A question about political issues for the Americans here

[Officer 1BDI]

If they ignore you, take it to a local newspaper or television station and let THEM deal with it. They'd jump on the chance.

Ah, sadly, I think they already know. It occasionally crops up in the local paper over there, but no one seems as enraged about it as I think they should be; the issue seems to die far too quickly, only to resurface every few months or years.

I'm not currently in the city (I was visiting my parents when it happened), and I'm not sure how much stock a letter written about an event that happened over a month ago would hold (because I believe the city's response would be something along the lines of, "Let me assure you, Ms. ___, that your incident was an unfortunate one time occurance, and we have superb response times to 911 calls 99.9% of the time....") I almost feel like I'd have to have the same thing happen twice to be able to make an argument, but calling the police on a whim to test their system is out of the question.

You're right; I should have brought that incident up right after it happened, and I'm sorry I didn't. But now, I'm not sure what dredging it up would do after so much time has passed.

I'm suddenly inspired to look up response times for my school's city, though....

[shaelyn76]

wow. This is my kind of topic. I will list out my top 5 political irritants and you can take from them what you choose.

1) Education/No Child Left Behind: My son is a "gifted" student and participates in the "gifted" program one day a week. Every year they cut the funding for the program more and more and say they can't justify spending the funds on so few kids when they still have so many underachieving kids in regular school. Now, Time just did a big article about how the No Child Left Behind policy has abandoned our most gifted students and I see this in action on a daily basis. Since my son is considered bright the teachers seem to expect him to just "catch on" to things while they focus on the "below average" kids. All of this to pursue a goal of getting test scores up. A test will only tell you so much about what a child actually knows. I feel that my son is not being given a decent education. I feel he is being shoved to the sidelines since he tests well. Shouldn't we be doing everything in our power as a society to encourage, support and educate our most gifted students? Afterall, they are the ones who will most likely push new innovations through and become pioneers in their industries of choice as adults. On an even more personal level, I was in the gifted programs all through school and it was before NCLB was put into place. i feel that I was given a better education by far than what is being offered to the average and above average students of today. I have a younger son who won't be in school for a few more years yet and I truly fear what the public schools will be like by that point in time.

Beyond the problems NCLB has caused, when did it become the educational systems responsibility to instill a sense of worth and self-esteem in my child? Funny, I was under the impression that that fell under my job description as a parent. Schools need to worry less about making John and Jane feel good about themselves and focus more on educating them so they can compete in an ever more competitive world market. Some public schools no longer give F's when a student fails an assignment as they feel it "makes the child feel worthless and like they are a failure". Well duh! They failed, therefore they are a failure at that particular task. In the real world workplaces when you are given a project by your boss, if you don't do it or do it to a sub par level, they aren't going to pat you on the head and say,"That's okay. i know you tried your best" they are going to fire you or at the least write you up and never promote you. We coddle our kids way too much and now they all seem to have this attitude of entitlement when they get to college. That is what some pundits and journalists have dubbed the generation that is currently between the ages of 16 and 26...The Entitlement Generation, because so many of them have never been pushed to do more than they wanted to, to live up to their potential or to find feelings of worth in their accomplishments. Sorry...that was a long one.

2)Gay Rights: My brother is gay. I love my brother dearly and when I see him treated as a non human because of who he loves it rips my heart out and makes me angry. I lived with my brother for the first four years of my oldest son's life and he was the best influence on both me and my son that I could ask for. He was my birthing coach and my shoulder to lean on when my worthless ex decided he couldn't handle things and went a bit psycho on me. Now, through my brother I have met many other gay and lesbian people. Some are what I would call good people and some are not...just like among us straight folk. Any serious relationship that my brother has been in for the past 12 years I have met the guy and the same is true of his dealings with his partners as with my dealings with mine. they have their ups and downs, they fuss and fight, they love and laugh. Why should they be deemed less than me just because they are both men and I am a woman in a relationship with a man? Well, they shouldn't. More and more biological evidence keeps surfacing to support that being gay is a hereditary thing (gods know my family tree is full of gay people, some closeted and some not) and even more evidence shows that even if it isn't carved in stone at birth what sexuality you will be, it is a strong combination of heredity and environment. I'm not sure I buy environment as we were raised Mormon where being gay might as well be being the devil. Equal rights for man, woman, child no matter who they love, live with, have sex with or how they have sex with said person.

3)Health Care: We have insurance. We are among the lucky. Even with insurance we ended up paying close to $3000 out of pocket when our youngest child was born. We continue to pay roughly $150 a month for the actual health insurance through my husbands job. Then we also pay a $20 co-pay at every doctor visit and until we reach our deductible we are responsible for the first $500 per person in medical expenses per year. Routine care(ie: my sons' vaccinations and my once a year Ob-GYN visit) are covered in full, but if one of us gets sick we are looking at a nice fat bill coming our way. Again, we are among the lucky ones who don't have to rely on Emergency Rooms to get basic health care. Health care bills cannot be claimed on bankruptcy now so millions of people just fall farther and farther behind on medical bills that they can't afford to pay and have no way out. Not that bankruptcy is a real great option, but at least it was there before. When people have to choose between food to eat or buying their heart medication it should be a red flag to our policy makers that something needs to change.

4)The War: We went into it under false pretenses and now are staying for no good reason. Warning...what I am about to say will sound harsh and mean: The Middle East has been a war zone for as long as I can remember. If they are that hellbent on destroying each other, let them. We shouldn't have poked our noses in there in the first place. Until the people of that area really want peace and democracy, they won't have it. I find it ridiculous that we are trying to push democracy on other countries when we ourselves are a Republic. As long as the Electoral College exists we have no room to go around telling others how to make a Democracy work. We will have a whole generation scarred by this conflict either literally or emotionally. The excuse that if we pull our troops out now we will send Iraq into a tailspin is bullshit at its finest. All it would do is set Iraq on a more natural course of figuring out what they want as their government instead of what we want for their ruling body to represent and be. Would there be loss of life if we pulled out? Yes. Would women's rights in the area take a few steps back? Most likely yes. Would we be dooming an entire country to failure and poverty? No. Again...if the Iraqi people want a free and open society, they will fight for it. If Iraqi women want more freedoms they too will have to fight for it. Remember that it really wasn't all that long ago in the grand scheme of things that women right here the US of A didn't have the right to vote and were treated as chattel. What did our foremothers do? They fought. They protested and pushed and made a ruckus until the men finally had to notice that they weren't going to go back to their kitchens and bake something quietly. Beyond all of that, we as Americans will never understand what it is to be an Iraqi and most of us will never understand what it is to be a Sunni or Shiite. Hell, most americans don't understand what being Muslim really means(I know I don't as I haven't studied it nearly enough and I sadly don't have any Muslim friends who could help clue me in), so how can we try to tell them how they should live. We need to pull the troops out and let Iraq decide who and what they want to be. Then we need to refocus on what is important and find Bin Laden and destroy his camps and chain of command.

5) Abortion: not the most popular of topics lately it would seem, but one I feel strongly about. I will sum up as quickly as possible my points on this. A woman gives up her body and many aspects of her life to carry a child to term. A man has to do neither. I am worth more than my womb thank you very much. If I get pregnant and I decide for whatever reason that I cannot or will not carry the child to term, I should have the right to terminate the pregnancy. Period. It is my body and my life that will be affected directly by the pregnancy, not the man in the situation and certainly not the lawmakers who will never even meet me. Partial Birth abortion though horrific in nature is sometimes the only way to save a woman's life. A woman who has family and friends and a life already established is IMO worth more than the "possible" life the unborn child may have. From what I have read, when the mother's life is in danger, usually the baby's life is as well if not more so than the mother's. I love my children dearly. I love them fiercely, to the point where it almost hurts sometimes and I loved them from the first time I felt them move inside me...but if at any point in either of my pregnancies my doctor had told me that I was most likely going to die if I delivered the child, I would have terminated the pregnancy(now that is only if the odds of my survival were very low or if the baby's survival rate was minimal). To have the government try to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own body is wrong. This also applies to my thoughts on several other legislated matters, but for this topics purpose I will leave it as this. Abortion is not an easy decision. It's not like you wake up one day and say, 'I think I'll run to the grocery store for yogurt and then go get an abortion." It shouldn't be used as a form of birth control. It shouldn't be available to very young girls who really shouldn't be having sex in the first place as they have already proven they have poor decision making skills(parental notification when under the age of majority seems to make sense to me except in cases of incest). Along those lines though, I think our schools have failed our kids again by teaching abstinence only. Lack of education on how to prevent pregnancy is I'm sure the cause of many. Our government at work again! Curiosity is a very powerful force in people, especially when it is about taboo subjects like sex or drugs. If we educate our kids about the realities of these things it takes away the mystery and makes it much less appealing to go off and do something stupid...and end up having and abortion at age 14.

Sorry for the absurd length. If you want some good references about the education issue I highly recommend that article I mentioned in Time magazine as it was chock full of statistics and research info.

[Strawberry Limeade]

Education/No Child Left Behind: My son is a "gifted" student and participates in the "gifted" program one day a week. Every year they cut the funding for the program more and more and say they can't justify spending the funds on so few kids when they still have so many underachieving kids in regular school. Now, Time just did a big article about how the No Child Left Behind policy has abandoned our most gifted students and I see this in action on a daily basis.

I read that article, and I agree with it and everything you said. I was in "gifted programs" beginning in 3rd grade, and they were sometimes the only classes I enjoyed. I was bored out of my skull through most of junior high and high school. Most of my teachers just gave us worksheets or short papers. I only studied for a handful of tests in high school. That sort of thing absolutely screwed me when I got to college. I had no idea how to take good notes and study because it had never been necessary for me to do that before. My grades suffered my freshman year while I figured out things I should have already known.

My hot issues:

- Gay Rights. Others have covered this better than I can. I'm a Christian, but I believe gays should have the right to marry. It wasn't that long ago that the church was using their position to protest interracial marriage.

- Sudan. The US can help Darfur (and the rest of southern Sudan) by putting pressure on the government in Khartoum to let the south half of the country secede and govern itself. Khartoum is in the northern half of the country, which is mostly Arab/Muslim while the southern half is mostly African. Unfortunately, the US likes Khartoum because Bin Laden spent several years there, and they've been feeding us information on him since 9/11. Useful information obviously, since it's been six fucking years since that day, and we've never even come close to capturing him. In 2011, the south will be able to vote to secede, but there's no assurance that the government in Khartoum will honor that decision if they think they can get away with it. Read What is the What or visit here for more info.

[Sagrei]

[a lot of intelligent and relevant stuff]

... Please come live on my commune. (When I get it all set up, anyway. How's Oregon sound to you?)

[Kess]

Disaster relief:
Having lived through Katrina on the gulf coast, I have to say this is probably the political issue with the most impact in my personal life right now. The govt really dropped the ball on this one, and I live in Mississippi, which really had their shit together compared to the crescent city. Man, if we could get a do-over on anything it would be the week leading up to that fucking storm.
Sagrei - where you at? I'm in Biloxi, but I work for Acadian.

Healthcare & 911 reform:
As a 911 provider, this issue has the second highest impact on me. We transport SO MANY patients with no insurance, and our company is an ESOP company - the employees own the stock and when the company profits, we profit. When we transport someone and aren't going to get paid, that ends up costing me, personally. That's my retirement, when I have to retire with a blown back from picking up obese people (our crew is rated for 150 lbs each - the two of us are expected to be able to pick up a 300 lb person without assistance) . It seems cold to boil it down to money, but someone has to put diesel, equipment, supplies and medics in the ambulances and your tax dollar (those of you who pay taxes - thank you) just does not cut it.
911 abuse -
I hate it that people use 911 as a taxi, because they can't get their lazy fucking friends or family to drive them to the doctor for something that started bothering them two weeks ago. This happens a lot.
I hate it that people use the emergency room as their primary healthcare provider because they have no insurance and know that an emergency room cannot turn them away. They do not have family doctors. They do not go to clinics for minor complaints.
I hate people who drive and talk on their cell phones. For that matter I hate it that they make cars sound proof these days. Yes its relaxing.. plase don't let our ambulance disturb your blissful driving experience. I wish they would let us transmit our sirens on cell phone & radio frequencies within short range of the ambulance.
I hate houses with no numbers on them. I hate people who steal street signs. I do not have your city memorized. I use a map. I rely on street signs for a fast response. I hate people who expose me to TB because they can't be bothered taking their meds.
In spite of all this hate, I love my job. Last year, I was making $7 an hour as an EMT. I can't live off that. I'm going back to school in a couple weeks so I can make better money as a paramedic.

As for the 911 dispatchers, when you call 911, especially from a cell phone, you may be transferred between multiple dispatchers before someone is able to help you. Locally, cell phone calls usually go to the sherriff's office, from there information is dispatched to the highway patrol, local FD first responders, local LE, you may speak to EMS emergency dispatchers too. They are human, and there is a limited number of them. The dispatcher may have been talking to someone else calling about the same joker who was also driving while talking on a cell phone, maybe didn't know where they were, possibly had poor information and didn't want to give a call back number because they didn't want to get involved. This dispatcher is also trying to collect iformation so she can dispatch first responders, FD rescue, law enforcement - possibly from multiple jurisdictions, hazmat, traffic control and EMS. Our sheriff's office has one dispatcher who takes calls. An average rollover on the interstate generates 10-15 calls to 911 from passers-by, some of whom just want to know why traffic is stopped.

If you ever wondered - less than 5% of 911 calls are immediate life-threatening emergencies. I can look up the source of that if you want, it was in a 2005 EMT textbook at our station.

Enough of that.

I wish they would take don't ask / don't tell and re-apply it to people's religious beliefs. I would rather hear about a gay orgy than your religious beliefs, whatever they may be. Please keep them to yourself.

This war was all about revenge from the start. George Bush is a prat.

I would like to see Michael Vick fed live to his own pit bulls.

Anyway, that's my $.01. I can't afford $.02

[AngharadTy]

Last year, I was making $7 an hour as an EMT.

That's legal in our world? D= Oh, man. I don't care what the local min wage is, that's not enough for an EMT.

[Sagrei]

Sagrei - where you at? I'm in Biloxi, but I work for Acadian.

I'm in Tampa. Last big direct-hit we had was Elena, knock on wood there hasn't been another since. Charley scared the bajeezus out of me. That was the only one since Elena I evacuated for. But that one was a cat. 5 at the time and when elephants dance mice get out of the way. Then, of course, that 'un hung a right and hit Punta Gorda (heehee, Fat End) and we got maybe a sprinkle at my evacuee-hotel. It was the three after Charley what killed off my electricity and telephones. And three network cards in my poor computer. That was embarrassing.

Really, if you ever thought about moving to Florida, you should move here. Our EMTs make... I'd have to ask my dispatcher pal what it is precisely, but considerably more than 7/hr. I want to say they *start* at 14, but then again, the price of living here has gone batshit insane lately with the real-estate boom. On top of that, you get way more dispatchers to play with. I cannot believe your sheriff has ONE. That's insane. The sheriff's office here has around 20 on duty at all times -- fire/rescue is about 5, but all calls get routed to the sheriff first, so it makes sense. I'm not sure how the city proper operates, as I don't know anyone who works there, but I have heard the benefits package is much better. (Including a box for football games.)

Thanks for reminding me, by the way. I have to write a nastygram to the city council and the county administrator about the budget cuts they're proposing for law enforcement and fire/rescue. God knows such letters never get anything ACCOMPLISHED, but it makes me feel better when the axes start falling. I tried, you know?

I hate houses with no numbers on them. I hate people who steal street signs. I do not have your city memorized. I use a map. I rely on street signs for a fast response.

Bwah! Oh, lordy, it's funny because it's true. We can always tell when cops are getting ready to run code -- they bob and weave all over the place because they're paying attention to the GPS in the laptop that's issued along with their cruiser. Once they know where they have to go, it's lights and sirens time --- and driving in a straight line time. Mostly.

I would like to see Michael Vick fed live to his own pit bulls.

Feed him alive to PETA. They have thumbs and they're more creative.

[Kess]

...they bob and weave all over the place because they're paying attention to the GPS in the laptop that's issued along with their cruiser. Once they know where they have to go, it's lights and sirens time --- and driving in a straight line time. Mostly.

We have GPS but we use it for backup because it's so slow. Usually we get dispatch to find us on their GPS which is faster, then they give us directions from where they see us. Their GPS is pretty cool, it tells them how fast we're going, if we're priority one, and who's seat belts are on. It also shows them the lateral g-forces on the unit, which tells them that 1) we're wheels side down and 2) we're not driving like maniacs and cornering at 50 MPH.

We also have the same dispatcher from 8AM - 4PM during the week, which is cool, because he knows about bad neighborhoods, the locations of nursing homes and city jails etc etc. I should mention that our EMS dispatcher is not local, we are dispatched from central LA. Now their call center has about 15 - 20 dispatchers in it. The local sheriff dispatcher only deals with rural calls and cell phone calls. Anything called in from a land line goes to the local city dispatchers first, then they transfer the caller to EMS or whoever they need.

BTW I was making $7 a year and a half ago. I'm making around $9 now.

[Jessi]

Kess, I'm curious (and not in a trying-to-start-a-debate sort of way, just curious!) what you define as calling 911 for a 'taxi' or what you would consider an emergency.

The reason I ask is because 3 weeks ago, when I was having major problems with the cyst I didn't know existed yet, I was lucky that Lindsey was home (..since it was 6 AM) and could take me to the hospital. Now, if she hadn't been here... yes, I could move, albeit painfully, and I could probably have driven myself, very slowly, to the hospital. And I got let out of the ER later that day - obviously it wasn't a HUGE emergency, but well, it helped them find my cyst, which was majority important. The point is, if Linds hadn't been home, I would have called 911 instead of driving to the hospital, even though it's just a few blocks away, because the pain was so intense I would have been afraid to drive.

I'm just curious to know if EMTs would consider this an actual emergency, or would laugh behind my back after they dropped me off e_e That's all xD

[Huggles]

I would say yes, it is. I went to the emergency room once because of menstrual cramps, and blacked out from the pain once I arrived there. Turned out to be just some weird fluke, but I'd probably have just collapsed and spontaneously combusted had my parents not been there.

My brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia about 2 years ago, but only started having real problems over the past 7 months. I have literally waken up to either the police, fire department, or paramedics banging on my bedroom door over 7 times in a two month span. I was thoroughly not amused. After the second call, the sent the same guys over. It was my brother, ironically—I use the word not knowing I'm correct in doing so but I don't care—who made all of the calls save two made by neighbors. He very much thought of them as his personal taxi service even though they never did anything other than wheel him to the emergency room and wait for someone to come pick him up. But after tossing me halfway across the kitchen and into the stove and going to the hospital coping center, he's finally come to realize that there aren't always going to be other people there for him to chat with, and he hasn't called in about 4 months.

[AngharadTy]

I have also heard that elderly people who have to get to the hospital to meet with their doctors can get into the habit of calling for EMTs to take them. I either heard this from Kess here or from my EMT friend in CA. Or both. I'm betting both.

[Kess]

No, real pain is a perfectly good reason to go by ambulance (although not always according to medicare/medicaid).

I am talking about people who call 911 from the interstate rest area, who have been hitchhiking all day and tell us they have horrible chest pain, rate it at 10 out of 10, and demand to go to a hospital 2 counties away, against medical advice (medical advice says: go to the closest hospital with appropriate facilities). Then when you get there, they are signed in and placed in triage, where 5 minutes later they walk out of the ED smoking a cigarette and head for the casino two blocks away.

It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and it just infuriates you, because most of the time we are at the mercy of such liars. It can make you very cynical and suspicious of people's reported symptoms, especially when they don't jibe with what you're physical findings are. On the other hand, I have gotten into the front of the truck on more than one occasion thinking "what a load of horse poop" and found out hours later that I was totally wrong and it was something significant, because I let myself slip into that cynical/apathetic state of mind.

I'm pretty bad about becoming impatient with people who are overly emotional & dramatic, too. I gotta watch myself with that.

It takes a certain amount of thick skin to be able to do some of the stuff we do, and still cope with the stress so that you can go home and watch CSI and go to sleep, then get up the next day and do it all over again. You supress your normal adreneline reaction to sirens, strobe lights, the smells and sounds of EMS, so that you don't stay wired up all the time and go crazy. Unfortunately, the same coping mechanisms dull your sensitivity to other people's feelings and you can become a jerk.

On top of that, nobody is in this job for the money. Because the money sucks. Not in it for the recognition either, because it just isn't there. It's all teamwork and no one person saves a life by themselves. plus: you saved a life? No shit, sherlock. We do it because it's fun, and you get to see cool shit. ...I mean, you get to drive the freaking ambulance. Plus the occasional rare, fleeting chance to actually help someone or save a life. This job means a LOT to the people who do it. You throw a lot of your extra time into study and continuing education.

Oh, if someone calls 911 and actually admits to just needing a way to get to their doctor, I think the dispatcher will connect them up with a much cheaper transportation alternative like the wheelchair van or one of the hospital shuttles. Medicare/medicaid will only cover non-emergency ambulance transportation for a few reasons, like someone being completely bed-bound.

Anyway... to sum up:
1) If you are trying to scam 911, you will know you are trying to scam 911. Do not bother worrying about your cyst, knee, appendix, migraine, anxiety attack or the foriegn object you have inserted into your rectum and lost track of. All good.

2) We are all slightly to extremely bent.

[Jazzy]

I don't have much to contribute to this topic because I'm not American and therefore have an entirely different set of political issues...but Kess, holy shit. You're making $9 an hour? That wage isn't even legal for someone your age here; I believe ambulance workers on the NHS make double that.

[Sagrei]

Kess, if I'm ever in your neck of the woods, or you're ever in mine, I will take you out for a drink or five so that you can tell me fun EMT stories all night.

More on-topic, Jazzy brings up a good point: the wild discrepancy between what people make and what the cost of living is. It's ridiculous in coastal Florida.

[shaelyn76]

Oh, don't get me started on cost of living versus actual wages. When I was 20 yrs old I was making 7.50 an hour plus a bonus of about 250 a month as a full time convenience store clerk. I busted my ass 45 hours a week and was barely scraping by. Then i got pregnant (yes unplanned and my own damn fault) and had an even ruder awakening. According to Social Services I made too much money to qualify for any government help. Also, I had a relative living within 100 miles that was employed full time so they said it was that relatives responsibility to help me out instead of the government that I pay exorbitant amounts of taxes to. $7.50 an hour didn't cover food, clothing,housing and gas for transportation for myself much less the added expense of a child. Adding insult to injury were the "welfare mamas" who would come rolling up to the gas station I worked at and buy a 5 cent piece of candy to break their $10.00 food stamp and then spend the rest on cigarettes and beer. Mind you they were wearing their Tommy Hilfiger shirt and designer jeans and enough bling to blind a person, but since they claim no income at the welfare office they get food stamps and housing vouchers thrown at them. Meanwhile, here I was working hard day in and day out to barely scrape by and stupidly being honest on my welfare application. Kinda encourages people to be unemployed and mooch off the system. Thank gods for my family who helped me through that difficult time. The really sad thing is that things haven't gotten much better in the last 10 years since then. My husband has a decent job and we are considered middle class, but we live paycheck to paycheck and eek out a living. I find myself in the position of choosing whether to pay the doctor for my sons check up or paying the electric bill far too often because we can't afford to do both when they are due. Cars are stupid expensive, gas is ridiculous, our utilities keep going up and up and food keeps getting pricier every year. Meanwhile, the pitiful pay raises that my husband and I get every six months to a year do nothing to keep up with those rising costs. The American dream keeps getting farther and farther away for so many people like us. It shouldn't even be called a dream anymore, but a myth instead. We work and work and try our damnedest to save a couple bucks here and there, but we never quite get ahead. We have no money to put away for retirement and we can only hope that our kids do really well in school or are great athletes as we won't be able to pay for their college when they hit that point. The middle class is vanishing in America and the gap between rich and poor continues to get bigger and bigger. There are payday loan places on every other corner and dollar shops in every strip mall. This should be a sign to our legislators that something is horribly wrong. When young people join the military because they feel it is their only option, knowing full well that they will be sent into combat zones and possibly lose life or limb...yet again, something is wrong here. We are drowning in debt as individuals and as a country and the people with the power to make changes are like children with their fingers in their ears saying,"Lalalalalala I can't hear you". I used to be proud to be an American and felt I was lucky to have been born in the "land of opportunity". Now I have begun to question both of those feelings.