Selling books at the Encinitas Street Fair. All are gluten-free, locally grown, and contain no artificial flavors.
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My Obamacare Story
In 1998 I developed a condition like carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrists due in large part to my work at a medical software company. After only five minutes at the keyboard, my hands would ache and any further effort just made them worse. All I could do was sit in my cubicle and stare. The Workers Comp doctors offered anti-inflammatories and little hope. I left my job thinking I’d never work again.
Eighteen months later, my COBRA insurance ran out. Private medical insurance salesmen offered attractive premiums and then refused to insure me even though Workers Comp paid for all medical care related to my injuries. I had to settle for an expensive HIPAA plan and ended up paying $600 a month.
Fortunately, my hands healed somewhat and I found another job. I stayed for twelve years until the government refused to renew our contract. We closed the office in 2014 and I was out of work once again. I had no luck finding work and decided spend a few years as a full-time author. Thank God for Obamacare. After some bureaucratic difficulties, I was able to obtain health insurance despite my preexisting condition. Even without the subsidies, I would pay roughly $600 a month, just like I did twelve years earlier. The subsidy cuts my cost by two thirds.
Without Obamacare, I’d probably have to pay a fortune for health insurance because I’m in my early sixties. Proposed Republican replacements like fancy savings accounts and buying insurance from states with shoddy regulations make no sense when one hospital stay can cost the equivalent of a year’s salary. There’s something seriously wrong when a country can’t provide healthcare to its people.
Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong, 1991
During my first visit to Hong Kong, I stayed in the Chungking Mansions, which was a building consisting of shops and and rooming houses on various floors. I had a deluxe room, which had a bathroom. The shower consisted of a nozzle on the sink and drain in the floor.
There were two elevators the size of telephone booths. One stopped on odd floors and the other on even. The line was too long for me to wait so I took the stairs and noticed that several patrons used the stairwells to dump their garbage. Years later I read in a guide book that a group of prostitutes ran their business out of the Chungking Mansions but got so disgusted that they left. I shouted out, “I stayed there!”
The Chungking Mansions feature in Wong Kar Wai’s film “Chungking Express.” If you haven’t seen it, you should.
The Norms of Democracy
This Election Has Offended Me
because many politicians violate the norms of democracy, something I had thought all Americans believed it. In an effort to say not just what I’m against but what I’m for, I’ve come up with a nonpartisan list of what these norms are. It may not be complete but is a good summary.
Decisions
- Based on objective facts
- Arrived at by valid arguments
- The goal is fairness and to do the best for everyone.
Norms of Democracy
- Freedom of speech, religion, and assembly
- Free press
- Right to a fair trial
- Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment
- Government by the will of the people
- Equal opportunity for all (but not necessarily equal outcome)
In Conclusion
Isn’t this how we’re supposed to do things in America? This stuff shouldn’t be controversial yet I hear many people advocating positions that fly in the face of these basic values. It is deeply disturbing. If we lose this we’re lost.
Two Other Interesting People I Met at Naropa
Novelist Frank Chin is one of the early activists for Asian-American civil rights. He also knows a lot about Chinese folklore. We went to lunch and had a great discussion. For some reason he had a literary feud with Maxine Hong Kingston. Anyway, I saw a documentary about Frank Chin a decade later at the San Diego Asian Film Festival and introduced myself to the director.
I also had lunch with Danish actress Trine Dyrholm. The film “The Celebration” had just come out and she had a role in it. I remember her telling me that actors could get unemployment benefits in Denmark when they were between gigs. Sadly, I knew nothing about the Dogme 95 movement at the time. If I would have asked her about it, maybe I could have had a walk-on role in Lars Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac.” Oh well!