Weather, Healthcare, and other coffee-time topics

It is currently 3:33 p.m. Central time. The weather is Zearing, IA is beautiful with the mercury registering a near perfect 82 degrees fahrenheit (courtesy of weather.com). The humidity has boosted that number up to 85 degrees, and with winds blowing from SSE at 9 m.p.h. I was strongly considering a dip in the pool (which lies 20 ft. away from where I am typing.) However, swimming after eating is taboo. I just brushed my teeth, went through the chewing motions, and may have swallowed a bit of paste. I don’t want to press my luck, and have thus decided to allocate this break to filling you in on what’s occurred since my last post.

As I stated, the weather has been pretty nice as of late, minus a strong storm last week. This pattern has made it hard to believe that it is once again time for county fairs to take place across the Iowan countryside. Typically these functions start with heat indexes in triple digits. One other group of people is likely enjoying this weather: the bicyclists on RAGBRAI. RAGBRAI, for those of you that don’t know, is the “Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.” 7-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was present for a leg of the ride last year, and this year is riding the entire distance to promote cancer awareness and his foundation. According to local news sources, Lance has already pledged to make the trip again next year. There you have it. This blog is supposed to be focused on politics, and with a national figure like Lance Armstrong riding across the state, “to talk to the people,” it may just be time that stands between Lance riding in Iowa and Lance riding into office somewhere.

Las week I had the good fortune to do a lot of riding around Iowa myself. However, with all due respect to RAGBRAIers, I was not on a bike. Myself and three other FIN students (namely: Justin, Eric, and Taylor) participated in the “Divided We Fail” campaign. The program, in a nutshell, is a grassroots effort to communicate what citizens feel should be done to improve healthcare in the United States.* Our role in the program was to mediate small discussions and/or record what was said. We presented three different approaches to those who attended the meetings: the government should be responsible for healthcare, healthcare should be privatized, and healthcare should be a shared responsibility of government, businesses, and individuals. A lot of ground was covered in these conversations, and it quickly became clear how healthcare affects all aspects of our lives. Regardless of age and income, there were very few individuals who claimed they were content with healthcare as it stands. Common suggestions included: preventative measures must be taken by all to ensure better health, better financial education for the youth, improved communication outlets for healthcare organizations (people versus touchtone), and many other ideas. I would like to say more here, but I’m not sure what I’m at liberty to disclose. Therefore, I will end this portion of the blog, and encourage you to visit the official website at the end of this post.

In regard to the presidential campaign, I do not have a lot of comments to make at this time. Once again, I was traveling all over Iowa last week, and although I was still following the news, anything I post now would just be a “he said, she said” of what’s already been stated. However, this week I am looking forward to visiting FIN students Heidi and Emily who are interning in Washington D.C. Liz and Justin will be going as well, and I’m sure I’ll have something to write about upon my return. If you took the time to set your Harry Potter book down for ten seconds and read this blog, Thank You. I look forward to writing about D.C. relatively soon. :-)



*For more information, or to participate in the program, visit: http://www.dividedwefail.org