(P1) Poetical
New Books by Edward Coletti
Between Trellis and Glass
(dPress - Sebastopol - May 2006)
Chapbook of animal poems.
$8.
(Coming Soon)
Bringing Home the Bones
(dPress - Sebastopol - June 2006)
Epic length multimedia poetry book about war, death, closure, superstition, and families.
Copiously illustrated by Jonathan Allen
$14.
thawts - Selected Poems of Edward Coletti (second edition May 2006)
(PoetWorks Press - May 2006)
This is the second edition of Coletti's 2000 book of selected poems.
$19.
Order any or all now online either by comment below or by email to edcoletti@sbcglobal.net. I'll inscribe a copy for you and trust you for your check.
(P2) Political
Regarding "The Greatest Nation on Earth"
I believe it was conservative snot nosed commentator Tucker Carlson, who, after the usual "America's the greatest country in the world," asked "Have you been to Europe lately?"
How many of you have been to Europe or Japan recently? How did you feel about the Autostrade of Italy or the Autobahns of Germany? Were you surprised with the upkeep, the lack of potholes, the roadworthiness allowing speed? Did you enjoy being able to pay at machines with credit cards and have the machines say "Grazie?" What of the food, the design, the art, the fashion, the way of life? And above all, how about that healthcare! So when we glibly refer to ourselves as "the greatest nation on earth," let's also do some thinking about it before we lapse into the mere jingoism of certain fundamentalist religions that believe the United States is foreordained by God to do no wrong. Let's not even consider the greatest present obvious wrong - the Iraq war lie - that even the Reverend Moon - who encouraged "divine deception" in the interest of his cult - might blush at.
No, let's look at the state of our healthcare. Here are a few interesting blurbs from Paul Krugman's May 7th column:
"Is being an American bad for your health? That's the apparent implication of a study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"It's not news that something is very wrong with the state of America's health. International comparisons show that the United States has achieved a sort of inverse miracle: We spend much more per person on health care than any other nation, yet we have lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than Canada, Japan and most of Europe...
"...the study concludes that 'Americans are much sicker than the English.' For example, middle -age Americans are twice as likely to suffer from diabetes as their English counterparts. That's a striking finding in itself.
"What's even more striking is that being American seems to damage your health regardless of your race and social class...
"...other possibility is that Americans work too hard and experience too much stress. Full-time American workers work, on average, about 46 weeks per year; full time British, French and German workers work only 41 weeks a year...our workaholic economy is actually more destructive of the 'family values' we claim to honor than the European economies in which regulations and union power have led to shorter working hours.
"Maybe overwork, together with the stress of living in an economy with a minimal social safety net, damages our health as well as our families. These are just suggestions. What we know for sure is that although the American way of life may be, as Ari Fleischer famously proclaimed back in 2001, 'a blessed one,' there's something about that way of life that is seriously bad for our health."
(P3) Philosophical
Better Than the Alternative
My sister just reminded me that, in the midst of trouble, our mother and her mother used to maintain, "But you know, it only happens to the living."
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3 comments:
There is an AP story out today (5/9) on infant deaths. Worldwide, 4 million die in the first month, half in the first 24 hrs. In what was referred to as the industrialized world, Japan had the lowest newborn mortality rate at 1.8 per 1,000. Next down the line were Czech Rep., Finland, Iceland and Norway. Tied for next to the worst in the category is "the greatest country on Earth" with 5 in 1000. The USA is in the same statistical bracket with other leading Western powerhouses - Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia. Only Latvia scores worse. I guess one can always retort, "You think it's bad here? Go live in Latvia and see how you like it!"
I have mentioned on this weblog before that to see the US in a true light, one should live in another country for awhile. I wouldn't recommend Latvia, but as you said, Ed, any Western European country will do. Japan also, but I think Japan would be hard work. Great for a visit, though, if you can afford it. Talk about clean.
I saw Rep. Harrison Ford, Jr. (D - Tenn) on TV yesterday. He's running for the Senate, but I'd probably vote for him for president. I'm jumping to conclusions here, but I'll research him some more.
Are you aware of this?
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3791081
--
(If this doesn't work as a link, know that it refers to a bunker blaster bomb test to take place in the Nevada desert shortly, and that the name of the test is "Divine Strake." Further it mentions numerous other Bush project(s) with religious names like "Divine Warhawk." I'll attempt to include the article in a future post. ejc)
"We have to understand that the way we treat Iraqis has a direct effect on the number of insurgents that we are fighting. For every one that I kill, I create almost 10 more."
Peter Chiarelli, the U.S. commander in charge of day-to-day military operations in Iraq
Rich,
Thanks, Rich. Good stuff. I'll use it. Yes I knew about the test.
I also need to let you know that someone who was very close to me, as well as her 3 kids, were born in Southern Utah. She had Ovarian Cancer; the oldest daughter has Grave's disease; the younger daughter, at 13 had Papillary Carcinoma of Thyroid Origin, beat it, and now has Systemic Scleroderma. By the way, when the elder daughter was in 3rd grade, they took her class to Salt Lake to have their thyroids tested due to the strontium 90 in the grass that the milk cows ate.
...and some people sometimes wonder if I'm too "political."
Ed
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