A friend of mine died this week. I thought by maybe writing that sentence it would somehow feel more real, but it doesn't. He wasn't an old friend or a really "good" friend necessarily, but because I stopped ranking my friends along time ago, he was still my friend.
When I went back to school to get my teaching license, I had reasons for doing so, but none of them were very profound. Most of them were practical and boring, which made me not so excited to start my teaching career. This was all until I took a class taught by Kipchoge Kirkland. From the very first day in class, Choge inspired me. He hadn't even really started teaching yet and I was already hooked. The first words out of his mouth were a part of his spoken word poetry and those first few lines amazed me. Not only was I amazed by his poetry, but his ability to walk into that room and own the class with his confidence and enthusiasm. It was through this class that I started to find better reasons for becoming a teacher. He inspired me to be a better person and I couldn't wait to get into a class and give my students everything that Choge had given me.
As he had done last year, Choge came to my classes a couple of weeks ago to perform some his poems. He was helping me start my section on spoken word poetry for my advanced drama classes. The kids loved him and felt an instant connection with him, just as I did. There is nothing better than seeing things through your students’ eyes and I loved seeing Choge through theirs. His death was hard for me and telling my students was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.
I feel like I should do something, stop everything I am doing and just mourn. I feel like I'm not missing him enough, or that I am not upset enough. I still don't believe it entirely I guess. The only thing that is different is that I keep thinking about his death and the only way that it stops is if I busy myself with something else. Choge was a great person, the type that you know you are lucky to have known. I always felt my creative juices get refilled whenever I talked to him. I hope that I can stay inspired by him now that he is gone, but I know it will be hard. I find it hard to believe there are any good reasons for his death; he made everyone around him better. If you want to find out more about him and maybe donate money to a scholarship set up for his son, click here.
Choge...you are missed...thank you for everything.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Sunday, March 20, 2005
I Done Been Moved
So, where have I been? I know the question has been bugging all of you. I have been extremely busy moving into a new place. Not only moving, but moving in with my girlfriend. Yes, I have finally found a girl who is willing to live with me. So far, so good. It is a different experience living with a member of the opposite sex and it is definitely keeping me on toes. So, I still haven't reached the point where posting a full blog is high on my list, but the time is coming soon friends. In the meantime, check out the new recommendations, and to my fellow contributors...pick up my slack!!!
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Prison Medicine
Social injustices, there are a lot of them, and in my job (our job) I have to deal with them each and every day often, multiple times per day. No one has enough time or energy to discuss all of these in one portfolio entry, nor would any one want to read such a composition. So, I will choose the one that irks me the most, and frustratingly, seems the easiest to resolve.
LACK OF MEDICAL CARE IN JAIL/PRISON
Certainly more lacking in the jail population than in prison since jail is an unstable situation. Anyone who works at Wishard can tell countless stories about patients who get arrested and sent to the APC or to the jail and do not get the medications that they need for their chronic medical conditions. I don’t care that people don’t get their Klonipin or their Vicodin, but dilantin, anti-psychotics, beta blockers, coumadin or plavix etc. are a different story.
Now I can see that one might argue that all of these medications are expensive and that this is not the most reliable population but generally there are few people who seek beta blockers or dilantin etc. As well, I feel that the expense argument is weak considering when these patients have an adverse event such as a seizure, they are brought to the hospital where they incur an emergency department charge (oh, wait, did I say they? I meant us) or worse they are harmed. A patient suffers a scalp laceration during his seizure or suffers cardiac ischemia without the beta blocker because his atrial fibrillation has rapid response, these are just a couple of examples.
I have major concerns about the cost of these visits to the hospital to the tax payers. I am not naïve enough to believe that there isn’t a deal between Wishard and the correctional system to reduce the cost of these visits but still, it seems it could not be less than simply giving these patients their medications.
Enough about cost, consider that it is unethical for the correctional system to jeopardize these patients health by withholding their medications. I am of the belief that jailed and imprisoned individuals deserve very few or possibly no privileges, however as one can gather from listening to the national debate on healthcare many believe that healthcare is neither a privilege or a luxury but a basic human need. Under this belief it seems that not treating these individuals’ health conditions, especially when they have no means of obtaining their own healthcare, is a violation of the laws of humanity even if the laws of this country seem to turn a blind eye to this condition.
So, the way I view this situation one can make two separate arguments in a fight to obtain more acceptable healthcare conditions for the imprisoned population. A successful fight would save taxpayer dollars, improve the health imprisoned individuals and, last but not least, make my job easier.
LACK OF MEDICAL CARE IN JAIL/PRISON
Certainly more lacking in the jail population than in prison since jail is an unstable situation. Anyone who works at Wishard can tell countless stories about patients who get arrested and sent to the APC or to the jail and do not get the medications that they need for their chronic medical conditions. I don’t care that people don’t get their Klonipin or their Vicodin, but dilantin, anti-psychotics, beta blockers, coumadin or plavix etc. are a different story.
Now I can see that one might argue that all of these medications are expensive and that this is not the most reliable population but generally there are few people who seek beta blockers or dilantin etc. As well, I feel that the expense argument is weak considering when these patients have an adverse event such as a seizure, they are brought to the hospital where they incur an emergency department charge (oh, wait, did I say they? I meant us) or worse they are harmed. A patient suffers a scalp laceration during his seizure or suffers cardiac ischemia without the beta blocker because his atrial fibrillation has rapid response, these are just a couple of examples.
I have major concerns about the cost of these visits to the hospital to the tax payers. I am not naïve enough to believe that there isn’t a deal between Wishard and the correctional system to reduce the cost of these visits but still, it seems it could not be less than simply giving these patients their medications.
Enough about cost, consider that it is unethical for the correctional system to jeopardize these patients health by withholding their medications. I am of the belief that jailed and imprisoned individuals deserve very few or possibly no privileges, however as one can gather from listening to the national debate on healthcare many believe that healthcare is neither a privilege or a luxury but a basic human need. Under this belief it seems that not treating these individuals’ health conditions, especially when they have no means of obtaining their own healthcare, is a violation of the laws of humanity even if the laws of this country seem to turn a blind eye to this condition.
So, the way I view this situation one can make two separate arguments in a fight to obtain more acceptable healthcare conditions for the imprisoned population. A successful fight would save taxpayer dollars, improve the health imprisoned individuals and, last but not least, make my job easier.
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