A Dollar And A Dream.......

For many years, it has occurred to me that public policy has taken to a lottery system of care approach to solving problems. What is meant by Lottery System? Simply, we tap into people's willingness to gamble on risk in order to support the perception that they put a few extra dollars in their pocket by supporting such a system. Here are a few examples:

Healthcare: Our Healthcare model is prioritized by risk. Prior to Obamacare, it was much worse. Yet, today we set premiums based on risk factors. For example, the young pay the least to insure themselves whereas the older adults will pay more. If you are not likely to need emergency care, you also opt for policies that have minimal risk for exposure to a serious incident by charging high deductibles. If you get lucky enough, you will never need to pay them. The entire system has lottery deadlines an protocols to receive care making it difficult for providers and those needing care to solve healthcare problems for individuals.

Education: Our model of education is similar. Charter Schools have a lottery system in some cases. Living in a neighborhood with a poor performing school, you can enter a lottery requesting a new school. There are deadlines for yearbooks based on income eligibility in high school. Academic achievement can be improved through a lottery process of prep classes. Some qualify, while others do not. Post secondary education has a similar process. Some affirmative action programs can lottery a person in a program or lead to your denial. High demand programs are sometimes use a lottery process to enroll a students. Missing student aid and scholarship deadlines can be a huge mistake.

Social Services: The system of care is based on knowledge of the odds. Miss a HEAP date, no help for you. Fill out a form wrong, wait another month to apply. Missed the date for signing up childcare assistance, you can not apply again. Rent assistance, HUD, and Food Assistance. All have elements of a lottery process.

There are many more examples. We lottery almost every service in this country. Would it not be simpler to streamline the process. After all, we spend billions supporting a lottery system of care. Why not directly target money to impact programs universally without mandates and complicated lottery measures? Is there a better system of care than the one we have now. Lottery systems are expensive and ineffective. After all, a dollar and a dream is just that, a dollar an a dream.

Stop Teaching My God Is Better Than Your God, And You Will End Terrorism

Another tragedy in Paris. You may ask yourself how do we end these events? We feel helpless. Yet the answer to the problem is very simple. The world needs to unite, and address why teaching children that your God is better than my God has horrific consequences.

Global terrorism is based on this ideology. Blow something up in the name of our God. It is a recruitment tool. From the first day of class to the last day of your life, you repeat back to yourself, "I will do this for God." It is a sick disease that has plagued humanity for thousands of years.

While some will argue this is unique to Muslims, they are incorrect. Evangelical Christians do the same thing. They use Jesus as a recruitment tool to base all their actions on God. Evangelical leaders teach God will only reward those who worship a certain way. This philosophy can be just as catastrophic. Instead of buildings falling down, families are torn apart. Communities fall prey to the evangelical terrorists. Similar to France, they allow them in, and they have one mission, to convert in the name of their God. If your kids are Catholic, their children will explain to them the Pope is the anti-Christ. If your children are gay or lesbian, they will tell them they are living an "evil" lifestyle. They will learn how their relationship with God is based on preferential treatment. Survive cancer? Our God is good. Come into some money? God takes good care of you.  No different than Muslim terrorism. It is a very sophisticated process with the same intent. To build up walls for their side and to tear down walls for those who believe differently.

The boldest step we could take both locally and around the world is to teach and reinforce the separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson and the writers of our early government saw what is happening today in their world, and boldly created the first government to separate church and state. We need to reinvigorate this philosophy and teach children to respect all religions. We need to teach children that a private practice of faith does not give one the right to tell another person their God is better than another person's God. When we start teaching respect of all faiths instead of tearing them down, we will end Global and Domestic Terrorism.

How To Heal The Invisible Wounds Of War

Many states have a population of Veterans that served their country and came home with invisible wounds from their service. Most likely, traumatic events were a part of their service. Buried deep are the wounds of such events. Without proper care, some veterans will self-medicate, have violent episodes, and unfortunately become a part of the criminal justice system.


While giving service to their country the human body and mind has been altered by trauma. For this reason, our Veterans need a model of care that is focused on restoring a person to wellness after a traumatic event happens. This model is an informed approach to treatment that  goes well beyond the physical wounds that can result from a traumatic event.  A treatment plan will focus on the cycle of traumatic recovery. Often times, when an individual is homeless, hospitalized, or in a state of crisis, the trauma informed model should be implemented. Research has shown that Veterans when in a state of crisis, generally are more open to intervention strategies.


The good news is that this model is increasingly available to Veterans. The problem is access to care is not universal at this point. Knowledge is power when it comes to care. If you know a Veteran that is struggling with reentry to their community, seek out a service provider or caseworker and ask them about the trauma informed care model. Our Veterans deserve the best care available after during and after their service to our country. It is time to heal the invisible wounds of war. 

Starbucks Got It Right This Season

Starbucks has come under fire for simplifying their holiday cups this season. Evangelicals have taken the simple red cup as a war on Christmas. Here is a sample of the social media that started the boycotts and attention to the issue: This is from a Joshua Feurstein and he was given over 2 million likes for his post.

Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus ... SO I PRANKED THEM ... and they HATE IT!!!! ‪#‎share‬
Use ‪#‎MERRYCHRISTMASSTARBUCKS‬
Follow --> Joshua Feuerstein

Here is the response from Starbucks to the social media attacks.

"In response to the video, our core values as a company is to create a culture of belonging, inclusion and diversity," the representative said. "Each year during the holidays we aim to bring our customers an experience that inspires the spirit of the season and we will continue to embrace and welcome customers from all backgrounds and religions in our stores around the world."

The attack on Starbucks stems from company decisions that are against "Christian Values." The real "beef" is that Starbucks has been a supporter of marriage equality. Back in 2013, the company was willing to take a temporary dip in stock values to ensure that support for marriage equality was a part of Starbuck's corporate policy. The CEO had to respond to criticisms from his board that he had a greater responsibility to stockholders. (The board member was Thomas Strobhar, the founder of the Corporate Morality Action Center) He responded in kind he had a larger calling to be inclusive, and supportive of his employees.

Starbucks is criticized for actions that expand human rights by Christian groups. Maybe it is these groups that need to reexamine the true meaning of Christmas and not Starbucks.

 

 

Why We Need To Talk About The "Thin Blue Line."

Bill Maher interviewed Quentin Tarantino regarding the recent controversy regarding Police Brutality. Quentin Tarantino makes some excellent points about the need for honesty and transparency. He sums up the problem by calling out the barrier that exists known as "The Thin Blue Line." Simply put, the "Thin Blue Line" is a level of protection for unionized officers that prevents accountability for officers when they cross the line with the citizenry.

The "Thin Blue Line" is a conversation that needs to happen not only for the police, but also for our public education system. The police in our nation have the same issue that teacher's unions have, and that is the idea that 99.99% of the membership is competent enough to never need to be removed from their positions due to negligence. A statistic that is much higher than any other sector of our labor force.

Over 6 months ago, I wrote and article about New York teachers. Out of 112.000 employees, only a handful have been removed from their positions for their behavior. Each instance a teacher is removed, it is due to extreme circumstances. The same is true for law enforcement. It is very rare that a police officer is removed from duty. Reassignments and administrative leaves allow the officer to return to some form of active duty.

The problem with "The Thin Blue Line" is that it is not transparent. Many complaints by citizens are protected by as Quentin puts it....a snake with many heads. Somewhere, the institution of law enforcement became an institution that thinks of itself as not accountable to the citizenry they serve when the laws are broken by an officer.

We need to examine the systemic barriers and ask unions to consider transparency as a matter of substance and importance. Without it, more people will be innocently hurt by the system that is supposed to protect them.