owner of Legacy Manufacturing was loudly vocalizing against everything Obama.

"I pay eighty employees and provide health insurance for them and this will make it so that I can't do that."

"Death sqads are mandated."

"The government can't run anything...look at the post office...Amtrack..."

I mention that the Post Office is privitized, as is Amtrack. He and his friend yell at me, "NO IT'S NOT." And they keep that up. They keep yelling at me while I'm trying to write my question on the paper to be entered into the question lottery.

This whole thing makes me angry. His yelling at me and being able to shout me down made me angry. His yelling "Liar, liar," at Loebsack made me angry. My former friends the doctors made me angry when they kept yelling at me about how they treated people with no health insurance all the time and didn't charge them. If that were the norm, it would be great, but it's not the norm. Even when we do have health insurance, we get charged, and the bills sent for Collection if they are not paid promptly where we are harrassed and harrassed until we pay.

You know how I feel about this health care system. It's become a road to wealth for doctors, insurers, drug companies, hospital administrators, and medical equipment manufactures. It has become a road to ruin for the common working person.

I was determined to stand my ground, but was definately being shouted down, so I put my sign in front of the Loud Man's face, so he grabbed it, and we strugged over the "Health Care for All," sign. I pulled and couldn't get it away from him. I was yelling at him as loud as I could, saying, "GIVE ME MY SIGN." I pulled so hard that I fell on the floor and twisted my left knee. I felt like stabbing the guy with my pen or taking a wild swing at him, but I didn't.

The sign was the excuse, the anger was fear and intimidation. I felt that as a woman against this white male establishment there was no way I could communicate with them my own frustration with the system, and that their shouting would always be louder than mine because they were/are stronger.

My knee is starting to swell, and I feel hopeless to change this entrenched system that is only working for the VERY wealthy.

Two police officers, a man and a woman pushed their way through the seated crowd, and asked me if I was okay, and what happened. I told them I didn't really know what happened. The Shouting Man was still shouting and refusing to leave the auditorium when they asked him to. When I made another reply to the Shouting Man's shouting, the female officer asked both of us to step outside the auditorium. I immediately got up and went with her, leaving the male officer and the Shouting Man to follow.

The officer pulled me away from the Shouting Man, who was still arguing, and I was replying. She was firm about the rules of engagement. She told me I could not use my sign to stop him, and that he could shout as much as he wanted and I could not interfere with his shouting. After just a few minutes, she said if we could agree to stay out of each other's way, we could go back in to our seats beside each other. We both agreed to stay out of each other's way, but neither of us would change seats. I guess we are both stubborn idiots.

As we resumed our seats, a woman asked me HOW I was allowed to come back in! I said to her, "We BOTH were." A gray haired lady two rows up with a small sign that said simply,

CARE FOR EVERYONE

turned around in her chair and smiled at me. She kept asking me throughout the rest of the meeting if I was okay. I said yes, and it was a good thing because I'd never get a doctor in this town again.

The craziest thing about it is.....there were so many people on both sides of the aisle who asked me if I was okay after my fall.

There were smiles and even hugs from total strangers. Dr. Haupt stopped me and asked if I was hurt. Several friends who I didn't see at first caught my eye and smiled and gave me a thumbs-up.

One young man said, "you're just passionate!" He gave me a hug, and I accepted it. I limped out of the auditorium.

In the hallway, another large man stopped me and said, "I don't agree with you, but I want to appologize for what happened in there. It wasn't right."

I said. "I just want everyone to be taken care of....I want us to all get along." I'm afraid with the current media and entrenched political system we are constantly pitted against each other. And I fell right into it.

Clark Reike was right. I'm not a very good pacifist.

As to the meeting itself, I was really impressed with Dave Loebsack and his staff.

He maintained his cool, invited the disagreement.

He said it was okay even if we were brought to the meeting by emails from our respective specail interest groups because that was the American Way.

He accepted both boos and cheers and a standing ovation from his supporters with good grace and humor.

He even allowed my Heckelers Buddy next to me to continue heckling him through the rest of the meeting.

The questions were selected from the basket AT RANDOM by members of the audience. There were questions and statements from both sides of the disagreement.

One other thing I am certain of:

No minds were changed.

No additional information was absorbed by either side, even when it was presented rationally.

It gave people a chance to blow off steam, but not in a way to reduce the pressure on the pressure cooker.

I'm glad I went.

My daughter Natalie was proud of me. She believes in standing up for what is right. And, I do too.

"Care for Others," is right.

Party On OS!

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 12:08:34 -0400

Days are up and down. I guess that's life. I just got back from a fabulous four day vacation Colorado to chaos at home. Maybe I am over-reacting and stressing out.

I don't want to feel sorry for myself; I have a great place to live, three comparatively healthy daughters, and a passel of new friends from OS.

I just got back from Maryt's and Kevin's home in Colorado, a beautiful heavenly recreation area/spa home, complete with zip line, trampoline, climbing wall, tree house, and hot tub. Two extra buildings were lovely retreats, one Mary's study and the other a self-contained "guest house." I feel so privileged to finally meet such intelligent lovely people in person to fill out my imagination of the OS community. One thing I did know is that I would like everyone there...and I did! How often does that happen in a group of strangers? Well, maybe often when it's OSers getting together.

I easily could have spent much more time with everyone.

I learned so much. Sandra with her beautiful writing only spends twenty minutes on her blog daily. I usually spend four hours, which is why I can't post often. I think I will begin setting a timer and limit myself so I can post more often. Of course, I can spend hours and hours reading other people's blogs and commenting. The "wondering around" appeals to my ADHD personality.

Robin Sneed is so sweet and just beautiful. She always looked so strong in her pictures but she was the softest person, but with an inner strength and focus. I gave her a lift home, and had a great time. She was the biggest surprise to me.

Just Cathy and Maryt are sisters, and are my favorite blonds, along with Dynomyte. Cathy would forget something and tell us she just had a "blond" moment. I never heard of that before. Have you? I have those all of the time, and I've never been blond.

Meeting Trig and his son was like old home week for me. They live in the same section of Kansas City Kansas that I lived in years ago. TrigX is a mountain biker who takes advantage of the hills in Kansas City. He tried out in the Colorado mountains, and is dying to train there. KC hills are tame compared to Colorado. He was so sweet and seemed to have a great time, even though he was stuck with a bunch of relative oldsters.

I was so happy to meet Lauren, Pretend Farmer, and insisted that she should be called "Real Farmer," even though it's not as catchy. The fact that she doesn't make money on her farm puts her right here with the rest of the real farmers! She does lots on her farm, and is great fun at a party. I would love to have her come to my farm during the summers so she could keep farming when the weather in Arizona is unbearable.

Ruthie, Gypsie Island Girly, was another sweetheart. We both had fairly long first marriages, and have dated a little afterwards. I think she has dated more than I have. I don't know about the whole dating thing. It was good to talk to her about the changes from having money to not. It is pretty hard to adjust.

Later I'll finish the "party" post and include impressions of the other wonderful OSers, and my pictures when I figure out how to download them again.

I've spent my alloted time, and my brain is starting to sieze up from sitting in one place. I have to go outside and work my muscles. Later I get to take the peaches I brought back from Colorado over to Tom so he and Wendy can can peaches. Get it can can?? Oh boy, I am done. Bye.

Inside Our Broken Healthcare

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:07:14 -0400

We need health care reform, not because of politics, but because of what our current system has done to health care.

I watched this situation develop from the inside for the last thirty-five years. Doctors and corporations juggle and manipulate the system, using the laws to create more personal income. They buy medical equipment and hospitals because the law no longer prohibits the “conflict of interest.”

The care of people takes a second seat to Medicare Reimbursement.

Insurance companies dictate tests done, length of hospital stays, who will be served.

The number of malpractice “lottery” suits explodes.

Major health care claims are denied for any reason possible. Congress heard sworn testimony on this years ago!

If changes come, they effect me personally, reducing my income.

If no change comes will effect everyone. This system bankrupts both individuals and government.

I don’t blame health care practitioners. I blame Congress for creating this flawed system.

A new Health Care Plan must be OUR PLAN, not Obama’s plan.

We must demand meaningful change, either one-payer, or government-option healthcare.

Please, tell your Representatives and Senators to quit bickering and PASS meaningful reform.

It is a matter of life and death.

I AM ANGRY: Health Care Reform NOW

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:07:55 -0400

Letter to My Family, and all Conservative, Liberal, and Indifferent Americans:

I personally am committed to health care reform, not because of politics, but because I see what our current system has done to health care.

Please LOOK at it rationally from your own experience.

Remember when we rarely went to the doctor, or took prescription drugs?

Remember when having a baby cost less than $50,000?

Remember when doctors made a good living, but still did not routinely buy million dollar mansions?

Remember when nurses were reliably employed, but were not given a $20,000 signing bonus as they have been here in the last few years?

Do you ever remember a time when drug companies had a 'down' year? When pharmaceutical salesmen didn't make a lot of money? When health insurance companies had trouble making money?

Do you remember when medical equipment salesmen didn't wine and dine doctors, paying for expensive trips, endless cocktails, fancy dinners?

Do you remember when our health care was one of the best in the world?

Our health care costs are now the highest in the world.
Our health care results are 17th in the world.
We have the highest rate of obesity.
One of the highest rates of infant mortality.

Cassie and I LOSE MY Cobra HEALTH INSURANCE ON AUGUST 31st. What are we losing? The right to pay "co-pays" that are higher than the whole doctor's visit used to cost? The right to line the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies with $150 "co-pay" while the insurance company pays the other $800 per month for FOUR prescriptions for a healthy twenty-five year old, two allergy medications and two antidepressants.

Is this making us either healthier or happier?

NO. NO. NO.

No wonder we are depressed!

I AM ANGRY. This insurance system is a no-win system built to escalate costs for US and raise payments to the health care industry. It will not stop until we say “uncle.”

We THE PEOPLE have to say ENOUGH. We need to take back our power and make this government OF the People, BY the People, and FOR the People.

Tell your Representatives and Senators to get off their fat arses and PASS meaningful reform. If we can find the money for War and Billion Dollar Bailouts, we can find the money for Health Care.

I want the SAME coverage Government Employees have for the same reasonable price.

I want it now.

Thank you.

Carol V Berg