Loving service meets Social Justice

High Blood Pressure? Normal Blood Pressure? Either Way, Get Some Indebtol Today!

2009-10-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

You have heard lots from the doctors, the Discovery channel, etc about blood pressure...

But why listen to them when you get free information right here, from your respected, un-biased educational source, Get Rich Quick Pharmaceuticals (GRQP).

Beta-blockers are a class of medicines designed to lower blood pressure, with names like Metoprolol, Atenolol, and Propanolol. (More on beta blockers here )

But none of these also promise to lower life savings, lower your chances of being able to afford food, pay your rent, or keep the lights on. This is where GRQP's new miracle drug comes in

INDEBTOL

A 2 for 1 deal - will lower your blood pressure and chances of avoiding bankruptcy at the same time!

An extra strength drug packaged in fancy wrapping, with a tablet that you can order in any of your favorite 64 colors (a collaboration we worked out with the Crayola 64 crayons box...limited quantities of "midnight blue," "sienna," and "indian red", fyi).

Does it do anything more for your blood pressure than the other beta blockers? Heck no - in fact we aren't really sure if it works, but what we can tell you is that it is priced a good 300 to 400 times higher than its older counterparts.

Please, please listen to us, support our stock by putting your life in the hands of Indebtol today. We promise that we are trustable. Don't believe us? Ask your U.S. Senators and Congresswoman/men - we have lunch with them often and help them make decisions about health care policy that are for the "good" of the American people...

My Neli lady and me

2009-05-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

As Creator would have it, my Neli lady (paternal grandmother) passed into the next world today. She loved me and I loved her. I do wish that I got to spend more time with her in this life, but know that she is shining down upon me from above! We love you grandmom!

Shima sana and me

2009-05-09T23:29:00.000-07:00

I am about three months old here, in the loving arms of my shima sana (Navajo for grandmother)

Riding in the cart, big girl style!

2009-05-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

One of the things that makes me happiest in life is to saddle up in a shopping cart, where I get to people watch, grab at things we pass, and wink at the cute boys (only those in the 1-2 year old range, since the little ones are not mature enough for me).

Lovin' life!

2009-05-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

I am always giving thanks, the best way a baby knows how...laughing, giggling, and reminding everyone around me that each moment is a blessing!

Growling at the hippo (while the doc takes her good ole' time)

2009-05-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

Little did I realize that they left me in this exam room with a scary monstor-like creature...no wonder mommy ran out of the room screaming for help. Don't worry, I gave this creature a little talk to, a nice baby growl, and had no trouble from him (notice his smile in this picture!)

Taking you back to the 2 month stage

2009-05-09T23:13:00.000-07:00

I learned this one from watching daddy play bball...also from watching mommy's reaction to dad when he leaves dirty dishes/clothes around the house

Learning to drive

2009-05-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Riding into the sunset with Mr. Gorilla. Now I need to get my hands on the real keys so I take mommy's ride out for a spin!

Cowgirl!

2009-05-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

Ready to jump on the horse and giddy-up (away from this crazy man who I call dadda

My Pilgrimage to the Wall

2009-02-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

For some, life's ultimate pilgrimage is to the Great Wall of China...for others it is the Weeping Wall in Jerusalem...and for others educated about world history in U.S. public schools, it is to go see Wall-E at the local theatre. All of which are nobel quests, but I want to submit another great shrine for your consideration, a wall that all PharmFree activists should one day visit. I am standing here in L.A. with Dr. Jeffrey Caren, the artist-cardiologist whose "wall o' pens" has been featured in articles such as the recent NYT piece. I hitch-hiked over 1000 miles (via airplane), then traversed harsh terrains (L.A. freeway) in the most rugged of transport vehicles (economy rental car) to get to this PharmFree Promised Land, but it was worth it. I wept, I cried, and reached for a drug-company tissue box, at which point Dr. Caren sat me down, consoled me, and explained that generic tissues had better safety ratings and equivalent efficacy to the ones I was using...as I left the office, I could not help but notice a smaller display. a box of drug samples in a clear-glass enclosed display. Through my teary eyes, I peered closer, and saw that they were Viagra samples, with a larger inscription over them that read, "In case of emergency, break glass." My pilgrimage had come to a fitting end!

Change has finally come!

2009-01-31T08:34:00.000-08:00

Finally, change in the White House. I think we can all agree that to have Obama in as our country's leader is a much-needed change, something that people like me thought would never happen....of course, I am referring to breaking down the barriers that so divide our country at times, with right-handed individuals conspiring to keep us lefties out of power.

Some say that this election was about race, but I think those might be right-handers talking, trying to distract us from the real issues (the media, by the way, is controlled by right-handed, power-hungry sharks).

Yes, I am sure the bigoted amongst us, the die hard NRA members, and those believing in America as GOD's only begotten son are a little disappointed as well, seeing their hero wither away with a last speech at an exclusive country-club in AZ, fitting well with his message of being there to support all Americans...but I will tell you who is really weeping today - it is those whose left hands are limited to functions like "holding a steering wheel" and "supporting body weight when falling to the ground"...yes, those not able to write, throw, swing, or fold laundry with their left hands are the real losers in this election.

All of this post is 100% true. Don't believe me? check out Lefties for Obama (leftiesforobama.com)

I am a left-hander, and I do support this message. Peace!

The Power of Youth - NACA Students "Tag" for respect

2009-01-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

I had the honor to see youth at the Native American Community Academy (NACA) in Albuquerque as they put their graffiti talents to use with this wall-sized "tag" of the word RESPECT on their school's bathroom walls. They came together, disappointed by the vandalism on their bathroom walls, and decided to put their art talents to work. They are tagging the word respect, one of NACA's core values, as a team of 6. They see this as a way to beautify their school, and they hope to inspire young ladies at the school to do the same with the women's bathroom. In their words:

"The project was mainly brought together to stop the vandalism in the restroom. But as the project excelled it brought out the expression and determination by our NACA youth.
So, our team wants our youth to realize that instead of graffiti they could of help out our community. "

Of note, the youth, who call themselves SPAZZER (Super Popular Artists Zip Zap Expression Recipe)applied for, and won, a Native Health Initiative "Youth Leading the Way" grant to fund the supplies for this work, and they will present on MLK's Holiday at the MLK Multicultural Celebration here in ABQ, explaining this project. SPAZZER is comprised of the following students: Nick Felipe, Seth Daw, Vaughn Stands, Shyen Casamero, Nathanial Haskie, and Xavier. Olu Abosede, a mentor of theirs at NACA, has been instrumental in supporting the students' dream to use graffiti art to bring RESPECT to themselves and their school community. Let us never forget to see the power of youth to heal this world!

Tis the Season for Santa and Pharma!

2008-12-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

Case story #54 on the Pharmaceuticalization of America

Seemed like an innocent offer - a free sit on Santa's lap, and my little girl's first time to see the big ole' jolly man. But my jolliness turned to gloom as I signed in, and saw what the church had chosen for their writing utensils. I looked around to see if there were boxes of free samples, maybe an attractive drug rep posing as one of "santa's helpers" but it was just the pens. Next year, maybe there will be a more elaborate set-up...maybe while you are sitting on Santa's lap, instead of asking him for gifts, he will be giving the little ones a quick questionare to see if they meet criteria for ADHD (i.e. "Have you ever been in a hyperactive state for 3 seconds or longer?") or Dependent Personality Syndrome (i.e. "Do you depend on your mother to feed you?"). And I am sure that on Santa's lap, Happiness Syndrome would be quite prevalent, indicating a dire need for strong medicine, immediately!

Big PhRMA, coming to a Santa's lap near you!

A pearl for healthcare policy from an unlikely source...

2008-10-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

In this week's sound bites over the continuing dilemma of how to fix our most immediate issues surrounding money (not to be confused with what I feel is our most important issue needing to be addressed in this realm - GREED and the culture that spews, cultivates, and perpetuates it), our fearless and clueless dictator spewed something that I found to be quite profound...don't worry, he did not understand what we was saying, so we cannot give him full credit for its profundity. Speaking of the new bailout plan he said,

"[This is] not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it."

What a beautiful statement for a logical, sane, equitable, and efficient way to do healthcare - a national health plan. As in a single-payer system in which profit motives and perverse profit incentives no longer drive the care that is given and that which is with-held.

A single-payer solution to the quagmire that is our current, default national health plan -

Don't get sick, and if you do, remember that the only place where you won't get a door slammed in your face due to billing and insurance issues is the local emergency room

It is not an issue of taking over healthcare's free market so valued by the AMA, PhRMA, Insurance companies, hospital associations, and co-conspirators in the HIC (Health Industrial Complex). Instead, it is a move to preserve healthcare and the free market that supports it in the U.S., starting with the greater than 50% of dollars that come from public funds.

As a physician, I support a single-payer health plan because I see it as the clearest way to preserve the ethical and moral principles of the healing arts, and to do so in a way that saves us money while restoring these higher ideals back to the individual and collective healer-patient relationship

...no more 50 million left out in the cold, while three-piece-suited CEOs strike up conversation inside over what preventive health service to stop reimbursing next
...no more economics language where everyone is reduced to either "clients", "consumers," "purchasers," "payers" or "providers" of healthcare
...no more out-spending the rest of the world and having little to show for it except for high administrative costs and ridiculous wealth being raked in at the top
...no more "you deserve as much healthcare as you can pay for" and the other dehumanizing elements that ultimately lead to sicker lives and quicker deaths, reducing people and their healthcare to a commodity

I say, and probably for the first time on-record, yes to G.W...we need a drastic shift in how we see, operate, think about, and fund healthcare. Not to take it over, but to take it back, to preserve it, to put in place a logical systeming of rationing of what we spend and where we spend it to replace the current-day illogical, greed-based system of rationing that is 100% about dollars and 0% about the health of those residing in our country.

In health and beauty,
Anthony
Un-paid, self-appointed lobbyist for my patients

The beautiful feather...

2008-10-19T22:56:00.000-07:00

This Eagle feather, which hangs above the bed, fell into Nizhoni's lap, with mom finding her as you see in the picture. We had noticed her fixating on the feathers earlier, and the dropping of the feather was a way for them to greet her in return...Creator speaks in mysterious and beautiful ways!

Blessing in the water

2008-09-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

Here, I am with my dad and mom at the Taos Pueblo, set against the beautiful mountains of northern New Mexico. In this Tribe, newborn babies are taken to this stream in the middle of the village, and the water is used to bless the baby. My dad performed the ceremony, and though the water was a little cold for my liking, I did feel a sense of harmony and peace as the water touched me.

Beauty is born into the world!

2008-08-04T23:03:00.000-07:00

Nizhoni Rose Fleg, born 3:36am on August 4th

Nizhoni = "beauty" in Dine/Navajo language

Rose = her grandmother's and great grandmother's name

Update (as of 18 hours of life)

- knows most of her ABCs

- working on simple algebra

- learning to breakdance

- not yet dating (per parental rules)

Otherwise, doing the normal things of an almost 1 day old!

Seeing a little one emerge into this world is something truly amazing, breathtaking, awe-inspiring, gratitude-inducing...powerful medicine for the soul, and profound reminder to us of God's presence amongst us.

And my first trick that I am going to teach her, once we leave the hospital

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBSYD0dQCAw

The way we (continue) to tell the story of America's past: ignorant at best, racist for sure

2008-07-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

I recently visited Santa Fe, a small town in northen New Mexico whose economy is heavily tied to the rich Indigenous heritage of the land. This is a community, possibly more than any other in the U.S., which appears to treasure and honor American Indians, their art and culture. From paintings to sculptures, breathtaking beadwork to elaborate silver jewelry, and an array of turquoise art, Santa Fe's shops and galleries collectively form a museum of Indigenous craftsmanship. Of course, the city also profits heavily off of the labor of Native artisans, as most of the pieces in Santa Fe are sold by non-native vendors at incredible mark-up from what was payed to the artist, at prices that the wealthy tourists in the town will pay.

Thus, it is a place where "homage to Native culture" and "exploitation of Native culture" are often hard to tease apart. There was one shop in the town's downtown district that heightened my concern - amidst some of the most beautiful (and expensive) Indigenous jewelry and decorative pottery I have ever seen, on the way out of the shop, I noticed the good ole' "dress up Indian" rack. $5 packages of feathers, headresses, tomahawks, etc. so that little Jimmy and Sally could play dress-up while mommy and daddy "honored" Indigenous artisans by buying a $3,000 necklace.

...I then went to the New Mexico History Museum, in the hallowed Palace of the Governers in the town's main square, and was greeted in the entrance with a plaque that introduces visitors to the history of this land. Interestingly, the prominance of American Indians in the rest of the town's shops was apparently not contagious, as this sign spoke nothing of the Pueblos and Zuni's whose land this was. In fact, the only mention of Indigenous peoples in this plaque was by a curious title - HOSTILE INDIANS. I wondered if this was, perhaps, a Tribe I have never heard of? The Hostile Indian Nation? Here are the three references to the land's first peoples, quoted exactly:

New Mexico, a part of the new nation, was expected to protect Mexico's interior from foreigners and hostile Indians.

HOSTILE INDIANS WERE THE GREATEST THREAT to communities. Disruptive raids caused the abandonment of numerous small frontier settlements.

Attempts to stop hostile Indians so depleted the treasury that it was often impossible to provide arms for the settlers.

I think the sheet ignorance and racism here speaks for itself, but I will comment briefly.

First, this is the third time in the last 6 months where I have seen similarly barbaric and dehumanizing depictions of American Indians in places where I would expect better, the national park of Sabino Canyon and Mt. Ranier being the other two. So, shrugging this off as an incidental finding, as opposed to an indictment of how we continue to tell the story of our land and its history, is a bit difficult.

Second, I can only laugh at this notion that American Indians sole contribution to this land was to stand in the way of the good, Christian Europeans who were trying to make themselves a home. Forget telling the 10,000+ year history of what happened before Europeans graced the land...forget thinking about the "disruptive raids" of the colonizers into Native communities. Instead, we'll focus on the way that the barbaric Indians stood as a hindrance and barrier to European development (with amnesia to the reality of how the annihilation of Indigenous communities might have stood as a slight hindrance to their own development). How can we continue to tell such a fairy tale version of our history and what does this say about our collective conscience as a nation in terms of our ability to accept the dark truths about the founding of this land?

Finally, a question for all of us - When we continue to tell our history this way, where all of the pre-European millenia are tidied into one paragraph called "the prehistoric time," with the next sentence beginning with a description of how peoples of this land stood as a disruption to the proud mission of civilizing the primitive land (a.k.a. colonization and genocide), how can we expect this same society to treat American Indians humanely, with some sense of dignity or humanity?

If a stranger were to come to this land and stand there at the entrance of the New Mexico History Museum reading this plaque, what condition would we she expect to find today's descendents of these "hostile Indians"? In poverty? Treated as less than fully American, less than fully human?Banished to barren lands without proper infrastructure for water, electricity, health care, and jobs? Or, equally devastating, suffering from the same as invisible wanderers in America's cities?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The way we tell our history says a lot about who we are - until we re-write the story of our nation's past, we surely won't right the wrongs of the present.

In sadness and hope,
Anthony

p.s. not to be hypocritical, I will now begin writing my letter of discontent to the museum and our local papers.

Happy Interdependence Day!

2008-07-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Writing in the last minutes of July 4th - INTERDEPENDENCE Day, 2008.

As the fireworks fade, I think about the greatness of America.

Does it lie in our ability to exert our will over all other nations, or does it lie in being willing to do our small part in bringing nations together to save this planet and put an end to violence and war?

Does America's greatness lie in our ability to occupy, to invade, to devastate other lands...or does it lie in developing an occupation, a fascination with peacemaking.

Does our greatness lie in thinking that we are the critical central piece holding the world together, or does it lie in being humble enough to see that we are just one small piece in the larger puzzle that is the global community.

Celebrate Inter-depedence day...
recognizing the work we have to do in lowering our nation's ego to half-mast (a solemn tribute and "goodbye" to the bull-headed arrogance that led us, for instance, to the delusion that bulldozing our way through foreign lands in the name of national security in order to exponentially increase profits for our impoverished oil tycoons is good foreign policy).

understanding that, like the fireworks of tonight, an existence based on boasting of our superiority will quickly fade away from its initial brilliance, becoming nothing more than smoke in the sky.

believing that love, generosity, kindness, and the principles of equity and justice can be the foundation for our interactions with the world, with soul power replacing military power
as the ticket to national security.

The question is not nonviolence vs. violence. It is nonviolence vs. nonexistence.

Happy Interdependence Day!!!!!

A promise to love

2008-06-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

As I take the leap off the cliff into my family medicine residency at UNM, now adorned with letters behind my name, I think about how important it is to stay grounded in the principles of love, caring, generosity, and justice.

How will I, in those sleep-deprived moments/minutes/months be the physician I would want caring for my family, my loved ones...or for myself?

When comments are made about patients and their families, how will I steer clear of denegrating and de-humanizing their foibles?

How will I adhere to principles of health as a human right amidst a system that denies coverage and care to so many?

I thought I would start to answer these questions by a simple act of proactivism, declaring what I stand for, and not waiting for things to happen so that I can declare what I am against.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am a human - I will make mistakes, and I will humbly accept these mistakes, trying to learn from each and every one so that I can be a better healer in the future

I also believe in my humanity in the sense that I will not be afraid to feel, to cry, to laugh, to suffer with, to empathize, to experience life, death, sickness, healing, and health with my patients and colleagues.

I will take time to recognize the gift that each and every patient I see has given me, and will honor this gift through the highest moral and ethical standards by which I will conduct myself.

I believe in, and will use, the healing power of laughter, prayer, clown noses, farting, etc. etc.

I will maintain my PharmFree stance, taking no gifts from industry that would fracture the sacred trust held between my patients and me.

I will take time to let others around me know that their work is special, and that they are special.

I do believe that it takes everyone to create a place in which healing takes place - accordingly, I will never let the letter behind my name trick me into thinking that I am any better, higher, smarter, or more gifted than those around me; instead, I will seek to see the wonderful ways in which all of us work for the good of the patients who come to UNM.

I most certainly believe that health and health care is a human right, and will do all in my power to work for changes in the system to move us closer to that reality. On a personal level, I vow never to turn a person away because of their ability to pay.

I will love my work, my profession, my patients...I will love life, staying spiritually grounded in the gift of each new day.

I will honor my body, mind and spirit through this process - staying physically fit, keeping a connection to Creator through prayer and mindfulness, and rejuvinating the soul through hikes into the mountains, bike rides by the river, and lots of adventures.

I will honor the family that supports me, making my wife and baby first priority when I am away from the hospital. I will not let work become an excuse for not being there for them, nor will I let distance be an excuse to lose touch with my family in MD, CO, AZ, etc.

Amen.

The meaning of "miracle"

2008-06-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

We were in the waiting room of the hospital, myself and 30 of my Navajo family. Grandma Mae, a beautiful 87 year old grandmother of ours, had just gone through open heart surgery after presenting with severe blockage of the coronary artery that supplies the left side of the heart.

In the Navajo way, family comes together in big ways at times like these, and at this moment, we had claimed this land as ours (socio-political pun intended), taking over the ICU waiting room and adjacent hallway.

We got to praying, under the direction of Grandpa Eddie and the elders, and I got to thinking about the miracles of this day...

Yes, it was a miracle that Grandma made it to the hospital, that that last bit of open space remained, allowing life-sustaining bloodflow to the heart.

Yes, it was a miracle that she survived such an intense surgery, and would be able to get back to days of herding sheep and teaching humility to all in her presence

But there was more in this day's lesson.

Each moment's breath that gives us oxygen to sustain the fragile thing called life...

Each moment's electrical impulses that allow brain and heart to function in a coordinated manner, organizing billions of cells for a purpose

Each moment's gift of the sight, with all that it takes in nerves, muscles, vessels, and tissues of the eye just to allow us to see (..and how quickly we could lose this ability if one of the multitude of parts were to fail)

And each night's journey into the Creator's Hands, as we literally and figuratively give our lives over to Hand's Higher as we fall asleep, with no promise, and certainly no human ability, to wake to see another day.

We need not be 87 or 67 or 37 years old to see that miracles are happening around us constantly.

Acknowledging these miracles is the hard part.

Seeing and appreciating the miracles of life has little to do with what happens to us, and has everything to do with where we are spiritually.

So, let us take a moment to listen to the breath, to put a hand over the heart's steady rhythm of life, to notice the gift of sight...

And to take the first moment of each new day as the MIRACLE it is, and to live that day accordingly, in gratitude, with humility, and with a passion for healing our families, our communities, and our planet.

Ahe 'eeh,
Ahe 'eeh shi Diyin God,
Ahe 'eeh,
Hastiin Ba Hozhooni

{Translation from Navajo:
Thank you,
Thank you Creator,
Thank you,
The Man Who Smiles Much}

Allegre D - Wiping the smiles away, once bank account at a time!

2008-04-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

How are you today?

If you are like many Americans, you may answer this with a positive answer - "doing well", "loving life", etc....this is a grave warning sign that you might be suffering needlessly!

And in answering this question, you might even crack a smile and exhibit what we at Good Living Upliftment Covert Kommodity (GLUCK) Pharmaceuticals call "signs and symptoms of behavioral adaptations toward a positive metaphysical response." (e.g. happiness)

Yes, we know this is very complex stuff, so let us break it down, Smurf style:

Of the Smurfs, you may have noticed the one that stuck out as completely dysfunctional, unable to perform his Smurf duties, or even to have the wherewithal to help Pappa Smurf with emotional support as a single-father - Yup! Happy Smurf! We can all agree that Lazy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Handsome Smurf and their siblings all clearly outperformed Happy when it came to Darwinian fitness, largely because they did not suffer from happiness as he did.

(For a quick re-fresher on the entire Smurfdom, see

http://bluebuddies.com/help/smurf_names_and_list_of_the_smurfs.htm#who)

Which surepticiously brings us, the GLUCK family, to our point.

Happiness is something that has been pushed upon us through the evil plots of the makers of children's cartoons, makers of greeting cards, Santa Claus, and a host of NGOs too numerous to list here. It has become the epidemic of the 21st century, with an estimated 262,386,432 Americans affected (source: unpublished industry data)

And like Happy Smurf, these millions upon millions are finding it hard to function in life, which unlike the comforting world that incubated the Smurfs, is a cold, crass, and cruel environment in which to live.

GLUCK has a (culturally and linguistically-competent) solution called Allegre D, a revolutionary drug that will turn that smile into a frown, one that will make your lightheartedness fade quicker than a Smurf who sees Gargamel. This drug is re-inventing what it means to be human, and liberating humanity from its captivity to happiness.

Allegre D is a revolutionary drug, the first in a class called SSREs - Selective Serotonin Reuptake Enhancers - making sure that the serotonin (or as we call it at GLUCK, ""the awful, awful, horrible, nasty, toxic neurotransmitter") is ridded from the synapses of your nervous system.

This drug, when taken as part of a healthy diet of glum-ness, sorrow, and incidental horrific life experiences, has been shown (in left-handed lab mice lacking a frontal lobe of the brain) to decrease symptoms of happiness in over 98% (of those willing to take it at a neurotoxic IV dose)

Allegre D can do the same for you!

Please send check and money order to GLUCK today, for an easy payment of $349.99 (to be repeated weekly), and we will promise you that your sunny, smiley, beautiful days of suffering
are over.

So the next time you feel a smile coming on, think about
Allegre D - it stands for Allegre (Happy) Detox, and it will do just that, detoxing you system, one nueron at a time, and restoring you to those days when all you will want to do is cry, scoff, frown, fret, fart, etc.

*As with all medications, please ask your doctor is medical advice from a pharmaceutical ad is right for you *

* Do not consume Allegre D with SSRI's - this has been shown to cause catatonia due to the clashing of these two molecules at the nueronal synapse. Also, do not consume with sushi, lettuce, salt, graham crackers, ice cream, cooked meat, uncooked meat, mandarin oranges, or other foods known to elicit feelings of happiness.

* If you have any positive things happening in your life, we encourage immediate discontinuing of such activities before beginning Allegre D for optimal results

* And if you can't afford Allegre D, we have a great "Helping Patients Frown" assitance program, which will allow you to get one pill free, and will then automatically take payments for ensuing pills out of your children's college funds or your house mortgage, whichever is deemed to be the route of monetary extraction that will inflict the most pain (e.g. be most opposite to happiness)

The Purple Jellybean - powerful medicine!

2008-04-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to spend Easter on call, and it was very interesting how, here in the ICU, no one acknowledged that this was a holiday for the rest of the world. I did my best to wish families and patients a Happy Easter, but felt somewhat uncomfortable doing so, as no one else on the medical team wanted this to enter into "the serious business of healing." One patient, after the team had left, felt comfortable telling me that what she really wanted on this Easter was a purple jellybean to eat. Luckily, she was one of the few patients in the ICU who was allowed to eat, and I then trecked to see if I could find the purplish treat...I also started coming up with my story, so that when I was asked, I could convince my superiors that this was really a powerful medicine I was delivering.

"What is that you are bringing to room 16?"
(a beautiful exhibition of the inability to refer to patients as humans...they are either known by their disease, their room number, and if they have an impressive enough case, maybe just by an organ..."the liver over there")
"Uh, yeah, this is the noon dose of the antibiotics she is on."
"You mean, the Jelly Belly brand of antibiotics, since that is what is plastered on the side of the pills?"
"I guess the Jellybean industry is as cutthroat as the Pharmaceutical industry, and have decided to place ads on prescription meds" (mumbled as I walk away)

Well, I found a purple jellybean, delivered it without incidence, and was met with such a great smile that I quickly thought back to common sense medicine (which is not taught in medical school), which suggests that if a small dose is effective in bringing healing, then a larger dose is indicated...so, a little while later, after going through the stash of jellybeans I had found, picking out the purple ones, I had a nice little cup of "medicine" to deliver...and indeed, common sense medicine held true - her smile was just a bit bigger this time, and I even got a positive "laugh sign" on my physical exam!

A good reminder to myself that, as a healer, I can
cure occassionally,
heal often,
and comfort always

Also a reminder that when suffocated with seriousness, a random act of kindness is good medicine for all.

PEACE - IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

2008-03-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

As our community feels the painful consequences of violence, with an un-identified 16 year-old and UNC senior Eve Carson both being shot walking distance from UNC’s tree-lined, picturesque campus, it puts an added perspective on the 5-year anniversary of the violence of the Iraq war. As much as we are hurting, this day reminds us of violent deaths numbering more than 100,000, each of which leaves a family, a community suffering and grieving.

This is a day that implores us, those who have come face-to-face with violence in our community, to become champions for peace, to advocate for another way of being toward our neighbor, our community, our fellow nations, and the planet that is struggling to support us.
I turn to two humble examples of the drive for peaceful, loving, trusting, equitable world that we all seek, expecting that their stories will inspire us to make peace the way of our hearts and lives.

The Peace Club at Chapel Hill High School
Sarah Jane Kerwin is a young woman who embraces being a little different. A freshman at Chapel Hill High School, she is troubled by the violence she sees around her. “It begins long before nations begin fight other nations...it is in the language we use, the racial and homophobic slurs around us, and the bullying we see in schools.” Sarah and fellow freshman Marina Ramos-Pezzati formed the Peace Club at their high school, advertising around the school with bottle tops turned into vestiges for peace, adorned with signs and phrases of peace (see photo). Says Sarah, “I knew that other students cared about peace. I simply decided that instead of waiting for them to find me, I would find them.”

Little more than six months old, the Peace Club, under the tutelage of world history Corey Waters, has decided that embracing and cultivating a culture of peaceful relations amongst students was not enough, and instead turned their focus to working on issues of injustices, in our community and beyond. Sarah comments, “Justice and peace cannot be separated – the best peace work we can do is to better our community, one person at a time,” says Kerwin. The Peace Club, now affiliated with O Ambassadors, groups of youth working for social change through Oprah. And on April 3rd, they will be invited guests of Oprah, hoping to appear on the show itself. When asked for her vision for peace, Sarah takes a deep breath, trying to put words to her life's mission. “It is easy to say that you want peace, but it is much harder to do something about it. I think that if people would just think before they act, whether it is an offensive word they are using, a way they are destroying the environment, or how we support violence through our silence, we could make peace a reality.”

The Peace Pilgrim
The woman known as Peace Pilgrim offered the world a simple message as she hiked thousands of miles across the world: when we collectively nourish ourselves to find inner peace, our institutions will reflect that peace and war will be no more. She would not give her name or age, and would simply describe herself as coming from poverty, with little education and no special talents. “Rather, I live a guided life,” she would say.

A small woman with incredible moral and spiritual strength, she used her legs over the course of 29 years (1953-1981) to make cross-country hikes for world peace, logging over 25,000 miles. She would stop to speak the peace message, living simply and relying on others for food and shelter. When asked why war exists and how to turn it into peace, Peace Pilgrim echoed Sarah's sentiments: “The real problem is immaturity [and] the key is approaching with love and openness, rather than hatred and mistrust”. She would add that the peace needed was not simply the absence of war, but the absence of the causes of war. (Read more about her: http://www.peacepilgrim.net/)

Inspired by these two champions for peace, I know that each of us can be thermostats for peace, not thermometers that mirror the politicized ideas of what is “realistic”, and which often tell us that violence and war is necessary. Responding to the recent acts of violence in our community, I don't hear suggestions that such events are necessary, nor have I heard that label “unrealistic” given to the idea of working together toward a community where violence is not present. Yet, we accept war as “necessary”, and consider the promotion of peace (including the conditions that encourage peace) “unrealistic” as a primary means of securing our broader national community. A few of us actively promote this notion, and the rest of us accept it through our silence.

Which brings us to a good exit strategy for this piece. Find the strength that Sarah and her classmates have found…take a step toward actively becoming a peacemaker like the Peace Pilgrim. Cultivate within the peace that you wish to breathe into our community, our planet, and our world. This is the only remedy that will bring us from this discouraging moment of time where violence has increasingly taken us all hostage into a day when we – individually and collectively – know peace as the way of our world.

In health and beauty,
Anthony Fleg

HYPER-RESPONSIVENESS SYNDROME - get medicine quick!

2008-02-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

Have you ever felt something (e.g. sadness, happiness, joy, pleasure, pain, etc)?

If so, you may be one of the Americans that is suffering needlessly from what we at Superior Health-Achieving Medicines (SHAM) Pharmaceuticals call

HYPER-RESPONSIVENESS SYNDROME

I know, this may hard to take...you may even feel a wave of emotions come over you at this very moment...not to worry - a few years on our new drug, FEEL-NO-MORE (Sodium chloride dihydroxy-oxygen) at a new low cost of $130 per pill, and you will be SYMPTOM (e.g. feeling) FREE!

Please call now, and one of our SHAM representatives will be happy to listen to your story, persuade you out of lifestyle changes, and make sure that you are a "candidate" for the drug (e.g. making a 6 figure salary).

1-800-SHAM-NOW

FEEL NO MORE - Because you don't have to suffer any longer!

Side effects may include emotional numbness, inability to smile, inability to cry, blah, blah, blah...we tend to think of these as the therapeutic effect, anyway!

An experiment with Joy at the local gorcery store

2008-01-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

After a wonferfully inspiring 4 days at the Health Justice Gathering at the Gesundheit! Institute, I wondered what my next step was. Long hours of driving and a flat tire that resulted in a good three hours delay at the mecca of "monoculture of the mind" (Wal Mart) left me in state of hazy gloom.

With one stop before getting home the grocery, I began to think about the little clown nose I had in my pocket...what if.....

My experiment wth Joy:

Why was it so hard to do this? I could barely get out of my car once fitted with the red nose, completely afraid of...happiness? silliness? myself?

Once into the store, I had not made it more than 20 feet toward Aisle 1 when a gentleman shouted out,"Hey, your nose looks like mine felt last week." This started a 30 minute conversation, in the backdrop of the week's end-of-aisle special on canned snow peas. He shared lots of incredible things with me- his life as a "mentally different" person, his views of the VA healthcare system, his struggles to pay medical bills and get medications, and his Buddhist philosophy that this was one of those "events of synchronicity."

We hugged, I breathed deep, and thought to myself how nice it was to feel joy, sheer joy, long before I had started picking out my vegetables for the week.

But it didn't stop there, because right after a few awkward glances from folks amidst the greens and fruits (which is completely explainable by the fact that this is an higher-class, college town where we are to be dignified, serious, and adult-like), I heard the fish/meat worker say, "Say, is Rudolph still in town?"

Now this began another foray into the world of beautiful conversations with strangers. This man, Mr. Izel, was full of happiness and not afraid to show it. I made sure to ask him his secret tincture, in case any of my patients needed a dose of it, to which he told me it was hugging his wife and children each and every night.

After a reasonably uneventful trip through the cereal aisle and frozen foods, I made my way to the checkout line, where spontaneously four other grocers came over to help me check out, drawn to the spherical nasal appendage by some innate desire to laugh and enjoy the company of another. I insisted that my nose gave me magical powers to bag my own groceries, thus freeing them up to talk with me as I worked. I can't quite remember all of the things we laughed about, but I do remember one of them mentioning, "You look like that Patch Adams guy"

How many times have you walked out of the grocery on cloud nine (not including those days when your favorite ice cream was 50% reduced!)????

How many times have you allowed yourself to be a free-of-charge magnet for conversations, laughter, and even for those struggling with Uptightness Syndrome, an under the breath sigh of "Huh?" ?????

I invite you to try this, but not at home...in the grocery, in the department store, in he hospital, or just for an entire day (which I plan to do as experiment #2 tomorrow)

Some other reflections from this experiment:
* Children were very attracted to the nose, with an ability to smile immediately, without checking to see who was watching them as the adults did
* Again, I found it very hard to initiate the experiment, and would have continued in this state of discomfort unless someone has drawn me in, and given to me in the way that these first two gentle souls did...did they realize that they were healing me as they talked and laughed with me?
* I realized how self-conscious I was throughout the grocery adventure, and could begin to relate to what it must be like to have a deformity or to think I had a deformity, and then to have to bare it for all of the world to see...or what if I simply didn't like the way that I looked and had to live with this self-created, but quite powerful, image of everyone staring at me wherever I went?
* My actions were most sincere when I reminded myself that I was doing this to bring joy to myself, and less so when I began to get carried away with the notion that I was a "joy agent" for others

In love, with gratitude for allowing me to share,
Lovemeister

Anti-Lunesta: The first drug to disrupt restful sleep!

2007-12-13T14:54:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed the loneliness at the office lunchroom, bathroom, copier and water cooler?

Everyone else talking about their sleep disorders and the miracle pills they are taking to "cure" themselves, while you, one of the last Americans not to be diagnosed by the T.V. ads as having severe, horrific, potentially lethal sleep distrubances, are left out of the (overly) medicated social circle.

It simply isn't right!

That is why we, Sleep Psychiatry Pharmaceuticals (a non-profit, philanthropy arm of the makers of LUNESTA), have done research into the Social Isolation Syndrome in those with Normal Sleep Patterns (SIS-NSP). Our initial studies (unpublished) reveal that the 3% of Americans who are not on prescription strength sleep aids are becoming the hidden epidemic of the 21st century. These citizens face increasing social isolation due to the fact that they are left out of the conversations that their co-workers, friends, family, plumbers, and bookies are having over their various sleep maladies (again, as diagnosed by the "educational" ads on t.v.)

SIS-NSP is no joke, and that is where we decided to step in and help - ANTI LUNESTA is a drug we have recently formulated (through cheap overseas labor by a high school chemistry class in New Delhi) to solve this problem. This drug takes someone with normal sleep, and using powerful components (arsenic, Cheese Whiz) completely distrupts the hormonal patterns that lead to this condition of "restful sleep."

And the result?

Just ask Juan, a non-documented immigrant who was enrolled in a trial of ANTI-LUNESTA on the condition that he would not be deported (perfectly legal in Texas and other border countries to the U.S.A.)

"Well man, after I took one of them pills, I could not sleep for nothing. I mean I thought the torture at the hands of the immigration officials was bad, but the inability to sleep was far worse. However, immediately, I became popular in the detention center's main gang, Las Insomnias, and could finally relate to what it was like to have sleep problems. I immediately had one of my hombres smuggle me some real LUNESTA across the border from Mexico, since it was about 1/8 of the American cost for the drug. This miraculaously restored my sleep, though I must take 3 other medicines to control the side effects from these medicines. Thanks ANTI-LUNESTA! If I ever get out of here, I want to begin a non-profit to help folks just like me join the crowd of the worried well, the over-medicated masses"
{translated word for word by one of our company's "translators")

Don't suffer from SIS-NSP any longer. Go grab you a bottle of ANTI-LUNESTA and join the crowd today! And remember, once you do, go grab some of the LUNESTA that everyone else
is taking and find your way into social circles you only imagined of being a part until now!

WARNINGS: Combining ANTI-LUNESTA with any other sleep aid other than LUNESTA has been shown to cause death in 1 - 64% of patients (unpublished data from Guantanamo). Also, buying medications from across the border to restore restful sleep may result in side effects of reduced out-of-pocket expenses and decreased rates of personal bankruptcy, so we would strongly advise buying it at prohibitively high costs right here in the good ole' U-S-of-A.

World AIDS Day: An opprtunity for physicians to shout "YES" for access to medicines, "NO" for access to our integrity

2007-12-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

On World AIDS Day this year, we commemorate another embarrassing 365 days in which millions of persons with HIV/AIDS around the globe continue to lack access to the effective, life-saving medicines to treat their fatal disease. Not because the world can't afford it, and definitely not because the pharmaceutical companies are going bankrupt.

In fact, these companies continue to spend $15,000 to advertise to each practicing physicianin the U.S. in order to alter their prescribing behavior, toward more expensive, "me-too" medicines; this same amount of money could provide 50-150 AIDS patients a year's worth of drugs that could keep them alive. And despite the pharmaceutical industry's propaganda that they cannot afford to sell such medicines at affordable prices in thedeveloping world, consider this: over the past three decades, no U.S. industry has come close to achieving the profit margins of the makers of prescription drugs. Furthermore, only 11% of total sales for this industry come from the developing world, arguing against the sound bytes by PhRMA, the industry's lobbying group, that they would go broke in order to provide such treatments.

Recently, in a highly publicized case, Abbott Pharmaceuticalsdid the unthinkable and decided to take its drugs off the market in Thailand when the country made the decision to not honor the company's patent on an HIV/AIDS drug due to the medicine'sprhibitively high cost. But how does this connect to the free lunches and gifts given to doctors?

Daniel Carlat's recent NYT expose (Dr. Drug Rep, Nov. 25th 2007), an article in which he elaborates on the ways in which drug companies buy doctors who then pitch the company's products to their colleague physicians brings up many ethical and cost issues, but is there a connectionbetween this practice and the larger inequities we see in the access to essential, life-sustaining medicines globally?Yes, and it is quite simple - when doctors eat (literally) out of the hands of these pharmaceutical companies here at home, they are numbed into complacent non-action regarding the policies of these same companies abroad. Physicans and physicians-in-training must muster the moral and ethical willpower to shout, "YES" to access to medicines, "NO" to access to my integrity.

Physicians must tell these companies, who claim to be so fond of gift-giving, that we want to see HIV/AIDS patients served with life-saving medicines at affordable costs instead of having lavish lunches served in our clinics and hospitals. Until we can do this, wiping our chins and conscience from the bribes of the drug companies, we will not see physicians stand up to demand access to medicines for the world's most vulnerable.

Rationing worked at the Thanksgiving Day table...let's try it for healthcare!

2007-11-25T15:19:00.000-08:00

So, the big moment for me had finally arrived - mom's Thanksgiving Day stuffing was about to arrive from the kitchen. Now, ordinarily, I am a fan of moderation, trying to practice what I preach to patients.

But Turkey Day stuffing is an exception! This is one place where I will take 5-6 USDA serving sizes, and that is per helping...three of four helpings into it, some hormonal/biologic/genetic/astrologic response (which is way to complicated to explain on this blog) tells me that it is time to slow down.

So, imagine my horror when I heard mommy's dreadful words as the stuffing arrived this year:

"We only have a small amount of stuffing this year, so I will be handing it out to each of you monsters...I mean children...in equal, modest portions."

My heart dropped. Like the 32 year-old Beverly Hills stay-at-home mother of two (a cat and a parakeet) who NEEDS her weekly full-body MRI, I equally NEED my 20+ servings of mom's stuffing.

And like her, I was willing to pay for it!

"Mom, I'll give you my gas and electric bill, my phone bill, and my college loans to buy the whole pot from you," I shouted in the good ole' Thanksgiving spirit.

But she was not having it - see, she thought that in some weird kind of logic that (1) my cries for stuffing were really not as important to the common good as was her ability to equally divide the crumbly, breaded, addictive mixture, and (2) somehow, this amount of stuffing was not even in my own best interest, since the scientific measurement of the human stomach is only 10-12 servings of stuffing.

So, I guess what I am trying to say is that universal health care, rationed out on the basis of where healthcare is needed, is a much more sane way to do healthcare than the current order in which you get how much you can pay for, which is still rationing, but in an irrational way (unless you believe that health and healthcare is not a human right, but is something that should be reserved for those with money...in which case, you may need some stuffing yourself)

Was my brothers' desire for stuffing any less important than mine?
Did I really NEED what I claimed to NEED?
And who would have gone without if I had indeed gotten my way, and taken it all for myself?

Yes, there was personal sacrifice at the dinner table this Thanksgiving for me, but you know what, I already gave up a lot of my rights for the good of the people around me (e.g. not being able to drive as fast as I want on the roads, not being able to park near a fire hydrant, and leaving the toilet seat up when I am finished), and for something as important as healthcare, I would hope I could do the same.

In thanks,
Anthony

Running and racing...in a different way

2007-11-12T06:40:00.000-08:00

As I watched them, one-by-one, come over the last hill of the 13.1 mile course, I felt a sense of joy.

Maybe it was the memory of a few months earlier, when we turned a lot of folks who were doubtful of their ability to run such a distance, into a group who was willing to trust my confidence in them, and work toward this goal together

Maybe it was feeling the sense of accomplishment each of them was feeling as they looked to the last 800 meters of the course

And, probably, it had a lot to do with the smiles on their faces.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Running with this team is a special thing. On a campus where varsity athletics are seen as the epitome of sport, the UNC Club team brings a more holistic approach to athletics.

They volunteer together and raise funds for local families in need.
They use the team to promote and advertise their individual service projects, mobilizing the entire team to work for causes such as Nourish International and the Ronald McDonald House.
They work hard together, and do so as a supportive family.
They set goals - both individual and collective - to challenge themselves, knowing that the discipline and work ethic involved will help make them successful in ways far beyond running.
They run with appreciation, understanding the privilege it is to be able to dance upon Mother Earth
Maybe most importantly, they don't take their running, or themselves, too seriously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On days when I am troubled by the lack of justice and equity in this world (see all previous posts on this blog), this group is a healing tonic for me, not just a running team.

I hope they realize how unique and special they are!

We can fight a war...but no plastic bags

2007-10-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

I am entering the security at Chicago's O'Hare airport, and they find a small toothpaste that was in the bottom of my bag, not in a plastic bag (they use the word "zip lock", but I refuse to, on the basis that this is a brand name, and I want there to be parity in the plastic bag market)

"Uh, do you all have a plastic bag I could use?"

"No, we do not carry bags anymore."

"So, we can fight a war for oil....uh, I mean freedom...but cannot afford plastic bags?"

Silence.

Maybe I was upset that I was missing the large peace demonstration in Chicago, or maybe I was simply taking out my frustration over the impending police state in which we live.

Either way, it would make an interesting ballot question on election day.

"Would you rather
(1) have your taxes go to sending the young men of this country to go kill young men, women, and children of another country, in order to secure the ever-expanding empires of the oil tycoons. or
(2) have your taxes go to providing plastic bags at the scurity lines of the airport, in case you commit the ungodly sin of forgetting to put all liquids in a bag beforehand?

But don't hold your breathe looking for this one when you pull the curtain behind you and prepare to vote!

2007-10-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

SCHIP: A sad comment on our leaders’ conscience and lack thereof

It is indeed a sad day when the profits of tobacco companies are deemed more important than the health of our nation’s children.

Overstated?

Not really.

Two weeks ago the President refused to okay a Congress-approved expansion of SCHIP, and in doing so, made a statement about the value he places on the health of our nation’s most vulnerable children. Unfortunately, when Congress was given the chance to correct his "slip of the pen," they also failed to muster the ethical resolve to vote "yes" for children's health.

Interesting, coming from leaders whose presidential/congressional families benefit from the finest socialized healthcare that money can buy, funded by our tax dollars.

Also interesting coming from a person like Bush who will fight to the end for fetus’ right to be born, yet will show crass indifference to these same children once they are born.

A Congressional office I spoke with was even more blatant, telling me that the tobacco interests in their district were simply too important for them to vote for SCHIP expansion. In fact, they told me "Whatever you may think of the tobacco companies, we deem them important constituencies." As a physician in training, I told them that I had no choice but to see the tobacco companies as producers of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), and that, no, I didn't see their point that tobacco profits should trump children's right to health.

You would think that maybe, just out of guilt that we are already sending our children to fight a pawns in a war for oil, that we would do the right thing when it comes to the children here at home.

My friends, please do not lose faith - yes, our leaders have failed millions of children on this one.

But no, they do not have the final word, not when it comes to the babies of our nation. If they won't put children first, then in the name of mighty Homeland Security, I call on us to secure a place for children's health in our states, in our coutnties, and in our commmunities.

Oh lost sailor, we hail your "discovery"

2007-10-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

A day to celebrate....
what?

That an Italian outcast, lost at sea, finally found a piece of land?

That after thousands of years of being inhabitated by "pre-historic" peoples, it now miraculously entered into being a bonafide, recognized part of the earth's land mass since a European's feet had touched its soil?

The inception of civilizing and christianizing the savages of the New World?

I am not sure what to feel on this day, but I know that it isn't an incredible admiration for a sailor lost at sea, somewhere in the order of 5,000 miles off course from his destination of India.

And I do question what exactly he "discovered" that makes us want to celebrate.

I have to think of our astronauts here...we land on the seemingly lifeless moon, but we don't claim Armstrong and company to have "discovered" the moon. So why do we put this honor upon a guy who comes upon a land filled with cultures, civilizations, and history far deeper than the European lands from which he was banished.

We must realize the powerful ways that language suggesting that the C-guy "discovered" this land dismisses all peoples native to this land before his arrival...it is the same language that allowed droves of Europeans to follow the path to Turtle Island, feeling that this was their land to own and conquer, regardless of how many sub-human Natives they had to massacre, and regardless of how many sub-human Africans they forced to toil in chains to make America the Beautiful

Be careful of how flippantly we treat a day like today, and consider celebrating the many cultures and peoples who truly have claim to being "discoverers" of this land the next time the second Monday in October rolls around.

Believe it or not, more proof that relgions can get along!

2007-10-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

{Paraphrased from event at UNC Chapel Hill, called “Iftaar in the Sukkah,” an event to explore the holidays of Sukkot and Ramadan, held at sundown to coincide with the breaking of the fast for Muslims present, and at the Sukkah on campus, to allow the Jewish community to perform blessings of the holiday of Sukkot. Event was sponsored by UNC Hillel, the UNC Muslim Students Association, and the UNC Interfaith Alliance. Of note, a quarter of the 100 students in attendance were neither Jewish nor Muslim.}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the holiest days of the Muslim and Jewish calendars coincide this September, I reflect on the dual sins we are all guilty off – being scared and staying silent. The first has to do with the opportunities we miss to join hands with our sister faiths, as we cower and worry about entering into another faith’s domain. The second, staying silent, has more to do with the times when hatred and bigotry stares us in the face, and yet we remain speechless since it is directed at someone else.

We offer now, our collective prayer…

Why are we scared to join in worship of One Higher,
And then silent when demagogues try to divide us?

Why are we scared to use the beautiful language of The One Greater, used by our sister faith,
And then silent when leaders corrupt this same language of the Holy Books to
make it seem as if we are sworn enemies?

Why are we scared to see the many things that so unite us, especially in this time of fasting and repentance,
And then silent when one more event – a car bomb here, a civilian casualty
there - is blasted upon our collective conscience by religious and secular media as
further evidence of the hatred we are to have for one another?

Why are we scared to see that our smallness and His Greatness binds us as brothers and sisters through divine lineage,
And then silent when a friend or sermon claims that His Mercy and Favor is but
for a chosen few?

Brothers and sisters,
We cannot be scared
nor
silent
any longer,
allowing hatred to linger,
serving as fatal spiritual stinger (to our heart)

Instead, let us replace fear of our sister faiths with fear of Allah, Adonai, The Creator, The Sustainer of us all.

Let us replace silence with a loud heart, voice, and lives that speak to our common smallness and His Universal Greatness.

Let us close this collective poem and prayer by closing our eyes, bowing our heads, and seeking You in our hearts, being neither scared nor silent in chanting the holy words of us all:
Baruch atah Adonai, elohheinu melech ha’olam
(We praise You, Eternal God, Sovereign of the Universe)

Bismillah irrahman irrahim
(In the name of God/Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful)

Shalom
(Peace)

Salaam
(Peace)

Amen
(Let it be so!)

Amin
(Let it be so!)

Jews and Muslims united this day through fasting

2007-09-22T18:59:00.000-07:00

A day of spiritual solace, amidst a world polarized by the very Holy Books whose capacity is to unite mankind.

A day where both Jews and Muslims turn to the east, praying prayers pleading for forgiveness, purging themselves from all things "lower" in favor of all things "higher"

I am beautifully aware this day, as a practicing muslim in a family with Jewish/Catholic/Navajo religions, how united we are when we turn upward, as we do this day in the simple act of fasting.

No news stories will cover the symbolism and similarity of the faiths on this day, as it makes for nothing more to most than a sappy news story. (Though I am sure the next clash between Israel and Palestine will be blasted on front pages everywhere, including in the muslim and jewish worlds, where it will immediately be a symbol of the hatred that God wants us to have for each other)

I pray that we will simply recognize moments like these, not only when our faiths coincide by the calendar, but when we see other crying for help to One Higher...when we see others looking for guidance from above, when we see others in pain, or in need of help.

Break us free,
O Lord,
Adonai,
Allah,
Jehovah,
Om,
Creator,
Knower of all things,
Sustainer of life,
Most merciful
GOD
from all that leads us to see you, your names, and your attributes,
as disperate,
divided,
instead of One with Love bountiless,
With mercy restricted to no one
And restorative power for all.

only from this vision of One,
will healing for the world be won.

Undercover story - Big Pharmaceutical Interests Have Invaded The Diner!

2007-09-03T06:19:00.000-07:00

Notes from the trail:
8:16am, Sunday Sept. 2nd, at a good ole' American-style diner.

To fit in with the locals and avoid detection, I ordered the biggest breakfast plate on the menu, and proceded to finish every last bite (again, only because I was intent on avoiding detection).

After carefully studying the accents of the bikers at the table next to me, I calmly asked for the check in a cool, southern drawl.

"Honey, ya' reckon ya' might could get me the check so I can go out to da' tobacco field."

And when I saw that she wasn't buying it, I smoothly added in a nice loud,

"I'm fixin."

A few minutes of awkward stares from the nearby tables, and a few packets of those jam containers later, and the waittress was back with the check.

I thought everything was on the up and up, and then out of nowhere, in a slick move of deft and cunning diversion, she handed me a drug company pen, with which I was supposed to sign the check.

{As this is a PG-13 blog, I will not be explicit and tell you the words written on this pen, but suffice it to say that this was a company that puts a precedence on astronomical profit margins at the expense of those that can and can't afford it.}

{Which means it could be just about any drug company or health insurance company out there.}

"Ma'am, where did you get this pen?" I sputtered, wiping the jelly from my nose and cheeks.

Of course, she played dumb, and insisted that she didn't know who gave her the pen or where it came from.

"Let me see if this jogs your memory," I said gruffly, showing that I meant business, and producing pictures from my pocket of prototype pharmaceutical representatives :

ex-cheerleaders in skimpy skirts with bags of erectile dysfunction drugs and assorted goodies in their hand,

ex-Chippendale performers in skin tight shirts with bags of estrogen-amplifying drugs and assorted paraphenalia,

ex-Catholic nuns in skin tight "nun outfits" sporting fanny packs with "free" samples of birth control pills,

ex-convicts in body armor toting cages of paranoia medications, and

45 year-old ex-prostitutes in Victorian dress wielding baby carriages full of "educational" information on MLCS (Mid-Life Crisis Sydrome).

At this the waitress became weak, knowing that I was on to her. Embarrassed, she quickly tried to regain her compsure, and even attempted to change the subject by pointing out that I still had jelly on my face.

But her little game was no match for a seasoned PharmFree professional - I quickly whipped out the PharmFree stickers I had in my pocket and proceded to "liberate" her sinister writing tool, covering the drug company's name on her pen with a nifty "PharmFree-Liberated" sticker (see http://www.pharmfree.org/) just as she whistled for reinforcements, and the large, Men-in-Black, secret-service looking pharmaceutical executives, numbering at least 50-60, came at me from all directions, yelling,

"Get him before he makes a dent into our profits...we need to eat too, you know!"

{A quote which, incidentally, did not make for a very dramatic, movie-quality entrance}

They got closer, and I could hear the chairs and tables being toppled as the for-profit army approached.

Babies went flying, elderly women's canes turned into snakes, and that darn waitress was yelling at the top of her lungs,

"But, but... he's still got jelly on his face!"

Then, all went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Morals of the story:
1) Choose your diners carefully
2) Never let your guard down when it comes to assuming that the drug companies and their disease-synthesizing propoganda have not yet staked a claim in "place X" or "business Y" - THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!
3) Be careful when consuming those free packets of jelly.

God bless,
Anthony
http://www.pharmfree.org/

Let's talk about love...and our fear of it!

2007-08-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

In my work with a beautiful program, the Native Health Initiative (www.unc.edu/~flega) over the last 3 years, I have constantly seen love in action...the Indigenous communities of Turtle Island are in touch with the power of love, and will share it willingly to those who approach respectfully.

However, it is interesting to see how uncomfortable people are with our mission to address inequities in health through loving service...they cannot see how injustices in health could possibly be linked to a foundation of love.

A recent article about NHI, thorough in its coverage of the partnerships and projects of our work, left a big, gaping hole...there was no mention of the LOVE foundation to our work. It is only the reason for doing the work, the funding source, the guiding tool, etc....nothing important right?

I wonder,

Was it thought that readers of this article would not have understood loving service?

Would they have had a problem putting together the reality that Indigenous citizens and communities live sicker and die younger, a result of the lack of love in our society, with a program that is funded by, driven by, and carried out through love?

Maybe it would have threatened the crdibility of the program, and therefore the article itself, to talk about love?

It is one of the symptoms of our highly technological, mechanistic world that we cringe and assume the fetal position when talking about love in such an open sense. The hug we would have received in the past is now a smiley face at the end of an email, text message, or IM post.

Maybe a bigger issue, though, is the way that our world has fallen into a fear-driven mentality, requiring love to take a back seat.

Look at the Bush aristocracy (uh...I mean, U.S. foreign policy) and how we deal with nations as enemies (e.g. they won't give us unlimited power over their oil so that we can ride around in our SUVs), inspiring fear that terrorists are out to get America unless we get them first. We use military might to try to force peace, ignoring the love-based strategy of promoting educational and economic systems that will promote a sustaining peace...and in doing so, we only escalate the hunger of all parties involved to devour and destroy the other.

But it is not only a problem of fear at this level. Look at our lives and communities. Is it love or fear that has allowed us to build a society that says (by its actions) that the expression of melanin in the epidermis is the best lie on which to base our society, our lives, and our communities? We live in a society in which de facto housing segregation has produced communities that rival apartheid South Africa's! We fear going into each other's communities, places of worship, schools, groceries, etc.

We must tug at our hearts to release us from the bondage and lies of fear, along with the heart-numbing existence that is our addiction to technology...

We must open our hearts to see a world in which "us and them" replaces "us vs. them".

We must begin to talk and walk in love, building our lives, our communities, and our fragile planet on this foundation.

I know that we are capable of it, and I know that we can each do something today to begin the heart revolution...

In love,
Because of love,
And through love,
I sign off for now!

Need a disease...uh, I mean a drug? Try Koma-tos!

2007-07-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get that "too scared to talk" feeling when faced with imminent danger?

Does your stomach ever growl after a meal?

Are you ever happy?

Are you ever sad?

Are ever happy and sad, and a little angry - all at the same time?

If yes to any of the above, it is time for a new pill, made just for people like you by the EPFU (Enormous Profits For Us) Pharmaceuticals. This pill, called "Koma-tos" will put you out of your misery, for good. Koma-tos contains mild* amounts of narcotics and benzos, with a bit of sleeping medicine mixed in.

(*The use of the word "mild" is used according to the U.S. Vetinary Association's guidelines for horse tranquilizers)

Why haven't you heard of this drug before? Well, between you and me, it is probably because your doctor does not care about you, and probably wants to see you suffer!

Which might make you think, "Gee, maybe I will just order them from Canada, where I can bypass my doctor and get them cheaper." To which we would politely say, "Are you sure you trust some Communist leaning folks, people who believe in universal healthcare and the s*** m**** phrase (socialized medicine) to count your pills. I didn't think so!

What we suggest you do is to ask your doctor for Koma-tos by name, and if your doctor happens to be "latino-friendly", make sure that he does not confuse this with a cough medicine (as "tos" means cough in spanish). If he refuses, and gives you some line about "happiness not being a disease", make sure you contact our friend, Sue Forlots, a lawyer with expertise in handling such malpractice cases!

Side effects? We knew you would ask - but let's think for a second before worrying about side effects...do you really want to risk being happy any longer? Does it even matter what the side effects are when the sickness is so severe? Exactly!

But so the FDA is satisfied, here they are:
death, shock, coma, dizziness, happiness, sadness, fullness, embarrassment, poverty, etc.

Note: most (94%) users of Koma-tos are too sedated to give an accurate account of the side effects they are experiencing

So, from your friends at EPFU, where we "care about America, and care for America,"
Be well, be in health, be tranquil (and barely conscious) with Koma-tos.

In so doing, you can say "goodbye" to all of those pesky human experiences and emotions that have plagued you for so many years!

Love in the midst of greed

2007-07-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

Having now viewed SiCKO, I am tempted to throw up my hands in disgust, and throw in the towel in defeat.

However, the love I felt for each of the victims in that movie, and the love I feel for the millions more that they represent, gives me no option but to press on in the face of greed and utter disrespect for fellow humans.

Let me say this - our notion that we need to simply insure the un-insured needs to be examined and re-examined, and then examined some more.

Do we mean to say that these folks are the "problem" with our health system, and therefore should be the target of our proposed solution?

Do we mean to say that these "poor, un-responsible folks who don't value their health and therefore choose not to have health insurance" are the ones to be fixed?

It sounds silly, but think about the logic - you fix what it broken, and attack what is the source of the problem.

I hear no one positing that maybe what we need to voting on in 2008 is a more genuine plan of fixing the larger system that creates, as one of many symptoms of its disease, the millions who are uninsured and underinsured.

That system, my friends, is called "unchecked profit motives running a health care system"

The medical analogy for this is a blood infection, also known as sepsis. Now, this life threatening condition has many symptoms, such as high fever. A very junior medical student might think that Tylenol would be arrented to attack the symptom of fever, but we all know that this is a ridiculous way to treat sepsis, one which will only worsen the problem.

In our current "progressive", "liberated" debate on healthcare, pushed as a way to appeal to voters, and appease the Big Business interests funding the campaigns, we are throwing Tylenol at a life threatening condition, treating the symptom of fever instead of focusing on the cause of the fever, the "microbes" of the for-profit machine (Insurance and Drug companies to name a few of the biggest perpetrators)....under we get serious about treating the disease, and not a symptom of the disease, we are only postponing the continued demise of treating humans as humans and health as a human right.

In love,
Anthony

Justice issue for the day: the for-profit industry of healthcare

2007-06-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

As SICKO prepares to open in a few days, I am more and more convinced that our current healthcare system is truly sick, over-run with profit motives that are like aggressive cancers, waiting to eat us alive.

And like any sickness, especially one of this magnitude, we cannot simply put band-aid treatments on the gushing, frothing wounds. We cannot treat the symptoms - such as proposing to "politely" and gradually extend coverage to more Americans - and think we are creating change or curing the problem.

Uninsured patients are one symptom of the larger problem, and we must not assume that "all we need is universal coverage" and all will be well. This sort of logic assumes that the problem is the uninsured folks themselves, since that is the only thing being addressed in this schema. What we need is to ask, Why?

Why, in the richest country in the world, do a good 50 million or so, go without proper heatlh coverage?

Why, in the country that spends far more than any other nation per-capita on health, do we have embarrasingly poor health outcomes, especially for the marginalized of our society?

The answer, and therefore the solution, does not rest with the victims of this system!

Therefore, a justice-oriented approach leads me to see that removing the for-profit machine that runs our system, including not only the industries (pharmaceutical, insurance, biotech, device manufacturers), but also the workforce (physicians, administrators) is the only medicine worth taking!

Other solutions, watered down to appeal to potential voters, afraid of addressing the 800 pound Gorilla, and instead focusing on the bananas we are feeding him, simply will not do.

In love,

Anthony

Learning how to blog - metaphysics, biomechanics, etc

2007-06-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

Feeling like the nervous kid who is pushed onto the stage by his teacher, forced to stare into the blinding lights of the auditorium, and not quite sure what to say to the world, I begin my blogging life.

Uhhh....uhhhh....hel....hello? Is this mic on? Can you all hear me?

I am looking forward to sharing my heartfelt thoughts on love, and its ability to transform the world.

I am also excited to reveal fear and the other motives that seem to over-ride love in our world today.

I am excited to talk about my work in the work of JUSTICE, which has taken many forms.

I am excited to be honest about myself, my white priveledge, and the racism of our society.

I am excited to make some folks laugh in the midst of it all!

In love,
As there is no other way to be,
I bid you farewell for now.