Health

Second Harvest Column: World Hunger Day

kpaul.mallasch — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:35:02 -0700

By Lois Rockhill

My friend Christie Stephens handed me a copy of the monthly newsletter from Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis. The front page shows a colorful action painting by Joanie Rothenberg created for the Interfaith Hunger Initiative in our capital city.

In front of a night sky filled with blue swirls and round white stars, a group of people dressed in more swirls, poke-a-dots and bright colors are bringing offerings of food to add to a huge yellow pot of soup stirred by a person in green. There are peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and carrots. One man is lifting a child high into the sky so she can reach over the crowd to add her bowl of veggies to the soup.

Below the picture is the quote from Matthew 25:35, “I was hungry and you fed me”. Second Presbyterian endorsed the Interfaith Hunger Initiative in June of this year with The Indianapolis Covenant that includes this phrase: “WHEREAS, our religious traditions, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism, all clearly teach that God expects us to care for the hungry; therefore as individuals and as religious congregations we commit ourselves and our resources to eliminating child and family hunger both locally and globally.”

Thursday, Oct. 16, is World Hunger Day. This day set aside to remember that 854 million people across the globe are hungry, raised the month of October as a good choice for Second Presbyterian to highlight hunger. Congregants received collection cups this past Sunday to place on their tables. They are urged to fill the cups with cash for hunger relief as they enjoy their own family meals. On Oct. 12 the Interfaith Hunger Initiative has scheduled a forum on hunger with their congressional candidates — how great is that, to not only hold ourselves responsible but to also invite lawmakers to see that their constituents take ending hunger very seriously!

On World Hunger Day itself the Indianapolis community is invited to meet at the Circle for an un-lunch and time of prayer. The month goes on with other hunger awareness and hunger action activities including Jim Morris, former executive director of the UN World Food Program, in the pulpit at Second Presbyterian on Oct. 19.

I am sure that many of our religious groups in east central Indiana are also planning events around World Hunger Day. I would be very happy to hear about them. And I would love to hear if we have anything similar to an Interfaith Hunger Initiative in east central Indiana. It seems like a good thing to have — working together to end hunger is the only way it will be achieved. It is a tremendous task but not an impossible one.

I am reminded of another group that took on a huge task — one that seemed impossible to achieve but is very close to the goal set so many years ago. Rotary took on the challenge of eradicating polio. Some readers may shrug because polio just isn’t an issue here. And it is hardly an issue globally because Rotarians all over the world said it wasn’t acceptable for any person to have polio when a simple vaccine given to all children would eradicate it.

Can you imagine what would happen to world hunger if the religious people of the world mobilized themselves and their religious bodies to eradicate it? Like polio, there is a cure. For hunger is it food. We have the food; we have the means to produce even more food. Would an Interfaith Hunger Initiative in our region allow us to come together to alleviate hunger in our own communities and around the world?

Lois Rockhill is executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana. She can be reached at lrockhill@curehunger.org.

United Way of Madison County Kicks Off Annual Campaign Tuesday

kpaul.mallasch — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:30:28 -0700

ANDERSON, IN - The fall campaign for United Way of Madison County will officially launch Tuesday, August 26 with a luncheon for volunteers and supporters at 11:30 at the Anderson Country Club.

Mike Casuscelli, The Herald Bulletin Publisher and 2008 Campaign Chair will oversee the program that will announce the 2008 fund raising goal, unveil LIVE UNITED community snapshots and recognize volunteers who will assist with campaign calls over the next two months.

The 2008 campaign has a focus on what it means to LIVE UNITED. Participants in the kick-off will be encouraged to purchase a LIVE UNITED t-shirt and then pose in a LIVE UNITED photo booth. The photographs will be used for ad campaigns that will run in The Herald Bulletin on the days following the kick-off. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the festivities and become part of the LIVE UNITED experience.

Other team leaders for the campaign are Mike Collette, OPERATION: Weatherization chair; Mike and JoAnna Collette, Indiana Derby Eve Gala Auction co-chairs; Rod and Ava Autrey, Individual Gifts co-chairs and JoDean Washington, LIVE UNITED School Days chair. Dozens of additional volunteers make up the campaign committee teams.

Additional campaign activities include LIVE UNITED-The Experience, which will allow high school and college age students an opportunity to learn about volunteer service, while utilizing the United Way’s Facebook challenge. OPERATION: Weatherization that will send hundreds of volunteers into the community on November 1 to work on approximately 30 to 50 energy inefficient homes of the elderly and low income families; and LIVE UNITED School Days at participating schools during October. The final campaign report to the community is tentatively scheduled for December.

The Tuesday luncheon is hosted by Anderson Rotary Club and underwritten by corporate sponsorships from Community Hospital Anderson, First Merchant’s Bank, Saint John’s Health System, St.Vincent Mercy Hospital and W.R. Duncan & Son, Inc.

There is no cost to attend the luncheon; however reservations are recommended by Friday, August 22. For more information or to make reservations, call the United Way office at 643-7493.

Source: United Way of Madison County Press Release

Martha's Big Adventure: The American Diet

kpaul.mallasch — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:08:30 -0700

By Martha Randolph Carr

Our widening waistlines should have been taken as a sign. Somewhere back in the 1980’s we stopped worrying about setting personal limits and started seeing just how far we could push the boundaries of everything. There was no portion control in our eating, spending, burning fuel and even building big, fat houses. Those giant shoulder pads and big hairdos were a reflection of our egos and the path we had decided to take. It was as if the teenagers were left in charge of the country with a couple of credit cards. We behaved like adolescents who are known for thinking there aren’t going to be any consequences and if there are, someone will bail us out. It’s a sign of how strong our infrastructures (our bodies, economy and ecology), are that we have been able to push it this far. However, payment has come due and all at once in every category. It’s caused a lot of hand-wringing and for good reasons.

We’re all looking at global warming, childhood obesity and China, who is not our ally, as our second biggest creditor. It’s got us wondering what our next steps are going to be.

There are a lot of experts who are starting the drum beat of America’s demise as a world leader of any stature and are counting us out. These are learned people who are wondering if we will even exist much longer at all. The great democratic experiment has reached a conclusion. They’re using the history of other nations who pursued the same diet of gluttony just before they came to generally tragic and abrupt ends. Only the United Kingdom still survives but even that nation is a tiny version of the empire that used to stretch around the globe.

However, we’re the first nation in the history of mankind to be created out of every nationality with an ongoing influx of new ethnic backgrounds. Unlike every other country that has ever existed, we were built by people who were searching to build something better. Our national makeup continues to change as we grow to include others who have that bigger dream and have taken their vision from the theoretical and put it into action.

At our core, we’re an on-going experiment of grouping together people with a common desire rather than a common background. That is going to be our saving grace and it is the biggest reason why all of the experts have gotten it wrong when they speculate about what’s going to happen next.

In our DNA there is a strand somewhere that has a reset button of optimism. When things are at their worst and the chances look pretty bleak we actually start to believe in the possibilities. It’s why we love any story of someone who lost a lot of weight or overcame a serious illness. It’s why a tornado in 2007 can wipe out Greensburg, Kansas as if it never existed and the residents don’t leave, they rebuild. But this time, they’re emerging as an ecologically green town using every new technology available. Or the New Orleans school system, which before it was erased by Hurricane Katrina was thought of as one of the worst in the nation and was plagued by a swirl of problems is now being watched by others as a grand experiment gets underway. Rather than return to the old national standard, the new school system is being built from scratch with a lot of outside help and a plan based on what has been working in similar pockets across the country.

Where others may only see disaster Americans suddenly see a blank slate and then, opportunity. The real question is have we hit bottom yet?

It’s true; we’ve never had to deal with so many issues before that were all at critical levels. That’s where our sense of optimism may have been running amok and we started to lean a wee bit toward entitlement. But, that’s the past and lamenting right now won’t help us move forward in this new day. If we can embrace change once again and start to work together, we may actually come up with entirely new methods of solving old problems. When we started as a nation we were something the world had actually never seen before and most counted us out from the very beginning. We can do that again and set an entirely new standard. The new question to ask yourself then is, what are you doing to contribute to our new bottom line? Send me your answers and I’ll share them with everyone else.

Martha Randolph Carr’s latest book, A Place to Call Home, a memoir about the reemergence of U.S. orphanages is available wherever books are sold. If you’d like Martha to come and speak to your group visit: www.newvoicespeakers.com. Author’s email: Martha@caglecartoons.com or visit www.martharandolphcarr.com.

©2008 Martha Randolph Carr. Martha’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. newspaper syndicate.

I Am an Alcoholic

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 19:21:48 -0700

By Anonymous

Yes, that is right. I am a recovering alcoholic. My story is not any more special than any others and not different than most. But I am going to tell it to you anyway - all of it.

My name is not important here, but some of you may read this and know who I am. As it says in AA "anonymity at the level of press radio and film."

I started out life as a sickly little boy right here in Anderson. I was and still am smaller than most of the other males my age.

My parents were both hard workers and did all that they could to give us kids a good home and upbringing. However my father was physically and mentally abusive. I don't blame him for my drinking. This is just all part of how I became who I am.

I remember some of the beatings I got when I was a boy. Sometimes it hurt so bad I could not catch a breath of air. All of us kids grew up learning a trade in our father's business. He did teach a great deal. He could not help how he was. He grew up horribly and that is what he knew.

In school, I was constantly picked on and made fun of for my size. I hated school. It was boring anyway. As I got older and the school bullies got even bigger, I learned that I may as well fight because I was going to get it anyway.

I became pretty good with my hands and I was very fast, so once I learned to fight they started to leave me alone. I was also the class clown, but when a teacher would ask a question, I knew the answer. I managed to struggle through most of high school until I was 16. My father and I got into a argument then a fight. He hit me in the eye and blacked it. It also knocked me back a step.

I finally had enough of that and my skinny little 105 pounds flew forward 2 steps and decked him with one punch. I caught him in the nose and mouth. I split both his lips, broke his nose, loosened all of his real teeth, and broke his dentures.

He would not get up to take another one and later told my mother "I don't know where that little son of a bitch got it from but he hit me harder than any man has ever hit me."

Dad never really tried me after that, but I took that opportunity to move out and live with some friends. I tried to finish high school, but I could not work and support myself, so I dropped out. I was also smoking cigarettes and pot with all of my buddy's. I even tried to drink some but did not care for the taste much.

The next year I had a better job and tried to finish school and work. I could have, but I had to have surgery twice, and I missed a month in the first six weeks. When they called me down to the office they told me I could drop out or be kicked out and that it would be better if i just quit. So out I went again.

I floated around and smoked some more dope until I was almost 19. It was really tripping me up, and I lost a great girl over it. So I decided that I would stop for a couple of weeks and try to straighten up my life. Boy did I feel better so i thought that a couple more weeks would not hurt and I felt even better.

I thought WOW 4 weeks without marijuana and I feel really good, I decided a couple more weeks would be even better. I never looked back and still have not tried it again. But I was starting to learn the joys of beer with different friends.

I was not a alcoholic yet, but I was sure getting a good start. I joined the service and got hurt. I was new enough and did not have much time (less than 180 days) so when I refused their surgery, I was sent home and discharged. I met my first wife while I was in the hospital.

Boy, was she cute. And she even came back to visit me. We started dating. After I recovered, I went and took my GED test and easily passed. I then enrolled in a trade school in Indy.

I was arrested for a B felony while I was at home on a Friday night. I was innocent. My drinking was becoming heavier. I graduated third in my class. After almost 2 years of investigating the police and prosecutor finally dropped the charges when they realized finally that I was not involved. They did also finally solve it, but it had really screwed me up.

The girl I met married me and we were mostly good together, but I was starting to get abusive and drinking even worse. Then one night, I was drinking with a really close friend at my house. He became too drunk to drive so we took him home.

The next night I had to work late, so I was not home when my friend stopped by but this time he was already way too drunk to drive. He was killed instantly when he drove in front of a freight train just a few blocks from his home.

This really tore me up. I was probably at this point on a full blown alcoholic. I went through many jobs and was not happy no matter what. My wife was suffering. She was paying a lot of the bills and standing by me (probably hoping that I would get through this and get back to being the guy she fell in love with.) Boy did I fool her. After two years of marriage, though, we had a little boy.

He was such a cute little boy, but later we learned that he was slow mentally. My drinking was still getting worse. I felt like I was losing her and I tried to quit drinking but I just could not stop. This was getting harder to deal with and so was I.

We separated. We still dated and she became pregnant, but we did not know it. She had already filed for divorce even though I don't think that she had given up hope, a week after it was final we found out she was pregnant again.

My daughter was born almost two years to the day after my son. She was bald but adorable. It took her a long time to grow enough hair to put up like a Kewpie doll so people would know she was a girl. She was smart as a whip.

Shortly after she was born, my wife pretty much gave up on the bastard that I had become. I was good to the kids but that was about it. I was not much of a father at that time but I did love my children.

I hooked up with many women for a time, but none of them could tolerate what I had become. Then I met a real glutton for punishment. She had kids also and I tried to be good for them all, but I know as much as I was drinking, it was not good for anyone.

I do not know how she put up with me for so long, but she watched me try and fail many times to quit drinking over the next three years. One time I managed to white knuckle it without a drink for almost six months.

I was just one day short. So she threw me out and I quit yet again. It did not last long, but she worked second shift so when I got home from work at a little after five I had until about eleven-thirty to get all of my drinking done and everything put up and hidden before she got home.

I was drinking at least two cases of beer a night by this time and I had to jump in bed and act asleep when she got home. But I was very miserable, I really did not want to hide it and I knew that I could not quit nor did I want to lose her.

One really bad night when the kids were in bed and I was particularly drunk, I sat alone at the kitchen table and decided I was done with it all. So I picked up my loaded .357 magnum and put it to my head and pulled back the hammer. This was going to be the end.

Then all at once it hit me that I was alone with the kids and this would wake them up. I quickly realized what they would see when they came in and I put the gun down and started crying.

I was done.

I was praying to the very GOD that I had turned my back on years before. When my girlfriend came home, I told her everything. At first she was also done, but she still was listening and she realized too that I was really sincere.

So she had me call a friend of hers who is a recovering alcoholic. I had a bit of hope but was I scared. I managed to stay completely sober the next day and I attended my first AA meeting.

These people were nuts ( I thought at the time) here I wanted to learn how not to drink and these people were sitting around talking and laughing and actually enjoying themselves. I thought this was supposed to be serious, and all they kept talking about was their day to day problems and how they dealt with them.

They were so glad that I was there and most of them made it a point to welcome me and ask me to keep coming back that I decided that I would. It was very difficult to stay sober but NOW I had real friends to help me.

As time went on, I learned that it was the day to day problems and emotions that I had lost touch with. I had forgotten how to deal with them in my drunken stupor. I kept going and learned finally that I drank because I wanted to and that if I drank again it would be because I wanted to.

So here I am, happy and happy to say that I have not had a drink in over fourteen years. I still know that I could easily become that practicing alcoholic and all it would take is one drink.

I hope this can help someone and that it has been worth your time to read it.

Haiti’s Progress

kpaul.mallasch — Mon, 4 Aug 2008 15:35:26 -0700

By Martha Randolph Carr

Haiti is a country that has defied change in the worst possible ways for all of its existence. However, there are signs that perhaps there is hope at last for the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Two recent announcements have the potential to create some real and lasting change for the impoverished Caribbean country. Last Thursday, a new female prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis was ratified after several stalled attempts paving the way for the delayed senate elections and desperately needed foreign aid. Ms. Pierre-Louis, 61 and an educator comes from the Open Society Institute founded by George Soros, which works to promote emerging democracies and human rights. Perhaps it was worth the wait to gain such a fresh perspective in a country that also survived Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier’s reign of terror.

The other piece of good news came when the charity, Mercy & Sharing, which was founded by American, Susie Krabacher in 1994 specifically to aid Haitian children recently announced plans to double their footprint in Haiti with a 16 acre, 38,000 square foot development in Williamson, located about an hour away from Port au Prince.

The new facilities, expected to open by end of 2009 will include another orphanage, a feeding center expected to serve 500 people per day, a hospice for terminally ill and disabled children, a vocational school with a capacity for 100 children and a primary school that will initially teach 200 children and eventually expand to 500 students.

The small country has known mostly violence since its inception when all of the indigenous people were pushed into extinction and replaced by African settlers. Since then most of its rich natural resources have been destroyed with only 7 percent of the original forest still remaining leading to soil erosion and loss of minerals as well as extensive contamination of the water supply. None of the country’s water is considered potable.

Haiti sits across a spit of ocean from Cuba and Guantanamo Bay and only 750 miles off the coast of Florida. Malnutrition, disease, lack of education and unemployment have been staples of Haitian life along with a steady stream of violence.

In April, deadly riots over food shortages lead to the government ousting Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis without thinking of the consequences of having no one to name in his place. For months, no one was legally capable of signing for foreign aid as the price of rice continued to rise. Mercy & Sharing, which already operates feeding centers in Port au Prince watched as greater numbers of people struggled to eat. “People who could have afforded rice two years ago can’t buy it now. The price has doubled,” said Krabacher. But the outside world could do very little as they watched two previous candidates for prime minister fail to achieve a majority vote and a stalemate continue as the populated went hungry.

One of the greatest hopes Krabacher has from the new projects, which will cost $1.7 million from donations is that out of the children they are helping to raise will come Haiti’s future leaders. Krabacher has a little experience with starting from where you are with what you have to offer. She began the charity with an idea, a 10th grade education and limited savings and has helped to build facilities that already include orphanages, a hospital, day clinic, feeding center and schools. They are the most successful charity operating in Haiti today despite death threats and corruption in areas where other charities have given up and left town. Krabacher, along with her husband, Joe, an attorney in Colorado, even pay for all of the charity’s administrative costs out of their own pockets so that 100 percent of all donations can go directly to the projects in Haiti.

There’s still a very long road ahead before Haiti turns any kind of corner toward self-sufficiency or even the promise of peace for its people but at last there are signs that progress is being made.

Martha Randolph Carr’s latest book, A Place to Call Home about the reemergence of U.S. orphanages is available wherever books are sold. If you’d like Martha to come and speak to your group visit: www.newvoicespeakers.com.

Author’s email: Martha@caglecartoons.com or visit www.martharandolphcarr.com. If you’d like to learn more about Mercy & Sharing go to www.HaitiChildren.com.

©2008 Martha Randolph Carr. Martha’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. newspaper syndicate.

Shaping up Our Fat Kids

kpaul.mallasch — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:32:40 -0700

By Tom Purcell

Ah, summer. We all know what that means: our kids are getting even fatter.

Surely you're aware of the battle against childhood obesity. It's in high gear during the school year. I read about it in the Washington Post.

With physical education classes offered in fewer than 10 percent of public schools, some state legislatures are fighting to mandate 30 minutes of PE every day in school.

Recess has also gone to the wayside at many schools, now that teachers need the extra time to bolster self-esteem.

And a great junk-food battle is under way -- a battle that has made its way to the halls of Congress, where our politicians threaten to ban the selling of candy, soda, salts and fats in schools.

Despite the school-focused anti-obesity efforts, a bigger challenge has emerged: kids are getting even fatter when they are at home.

A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Public health confirms it: the body-mass index of kindergartners and first-graders increases two to three times as fast during the summer than during the rest of the year.

According to the Post, kids have less structure during the summer months. And because their parents lavish them with dough, they're able to use their free time buying goodies at the 7-11 -- with plenty of dough left over for a cab ride home.

How to solve the summer-time obesity epidemic? The Post asked health experts for advice.

First tip: parents need to share in the responsibility of keeping their kids fit. They need to get their kids outdoors.

That's ground-breaking advice, to be sure, but I think it was invented by the very first parents, who passed it on to subsequent parents, who kept passing it on until the current batch took over.

Hey, my dear sweet mother frequently applied the concept in the '70s when she told my sisters and me: "I'm sick of looking at your face, go outside and play, and you better not be late for supper."

My mother had no Ph.D, but she was also aware of the advice another expert shared with the Post: "Studies have shown that the more time kids spend outside, the more active they are!"

You don't say! And here I thought chomping on Doritos and playing video games was the way to make kids more active.

Look, I'm as concerned about our obese kids as the next fellow -- some 16 percent of our kids, three times the percentage in 1980, are overweight, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- but we're trying to solve the problem all wrong.

Here's what we need to do: bring back the old-style parents, clear-headed people like my mother and father.

When we said "I'm thirsty, there's never any Pepsi to drink around here," my mother would say, "You want something to drink, what's wrong with water?"

When we said, "I'm hungry, there's nothing to eat around here," she'd say, "You want something to eat, what's wrong with fruit?"

When we were in a lazy mood and said, "There's nothing to do around here," she'd say, "You want something to do, I'll give you something to do," and we were soon mopping the floors or mowing the lawn.

I know our wealthy society is overwhelmed these days with lots of high-calorie foods that our bodies were not designed to consume.

I know some moms and dads, who both need to work to make ends meet, don't have the luxury to be home with their kids during the summer months.

I know the '70s was an easier, simpler time to be both a kid and a parent.

But I also know there was only one obese kid in my entire township. A few were chubby -- that's natural for some kids and they often outgrow it -- but the vast majority of kids were in great shape.

We were in great shape because we had stubborn parents, who, despite a lack of studies and experts telling them what to do, made sure we were active and ate right.

Maybe the experts should do a study on that.

©2008 Tom Purcell. Tom is a humor columnist nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons.

Healthy Help Wanted

kpaul.mallasch — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:46:26 -0700

By Tom Purcell

"So you feel you're the most qualified candidate for this position?"

"Absolutely. As you see by my resume, I graduated with honors from MIT."

"Impressive. But tell me. How often do you go to the gym?"

"The gym?"

"Yeah, workout, pump iron, run on the treadmill."

"Not as much as I'd like. But in my previous position, I won several awards for innovating processes that saved my employer millions."

"Wonderful, but let me ask: if someone set a Twinkie on a plate next to a low-fat Snackum, which would you choose?"

"The Twinkie. Let me also state that I was in charge of a project that improved my department's revenues by a nearly 28 percent."

"Remarkable. Do you drink one to two glasses of alcohol a day or more than six at one sitting?"

"I enjoy a few beers now and then. But what you really should know is that I recently graduated in the top 10 percent of my MBA class at the Wharton School of Business."

"Wonderful, but what I really want to know is this: what do you normally have for breakfast?"

"Eggs, I suppose. At Wharton, my master's thesis examined technological processes that could improve your company's production efficiencies by 20 percent or more."

"When you eat breakfast, do you prefer trans-fatty margarine on your toast or butter?"

"Margarine. I don't mean to boast, but a former employer praised me as project manager of the year."

"Excellent. Any diabetes, heart disease or high cholesterol in your family history? According to your blood tests, you are prone to develop all of these things."

"Blood tests? You mean from the physical you made me take? Look, sir, I am widely regarded as one of the world's leading authorities in my field! I have impeccable credentials. Why don't you ask me about that?"

"Don't you read the papers? The Wall Street Journal says that employer health-care costs are poised to rise 10 percent -- that's according to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey. Because of cost-shifting, companies that pay for private insurance are covering the cost of both the uninsured and the government insured."

"The government insured?"

"Medicare and Medicaid restrict fees. They also require extensive paperwork, which drives up costs. To provide care to Medicare and Medicaid patients, doctors and hospitals simply charge those who can pay -- those with private insurance -- more."

"I didn't know that."

"Then know this: nearly 20 percent of every dollar spent by private insurers will cover the uninsured, Medicare and Medicaid. Our health care system is costly BECAUSE of excessive government intervention. And because health-care consumers aren't spending their own money, they don't care what things cost."

"We don't?"

"According to the National Coalition on Health Care, America spent $2.3 trillion on care in 2007 -- a whopping 16 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP). Surely some clear-headed reforms could simplify our system, reduce costs AND still cover the uninsured."

"It can?"

"But as an employer who buys private health insurance for my employees, I can't control much of that. But I can reduce my premiums by controlling what my employees eat, drink and do."

"You can do that?"

"According to the San Francisco Chronicle, one employer not only required his employees to stop smoking, he demanded it of their spouses, too. He enforced his ban through random testing. Employees caught smoking get canned."

"But what does all of this have to do with me?"

"As your employer, I have every legal right to ask you to authorize access to your medical records. You will eat a healthful diet and forsake any bad habits that will add to our premiums."

"Well, sir, are you offering me this job or not?"

"That depends."

"Depends on what?"

"If you had to choose between an unsalted wheat cracker and a Doritos chip, which would it be?"

©2008 Tom Purcell. Tom is a humor columnist nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons. Visit Tom on the web at www.TomPurcell.com or e-mail him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.

Alternatives Inc. Recruiting Walkers for 5K

kpaul.mallasch — Wed, 5 Mar 2008 09:59:28 -0800

Alternatives Incorporated. is recruiting walk teams to support Homeward Bound 2008. On Sunday, April 27th, Homeward Bound-East Central Indiana will join seven other regions of the state to form Indiana's largest annual grassroots fundraiser for homelessness. The event is a 5-Kilometer fundraising walk that will start and end at Millcreek Civic Center in Chesterfield. Preceding the walk will be entertainment, food & other fun activitites that will celebrate the achievements of the hundreds of businesses & individuals that participate in this significant event.

Alternatives Inc. is inviting you to organize a team & join the competition! 100% of the funds you and your team raise will directly support the agency's programs. This is a great way to let the community know that your group is a vital part in the fight against homelessness in the region. The walk is also the perfect opportunity to participate in a fun, positive, family-friendly, team-building event.

Information is available at www.homewardboundindiana.org or by calling Christy Baysinger at 765-643-0218 or email cbaysinger@alternativesdv.org.

Health care its cure -- Interview with Regina Herzlinger

kpaul.mallasch — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 13:26:58 -0800

By Bill Steigerwald

Money magazine has dubbed Regina Herzlinger the "Godmother" of consumer-driven health care, and it's not just because has written books with titles like "Consumer-Driven Health Care: Implications for Providers, Payers and Policymakers." The first woman to be "tenured and chaired" at Harvard Business School, Professor Herzlinger is widely known for her innovative research into health care and has written extensively for publications like the Wall Street Journal and health care industry journals.

Her latest book is last year's "Who Killed Health Care?: America's $2 Trillion Medical Problem -- and the Consumer-Driven Cure." It outlines her plan for creating a consumer-driven system that would deliver affordable, high-quality care to everyone by putting insurance money in the hands of patients, removing the third-party middleman in the doctor-patient relationship and giving employers cost relief. I talked to Herzlinger Feb. 13 by phone from her office in Cambridge, Mass.

Q: What is your shorthand description of the health-care system we have now in the United States?

A: Too costly and too erratic in quality, but still a system that preserves people's choice.

Q: What do you mean by "still preserves people's choice"?

A: You're not forced to go with a single-payer system where you have no independent voice about what you'll pay for what kinds of benefits.

Q: Is our health-care system as bad as our politicians and the media tell us it is?

A: Well, not all the politicians think it's that bad, but certainly the media trumpets that -- and it is a hugely unfair kind of trumpeting. One of the issues is that the World Health Organization ranks us as very low in quality of care. Of course, one of its criteria for quality of care is whether everybody is insured or not. That seems like not a good criterion to use. Most of the important research in medicine, which is so promising to finally make medicine into a real science, is done in the U.S. And certainly, if you compare the U.S. to a country like Japan or Germany or the Scandinavian countries, it's a ridiculous comparison because if you go to Japan or Germany you won't see the diversity we have in the United States. And certain ancestries are much more prone to certain kinds of illnesses than others. For example, African-Americans are much more prone to cardiovascular disease and diabetes than Caucasians. So this kind of willy-nilly quality measure that doesn't adjust for the differences within the population seems to me ridiculous.

Q: Who are the bad guys who are wrecking or ruining or distorting our health-care system?

A: Well, essentially the problem is that you and I have taken part of our salaries and given them to our employers to use in buying health insurance on our behalf. There is no way they could buy our clothes or our homes or anything else as well as we can -- and they don't do a very good job of buying health insurance, either.

The only reason we've done that is because they can use our salaries pre-tax to buy health insurance, whereas if I were cashed out by Harvard and it gave me back the $15,000 I use on health care, I would have to pay taxes on those $15,000; I could only use after-tax money. So as inept as employers are in buying health insurance for their employees -- and they are inept not because they are stupid but because how can they possibly know what you want versus what I want; we only do it because of the tax status, and that's a big problem.

The same problem -- i.e., a third party buying on our behalf -- also holds for Medicare, where the purchasing is done by the U.S. government, and for Medicaid, where the purchasing is done by state and local governments. So the biggest problem with our health-care system is that the agents we have appointed to take care of health insurance and health care -- which are the government and businesses -- are not very good at it.

Q: If we had a consumer-driven system of health care, what would it look like?

A: Everybody would be required to buy health insurance. If you were poor, you wouldn't be stuffed into Medicaid, which is not a great program because lots of doctors refuse to see Medicaid patients because they get paid so badly for them. Instead, you would be given money to go out and shop for health insurance just like everybody else. Eventually, people on Medicare would be cast out and they could buy what they wanted. That's what a consumer-driven system would look like -- in other words, you and I would be buying the health insurance.

The second crucial attribute of this system is in order to make sure that we weren't buying stupid, we would need a lot of information, not only about the quality of our health insurers but also about the quality of the health-care providers that they provide access to. I need open-heart surgery? How good is this doctor in that hospital versus another doctor in some other kind of hospital? That's what we need.

Q: What or who is the chief obstacle to our developing a better system?

A: One is this tax preference, where only your employer can use pre-tax money to buy health insurance; that's a huge barrier and it's a big (undertaking) for employers. They don't like buying insurance; they have a business to run. They have a paper to publish or something else to do and they are obligated to buy this very important item for us. So the tax preference is a huge item and Democrat or Republican, that will be corrected by the next president. The problem that is much more difficult to correct is the problem of transparency, and that is that providers do not want to be measured and they are hugely powerful. But unless we know whether we are buying a Toyota or an Edsel, we're never going to get to a higher-quality, lower-cost health-care system. And the only way you and I can know that, because we are not doctors and we are not scientists, is if we had good data that was accessible to us.

Q: The same kind of data we have when we buy a car?

A: Or a computer. Nobody understands how they work. Nevertheless, computers have become cheaper and better and they have become consumer items because there's terrific information. That's why Dell, for example, flourished because people like me who don't know a bit from a byte nevertheless knew Dell was a good purveyor. It no longer is, but when I first bought a computer it was a good purveyor.

Q: What do you think of Hillary Clinton's health-care plan?

A: Well, I like the universal coverage and she does have choice, so allegedly under her plan you could choose to either buy a private health insurance or a public insurance. That's the rub. The public choice that she would offer is hugely subsidized. For instance, she would offer Medicare for people like us. Well, Medicare -- ha -- for every eight dollars spent, seven dollars are paid by somebody other than the recipient. So if we were offered Medicare, which is hugely subsidized, of course we would opt for it. But we would put a tremendous burden on our children and grandchildren, and we would enlarge the government's stranglehold on the health-care system. Government is not good for health care. Government is political.

Government is bureaucratic. Government kills off innovation. Not a good idea. Her plans for controlling costs are equally bureaucratic. It is that the government would tell doctors how to practice medicine better. Already, physicians in their 50s and 60s can't wait to leave the profession. They just can't stand it. This would put the final nails in the physician coffins.

Q: Does any politician have a better plan than Mrs. Clinton?

A: I think McCain has a pretty good plan. He's very high on transparency. None of the other candidates really push transparency because the special interests are so powerful and they don't want it. McCain has the courage to say, "I'm going to make data available about how good your doctors and hospitals are," so in that way it's better.

Both Mrs. Clinton and McCain advocate something else that's very important, and that is they want to get away from "pricing by procedures," where a doctor makes money only when he does something for you. That might seem like a good way to price, but what it stops doctors from doing is doing things that might make you a lot healthier, because if they make you a lot healthier, the doctor won't be paid anymore. This is called "procedure-based pricing" and it's very pernicious. It stops providers from making sure that they catch diseases early on, for example, or that they use less-costly interventions because although doctors are very good human beings, they are also financial human beings, so they get a financial benefit for doing more rather than a financial benefit for making us healthier so we don't need them so much. Both Clinton and McCain understand this and have promised to change this form of pricing.

Q: Are we heading in the right or wrong direction on health care?

A: I think we're headed toward universal coverage, which I think is a very good idea for the simple reason that if you're sick, the 20 percent of the people who are sick spend 80 percent of the money on health care. If you are sick and uninsured, there's no way you will be able to get health insurance because it is so expensive. So until we have the healthy subsidizing the sick, the sick in the United States who don't have health insurance are going to be in the terrible situation of being both sick and uninsured.

McCain doesn't like universal coverage. Neither does Obama. Only Mrs. Clinton is for it. However, Mrs. Clinton and Obama are both for a lot of government intervention. In health care, that's a really bad thing. McCain is the only one who wants everything to be done through the private sector. For example, he would subsidize people so they could go out and buy health insurance rather than having the government dictate the insurance policy to them.

Q: Like food stamps?

A: Like food stamps. Correct.

Q: Are you optimistic or pessimistic that our political leaders have the wisdom to take their paws off health care and allow a free market or a semblance of one to develop?

A: No. If the Democrats get elected, absolutely not. And what I now see, they are all about more government -- more government funding, more government control. I teach at the Harvard Business School. In a class of 100 students, I have 20 fully trained doctors. I say, "What the heck are you doing here? Why aren't you practicing medicine?" They say, "I cannot practice medicine any more." That's a tragedy and that tragedy will become much worse under a Democratic administration.

Bill Steigerwald is a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. E-mail Bill at steigerwald@caglecartoons.com. ©Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, All Rights Reserved.

Public Invited to Learn How to Address Sensitive Topics with Aging Parents

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:43:30 -0800

New Study Shows it’s Time to Get Seniors and Their Families Talking

ANDERSON, IN - Baby boomers can learn how to talk with their aging parents about sensitive and awkward topics like driving, finances, independence and romance as part of a national education campaign called “The 40-70 Rule.”

The public is invited to a free community forum at the Anderson Library, Miami Room, Tuesday, February 5, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Senior care expert Joe Wrin, with Home Instead Senior Care in Anderson will discuss how to overcome communication hurdles and share results of a first-of-its-kind study that shows when a child reaches 40 or a parent reaches 70, it’s time to start talking. Panel discussion includes local healthcare professionals, social workers and case managers, long-term care and estate planning experts as well as a representative from the Social Security Administration. Refreshments will be served.

Home Instead Senior Care provides in-home, non-medical care and companionship to seniors in Madison and Delaware counties.

For a free guide of conversation starters for sensitive senior-care subjects, contact the local Home Instead Senior Care office at 765-643-5200 or joe.wrin@homeinstead.com. Visit www.4070talk.com for additional information.

Source: Press Release

Second Harvest Column: Dream Ball Information

kpaul.mallasch — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:13:09 -0800

By Lois Rockhill

A black, curly-haired puppy will be featured at the Dream Ball the evening of Feb. 2. The little boy is a miniature golden doodle. He will grow up to weigh about 26 pounds and won’t shed much if at all, making him a great addition to a family of allergy prone humans.

His heritage is golden retriever and miniature poodle. Being a golden doodle brings together the best of both breeds with fewer health concerns according to the Web site. He is being offered at auction by Doodle Darlings by Glory Lane in Pendleton to raise money so human little boys and girls will have enough to eat.

You can see a cute picture at http://www.doodledarlings.com. If that furry little face calls you to the Dream Ball, phone Tiffany Jones at (765) 287-8698 Ext. 100 to make your reservation. If your puppy quota has already been met, you might be interested in some of the other ways to end hunger and feed hope for people in need in east central Indiana.

The live auction with our wonderful showman Jeff Boone will offer a couple of packages including hotel stays, carriage rides and other amenities. Father Bob Williams, pastor at St. Mary’s church in Anderson and a renowned regional chef, is offering a Dinner at the Rectory with food, spirits and entertainment. Tom and Bobbette Snyder are providing a weekend at Lake Tippecanoe and Fadely’s The Jeweler has donated an exquisite necklace.

Over at the silent auction tables, patrons will bid for services, gift certificates and lovely items donated from throughout the regional community. I picked up a man’s stainless bracelet from Standt’s Fine Jewelry, ready perhaps to be engraved for your Valentine.

The Snyders will emcee the evening, sharing food bank facts and encouraging all to participate. There will be plenty of time to enjoy food and friends and to dance to the music of the Endless Summer Band. You will love how Kathy Flemming from Seasons of the Heart highlights the beautiful ballroom with awesome decorations.

We are delighted to have Tom and Bobbette Snyder as our honorary chairs. They are both longtime friends of Second Harvest and of the community. Tom is the new president of Ivy Tech Community College and Bobbette is the executive director of the Leadership Academy of Madison County.

By the end of the evening Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana hopes to raise $30,000. Corporate sponsors are covering expenses allowing all money raised through the auction and reservations to be used for hunger relief.

Saint John’s Health System is the featured sponsor this year. Associate sponsors include Prairie Farms Dairy, Old National Bank, DelTec Information Solutions, Community Hospital Anderson and First Merchants Bank of Central Indiana. Don’t be surprised if you see a couple more added by event day as some approvals are still moving through the corporate channels! Contributing sponsors are Friends of Second Harvest, Larry and Louann Contos, and W.R. Duncan & Son Inc.

Second Harvest Food Bank exists so that the most vulnerable people in this eight-county region will be free from hunger. We do this through advocacy and by soliciting, storing and distributing food designated for families struggling to make ends meet.

Our operational budget is $700,000. This does not include the value of the product we handle. The money allows us to secure and distribute three to four million pounds of donated food a year. Funds come from individuals, businesses, foundations, United Way, United Fund and other grants, as well as support from the pantries and meal programs we supply.

The Dream Ball is a special event and the biggest one we do. Most people attending give to Second Harvest at other times during the year or belong to organizations that do. The event offers the opportunity for friends of the food bank to come together for a wonderful evening, to raise money collectively and to have fun while doing so.

If a fancy, schmancy dance with a got-to-love-it auction sounds good to you, we hope you call to reserve your place at a table. You will join a crowd of nice people and every dollar you spend will provide five pounds of food for a community neighbor in need.

We hope to see you at 6 p.m. Saturday night, Feb. 2, at the historic Paramount Centre Ballroom in downtown Anderson ... ruff, ruff, ruff … is that a golden doodle pup I hear? Is he calling for his new family? Does it sound like the doggie version of your name? Well then, be sure to call Tiffany today!

Lois Rockhill is executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana. She can be reached at lrockhill@curehunger.org

New Plan to Give Thousands of Uninsured Hoosiers Quality Health Care

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:46:28 -0800

INDIANA STATEHOUSE - The state will begin accepting completed applications for the new Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), which will provide health care for thousands of Hoosier adults, on Monday, Dec. 17. State Rep. Tim Neese (R-Elkhart) voted for the legislation creating this program during the 2007 legislative session.

"Families in our community should never have to go without quality health care," said Rep. Neese. "This opens up the doors to thousands of Hoosiers that currently do not have the opportunity. Space in the program is limited, so I encourage everyone to apply quickly."

To be eligible for the program, applicants must be between 18 and 64 years old (Medicare eligible at 65), have a household income between 22 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level and must have been uninsured for at least six months.

The program differs from traditional entitlement program because enrollment is dependent upon available funding, and eligibility will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Additionally, participants will be required to make a modest financial contribution to the plan, providing incentives for individuals to price shop and look for the best values in medical services and prescriptions.

Those whose income is too great to qualify for the program, but who are still uninsured, may buy into the HIP program and will not receive state subsidy.

For more information on HIP and to download an application, visit http://www.hip.in.gov/ or call 1-877-GET-HIP-9. Plan coverage officially begins in January 2008.

Source: State Rep. Tim Neese Press Release

Fall Open Burning Season Ends Friday, November 30

kpaul.mallasch — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:26:19 -0800

ANDERSON, IN - The Fall Burning Season for residents of the City of Anderson will end on Friday, November 30 at 6 p.m. No burning will be allowed in the City of Anderson after this date except for recreational purposes.

Residents living outside of the City of Anderson may continue to burn clean dry wood and leaves in a non-combustible container according to the guidelines of the State of Indiana. Open burning on the ground is NOT PERMITTED in the State of Indiana.

If there are any questions regarding the open burning regulations, the City of Anderson Department of Municipal Development Air Management Division may be contacted by phone at (765) 648-6158.

Fall Open Burning Season Begins Oct. 1

kpaul.mallasch — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:44:02 -0700

ANDERSON, IN - The Fall open burning season for the city of Anderson, begins Monday, October 1 and will continue through November 30th. During this time Anderson residents are allowed to openly burn wood products in a container on their personal property. Open burning on the ground is NOT PERMITTED in the State of Indiana.

The following guidelines must be followed:

Only clean dry wood or leaves are to be burned.
All burning is done in a non-combustible container with solid enclosed sides and ventilation near the bottom edges of the container.

Note: A metal 55 gallon drum with holes drilled near the bottom edge of the drum is an acceptable container.

The fire must be attended at ALL times.
A means to extinguish the fire must be readily available.
All burning must be extinguished by 6 PM.
If the burning creates a nuisance, it must be extinguished.

Violations of the city’s open burning regulations can carry a civil penalty of up to $2,500 per violation.

If there are any questions regarding the open burning regulations, the City of Anderson Municipal Development Department Air Management Division may be contacted by phone at (765) 648-6158.

Heat Relief Shelters Remain Open Friday

kpaul.mallasch — Thu, 9 Aug 2007 17:11:55 -0700

ANDERSON, IN - Three shelters designated for heat relief will remain open in Anderson through Friday evening, Emergency Management Director Frank Dick said.

Although few residents have taken advantage of the facilities’ air conditioning and basic comforts, Mayor Kevin S. Smith thanked the three churches who have opened their doors and reminded those without transportation, “Nifty Lift transports are on standby for those who have no other way to get to a shelter.”

Peter Heuer, General Manager for the City of Anderson Transit, said temporary Nifty-Lift transportation will be provided for Anderson residents with heat-related needs and no other way to get to a shelter. To arrange for pickup, Anderson residents should call 644-8312.

The shelters are:

New Hope United Methodist Church, 1503 Louise St., (649-1892).
Aletheia Fellowship and Ministry Center, 2505 Faith Dr. (south of Hoosier Park, off 53rd Street, 649-3480)
East Side Church of God, 2600 E. 5th St. (649-3534)

Cots at the heat relief shelters are being provided by the Anderson Chapter of the American Red Cross and the 2nd Harvest Food Bank is assisting with light refreshments and liquids.

Anderson Mayor Orders Heat Relief Shelters for Wednesday, Thursday

kpaul.mallasch — Tue, 7 Aug 2007 17:27:28 -0700

ANDERSON, IN - Anderson Mayor Kevin S. Smith today directed the city’s Emergency Management office to arrange for heat relief shelters for citizens due to forecasts that expect the heat index to exceed 105 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday. “We urge all citizens to utilize these shelters to avoid heat-related illness,” he said. “Nifty Lift transports are on standby for those who have no other way to get to a shelter.”

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, three Anderson churches will provide 24-hour air conditioned shelters, light refreshments and water. Cots will also be available for resting and overnight stays.

Peter Heuer, General Manager for the City of Anderson Transit, said temporary Nifty-Lift transportation will be provided for Anderson residents with heat-related needs and no other way to get to a shelter. To arrange for pickup, Anderson residents should call 644-8312.

The shelters are:

New Hope United Methodist Church, 1503 Louise St., (642-1892).
Aletheia Fellowship and Ministry Center, 2505 Faith Dr. (south of Hoosier Park, off 53rd Street, 649-3480)
East Side Church of God, 2600 E. 5th St. (649-3534)

Anderson Fire Department EMS Director Don Watson said residents should exercise extreme care when temperatures reach such dangerous levels. Hydration – drinking plenty of water and liquids – and removing one’s self to a cooler location are key to maintaining one’s health.

There are three categories of heat-related illness, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Heat stroke is a life-threatening condition that will require intravenous hydration and hospitalization. Heat stroke is when the body’s sweating mechanism shuts down and the body is unable to cool itself.

“Basically, if you’re sweating heavily, cramping and sick, go immediately to a cool location and start rehydrating yourself,” said Watson.

Doug Zook, superintendent of Anderson Department of Parks and Recreation said Anderson’s two swimming pools – Athletic Park and Southside Recreation Center - are open until 7 p.m. on Wednesday. On Thursday, Athletic Park will be open until 7 p.m. and Southside Recreation Center will be open until 10 p.m. The Athletic Park pool is located at 8th Street, on the east side of the Eisenhower Bridge. Southside Recreation Center is adjacent to Anderson High School on south Madison Avenue.

Cots at the heat relief shelters are being provided by the Anderson Chapter of the American Red Cross and the 2nd Harvest Food Bank is assisting with refreshments and liquids.