Living

For 50 years our country gave women the right to control their bodies when it came to the decision to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court took that away in June of 2022. The result of their ruling is that states now have the ability to ban abortions and at least 24 states have done so with a variety of time restrictions.

Many voters will still have this issue in mind in November and it is important for all of us to find out where candidates stand on this issue. Some states, like Vermont, quickly passed legislation to give a woman the right to choose and that means that women at least can try to go to states without abortion bans when they need the procedure.

Have you been cut off of Medicaid?
Are you at risk of losing it?
Is your healthcare unaffordable?
Are you dealing with medical debt?
Are you unable to access the care you need?

Join local members of the Vermont Workers’ Center at a Health Justice Jam from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Feb. 21 in the Centre Congregational Church parlor. There will be opportunities for people to share their experiences with the healthcare system and to participate in a discussion about how we can work for a system in which everyone is able to enjoy the human right to healthcare. We’ll have information about current legislation that proposes to expand access to Medicaid and Medicare Savings Programs.

Luckily, Vermont is mostly protected from the inhumane harm that can be done when for-profit health care entities decide to leave a community because they can’t make enough money. Sadly, there is another story playing out in Massachusetts in a way that may do a lot of harm to a lot of people.

Steward Health Care operates nine hospitals in Massachusetts. Many of them are hospitals that have served their local community for a long time. If they close because of current financial troubles, it would create hardship for thousands of people and leave them scrambling to find health care providers as well as having to drive long distances to get to emergency rooms and doctors’ offices.

This country has embraced the notion that health care should be just another commodity from which profit should be extracted. After all, it would be unamerican for a business not to be able to extract profit while trying to manipulate market forces to its advantage. That is the American way.

We often hear advice, ward off dementia by staying mentally active. Learn a language, pick up a new instrument, take up a puzzle routine. Having recently lost a family member to that disease, and now being much more aware of its prevalence, (seemingly more and more-so) I’ve come to question that prescription. Not that mental engagement isn’t worthwhile for many other reasons, but as deterrent to the mysterious disintegration of the mind in these diseases I have my doubts.

Off the top of my head, a quick look at some well known people who were brilliant in life and succumbed to dementia. Saul Bellow- Nobel winning novelist (and part-time Brattleboro resident), Terry Jones- Monty Python director/writer/actor, Gene Wilder- writer of books, Young Frankenstein, and actor in many classic films, Ronald Reagan, Joanne Woodward, Bruce Willis, Rosa Parks, Robin Williams…the list goes on.