Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 2017)
A4 Opinion Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, July 12, 2017 Health care takes all hands on deck H ealth care has been top of the American mind for decades, as the price of medical care in the country has skyrocketed and outcomes here fell well behind other fi rst-world countries. Little progress has been made. Entrenched interests — politics, Big Pharma, insurance companies, lawyers, the American Medical Association, government bureaucracy, etc., etc. — has helped keep costs on a constant rise. And the gap between us and other rich countries has only grown wider when it comes to life expectancy, infant mortality rates, access to care and more. We must say, of course, that the American health care system can be the best in the world, if you can afford the best. But if we want more Americans to live longer, healthier, better lives, then how do we make the health care system work better for more Americans? If you can answer that question, please run for president. For all of us who don’t have the answer, let’s fi rst take a brief view of the lay of the land. The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) took a shot at improving the system when it was passed in 2008. It consisted of hundreds of pages of rules and programs and acronyms and pilot projects, but at its heart was a simple concept: the rich and healthy would pay more to allow the poor and sick to have health insurance. That’s fi ne and good, and some would argue a noble effort that does the most good without unfairly punishing those who can’t afford it. Others would argue it is an unfair system — government sticking its messy hands into the free market, personal decision-making and the plain old luck that affects the trajectory of life in the land of the free. Either way you see it, the ACA did not tackle the cost of care in America. And even though more Americans have health insurance, many cannot afford the subsidized premiums nor pay their share of the health care they receive, even when using their government-mandated insurance. In those arenas, the ACA has not helped consumers. It has, however, helped the millions of sick Americans with pre- existing conditions get coverage, which increased the cost in the system more than many projected, including the insurance companies. Republicans have loudly railed against the law over the last decade, and their win last November gave them the White House and the ability to make their mark on American health care. So far, they’ve had a troubling health care bill pass the House, a similar bill hit a sticking point in the Senate, and have not found enough votes to even muster a straight-forward repeal of Obamacare, which would put much of the pre-2008 rules back in place. We’re not at the precipice of an apocalypse, however, and the hyperbole from both political parties moves us farther away, not closer to a solution. Some Republicans called Obamacare the “worst law in our history,” which is patently absurd. The ACA was a rather Blue Mountain EAGLE P UBLISHED EVERY W EDNESDAY BY conservative approach to making a big change in the way many Americans access care. But on the other hand, Democrats are accusing Republicans of sending millions of Americans to an early grave by proposing their own changes, which return tax cuts to the rich and attempt to give poor and middle-class Americans tax- free alternatives to paying for their coverage and care. There is broad support for upgrading and improving health care in America, despite the pessimism and death threats from our political parties. Even many Republicans have come around to the idea of “Medicare for all,” a more palatable way to describe a more socialized medical system. Many Democrats are OK with wholesale changes to the Affordable Care Act, and realize that may include scrapping Obama’s signature achievement in order to enact something better. How to do that is terribly complex, and risky. Many politicians have tried and failed to do something about it, and others tiptoe around and wait for others to take on the heavy lift. It’s even more delicate in rural America, where many doctors and hospitals and clinics are surviving on razor thin margins, and depend heavily on government programs like Medicaid. American health care is a mangled mess of entrenched interests, and at the heart of it the complicated science that is modern medicine. Keeping people healthy and alive is something that cannot be done in a vacuum, and the country’s health care structure must somehow be both strong and fl exible. Voters and politicians must own up to the fact that this country is spending much too much money on it — nearly 20 percent of our entire economy — and we’re not getting acceptable results. Give the ACA credit where it’s due, but own up to the fact that there are signifi cant problems with it that need fi xing, right now. Americans are a wonderful, weird group of humans. We’re risk takers, we drink too much and eat way too much, and we drive our cars too far and too fast and we have too many guns around and we don’t sleep enough and we ingest tobacco and red meat too darn often. All of those things make us less healthy, but more free. We’re also varied demographically and culturally and we live dramatically different lives in urban Chicago or rural Montana, as a multi-billionaire in Manhattan or homeless on the streets of San Francisco. This makes a national health care system even more complicated than a country like Sweden or Denmark, which have the best health care systems and quality of life. It will take all hands on deck to improve health outcomes: A more effi cient, smarter government system. Better choices from Americans, from our diets to showing up to our annual checkups. Doctors who keep cost in mind. From Washington, D.C, we should demand debate that rises above partisanship and frames health care as the critically important, immensely complex issue it is. Sights and sounds of the Rainbow By George Plaven EO Media Group Welcome home. The colorful sign marks the en- trance into the 2017 Rainbow Gath- ering at Flagtail Meadow, on the Malheur National Forest south of John Day. I make my way along the dry, dusty trail past groups of people lounging in the shade to beat the high afternoon heat. Clothes, at this point, are optional, and a few folks have chosen to go au naturale. More than 11,000 members of the Rainbow Family of Living Light have arrived to participate in the annual gathering. With a notebook tucked in my back pocket, I decided to pay a visit July 2 alongside Tim Trainor, East Oregonian deputy managing ed- itor, in an effort to better understand the essence of Rainbow living. Neither of us knew quite what to expect, and we pledged to go in with open minds. Regardless of the envi- ronmental impacts on the land — and the Forest Service has made it abun- dantly clear there will be impacts to the ecosystem — we simply had to witness this gathering for ourselves. Immediately, we were struck by how expansive the gathering truly is, hiking from one camp to the next with names like “Jesus Kitchen” and “Granola Funk Theater.” Maps were posted around the entrance, along with general guidelines for things like trash cleanup, sanitation and avoiding sensitive habitat. Perhaps the biggest challenge we faced was fi nding a place to park. There is no parking allowed on For- est Road 24, which leads into Flagtail Meadow, and making good on nu- merous warnings, we saw tow trucks hauling several vehicles away. Finally, we pulled into a designat- ed lot in a grassy fi eld off the road where a group of women waved us into a spot that was just wide enough to fi t my Toyota Camry. “Welcome home,” they greeted us, and extend- ed an offer of handpicked raspberries. We chatted briefl y before starting back down the gravel road toward the main gathering. The Rainbow Gathering is not authorized by the Forest Service, though the sheer number of partici- pants makes it all but impossible for the agency to stop. Gatherings have been happening since 1972, and they usually culminate on the Fourth of July with a prayer for world peace. Our fi rst stop was at A-Camp, which was chock-full of vehicles with license plates from California to Vermont. The original Woodstock Festival crossed my mind just as someone began to play Jimi Hendrix on their speakers. We followed the trail that led deeper into the gathering where I was introduced to Adam, a man in his 50s who needed help carrying his back- pack. Adam said he has lung prob- lems, and was struggling with the altitude. He placed the pack in a baby stroller, which I pulled up the hill while he carried a guitar slung around his shoulder. Along the way, I asked Adam where he is from. “The same place as you,” he answered. “From my moth- er’s womb.” He claimed he has been on the road since he was a teenager, when he fi rst hitchhiked cross-coun- try from Buffalo, New York, to San Francisco. We stopped at a place in the shade where Adam decided to rest. He thanked me for the help and gave me a hug. I wished him luck on his trav- els, to which he replied, “It ain’t about luck. It’s about love.” That line stuck with me for the rest of the day. It quickly became apparent to both Tim and me that a single afternoon would not be long enough to absorb everything that goes on at the Rain- bow Gathering. We caught snippets of different conversations, including a man who said someone had sto- len his puppy and another who was looking for someone to give him $7 so he could go back into town a buy a hamburger. Somewhere in the dis- tance we heard drums and violins, and caught the occasional whiff of marijuana. Nothing is for sale at the gathering, though there is a row where members can trade and barter with each other. Items that were out on display in- cluded everything from orange juice to jewelry to a bottle of unlabeled pills. We never saw a uniformed law enforcement offi cer inside the gather- ing, except for along the main Forest Service road. On our way back down, a steady stream of people continued to fi le into the gathering, some with wagons full of supplies. The gathering offi cially wrapped up Friday, and attendance dwindled to 785 by Monday. Now, we will look ahead to report- ing on the damage caused by having 10,000-plus campers in one place at the same time. As for the gathering itself, it is clear there is much for a white-bread journalist like myself to learn about this massive counter-cul- ture experience. One afternoon was not enough for me to gain that depth of knowledge. But it at least opens the door to a bet- ter understanding. George Plaven is a reporter for the East Oregonian in Pendleton. G UEST C OMMENT Debriefi ng the Rainbow Gathering By Rev. David Seacord To the Blue Mountain Eagle So, what just happened here in Grant County? What in tarnation was this Rainbow Gathering? This happening that broke the rules, but was such a powerful force that even the federal government agen- cy in charge openly admitted that it couldn’t be stopped. What was this wild, energetic wind that just blew through this county like a two-week- long tornado, and now is all but gone — except, of course, for the cleanup (predicted to be completed, inspect- ed and signed off by the Forest Ser- vice before month’s end). Here’s my succinct debrief, of- fered from the viewpoint of an art- ist who has lived part-time in Grant County since 1967, and who also participated in this and several prior gatherings. Grant County’s “paradise” was just visited by about 13,000 humans sharing a different kind of “hive mind” — a Rainbow mind — a kind of mind that has seldom been openly visible around these parts due to the cultural conservatism long-dominate here. These visitors came from just about everywhere, and from a wide range of social and professional strata --- from surgeon and lawyer Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper P UBLISHER ............................... M ARISSA W ILLIAMS , MARISSA @ BMEAGLE . COM E DITOR .................................... S EAN H ART , EDITOR @ BMEAGLE . COM R EPORTER ............................... R YLAN B OGGS , RYLAN @ BMEAGLE . COM C OMMUNITY N EWS .................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM S PORTS ................................... A NGEL C ARPENTER , ANGEL @ BMEAGLE . COM M ARKETING R EP ....................... K IM K ELL , ADS @ BMEAGLE . COM O FFICE M ANAGER ..................... L INDSAY B ULLOCK , OFFICE @ BMEAGLE . COM to atheist, anarchist and religious zealot. Their idealized and espoused commonalities include dreams of world peace, self-suffi ciency, con- nection to the earth and respect for all lifeforms. The realities of a “drainbow” element, composed for the most part of homeless and often intoxicated “street people” tarnishes but does not obliterate the ideals. Given the prevalent societal ostra- cization, that the Gathering allows this “drainbow element” to partici- pate is viewable as a demonstration of the gathering’s compassionate tol- eration of human differences. In any event, the gathering itself was essentially a huge rendezvous made up of a great many individ- uals and extended-family-sized groups acting in voluntary coopera- tion along well-established patterns through a council and consensus process. In one way, it was simply a highly tolerant and festive home- coming of new and old friends. In another way, it was a test run of utopian love, everyone-share-most- ly-everything ideals. And in another way, it was also a practice fi eld for demonstrating or learning how to survive by pooling resources — if and when the known social order (often called “Babylon”) collapses. Thus, inside the gathering was 1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION RATES (including online access) Grant County .....................................$40 Everywhere else in U.S. .....................$51 Outside Continental U.S. ....................$60 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Email: www.MyEagleNews.com Phone: 541-575-0710 one pretty indescribable reality, but encircling the gathering was an- other reality — that of the Forest Service law enforcement gaunt- let looking for any justifi cation to confront attendees with ID checks, searches and citation or arrest nicks. And away from the gathering in our local communities was a third reali- ty — one generally unfamiliar with what was happening (or why), and thus vulnerable to rumors, fears of being overrun, spun government press releases and media articles from various viewpoints. Perhaps, given enough view- points, a whole picture emerges? Perhaps, as many philosophies ex- pound, this actually is a non-acci- dental universe perfectly designed to maximize soul growth opportu- nities in an unbelievably synchro- nized way — one that recognizes the ripeness for growth of every single incarnate being in every moment? Inside of such a view, that the Rainbow Gathering hap- pened here could only be seen as an unexpected gift to all of us to grow from, yes? Certainly it leaves behind a lot of “grist for the mill” to ponder. I pray we seize the op- portunity to do that. The Rev. David Seacord is a fi ne art painter who lives in Prairie City. Periodicals Postage Paid at John Day and additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER send address changes to: Blue Mountain Eagle 195 N. Canyon Blvd. John Day, OR 97845-1187 USPS 226-340 Copyright © 2017 Blue Mountain Eagle All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the publisher. www.facebook.com/MyEagleNews @MyEagleNews
