The Sounds of the Lake

On Monday, I sat about ten feet from the water on one of the many private vacation mini-shores of Lake Winnipesaukee – about 74 square miles of refreshing glacial water dotted with well over 100 islands, large and small – a benefit left behind by a long-ago ice age. It’s a popular vacation attraction for New England residents, Canadians, and others ‘from away’ who know of its secrets.

Reading Masters and Commanders in an old wooden beach chair, I paused to listen and to observe. Straight ahead, a small sailboat glided noiselessly by in the distance, disturbing nothing. To my right, along the edge of a private little cove, a kayaker paddled his way around a small granitic outcrop.

Power boats hadn’t come out in force yet and, when they did, their engines were muffled from the distance offered by no-wake-zone rules which keep boating enthusiasts away from shorelines and prevent them from gunning their craft full throttle until they reach the lake’s deeper, wide-open section called ‘The Broads.’

Even now, in the afternoon, after a drenching 10-minute rainstorm, boats passing by are barely audible. (A lot of boats at any one time in this inlet overlooking the Ossipee Mountains constitutes perhaps six or seven. Don’t think NJ congestion!)

It’s very relaxing here: Water laps gently at the sandy shore, rising intermittently as distant water craft create a mild series of harmless, low-peaked waves. Large stones line the swimming beach, preventing erosion to the sitting area. Granite is ubiquitous. Locally, you can purchase a top-quality, last-forever lamppost hewn from stone for $225.

Keep safe and give yourself a break. Mom always cautioned me, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Same for the ladies!

(Photo by Dick Bergeron, July 2009)

The Raspberry Patch

Early this week, on a bright day before the rainstorms began rolling in, I walked out to the backyard raspberry patch – a place of wild, bountiful berries.

Dressed in old shoes, a cap, long jeans, and a matching blue long-sleeved shirt, I began picking around the perimeter of the bushes. Don’t try wandering near or into a brier patch of raspberries with shorts and a T-shirt.

There are plenty this year, more than at any previous summer. Equipped with a light plastic bowl holding about 5 pints, it didn’t take me long to gather up a profusion of those sweet-tart organic fruit. Picking raspberries comes with some risk: you need to be ready for a few scratches, bug bites, and sticky sweat as the sun beats down on your person.

Since I wanted to harvest more than a few pints that day, I knew that I would have to venture into the middle of that prickly thicket, thorns or not. That’s when it occurred to me that life – in some respects –can be compared to a raspberry patch: If you live only at the margins of life, you don’t get to savor the full abundance of its fruit. But if you wade into the middle of life’s brier patch, you may find it much more rewarding.

Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But the thought is authentic. Part of the troubles in our community, state and nation, is that there are too many healthy and able people who expect others to pick their raspberries for them.

Take care of yourselves and enjoy the remainder of summer – it will be gone before you can blink. (Ah – luscious raspberries: I came out with about 8 to 9 pints.)

Obama Proposes to Change Healthcare Quality & Cost

President Barack Obama made two statements in last night’s press conference that summed up the entire hour. Even before taking the first question, he laid out the two key aspects of his plan which incorporated everything that he said later in the Q&A portion:

The President disclosed that his healthcare plan will mandate a national committee “of doctors and health care experts” which will be empowered under the law to decide methods of treatment and reimbursement rates. Obama also said that Americans should get “the best care, just not the most expensive care.” Decode that last statement, and you have reduced benefits.

Several times throughout the press conference, Obama came back to the same two points, using different language to underscore the same thing: “They (that means you!) will have to give up paying for things that don’t make them healthier.”

And how will we know that? There will, Obama explained, “be a panel of doctors and health care experts advising how to get better results and to reduce costs.” More coded language for reduced benefits: “People will need to be discriminating consumers; we just can’t afford this.”

What about that bureaucratic healthcare committee? Obama says he will, “Create a panel of healthcare experts to make recommendations to Congress.” The Congress, he went on, “Will be required to vote on proposals (of that committee) as a package deal each year on treatment options . . . this will change how benefits are delivered.”

So there you have it. Cutting through the Q&A's in Obama’s statements, you could, if you listened carefully, discern the fact that President Barack Obama wants to 1. Expand medical care by reducing current and future benefits, and 2. Establish a national bureaucratic healthcare committee with power under the law to push quality of care and cost decisions through the Congress.

The Subtle Pullback

In a little noticed Associated Press report, President Barack Obama seems to be pulling back from his previous full court press to enact into law hurried healthcare legislation before the end of the August Congressional recess.

In the report by two AP reporters, Obama is quoted as saying, “Let’s pass reform by the end of this year.” That statement is an acknowledgement by the President that his own party wants him to slow down on this issue, and that his arm-twisting may not be enough to line up all the cats before the August deadline.

Reading from a script during a brief televised appearance early Tuesday afternoon, the President not once mentioned his August deadline. When it was finished, he quickly walked away, permitting no questions from reporters.

The President will now get more airtime on TV to try to get you in his corner. He then goes on the road to sell the program. Keep your thinking cap on. In healthcare, we don’t need the kind of fractured rescue plan that President Bush foisted upon the economy and which President Obama eagerly adopted and expanded.

Yes I Can: This Plan’s for You, Not for Me

Whatever anyone may say about the Obama health plan now being obsessively driven through Congress; whatever you may think about its merits; whether you are for it or against it, or undecided; whether any Washington decision-makers even fully comprehend the contents of this multi-inch thick bill; there is one incontrovertible and largely unknown fact about it:

A select power group of elite Washington officials are ensuring that none of its provisions will personally affect them in any way whatsoever.

They are the President of the United States, Barack Obama, chief proponent of this proposal, together with every single senator and congressperson walking the halls of the Capitol building. Acting in unison, they are assuring that this proposed legislation will completely exempt them from any and all of its provisions.

The President and each legislator on Capitol Hill will continue to enjoy the full benefits of a gold-plated health care plan guaranteed for life.

The President is on the stump solemnly intoning that the cost of medical care in this country must come down. But he is removing himself from any personal sacrifice that his proposed health legislation will require of ordinary Americans. Yet, Republicans and Democrats on The Hill continue to participate in this hypocritical sleight of hand.

What do you think?