So. I am under attack for creating a post that was considered too “political”…This would be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetic. Do any of you who are complaining about my post know Manny and Andreina? Have you ever met them? I have had that pleasure and it was indeed an honor to have them over for supper and companionship. They are wondrous folk, as you may imagine. They are also the Founders of this refuge.
I was one of this site’s first “batch” of Ambassadors–a group of us designated back then to try to develop useful contacts in our communities–diabetic and non-diabetic alike–that could help increase support for everything from congressional action to the basics of even “talking about” this often invisible scourge–in so many places then it was a no-no and shameful and hidden…
So with that in mind, you just might reason that if I write a politically oriented post, it is ONLY with the love and needs of this particular community in my heart…
I believe it is inevitable that sooner or later or even, Very soon, the particular person just put in charge of Health and Human Services will make ill-informed decisions that will impact us negatively—old saws that we know, as a community, are just plain wrong-headed—like who needs insulin if you just “eat right”…
I can also report now that the pick of Robert Kennedy, Jr is controversial and may not make it through our Congress. But I would hope you all take a few moments to pay attention to that process…This is part of our duty as a community–to monitor and warn against Mis-Information, as well as be sure the truthful info spreads far…
This fulfills what Manny and Andreina envisioned for us all. We take care of each other and we stand as advocates for truth from those who would speak for us in the larger world…
Take care of yourselves and your loved ones…Judith in Portland
I sympathize with your concerns, but I am handling this a bit more stoically. When it comes to diabetes, the bulk of what goes on here is about day-to-day issues, e.g., insurance, techniques, strategies, but certainly, if we see questionable ideas floated that can affect diabetes care, those ideas should either be debated or refuted. On another level, you can strive to be a beacon of reason, educating and informing others.
It is a little like the sense of the quote, “When life gives you lemons…”, the choice will always be, what can I do to make this better.
Some see the glass half empty and some see it half full. Unless specifically set up with a certain leaning, forums like this are made up of varying opinions, expectations and experiences. Quite often the things we worry about most, never happen. After 54 years type I, I just keep moving on.
Did not see your post, but RFK, Jr. was reported in the NY Times to be in earnest conversation with others about working on childhood illnesses, T1D, included, with the general conclusion that they “could do something” about them. O.K. then! Cure T1D once and for all - throw Federal money at it until it’s gone while you work on asthma, childhood T2D, sickle cell and the rest. Go for it!
Dear Judith without getting into politics I fear the same thing you are saying. Anybody that goes thru life with blinders on and his views are all that, is a danger to us all. We (me) hope that is not the case. For t1 and t2 may the research continue to develop better drugs new therapy and in the end find a cure for this diabetes. Al
[quote=“Al13, post:7, topic:93258”]
without getting into politics
[/quote]1
I have this obsession about words. The word politic originally meant citizen. As we are all citizens then we are political.
Any time 2 or more people come together politics, not necessarily, government is at play. So TUdiabetes is political in that sense.
I believe it was in @Judith_in_Portland original post that has been locked that I chimed in about my anxieties about the future of health care in the US.
I am on SS and Medicare which are governmental programs that I’v paid into my whole life. I receive products from 3 DME companies, drugs and insulin that I would never be able to pay even if SS is untouched, Medicare keeps me alive.
If expressing my anxieties are too political for TU than I am in the wrong place. I feel like I’m being told to eff my anxiety.
You capture my general sense of anxiety beautifully, my dear. I also deal with fibromyalgia and severe arthritis in my knees due to all my years as a dancer, which included 4 knee surgeries and a knee replacement. Oh, and then there was a series of falls I took, each one causing an injury–from a fractured scapula to a fractured femur—all before they figured out that my Vitamin D levels were so low as to be life threatening. Amazingly weird. I had always thought of D as one of the “sunshine” vitamins, and at that time I was busily digging up everything that wasn’t House on our double lot, to turn it into Garden! Life can be unexpectedly strange …Blessings of the universe to you and yours…Judith
I can only speak from the place of MY personal experince. Partisans are ALWAYS hard to talk about policy with, Judith.
Maybe talking to one another gives us a better idea about how to have those conversations. I dunno. I kinda think that partisans don’t have any interest in policy - they do money and elections. A lot of what they do is pretty boring and bureaucratic, so in some ways you can hardly blame them for trying to spice it up. Most people would sooner kill themselves than go down to their local precinct meetings. That’s how boring it is.
My guess is that you wrote something that stirred up partisan sentiment. My advice is to never do that if your trying to talk policy. It leads to a miserable viper pit of getting nothing done. Partisans rarely help push policy. Partisans work in money and elections. Tht’s different than policy. In policy, you gotta talk to both sides. You don’t want to provoke oppositional partisan sentiment in anything related to your policy discussions. You tip toe around it. That’s harder than it sounds because partisans always want to frame everything in partisan terms. This is true on both sides.
I’m always looking for new and better resources for how to do this well. I try to find stuff from both left leaning and right leaning sources. But if anybody knew how to do this perfectly, then things would be a lot easier than they actually are.
As a diabetic, I find the illness/disease paradigm for modeling political belief kinda interesting to me. It takes me a while to locate this stuff on the internet, so I just posted a couple things that relate. If you have other resources about how to facilitate political discussion, please post.
How do you frame the following problems differently for either party? What words and metaphors and personal stories are most effective when communicating with either party?
“Diabetes makes me poor,” “Diabetes restricts my personal freedoms,” “The healthcare markets are riddled with antitrust problems.”
One thing, for example, that I have tried (this might not be the best metaphor). Say that I am talking to the GOP. My metaphor might be that players in the healthcare system are a bunch of prostitutes. It appeals to concepts of cleanliness and orderliness. I don’t think this is the best metaphor for the DFL. It might not be a great metaphor for anyone in the legislature because some of them probably really like their prostitutes. But, its one strategy I have tried.
I think the issue was that Judtih raised a legitimate concern, but it was likely flagged by others as broaching some level of politics that the admins thought to restrain. In complete honestly, I share her concerns, in that incoming political appointments might endanger people’s health, but still felt that this shouldn’t be the forum for overtly political discussions, that we should stick to the science about topics when they are raised. That said, if a major political or governmental official expresses nonsense that someone in our community might take seriously, I think that could be an appropriate topic for us to respond to protect our community from disinformation and harm, as long as the dicussion is civil. At times, the admins might disagree.
Below are two prior threads, related to @Judith_in_Portland’s current thread.
Original thread:
To start a dicussion on what I thought could be a path forward, I posted this:
As someone who is also terrified and for the life of me can’t understand how we got here, maybe TuDiabetes needs a category where politics is allowed. This isn’t a 1950s dinner party where we need to stand on etiquette protocol. This is our lives, and unless you’re infinitely wealthy, sometimes politics is literally life or death for us. We should be able to discuss that somewhere on this forum without censorship. Those who want to avoid the discussion can turn off that category in their settings and not have to see it.
We should always remember that the experts don’t always get it right. Quoted by Dr Ben Carson: It is important to remember that amateurs built the Ark and it was the professionals that built the Titanic . That applies to science as well.
Exactly. Well said.
But his credentials, which I posted below, indicate that he is probably one of the greatest medical professionals to ever practice.
What a wise amazing man. Who looked at things from both perspectives.
That’s fine if the amateurs live up to the title - > amateur (n.)
1784, “one who has a taste for some art, study, or pursuit, but does not practice it,” from French amateur “one who loves, lover” (16c., restored from Old French ameour), from Latin amatorem(nominative amator) “lover, friend,” agent noun from amatus, past participle of amare "to [love
That’s why many of those who came up with scientific discoveries in the 16th to early 20th century. They did it out of love. They studied their chosen subjects and did actual scientific work.
That doesn’t describe people with faulty scientific and medical knowledge being true amateurs.
Science comes from the Latin for knowledge. That means facts and not unfounded opinions.
There is an old Texas saying from back when most of us Texans had good sense, “Opinions are like a$$h0les everyone has one and they all stink.”
Ben Carson performed historic conjoined twin separation surgery 30 years ago. On Sept.6, 1987, Dr.Ben Carson completed a 22-hour pioneering operation that separated 7-month-old West German Siamese twins, who were joined at the back of the head.Sep 6, 2017 https://carsonscholars.org/about-csf/dr-carson/
Amazing credentials that have nothing to do with politics. For those discussing science.
LOL…LOL…LOL…The science of this Carson person is exactly what is worth questioning. But so it goes. What do we call Science that is corrupted by ambition and blind fealty to one’s own ego?
