A former colleague gave me the heads up. Thank you, Dick. You have an amazing memory.

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This must have been even more fun than doing The Who.

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And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you’re going to fall…

Helen as the White Rabbit

Helen began re-imaging the Alice in Wonderland characters in September.  We had the White Rabbit, of course.  Sam was the Mad Hatter.  I don’t have a picture yet but this is his hat.  It is made from a hat form acquired at a craft store and an inverted lamp shade.  The top is cut from a pizza box secured with antique button ‘hinges’ to make a ‘liftable’ lid.

The Hatter's Hat

Ever ready for a spot of tea, Hatter keeps a tea set inside his topper.  Florist foam makes a nest for a toy china set for four including tea pot, creamer and sugar.

Care for a Cup?

This is Helen’s last year at school so I am especially enjoying watching her make memories.  It is a small school on a large college campus.  The 150 or so students are very tight; the teaching and administrative staff know all the students by sight, name and character.  When it was time for judging costumes (which Helen had reservations about), a teacher called out “Anyone in costume that wants to be in the contest go in the other room and that means you, Helen.”

Typically, when I found the camera the night before the event, the battery was next to dead and no one could find the charger so I didn’t get pictures of Sam.  He wore the hat and spiral glasses.  Given that the Hatter tends to be formal, he wore dress pants.  Given the Hatter was mad, he wore a strait jacket.  Helen was particular about him wearing a vest as the Hatter does have some dignity.  Here are some pictures of the outfit sans Sam.

Strait Jacket For Formal Occasions

Zippers and straps for that tailored look.

The jacket is a modified chef’s coat with zippers in the front and back to give it a sleeker fitted look.  The buckles are from Helen’s old belts and the collar secured with a leather watch band.  The ‘vest’ is made from a thick upholstery velvet–quite grand.

We also had a Queen of Hearts (that would be me), a King of Hearts (Jeff) and a sweet six foot tall March Hare (Julian).  Hopefully I will be able to pull some pictures from Facebook or the yearbook advisor.

If you can't be good be careful

Some time ago I posted (in comments) the complete text regarding health care reform via newsletter from one of our North Carolina senators and in response to a letter I sent both senators.  Our other senator sent this  reply to the same correspondence.

October 28, 2009

Dear Friend,

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Community Health Insurance Option in health care reform. I greatly appreciate learning your view on this important issue.

As you know, the President and Congress have made health care reform a top priority. Each year, costs associated with our current health care system increase, without a corresponding increase in the quality of health outcomes. North Carolinians are rightly demanding that Congress do something about our nation’s health care system. Premiums for employer-provided coverage have doubled in the past nine years, growing three times faster than wages. Health insurance costs for self-employed workers, many of whom own small businesses, have risen 74 percent since 2001. On our current trajectory, health care premiums for the average family will rise to nearly $25,000 by the year 2016. North Carolinians are struggling to afford health insurance coverage, and one in five North Carolinians has no health insurance. Our nation’s unprecedented economic crisis has made it even more difficult for working families to manage medical costs while making ends meet. Without a doubt, our health care system is in dire need of repair.

The Community Health Insurance Option, which was included in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s health care reform bill, is commonly referred to as the Senate’s version of a public option. This option is part of the Affordable Health Choices Act, which was reported out of the HELP Committee on July 15, 2009, with my support. Specifically, the Community Health Insurance Option will serve as one backstop option for individuals without access to affordable coverage. In order to ensure that the Community Health Insurance Option competes on a level playing field, I insisted that it meet federal and state solvency requirements, that payment rates be negotiated, rather than tied to Medicare as some suggested, and that doctors and hospitals be free to choose whether to participate. This bill will provide stable coverage for every American, and a pre-existing condition will no longer prevent someone from getting the health coverage they need. Most importantly, this bill ensures that every American has an affordable option for health care insurance.

While I support the Community Health Insurance Option as a backstop insurance option for individuals who do not otherwise have access to affordable coverage, some have suggested alternative plans that may acheive the same goals. In particular, there has been a lot of discussion regarding establishment of non-profit health insurance co-ops or withholding the establishment of a public option unless health insurance costs meet specified reduction targets. I believe these ideas deserve full consideration as possible solutions.

Without action, health care costs will continue to soar, endangering our economic security. As a member of the Senate HELP Committee, I am working with my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle and stakeholders throughout North Carolina. I have prioritized expanding preventive services, strengthening the health care workforce, and modernizing the health care system to reduce costs. I strongly support the goals of this legislation. I have taken the concerns of North Carolinians into account during discussions over the last several months as this bill has moved through committee and toward the Senate floor. Congress’s objective is to send final legislation to the President that will bring stability and security to all Americans.

Again, thank you for contacting my office. It is truly an honor to represent North Carolina in the United States Senate, and I hope you will not hesitate to contact me in the future should you have any further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Kay R. Hagan

I have had some time to pull my tongue out of my cheek since yesterday and thought it might be a good idea to probe why health care payment reform is a women’s issue.  Senator Burr equated women’s concerns only with pregnancy and childbirth–significant times in many women’s lives certainly and in western cultures, highly medicalized.  There is more to health care payment reform that effects and can support women than this relatively infrequent incident in our lives. First, women do have distinct health care needs other than child bearing.  Some are related to our sexual organs and others to hormones, bone growth, you know, those straightforward pretty female things.  This is not to say that men can’t get breast cancer or have backaches from the funny way we primates are built.  This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and by now I think we all know that women are not the only ones who have tatas.

Care of http://www.marvelousmanboobs.com/

The issues of health care payment reform run deeper than individual’s health care.  For the record, I think that health care in this country is amazing.  We have very well trained doctors.  We have excellent medical training.  We have the best research facilities in the world.  We have superb hospitals.  We have professionals like nurse practitioners, midwives, physicians assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, every kind of therapist as well as alternative health workers like chiropracters, energy workers, massage therapists.  We got your health care.  What we don’t have is a workable way of paying for them.  And as time goes on, the system that we have developed through insurance companies becomes more unwieldy.  We are paying more and more and receiving less and less.  This is where health care payment reform must focus. So what’s the specific woman angle? More and more, women are the primary health care decision makers in families.  In ‘traditional’ two parent families women continue to be primary caretakers for children and (on the other side of life) parents to the doctor.  It is women who make decisions regarding whether or not to have that test or treat that virus or infection, whether to get a boot for the broken bone or go for the surgery.  In what is becoming an established family unit, the women led household, all the decisions are made by  the woman. As well, the number of women run small business is increasing exponentially.  And the current female entrepreneur creates a more group and family oriented than small businesses in the past.  Yet, small businesses continue to pay more for the same health insurance policies than larger firms. A severe overhaul of the health care payment system would support women’s aims.  And of men’s aims.  And of families and children and parents.  Politics central or politics aside, it is just the right thing to do.

All right, guys.  I’m ready for the slings and arrows.  I have said that in my opinion, expressing our opinions to our representatives on any level means less than spit in the ocean (meaning it has no effective outcome).  That doesn’t mean that you won’t find me on the hamster wheel every now and then (meaning making great effort with no forward progress).

I received an e-letter from Senator Richard Burr today with a little update on his activities in Washington.  He opened with a note of concern about how health care reform may effect women.  Luckily, he made this one clear statement upfront.

As I have stated before, I agree that we need health care reform so that Americans, regardless of whether they are male or female, can access affordable coverage.

It’s a great relief to know that my senator is going to represent North Carolinians regardless of gender.

So I read the e-letter half-wondering what his IT staff is doing since they are clearly not filtering their databases.  When I got to the bottom, what do you know, there were some phone numbers.  In fact,  Richard Burr lives near here and he has a local office.  So I called.  I didn’t expect to talk to him but the receptionist was very nice.  At first. And I was very nice.  Although I’m sure she wanted to wash her hands after I finished.

“What was this news-letter you received?  Where did you get this phone number?” she asked.

Because I doubt that she was going to personally (or at all) deliver my message I decided to get on-line and e-mail it too.  (That’s how I got on the newsletter mailing list in the first place.)  Ahem.

I just read your e-letter about health care reform and women’s health.  It said “Rather than creating a new government-run plan”;  I hope you meant “In addition to creating a new-government run plan.”

You brought up a number of points that are not primary to reform of the nucleus of our profit driven health care payment system.  Of course insurance companies should not be able to cherry pick according to fluid rules and formulas.  This is close to the mark.

In the same e-letter you talk about malpractice issues and ob-gyns.  This is less a women’s health issue than it is a doctor- insurance issue that effects pregnant women during the window of active reproductive cycles. It could be addressed more simply by decriminalizing lay midwifery. The majority of women’s health issues (heart disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis) are not related to a full uterus.  Again, this is not the primary issue you need to be working on.

The payment for health care services is dominated by a system that demands more and more and delivers less and less.  This is where reform is needed.

I hope that you can help focus an effort to create effective and reasonable legislation that serves the people that you are serving.

With kindness,

A productive tax-paying volunteering charity-donating interfaith-supportive patriotic egalitarian vocal American mother/daughter/sister

I meant to do this last week when the initial tempest steamed out of the teapot.  I’m glad that time got by me because yesterday new photos were published that add depth to the issue.

So as a teen and in my twenties I had issues.  Insecurity issues about my appearance.  I was by no means overweight but the evidence in the mirror proved nothing to me.  How we perceive the world is effected by how we are internally prepared to interpret the physical phenomena around us.

Lately there has been renewed concern about the images that are being portrayed about the human form, particularly the female human form.  This is not new.  I remember when Twiggy became the image for the ‘waif’ look.  Gaunt, skinny, childlike (after all, she was 16) the media soon became saturated with the starved looking little girl sex symbol.  For those of you that don’t hearken back to the day, this was the look that supplanted the sultry sirens of the 50s and early 60s.

The Face of 1966

What has changed is the ease with which images can be manipulated.  If a marketing company does not have a model that quite fits the image that it wishes to portray the photos can be ’shopped’ to develop whatever suits their idea of attractive and salable.  Whether or not the result resembles our species is not a priority.  Here is an example.

Imagine her coming out of a human birth canal

This model, Filippa Hamilton, is not particularly pleased with what the marketers did to her image here.  Let me show you why.

Frankly, if I looked like this it would make me peeved that someone decided that crossing my genes with a preying mantis would be an improvement.  What is worse, at 5′10″ and 120 pounds, Ralph Lauren fired her because she was too fat to fit into his clothes.

A lot of people that have objections to marketing do so because they see this as a ‘truth in advertising’ issue.  Let’s go back to Twiggy.  Recently, Oil of Olay renewed their contract with the now 59 year old model.  They are using her to advertise their anti-aging formula which she first represented when it came out in 1985.  Here is the face shot.

'Love the Skin you're in' ad, 2009

In this age of video camera corners and amateur paparazzi, it didn’t take long for a neighbor to come up with a candid shot of the model on her way to the grocery store.

Off to buy some cosmetics?

The truth in advertising issue doesn’t resonate so much with me because I am a firm believer that there is no truth in advertising.  What does concern me is that somehow a very attractive 16 year old girl in 1979 did not love herself because she had a skewed understanding of what was worthwhile.  And I don’t see a lot of progress in that for the 16 year old boys and girls today.

For those who don’t know, the motto of the United State Marine Corp is not ‘let’s kick butt’ or ‘we rule, you drool.’  It’s Semper Fidelis, Latin for Always Faithful.  And I respect that sentiment.  Marines choose to be held to and to hold themselves to certain absolute standards.  They adopt a measurable life style which includes tests of physical and mental endurance but also immovable and unquestioning loyalty.   The Marine Corp has developed systems to bring concepts to the surface where they can be weighed and measured.  They are straightforward and controlled.

In the course of teenage individuation, young people begin to look at the possibilities and options in their world, to discuss them and move in general directions.  Sometimes they talk to me about their ideas.  It’s funny to watch them mull over how they should express themselves.  I watch their jaws move while their mouths are still closed as if they are literally chewing over words.  You see, many of them have the strange idea that I am a full blown flower power make love not war retrogressive throwback to a wild time well before their births and which surely their parents had no part of.  I love them all.

Anyway.  When a young man or woman talks to me about the possibilities and opportunities in our military I generally tell them this.

Joining the military is a choice usually undertaken not only for the side benefits of three squares and gi bill and shelter but for service.  A military man or woman makes the unshakeable pledge to be put in harm’s way for the sake of the safety and lifestyle of the people of the United States.  The result may be honor or it may be death, dismemberment or emotional fracture.  This is what you are putting on the table.  That is your stake.

On the other side of the table is the partner with whom you are making a covenant.  You are giving that partner the authority to put your life in harm’s way.  You are gifting that partner the power to choose for you.  That person becomes primary and everyone else, your parents and their well-meaning advice, your partner’s opinion, your children’s desires, your friends and community become not secondary but inconsequential.  That is the trust you are putting in that person.

That person is the commander in chief of the armed forces, the president of the United States.  Democratic or Republican, advised by civilians or generals, this is the single person whose outstretched hands will be holding your present and future.  Is this person going to treat every decision with utmost respect to your willingness to individually  sacrifice your life or well-being?  Are you sure?  Because once you make that decision there are no-backsies.

Not long ago I posted a picture of three marines in Afghanistan taken by embedded photojournalist Julie Jacobson and published by the Associated Press.  In it, two soldiers were giving aid to Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard who later perished of his wounds.  His family did not want this picture published.  I do feel for them.  But the Associated Press believed that the photo was important and newsworthy and in these times of sanitizing the sacrifices of war I agreed.

Yesterday the Associated Press printed a family picture and an article about the efforts Lance Cpl. Bernard’s father John Bernard has been making over the last several months regarding military strategy.   Here is the Bernard family from March 2007.

The late Lance Cpl Bernard with mother and father

John Bernard is a former Marine.  He has been following policy and feels that the strategies in place will prove ineffective.  From the article.

Bernard’s criticism is aimed at new rules of engagement imposed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the senior American commander in Afghanistan, five weeks before Joshua Bernard was killed. They limit the use of airstrikes and require troops to break off combat when civilians are present, even if it means letting the enemy escape. They also call for greater cooperation with the Afghan National Army.

Under those rules, John Bernard said, Marines and soldiers are being denied artillery and air support for fear of killing civilians, and the Taliban is using that to its tactical advantage.

I will not comment one way or another on the soundness of Mr. Bernard’s suggestions or the current strategy of U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Stan McChrystal.  As an American, John Bernard has the right to express his opinion about such things.  I hope he understands, though, that the covenant is between young men and women who volunteered to be in harm’s way and the commander in chief.  Like the rest of us well meaning parents, friends, children, lovers, siblings, community members of service people, and the 2009 Ford Escape, he has no power.

Do they drink cow’s milk in India? Maybe it’s this.

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