Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "Rushing to try to save 2 county health clinics"

By Susan Phinney
Photo by Gilbert W. Arias

The proposed closure of two county health clinics in Northgate and Bothell has doctors, nurses and patients organizing and agonizing over the possible loss of health care for people who have few other options.

Jill Hoffman, a public health nurse who said she was speaking as a citizen, not a representative of Public Health -- Seattle & King County, said the sites targeted for closure accounted for 80,000 visits in 2005, and other clinics that handle underinsured and uninsured clients couldn't handle the overflow if they closed.

"People will be taking themselves and their children to emergency rooms for treatment. That will cost everyone money," Hoffman said ... [click headline for link to full article]

Blackberries

Blackberries grow sweet from the sadness
of cloudy days at summer’s end.
Go to them. Step into the prickly thicket.
Take care of thorns—
they may claim drops of your blood,
exchanged for purple juice.
Cup the bunches
with a gentle hand.
Let the ripe fruit fall
like the breasts of a young lover undressing.
Take care of spider webs,
silent strings quivering
when you brush against the branches.
These are friends. Take care
when shadows drop lower every evening.
Remember that the blackberries
need picking.

Real Change News: Bad Medicine - Rise in uninsured patients spurs plan for health clinics’ closure

KING5: Patients worried about public health clinics closing

Keep our Public Health clinics OPEN.

Public Health of Seattle and King County provides affordable health care across the county—even when people don’t have health insurance. Public Health provides immunizations for children, care for pregnant mothers, family planning, general family medicine, nutrition counseling, mental health services, disaster preparedness and many other critical services.

But in its latest budget proposal, Public Health proposed to close North and NorthShore Public Health Centers, and the North Seattle Dental Clinic, because of a lack of funds. If this happens:

• The entire North King County region will lose access to Public Health care
• Clients will have to travel farther for health care services; many will simply not be able to go
• Every Public Health clinic around the county will be under greater strain
• More than 150 employees will lose their jobs, hurting the local economy

If Public Health Centers close, everyone loses. You can help.

“Health Care Access for All” Rally
Saturday, September 30th
10AM to Noon, Rain or shine
North Seattle Public Health Clinic
10501 Meridian Ave N., north parking lot
(On bus route 16)

Sponsored by Communities for Public Health, endorsed by IFPTE Local 17, OPEIU Local 8, WA State Jobs with Justice, Coalition of Labor Union Women, WA Citizen Action & many others. For more information, contact: milibu@u.washington.edu

IN ADDITION, TAKE ACTION TODAY:

Call King County Executive Ron Sims and your County Council member, and say:
"Keep ALL our Public Health clinics open, running at 100%."
Ron Sims: 206-296-4040
King County Council: 206-296-1000 (Tell the receptionist your zip code and ask to speak to your council member.)

Sep. 19 -- It's IMPORTANT to vote for judges this time!

This Sep. 19, in the Washington state primary elections, voters will have some drastically different judges to choose from, and the far right is already very organized in getting its base to support the bad guys. Click the headline above for a PDF version of the "Guide to Judicial Candidates for Progressive Voters and Democrats."

Where are you from?

In a Seattle neighborhood lined with shady trees and pampered bungalows, a campaign volunteer knocks on a heavy oak door. A woman with white hair and brilliant blue eyes answers. When she hears the unexpected visitor is there to talk about a candidate, she cuts him off with an apology.

“I’m terribly sorry, I should invite you in to sit down, but we’re just about to leave, and in any case, I’ve already made up my mind. I’m voting for the other guy.” She points over her shoulder at a man reading the newspaper. “You could talk to my husband, but it’s not worth your time. He doesn’t vote. He’s from Norway, and he’s still a Norwegian citizen. He’s only been living in this country for 46 years.”

Rally & March: Stop the Korea-US "Free Trade" Agreement

Wednesday, September 6th
12:30pm Rally at Westlake Park
Then March to the WA State Convention Center

(Click the headline above for a flyer in PDF format.)

Labor Day: March for Human Rights & Economic Justice

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Tom Friedman's Shocking Admission

By David Sirota, in Eat The Press

La rama robada

Un poema de Pablo Neruda

Greenbridge

They tore down the wartime bungalows
built in rows along the dry spines of glaciers.
The land lay fallow a while, a graveyard
of dirt and weeds locked behind chain link

'til the rains sprouted frames and foundations.
Men appeared with tools in hand, grumbling trucks
moved the earth, and homes the color of Easter eggs
stacked up in the afternoon sun.

Lies stand shoulder to shoulder with little truths.
From the old homes families carried
suitcases and slips of paper
that promise to pay the rent—
at least until the budget’s cut.
As they say, White Center aint so white,
and Greenbridge, well, there’s no bridge either.

But this morning it hardly matters.
First one from the corner has lace curtains,
candles and flowers line the panes.
The sun’s not risen yet
above the park and the lake.
Tea steeps on a countertop
and one bright bulb lights the faces
of a grandmother and child in the window.

At the front door a broom stands guard,
its fight with construction dust now done,
and shoes of all sizes lie in a row,
sound asleep.

"Significant deficit" may force closure of two county health clinics

Public Health of Seattle & King County, where I work, provides essential health care services to county residents, many of whom have no insurance and nowhere else to turn. This year King County insisted that the Public Health department submit a balanced budget for 2007, despite increasing health care costs, decreasing returns as fewer people have health insurance, and an acute need for subsidies to be able to stay in business. Dorothy Teeter, interim director of Public Health of Seattle & King County, obliged the bean counters' request, and proposed closing two of the county's ten Public Health centers in order to break even.

Now it is up to Public Health clients, workers and the community at large to convince King County Executive Ron Sims and the King County Council to go beyond the budget Teeter submitted and fully fund Public Health, without any cuts or closures. Between now and late November, when the council votes on the budget, there's a lot of work to do.

Love, with Trees and Lightning: a poem by Catie Rosemurgy

from versedaily.org

(click on photo to see Scott Alberts' original)

Update from the teachers' movement in Oaxaca

On August 1, several thousand women and girls marched through the streets of Oaxaca city demanding the resignation of state governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Many of these women are schoolteachers who were joined by students, housewives, workers, and campesinas. Many marched in their aprons, carrying pots and pans, spoons and spatulas. Later several hundred women took over the Oaxacan state television station ...

Click headline above to read more at
www.corrugate.org

The voices of raptors

From somewhere among the branches
fall the voices of raptors.
A Cooper's hawk swoops into position
outside the clinic window, interrupting
the business of the day, scaring
a brown-eyed boy balanced
on the scale. The nutritionist gasps,
stops talking of rice cereal and mashed fruit,
startled by the rodent prey dangling from your beak.

The boy curls his toes, jaw dropped,
metal clanks metal beneath his feet.
From somewhere among the higher branches
fall the voices of young hunters
raspy like kittens mewling,
hungry for meat and bone,
sharp talons clamped tight,
awaiting your return.

A bit of Truth and Reconciliation

The Guardian: Spain finally attempts to lay ghosts of the Franco era

Spain's Socialist government yesterday proposed measures to help families of the victims of General Franco's dictatorship dig up mass graves, but refused to annul tens of thousands of summary death sentences handed down by his regime.

A long-awaited proposed law, to compensate victims of the Spanish civil war and the 36-year dictatorship that followed it, also bans the far right from holding rallies at Franco's grave in the Valley of the Fallen outside Madrid ...

My city, on fire again

As Israeli bombs rain down on Beirut, the people of the city are once again living with the horror of war. In an intimate diary, 30-year-old Lebanese artist Zena el-Khalil describes helping foreigners escape, the nightly rocket attacks - and how she couldn't leave her sick friend behind

More than a million march against electoral fraud in Mexico

Candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said yesterday "a fraudulent election cannot be erased even with all the waters of the oceans."

Imagine how different the world might be today if a million Americans had marched in 2000 to protest what happened in Florida and elsewhere ...

Refugee All Stars benefit Thursday!

Thursday, July 13, 2006, 8:00 PM
A benefit concert for NW Immigrant Rights Project

featuring...
The Refugee All Stars of Sierra Leone

Opening...
DJ: Darek Mazzone, Host of Wo'pop on KEXP 90.3
Tickets: available at all TicketsWest outlets for $15, day of $17

Neumos - 925 E. Pike St. - Seattle, WA 98122

Info: (206)957-8609 or Janet@nwirp.org

Emma Goldman again makes the headlines

My pals and former housemates at the Emma Goldman Finishing School somehow ended up on the front cover of the Seattle Weekly. The house is really much more pleasant and friendly than what comes across in the article, as anyone who has been there for a dinner or a party can attest. (I'll admit, however, that I don't miss the three-hour meetings.) Check out these lovelies and their big dreams.

The Seattle Times: From farmhand to farm owner

... Other farm operators, Lopez says, are on their radios all day, issuing orders. "But look," he says, seizing Reinhardt's hand across the picnic table and turning it over to show his friend's dirt-smudged fingers. "This is a hand that works."

Forgotten Sol's new CD release!

My pals in Forgotten Sol are releasing their new CD, Contradiction, at a party July 1st. That's Saturday night, 9pm, at Chop Suey. You in?



www.myspace.com/forgottensol

Catalan voters approve "Statute of Autonomy"

It's not often that a national government agrees to decentralize and allow one of its regions to assume greater powers, but that's exactly what a popular referendum did this weekend in Catalunya.

The power struggle between Spain and Catalunya is of great interest to me for a number of reasons: my sister lives in Barcelona; the region has a rich history of powerful social movements; and because I'm researching the role Catalan soldiers played in occupying California in the 18th century, around the same time Spain laid siege to Barcelona and consolidated its control over Catalunya.

HAPPY SOLSTICE

May the Sun shine upon you all day long.