Letter to the Editor–Las Vegas Review Journal -- Give Obamacare a Chance

Letter to the R-J Editor

Aug. 7, 2013

The Wednesday, August 7 Las Vegas Review Journal editorial “Waivers, favors” shows so much eagerness to trash Obamacare that the R-J editors are chomping at the bit and can’t wait until after selected aspects are put in place to see if they work or not. The column admits to not having information (“details haven’t been released”), and suggests the president has “again broken the law” when that part of the program hasn’t been implemented. It continues by citing the Wall Street Journal as if it were a court of law having authority to rule on the legality of President Obama’s anticipated actions–actions discovered through unidentified “leaks”. The editorial uses “perhaps” to try to convince readers of Obama’s intentions, and cites higher premium payments with “could be” when dollar amounts are not yet available–shame on you R-J.

The main problem discussed is really quite simple. Senator Chuck Grassley (Iowa) introduced, and got accepted an amendment to include Congress and its employees in the original Affordable Care Act passed in 2009. Grassley didn’t provide, until 2017 when the ACA takes care of it, a method for the government benefits program to pay the portion of healthcare congressional members have already been receiving. Being a government entity, moving money around is tricky. There needs to be an exact system in place for the government to continue to pay the long-standing employee benefit. This shortcoming was noticed long before the change was to take place, and it seems like officials have worked out a system to pay while moving the insurance policies from the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan to the exchanges. It looks like they did their jobs and should be applauded.

Senator Dean Heller (R–Nev.) tried to muddy these same waters in a press release on Friday, April 26. He too suggested that Congress was secretly discussing a road out of Obamacare. That was not the gist of the discussions at that time either. They were simply looking for a way to protect the employee benefit they have enjoyed all along. That is what this current flap is also about–not a move away from Obamacare, rather putting a system in place where they can retain their working benefit while getting insurance from the exchanges.

There are tons of other fear-invoking warnings in the editorial that seem to have come straight out of Tarot cards. The warning of taxpayers having to pay higher premiums is not supported with reported facts. Many states are looking at lower premiums when the exchanges kick in. The idea that taxpayers will have to start subsidizing others is false on its face because we are already subsidizing the uninsured going to emergency rooms for general health care. This practice will soon stop resulting in savings.

We should also understand that “unilaterally delaying the employer mandate for a year for large businesses” is not illegal, just being responsible in making sure the system in place works well and does not interrupt anyone’s coverage when implemented.

I’ll listen to trash talk only if Obamacare actually fails. I think I’ll be waiting eons.

Onward, City Council - Awarded "Best Column of 2012-2013" "Mesquite Citizen Journal"

Onward, City Council           

By: Terry Donnelly

Reprint from the "Mesquite Citizen Journal"

March 18, 2013

In a February 2011 column I offered a snappy new title for the mayor to use replacing the stodgy “State of the City” address. I offered up the title “Mesquite Matters”. I thought the alliteration was nifty and the double meaning just right for a city moving forward. Mayor Mark Wier didn’t take me up on the offer and I can see why.

His latest State of the City message was stodgy. And, I guess it has to stay that way because right now Mesquite is stodgy too.

His Honor proclaims our little city “fiscally sound”. Don’t get me wrong, that is a big deal, especially with all the money woes going on all around us. He assures us that the city council remembers from whence the money is drawn and that he and his band are doing all they can to protect our cash.

Thank-you.

I even appreciate the shout out our subdivision got due to our bit of citizen activism last spring to put the kibosh on an ill-advised, 10 foot wide, tree killing shared use path that would replace the perfectly good 6 to 8 foot wide path that currently exists while other areas were still dirt.

Thanks again, but that is all in the past.

We heard from the mayor that business requirements have been streamlined and what once took weeks can now be done in three or four days. Great, but there is no proof that either the system or the desire to have new business in Mesquite has improved. There seems to be very little to show for the work. And indeed, some evidence that indicates a desire to keep the status quo.

There was talk of the new Mesquite Regional Business group doing a good job of using our money while seemingly in competition with the Chamber of Commerce–but again, no real evidence to support the claim. Their biggest coup so far seems to be hiring a director and reeling in one small business. We need much more.

The nearly blighted Mesquite Boulevard has looked exactly the same for years. The last new building was the Stadium 6 Movie Theatre built several years ago.

I don’t need a rap on the back of my head with the accompanying “Duh! There’s been a Great Recession going on.” I know there have been tons of problems, but the time has come to see some action.

The mayor’s speech was mostly looking back. We need to look forward and actually get some results from all of this posturing we have done in the name of progress the last two years.

Mesquite needs an anchor area–a downtown that draws tourists as well as local shoppers. The area of Mesquite Boulevard from the big bend at Sandhill, maybe as far as Grapevine is ripe to fill that quaint downtown need. There is a good start with the Art Gallery, the Museum, The General Store, several restaurants, a couple of Southwest gift shops, plenty of open space on which to build, and abandoned buildings to renovate.

I see the historic Harley’s Garage sign as a landmark. I can hear a future citizen explaining that the cool bookstore or best club sandwich in town is “right across from the Harley’s sign.”

I like this council. I agree with Barbara Ellestad the publisher of this news site that both incumbent councilmen, Allan Litman and Geno Withelder deserve to be reelected. Unless there is some big blow-up in the near future, I’ll likely vote for Mr. Mayor, George Rapson and Kraig Hafen again if they decide to run. Through their actions, they too deserve another term.

But, we need more than transparency, a listening ear, and an open mind. We need some action. There seems to be more tabling, moving to a later date, looking for more data, calling a friend, and asking the audience in council meetings than real progressive action.

As I stated above, I like this city council. I like it better than any other in my 10 years living in Mesquite. I am glad to have the opportunity to prod them because all of my city council related writings in the past have been rants to oust one member or another for not sufficiently doing his or her job. Being able to offer constructive criticism is a step in the right direction.

I am, however, going to rescind my offer of the jazzy, progressive “Mesquite Matters” as a new moniker for the yearly mayoral address until I see some progress to go along with all the planning and good stewardship.  

"Mesquite Citizen Journal" reprint. Column asking to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

In Defense of (Any) Marriage Posting Date: 08/20/2012 Terry Donnelly Let me get this straight: Marriage is supposed to be between two people who get along, have similar interests, enjoy similar activities, and generally live life in a compatible way. If this is true, why does anyone rail against same sex marriage? Don’t get me wrong–Mrs. Writers’-Corner and I live in the greatest of harmony. The problem is that her harmonies come from the likes of George Jones and Faith Hill and my harmonies come from Steppenwolf and Janis Joplin. We each have nearly 3,000 songs on our respective I-Pods, but the Venn diagram overlap is about seven titles. She has one Beatles song and one Stones tune–two total! My number hovers around 400. If I were married to another man the beer would have a prominent place in the refrigerator, not exiled to the tiny, lukewarm device in the garage. I’m a fairly tidy person. I’m good at picking up after myself, except for shoes–they tend to be left wherever my feet become unshod. Hers? Always in the closet keeping company with the other 75 pairs–strength in sheer numbers. She changed her hairstyle not long ago. It didn’t work out too well–for me. She looks great but I mistakenly thought she said she was growing it into a “hedge” when she actually said “wedge.” My mistake. I should have asked. I should have known no woman wants a hedge for a hairdo, but, well–if you looked sideways, just right, with the light behind her after she came in out of the afternoon wind–just maybe a tad like a hedge… I’ve had the same haircut for 45 years. Longer or shorter at times and it is a different color than it was in 1967 but not because I’ve dyed it. I mentioned that she looks great and that isn’t just her hair. This woman eats chocolate doughnuts for breakfast and looks like she is 26 years old. I eat gruel laced with blueberries for breakfast and celery for lunch and my weight is equal to a small car. If that fact isn’t enough to drive a wedge (wooden divider, not a hairstyle) between a couple trying to cohabitate, I don’t know what will. There are no décor restrictions on my recliner other than it needs to be in the middle of the room in front of the television. If it gets a bit dingy, or the color no longer coordinates with the other pieces in the room (read “falling apart”)–not to worry. But, she does. We get along fine, but wouldn’t she be happier living with a woman who wants her favorite chair to go well with and not clutter the ambiance? But, you may ask, what about that other (nudge, nudge–wink, wink) part of marriage? You know, the part about sharing sleeping quarters. Doesn’t that trump all else? Yes it does. I’ve had fun with the front end of this column, but marriage isn’t all about seeing eye-to-eye on everything. It is about love and that is the only deciding factor. We gave up arranged marriages long ago, so the only people who have any business in making the decision to marry are the two wrestling with all the variables and uncertainties of embarking on a life union. No outside suggestions are necessary. It is hard enough finding someone to truly love without outside restrictions on who that may be. Many have false starts and try again–many don’t ever manage to find their soul mate. So, when this wonderful, often serendipitous, sometimes hard won event happens, go for it. It is none of our business if that couple is made up of the same or different anything. Gender, race, religion, nationality, political bent, or hat size–none of it makes a whit of difference. Any couple who have braved the first date, had the talk about being exclusive, taken the relationship to the next (nudge-wink) level, and finally signed on the dotted line, deserve not only a medal, each deserve all the rights and benefits held by any other couple–every single one. Let’s demand this last bastion of civil rights discrimination be sent packing. Because, to quote the lyrics from one of the songs on my I-Pod but not on Mrs. Writers’-Corner’s, “All you need is love.”   Commentary Posted Date: 08/20/2012 I would say your wife is a very lucky woman! By: Susan Lang   Posted Date: 08/20/2012 This is one smart guy who has his stuff together. Life is short. By: zack   Posted Date: 08/20/2012 This is priceless. Thank you Terry By: Tom

Unfinished

The day has come. My second novel, "Unfinished", is out. It is available from Amazon.com, through the publisher, Interworld Publishing, at www.iwpinc.net/our_store, or through the Let's Talk Nevada news blog at www.letstalknevada.com. One other easy option is to contact me directly and I'll be glad to sign and mail you a copy. My first historical novel, "First You Hear Thunder", is available the same way. Go to www.firstyouhearthunder.com for further information "Thunder" and the 1960s fight for equal voting rights.

"Unfinished is a coming of age novel set in the 1960s and '70s. Aiden Croft is an aspiring artist. As he goes about the dual task of developing his talent and finding his way in the world. He always considered his personal and artistic lives separate, but finds them, like the rails of train tracks, merging out at the horizon line. He comes to understand the absurd situation in which humans find themselves. If he is to survive to get his work done and satisfy his goals, he and he alone must take charge.

Aiden cannot control all aspects that affect his life, but he can learn to live with what he finds and use the variety of quirky happenings to improve his lot. He applies his quick and final thinking to all challenges. Many of Aiden’s choices are sound and productive, but some choices, due to the imperfection of man and the uncertainty of nature, are ill advised and possibly fatal. He learns to accept the spirit of others he loves to help steer his course.

From Chapter 1: Aiden didn’t like being pressured into anything. His dislike of deadlines was one of the reasons he was considering a change in majors. He didn’t like being told to finish an art project and turn it in. Now, feeling forced to confront this new reality, Aiden again stalled and became content to just sit and watch. His fascination grew as strings of smoke climbed from the lit end of the cigarette. As it idly burned, left abandoned in the ashtray on the bar, smoke curled upward, twisting and turning in a thin tangle of its tendrils. He cocked his head and ran his eyes up and down the ever-changing columns intent to discover any recognizable shapes.

There were always shapes in the process of being created. His thoughts reverted to days of white, puffy clouds contrasting azure skies on idle summer afternoons. Years ago, he and a friend or two would flop onto their backs in a field and chew on a blade of grass. In repose, they would try to pick out shapes made by the clouds. They found ogres, dinosaurs, huge birds on the wing; anything that their imaginations could create.

Pointing skyward one friend would trace the shape of a cloud with a finger trying to make the other aware of his discovery. “Look. There’s the nose and that’s part of the tail.”

What he saw today in the drifting smoke was legs and arms intertwined. The steady movement toward the ceiling kept the human limbs in animation; ever moving, ever more entangled. He imagined that if he looked farther up the column instead of the smoke trail ending and dissipating into the smog of the dimly lit bar, he would see torsos. He would be witness to the sensuous activity generated by the intertwining of naked human limbs. He didn’t look–he changed his thinking.

He shoved his barstool back a few inches and raised his head out of the cradle created with his forearms resting on the bar as he watched the smoke. His gaze now broadened and included the mug of beer sitting on the old, whiskey stained, butcher-block bar. The glass sat in an ever-growing puddle of its own melted frost. Aiden framed the expanded scene with this thumbs and fingers. He now had the cigarette with its meandering smoke and the glass of beer in his focus. The scene doubled with the reflection from the mirror hanging on the back-bar.

“That would make a terrific photo. I can imagine it matted and hung on a wall in a gallery. No, even better, as the cover of a quiet, bluesy record album,” he said aloud to no one.  He had, momentarily, escaped the hypnotic tangle of smoke arms and smoke legs that he wanted so desperately to forget.

From Chapter 11:  The two spoke easily and often about the immediate future. They both understood the disease and intellectually accepted the final result. A resolve settled over the pair as they continued a routine of getting high on drugs to quell any residual fears that escaped their intellect. Quietly they cared for each other. One evening as Aiden read Kitt walked into the front room naked. Aiden put down his book and gave total attention to his mate. She was quite thin and a lot of the rich color had faded from her skin. She was still beautiful, but the presence of doom was clearly evident. Her eyes had lost their sparkle partly from the drug use, but mainly from the cancer. As Aiden looked at her he noticed that her smile was still present. It attracted him to her in just the same way it did when she first waited on him in the lakefront general store. Her familiar, enchanting smile enabled him to smile back.

After a long silence Kitt finally said that she wanted Aiden to take a few more pictures of her. She insisted that it made her feel alive to be naked in front of his lens. She told him to pair these with his earlier photos of her as part of the before and after compositions he was fond of creating–like the once beautiful buildings of Beirut that had been bombed into uselessness. Aiden took the pictures alternately snapping the shutter and wiping away tears.

From Chapter 12:  If Paris and Greece didn’t satisfy him, where on earth would? In truth, Aiden felt his future was in Beirut and he was feeling anxious to get started on a career.

In accordance with his style, he quickly decided it was time to go back. In Beirut he could get a job using his camera and he knew the place well.  He needed to work for his own wellbeing. He began to think of the colorful city as home–the East of his future.

New Year's Resolutions

Got any good ideas for a resolution?

By: Terry Donnelly

Reprint from Mesquite Citizen Journal

January 2, 2012

I get the first Writers’ Corner column of the New Year. I feel obligated to write about 2012 and its promise. I feel obligated to write about resolutions. In fact, I resolve to write a column about resolutions. I’m going to try my hardest not blow the first item on this year’s list before people even get back to work from the holiday.

I’m also thinking/rationalizing that this assignment is better suited for my able colleague Betty, one of the other Writers’ Corner scholars. Resolutions seem more in her area of expertise, but I’ll forge on.

My second resolution, after resolving to write about resolutions is to use better words this coming year. I like words and how specific words can influence and strengthen a sentence or message. Years ago I had a university professor who advised me to use the word “obviously” less. He said that my use of that word in conversation–as in “Obviously we should take great care in regulating the use of fracking to mine natural gas”–exposed another flaw in my character. That flaw: always thinking I am right.

If I keep scouring my mind for issues on which I could base resolutions, this could become an awfully long column.

Due to my professor’s suggestion, I resolved to drop the use of “obviously” but needed a word to fill the void. I chose “alas”. I’ve done pretty well over the last forty years since receiving that advice mainly because I became a teacher and I found there was precious little that was obvious to nine-year-old children. But, it was my expanded use of “alas” that has helped me the most. I owe “alas” a great debt of gratitude. It is humbling to start a sentence with “alas” right after offering a gem of wisdom, but it helped curtail my always being right flaw.

My next venture into resolutions was not thought out completely. As both New Year’s resolutions and the Christian custom of giving up a treasure for the season of Lent are impositions, I decided to double dip and get a jump on Lent by resolving on January 1st to give up watermelon until Easter. I lived in a rather intemperate climate and finding a watermelon anywhere anytime before picnic season in June was miniscule. I thought myself to be rather clever. Alas, I was punished for my glib consideration of such weighty matters when a friend sent me a fruit-of-the-month gift for the holidays and, wouldn’t you know it, on or about February first a small but wonderfully ripe watermelon from some exotic, far off, tropical land landed on my doorstep. What to do? What to do? I felt as if I were being tested beyond the limits of my strength. No more slippery resolutions for me!

Here’s another pearl–don’t laugh at people who make resolutions. Don’t forget, they are being deprived of something they formerly did that used to give them a measure of comfort. Doing so often makes them testy. I once got a golf ball shoved into my mouth from a one-time friend who had resolved to quit using curse words on the course. He had hit three brand new balls into the water and didn’t take it as constructive criticism when I suggested that he use an old ball on the next attempt. By lodging the ball in my pie-hole he kept his resolution in fact if not in spirit.

So, this year I resolve to write a column about resolutions (check), continue to ban the word “obviously” from my vocabulary, resolve to be more humble aided by a liberal application of “alas” in my speaking and writing, and I resolve not to make slick resolutions.

Finally, I resolve not to laugh at anyone else’s stab at trying to be a better person by making New Year’s resolutions. So, fill me in, respond to this column. Writing is good for the soul and getting your resolutions out in the open will enhance the probability that you can be successful in seeing them through the year. I promise I won’t even chuckle. I learned the hard way that dental work is expensive.

Happy New Year to all our readers!

Pooch Problems Persist

Reprint from "Mesquite Citizen Journal", Oct. 10, 2011

I’m going to devote this column to that which comes out of our community’s dogs. No, I’m not going to write about barking. I’m writing about what comes out the other end.

I am a denizen of the Oasis golf courses and during a recent round I was approached by one of the finest beverage cart drivers this city, or any other, has ever known–a true Hall-of-Famer. I respect her expertise and when she came roaring up to our group in her wagon demanding, “I want you to write a column about poop!” How could I turn her down?

I generally don’t take requests, but I said, “Sure. This may be my only chance for a Pulitzer.”

First, I had to clarify if she were referring to my golf game, the town’s propensity for gossip, or something more literal.

“I’m sick of it! People don’t clean up after their dogs around here.”

Not wanting anything unseemly added to my next on-course Bloody Mary, I assured her I would try to comply with her wishes. What I found upon looking into the matter by looking for the matter turns out to be a near epidemic.

Like all good research, I limited my study to the Mesquite Vistas area around the Oasis golf courses, the Oasis Business Park, and Marilyn Redd Park, so my comments are specific to that section of town. I could only conclude that I am, by nature a “heads-up” sort of guy. Because, when I walked around with my head down the sheer volume, variety of sizes, and collection of shapes of the examples I found of the reported problem astounded me. I began to share our cart driving, EPA expert’s outrage.

I can, with some certainty report that many of our dog owning citizens adhere to safety regulations and walk on the sidewalks and paths provided by our town elders. I know this not because I witnessed the actual walking, I can report this because of the evidence emanating from exercising their hounds. I saw way too much of what pets’ behinds leave behind, left behind.

The sides of the cart paths on the golf courses, the edges of the walkways along the streets, and worst of all, sections of Marilyn Redd Park are all fouled with “steaming piles of (expletive)” as the Queen of Carts most daintily put the problem to me. Kids playing in the park should not have to decide whether or not they are picking up their errant Frisbee or a dried, flattened mound of waste. I’m sure Mrs. Redd would be aghast that her namesake park has become more of an obstacle course than a playground.

Our olfactory organs need not be assaulted during a daily exercise routine. And, I shouldn’t have to play policeman and issue a warning to adults that shirking one’s civic duty is illegal

There is, after all, City Ordinance 10-3-16, titled: “Animal Waste, Odor, and Noise”, requiring, among others, owners to pick up after their pets (excrement is the legal term used). This isn’t a matter for the city council at one of their recently opened to the public Technical Review Sessions. This is strictly a matter of conscience to be dealt with by our dog walking citizenry.

So, in the inimitable style of the late-great Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss:

Do not leave it in the park,

In the morning or after dark.

Do not walk eyes to the sky,

Pick up pooch’s little pie.

Do not think you are being kind,

When piles of poop you leave behind.

It’s the law–so clean the grass,

Of that which comes from Fido’s ….

Americana

Reprint from "Mesquite Citizen Journal", August 29, 2011

Mrs. Writers’ Corner and I recently returned to Mesquite from an extended road trip. There were many facets as we covered all four time zones and added four thousand miles to our family Truckster. We traveled through 10 states and saw seven Capitol buildings plus two former Capitols, one in Iowa City, Iowa that proudly served until Des Moines replaced it in 1857 and one that served Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois. That’s a total of nine domes. Denver, Colorado’s is gold plated–Americans know how to build cool domes!

We once lived in Denver and most of our family still does. 30 years ago Denver was a cow town but has been diligent and made itself one of the fine cities of this country. Once smog riddled, they actively cleaned the air. Not stopping there, Denver serves as a prototype for modern cities. The prime example is the grand transportation/pedestrian hub at the edge of downtown. The project rehabilitates the classic Union Station into a center for travel around the city and a point of departure throughout the state and beyond.

I’m qualified to call Denver a great American city because I got to compare it to Chicago, Illinois, one of our greatest historic cities. Our stop in the Windy City revealed cool jazz clubs, the grandeur of the Tribune building, classic architecture, and a focus on museums and galleries.

We experienced a second look at Chicago from across Lake Michigan. About 60 miles away in South Haven, Michigan we stood on the beach and saw the glow of the city at night.  

It is mind boggling to leave our high desert and compare our mountains with the still-snow-capped-in-August Rockies of Colorado then compare them to the wonders of a body of fresh water whose far shore cannot be seen from side to side. Also witnessed were more rain in one night than we see here in two years, humidity percentages in one day greater than the aggregate of more than two dry Nevada summer weeks, and a completely incomparable amount of water running through the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to our Virgin River.

Those are the natural wonders and the man-made wonders rival them. The above-mentioned Capitols are inspiring. I learned a ton about the Civil War, an area in which I brag of some knowledge, at the Abraham Lincoln library and museum in Springfield. We saw artifacts of which we previously only read or saw in photos. I was most impressed with old Abe’s ivory handled sealing wax dauber that retains his red wax laden fingerprints.

America’s interstate highways are a marvel. Even the inconvenience of road construction slow downs didn’t dampen our spirits. It is good to see Americans working on what is called “infrastructure” on news reports.

The rest of what we witnessed was corn.  Get a map and draw a huge box around the area from eastern Colorado across Nebraska, Iowa, and into western Illinois. Travel south and then west through Missouri, back across Kansas and north in Colorado returning to Nebraska. That’s about 10 degrees of longitude wide and four degrees of latitude deep–tons of land covered with maize. And to think, it all will become fodder for our future food, fuel for our future transport, and seed to do it all again next year. We even get to eat a bit if it straight off the stalk.

Trip notes include getting the best customer service we’ve ever had in Benton Harbor, Michigan when Mrs. Writers’ Corner’s e-book broke and we had to replace it at a Best Buy. The noteworthy item here is that Benton Harbor is best known these days as a city so troubled and economically depressed that it was made a ward of the state. Elected officials were axed and the governor now runs the city. With all those woes, workers at the store gave us superb service with a sincere smile.

The main reason for the trip was not to nearly bankrupt ourselves with fuel costs, although that was a side effect, the reason was family. We saw family in Denver, took some with us and saw more in Michigan. Along the way we made stops at a major airport, ate meals at a wide variety of eateries, and bunked in places ranging from awesome to awful.

In total, what we participated in was Americana. I could have shared one word in lieu of the 700 you are reading: Majestic. The bottom line is that with all our political warts, this is a country worth saving.