Paul's Infrequently Updated Blog

Last week, the big health care bill that has been working its way through Congress for the better part of a year was finally signed into law by President Obama. In my humble opinion, he should not have bothered signing this into law as it is a terrible piece of legislation.

When I voted back in November 2008, I voted for Obama in part because he promised to reform health care in America. The problem with health care in this country is not so much the care itself, which tends to be excellent, but rather the cost of medical procedures and the cost of medical insurance. Every year, my health insurance premiums seem to go up 5-10% while my annual pay rise is anything from 3-5%. As you can see, over time, the annual increases in health insurance premiums erode the value of my salary.

Obama had promised to do something about this, which was a reason for voting for him. Instead, what we get is a law that does nothing to address the spiraling costs of health care in this country. The U.S. is the only western country where a person can go bankrupt because of health care costs. This is simply unacceptable. I think the thing that shocks me the most is the opposition to single payer health care, which would be of benefit to everyone in this country. Most of the opposition was led by Republicans who used all kinds of scare tactics to either defeat the new law or have it radically modified.

What was really appalling was the use of the British health care system as an example of a system that does not work. Having been born in the UK and having the used the British National Health Service or NHS for 25 years, I do have to say that, despite having faults, the NHS is generally pretty good at delivering health care. This is borne out in data that shows that health care outcomes in the UK tend, on average, to be much better than here in the U.S. The U.S. is the country with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the western world, one of the lowest life expectancies and the fact that thousands of people die every year in the U.S. because they do not have access to heath care because they do not have health insurance.

This new law does not address the fundamental issues that affect health care in this country. If insurance premiums and health-care costs keep rising at the rate of 5%-10% every year, then heath-care will bankrupt this country. Health care already consumes about 16% of GDP in the USA while, in just about every other country, the heath care consumes only about 8%-10% of GDP. If projected health care accounts for 20%-25% in future years, many people will no longer be able to afford health care and the country will go bankrupt.

Yesterday, while I was recuperating from my accident at home, I got a phone call from the Panhandle Humane Society. The lady said they had a cat that they thought would be great for us and asked if we would be interested in adopting her. I told her that we now had two cats and that having a third would be a little too much for us.

After the conversation ended, I started think about this kitty at the Humane Society. During the phone call, I was told that she was a Blue Point Siamese between 2 and 5 years old. This cat has no hind paws and when she came to the Humane Society she had burns and sores on her backside. After thinking about it, I felt pretty bad for the kitty so, when Irene came home from the junior high, I told her about the kitty and we drove over to the Humane Society to see the cat.

She is a very friendly cat considering that she has been through a lot and we have decided that, when she has healed up a little, we will take her home. She has been named Cinders by the Humane Society although we may change her name when we take her home.

Until we can take her home, we plan on visiting her a few times every week to spend time with her and see how she is doing. Judging by her injuries, it may be awhile before we can take her home. I do find it shocking that anyone could treat an animal they way Cinders has been treated. At least she is now on the road to recover and we can giver her a good home.

Today I am sitting at home not at school, resting. Why am I not at school? Because yesterday I got into a car accident and wrecked my car. I am pretty sure it has been totaled, but I will have to wait for the insurance company to assess the damage before I can be sure.

Basically, I was pulling out of the McDonald’s onto 10th Street in Gering when I got hit by another car on the driver’s side of my vehicle. The sun had just risen and the glare was pretty bad and, even though I looked and then looked again, I did not see the other car. Both myself and the driver of the other vehicle had to be taken to the hospital and I have been told to take a week off work to recover. Fortunately, there were no major injuries, although I did suffer a shoulder injury and some whiplash.

I am pretty sure I will make a full recovery, but I am pretty bummed about the whole thing. I really liked my little car and don’t know when I can get a new one. I also think it will be months before the insurance is all sorted out and I will not get another car until that is all sorted out and paid off.

Today marked the end of  of the third quarter and tomorrow is a Work Day for the teachers. Again, I have made sure that my grades are complete so all I will have to do tomorrow is get them verified and then I am done. This weekend will also be the start of our Spring Break.

For some reason, Gering Public Schools does not combine Spring Break with Easter. As a result, we get two long weekends. This year, one is in March while the second will be in April. I am afraid I find this a little bizarre to say the least. Almost every other school district gives their students (and staff) a full week in either March or April (depending when Easter falls) for Spring Break. This gives people the opportunity to go on vacation or just stay home to get ready for the last part of the school year.

The problem I see with dividing the time off like they do at Gering is that a lot of kids get pulled out of school anyway, thus missing up to four days of school. The argument has been made that giving them a whole week in the Spring would allow them to forget what they have spent most of the year learning. I don’t buy this argument. If that was so, then you can make a much stronger case for getting rid of the long summer vacation (as some people do). I don’t think taking a whole week in March or April will make much, if any, difference to how much learning the kids retain.

Once again, it does not really matter what I think. Each and every year, teachers are asked what they think of the next year’s school calendar and each and every year our suggestions and ideas are ignored.

On Wednesday, there was a meeting for Probationary Teachers that was organized by our Union, the Gering Educators Association. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the rights of non-tenured teachers. The meeting was held at a local pizza place so I got the opportunity to eat free pizza and learn more about my rights and responsibilities as a teacher.

When I got there, I found there I found that the turn out was pretty low. We had another snowstorm on the day of the meeting  and the roads are still pretty bad. In the end, only three other teachers turned up. I was still a little  surprised because, despite the conditions, I thought more people would show. I found the meeting very informative and I got the business card of the regional union rep for the Nebraska Education Association or NEA, the state union to which our local union is affiliated. So if I have any serious problems in the future I know who I can contact.

Also, we had another faculty meeting on Wednesday. Not surprisingly, the ESU #13 Winter Conference workshops came up. I could hardly believe it when one of my fellow teachers said how great the “Energizer” was with his presentation. When she started talk about the great things she had learned that she would use in the classroom, I was started to wonder if I had even been in the same workshop. I still say that workshop was dreadful and that the presenter only wanted to sell us his products.