Asking

I would ask
on behalf
of myself and everyone else
Burdened by the weight we bear
when you are heaped upon us,
That you would either make yourself real,
or make yourself scarce.

We have rubbed rosaries
to a rhinestone shine, for you,
we have stood in endless picket lines
and handed empty signs and permanent markers
down to our children and said,
"Here, make some permanent mark upon
the planet" but they have chosen slogans of
ignorance and bigotry
-may the broken body of Matthew Shepard
rest in Peace-
instead of being hounded for all of eternity
by those who think they know
who you hate
and why
and to what degree.

We have managed to make enemies of friends,
Marked boundaries and then crossed them.
We have had the audacity to call any war Holy.

So, I want to know what they know;
those stooped in brush and sticks and stones,
those making you up out of earth and clay,
understanding you in every way possible,
speaking your name in every syllable of their speech.
I want to know what they know as I stand here,
my breath mingling with the radio waves
carrying some sermon by some preacher
with a playboy shoved in his back pocket-
along with too many hardworking people's money
as he proclaims his version of salvation
from sea to shining sea- still stuck on that big joke
of manifest destiny.

We have been so willing
We have flown airplanes into buildings
We have covered our heads,
We have been dying or playing dead for your sake,
So now I ask, that in exchange
you either let these prayers hit the ceiling
or come and receive them personally.

Please make your way down here
Or stay holed up in heaven
Forever and ever
Amen.

- Tawny Holt

The author won first place at both Poetry slams at the Prospect Theater.

California may be best option to implement Single-Payer System

Amid increasing health insurance premiums, “dwindling benefits” and a growing number of uninsured residents, advocates of a single-payer health system say that California “stands the best chance of making it happen,” PRI’s “Marketplace” reports. Dr. James Kahn, an epidemiologist and health services researcher at the University of California-San Francisco’s Institute for Health Policy Studies, is developing a model of California’s health system to determine the feasibility of implementing a universal health system. Kahn said that California residents’ frustration over having to switch health plans or physicians provides extra support to implementing such a system.

Recently, for example, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the second-largest purchaser of health insurance after the federal government, accepted an increase of 25.1% in premiums for health plans contracting with the system. CalPERS also decided to drop contracts with Health Net Inc. and PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., which means up to 350,000 CalPERS members will have to switch health plans, and about 10% will need to find a new doctor. PRI reports that “broad political backing” and “extensive public education and support” would be necessary to “overhaul” California’s current system.

The final proposal and analysis are available at: http:/www.healthcareoptions.ca.gov/doclib.asp