Streaming My Conscious: In The City I Dreamed

I Dreamed In A Dream
I DREAM'D in a dream, I saw a city invincible to the
         attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth;

I dream'd that was the new City of Friends;

Nothing was greater there than the quality of robust          love—it led the rest;

It was seen every hour in the actions of the men of          that city,

And in all their looks and words. Walt Whitman


I've returned. Returned to the city I knew and I've known in my heart no matter how far I traveled.

Images forever ingrained in my mind of a city shared by so many, yet seldom seen by the world unless in violence. 

Younger years spent on green and gray buses long before air conditioning came standard in a vehicle. Placing my feet in the footsteps of people long gone who traveled up rickety wooden steps to an elevated platform no longer in use. An adrenaline shot kicks in at the memory of excitement when I could see the expressway far beneath me from my seat on the train making its way over the city below.

In this city I dreamed of nothing existing outside, for it was my whole world that existed within this city. My birth, my death, my past and my future held no possibilities outside of this city in which I dreamed. Before I understood hate, I saw only love. The love of my family, the love of my neighbors and the love of strangers who smiled benevolently down at me. 

Nothing was greater or sweeter than my sweet home Chicago. 

High Health Insurance Premiums: The Lobbyist Attack

Article first published as High Health Insurance Premiums: The Lobbyist Attack on Technorati.

Throughout recent months many customers who talk to me at the register and fellow friends or co-workers complain about barely making enough money to pay their increased health insurance premiums. So what happened to the health insurance premiums and why are they so high?

I previously wrote a response to an article in the L.A. Times back in December 2008 that discussed the struggle of a primary care physician. I posted my response on my blog A Misguided Notion. 

I stated, "Working behind the scenes (HMO, major hospital, clinic, and medical equipment provider) I witnessed how both medical providers and recipients were being screwed across the board. Meanwhile, someone is making money, yes?"

Let's not waste time on the fancy language of health care, the bottom line is that money is being spent to try and make us pay more money. 

Ever since the health care bill passed in March of this year, the health care lobbyists have started to put the pressure on the U.S. public internally through high insurance premiums. 

The $267 million dollars spent in the second quarter of this year alone needed to come from someone, namely the insured. According to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), last year five of the top ten lobbyist spenders came from the health care industry. The five spenders are Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America, Pfizer, AARP, American Medical Association and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

I spoke to a customer who told me that she had Blue Cross/Blue Shield her entire life even through her parents, but she had to change companies this year because the costs were ridiculous and they no longer covered her annual primary care check-up because she turned fifty.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or PPACA (part of the health care reform bill) will limit the amount of money the insurance companies can use as profit. Why should you care?

Say you pay $500 a month for health insurance. Out of that $500 the insurance company pays a small amount to your doctor. Primary care physicians who have a private practice might be in your health insurance network, but that doesn't mean your health insurance is paying the doctor a chunk out of your monthly payment. (See the L.A. Times article regarding struggling doctors.)

A large portion of the $6,000 does not go towards your medical costs. The insurance companies haggle down the payments to pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment suppliers, hospitals, physicians groups and any still existing private practitioners.

The PPACA has provisions that makes sure the money you spend goes towards your medical costs and not marketing ads or lobbyist functions. I'm not saying the entire bill is perfect, but the PPACA would eliminate part of the millions of dollars being spent to make us spend more money.

High insurance premiums are a direct result of insurance companies efforts to maintain their regime within the health care industry. Ads talking about hidden taxes and fees in the bill, well what about the skyrocketing costs due to lobbyist dinners or payouts?

Living check to check doesn't always allow going out to dinner, nor does it allow many of us to have a vacation other than not going to work for a week. While we sit and wonder about our premiums, there are people using our premiums to eat lavish dinners and go on lovely mini-vacations.

Just ask your health insurance company how much of your premium is going towards your medical costs? Or ask your doctor how much your insurance pays them? You might be surprised at what you learn.

Your Digital Fingerprint

Almost everyone has a digital imprint, but how aware are you?


Something new happens on the net and you're curious, so you jump on the bandwagon. This is what happened to me and I found myself establishing a virtual me without even knowing it. It started with Myspace, then Facebook, and before I knew it when I googled my name there was a digital me that I did not recognize.


My awareness arrived prior to my last year of undergrad when I realized I would re-enter the professional world of work and I needed to delete the digital me that I'd unknowingly created. I deleted most of my online social network files, enabled custom privacy settings on any sites hosting family photos, and googled my name daily to make sure I did the job right.

Next, I made plans to re-invent my digital imprint. I studied the way we communicate throughout the internet and chose a form of communication that would work for me. Web writing offers less restriction to freelance writers as well as a wide selection of opportunities. 

I google my name in all sorts of variations on a weekly basis. I closely monitor all of my social networking accounts, write on a daily basis, and continually search for new software or techniques to improve the scope of my print. 

Be careful of the photos you post online because anyone can "save your image to desktop" and use the photo for their own purposes. Also be careful about what you say online because what you say now may come back to haunt you later. 

Be aware of your digital fingerprint because you might not recognize what you see.