Jill Costello: A Profile In Courage And Leadership. The American Political Class: Not So Much

Jill Costello: A Profile In Courage And Leadership. The American Political Class: Not So Much

I hesitated to do this article for a number of reasons. First, I could never do consideration to the the fantastically written article that the following paragraphs are based on. The article is entitled " The Courage of Jill Costello " and was written by Chris Ballard. It appeared in the November 29, 2010 problem of Sports Illustrated. Second, I know my writing cannot do authorization to the courage and leadership that Jill Costello exhibited during her tide. Third, I really hesitated to compare Jill Costello to the behavior of our political class in the duplicate article, the chasm of leadership and courage between the two is unbelievably wide.
However, I decided to go ahead anyway, with regretfulness up front, if I do not capture the fine writing of Chris Ballard or the courage and leadership impact of Jill Costello.
Jill Costello was a 21 year aged subordinate and a coxswain on the crew team at the University of California when nymphet was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, the most fresh pattern, even though butterfly had never smoked a cigarette in her life. The survival standard is about 15 % for this type of cancer. The article describes the fight that Jill put up against the cancer:
- Witch put up with 14 rounds of chemo treatments.
- Bird put up with radiation treatments.
- Filly put up with aches and great enervate
- Piece put up with nightfall sweats, skin sensitivity, puffy cheeks, liquid retention, her stomach swelled, and her ankles and feet swelled up so much that damsel could not bum shoes.
- Canary was wobbly and susceptible to the slightest illnesses approximating as a common cold that could lead to pneumonia in her wasted attribute.
- Deb took an unexplored number of pills.
- Daughter self injected herself with anticoagulant that always resulted in an instant new bruise.
- After many chemo sessions blonde was so spent that doll could barely stand on her own.
- Witch elongate her studies at Cal, attaining a 4. 0 in her final semester despite having to use a powered cart to get to classes.
- Lady graduated with her class at Cal.
- Debutante never stopped dreaming of getting back to the Cal crew team as the coxswain in one of their boats.
What impact did Jill have on other people while mademoiselle was undergoing debilitating treatment:
- Dame organized a charity run which into 5, 000 people and raised more than $320, 000.
- Nymph spoke at Genentech, a cancer research firm.
- Cupcake exchanged emails with a half a dozen cancer patients around the world.
- Deb was interviewed on NPR as a spokesperson for those lung cancer patients who never smoked.
- When returning from treatments, Jill and her family commence mounds of food deposited on their doorstep from friends.
- Her teammates, who had all scattered and homeless school for the summer when mouse was diagnosed, remotely put together two videos which they send to her to lift her spirits.
- At the beginning of the spring season, her teammates went out for a two mile run and when they reciprocal they had taken off their sweatshirts to make plain tee shirts that scan " Cal Crew Cancer Killers. "
- While female was in France looking for a treatment and cure, her teammates shed their typic Cal uniforms for their race with their most heated opposition, Stanford, and wore marked uniforms in Jill ' s favorite color with the Cal bear logo replaced with a embodiment of Jill. Where the word " Cal " typically was on their uniforms, " Jill " had replaced it. Needles to rehearse, Stanford never had a chance.
Now back to her fantasy of returning to a Cal underside. On May 16, Jill got into the Cal varsity eight bottom, and despite a grim nose that developed in the middle of the contest, led the Cal women ' s crew team to a consummation over Stanford which allowed Cal to become the 2010 Pac - 10 champions. On May 19, Jill fashion out that there would be no cure for her individuality, the treatments had not stopped the hike of the tumors in her lungs, bones, and liver.
Despite the bad medical news, gal spent the next week or so such a regular coxswain would have and went about the duties of any coxswain. And despite her mark, Jill got into the Cal varsity eight bottom and led her team to a second seat finish in the nationals. Less than a month subsequent, Jill Costello passed away.
What an incredible story. Jill Costello ' s courage and leadership is run-of-the-mill unparalleled in any story I have ever heard. Lassie was focused on having a positive impact on the world and her teammates, despite constant and thorny pain. As a honcho, bird made others around her better in what they did and who they were. Woman made courageous decisions to train and relay and support her teammates despite chronic pain and prostration, pain and exhaustion that most others would have succumbed to and taken the easy way out. Butterfly was a manager in so many ways, focused on positively impacting those immediately around her and many, many more that cupcake customary never met. Scatterbrained.
Now, not to diminish this main childlike female ' s ethicality and positive angle, when was the last time any of Jill Costello ' s adjectives were used to represent our political class:
- Courage - infrequently, if ever, do you find a lionhearted politician. They will hide behind the spin doctors and campaign managers lest they test to take a set that might irritate a voting joker. Always best to take the easy way out to avoid the pain and fatigue a chin-up benchmark might work in
- Leadership - rarely, if ever, do you see a politician say so up and tell the country the insoluble truth about what is verisimilitude and then lead the country to face that solid reality. Better not to endanger their re - ballot chances, the good of the country be damned.
- Focus - when has our political class ever focused on contrivance? The 40 year old hostility on drugs is low-key a losing aim, the 30 year search for a coherent energy policy is still wayward in the woods, we still having a blunder public school system, our borders are a gag when it comes to illegal immigration, and a whole slew of problems never get fixed. No focus, no solutions.
- Make Those Around You Better - politicians have called segments of Americans some frightful names over the foregone two years including racists, un - American, Neanderthals, members of the Klan, " the adversary " and other denigrating names. If we had any Jill Costellos in our political ranks, they would not grant this behavior to eventuate. A precursor would make all of us better people and cats, homologous Jill did to those around her and around the world. Our politicians would reasonably run down others for their own cheap political gain.
As we sit here today, our politicians are arguing over how to tax moneyed Americans, a decision that will have scant impact on a $13 TRILLION national debt. They denied a tender to moisten all of America ' s small business owners the burden of filing massive and unavailable paper work associated with the health care reform legislation, not because it was a bad idea, but owing to they did not have the courage to find and cut $18 billion from a $3. 5 TRILLION budget, a. 5 % cut. Forasmuch as, their dearth of courage will burden millions of American small businesses for no impetus. They are objection about how to cut the out of control deficit spending since none of them wants to be a true captain and accept the political hits that might arise despite what might be best for the country. No courage, no leadership, no focus.
I prayer I knew Jill Costello, Chris Ballard writes about an boss growing woman. I also wish our politicians knew her, knew her good thing, knew her focus, knew her compassion, knew her courage, and knew her leadership. I also hankering they would start stagecraft in her spirit for the good of the country, even if it is gargantuan and fatiguing and has downsides to their own personal political careers.

Health Care Reform - Seen Through The Eyes Of The Typical American Citizen

Health Care Reform - Seen Through The Eyes Of The Typical American Citizen

The health care we receive here in the U. S. is bar none, among the best in the world. So why do we insist on calling this recent government lick at takeover of our health care system a " Health Care Reform ". In fact what is reform? Well, most dictionary definitions are as follows: " To pocket money to a better state, anatomy, etc.; to improve by alteration, substitution, abolition, etc. "
Health care here in the United States, as we just stated, is without interrogation among the best in the world, and this is soft identifiable wittily be examining how many people from countries where there is government controlled health care, escape to the United States to receive better, more comprehensive. and more expeditious health care or treatments than they divergent have access to in their home countries. These contain Canada and European countries, where socialized medicine is the touchstone.
So, while the talk may be about health care reform, we tender that what the debate should be about is health care cost reform. Additionally, to insinuate that insurance companies are solely at blemish for the rising health care costs is just absurd. Insurance is respected being health care costs have spiraled out of control. Insurance companies make the payments, and in many cases they get the discounts, for of their pooled purchasing effectiveness.
Consequently, if we are to focus our discussions on healthcare costs, where the discussion should rightfully be focused, then we should fully examine and understand why the costs are constantly increasing, and doing so at a rapidity that exceeds increment or income stretching.
One major impetus for these ever increasing healthcare costs is the unbelievable prices doctors must pay for their required malpractice insurance. Many want to blame the insurance companies for the high prices. However, before we persist in this line of thinking, we would do well to consider the law, and the frequency with which doctors are sued in authority with nonsensical and or frivolous lawsuits. Most importantly, with these frivilous lawsuits comes a high price tag for their defense.
Defense costs for lawsuits are borne by the insurance companies providing medical malpractice insurance. Many people are believers in the need for legal or tort reform, so too does the author of this article reckon on in this need. Many people truly posit this tort reform would significantly reduce medical malpractice insurance costs, as well as overall medical costs.
Let us open up legal ball game against any lawyer who brings to bare a frivolous proceedings and then let us see the real and legitimate claims which are made in courts, while frivilous suits and claims are opem to counter claims and counter suits. Were this the case, then the number of cases would likely drop significantly and the cost of malpractice insurance would likely skipping, as would health care costs, were these frivilous suits reduced.
For a minute, let us take a marking at but one example of how this comes into play. Not long ago a man had an crisis. While path down to remove a stick from near his lawn mower he hidden two finger to the blade. He plain many ( almost 30 ) calls from legal professionals advocacy him to sue the doctors for the loss of his fingers. The silly thing is, the doctors and hospital did their best to save his fingers from his own bunk. Yet even after re - inclination they were unable to help or to save the fingers. Still, even if the case is completely frivolous, legal professionals were endorsement him to sue the doctors and hospital for not saving his fingers. It was certainly lunatic, I know, the man was my father in law.
When suits like this are initiated the insurance companies have to hire or pay their lawyers to defend the doctors in these law suits, and the never ending circle of legal chicanery continues in perpituity. The lawyers have us all fascinated in a no win direction. They sue doctors and file frivolous suits, then they demand that people have rights to file these suits in order to protect themselves. Certainly no one would confer that people have selfsame rights, in reality they do and should, but only in real cases. Not cases initiated tidily to acquire money, and argued with a paid expert, paid witnesses, paid examining physicians, and sometimes plaintiffs who are cleverly lying.
Filing so many frivolous suits and so frequently, the legal profession has become a major contributing fixin's to the exceptionally high malpractice insurance fees that doctors have to pay. Thirty years ago if I wanted to see my doctor, he would show up at my home and charge me a fair price to see me. Now I cannot see him or her without first having insurance. I is absurd.
So we recite, let ' s start this medical cost reform with a healthy dose of tort reform. Let ' s have asking on attorneys who file frivolous suits, let ' s have tort reform where doctors can sue attorneys for any lawsuit they file which the attorney loses and where the doctor was erect to have committed no wrongdoing or malpractice. Certainly if the initiated suit discredits the doctor or puts them through dispensable legal animation, then the initiating attorney should be held accountable. Let ' s start there and see how dramatically these frivolous suits drop off.
As for the next attribute of rising health care costs, the predicament comes when the public and / or certain organizations that assist the public, abuse the system. You may ask; How does this happen? Let ' s take a view at real life example of this. Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in animate during sleep. Each episode, called an apnea, lasts long enough so that one or more breaths are irretrievable, and according to episodes arise regularly throughout sleep. The standard definition of any apneic occasion includes a minimum 10 second interval between breaths, with either a neurological arousal ( a 3 - second or greater shift in EEG frequency ), a blood oxygen desaturation of 3 - 4 % or greater, or both arousal and desaturation. Sleep apnea is diagnosed with an overnight sleep assessment called a polysomnogram, or a " sleep study ". This parameter can lead to high blood pressure, heart problems and conditions, and in maximal cases even death.
Treatments encircle wearing a salt away conencted to a machine ( Called a CPAP machine ) which blows air through the nose or nose and mouth thereby maintaining an open airway and eliminating the apnea ' s. The CPAP machine, curtain, and accessories can cost from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars. When one is diagnosed with sleep apnea and a CPAP prescribed, one ' s insurance may cover the cost of the machine and accessories. However, in many instances the insurance companies are forced to significanlty overpay for these devices for their insured individuals. The inducement is that many of the suppliers also sell this equipment to medicare or medicaid patients. In doing so, they charge them the maximum allowed for a machine by those programs. Still, the program rules are that if they sell to medicare or medicaid patients at a specific price, then they are not allowed to sell at a lower price to others, increased they risk losing their ability to indulge to medicare or medicaid patients.
This author has sleep apnea and fix a machine from a supplier for a price of $400. But the insurance company would only pay for the prescribed machine if it were delivered through a home health care company. Now the home health care company also provided to medicare and medicaid patients, they could not sell the machine to me or my insurance company at a fair price, they delivered the machine to me, but at a cost to my insurance company of $1200, the corresponding as they charge their medicare or medicaid patients. Therefore my insurance company, for of regulations, laws, and government raid into private healthcare, was forced to pay 200 % more for my CPAP machine, than it could have or should have different paid. This is abuse of the system by companies that stake services to medicare and medicaid, it is not high insurance cost, it is not high medical cost, and it is not the defect of goods other than abuse of the system and government rush into private healthcare. It is waste, it is cheating, and it harms us all in the arrangement of higher medical and insurance costs. The abuse, cheating, and waste is the count that needs to be addressed, not the insurance or the care.
Next, let ' s examine and perceive medical insurance in general. Insurance is not meant to pay all medical bills all the time. If we can all settle on this then we can at front make active to recognize this portion of the disputed point. Insurance, taken and used correctly, is for catastrophic disease or medical mishaps, not for every little medical puzzle that arises. Just equivalent auto insurance is for when you have a car business, not to pay for your gas, oil changes, brake repair, unpropitious headlamp, neckerchief problems, etc...
So too is health insurance for issues near cancer, heart attacks, pumping up, unfortunate bones, sever diseases, emergencies, surgeries, etc... it is in essence the equivalent as auto insurance or home owners insurance. It is meant to be there when you have a major medical issues. It is not meant to cover every office visit, cold, cut, scrape, shot, vaccine, medication, or hangnail you may encounter in life. If you guard everything then you better expect it to cost a lot. So why pay the extra $75 per month in premiums for an extra $1000 in office visit coverage. Why pay the extra $500 per year to reduce the co - pay on perscriptions from $25 down to $10 or $15. Just pay the $75 or $100 office visit charge and just take the prescription cold-shoulder offered and pay for your own prescriptions at a nifty live with ( often 50 % or more ). Chances are you will not be in the doctors office 10 times or more per year anyway and chances are the market price of prescription medication you will need will not make up for the $500 enhanced you pay for the coverage. If you have issues and are in the doctors office 10 or more times per year or if you have lots of held dear prescriptions, then you likely have other more major issues that your insurance will cover. Just lock on the major things, after all, these are what insurance was originally designed for and to effect against.
Finally, we should all understand that healthcare insurance or the care itself is not a right, it is a privilege of those who work tough and effect health care or healthcare insurance for themselves and their families. Just since you work oppressive, educate yourself, get a great paying job or run your own business, and you can bestow to inroad a Corvette, does not mean that someone aggrandized should have or be habituated a corvette by the government or any car for that agency at the profit of increased person ( ex. the taxpaying public ).
The corresponding is true of health care. A corvette is not a right, nowhere in our conformation does it state that we have the right to life abandonment and a Corvette. Nor does it state we have the right to life rein and government provided healthcare or government healthcare insurance. These are privileges we conclude through tough work.
We can frequent all grant to impart for or help those who cannot care for themselves, for example those who are physically or mentally handicapped or weird crippled and who wittily cannot contribute for themselves, we may even shake hands as a society to contribute for those who defend our freedoms and fight for us in police action ( ex. Military veterans ), or even feasibly our senior public to a certain extent. Certainly, on a smaller scale states or local communities can decide to contraption programs for these individuals or situations, but we do not all set that healthcare is a right to be afforded to everyone and that should forcibly be funded at the federal level by those who work insoluble.
In addition we do not all acquiesce that those who work tough or earn more should give to everyone major through a government run and MANDATED programs. This is plainly absurd and not what America is all about, nor is it what made America great. In fact it is taking or taxing those who work solid or earn more to implement for others who may not is burglary. It is akin to Robin Hood, pilfering from the affluent to give to the played out. It ' s if justified by creating crises or playing on peoples emotions or pain points.
Frankly, many people do not presuppose that government involvement in health care would be beneficial for individuals, health care professionals, the relationships between them, or the quality and number of timely care that patients would receive. The gospel remains, there is certainly no program that the government is running, or has ever run, that has been on budget, reduces costs, and which impels us to store the government to run or manage twin a huge portion of our economy and private lives as health care.
Many, if not most Americans fall for that government has no business in our health care. Many Americans realize that government push will lead to rationing or procedures and care, higher taxes, potentially no cost savings, all the while leading us down a path towards socialism. Without query it will lead to larger and larger government which is exactly what our founding fathers wanted to prevent.
In conclusion, this health care debacle is oblivion more than a direct usurpation of freedoms by an ever expanding and growing government. That in itself is dangerous. The peak would love to hand down their seats in the congress to their children and have uncommon privileges, proper insurance and medical care, and force " we the people " into dependency on government from cradle to grave, and into government run programs. We urge you, don ' t grant it folks. This is exactly what our founding fathers feared with a vast and growing government. It is the inducement the United States of America fought for its independence to overthrow the oppressive rule of England, the high taxation without representation, and the insane policies of King George at the time of succession.
We are now approaching the alike type of station that we faced when the United States published its independence from the King of England. The Obama administration and fanatic leftist politicians are about to really incite the general public here in the United States. Beware! You are about to awaken the sleeping giant in the appearance of the American people and their values. Freedom is a powerful kindness which people do not take lightly. When usurpation begins to infringe on freedoms and liberties people become active. This is why we are seeing tea parties, marches, and tribe beginning to revolution. As today as the people spot that some politicians are trying to infringe on their freedoms or take some away from them, they will fight to the death to save it.
Health care reform may lead down a path towards revolution, and not in a good way!