A People's History

I very much liked reading and blogging through I, Claudius. I am going to do the same with A People's History by Howard Zinn. I was given this as a Christmas present a few years back from my Amazon wish list. The giver was a witness at my sweetie's and my dinner wedding. I've always felt bad because I never got started on reading it, even though it's lingered on my Important Books to Read list for years.

I don't plan to keep a set schedule or read a certain amount. I do plan to read about a half hour at a time, then write about it here. This may happen several times a week, but at least once a week. I hope there are folks out there who will follow along, or read ahead as the case may be, and engage in dialog in the comments. I plan to begin this next week.

You may want to get this book eventually, but meanwhile, it is scanned and available online right here.

Dinner, Lisa, and my first YouTube upload

I finally went to see my good friend Lisa Mann perform. I have her first CD, which she said at this little show is now a collector's item. It is, too...good songs on there. Go and buy one before they're all gone. You can sample her songs at her MySpace page.

She was playing alone at this little place called The East Burn. Or is it The EastBurn? They have yummy food...I had potato pancakes that seemed to have a little influence from the Japanese version. I also had the ravioli special made with sunchokes and artichokes. My sweetie met me there. He's been working a lot again. He's not so into this kind of music, and his ears bother him, so it was especially sweet that he joined me. He got their fries, which were a mix of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and leeks. Oh, I would go back even if just for those. The leeks were sliced into slivers, so were these crispy green things that had a taste reminiscent of fried onions, only more refined, as leeks are. I'm not a big fan of sweet potato fries, but the leeks made these quite delicious.

Actually, when I arrived there was a guy drumming along with Lisa, but he left after a couple of songs. He was drumming with his hands on a box contraption. That just goes to show you how much I know about music these days.

The first thing I was inspired to do was pull out the crayons from the double shot glass and start drawing on the butcher paper that served as a tablecloth. I draw like a kid. When Lisa saw it she loved it. I'd already decided if she liked it, it was hers. When I told her so after the show, she jumped up and down in a little happy dance. Of course I had to hang on to the image just a little by taking a photo.

Her final song was a cover of a Tom Waits song. Of course I thought immediately of my blogging friend in Nashville, so I thought this was as good a time as any to see how good a video my little camera could produce for YouTube. And I have to say, not bad, not bad at all for a pocket-sized camera.

While I wait for that video to upload, here's my sweetie's drawing that he started after I was all done.

The Printz Award Challenge

Some of those memes that make the circuit of the blogging world are reading challenges. People commit to reading a certain number of books from a certain list in a certain amount of time. In fact, one of the challenge bloggers I'm joining is "absolutely obsessed with reading challenges." I've decided to participate in the Printz Award Challenge. I can handle reading 6 young adult books that I just might read anyway. I have until the end of the year. Indeed I've previously read 3 of them: Skellig by David Almond; Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, by Louise Rennison; and A Step from Heaven by An Na.

The Michael J Printz Award is given by YALSA, which is part of the American Library Association. The list of winners and honors books can be found here.

My list to read before 2009:

• The Book Thief (audio) by Markus Zusak [2007 Honor book]
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; v. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson [2007 Honor book]
• how i live now by Meg Rosoff [2005 Winner]
• The First Part Last by Angela Johnson [2004 Winner]
• Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going [2004 Honor book]
• Monster by Walter Dean Myers [2000 Winner]

I may just add American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang as a bonus. It is a graphic novel, not something I'm usually interested in reading, but it is the winner for 2007.

Town Hall Invitation

Because of my blogging on health and community involvement, I've been invited to a town hall on the possibility of a federally funded "biobank."

My first thought was wow, who me? Then, why of course me. Then, what the hell do I know about the implications of a genetic biobank? Well, I guess a way to find out would be to go. I'd have to ask to leave work early that day.

The Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University is holding these meetings in just 5 cities.

The local coordinator who sent me the email pointed me to two articles about the Kansas town hall, here and here.

What do you all think?

As I attend the series Unnatural Causes, I'm learning so many ways in which environment plays a key role in health regardless of genetics. Yet, if predispositions can be determined, some pre-emptive medicine might cost a lot less in the long run, thus the usefulness of a genetic biobank for research. That's not even to be begin to look at how such a database could go Horribly Wrong for those who haven't any power.

We can't get single payer national health care. I'd like to see that first. Who will this biobank end up benefiting? With politics as it is now, I can only think it will benefit those with power and money.

Unnatural Causes: Becoming American

I was so happy about this: there were 30 people there for this showing. I was able to share that people could still see the first episode at some location in North Portland, and there were still some more showings of the second episode, and that they could go to the library website and find it under "News". Bruce, from the Health Dept. said I get an A plus plus for coming to all these.

While the first episode was an hour long, all the rest of them are a half hour long, so we have lots more time for the focus group conversation. I learned later that several of the attendees were immigrants, which was exciting considering the topic. I wondered if they came in particular because the topic drew them over the other episodes, or if they'd been especially marketed to through some group or agency. Regardless, it was great to hear their points of view.

Review:
This was a surprise to me: recent immigrants have better health than the wealthiest in the U.S. It's a myth that they bring infectious diseases...I would say a racist myth. They're healthier than the rest of us; within a generation, they lose that advantage, and are affected by the same unnatural causes.

The role of the strong family ties "forms a shield around them, protects them from the deleterious effects of American culture." We work more than ever. We are more socially isolated. That's a big thing. Social isolation can kill, it is linked to a greater risk for almost every cause of death. But, family isn't enough, that shield weakens.

It helps when communities are organized to keep that protective shield working. Kennett Square, a strong Quaker town, was featured as an example. One from there said, "Everyone benefits if no one is left behind." A worker at a large mushroom farm was featured.

• Among immigrants, as teens acquire American culture, they lose that hopefulness that their parents came here with.
• The American Dream is a myth: most people do not move up the social ladder.
• When immigrant parents work a lot, kids lose that valuable contact with the positive aspects of their culture.
• This country increases your risk of psychiatric illness
• Workers don't like to take time off work for health care, so illnesses are pretty far along when they do go (the big employer established a health clinic on site for the many immigrant workers)
• Acculturation--the process of selecting and choosing pieces of the culture to take on
• It would be good if we can take what we see in protected/shielded communities and incorporate that into health-protective benefits

The discussion

At first talk bounced around among people, but then with 45 minutes left, our facilitator, Dr. Anna, did a round robin to hear from all the people there.

Some excerpts:

• struck by irony: the people who bring us our food have less health care
• kids run the house, they're the language and cultural interpreters
• we've discouraged shared housing from the 50s on: how to encourage multi-generational families
• elder generation subject to social isolation
• car culture: socially isolated in cars (that was me)
• there was a sentence, "American culture makes you sick" we need to ask what is it about this culture that makes us sick? is it that individuality?
• immigrants are pressured to acculturate. this comes from everywhere: school, work. (from an immigrant)
• people in this country don't recognize themselves in other people (from an immigrant)
• (from an immigrant) they teach our children to be independent. our children come home, we teach them to think of the community. we watch them become someone else. focus on cultures, how to work with the family: give us more control to be able to resolve problems within our community

The round robin question: How can you make anything within your community better? Help keep people from getting sick?

• work within communities; don't come from without and impose structure
• need to celebrate various cultures
• used to get lots of fruits and vegetables in Guatemala; here in high schools they serve pizza
• create moments of community building; traditional dishes, potlucks
• activity centers for kids, community centers
• encourage health clinics in the workplace, as in the documentary (that was me)
• we need more compassion
• valuing caregivers
• a website listing ethnic grocery stores, farmer's markets [I so wish I had the health equity coordinator's email...wait, maybe I do. A wiki would be great for a listing of ethnic grocery stores. There is a website here. Farmer's markets...that guide exists right here.]

Unnatural Causes: Place Matters

Unnatural Causes is now showing on PBS! Thursday evenings, starting tonight. TV is learning from the web: people want interactive information, people want to have a say, and PBS is providing it. Besides these events like I'm attending that are happening around the country, PBS is asking for your stories related to these ideas in the series. Share your stories here.

Oh, good thing I looked. Here in Oregon on OPB, it's showing on Sunday at 11 am. Here are the tv listings for everybody, may not be accurate. Here are OPB's listings. If you have HDTV, (like anybody who reads me does...do you?) it's showing several more times.

The showings by Multnomah County aren't in the same order as they will be on the web. I saw episode 5, Place Matters, a week and a half ago. (I'm so behind with the blogging thing.) Again, this will contain spoilers, if you care about that before you watch a documentary.

Where you live has an effect on your health. Some of this was review, similar information as found in In Sickness and in Wealth. Obviously, place determines what you're exposed to. Who doesn't know about industries polluting the poor neighborhoods? Chemical agents, pollutants, violence, lack of access to fresh food, abundance of fast food joints...all of these contribute to poor health in poor neighborhoods.

In this episode, Richmond, California was featured. Like Louisville in the first episode, they showed that diseases cluster in certain parts of the city. Some differences were highlighted. Did you know it costs an average $500 more for a car in a poor neighborhood? I knew groceries cost more and are less abundant. Well-off communities have advantages and environmental support. Banks and other businesses move out of poor neighborhoods.

Cortisol from stress is covered again in this episode. Someone in a poor neighborhood has an "accumulation of multiple negative stress sources." A man named Gwai was featured. He'd had a recent heart attack. His daughter had been recently murdered by a SE Asian drug gang, mistaken identity or something. His son was involved with the wrong crowd.

Adult problems can be traced to childhood environment. Many kids in Richmond don't think they'll live to the age of 20. One program on hope tries to teach them how their actions can change their environment.

Asthma is certainly affected by place. Leaking windows encourage mold, moisture encourages dust mites and roaches.

High Point neighborhood in Seattle was also featured. It got a makeover, all new housing, with original tenants meant to move back. Community gardens were designed to be places that promote social gathering. Breathe-easy houses (wouldn't I love to have that) cost $6000 extra, or about 2 years of medical care. Would that all houses in the Pacific Northwest could have these breathe-easy features. Great idea, but the monetary support that created High Point was phased out. Some of the residents couldn't come back.

Sadly, not as many people came to this showing. Most of the people there were staff presenting it. Still, we had a good dialog. They liked my thought that Multnomah County can work under the radar. Average voters think of the mayor as the face of government, and think of the city when they don't like how things are run, but the county, with just as big responsibilities, usually seems to escape notice. (Our last County chair didn't get this: she ran things like a politician and got more noticed than she probably wanted.) The County thrived under Bev Stein before her, who ran things like a manager. Our current chair also seems to run things like a manager, and I think that bodes well.

When we do get noticed, it's for things people like, like the library. The health department wishes it got noticed more, I think. Several of the presenters are doctors in free clinics.

One of the things that gets my attention is how difficult it will be to sell this. The answers to "Unnatural Causes" are complicated. I said, "Politicians take this interconnected multi-layered thing and make it one thing, and talk that one thing to death. ...until well...it's dead." Of course it would go a long way to help the health of all if we had a single-payer health care system, but these shows reveal there are causes that go way beyond that. We could never have a dialog like this on the national level...not the way political conversation happens now. But this is wild, this is amazing, on the county level.

We had a neat conversation about how we could get more fresh food and consciousness of fresh food in the kind of neighborhoods that are swamped with the fast food joints. We already have community gardens, but individuals sign up for plots in those, and waiting lists are long. Also, I'm not sure that there are as many community gardens in the poorer sections of the city. I thought it would be nice to have some community gardens that are actually communal, encouraging the social gathering place as mentioned of High Point. They could be places of education as well as sustenance.

Oh, hey! I discovered I'm getting paid to go to these. So ixnay on the oliticspay alktay. Not here, there. I'm not getting paid to write this.