[Oe List ...] all the earth belongs to all the people

Wed Sep 2 07:27:01 CDT 2009

Sort of makes entitlement an act of grace <g>.

Bill Schlesinger
Project Vida
3607 Rivera Ave
El Paso, TX 79905
(915) 533-7057 x 207
(915) 490-6148 mobile
(915) 533-7158 fax
bschlesinger.pv at tachc.org
www.projectvidaelpaso.org

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Susan Fertig
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 10:14 PM
To: 'Order Ecumenical Community'
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] all the earth belongs to all the people

Actually, Marilynn, I think an entitlement is something you receive as a
gift and didn't earn. I am now retired from the USAID, after a total of
about 13 years of Federal service (not all at USAID) and turning 65, And I
pay from my very small pension about $350 per month for single coverage Blue
Cross Blue Shield health insurance through the Federal Government plan).
That plan covers about 85% of my medical costs.  I opted to stay with that
plan and not take Medicare Part B, for which I would have had to pay an
additional amount, because I wasn't sure I could afford it.  May have been
short sighted.  I do have Medicare Part A for hospital coverage, which is
"free" but which I've paid into through my whole career and continue to pay
into through my current employment at my church.  Because I am diabetic,
among other problems, my prescriptions cost me more than $300 per month (my
insurance covers the rest of the prescriptions cost). That will probably
increase as I grow older and have more things go wrong.  I will probably
never be able to retire.  I hope I stay healthy enough to keep working.

Does that help provide some perspective on where I am coming from?

Susan

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From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of Marilyn R Crocker
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 11:04 PM
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Cc: oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] all the earth belongs to all the people

Dear Colleagues,

I am likely joining this conversation late in the game, but I have heard
some thoughts that I would like to note. 

Yours, Susan, is special. 

May I say, "Yes!", among others, I'm so glad you are back in the fold of our
conversation.  We need your perspective.

Knowing that you worked for the US government recently -- was it for the
State Department? -- I'm wondering if you have well and truly decided to
refuse the so-called "entitlements" including medical care, suggested by
your note below, "but not, please God, my government."  Wow, if so, I wish
you could encourage our legislators to either do the same, or provide what
they are getting for the rest of us, who are paying their salaries!

I think many of us, not as "entitled," who know our legislators are enjoying
quite fine "perks," lots more lavish than any we would ever imagine, would
say to you, "Yes, Susan, go for it -- you have given it up and so let's talk
about what is the alternative for those of us who have spent our lives in
service, but now need something more than what the health market will
provide?"

I'm wondering how we, as colleagues, can begin to "reach across the aisle"
and explore some strategies that we could together, propose or promote.  

Joe and I are in Maine with two highly informed and responsive, moderate
Republican Senators who, if any others, represent a possibility for
collaboration, partnership, consensus in  the Senate on so many of our
nation's key issues.

I'm wondering how we might continue our conversation on line based on
discerning how we can at this time more fully realize our history long
vision : all the earth belongs to all the people-- but without the slings
and arrows of partisan barbs.  What if we imagined ourselves sitting around
the collegium table, praying over the globe, together, once again.

Grace, peace and love,

Marilyn

On Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:41:22 EDT LAURELCG at aol.com writes:

Susan,

I love it that your voice is here. 

It isn't socialism we've fallen into so rapidly, in my humble opinion. It is
corporations ruling the government and thus all of us. Talk about
diminishing to nothing the human spirit. Is this an evil that the U.S. is
destined to act out to its full extent, as the USSR seemed to with their
brand of socialism?

I enjoy being on Medicare, and still I pay $550/month for health insurance.
That includes a long-term home health care policy that will be so difficult
and complicated to make a claim on when/if I need it, I'm not at all sure it
will ever pay anything. Fred's didn't. For dental and vision care, I'm on my
own. Surely we can do better than this.

By the way, in the spirit of speaking from the center of the table, can we
change "all the earth belongs to all the people" to "all the earth belongs
to all the animals, plants, soil and minerals" or something a little more
comprehensive?

In gratitude for this wise community whom I love,

Jann McGuire 

Jack and Paul, First of all, I appreciate your taking my question seriously
and not just dismissing it as uncaring or unthinking.

Next, I think what has always distinguished people of successful community
is that they CHOOSE to care for each other.  Not that there is a governing
body (the Soviet?) requiring it and thereby diminishing to nothing the human
spirit.

Finally, I do not believe that anyone or any government "owes" me medical
care, or food, or a home, or a car, or any of the things that everyone seems
to take for granted. If I am unable to provide those things for myself, then
I truly do hope there will be kind and generous people who will help me.
But not, please God, my government.

I have been so dismayed by our pell mell helter skelter descent into
socialism within an oh-so-short handful of months that I am no longer a
conservative.  I have lost all balance I ever had and have fallen right over
into libertarianism (not, of course, the LaRouche style version).  

Susan

  _____  

Marilyn R. Crocker, Ed.D
Crocker & Associates, Inc.
123 Sanborn Road
West Newfield, ME 04095
(207) 793-3711

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