Yes.

YES to Healthcare, YES to killing the Stupak amendment, Boo for the Nelson Amendment restricting money on abortion coverage.  But in general, I am overwhelmed by how effective the constituents of the people in Congress have been in making plain to their representatives that health care IS a priority.  And I am so impressed that so many representatives listened.

An easy first step in addressing health care

Today, I want to take a brief look at the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), otherwise known as Food Stamps, otherwise known as an Electronic Benefits Transfer Card (EBT), and see the simple ways of making this system better without spending ridiculous amounts of taxpayers' dollars.

The first thing you should know about the application, at least in Rhode Island, is that it is long.  It is a seventeen page PDF file.  It is also only available in English.  It is also only searchable if you can read, though if you go to the Food Stamp office in person, you can get assistance there.  But for the people who are desperately working as many hours as possible to feed their family, being able to get to DHS is difficult.  You can request a telephone interview, which is helpful for those who cannot read or speak English, but still, if you do not know where to turn to, this can be incredibly difficult.

There are a few problems with the system in terms of accessibility and organization.  It is, compared to other government systems, rather quick once you are in the process of getting stamps.  There is little problem with this.  However, gaining access to the right to food stamps is for more privileged citizens.  I will not complain here about the fact that legal immigrants have more stringent rules for application (i.e. having had to live in the U.S. for 5 years before being able to apply for an EBT card), because that delves into politics that people will have more trouble agreeing upon and sorting out.  Instead, I will note that some citizens cannot read; some citizens do not speak English; and some citizens, overwhelmed with problems of poverty and malnutrition, simply cannot find the energy or time to fill out a 17-page application in their own time.


Here are some changes to the system that I propose, then.  A simpler application, found at any grocery store, available in both English and Spanish, if not Portuguese, Cambodian, and other languages that are prominent in Rhode Island in particular.  I do not know how the Food Stamp programs work in other states, but I do know that Rhode Island is a state in particular need of assistance to its large unemployed population. 

I just spoke with a friend who works for Farm Fresh Rhode Island, the local farmers market, and learned more about how important EBT is to supporting local farms.  For every dollar you spend at these Rhode Island farmers markets, Farm Fresh will match you up to $10 in Fresh Bucks tokens used for debit or EBT.  So, if you want to spend $20 in food stamps, you will receive $30 in tokens to be used at any of the booths that sell groceries.  Farm Fresh received funding for this program thanks to Wholesome Wave and The Rhode Island Foundation. It is pretty wonderful, and I am looking forward to receiving contact information from this friend about helping the URI Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program.

This semester, I believe I am going to apply for a grant with my co-educational literary fraternity, St. Anthony Hall, asking for money to print out applications, sit in front of grocery stores, and ask people if they need help filling out an application, if they need a Spanish translator, and will inform them of the programs at the farmers markets.  I know that a significant amount of people avoid farmers markets because they believe they are akin to Whole Foods in terms of expense; however, a farmers market is just what Whole Foods aspires to be--fresh, nutritious produce that, when purchased, helps the local economy.  When one takes the matching program into account, one can find affordable groceries that are more fresh, nutritious, and delicious than bargain carrots at the bottom of a Price Rite bin that have sat there for too long.  The purpose of the SNAP program is two-fold: to help low-income individuals with their nutrition, and to help the food industry.  Since the recession began, families have spent less on food, and therefore put less money into local farms and grocery stores alike.  By helping push the Food Stamp program, money will circulate further and help out the economy, which is something that Rhode Island in particular desperately needs.

I will post the main pages of SNAP and Farm Fresh, so these websites are more easily found:

• SNAP: http://www.eatbettertoday.com/en/
• Food Stamps Application: https://www.foodstamps.ri.gov/admin/login.cfm
• Farm Fresh RI: http://www.farmfreshri.org/

Take care.

Skimming the Surface of the State of the Union

I'm pretty sure that despite Obama's lofty goals with health care, there will continue to be problems that plague the way our system works, and the way the American people react to it.
For instance, this article about co-payments with health insurance.  It makes complete sense that people will reduce the number of trips that they make to the doctor if their copay is too large, causing their well-being to snowball into more serious conditions and leading to large and unmanageable hospital bills.

I do not understand why people cannot comprehend the importance of education's impact upon healthcare.  The two are inherently intertwined.  Too much of self-care has been left to families, and only the most severe medical threats are taught in schools.  Drugs, AIDS, and sexual consequences are usually stressed in health education, if a school is well-funded enough to have such a program, but there is an overwhelming negligence toward health maintenance and truly caring for oneself.  This, my friends, is a problem.  It is all related.  By depreciating the value of health to the benefit of "more important" school subjects (read: subjects that will be present in state tests), health and education about illnesses, up to and including mental illnesses, become forgotten or forsaken.  There is so much of an emphasis upon rushing, upon competition, in American society, that health falls to the wayside, and Americans then pay for it, in volumes and multitudes.

Here is an article about an educational radio show in Spanish that is currently broadcast in Rhode Island on Wednesday mornings at 9.  This is the sort of program that I think would be effective-- it reaches not only those who can read, and can read in English, but it also allows for interaction between patients and doctors on important topics that can be embarrasing to raise with one's physician in person.  I hope that this program fosters others that can become even more successful and use media that are easily accessible to a large number of uninformed, hard-working, and treasured citizens of the United States.

Take care.

ImMEDIATE Justice, NOW!

Today I attended my first Rhode Island National Organization for Women meeting.  It was absolutely amazing.  This organization does exactly what I want to do one day.  It promotes equality for women, reproductive rights, ending violence towards women, supporting gay and lesbian rights, and stopping discrimination.  It works with legislators to create effective and meaningful laws to help further these goals, and lobbies for them.  I was really impressed with the cohesion of the group, and how receptive they were to new ideas.  For instance, I brought up the ImMEDIAte Justice project, started by the Women's Creative Collective in L.A.  It reaches out to inner-city girls and teenagers, asking them about their personal experiences with sexual education, and addresses the large gap between what is presented by their school, their family, and their friends.  I have been working with this nonprofit since the summertime, and was so proud of the video that they created as a result of long hours of hard work.  The women at RI NOW were immediately on board with potentially screening the video in the future.  It was great.

I expect to become more involved in RI NOW, especially because they will be having lobbyist training in the next few weeks, and because the state V-Day events will be happening in March.  I coordinated the spoken word response to The Vagina Monologues during Brown's V-Day last year, and it was an amazing event.  I am super excited.

Here are some links you can enjoy:

• ImMEDIATE Justice (scroll to the bottom to watch the "My Message, My Body" series)
• National Organization for Women Main Site 
• Rhode Island National Organization for Women (the pages are less busy-looking than the National site)
• V-Day 

Take care!