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