Sat Jul 24, 2010 at 17:07:44 PM PDT
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"This law will make me feel like a Nazi out there. I have a great deal of contempt for it; I’m very emotional about it... This law is - pure and simple - a racist law." In the lead-up to the implementation of SB1070, the Arizona law known commonly as "papers please", it is heartening to see a police officer in AZ speak up against it: He very clearly states why this law is a huge health/human rights violation: "So under SB1070 I know that people will not call officers in the case of a real emergency. I could see this type of scenario: a woman is being beaten by her husband or her significant other. And, if I show up, and I develop reasonable suspicion, or LESS, even, that the person that is a perpetrator in this case, is in this country extralegally, i'm going to start heading in the direction of asking the victim of the case, are you here illegally? I will have to arrest both of them -- I'll be required to -- and both will be deported. It violates our calling to serve and protect. It violates, under our Constitution, the requirement to serve and protect." Thanks to the savvy folks at Cuentame for collecting video testimonials. And check out Alto Arizona for actions in Arizona this week, and solidarity actions you can join in your own towns and states.
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Fri Jul 16, 2010 at 22:46:27 PM PDT
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which happens. but she had a pretty good excuse, which is my very least favorite excuse, which was that she can't afford to come see me. which i usually answer with looking through the chart and trying to figure out some way to hold her together until she can get in, so i look at the med list and it's a mile long and there are all these inhalers, which are expensive, number one, and, number two (or maybe this one should be number one) make it so you can breathe.
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Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 11:27:15 AM PDT
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Join Doctors for Global Health for their 15th Annual General Assembly August 6th-8th Atlanta, Georgia Seeds of Change: Health and Justice in the Global Recession
Keynote speakers: Alice Lovelace- Atlanta poet and organizer for social change Jim Withers- Founder of Street Medicine Institute and Operation Safety Net Opening address by Dr. Elizabeth Kiss, President of Agnes Scott College Register now at www.dghonline.org
The General Assembly is a great opportunity to hear reports from the field directly from our overseas partners and volunteers. Other topics to be discussed include the impact of the economic recession on minority communities; the effects of mining on health; water rights; and health care reform. Registration is on a sliding scale fee basis. There are scholarships available for students and others. Thank you! We are looking forward to seeing people interested in health and human rights this summer in Atlanta! Who we are: Doctors for Global Health has been working for 15 years and counting to improve the health and well-being of poor, marginalized commuities around the world by increasing access to quality health care; developing educational opportunities and avenues for artistic expression; and raising awareness of health and other human rights. Learn more at http://www.dghonline.org
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Sun Jun 20, 2010 at 05:31:27 AM PDT
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Please join CureThis at various events at the Allied Media Conference and the United States Social Forum, in Detroit, June 2010. We are honored to be present and participating in both historic gatherings. The Allied Media Conference is a phenomenal gathering of independent media makers, and the United States Social Forum is a convening of an anticipated 20,000 people from all over the US and other countries, to fulfill the dream of "Another world is possible, another US is necessary." IF you are here, experience everything! Here are the events and sessions we are personally supporting and presenting at: Sunday June 20th, 10-11:30am at Wayne State Univ. Allied Media Conf. Workshop: "Health is Dignity and Dignity is Resistance: Online and Offline Organizing for Healing Justice". Presenters include CureThis.org, Kindred Southern Justice Healing Collaborative, JAZZ for Health/Casa de Salud Clinic, To Tell You the Truth, and the Detroit Community Acupuncture Network
Friday June 25th, 10-12:00pm, at Cobo Hall O3-46, US Social Forum Workshop: "Health is Dignity and Dignity is Resistance: Individual Actions, Online Organizing, and Collective Healing". Presenters include CureThis.org, Rockdove Collective, Kindred Southern Justice Healing Collaborative, To Tell You the Truth, and JAZZ for Health/Casa de Salud Clinic
Friday June 25th, 1-5:30pm, at Cobo Hall W2-67, US Social Forum.
Peoples Movement Assembly (PMA) on Health, Healing Justice and Liberation. Join us in a historic discussion among healers, organizers, practitioners, and others. The scope of this PMA will be to Map, vision & strategize the role of healing, health and well being inside of liberation to build, sustain and transform well-being in our movements & communities.
Sponsoring groups: Generation FIVE; Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective; Detroit Health, Healing, and Environmental Justice; CureThis.org.
Saturday, June 26th, 9-11:00am -- March for "Clean Air, Good Jobs and Justice" at the World's Largest Incinerator. March location: Public Library 5201 Woodward Ave, Detroit. 8:30am, meet at the healing justice practice space, UAW building, to walk to the rally.
ONGOING during the USSF -- Comfort aid stations around Cobo Hall, for general medical needs. And the Healing Justice Practice Space, at the UAW Building, 1st floor conference room (just feet from Cobo Hall), for rejuvenation, creativity, and individual and group sessions. Sessions include: yoga, massage, reiki, acupressure, acupuncture, sound and others. Check in for your own rejuvenation, or volunteer to help support the healers and practitioners in their work.
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Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 00:00:00 AM PDT
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it was eight years ago and it really could have gone the other way. we could have been meeting over a dialysis machine, her face distorted by the steroids, me running out of medicines, the lab results a carefully documented catastrophe with date stamps and decimal points. but sometimes you get lucky.
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Sun May 23, 2010 at 00:00:00 AM PDT
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things in this post are dangerous to speak of or even to think of. if you believe that speaking of bad things can make them so, please stop reading right here. also, the name of the medicine man has been altered but if you know the area you can figure out who it is. i hope it is obvious that i write about him to honor and respect him, but feel the need to point this out just in case... ------------------------------------------------------------------ i can't remember how long ago it was but let's just say it was about a
year ago that the hospital laboratory failed some sort of quality
assurance something or other and they had to shut it down, which meant
they had to pretty much shut down the whole hospital, transfer out the
patients, and turn the ambulances away. once the lab fixed whatever it
was that was the problem and the hospital re-opened, nobody would go
in. people talked. someone had seen a coyote in the parking lot a
couple of days before it happened. coyotes are not good if you're
Navajo. but it gets worse. they say the coyote wasn't just bad luck in
some general sense-- it was a skin walker.
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Fri Apr 16, 2010 at 23:38:48 PM PDT
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fried. completely fried. didn't take much. wasn't really all that bad, actually. but i'm still fried.
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Tue Apr 06, 2010 at 23:34:24 PM PDT
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Let me premise this post by stating that I am posting it here on Cure This because it relates to violence, human rights, grieving, mental health, forms of nonviolent resistance and collective healing. This week, an independent website called Wikileaks released a video they received from an anonymous source, from the view of a camera on the gun of a US Apache helicopter in Iraq, and featuring voices from the pilots of two US military helicopters. It was released on the Wikileaks site and a Wikileaks site called Collateral Murder. Like La Macha said on VivirLatino, I must include a trigger warning. If you are a survivor of violence, this video could be extremely hard to watch and could trigger previous trauma. For those of us who have not been survivors of extreme violence, this could also trigger very deep, dark, powerful feelings. Here is the video: I have so many thoughts about this video, so many sad and angry thoughts, and feelings about how we have all contributed to this attitude towards war and life. And I agree with La Macha says -- "I feel it is a duty to watch it. To see what it is being done in your name. And take responsibility for it." But after I watched it, I was overcome with a sense of deep -- almost paralyzing -- grief. I felt positive that I was alone in this deep grief, but all over the US (and definitely all around the world), this video is sparking grief AND anger in many of us. Obviously, the anger that this video must incite in Iraqis and oppressed people everywhere is unimaginable. My wonderful friend Heather Bowlan pointed me towards a Guernica Magazine interview with gender and nonviolence theorist Judith Butler. Butler's written a book recently called Frames of Life: When is Life Grievable? Her thoughts on the matter give me some direction and calm me... a little... so I thought I'd share them. On grievable and ungrievable lives:
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Mon Mar 29, 2010 at 13:03:25 PM PDT
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Say no more: http://didtheypasshealthcarereform.com/ Sure it's perhaps a bit too elated, but the website energy and design (and the fact that it went live almost immediately after the health insurance reform bill was signed by President Obama) get a big YAY. Plus, here at Cure This, we like unicorns.
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Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 16:10:38 PM PST
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We are working hard here in Detroit to organize the second US Social Forum. I've been asked questions about our organizing effort: Why do we have seperate trainings for white activists who want to take leadership in this process? Why the emphasis on leadership of people of color? I wrote this to answer those questions and formulate my point of view:
There is a legacy of racism and classism in this country that says that the priveleged white institutions can determine how and where our communities can assemble and change them to meet their economic or psychological needs. It goes back to the dismantling of Black families for control of slave labor. It goes back to Indiginous removal to create new territories, properties, and states.
Unfortunately this trend continues, and to some degree even in "progressive" spaces whereas people think they know best what should happen to poor folk because they studied policy or because their nonprofit specializes in poverty issues. In the worst cases, it may happen just on the priveleges of white skin and culture. In our 2010 US Social Forum processes we are lifting up the community, survival, and organizing processes in these most impacted communities and assert the truth that no effective organizing will happen in this country without these processes.
Oh there are many challenges, ranging from political to psychological but in these days and times it is more than necessary. Lastly, our country is facing an economic crisis and many politicians and mediamakers are calling for a return to the strength of our previous capitalism. In Detroit we have gone through post-industrial collapse for 40-50 years and we know that something fundamental is broken. We cannot look to the system to fix it, to restore the "American" standard of living to our communities. We must come together and create something new. We are changing the highlight from oppression to underdevelopment, inserting a crucial class lens (which is interwoven with the racial lens).
The racism is that these Black and Brown communities are allowed to be underdeveloped, undereducated, environmentally toxic. Now with this economic collapse, white folks are feeling in their communities some of the same pressures that have existed for 20-30 years and are calling it a "crisis." Welcome to Detroit, have a seat amongst 25,000 of your sisters and brothers and join us in creating a new system-- one that actually works to provide healthy livelihood, and human rights for all.
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Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 10:00:00 AM PST
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"Something I've heard about Canada (correct me if i'm wrong) is that u have a Canadian style healthcare system."
This was Stephen Colbert speaking to Member of Parliament (MP) of Vancouver South, Ujjal Dosanjh. Hee-haw larious. The rest of the interview can be found here (of note, the interview sounds pretty hostile but it's true to Colbert's satirical approach. Not knowing anything about this liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, I explored his website, where he defends his interview with Colbert, as satire to reflect on. But that's also where I found out that Dosanjh was previous the federal Minister of Health for two years. He's a well-informed, outspoken advocate of the Canadian healthcare system, and recently was interviewed by NPR about it. He speaks from a human rights framework. I'll share the interview below because it's interesting...
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Sun Mar 07, 2010 at 09:00:00 AM PST
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Though it's been two weeks since the 45th anniversary of Malcolm X's assassination, I keep thinking about a post that my friend Adrienne Maree Brown wrote at her blog, about his transformation from Detroit Red to Malcolm X to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. These two lines are stuck in my head: Are you supporting transformation? Who is the Malcolm X in your life, and how are you supporting him or her?
Check out her blog post. You might find these lines stuck in your head too.
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Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 06:00:00 AM PST
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i was one of those orchestra kids. don't get any funny ideas about class or money or anything, by the way-- public schools have orchestras, too (or, at least they used to)-- and i used to drag my mom to concert after concert. for years this woman sat in a room full of people she hardly knew listening to variably tuned simpliied renditions of the war horses (mozart's eine kliene nachmusik, a little brahms, and, may God forgive us, the brandenbergs) and learned not to clap in between movements. she saved up for concert dresses we couldn't afford and i grew out of too quickly and for a long while took the whole thing very, very seriously, carting me to lessons and rehearsals and doing the crossword puzzle in the car.
which brings me to stage fright.
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Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 07:36:43 AM PST
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(We're so glad to see Will -- namastebrown -- posting here again! He was one of our first writers back in 2007 when we started the site. And let's get the curethis community out to detroit for the USSF! - promoted by los anjalis)
Hello and Good Day
I am at a loss for words, but am coming back to the Cure This Site.
I have been busy trying to figure out what to say in my next post.
A family member died recently and suddenly. She complained to a doctor of a burning sensation on the side of her face. The doctor at the public hospital advised her to rinse her face with water. A few weeks later she collapsed at home, playing with family. She was 20-21 years old. I'm told it was an aneurysm that killed her. Really? It couldn't have been detected or prevented? Damned right I am concerned about health justice.
No one even has the language to say "this is a health justice issue"
Another family member is elderly on Medicaid and is terrified of dying. She can't sleep nights. Gets unsatisfactory care from the visiting nurse that the government provides. Has had heart failure and now a kidney condition and is past the point of surgery. Now she has trouble walking from her living room to her kitchen. I don't even know how to begin to find resources that will help her. Or really how to insert myself within the context of her life in a way that is supportive and helpful. Damned right I recognize a need for health justice, a health care system/ ideology/ philosophy/ practice/ profession that is navigable, honest, fair and treats all people with a modicum of dignity.
How to get that in a society that is not committed to treating all people with dignity? You see my conundrum.
I am an organizer for the US Social Forum. http://www.ussf2010.org We are working on building a Health and Healing Track. But we need to make sure that it is not just a network of "healers" and "professionals" but that it seeks to unite all the people who are tired, sick, and pissed off and looking for a new way to take care of themselves (and each other, no?)
The 2010 USSF will take place in Detroit. June 22-26. We hope that curethis community comes out to support to help build this movement that will transform this nation and join it to international struggles for life, health, dignity, and self-determination.
I will write more on that later.
Signing off,
namaste brown
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Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 09:00:00 AM PST
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It appears that Superbowl Sunday is only topped by Thanksgiving day in regards to calories consumed per person in the United States. That information was backed by data but I do not recall the source...
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Fri Jan 29, 2010 at 06:00:00 AM PST
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i seek refuge in the lord of the dawn somewhere there is a door that if you open it there is someone breathing through a tube, someone who will never talk, will never walk, will never peel an orange. all i'm saying is it could have been worse. from the mischief of created things on the other hand, there is the possibility that this is as bad as it gets. that the worst that can happen has happened. i know a doctor whose patient died. there is a story about an answering machine and somebody assigned to check it, about a vacation, about a holiday weekend, about a lab result that never found its way to someone who could understand it, who could do something about it. but that was an adult. this is a baby. maybe this is as bad as it gets. from the overspreading darkness
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Sat Jan 16, 2010 at 10:43:17 AM PST
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I can't stop. Every time I think it will be better it's not. Everything was going good but I backslid and lost friends, lost jobs, and treated people really badly. I'm filled with regret at this point and just trying to put my life back together.
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Thu Jan 14, 2010 at 22:16:33 PM PST
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the thing i want you to know is that i held her hand and cried.
the thing i don't want you to know is that i will hurt you. not that i want to. not that i'm trying to. but i will hurt you and neither of us will see it coming.
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Sat Jan 09, 2010 at 07:00:00 AM PST
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If a fat person dies and one more person says to me, “Fat Person died because s/he was FAT!” I’m gonna sit my fat behind on that person’s unfat face. If you must be a condescending pseudo doctor know-it-all fuckwad, please, let’s be more appropriate about diagnosing...
Check out the rest of the post -- over at FlipFloppingJoy -- it was written by brownfemipower, who's written some absolutely amazing posts previously at CureThis.
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Mon Jan 04, 2010 at 13:00:50 PM PST
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(cross posted at NPA Blog) The most recent edition of San Francisco Magazine (which I read only when I see it strewn across piles and piles of books, journals and mags at my in-laws' place in Sonoma) features a run-down found here on Healthy San Francisco, a health care access system for SF residents to receive care at nearly all health care providers in the city (My long-time SF friend reminds me that it's not a health insurance plan so what you do when you get alcohol poisoning in Napa or get shot in Oakland - or vice-versa - is beyond me). I am looking forward to actually reading the thing and learn about its inner-workings, but what I find most intriguing is this commentary by SF Mag's Editor-in-Chief Bruce Kelley. Kelley states: When it comes to national healthcare reform, I think we should throw participatory democracy out the window. This one policy debate would go better if the American public were silent and disengaged, refusing to blog, carp, watch Fox News, or exercise its voice. It would also be helpful to suspend the constitution, strip all interest groups of power, and install a temporary dictatorship. One smart person would make the final decision how to address the healthcare disaster. She’d be advised by other smart people. She would wave a wand. Then Congress would return from a short hiatus, and the sausage-making would resume.
Kelley goes on to tell that that's basically how Healthy SF came to be - without anyone actually noticing - and since it's such a hit, we should replicate the process and fix US health care a la SF...
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| About |
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What is health justice? How are health & human rights fiercely connected to the wellness of our neighborhoods? How do we reframe policy debates? How do we continue dreaming and building instead of just reacting & surviving? And how do we support each other in our healing?
Cure This is an online space for storytelling, discussion, & radical transformation. Create an account to write a diary or comment. Questions or thoughts: lotusfeet [at] hotmail [dot] com
News: CureThis was part of an exhibit in Chicago: "Visual resistance in feminist health movements, 1969-2009" [link] |
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