Health Care for All Americans -- Sign the Petition

Health Care for All Americans -- Sign the Petition

Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful, complicated and bureaucratic in the world. Today, 46 million people have no health insurance. Even more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments. Close to 20,000 Americans die each year because they don't have regular access to a doctor.

The time is now for our nation to address the most profound moral and economic issue we face. The time is now for our country to join the rest of the industrialized world and provide cost-effective, comprehensive quality health care to every man, woman and child in our country. The time is now to take on the powerful special interests in the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and pass a single-payer national health care program.

Send a message to Congress, sign the petition.

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The Petition:

Whereas:

• 46 million Americans are currently without health insurance;
• 60 million Americans, both insured and uninsured, have inadequate access to primary care due to a shortage of physicians and other health service providers in their community;
• 100 million Americans have no insurance to cover dental needs;
• 116 million adults, nearly two-thirds of all non-seniors, struggled to pay medical bills, went without needed care because of cost, were uninsured for a time, or were underinsured in the last year;
• The United States spends $2.3 trillion each year on health care, 16 percent of its Gross Domestic Product;
• Americans spend $7,129 per person on health care, 50 percent more than other industrialized countries, including those with universal care;
• The U.S. does not get what it pays for. We rank among the lowest in the health outcome rankings of developed countries, and on several major indices rank below some third-world nations;
• The number of health insurance industry bureaucrats has grown at 25 times the growth of physicians in the past 30 years;
• In 2006, the six largest insurance companies made $11 billion in profits even after paying for direct health care costs, administrative costs and marketing costs.

And, whereas:

• Medicare has administrative costs far lower than any private health insurance plan;
• The potential savings on health insurance paperwork, more than $350 billion per year, is enough to provide comprehensive coverage to every uninsured American;
• Only a single-payer Medicare-for-all plan can realize these enormous savings and provide comprehensive and affordable health care to every citizen.

Now, therefore:

• We, the undersigned, urge the United States Congress to pass a single-payer Medicare-for-all program which will provide quality, comprehensive health care for all Americans.

Our Duty to make this world a heaven

Our Duty to make this world a heaven

Mathews Mar Barnabas, Metropolitan of American Diocese

In this world of ignorance and selfishness, there is a lot of injustice and
crimes. What is the remedy? How can we develop spiritual health and
establish peace? We have to overcome so many evils. Let us deal with the
spirit of revenge and jealousy here.

1. How to overcome the spirit of revenge and foster the spirit of
forgiveness and win friends?

Our natural reaction to injustice is hatred, anger and revenge. If we
follow the instinct of revenge, we will end up in more trouble, both for
those who revenge and those who are revenged. If we begin to follow the law
of ³an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,² the whole world will become
blind and toothless, as Mahatma Gandhi the Father of the Indian nation, has
said.

Acts of anger and revenge may give us temporary satisfaction. But the
feeling of hurt will remain in us. Suppressing anger is also not advisable.
The real solution is to understand human weakness and sympathize with those
who hurt us and forgive them whole heartedly. Forgiveness will release us
from hatred and anger. Our Lord had pity even on those who crucified Him and
prayed for them as follows, ³Father forgive them. For they know not what
they do² (St. Lk. 23:24).

Our duty to forgive others is made clear by our Lord in the parable of
the unjust servant. ³ŒTherefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a
king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the
reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as
he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife
and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave
fell on his knees before him, saying: ŒHave patience with me, and I will pay
you everything.¹ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released
him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon
one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by
the throat, he said, ŒPay what you owe.¹ Then his fellow-slave fell down and
pleaded with him: ŒHave patience with me, and I will pay you.¹ But he
refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt
(St. Matt 18: 23-30)²

St. Paul says ³put on then as God¹s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience, forgiving one
another, and if anyone of you have a complaint against another, forgive each
other as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive² (Col. 3:12,
13). It is good to examine ourselves and see whether our forgiveness is
complete and unconditional.

St. Paul speaks of whole-hearted forgiveness. ³See that none of you
repays evil for evil; but always seek to do good to one another and to all²
(I Thess. 5:15). This is an advice given to everyone of us without
exception. This also means that we have to forgive everyone in all
circumstances. This forgiveness is not only avoiding acts of revenge, but
also continuing to do deeds of love, at all times.

Let me tell an example of real forgiveness. A few years ago a person
bought a plot of land in Kangazha near Kottayam in India. There was no way
to go to that place. He had to go through the compound of the adjacent
neighbor. The neighbor did not allow him to make a way through his compound.
Then it so happened that the son of the neighbor fell ill and was in a
critical condition. The father of the boy took the boy to the Kangazha
hospital. It was noon time and the doctors had gone for lunch. There was
only a junior doctor in the emergency room. The father of the boy was in a
helpless condition. He did not know what to do. Now the man, who was refused
a way, was there for some purpose. Finding the precarious condition of the
boy, he brought down a senior doctor he had known. Thus the boy was saved.
We can imagine how thankful the boy¹s father was for the timely help.
Straightway he promised to give a way through his compound. See the result
of forgiveness!

St. Paul says, ³Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with
good² (Rom. 12:21). We have to fill the world with love through our love
expressed in forgiveness and make the world a heaven.

2. How to overcome jealousy and win friends

Generally speaking, we don¹t have jealousy with our dear ones. We love
them and consider their success as our own and rejoice with them. We also
encourage them to have more success. St. Paul says, ³Rejoice with those who
rejoice and weep with those who weep² (Rom. 12:15). When we rejoice with
those who rejoice and encourage them, their joy will be increased and their
work will have more progress. Naturally they will become our friends.

An extreme case of jealousy we find in King Saul of the Old Testament.
When the women gave more praise to David than to Saul, Saul became jealous
of David. ³And they were coming home when David returned from slaying the
Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and
dancing to meet King Saul with timbrels, with songs of joy and with
instruments of music, and the women sang to one another as they made merry:
Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands² (I Sam. 18: 6-7).
Hearing this Saul became jealous and tried to kill David.

We find this kind of jealousy in many places. Those who have the least
of jealousy refuse to appreciate and support the good works of others. The
world is suffering much due to jealousy. It is our duty to help people to
realize the folly of jealousy and to love one another.

An example for the lack of jealousy and full appreciation is Jonathan
the son of Saul. Jonathan identified himself completely with David and loved
him as his own soul. ³Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he
loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that
was upon him and gave it to David; and his armor and even his sword, and his
bow and his girdle² (I Sam. 18: 3-4). As a result Jonathan became the best
friend of David.

We must follow the example of Jonathan and identify ourselves with
people and help them and encourage them in their endeavors. Thus there will
be more progress in the good works of people and people will become our
friends. Thus we can make this world a heaven.

3. Conclusion

The power to forgive sins and the readiness to appreciate the goodness
of people is to be received from our Lord. Our Lord said, ³I am the vine you
are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much
fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing² (St. Jn 15:5). Our Lord renews
His indwelling in us and strengthens us when we receive Holy Qurbana,
dedicating ourselves whole heartedly. Our Lord said, ³He who eats my flesh
and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him² (St. Jn. 6:56). Again our
Lord said that He will abide in us when we obey His commandments, ³If a man
loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we will come
to him and make our home with him (St. Jn. 14:23).

Thus we can make this world a heaven through the love expressed in
forgiveness and appreciation, by the grace of God.

source:
http://www.st-thomas-orthodox-dc.org/articles/ourdutytomakethisworldaheaven.
htm

Do not become angry

"We should not become angry with those who sin, even if what they do is criminal and deserves punishment. On the contrary, for the sake of justice we ought to correct and, if need be, punish them ourselves or get others to do so. But we should not become angry or excited; for anger acts only in accordance with passion, and not in accordance with good judgment and justice. Moreover, we should not approve those who show more mercy than is proper. The wicked must be punished for the sake of what is good and just, but not as a result of the personal passion of anger."

St. Antony the Great.

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Torture seeks to kill the soul

Two Orthodox Christian confessors, Father Roman Braga and Father George Calciu, talk about their experiences in the Stalinist gulag of Pitesti during the 20th century communist era in Romania.

Humanity In War: Frontline Photography Since 1860

Humanity In War: Frontline Photography Since 1860

By Claire O'Neill

Photography and the Red Cross came into existence at about the same time, in the second half of the 1800s. Photographs of war quickly became some of the most disturbing, but also the most mobilizing, means of communication. Recognizing the power of a photo, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) began preserving and archiving images almost from the beginning. Now it's taking a look back through the archives in a new book called Humanity in War, a collection of over 200 photos dating back to the 1860s, covering both warfare and the humanitarian action that mitigates it.

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Award-winning war photographer James Nachtwey, whose work is featured in the book, writes in the introduction, "Although it has not always been regarded like this, the fact is that documentary photography and humanitarian work exist symbiotically: one of the primary functions of photography is to complement and support the work of humanitarian agencies."

Divided into chapters by date, the photos take us from the trenches of World War I France, to a Nigerian feeding center during the Biafra conflict of the late 1960s, to the West Bank barrier today. Children wait to be repatriated from Switzerland after World War II; young women stare at a dead body in the Torola River during El Salvador's civil war in 1986; a man stands amid the ruins of his home in Lebanon in 2007. The photographs -- taken by both photojournalists and aid workers in the field -- show the total devastation of war, as well as the power of an image. Without these photos from the frontline, war would be just an idea to those not fighting it, and it certainly would not have a face. It's the faces, after all -- the people in photos, the humanity in war -- that makes us care. Nachtwey continues:

Photographs are not cold documents that merely prove something happened. They put a human face on events that might otherwise appear to be abstract or ideological ... Photography gives a voice to the voiceless. It's a call to action.

Humanity In War was released last month to coincide with International Red Cross and Red Crescent Day. It can be purchased online and in select cities.

02-BEYOND TORTURE -The gulag of Pitesti ROMANIA

Torture seeks to kill the souls of those tortured, so says the victims of torture in this video.

Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem

A video about the Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.