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Showing posts from November, 2009

1000 Patients Treated at Little Rock Free Health Clinic

Serious Conditions Are Uncovered Among More than 1,000 Patients at Little Rock Free Clinic Another Clinic Is Planned for Kansas City LITTLE ROCK – Saturday’s free health clinic at the Statehouse Convention Center treated more than 1,000 uninsured Arkansas residents with a variety of health problems, many of them serious. More than 90 percent of them had three or more life-threatening conditions, such as cardio-vascular disease, hypertension, diabetes and pulmonary disease. Seven people had such serious conditions that physicians decided they should be taken immediately by ambulances to local hospital emergency departments. Of those, five were admitted to hospitals for cardiac reasons, and two of them had had recent hearts attacks of which they were unaware. “With an army of more than 1,200 volunteers, we changed the lives of more than 1,000 people at this clinic,” Nicole Lamoureux, executive director of the National Association of Free Clinics (NAFC), said. “We provided them with not o

Troubling Trend in Anti Obama Religious Political Rhetoric

Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1970’s I know firsthand how dangerous it is when religious dysfunction underpins political dysfunction in a way that creates a space for sectarian violence. I see something similar happening here in the US as certain religious and political groups oppose President Obama. The most recent anti Obama political religious rhetoric comes in the form of a prayer taken from Psalm 109 verse 8 which reads “May his days be few, may another take over his position.” The next verse in the Psalm reads “May his children be orphans and his wife a widow.” Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is right when he comments “The issue is not the scripture quoted or the name by which God is called by those doing the praying. The issue is invoking the God in whom any of us believe, to act as executioner of those with whom we disagree.” This is a troubling trend in anti-Obama political religious rhetoric which must be opposed by all people of faith and goodwill. To read Rabbi Hirschfi