My Back Pages

My Back Pages: Healthcare and the Silent War Against Community Ho... : Last Thursday, I had to visit our beautiful Putnam Hospital Center's ER. That in itself is not unusual, given the the different health i...

Last Thursday, I had to visit our beautiful Putnam Hospital Center's ER. That in itself is not unusual, given the the different health issues that I have accumulated along with the years in my life. I was struck by how quiet it was. Ten years ago, I would have had to be triaged first, then, according to how serious my problem  was, I would have to wait a period of time to see a doctor. This day, there was no waiting. This hospital has been thoroughly updated and is clean and modern with a friendly, caring staff who will do whatever it takes to make the patient comfortable. After being thoroughly checked out, I was released and told to follow up with my doctor within 48 hours.  The next day, I went in to see him. After he checked me over, we sat and talked for a while, as we do whenever I see him. He has been my doctor for over thirty years, and I am one of his first patients.. We have become friends, as well as doctor patient. The talked turned to the beautiful hosp...

My Back Pages: School Days, and This Old Man.. :    Dedicated to the Memory of Marvin Bookbinder: A dedicated educator, and a really decent, caring man. Mr. Bookbinder, I'm so sorry t...

   Dedicated to the Memory of Marvin Bookbinder: A dedicated educator, and a really decent, caring man. Mr. Bookbinder, I'm so sorry that I failed you  I have to admit, I love doing bitstrips; those little cartoons on facebook that let you make your avatar for them and adjust the situations and the captions to suit yourself. They give you the basic cartoon, you finish it. I like to draw on my life, and usually kid my wife in the process. Usually, I make myself the butt of her (fictional) biting and sarcastic wit.   Yesterday, I found one that actually almost fit what happened to me in real life, and it caused a great deal of controversy and facebook talk. Here's the cartoon:                                                                              ...

My Back Pages: Solving Problems, and Mindset Needed : While lying in bed this morning, sometime around 04:00 AM, I started thinking about the state of things in America and the rest of the wor...

While lying in bed this morning, sometime around 04:00 AM, I started thinking about the state of things in America and the rest of the world and it occurred to me that the problem is that we have stagnated. We seem to be constantly at odds with one another about what direction to go in, and instead of moving, we just sit with our wheels spinning. In fact, our wheels no longer even spin because we are so mired in the morass of one ideology versus another. While our supplies of fuel continually dwindle, nothing has been done in any significant way to either replace or supplement the fuels that we have. Our current demands burn up supplies with abandon, and while we are not in a crisis mode yet, make no mistake about it, we one day will be. What to do, what to do?   I must ask: Where are the movers and shakers today that will lead us from this darkness into a new era of light? Where are the voices inspiring the young men and women of today to take chances and search for answers to ...

My Back Pages: The Old Man and the Hat(s) : When I was a boy, my friends and I were ambiguous about hats. The hats that our mothers insisted that we wear on cold Winter days had very...