Category Archives: Health Care

Rally for president Obama, 17 Oct 2009

Gretchen Quarterman and George Rhynes More than fifty people listened in a cold wind Saturday to a dozen speakers on the courthouse steps saying “I support president Obama”. Speakers included Gretchen Quarterman (MC), Tony Daniels, Marcus Rhone, Ruth Council, Mrs. Annie Fisher (on the Valdosta School Board), Gladys Lee (from Brooks County), Betty Marini (from Lanier County), Jim Parker, RJ Hadley (from Rockdale County, running for U.S. Senate against Johnny Isakson), Freeman Rivers, Lee Touchton, Gale Eger, John S. Quarterman, and others whose names I didn’t get.

In this example, Gladys Lee asks us all to think for ourselves: Continue reading →

Nature Makes Healthy

Wide base Something to consider when planning development:
The closer you live to nature, the healthier you’re likely to be.

For instance, people who live within 1 kilometer (.6 miles) of a park or wooded area experience less anxiety and depression, Dutch researchers report.

The findings put concrete numbers on a concept that many health experts had assumed to be true.

“It’s nice to see that it shows that, that the closer humans are to the natural environment, that seems to have a healthy influence,” said Dr. David Rakel, director of integrative medicine and assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

That’s Amanda Gardner, writing in USA Today. A few other points:
Children and poor people suffered disproportionately from lack of green acres, the researchers found.
And what affects the most vulnerable affects all:
More green space may also be a way for whole communities to become healthier.
The cypress pictured is much like those in the swamp on Val Del Road that the county let a developer cut down last year.

Jack Kingston Health Care Town Hall, Valdosta, GA, 28 Sep 2009

Who are the uninsured? Jack Kingston (R GA-01) came back to Valdosta, GA to hold another Health Care Town Hall after his previous one in August had ten times as many people as he expected. This time the 1200 seat Mathis Auditorium was maybe half full, so probably somewhere between 500 and 600 people attended.

The picture on the right is the core of Kingston’s argument. See for yourself. Here’s a YouTube playlist for all the LAKE videos by Gretchen Quarterman from that September Town Hall. This is Kingston’s complete presentation except for a few words lost between videos and a few cases of camera failure. We’re still adding more videos from the question session. All the videos from the questions session are now available (17 Oct 2009); starting with Microphones are open.

Here’s Kingston’s own blog about the event.

Here’s a Democratic view of part of what Kingston said.