Toward A Toothless America

I knew a girl when I lived in seoul south korea who changed my life when she introduced me to vintage Jackson Browne music, but she also taught me something in a poem she wrote. The first part read "Ï am thinking of how so few people wear necklaces out of teeth."

Saving baby teeth as a memento of childhood and tooth fairies makes the whole idea of losing a tooth exciting and even something to look forward to and there seems no greater joy for a seven year old to be so happy to make one twist with the tongue and voila! the tooth is out.

And then we grow up. We have back molar cavities, some requiring root canals topped off by a cheap trashy looking stainless steel crown. We need expensive x-rays to verify the strength of our teeth before getting a much needed professional cleaning. Or we chip a front tooth or lord forbid one or two get knocked out or broken .

And so what are we without dental insurance supposed to do? Many--too many-- do without dental care for decades. The reasons vary: maybe their insurance plan does not include dental care. Maybe there's not a shred of extra cash to pay for the treatment needed .Some people just resign themselves to a life without dental care

And whose idiotic idea was it to separate the mouth and teeth from the rest of the human body?

And why is this true in the united states of America? Why? Who in the world made the decision that insurance plans must be connected to employment? And the practice of only giving an employee 38 hours a week instead of forty just so that company can avoid providing insurance benefits to people who need it seems downright meanhearted and greedy to me.

I know many people in my town and in my circle of friends who have desperately needed dental care and couldn't get it so their teeth fall out and break so easily. One man I know is completely toothless so he quit his substitute teaching job because he got tired of the comments and jokes calling him an old man.

People all at once ought to start wearing necklaces made out of teeth. If America is going to let her citizens go toothless well then let's just take a huge bite out of that age-old lack of dental coverage
May the sight and stench of rotted American teeth flow all the way to Washington dc so that all the self-absorbed politicians with excellent dental coverage--including the President--might realize too many citizens toward a toothless America that they are propelling

Fireworks Didn't Kill the Indians!!!

well, after a long hiatus I am ready to resume this blog and what an appropriate day--the fourth of july 2013. two hundred some odd years ago,  the founding fathers had a vision for their new country: wipe out the Indians then settle the whole damn country with fast food, boob jobs, greedy multimillionaires and the like.

But what I choose to focus my thoughts on is all about saving our country from ruin: financial, emotional, intellectual, artistic--just about all of our citizens are somehow broken inside. The legal drug alcohol helps them hide their pain, their snorts of coke, shoot-up's of heroin, smoking a foil of meth, abusing prescription pain killers--these are just a few of the ways through which men, women, and children are torn up, shattered, silently in pain, trapped in a deep  overtaking sadness and a profound loss of hope.

 Without addressing these urgent needs of so many Americans, how can the United States truly consider itself a super-power? Military might overseas does nothing to help our own country build itself into a position of high standards, a push for academic and personal success, and the assurance that poor families can rise up and take their rightful, respected place with those who think they are so much better than the rest cause their investment holdings are swollen and raging, enabling them to dominate the stage.

 Perhaps the founding fathers were crotchety old white men  whose interests in freeing themselves from the tyranny of King George III
was mostly rooted in the belief they themselves could be the ruling class. I don't know--but I do know this: currently the United States of America is polluted with roadside litter, cigarette butts in every parking lot, dilapidated old houses and buildings whose owners simply vacated them and left them to rot ,cracked highways, substandard old worn out bridges, confusion and power-struggles in Washington DC--a fact that  frightens many Americans because if Congress can't get along to succeed together  then what faith can the American people have?

Isn't it time to reflect and take stock of what kind of country we want to live in and thrive in and find happiness and liberty in?

I once heard someone say "decisions are made by those who show up."I think it's time for every single citizen of the United States to show up and be part of the solutions that for so many, too many years indeed have simply been under the so-called political and moral radar.

so reflect today on this fourth of july independence day--and develop a new dream.