2005-06-03
Holy Shi'ite! Islam's double standard
Jewish World Review June 2, 2005 / 24 Iyar, 5765
By Cal Thomas
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Muslim countries apply a double standard when it comes to the treatment of religious books and people who differ in faith and practice from their dogma
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The Pentagon has acknowledged five instances in which guards or interrogators at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, handled the Koran in such a way as to cause offense to some who believe it is the revealed word of Allah. Three are said to have been three deliberate and two unintentional. Amnesty International has put the United States high on the list of countries it says are guilty of prisoner and human rights abuses because of the way suspected terrorists are treated. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, rebutted the notion of inappropriate treatment of detainees last weekend when he told Fox News Sunday that these are people who would "slit our throats, our children's throats" were they to be set free. Islamic countries apply a double standard when it comes to the treatment of "holy books" and people who differ in faith and practice from Islamic dogma. While Islamic groups in the United States are engaged in "sensitivity training" sessions for non-Muslims that have included federal workers, the Ohio National Guard and U.S. Air Force Academy, there are no such training sessions directed at Muslims to teach them tolerance for non-Islamic faiths. Quite the contrary. While the slightest verbal or physical slight of any Muslim in America is immediately condemned by activist groups and sometimes the U.S. government, the denigration of Jews and Christians throughout much of the Islamic world is theological and political business as usual. Jews are regularly referred to as "apes and pigs," mostly because that is what the Koran calls them. According to the MEMRI-TV Monitor Project, which observes the way Jews, especially, are portrayed throughout the Middle East, a Jordanian produced program titled "Stories From Before the Verses Came Down" was aired in February on Saudi Iqra TV. The soap opera contained familiar anti-Semitic stuff, including blaming ancient Jews for distorting their own Torah to make it seem like Mohammad could not be the "true prophet" and portraying a Jewish character saying, "We are the slayers of prophets, and we live off their blood! We live for destroying them" According to a report authored by former CIA Director James Woolsey for Freedom House, the government of Saudi Arabia has made it a practice to disseminate propaganda about Jews, Christians and America through mosques in the U.S. and through schools, many of which are funded by the extremist Wahhabi Islamic sect. The 89-page report titled, "Saudi publications on hate ideology fill American mosques," concludes that propaganda collected from U.S. mosques shows a "totalitarian ideology of hatred that can incite to violence." The report also says such mosques are in the minority, but how many are needed to train terrorists who might attack the U.S. with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons? In a column four years ago, The Washington Post's Richard Cohen wrote, "The Arab world is the last bastion of unbridled, unashamed, unhidden and unbelievable anti-Semitism. Hitlerian myths get published in the popular press as incontrovertible truths. The Holocaust either gets minimized or denied. … How the Arab world will ever come to terms with Israel when Israelis are portrayed as the devil incarnate is hard to figure out." Little, if anything, has changed since he wrote those words. Despite the Western diplomatic talk about Arabs and Palestinians living in peace with even a geographically reduced Israel, the Arab world demonstrates no intention of coming to terms with Israel or the Jewish (or Christian) people, unless those terms involve their complete subjugation to Islam, or their deaths. The State Department acknowledged for the first time during the Clinton Administration that Christians — from China, to the Sudan, to the Middle East — have become the most persecuted faith group in the world. Yet those persecutors are not pressured into the kind of sensitivity training Muslim groups in America demand at the slightest slight, whether actual, imagined or concocted. To accept this Islamic double standard creates a significant threat to the United States.
Throughout much of the Islamic world, the practice of Christianity and Judaism is severely restricted, if not outlawed. The Freedom House report said Saudi publications "state that it is a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews" and that, under Saudi law, Muslims who convert to any other faith "are to be put to death."
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Elias Friedman A.S., NREMT-P
& Pongo the Spotted Wonder!
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http://elipongo.blogspot.com/
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Standing tall after challenges
Jewish World Review June 2, 2005 / 24 Iyar, 5765
By Rabbi Berel Wein
 Interested in purchasing the book from which this series is excerpted, please click here. | |
"Our forefather Abraham was tested with ten trials and he withstood them all — to show the degree of our forefather Abraham's love of the Divine." — Pirkei Avos 5:4
There are those who grow from such experiences, and there are those who falter because of them. For most people, it is better not to be tempted and not to be tested.
In the Jewish daily morning prayers we ask G-d not to subject our faith and moral deportment to tests and undue stress, but no one really escapes being tested. The marketplace and the office, the street and the culture of society, the media and the human failings of supposed heroes, all rise to challenge our Jewish convictions, faith, and life style.
Our tests in life are numerous and complex, sometimes blatant, mostly subtle. In fact, the Rabbis attest that the more righteous and pious a person attempts to become, the more likely it is that he will be constantly tested. Thus, we can appreciate that the tests of Abraham, too, were many and varied.
In fact, there is no unanimity among the commentators as to what his particular ten tests were. If we will add up all the varying tests offered by the different commentators we will arrive at a number far higher than ten. All agree, however, that the Akeidah — G-d's command that Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar at Mount Moriah was one of the tests, if not the primary one.
The Jewish people internalized the test of the Akeidah within their national life. It is no exaggeration to say that the Jewish people have always lived in the shadow of the Akeidah, and it is the greatness of Israel that it has survived and even prospered in a world of this constant test. Jewry has emerged greater from every Akeidah in its history.
AND HE WITHSTOOD [LIT. HE STOOD] THEM ALL. In my opinion, the important lesson of this mishnah lies in these words. Abraham stood tall after every test. He became greater. Thus he could be tested again in the surety that he would not be broken by the continued challenges thrust upon him. This was the essential difference between Abraham and Noah. Noah overcame one great challenge in his lifetime — the building of the Ark and the flood — but was unable to deal with the challenges of the post-flood world. He lived for well over three hundred years after the flood, but he retired from the fray after his one great challenge. Not so Abraham who influenced mankind primarily because of his ability to became even greater from every challenge and test.
Throughout history, simply being a Jew has been a major test. It is a test that no Jew escapes, not those who attempt to completely assimilate nor those who disdain the outside world and attempt to isolate themselves from it. Built into the Jewish DNA, so to speak, is this tenacious attribute of our father Abraham, the ability and willingness to face tests and challenges and overcome them. Abraham, who is the symbol of goodness, kindness, and tolerance, and who could therefore be mistaken as just a "good guy," is in reality the tenacious person of faith, strong in heart and stubborn in behavior, who cannot be shaken from his belief in G-d and the positive future of human destiny, even by ten tests.
Emergency Medical Service News
The picture of the burning gas well in the first story is pretty neat. I'll bet its pretty hot around there!
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Coming Soon: A National EMS Administration?
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
By Joseph Cahill, jcahill@domprep.com
Emergency Medicine Channel Master
Download T.I.P.S. Issue 01-June-05
Establishment of a national office representing city, state, and federal EMS (Emergency Medical Services) departments and agencies is a proposal that has been discussed for years. Last month, George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute gave the proposal new impetus with the release of an "Issue Brief" titled Back to the Future: An Agenda for Federal Leadership of Emergency Medical Services.
Background: The United States Fire Administration (USFA) is a subunit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS ). The goal of USFA is to improve the quality of fire protection within the United States. The USFA's organizational structure is broken down into four components to match the agency's major roles: fire statistics and data; fire education and training; public education; and fire technology.
The USFA does an exceptional job in meeting all four goals for the collective U.S. firefighting community. Not surprisingly, inclusion of the USFA in the Department of Homeland Security has heated up the discussion of establishing a National EMS Administration as well. The argument goes somewhat as follows: In the emergency-response world as well as in the homeland-security world the availability of a cadre of responders who can provide lifesaving care, immediately and on the scene of a disaster or terrorist incident, both to the public and to other responders can mean the difference – literally – between life and death. (This is why many SWAT teams and rescue units have specially trained paramedics on their teams.) The importance of this role should be reflected in the type of support and resources provided at the federal, state, and local levels.
What Is EMS and Why Is it in DOT?
EMS, simply put, is a system devised to provide medical care while transporting sick or injured people to the hospital. During the early age of EMS, ambulances were run by mortuaries and often served double duty as hearses, very little if any medical treatment was provided, and the "ambulance" was simply two strong backs and a ride. After the publication of the National Academy of Science's ( NAS) White Paper Accidental Death and Disability: the Neglected Disease of Modern Society, ambulances moved forward from the two-strong-backs stage to a model for providing first aid at the scene. The NAS White Paper pointed to accidents as the major cause of death among the young and suggested that many of these deaths could and would have been prevented if simple lifesaving care had been provided prior to arrival at the hospital.
Because the White Paper's principal focus was on car accident fatalities and injuries, the federal role in EMS has always been assigned to the Department of Transportation (DOT) – more specifically, to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration ( NHTSA). This first-aid model has grown to encompass the entire scope of emergency medicine. Paramedics now provide medications on the scene and carry out various lifesaving techniques both on the scene and in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
An important divide within EMS has always been emergency versus non-emergency. Emergency or 911 ambulance work is just what it sounds like: transportation from the scene of the emergency to the hospital. Many patients are too fragile, though, or are bed- bound, and/or require too much care to travel home from the hospital – or to other ancillary treatment facilities – in anything but an ambulance. Today, this is the realm of the non-emergency ambulance.
Despite this distinction, these two functions are regulated in the same way and, to perform in either realm, the ambulance must have the same equipment and staffing. Often the same ambulance will perform both roles within the community.
The other important ways in which EMS is divided as a community is similar to those within the firefighting community – volunteers vs. paid career staff; municipal government agency vs. third-party; and the varying types of units involved.
A Vital Component of the First-Responder Mix
"Why all the commotion – it's just ambulance drivers [who are involved]?" That is a question that is frequently asked (here it should be noted that the term "ambulance driver" is considered by most in the EMS community to be pejorative). Why? The answer is that, because almost everyone needs emergency care and a fast ride to the hospital at some time in his or her life, the kinds of emergencies that the DHS was created to prepare for require trained medical staff significantly more than the "normal" emergency does.
Consider one of the principal events that led to the creation of the DHS – namely, the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, and specifically the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics rushed to the scene of the disaster along with firefighters and police officers, carrying out their role of providing patient care in the plaza surrounding the WTC – until they were chased from their positions by the falling towers.
It is indicative of the dedication of these professionals that, like their police and firefighter counterparts, they dusted themselves off and walked back toward the plaza after the collapses. At that point, the New York Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue Team (NYTF-1) moved in to join the search for survivors in the moonscape of WTC; the paramedics and EMS physicians were an integral part of that team, and continue to serve in that role today.
The simple answer to the question is the same for the WTC collapse on 9/11 as it is to the two-car accident on the highway: Patients do better when they are provided early care.
One of the major distinctions between the fire, police, and EMS communities is that, although there are some for-profit EMS agencies, there are very few for-profit police or fire agencies. This distinction is often pointed out in the form of a question: "Should we [ i.e., the state, federal, or local government] be funding the training of the staff of a for-profit agency?" A partial answer is that "we" already are. According to the Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS) "JEMS 200", an annual survey of the EMS systems of the 200 most populous cities in the United States, 35 of the nation's 100 most heavily populated cities use one or more private carriers to complement their own 911 ambulance systems.
Many other cities and municipalities not large enough to make the list of 100 most populous cities also contract out at least some of their EMS work. In addition, many hospitals provide EMS services to the communities surrounding them. Many of these contractors and hospitals provide non-emergency transport as part of their day-to-day operations, and many also follow a plan that allows them to use all of their ambulances for either 911 or non-emergency calls.
As a result of this dual role (911 and non-emergency), there is no way to exclude those that do not make emergency runs from any agency that has responsibility for 911 calls. More important, however, is that during a catastrophic emergency even non-emergency ambulances will almost certainly be pressed into service. There was, in fact, a line of 25-30 non-emergency units on West Street, above the WTC, on 11 September 2001, and Yamel Merino, a MetroCare EMT, was lost that day as a result of answering a response assigned by the 911 system.
Why a NEMSA?
The reasons why many senior officials at every level of government say a National EMS Administration (NEMSA) is needed are much the same as those that drove the creation of the United States Fire Administration – i.e., the need for national EMS statistics and data; for the education and training of EMS personnel; for a public-education program in the EMS field; and for a national center for the advancement of EMS technology and science. Perhaps the most important reason, though, to shift federal EMS authority into the Department of Homeland Security through creation of a NEMSA is to give this critical first-responder community the ability to compete for training and federal funding within the overall federal bureaucracy.
Today, many local EMS agencies are unable to fulfill their domestic preparedness training needs in a meaningful, effective, and cost-effective, way. In reality, most of them simply do not have the resources needed to support responder-training or public-education programs on their own. There are some exceptions, of course, such as a few of the major municipal EMS agencies – the EMS agencies in New York City and Seattle, for example, have a wealth of experience and data about what they do. However, most other cities and towns throughout the United States are protected by relatively small, often volunteer, organizations.
Even a small local department may be able to develop an exceptionally good program focused on a single need or requirement – usually, though, because it has someone who is both knowledgeable and experienced in that particular field. The same department, though, may be out of date and/or lacking expertise in many other areas. A national-level program would allow all EMS departments and agencies to pool their expertise to meet a significantly varied menu of needs and priorities, contributing when and where they can to other departments, and drawing from those other departments the expertise and experience they may be lacking.
EMS Statistics and Data
Although there are many studies that indicate one medical treatment may be better than another, few address the specific needs of the pre-hospital environment. Moreover, the same studies often are driven by a manufacturer's need to demonstrate effectiveness and safety. A national data program could not only study specific treatments, but also look at the national EMS system as a while, in the same way that fire statistics collected by USFA look at firefighting as a whole.
One might ask why and how it helps to compile data "without a focus and a goal." The answer is that extraordinary findings often emerge when data is compiled over a large system and for a considerable length of time. That is why the USFA compiles fire data. In short, because unknown, and often unsuspected, patterns emerge from such data, and questions can be raised that might otherwise never have been asked. Most local EMS agencies do not do the volume of work required to allow them to look at the data collected in a statistically significant way. By spreading the data collection nationally, the volume of information compiled rises to a relevant level rather quickly.
A National EMS Technology and Science Center;
The Education and Training of EMS Personnel
In addition to the collection of data, there logically should be a way to promote the creation and/or improvement of technology based on that data. Most comparisons of equipment and techniques within the EMS community are either funded by an EMS manufacturer, or occur as a side effect of a program supported by a national organization, or are set up in an ad hoc fashion to meet the needs of a specific EMS entity. There is no current federal entity assigned to review, support, and/or promote EMS science and technology.
There also is no national EMS training center. There are, though, a number of national emergency training centers – among the most notable are the National Fire Academy ( NFA), the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and the FBI Academy – and a number of contractor facilities focused primarily on homeland security and first-responder training.
Although some federally funded training programs address EMS issues, most do so as a tangential task, and not as the main focus of the program. As a result, EMS participants in such programs frequently gain additional knowledge (about a fire issue, for example) but have to meld that information into their EMS work. The problem with this approach is that each individual processes the information in a different way, based on his or her experience and other training, and this leads to an inconsistent and often incoherent final result.
A national EMS training center would provide the same benefits to emergency first responders in the EMS world as it does to those in the fire and law enforcement worlds.
A More Equitable Distribution of Resources
The main reason why many realistic advocates support creation of a NEMSA is to put EMS on an equal footing with other first-responder communities in terms of their respective positions within the federal bureaucracy. Currently, EMS receives only about four percent of the DHS budget. Considering that there are approximately the same number of EMS workers as there are policemen or firefighters – and that, as noted earlier, many of the same structural divisions exist within each of these communities – this is a somewhat troubling statistic. An examination of what is termed "call volume" finds that police departments generally receive the most calls, followed by EMS agencies, and then fire departments. There are a number of reasons for this disparity – including, of course, the praiseworthy effectiveness of the USFA both in promoting fire-prevention programs and in compiling fire data.
In short, what EMS lacks is a strong advocate agency that can compete at the federal level. Fire and police departments have – and both need and deserve – grant programs that help cover their normal operating costs. But the EMS community does not. Expensive pieces of fire apparatus can be purchased with grant funding, moreover, but EMS equipment usually cannot.
The bottom line is that, if EMS is ever to receive the recognition it deserves as one of the nation's primary first-response communities – and, as a result, be funded and supported more equitably than it now is – it must have a federal advocate agency focused primarily on EMS. If and when enough citizens realize that their own survival, in times of national disasters or other emergencies, including terrorist attacks, depends primarily on the abilities, experience, and dedication of the EMS personnel on the scene, the current inequitable distribution of funding may change. Until then, the EMS community will continue its status as a second-class citizen.
--
Elias Friedman A.S., NREMT-P
& Pongo the Spotted Wonder!
elipongo@gmail.com
http://elipongo.blogspot.com/
http://www.cafeshops.com/DoNoHarm
http://www.ellingtonshul.org
2005-06-02
Very Funny!
--
Elias Friedman A.S., NREMT-P
& Pongo the Spotted Wonder!
elipongo@gmail.com
http://elipongo.blogspot.com/
http://www.cafeshops.com/DoNoHarm
http://www.ellingtonshul.org
Austin Bay Blog � UPDATED: Fisking Amnesty, Persevering After Moral Compromise
Hat Tip to Austin Bay Blog
U.S. Supreme Court affirms religious rights for prisoners
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Fighting to Protect Her Gift to Japanese Women
Peter Blakely for The New York Times
"There are women who don't know what has gone on before," said Beate Sirota Gordon.
TOKYO
IN the back of a theater here, two gray-haired women perched on the edge of their seats, nodding their heads, clapping their hands silently. On the stage, Beate Sirota Gordon, a snowy-haired American grandmother, implored Japanese women to rise in defense of the Japanese Constitution's equal rights clause, which was fundamental, she said, to their rights as women.
She should know. At age 22, she wrote it.
"Japanese women should keep fighting for their rights," Beate-san, as she is known here, said in Japanese to applause from the sold-out crowd.
For half a century, Ms. Gordon and the 24 other Americans who drafted Japan's Constitution in six intense days in 1946 kept a pact of silence sworn to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the postwar American occupation commander. That broke down about a decade ago, and since then Ms. Gordon has left the comfort of retirement and her Manhattan apartment once or twice a year for a lecture tour in Japan.
But now she finds herself, at 81, at the front of a drive by Japanese women to protect "her" Article 24, which proclaims "the essential equality of the sexes." Last year, a constitutional panel of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party denounced the women's rights article as promoting "egoism in postwar Japan, leading to the collapse of family and community."
"I never thought they would attack it," said Ms. Gordon, who only a few years ago was lionized in "A String of Pearls," a Japanese play about the writing of the Constitution, as seen through her eyes.
Conservatives blame the "American imposed" clause for a variety of social ills, including a plunging marriage rate, an anemic birthrate and increasing delinquency in the schools. The clause seems safe for now, but only because the conservatives decided in April to concentrate on winning parliamentary approval to change Article 9, which prohibits Japan from using war to settle disputes.
"It is a threat, and the women realize that, and that is why they are so vociferous," Ms. Gordon said, referring to the reception she received on a punishing eight-city, 12-event speaking and interview tour through Japan in April.
"Beate's Gift," a movie about the legacy of the equal rights amendment, recently opened in theaters around Japan. Hurried through production to parry conservative arguments, the movie splices interviews with successful professional women with Ms. Gordon's account of writing the equal rights article.
"There are now women governors, women mayors, women who are in the media, filmmakers, writers, presidents of companies," Ms. Gordon said at the movie's April 30 debut. "There are women who don't know what has gone on before. Knowing how different it was 60 years ago will encourage them to go on and protect these rights."
A RARE witness to history, Beate-san arrived in Japan at age 5 in 1929, traveling with her parents, Jewish émigrés, on a ship from Vladivostok, Russia. Her father, a pianist, was embarking on what became 16 years of teaching and giving concerts in Japan. Her first memory is arriving at Yokohama Harbor, looking at the dock crowded with people with black hair and black eyes, and asking, "Mama, are they all brothers and sisters?"
But within a decade she had acculturated, learning fluent Japanese through her contact with the stream of artists and intellectuals coming to the house. But she retained an outsider's eye.
"I saw the women walking behind the men in the street," she recalled. "I saw how the mothers prepared the food when the husband came home with his friends from the office. She would serve them dinner, without even talking, then go into the kitchen with the children."
As a teenager, she recalled, Japanese girlfriends would "prepare for marriage, learning flower arranging, but would not even meet their future husbands."
The outbreak of war caught her at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and her parents at home in Tokyo. During the war she made American government radio broadcasts beamed to Japan, researched Japan for Time magazine, and, in January 1945, became a United States citizen. After the war she raced to Tokyo to track down her parents, who had been detained in a mountain village. As one of a handful of Caucasians with a strong command of Japanese, she became the translator for the constitution writers.
General MacArthur rejected two attempts by Japanese politicians to write constitutions that did little to weaken the country's feudal society and the role of the emperor, and decided the Americans would have to do it. The general's lawyer, Brig. Gen. Courtney Whitney, "called us in and said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, you are now a constitutional assembly and you will now write a new draft of the Japanese Constitution, and it has to be done in seven days,' " she recalled. "We were stunned."
In her memoir, "The Only Woman in the Room," she recounts how in the grueling week of debates, almost all of the clauses that emerged from her Underwood typewriter ended up in the trash basket.
"Colonel Kades said, 'My God, you have given Japanese women more rights than in the American Constitution,' " she recalled, referring to Lt. Col. Charles L. Kades, head of the constitutional steering committee. "I said, 'Colonel Kades, that's not very difficult to do, because women are not in the American Constitution.' "
The test came when the draft was submitted to a group of Japanese ministers and politicians for approval. Japan's prewar civil code regarded wives as incompetent. In 1946, Japanese women had virtually no rights of inheritance, property or divorce, or even to choose their own husbands.
"Immediately they said, 'This doesn't fit our culture, doesn't fit our history; it doesn't fit our way of life,' " Ms. Gordon said of a 2 a.m. confrontation. But during the previous 14 hours of debates, the young American woman had won the gratitude of the Japanese leaders for backing them in previous disagreements with the Americans.
As she recalled it, "Colonel Kades said, 'Miss Sirota has her heart set on the women's rights clause, so why don't we pass it?' "
Asked what "her" article said, Ms. Gordon started reciting the text, then faltered.
"Oh, I have it right here," she said, pulling from around her neck a pink printed silk scarf. "This was made by my fan club here."
"Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis," she said, reading the scarf, which was printed in the six languages she speaks - English, Japanese, Russian, German, French and Spanish. "With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes."
For critics who say these are imported concepts, Ms. Gordon told her audience that many of Japan's core cultural attributes were borrowed from overseas - Buddhism, ceramics, ancient court music and the character writing system.
Conservatives who want to turn the clock back to more traditional roles for women will not succeed, she maintained. "After 60 years, it would be very hard to amend it now, it is so much part of Japan's culture."
Lively Parsha - Bamidbar
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Everyone has a special task; the Torah tells you how to do it
The spaceship left Planet Earth in a ball of fire. Man's latest journey to the moon was underway. From his spectacular view in the pilot's seat, Jack could see the breathtaking sight of Planet Earth getting smaller and smaller. His mission, once reaching the moon, would have enormous consequences for all life on the planet.
Suddenly, as he was maneuvering the spaceship, Jack heard static on his radio. "This is a bad sign," proclaimed the worried astronaut. "My radio link to mission control at Cape Kennedy is the only way I can complete my mission. Without the instructions from the supercomputers down there I'll never make it to the moon, and never get back to Planet Earth. I'll end up as an asteroid!"
Jack frantically made adjustments to his radio until finally the message came across crystal clear. "Turn this! Open this! Adjust that!" Jack sighed relief, thrilled to comply with the instructions.
Looking at this scene, we might wonder: Why doesn't Jack reply to mission control, "Leave me alone! Why are you telling me what to do all the time?" Obviously Jack understands that he has a mission to accomplish and only with the help of "Ground Control" can he hope to accomplish it and get home safely.
Judaism says we are all astronauts. The only difference is that we came from above, to this world, with a mission to accomplish. When we come to the next world the first question we will be asked is: "Did you fulfill your mission?"
If we reply, "What mission? I didn't know I had a mission!" They will ask, "Did you really think the purpose of your life was to eat, drink, and be merry? It must have occurred to you at some time that there is something higher and more elevated to life!"
The Torah is our "radio" giving us the "Instructions for Living from Sky Control": the Almighty Himself. We must make sure our receiver is working properly and we are getting the proper messages! (Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe)
BOOK OF NUMBERS
The main theme of this biblical book is "Divine Providence." God guides the ways of all the nations, and on the individual level, every person is guided throughout his life by God! We live our lives with the notion that I just "happen" to be born to these parents, at this place, in this time - so as long as I'm here anyway I might as well enjoy myself!
Wrong! You were specifically born to these parents, in this specific place and time, because you have a mission to accomplish and only you are programmed to do this job. Since the beginning of time and until the end of time, there has never been or will ever be someone exactly like you! God runs the world, and each of us has a unique mission on this Earth. Plus the Jewish people have an important contribution to make on civilization.
The Book of Numbers reveals Divine Providence that occurred during the 40 years the Jewish people were camping and traveling in the wilderness. As we will see, the Mitzvot introduced in this book also relate to the theme of God's concern for the welfare of every individual.
THE CENSUS
The Torah commands Moses and Aaron to count the people.
Question: Why not have some clerk do it?
Second Question: Why is the census called "lift up the heads," as we saw in Parshat Ki Tisa? What's so elevating about being counted?
Answer: True prophets had the ability - at one glance - to reveal a person's positive and negative traits and what his mission in the world should be (Vilna Gaon)! Even the 16th century sage Arizal could read one's misdeeds on his face.
When the individual Jews stood before Moses and Aaron and received their blessings, it was truly an elevating experience. (As opposed to the secular world where a census or an election is somewhat demeaning because you're "just another faceless number.")
TRIBE OF LEVI
By striving for a higher level of holiness, a person can actually raise the level of Divine Providence he receives - and even extend that for all generations! Levi, the son of Jacob, outlived all his brothers and had the most profound effect on his children. This one tribe continued the old traditions, circumcising even in Egypt, and were the only entire tribe not to participate in the Golden Calf. When Moses descended Mount Sinai and proclaimed: "Whoever is on God's side - come to me!" Only the tribe of Levi responded. They administered punishment to those who had overtly sinned with the calf (only 3,000, one-half of one percent of the population). This gave the Levites a special for all generations!
The great early-20th century sage, the Chafetz Chaim (who was a Kohen), once demanded to know why a certain visitor was not a Kohen or a Levi. "Because my father wasn't," the visitor answered.
The sage then asked rhetorically: "So why wasn't your father and grandfather a Kohen or Levi? Because when Moses made his proclamation, my ancestors reacted and yours didn't. The lesson is that the next time you hear, 'Whoever is on God's side, come to me' - you go!"
CAMP OF ISRAEL
Every tribe had a banner with a particular color (corresponding to the color of his stone on the High Priest's breastplate) and a specific location in relation to the center of the camp. These were the same directions that they stood (at Jacob's request) as pallbearers at Jacob's funeral. (See Parshat Vayechi)
The sight of the Israelite camp was breathtaking. In the center was the gorgeous Tabernacle surrounded on 4 sides by the Levites (the 3 Levitical families, plus Moses on the 4th side). From there, in each direction, 3 tribes spread out - all worshiping one Creator!
The Midrash says that this corresponds to the scene in Heaven above, of the myriad camps of angels surrounding the "Chariot" of the Almighty! In the "Kedusha" daily prayer as well, we point out this connection. "May we sanctify your name in the world as the angels do in the highest heavens."
In the Shabbat "Musaf" prayer we say: "A crown shall they place on your head, the angels swarming above, and your people Israel gathered below, together they will sanctify Your name." The angels, so to speak, have the Jewish people as their partner in praising God.
In the biblical "love parable" of "Song of Songs," the nations of the world try to seduce the "Shulamit" (one of peace, acronym for the Jewish people) "let us look upon you!" meaning we will give you high positions and great wealth and honor if you will only forsake your old lover and join us! The reply is: "What can you nations of the world offer us, that even remotely compares to the sign of love we had in the camps?" (Song of Songs 7:1) (Notice how "camps" is plural, denoting the camp of the Angels and the camp of Israel!)
At Sinai, the heavens opened and the people had a glimpse of the camp of the angels. This picture of the camps surrounding the Tabernacle, along with the angels above, is the picture of perfection in this world.
JEWISH PLURALISM
The image of the Israelite camp is like a wheel with many spokes all leading to one hub. There have always been many ways to be a "good Jew." There are 12 tribes. There are Kohanim, Levites and Israelites. There are Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and different brands of Chassidim. There are hundreds of communities worldwide with different customs and stressing different priorities.
Yet all these groups are committed to the same goal: a close relationship with God, following the path of Torah law. This is distinguished from a "Jewish Pluralism" that forsakes the framework of Torah beliefs, which effectively detaches the spokes from their hub. As one example, nobody will claim in the name of pluralism that Jews for Jesus is a valid branch of Judaism! (Rabbi Motti Berger)
COUNTING BABIES
The tribe of Levi was counted from the age of 30 days - as opposed to the other Israelite tribes who were counted from the age of 20 years. We find the mother of Moses, Yocheved, was counted as Jewish soul number 70 when Jacob went down to Egypt, even though she was a newborn baby. After 30 days (when we assume the birth was healthy), he becomes "Guard of the Holy Guarding."
Moses complained: "It is certainly not dignified for me to enter all their tents and count the cradles." God replied, "You make the effort and it will be done." At every opening of the tents, God appeared and Moses heard a voice informing him exactly how many Jewish babies were in that tent. This is why the Torah refers to the census as "By the mouth of God." (Num. 3:16)
FINAL NUMBERS
The Torah lists every tribe, along with the name of their prince, their banner, and their exact population. The tribes range from 32,200 (Menashe) up to 74,600 (Yehudah) with the sum total of the Twelve Tribes as 603,550 (not counting Levi).
Then we are commanded to count the tribe of Levi separately. They were the smallest tribe, numbering only 22,000 (and that's from 30 days!). The rabbis explain the reason: When Pharaoh proclaimed "Build up Egypt Day" (see Parshat Shmot), only the tribe of Levi failed to show up, as they were engrossed in Torah study. Thus the decree of forced labor did not affect them.
Since God works "measure for measure," and "as they oppressed them so did they increase" (Exodus 1:12), this did not apply to the Tribe of Levi who only increased "naturally."
Note: From the 3 sons of Levi and 8 grandsons (including Moses's father) in the short span of 2 generations (Moses was only 80 at the time), they somehow produced 22,000 boys, and presumably an equal number of girls! That's an average of 2,750 for each grandchild of Levi - and yet this is considered a natural increase.
REDEEMING THE FIRST BORN
The exact number of Levites was 22,300. Of these, 300 Levites were themselves firstborn, and had to redeem themselves first. That left 22,000 Levites who needed to redeem 22,273 firstborns of other tribes who were not innocent at the Golden Calf. Since they could only redeem 22,000, the extra 273 (determined by lots) had to give 5 shekels to redeem themselves.
PERSONALLY-APPOINTED TASK
The Parsha ends with every Levite family being assigned a specific task to accomplish. In the desert, this meant carrying the Tabernacle when they traveled. In the Temple, they performed other functions such as singing and playing instruments during the sacrificial ceremonies, as well as opening and locking the heavy iron gates.
The Talmud relates that one elderly Levite had a difficult time moving the gate, and asked another Levite - whose job was singing - to assist him. The second Levite replied that it's forbidden to exchange tasks. This is an important life lesson. When my first child was born, I was reminded of the verse "And what is man that you appoint tasks for him to accomplish?" (Psalms 8:5) What a formidable appointment! To raise a Jewish child, to become a good person and Jew, in the full sense of the word.
If one is hired to do a job, it should be perceived as a task given to him by God to accomplish, and like a soldier, not to leave their post. Even marriage is an opportunity and responsibility. You must become the best spouse, parent, teacher, etc. that you are capable of.
We are all like the astronaut on his way to the moon. Make sure your radio is working, and you utilize the Torah's profound instructions to accomplish your mission in this world.
This article can also be read at: http://www.aish.com/torahportion/livelyparsha/Lively_Parsha_Bamidbar.asp
Author Biography:
Rabbi Avi Geller has been a senior lecturer at Aish Hatorah since 1980. He is an alumnus of Lakewood, Be'er Yaakov and Mir Yeshiva and gives a very popular weekly Parsha class in Jerusalem's Old City. Over 80 tapes available at Aish audio center, including 50 tapes on the entire Chumash, Mitzvah series, and Holiday series. He lives in Jerusalem with wife and 8 children.
Buy audio tapes by Avi Geller online: click here.
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Drifting
Jewish World Review June 1, 2005 / 23 Iyar, 5765
By Michael Ledeen
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The Washington Post gets full marks for exposing the alarming lack of seriousness with which President Bush is now dealing with what is euphemistically called "The Global War Against Terrorism." Numerous key positions — including the State Department's top slot, vacated at the end of last year by Cofer Black, and the head of the new counterterrorism center — are vacant, and the National Security Council is working hard to define our current strategy, led by the impressive Frances Townsend. After nearly four years? Indeed, if you talk to military officers engaged in the GWOT, more often than not you will hear a lament, because that war has yet to be defined. Despite all of the president's tough talk, despite the often extraordinary performance of our soldiers and some notable accomplishments by intelligence officers, the "enemy" remains vague, and we are mainly playing a sucker's game of responding to attacks and helping those who help us on the ground, as in post-Fallujah Iraq. Our other main claim to fame in fighting terrorism, Afghanistan, is currently suffering from cynical neglect by us and our allies, and from considerable corruption, some of it our own. Another Turning Point In short, as the president's critics are rightly reminding him, more time has passed since 9/11 than transpired between Pearl Harbor and the surrender of the Japanese empire, and our most lethal enemies are still in power and still killing our people and our friends. It is good that the desire for freedom is now manifest among the oppressed peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia, and it is very good that dramatic strides toward self-government have been taken by the Georgians, Kyrgistanis, Ukrainians, Iraqis, and Lebanese. But it is not good enough. Indeed, it is shameful that we have yet to seriously challenge the legitimacy of the terror masters in Tehran and Damascus, who represent the keystone of the terrorist edifice. Our enemies know this, because, to their delight and perhaps their surprise as well, they are still in power throughout the Middle East. Until and unless they are removed, the terror war will continue, our friends in the region will be killed, tortured, and incarcerated, and the president's vision of regional democratic revolution will go down the memory hole. He is at yet another great turning point, and, as after the fall of Afghanistan and again after the defenestration of Saddam's Baghdad, he is drifting, perhaps hoping that he has risked enough, that history is firmly on his side, and even — although it is hard to imagine — that the Europeans are helping the spread of freedom. It is not so. In matters of war, peace, and revolution, winners are characterized by the constancy of their vision and the relentlessness of their pursuit of it. The French, Germans, and British are trying to restrain the revolution, not to encourage it, as their pathetic vaudeville-style negotiations with Iran abundantly demonstrate. One expects to hear one of their foreign ministers on the evening news, pronouncing Groucho's immortal words: "I got principles. And if you don't like 'em, I got other principles..." President Bush has indeed unleashed the specter of revolution upon the hidebound and tyrannical rulers of the Middle East, but they have not accepted it as their destiny. Indeed, in several of the main battlegrounds — Iran and Syria, for example — advocates of freedom are being rounded up and delivered to jailers, torturers, and executioners. A month ago, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, sensing that Washington had lost its nerve, arrested Nizar Restinawi, one of the founders of the Arab Human Rights Organization, and a vigorous opponent of the oppression to which his people have been long subjected. Then, 40 students were arrested in Latykiah. No explanation was offered. In mid-May, the widely respected Kurdish Sufi leader, Sheikh Maachouk Khaznawi, was kidnapped by the authorities. Ten thousand people marched in protest, as the regime announced it had no knowledge of Khaznawi's fate. A few days ago, Assad ordered the arrest of the head of the Arab Human Rights Organization, Mohammad Raadoun. Why Some Silence? So far as I can tell, no one in this administration has denounced the new wave of oppression, as one would have expected them to have done. Why the silence? Does the president believe that democracy will spread even if outspoken democrats are crushed? Does he believe that the Assad regime can be reformed? To speak so clearly for the spread of freedom, and then remain mute when those who rise in support of freedom are bludgeoned, is to repeat the terrible mistake of his father in 1991, who infamously inspired an uprising against Saddam and then abandoned the Shiites and Kurds to mass graves and torture. On Iran, our language is as tougher, and it is most welcome. On the eve of Memorial Day, Secretary Rice proclaimed Iran "probably [?] the most important state sponsor of terrorists, including terrorists who are doing their best to frustrate the hopes of the Palestinian people for a state" and branded it as "a country that does have (an) abominable human rights record." Fine words, but, as in the Syrian case, they do not deal with the matters at hand. Iran is headed toward another phony presidential election on June 17, with the usual charade intended to deceive all would-be appeasers into believing that Iranian elections are like those in Wichita, Kansas. More than 1,000 candidates stepped forward, and the Guardian Council (that is, the Guardians of the mullahcracy) selected six, including one of the country's leading murderers, former president Rafsanjani. The impotent group known as the "reformers" protested their exclusion, whereupon the Great Dictator Khamenei added two of them to the list. The Iranian people are not deceived, and all reliable reports from Iran tell us that few of them intend to vote. Knowing this, the regime has announced that non-voters will be treated as criminals, deprived of educational opportunities, forbidden to travel, and banned from government employment. Why have our diplomats not denounced the electoral scam and the frantic efforts to compel the Iranians to act in the pathetic comedy? The most authoritative religious figure in Iran, the Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, told Reuters that the Iranians understood the election was a fraud, because the president has no authority. Khamenei holds it all. In open rebellion against the Islamic Republic, Montazeri said that the Supreme Leader "should limit his role to religious matters and to ensuring that laws conformed to Islam." In short, that the Islamic Republic must be dismantled. Meanwhile, the Iranians and the Syrians continue to support the terror war against us in Iraq. Here again, everyone knows it — nobody raised an eyebrow at the recent rumors that Zarqawi had taken refuge in Iran, because everyone knows he has long had Iranian support for his barbaric actions — yet our leaders are strangely unwilling to draw the obvious conclusion: The regimes must go. Yet it is clear to anyone with eyes to see that even these lesser goals cannot be accomplished so long as Assad rules Syria, and the mullahs rule Iran. There is no escape from these imperatives, and no amount of clever diplomatic scheming with the failed governments of France and Germany — both of whom have been boisterously rejected by their own electorates in the past two weeks — and the feckless British Foreign Office can possibly accomplish them. If President Bush is serious about spreading freedom, then he must finally and openly demand an end to the dictatorships that oppose freedom with all their might. Freedom is our greatest weapon against the terrorists, and we do not always need to send armies to support its spread. Syria and Iran are ripe for revolution, and the dictators know it. The revolutionaries are looking to Washington for clear and material support. They are not getting it today. Twice in the past, the president slid into a similar funk, first permitting himself to be gulled by the Saudis into believing he had to make a deal with Arafat before he was entitled to liberate Iraq, then permitting the British to drag out the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom with endless votes in the Security Council. Each time he realized his error, and pressed on with greater vigor. It's time for him to do that again. He should revisit his definition of the Global War on Terror: a battle against a network of terrorists, and the countries that support them. A long battle perhaps, but a clear one, with clearly identified enemies and with a wide variety of tactics to bring them down. Faster. Please?
I do not understand why Bush, Rice, and Rumsfeld should be less forthcoming than an 83-year-old Grand Ayatollah under virtual house arrest in Qom. In his final days in office, Colin Powell went around the world announcing that the United States was not calling for regime change in Iran, and no one in Washington has gainsaid those words. Nor has anyone called for regime change in Damascus. In each case, official rhetoric, and apparently formal policy as well, are directed toward matters of less significance in the Global War: the nuclear ambitions of the Iranian mullahs, and the domination of Lebanon by the Syrian Baathists and their murderous Hezbollah allies.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Michael Ledeen is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of, most recently, ""The War Against the Terror Masters," Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Michael Ledeen
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Elias Friedman A.S., NREMT-P
& Pongo the Spotted Wonder!
elipongo@gmail.com
http://elipongo.blogspot.com/
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http://www.ellingtonshul.org
I don’t know nothin’ — thank goodness
Jewish World Review June 1, 2005 / 15 Iyar 5765
Steve Young
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Some years ago my stepfather, Reds, had a heart attack. Our family grieved and my mother, who had lost one husband to cancer years before, said that if there was a G-d , he didn't know what he was doing. During Red's operation, the surgeon found a vessel behind the heart that was clogged. A clog that would have killed Reds if he didn't have the good fortune of a heart attack.
Is there any mortal out there who might venture the thought that a heart attack would be a good thing, especially for a family member? Of course not, but that's exactly the point. We don't know nothin'. At least, our fortune telling is not lock step with actuality.
So is this going to be one of those theological, trust in G-d, articles? Could be, but it's more about me and I'm not a very good example of how to live your religion. This is about faith. Faith in what I call the "I Don't Know What The Hell Is Going To Happen So What The Hell Am I Wasting My Time Thinking It's Going To Turn Out Bad" philosophy. In short, it really comes down to what the great thinker, Alfred E. Newman of Mad Magazine, would expound. His "What Me Worry?" notion doesn't seem all too...mad.
A lot of it has much to do with how we look at adversities. Do we take them as overwhelming obstacles or exciting challenges? Many point at their inopportune experiences as evidence that it doesn't pay to think any other way but negative because that's the way it'll turn out. Ah, the horrific self-fulfilling prophecy. But even if we don't have knight on horse daring, it doesn't mean we have to suffer. We only need give up control of the uncontrollable. In other words, stop trying to guess the outcome.
Because, so much of it is a guess. Especially if you figure it's going to turn out bad.
We get fired. Does it mean we'll not be able to pay the rent, or does it mean we're now available for a better job or new career? Who knows? Our job is not to assume, but to persevere, take action, and see where life takes us. Goes for relationships. Same with sports.
Baseball seems to carry a good number of strong life metaphors. My ten year old son, Casey, who plays Little League baseball, isn't a big fan of hard work paying off because all the changes he's made to his batting stance and his pitching style seem to have only hurt him. At bat, more strikeouts. On the mound, less control. In a recent game he struck out in his first at bat, and immediately, the dread of the nightmare remainder of the game enveloped him and he asked to go home due to sudden stomach and head aches. A pretty common attack after a bad first inning. All the talk of Babe Ruth's record strikeouts or Michael Jordan being cut from his junior high basketball team never helped. Still, I wasn't taking him home. He stayed in the game and the next time up...a base hit through the middle. Next time a walk, then a triple.
Four stolen bases and two Best of ESPN fielding plays and, on the mound, struck out the side to close the game. He ended up calling it the best game of his life.
He could have quit in the first inning. He wanted to, but he didn't. He was miserable for how he thought the game would go. He was wrong and he wasted all that misery. Fact is, he didn't know nothin'.
That's what I'm talking about. We should stop wasting precious time being miserable or seeing only doom and gloom no matter how dire the possibilities. It hurts the effort. Makes it harder to persevere.
As I began with the heart attack story, let me end with another story from my family's heart. Two weeks ago my seven month granddaughter had her second open heart surgery. The first one did not keep her from having this procedure as we had wished. Now we hoped it wouldn't be necessary for the open heart surgery and that she could have gotten away with a much simpler procedure. The doctors said they'd have to open her up and as we waited for her to come out of the more serious surgery and my son and his wife sweated it out, with thoughts of the worse always ready to be thought, I tried to heed what is easier to say than do. I repeated over and over that I didn't know how this would come out, but it would work out for the best. It helped make me feel a bit more hopeful and was able to more fully partake in joking efforts to distract the parents. After four hours the surgeon came out to tell us that while he was in the tiny heart cavity, he found a growth that he would not have seen if they didn't perform this more dangerous, more severe surgery. It may very well end up giving Rachel a chance at a normal life. A result none of us had thought would come out of this dreaded four hours.
This isn't to say the next time things seem bad, have a party. But if things look bleak, try taking contrary action. What do you have to lose? After all, you could be wrong. 
JWR contributor Steve Young is author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful: Mistakes, Adversity, Failure and Other Stepping Stones to Success," and can be heard on Los Angeles's KTLK AM 1150, Saturdays 1-4 PM. Blog at www.TheUnfilteredTruth.com Comment by clicking here.
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Elias Friedman A.S., NREMT-P
& Pongo the Spotted Wonder!
elipongo@gmail.com
http://elipongo.blogspot.com/
http://www.cafeshops.com/DoNoHarm
http://www.ellingtonshul.org
Bicycle News
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USA - Funds for EMTALA required care for undocumented aliens
A new program is being implemented that will provide $250 million per year
for FYs 2005-2008 to help hospitals, certain physicians, and ambulance
providers recoup some or all of the costs of providing emergency medical
care to undocumented aliens and other specified aliens who are uninsured or
cannot afford emergency care.
Payment will be made for covered services that would begin when the
hospital's Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) obligation
begins and ends when the hospital no longer has EMTALA obligations, such as
when the patient is stabilized or transferred.
Eligibility and payment. Payment may be made for services furnished to
certain individuals described in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003
(MMA) (PubLNo 108-173) as: (1) undocumented aliens; (2) aliens who have been
paroled into the United States at a United States port of entry for the
purpose of receiving eligible services; and (3) Mexican citizens permitted
to enter the Untied States for not more than 72 hours under the authority of
a biometric machine readable border crossing identification care.
Medicare participating hospitals, certain physicians and ambulance providers
that are eligible for payment will be paid directly so long as they did not
receive payment from any other source such as the patient or an insurance
company. Eligible providers may include Indian Health Service facilities
whether operated by the Indian Health Service or by an Indian tribe or
tribal organization. A Medicare critical access hospital is also a hospital
under the statutory definition.
Providers will be required to submit bills or claims for payment on a
service-by-service or per discharge basis much as they currently do under
Medicare and will be reimbursed once a quarter.
Funding methodology. Under the program, two-thirds of the funds will be
divided among all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on their
relative percentages of undocumented aliens. The remaining one-third of the
total appropriation, or $83 million, will be divided among the six states
with the highest number of undocumented alien apprehensions for each fiscal
year. Based on data from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004 the six states with
the highest number of undocumented alien apprehensions were Arizona,
California, Florida, New Mexico, New York, and Texas.
If the amount of funds allocated to a state for a FY is insufficient to
ensure that each eligible provider in that state receives the amount of
payment calculated, CMS shall reduce that amount of payment with respect to
each eligible provider to ensure that no more than the amount allocated to
the state for that FY is paid to such eligible providers.
Enrolling application process. Each provider electing to receive payments
must submit a paper enrollment application and an electronic enrollment
application prior to submitting a payment request. Only Medicare
participating hospitals can apply to receive funds from the program. A
physician or provider of ambulance services need not enroll in the Medicare
program to receive payments, however, the Medicare enrollment application
and abbreviated enrollment application will be used to ensure proper
payments from state allotted funds are being paid to these providers.
SOURCE: Notice, 70 FR 25578, May 13, 2005.
for FYs 2005-2008 to help hospitals, certain physicians, and ambulance
providers recoup some or all of the costs of providing emergency medical
care to undocumented aliens and other specified aliens who are uninsured or
cannot afford emergency care.
Payment will be made for covered services that would begin when the
hospital's Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) obligation
begins and ends when the hospital no longer has EMTALA obligations, such as
when the patient is stabilized or transferred.
Eligibility and payment. Payment may be made for services furnished to
certain individuals described in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003
(MMA) (PubLNo 108-173) as: (1) undocumented aliens; (2) aliens who have been
paroled into the United States at a United States port of entry for the
purpose of receiving eligible services; and (3) Mexican citizens permitted
to enter the Untied States for not more than 72 hours under the authority of
a biometric machine readable border crossing identification care.
Medicare participating hospitals, certain physicians and ambulance providers
that are eligible for payment will be paid directly so long as they did not
receive payment from any other source such as the patient or an insurance
company. Eligible providers may include Indian Health Service facilities
whether operated by the Indian Health Service or by an Indian tribe or
tribal organization. A Medicare critical access hospital is also a hospital
under the statutory definition.
Providers will be required to submit bills or claims for payment on a
service-by-service or per discharge basis much as they currently do under
Medicare and will be reimbursed once a quarter.
Funding methodology. Under the program, two-thirds of the funds will be
divided among all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on their
relative percentages of undocumented aliens. The remaining one-third of the
total appropriation, or $83 million, will be divided among the six states
with the highest number of undocumented alien apprehensions for each fiscal
year. Based on data from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2004 the six states with
the highest number of undocumented alien apprehensions were Arizona,
California, Florida, New Mexico, New York, and Texas.
If the amount of funds allocated to a state for a FY is insufficient to
ensure that each eligible provider in that state receives the amount of
payment calculated, CMS shall reduce that amount of payment with respect to
each eligible provider to ensure that no more than the amount allocated to
the state for that FY is paid to such eligible providers.
Enrolling application process. Each provider electing to receive payments
must submit a paper enrollment application and an electronic enrollment
application prior to submitting a payment request. Only Medicare
participating hospitals can apply to receive funds from the program. A
physician or provider of ambulance services need not enroll in the Medicare
program to receive payments, however, the Medicare enrollment application
and abbreviated enrollment application will be used to ensure proper
payments from state allotted funds are being paid to these providers.
SOURCE: Notice, 70 FR 25578, May 13, 2005.
Emergency Medical Service News
2 boys rescued from Elza Gate trestle
Oak Ridger - Oak Ridge,TN,USA
Anderson County Emergency Medical Service Director Robert Byrd said two boys were walking on the trestle over the Clinch River when a train came. ...
Departments sound alarm over fire budget cuts
MLive.com - MI,USA
... He says communities that have private emergency medical service see less than half their runs result in payments because so many runs go to the uninsured or ...
Boyle man jailed in Mercer stabbing
Danville Advocate - Danville,KY,USA
... He then fled the scene. Mercer County Emergency Medical Service took Marple to Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center where he was treated and released. ...
Letter to Border's Books
I got an email from the NAEMT about a promotion that Borders was running. Here's that email.
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 16:15:22 -0400
From: hcampin@bordersgroupinc.com
To: < info@naemt.org >
Subject: Public Service Savings Day
May 31, 2005
Hello.
Borders Books and Music and Waldenbooks stores say "thank you" for all
of the hard work and dedication that those in public service have given
to our communities during "Public Service Days," Tuesday, June 7 through
Monday, June 13. Each store will offer public service employees a 20%
discount on regularly priced gift items, books and music and a 15%
discount on regularly priced DVDs, when they present the downloadable
coupon available at www.bordersstores.com/savings
< http://www.bordersstores.com/savings>.
With this coupon, fire fighters, police officers, public defenders,
postal service employees, social workers, and other public service
employees can stop by their local Borders or Waldenbooks to enjoy
discounts on thousands of books, CDs and videos/DVDs. Borders will also
treat a discount of 20% off food and beverage cafe items during the
Public Service Savings event.
Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues and
with others who may be interested. If you would like any additional
information about this event, please do not hesitate to contact me.
All the best,
Heather Campins
Borders Group, Inc.
(734) 477-1736
I was a bit miffed that the email and the coupon it linked to didn't mention paramedics or EMTs, so I wrote a letter back:
From: hcampin@bordersgroupinc.com
To: < info@naemt.org >
Subject: Public Service Savings Day
May 31, 2005
Hello.
Borders Books and Music and Waldenbooks stores say "thank you" for all
of the hard work and dedication that those in public service have given
to our communities during "Public Service Days," Tuesday, June 7 through
Monday, June 13. Each store will offer public service employees a 20%
discount on regularly priced gift items, books and music and a 15%
discount on regularly priced DVDs, when they present the downloadable
coupon available at www.bordersstores.com/savings
< http://www.bordersstores.com/savings>.
With this coupon, fire fighters, police officers, public defenders,
postal service employees, social workers, and other public service
employees can stop by their local Borders or Waldenbooks to enjoy
discounts on thousands of books, CDs and videos/DVDs. Borders will also
treat a discount of 20% off food and beverage cafe items during the
Public Service Savings event.
Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues and
with others who may be interested. If you would like any additional
information about this event, please do not hesitate to contact me.
All the best,
Heather Campins
Borders Group, Inc.
(734) 477-1736
I was a bit miffed that the email and the coupon it linked to didn't mention paramedics or EMTs, so I wrote a letter back:
From: Elias Friedman <elipongo@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 2, 2005 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: Public Service Savings Day
To: hcampin@bordersgroupinc.com
Dear Ms. Campins;
Thank you very much for sending out this coupon. The NAEMT forwarded it to their email mailing lists and that's how I got it.
I would like to ask you one question though: Why is it that in the very email you wrote to the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, you fail to mention EMTs and Paramedics as eligible users of the coupon?
As a paramedic, I am dismayed to always be disregarded or lumped in as an "other" in these kind of things. The Military and the Police Protect us, Firefighters Rescue us, but Paramedics and EMTs SAVE OUR LIVES. We're the ones who help and start the counseling process for a woman beat up by her boyfriend/husband. We're the ones who lend a sympathetic ear to the teenager who's contemplating suicide. We're the ones who go the the little old lady's house and help her into a chair after she fell down and can't reach her walker to get back up. We take people from one hospital to another, back and forth between nursing homes and hospitals, to and from dialysis or radiation treatment, and to and from regular doctor appointments. We're the one's at the scene who are more concerned with the health and well being of the rape victim than we are with just preserving the evidence. We save the lives of overdosed drug addicts and car crashed teenagers. We assist in the births of babies and we witness people's last moments on Earth. And we lost many EMTs & Paramedics on September 11th alongside the firefighters, police and citizens.
People's relationship with those of us in EMS is as intimate as the one they have with their doctors. People give us full access to their bodies and tell us things they won't tell their loved ones, and we keep it all in confidence for them- simply because of the ethics of our profession.
It is unfortunate that we are so poorly regarded by society- the movies about EMTs & paramedics are far from flattering and we are paid the least of all the emergency services, even though it takes a lot more education to become a paramedic than it does to be a police officer or a firefighter.
I realize that there is little you can do about all this (except maybe you could "tweak" your web coupon?) , but your email hit a raw nerve of mine. I'd like to thank you again for thinking of us in offering this coupon, it is very kind of you and your company to recognize those of us who serve the community. I wish you and your loved ones a safe and pleasant summer.
I realize that there is little you can do about all this (except maybe you could "tweak" your web coupon?) , but your email hit a raw nerve of mine. I'd like to thank you again for thinking of us in offering this coupon, it is very kind of you and your company to recognize those of us who serve the community. I wish you and your loved ones a safe and pleasant summer.
And her reply:
From: Heather Campin (Marketing) <hcampin@bordersgroupinc.com>
Date: Jun 2, 2005 3:56 PM
Subject: RE: Public Service Savings Day
To: Elias Friedman <elipongo@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 2, 2005 3:56 PM
Subject: RE: Public Service Savings Day
To: Elias Friedman <elipongo@gmail.com>
Dear Elias Friedman,
Thank you for your comments.
Please know that, even though EMTs and paramedics are not brought out in our coupon, you are eligible to participate in this savings days event.
There are many wonderful positions and dedicated people in public service--so many that we couldn't list them all on our coupon, but rather were only able to highlight a few.
We will revisit the positions we chose to highlight this year for when we hold this savings days event again.
Best wishes,
Heather Campins
Borders Group, Inc.
Zarqawi 'left Iraq for surgery'
From an anonymous source:
A late report which I'm pursuing is that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi while in Iran may be leaving for a third western country to receive further surgery. Possibly Switzerland.
CR.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This from the Sunday Times
Zarqawi 'left Iraq for surgery '
29/05/2005 09:13 - (SA)London - Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has fled the country for emergency surgery after a US air strike left him with shrapnel lodged in his chest, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
In a front-page report that quoted "a senior insurgent commander in close contact with his group", it said it was believed that Zarqawi - the most wanted insurgent in Iraq - was in Iran.
The report contradicted a statement on several Islamist websites on Friday in which al-Qaeda in Iraq asserted that Zarqawi was "in good health" and directing military operations.
The Sunday Times said Zarqawi has suffered bouts of high fever since he was wounded by a missile that struck his three-car convoy three weeks ago as he fled a US offensive near al-Qaim, a town in northwest Iraq.
[This would be during Operation Matador.]"Shrapnel went in between the right shoulder and his chest, ripped it open and is still stuck in there," the commander was quoted as saying.
Not known how serious
His condition late last week was described as stable, but supporters were preparing to move him to a "non-Arab" country for surgery to remove the two pieces of shrapnel, The Sunday Times said.
The newspaper said the commander's account could not be independently corroborated, but added that he has proved reliable in the past.
US officials, who initially reacted sceptically to reports that Zarqawi had been hit, have since given greater credence to the claims although they said they still have not been able to confirm them.
The Washington Post has quoted a Zarqawi lieutenant by the nom-de-guerre of Abu Karrar as saying the Jordanian-born insurgent chief was shot and wounded in fighting with US forces near the western city of Ramadi on May 21-22.
[10 days AFTER he had reported to the Ramadi hospital with a wound which was reported on the 15th? WP had better get a new source. My blogging sources are more reliable.]On Thursday, Iraqi interior minister Bayan Baqer Solagh said he had information that Zarqawi had been wounded, but that the seriousness of his injuries was unknown.
End Times article.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My Blog --
Those who bother to read these postings should remember that I reported May 15th, 2005 that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been wounded the week of May 8th. Likely on May 10th or 11th.
A Private Intelligence source known to me subsequently reported that Zarqawi was badly wounded in the Al Qa'im assault near the Syrian border on May 11th during Operation Matador. Reports were that it was a serious stomach wound.
Operation Matador in western Iraq near the Syrian border in which nine Marines were killed and 40 wounded, while US forces killed more than 125 insurgents and detained 39 "of intelligence value", ended May 15th.Zarqawi was quickly skirted out of the area and taken to Ramadi on the road to Baghdad, within part of the Sunni triangle. He was was bleeding heavily when he was brought into the hospital there on Wednesday, the 11th. After receiving emergency first-aid and receiving unspecified medication, he was quickly taken away, and is now in serious condition with his wounds at an unknown location.
The doctor who treated Zarqawi was able to recognize him by photographs he had seen of him on television, had urged him to stay put, but apparently, he and his entourage quickly chose to leave the area, reports said.
------------
Later.An al-Qa'ida website posted today that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been wounded and asked for Muslims to pray for his recovery.
*AP photo
One wonders why al-Qa'ida would publish something such as this, which is bad news for them, when they are skilled in the art of public relations and propaganda?It is possible that Zarqawi could actually be dying,or in fear of dying. After the intitial report that Zarqawi had been wounded, a website released a letter praising Zarqawi, ending with, "By Allah, I love al-Zarqawi."
This most recent posting, could actually be an attempt to rally the Muslims, so if he does recover, the people can argue it was because of the prayers of the Muslim people. Or, is this preparing his followers for his death? Or is this complete deception?
Next we may be reading a statement online about his martyrdom. We shall see.
US Military Intelligence has said it hasn't been able to confirm the report.
Update:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jihad Unspun, a pro-Jihad site in English has translated the full article online here.
My original e-mail below
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 15, 2005
Hala Jaber and Ali Rifat, BaghdadIRAQ'S most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been seriously wounded, according to a doctor who claims to have treated him last week.The doctor told an Iraqi reporter in the western city of Ramadi that Zarqawi was bleeding heavily when he was brought into hospital on Wednesday [May 11th] . After treating his wounds the doctor tried to persuade him to remain, but the Jordanian-born terrorist's minders drove him away.
The claim was supported yesterday by a senior commander in the Iraqi resistance who had been to Ramadi to investigate the report. The doctor, who refused to specify the nature of the wounds and asked not to be identified, was detained by the Americans on Friday [May 13th] for questioning, residents said.
Zarqawi, described as Osama Bin Laden's "emir" in Iraq, is the Americans' top target. He has been blamed for countless suicide bombings and for the execution of western hostages, including Ken Bigley, the Liverpool engineer. There is a £13million bounty on his head.
Last week US forces launched an offensive near al-Qaim, more than 100 miles northwest of the city, and claimed to have killed scores of insurgents.
According to the doctor, Zarqawi was escorted into Ramadi general hospital by smartly dressed men. "He was bleeding heavily and his escorts were well dressed with a look about them that was different from the casualties and family members we had been receiving from the al-Qaim offensive," he was quoted as saying.
"I treated his injury and asked that he remain in hospital for further observations and told him that we would have to register him and take down his name and details. But he became very nervous and agitated. He refused and told me he would not be staying.
"The three men with him asked me politely that he be allowed to leave hospital immediately and that I supply them with a prescription and a list of medication that he may need."
The doctor, who recognised Zarqawi from his photograph on television, followed them to their vehicle to try to convince them that the patient should remain in hospital. At that point, he said, he saw machineguns. They threatened to kill him if he told anyone what he had seen.
They then produced a wad of US dollars to secure his silence. The doctor said that he had refused to take the cash.
Bicycle News
Bicycle bomb in Afghanistan's capital wounds at least seven
Forbes - USA
KABUL (AFX) - A bomb attached to an abandoned bicycle exploded today in the east of the Afghan capital Kabul, wounding at least seven Afghan civilians, some ...
Maps chart 200 miles of Cabarrus bicycle routes
Kannapolis Independent Tribune - Kannapolis,NC,USA
... Bicycle routes throughout the county were recently diagrammed and included in a map as part of a project funded by the NC Department of Transportation. ...
Hacking Injures Elbows In Bicycle Crash, Will Miss Road America ...
RoadracingWorld.com - Lake Elsinore,CA,USA
Yamaha/Graves Yamaha rider Jamie Hacking will miss the AMA round June 3-5 at Road America after injuring both of his elbows in a bicycle crash while training ...
Police seek man over 3 sickle attacks in Osaka Pref.
Daily Yomiuri - Tokyo,Japan
... In one attack, a 26-year-old man cycling with a friend was slashed on the right arm with a sickle at about 6:10 pm by a man also on a bicycle, sustaining a two ...
More than 1,800 children could be seriously injured playing ...
PR Direct (press release) - Toronto,ON,Canada
... through August, 1,800 children could be seriously injured and 50 could die from participating in the most popular summer activities - bicycle riding, swimming ...
EMS News
New EMS Substation Should Cut Down Response Times By 20 Minutes
Bristol Herald Courier - Bristol,TN,USA
Imagine needing immediate emergency care and having to wait up to 30 minutes for EMS crews to arrive on the scene. Right now, that ...
Help wanted at the firehouse
Hillsdale Independent - Hillsdale,NY,USA
... FASNY. "We're seeing numbers declining both on the fire and EMS side.". ... said. "Anybody can volunteer as a firefighter or an EMS person. ...
Trent Hills - Municipality endorses emergency volunteer team
Stirling Community Press - Stirling,Ontario,Canada
... Peters wanted to know why the OPP, fire and EMS hadn't endorsed the group and what the liabilities could be if they were sent out on a search and rescue ...
Ambulance News
Ambulance Assurance . . . Sort Of
Hamptons Independents - The Hamptons,NY,USA
Following the passage of his controversial ambulance data collection bill, last week Legislator David Bishop (D, West Babylon) offered assurance for East ...
Rally keeps cops, ambulance busy
Ironwood Daily Globe - Ironwood,MI,USA
... Bill Waterman of Potosi, Wis., had extreme shoulder pain following the accident and was taken to Grand View Hospital in Ironwood by Beacon Ambulance. ...
Help wanted at the firehouse
Hillsdale Independent - Hillsdale,NY,USA
SCHODACK-Volunteer fire departments and ambulance squads throughout the region have a message for residents who rely on their protection: help wanted. ...
Bikers answer appeal to aid air ambulance
News & Star - Carlisle,Cumbria,UK
By Nick Griffiths. HUNDREDS of bikers from across Cumbria revved up and rode out from Carlisle to raise cash for the county's grounded air ambulance. ...
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND ACCIDENTS
Baker City Herald - Baker City,OR,USA
... OSP, the Baker County Sheriff's Office and the Baker City ambulance service were notified of the accident by an operator for OnStar after air bags in Miller's ...
Paramedic News
Paramedic students learn ropes
Modesto Bee - Modesto,CA,USA
In their third month of a yearlong paramedic training program, students already are less squeamish about needles and such as they learn how to handle ...
Flagler County Paramedic Injured By Patient
News4Jax.com - Jacksonville,FL,USA
A Flagler County emergency medical technician was seriously injured when he was kicked in the chest while answering a call Monday night in Bunnell. ...
Cyclist News
CHP: Driver Admits Fleeing Crash That Killed Cyclist
NBC Sandiego.com - San Diego,CA,USA
... She lost control of her 1998 Saturn when she swerved to avoid Garcia. The car hit the cyclist, who was thrown about 80 feet. Garcia ...
Colorado cyclist killed in collision
Triathlete Magazine - USA
May 31, 2005 -- Scott Kornfield, 28, a cyclist from Thornton, Colorado, 10 miles north of Denver, was killed instantly Monday morning when he was struck by an ...
5 years later, IU cyclist's death still baffles police
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne,IN,USA
BLOOMINGTON -- Five years after Indiana University student Jill Behrman vanished while bicycling near her home -- and two years after her remains were found ...
Cyclist pedals his way to SLC Commuter of the Year honors
Salt Lake Tribune - Salt Lake City,UT,USA
... loves the sport. ''I am a long-distance cyclist,'' Burgin said. ''I began biking to work when gas was only 25 cents.''. Employees at ...
Hit and run: plea to drivers
Daily News (subscription) - KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa
By Sharlene Packree. Rodney Cloete is lucky to be alive. Cloete, a cyclist from Umbilo, was the victim of a hit-and-run accident at the weekend. ...
The (Culture) War of the Word
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-faith29may29,1,5584688.story
Dennis Prager's nationally syndicated radio show is heard daily in Los Angeles on KRLA-AM (870). He may be contacted through his website: www.dennisprager.com.
May 29, 2005
A number of years ago I discovered a root cause of America's culture war. It came to me as I debated professor Alan Dershowitz about issues of Jewish concern before a 1,000 Jews at the 92nd Street "Y" in New York City. With the exception of support for Israel, Dershowitz, a Harvard liberal, and I agreed on nothing, political or religious. Toward the end of the evening I came to understand why.
"Ladies and gentlemen," I announced, "the major difference between Alan Dershowitz and me is this: When professor Dershowitz differs with the Torah, he assumes that he is right and the Torah is wrong. When I differ with the Torah, I assume that I am wrong and the Torah is right." Dershowitz responded that for the first time that evening he agreed with me.
That realization was an epiphany for me. I have come to realize that the great divide in values is not between those who believe in God and those who do not but between those who believe in a divine text and those who do not.
This explains in large measure the great culture war in the United States. Americans, of course, are divided not so much by religion as between right and left. Jews and Christians on the left agree with each other on just about every political and social question, and Jews and Christians on the right do the same.
So what distinguishes leftist Jews from rightist Jews and leftist Christians from rightist Christians? It essentially comes down to their belief in the Bible, not their belief in God.
Jews who believe that the Torah is from God agree on almost every important issue of life with Christians who believe that the Torah — and the rest of the Old Testament — is divine. Jews who believe that men (and perhaps women) wrote the Torah agree on virtually every important issue with Christians who also regard the Torah (and the rest of the Bible) as man-made.
For example, as a religious (though non-Orthodox) Jew, I have many differences with Christians' theology. We differ on the Trinity; the divinity of Jesus; the identity of the messiah; the role of Torah, not to mention rabbinic law, on who is and who is not saved; and on such matters as faith versus works. Yet these theological differences cause almost no difference in our social and moral values, which are almost identical. Why?
Because conservative Jews and Christians share the belief that God revealed a text (a text, moreover, that we share). At the same time, liberal Jews and liberal Christians share the belief that this text is man-made.
Jews and Christians who believe that God revealed the Torah, for example, are far more likely to believe that marriage must remain defined as only between a man and woman, and cannot be redefined to include members of the same sex. They believe that people are not basically good, that human life, not animal life, is sacred (because humans, not animals, are created in God's image), and that murderers should be liable to the death penalty (the only law that is in all five books of the Torah is to put murderers to death).
On the other hand, Jews and Christians who believe that people wrote the Torah are far more likely to support a redefinition of marriage, to view human nature as basically good (and therefore more likely to ascribe human evil to outside influences), to be more receptive to seeing human beings as essentially another animal, and to oppose capital punishment for murderers.
After all, what people, not God, wrote thousands of years ago should hardly serve as a guide to life today — especially when one's heart argues against it. The heart feels compassion for gays, for animals and even for murderers facing execution. And the heart wants to believe that human beings are basically good.
But Jews and Christians who believe in a divinely revealed Bible do not trust the heart as a guide to doing the right thing (indeed, that Bible repeatedly warns us not to). That difference — do I listen to my heart or to what I believe is God's word? — explains most of the differences between right and left. Much more than whether one believes in God.
--
Elias Friedman A.S., NREMT-P
& Pongo the Spotted Wonder!
elipongo@gmail.com
http://elipongo.blogspot.com/
http://www.cafeshops.com/DoNoHarm
http://www.ellingtonshul.org
THE FAITH FRONT
The (Culture) War of the Word
By Dennis PragerDennis Prager's nationally syndicated radio show is heard daily in Los Angeles on KRLA-AM (870). He may be contacted through his website: www.dennisprager.com.
May 29, 2005
A number of years ago I discovered a root cause of America's culture war. It came to me as I debated professor Alan Dershowitz about issues of Jewish concern before a 1,000 Jews at the 92nd Street "Y" in New York City. With the exception of support for Israel, Dershowitz, a Harvard liberal, and I agreed on nothing, political or religious. Toward the end of the evening I came to understand why.
"Ladies and gentlemen," I announced, "the major difference between Alan Dershowitz and me is this: When professor Dershowitz differs with the Torah, he assumes that he is right and the Torah is wrong. When I differ with the Torah, I assume that I am wrong and the Torah is right." Dershowitz responded that for the first time that evening he agreed with me.
That realization was an epiphany for me. I have come to realize that the great divide in values is not between those who believe in God and those who do not but between those who believe in a divine text and those who do not.
This explains in large measure the great culture war in the United States. Americans, of course, are divided not so much by religion as between right and left. Jews and Christians on the left agree with each other on just about every political and social question, and Jews and Christians on the right do the same.
So what distinguishes leftist Jews from rightist Jews and leftist Christians from rightist Christians? It essentially comes down to their belief in the Bible, not their belief in God.
Jews who believe that the Torah is from God agree on almost every important issue of life with Christians who believe that the Torah — and the rest of the Old Testament — is divine. Jews who believe that men (and perhaps women) wrote the Torah agree on virtually every important issue with Christians who also regard the Torah (and the rest of the Bible) as man-made.
For example, as a religious (though non-Orthodox) Jew, I have many differences with Christians' theology. We differ on the Trinity; the divinity of Jesus; the identity of the messiah; the role of Torah, not to mention rabbinic law, on who is and who is not saved; and on such matters as faith versus works. Yet these theological differences cause almost no difference in our social and moral values, which are almost identical. Why?
Because conservative Jews and Christians share the belief that God revealed a text (a text, moreover, that we share). At the same time, liberal Jews and liberal Christians share the belief that this text is man-made.
Jews and Christians who believe that God revealed the Torah, for example, are far more likely to believe that marriage must remain defined as only between a man and woman, and cannot be redefined to include members of the same sex. They believe that people are not basically good, that human life, not animal life, is sacred (because humans, not animals, are created in God's image), and that murderers should be liable to the death penalty (the only law that is in all five books of the Torah is to put murderers to death).
On the other hand, Jews and Christians who believe that people wrote the Torah are far more likely to support a redefinition of marriage, to view human nature as basically good (and therefore more likely to ascribe human evil to outside influences), to be more receptive to seeing human beings as essentially another animal, and to oppose capital punishment for murderers.
After all, what people, not God, wrote thousands of years ago should hardly serve as a guide to life today — especially when one's heart argues against it. The heart feels compassion for gays, for animals and even for murderers facing execution. And the heart wants to believe that human beings are basically good.
But Jews and Christians who believe in a divinely revealed Bible do not trust the heart as a guide to doing the right thing (indeed, that Bible repeatedly warns us not to). That difference — do I listen to my heart or to what I believe is God's word? — explains most of the differences between right and left. Much more than whether one believes in God.
--
Elias Friedman A.S., NREMT-P
& Pongo the Spotted Wonder!
elipongo@gmail.com
http://elipongo.blogspot.com/
http://www.cafeshops.com/DoNoHarm
http://www.ellingtonshul.org
2005-06-01
Five Years on the Front Lines
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Online learning: A smart way to nurture gifted kids
This article brought back all the frustration I had back when I was in High School twenty years ago. I hope today's students can be better served than I was back then.
-Eli
Jewish World Review May 31, 2005 / 22 Iyar, 5765
By Laura Vanderkam
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Chintan Hossain used to dread walking down his middle school's halls. Students teased him for taking eighth-grade math in the seventh grade, but the classes still bored him senseless. "I wondered how I would make it through five more years of school," he says. He could have buried his talents. Instead, five years later, Hossain has won national recognition for such projects as using non-linear mathematics to predict a pacemaker's effect on cardiac cells. He landed on the U.S . Physics Olympiad team last year and helped it win first place internationally. Hossain credits the change to one thing: attending the Charter School of Wilmington, Del. Unlike his middle school, this high school for gifted students paired him with master teachers — experts in their subjects who know how to train talented young people — and let him race through math and physics lessons as fast as his mind could go. So I thought of Hossain when the National Science Board issued a report this spring warning that the U.S. was losing its scientific edge. More and more jobs, the board said, require science skills that few Americans have. In the past, gifted immigrants filled the gap, but as China and India become science powerhouses, and as visa rules tighten here, we need more homegrown talent — and most U.S. schools aren't up to the job. Occasionally, though, schools grow scientists by matching bright students with master teachers and letting them zoom ahead. Every community needs a school like Charter, but until then, technology can reproduce the conditions that helped Hossain learn. Nurture top talent With online learning, the newest wave of education, gifted students can take classes local schools can't offer and learn at their own frenetic pace. Though Hossain lived near a school that met his needs, not all young scientists have that luxury. Maintaining America's scientific edge means nurturing top talent wherever the student resides. Pundits love to lament U.S. educational woes, but with all of the failing schools these days, few point out how much we bore the kids on top. Consider: While more than half of U.S. high schools offer some Advanced Placement classes, almost no schools offer math courses beyond that, or have the teachers or equipment to accommodate an interest in independent scientific research. So it's little wonder that Bernard Khoury, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers, reports that three of five 2003 U.S. Physics Team members attended public schools for the gifted, like Charter. These schools "recognize that the kid is extraordinary — and get out of the way," he says. They create courses, send kids to universities, or do whatever it takes to keep them challenged. These are extraordinary schools. But virtual learning can help ordinary schools replicate their methods. For the past few years, back-to-school feature stories have predicted a surge in online education. True, 90% of public colleges offer online learning, but only 25% of public K-12 schools have caught on, Education Week reports. This is slow progress, given what distance learning can do. Stanford University, for instance, reaches more than 3,000 youngsters through its Educational Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY). Students take anything from grammar to quantum mechanics, grouped by mastery, not by age. Interactive programs mimic a classroom vibe, and virtual sessions let students and teachers chat in real time. Any state education department could team up with a university to create content as Stanford has, and hire master teachers who shine online. Schools could identify their most promising scientists and mathematicians and urge them to enroll. Students could meet their teachers and fellow students at area university labs once a month to learn how science really works. Schools already have the technology to make this happen. All states have Internet access in more than 90% of schools; in all but five states, more than 70% of schools have high-speed Internet lines. "Schools don't need to make huge new investments," says Chris Dede, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "They don't need to pass another bond issue" to make virtual learning reality. Yet, most of the students who could handle more rigorous online classes will be stuck with whatever local schools offer. EPGY, for instance, rarely sees kids whose parents haven't found the courses and paid the tab (generally $450-$700 a course) themselves. Few schools even think these advanced courses are an option. Talk to those in distance learning, and you hear three explanations: "The biggest barrier is funding," says Tim Stroud of the North American Council for Online Learning. But with high-speed lines in place, the marginal cost is small — a school rate of roughly $250 per pupil — and cheaper than hiring a teacher for a small group. Few schools know that online programs exist or realize that learning doesn't require traditional classrooms. But, after interviewing scores of gifted kids, I'm inclined to believe the third reason. Truth is, despite National Science Board alarms, training young scientists isn't a national priority. We seethe when our Olympic athletes lose, but when China beat the U.S. in the International Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry Olympiads this summer, no one blinked. "Because gifted kids learn the normal curriculum, we sense that their needs are being met," says Ray Ravaglia of EPGY. So solutions are piecemeal — a charter school to rescue kids such as Chintan Hossain here, EPGY for students who have the resources there. Science and technology can help us regain our edge, but only if schools make finding challenging courses for their brightest students as important as ensuring there's "No Child Left Behind."
Few options available
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Primetime's latest religious nut
One more reason to not like Hollywood! I especially dislike the fact that the character has my surname.
-Eli
Jewish World Review June 1, 2005 / 23 Iyar, 5765
Primetime's latest religious nut is Orthodox Jew
By Elliot B. Gertel
 Sarah Hagan: From "Buffy" to baalas teshuvah | ||
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A Conservative rabbi's analysis
FAUX FAITH
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Meet Devo "Esther" Friedman.
Appearing on ABC's hospital show "Grey's Anatomy" and played by Sarah Hagan — best known for her "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" recurring character — she's a 17 year-old baalas teshuvah, or returnee to religious observance, who has taken a biblical name because she no longer wants to be named after an Eighties rocker.
"My parents did too much blow," the teen explains. "I call myself Esther."
Esther is angry, rude and self-righteous — and sick. Very sick. She has serious heart problems. But when doctors attempt to save her life by implanting a "porcine valve", that is, one made from a pig product, she goes ballistic.
"You're letting them put a pig, a freaking non-kosher traif [ritually impure] mammal into my chest, into my heart, the very essence of my being?", she protests. As if the crack about blow wasn't enough, later Esther will malign her parents again: "You guys don't even light candles Friday nights," she proclaims. "You don't even know all the Passover plagues."
In response, one doctor refers to Esther's "extreme religious conviction."
Observing her brusque manner and possibly suicidal beliefs, Esther's dad turns to her mother with a sigh: "I told you this whole Orthodox thing was a mistake. What was so wrong with being [one inaudible word] Reform like everyone else we know?"
Not only have episode writer Mimi Schmir and consulting rabbi Michelle Missaghieh succeeded at making practitioners of traditional Judaism — whom most viewers have never met and likely never will — look bad, they've also missed a good teaching opportunity.
In an age when life is being destroyed more than ever in the name of religion, the duo could have had a character accurately point out to Devo/Esther that traditional Judaism stresses reverence for life far more than a prohibition against deriving benifit from pork. To preserve life, one is obligated to desecrate the Sabbath and even stop fasting on Yom Kippur. And while Judaism considers pigs, well, unkosher, the Talmud teaches that it is wrong to denigrate them even verbally. They are, after all, part of the Divine's creation. All the more so in the case of the teen's denigrating of her parents. (Ten Commandments, anyone?)
But if Esther is flawed in the scholarship and seichal (common sense) departments, in time, her very faith, too, is revealed as a sham.
Left alone, the long-skirted teen soon begins flirting with her handsome doctor.
"Are you hitting on me?", she asks.
"Do you want me to?", he responds in kind.
Esther then feels comfortable enough with her secular, raised-Catholic heartthrob doctor to confess: "You know what it's like being a teenager these days? My friends spend most of their time screwing around and getting wasted. At least I have G-d."
The implication, of course, is that Esther's Jewish observance is being used as effort to escape the world around her. The viewer is left to wonder whether the old Jewish religion, exercised in the "extreme," will last once Esther — or Devo — becomes better "adjusted."
Schmir does, however, conclude the episode with spiritualities that she regards as durable and effective. Judaism, though, is not among them. The main contender is what might be called "psychic faith" or "faith in one's psychic."
A patient thought to be mad is making observations that shake up the young physicians with secrets. The oracular comments occur after brief seizures. When masses of blood vessels on the brain are discovered, he receives surgery but is afraid that he will lose his gift. But it is clear right after surgery that his mantic powers are unabated. One of his "prophecies" results in at least one doctor reaching out to her mother. The faith of another doctor in exploratory surgery saves another patient who is thought to be suffering from "hysterical" paralysis. The only faith shown to be cantankerous and divisive is — Orthodox Judaism!
The Forward (May 6, 2005) gleefully reported that writer Schmir insisted on featuring a woman rabbi and that it was decided to give the consulting rabbi the role, which consisted of singing — in the operating room — the traditional prayer that the Divine grant a full and speedy recovery ("Mi Sheberach").
Yet those with even an inkling of familiarity with Jewish ritual know such prayers are in fact chanted by the congregation, during the Torah reading, to express communal support of the sick. Wisely, our Sages kept them out of the operating room, where doctors should be focusing on the surgery!
Likewise, there is no regard here for the feelings of the patient. An Orthodox Jewish woman, even a teenage girl, would not recognize women rabbis as legitimate to her branch of Judaism, and might actually become agitated by seeing a woman rabbi at the time of surgery. Again, a teaching opportunity was lost. Schmir could have shown her audience how to respect such differences by having the woman rabbi call in a male, Orthodox rabbi.
Missaghieh, the rabbinic consultant, is quoted in the Forward as saying that she hopes Jewish and gentile viewers will see that "Judaism is a religion that has many comforting sources to it and that Jewish people will be reminded of the comfort that rabbis and prayer and their community can give them during times of crisis." Yet Esther Friedman gets no comfort here from a rabbi, nor do we see her community praying for her at shul or visiting the hospital. She does not even think to consult a rabbi about the porcine valve question.
The only ones who derive "comfort" from this are those who made the program about a rather unpleasant Jewish teenager in order to feature a woman rabbi, and gratuitously at that. This, instead of imparting Jewish teachings regarding the primacy of saving and preserving life.
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Contributing writer Elliot B. Gertel, JWR's resident media maven, is a Conservative rabbi based in Chicago. His latest book is "Over the Top Judaism: Precedents and Trends in the Depiction of Jewish Beliefs and Observances in Film and Television". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Elliot B. Gertel
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Belief in non-violent jihad is for the naive
Jewish World Review May 31, 2005 / 22 Iyar, 5765
By Daniel Pipes
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Cook dismisses as "bathetic and laughable" John Esposito's contention that jihad refers to "the effort to lead a good life." Throughout history and at present, Cook definitively establishes, the term primarily means "warfare with spiritual significance." His achievement lies in tracing the evolution of jihad from Muhammad to Osama, following how the concept has changed through fourteen centuries. This summary does not do justice to Cook's extensive research, prolific examples, and thoughtful analysis, but even a thumbnail sketch suggests jihad's evolution. The Koran invites Muslims to give their lives in exchange for assurances of paradise. The Hadith (accounts of Muhammad's actions and personal statements) elaborate on the Koran, providing specific injunctions about treaties, pay, booty, prisoners, tactics, and much else. Muslim jurisprudents then wove these precepts into a body of law. Muhammad's conquests: During his years in power, the prophet engaged in an average of nine military campaigns a year, or one every 5-6 weeks; thus did jihad help define Islam from its very dawn. Conquering and humiliating non-Muslims was a main feature of the prophet's jihad. The Arab conquests and after: During the first several centuries of Islam, "the interpretation of jihad was unabashedly aggressive and expansive." After the conquests subsided, non-Muslims hardly threatened and Sufi notions of jihad as self-improvement developed in complement to the martial meaning. The Crusades, the centuries-long European effort to control the Holy Land, gave jihad a new urgency and prompted what Cook calls the "classical" theory of jihad. Finding themselves on the defensive led to a hardening of Muslim attitudes.
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In his just-released, absorbing, and excellent book, "Understanding Jihad", David Cook of Rice University dismisses the low-grade debate that has raged since 9/11 over the nature of jihad — whether it is a form of offensive warfare or (more pleasantly) a type of moral self-improvement.
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The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century subjugated much of the Muslim world, a catastrophe only partially mitigated by the Mongols' nominal conversion to Islam. Some thinkers, Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328) in particular, came to distinguish between true and false Muslims; and to give jihad new prominence by judging the validity of a person's faith according to his willingness to wage jihad.
Nineteenth century "purification jihads" took place in several regions against fellow Muslims. The most radical and consequential of these was the Wahhabis' jihad in Arabia. Drawing on Ibn Taymiya, they condemned most non-Wahhabi Muslims as infidels (kafirs) and waged jihad against them.
European imperialism inspired jihadi resistance efforts, notably in India, the Caucasus, Somalia, Sudan, Algeria, and Morocco, but all in the end failed. This disaster meant new thinking was needed.
Islamist new thinking began in Egypt and India in the 1920s but jihad acquired its contemporary quality of radical offensive warfare only with the Egyptian thinker Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966). Qutb developed Ibn Taymiya's distinction between true and false Muslims to deem non-Islamists to be non-Muslims and then declare jihad on them. The group that assassinated Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 then added the idea of jihad as the path to world domination.
The anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan led to the final step (so far) in this evolution. In Afghanistan, for the first time, jihadis assembled from around the world to fight on behalf of Islam. Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian, became the theorist of global jihad in the 1980s, giving it an unheard-of central role, judging each Muslim exclusively by his contribution to jihad, and making jihad the salvation of Muslims and Islam. Out of this quickly came suicide terrorism and bin Laden.
Cook's erudite and timely study has many implications, including these:
- The current understanding of jihad is more extreme than at any prior time in Islamic history.
- This extremism suggests that the Muslim world is going through a phase, one that must be endured and overcome, comparable to analogously horrid periods in Germany, Russia, and China.
- Jihad having evolved steadily until now, doubtless will continue to do so in the future.
- The excessive form of jihad currently practiced by Al-Qaeda and others could, Cook semi-predicts, lead to its "decisive rejection" by a majority of Muslims. Jihad then could turn into a non-violent concept.
The great challenge for moderate Muslims (and their non-Muslim allies) is to make that rejection come about, and with due haste.
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Comment by clicking here. JWR contributor Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum. © 2005, Daniel Pipes
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Fallen EMS workers honored in Roanoke
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| Sunday, May 29, 2005 | ||
By Pete Dybdahl 981-3340 Earlier Saturday, the To The Rescue Museum, EMS/Rescue's national museum in Tanglewood Mall, received a stream of visitors. Emergency Medical Services vehicles filled the parking lot of Roanoke's First Baptist Church on Saturday evening. Inside, a procession of bagpipes and flag-carrying honor guards moved down the aisles. But ceremony soon blended with sentiment and celebration for the lives of the 26 EMS workers honored at the 13th annual National EMS Memorial Service for losing their lives in the line of duty. "Our loved ones would want us to be happy," said Ken Bouvier, president of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, in his opening remarks. "Remember that they loved what they did." During the service, families received an American flag, a white rose and an engraved medallion while pictures of honorees were projected on a screen. Roanoke has hosted the event, held the Saturday before Memorial Day, since it began in 1993. The Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew, founded by Julian Stanley Wise in 1927, has been cited as the first independent volunteer rescue squad. Before the service, the family of Lisa Ortega-Landers gathered on the steps of the church on Third Street. "They're a very unique breed of people," her brother Daniel Ortega said of EMS workers, "and she was one of them." Ortega-Landers died with two crewmates in August 2004, when their medevac helicopter crashed en route to Reno, Nev. "She could have saved lives in the hospital, but she was most useful on a helicopter," Ortega said. "Dying wasn't a fear." Ortega-Landers was one of 11 honorees killed during a flight rescue. Similar accidents also killed EMS workers from Kansas, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. "Give them credit. They go up in bad weather," said Robert McCracken, former chief of EMS operations for the Fire Department of New York. McCracken has seen some of New York City's EMS workers honored for giving their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, including one, Richard Pearlman, this year. "It's a tear-jerker, but you don't want to forget these unsung heroes." Earlier in the day, the To The Rescue Museum, EMS/Rescue's national museum in Tanglewood Mall, received a stream of visitors. Speaking in hushed tones, and often with admiration, they remembered their family members and fellow rescue squad members. Honorees are memorialized with bronze oak leaves on the museum's "Tree of Life," which some visitors etched with paper and charcoal. "I'm here for Molly," said Korie Holmes of Sitka, Alaska, standing before a wall of photos of this year's honorees. Holmes had served with Molly Ahlgren on the Sitka Volunteer Fire Department before Ahlgren died in a boating accident in November 2004. "She knows you're here," consoled Sue Taylor, the museum's curator. |
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2005-05-31
U.S. Blamed for Koran Harm in WTC Collapse
By ScrappleFace
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'Just another example of U.S. insensitivity to cultural diversity,' says ACLU
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan rioted today in response to new reports that copies of the Koran were desecrated when two American buildings collapsed after being struck by American airplanes in September of 2001.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed that fragments of the burned and soiled Korans were discovered in the ruins of the World Trade Center towers in New York City.
A spokesman for the ACLU said the Bush administration did little to prevent the damage to the Islamic holy books, that apparently belonged to Muslims who worked in the office towers until their "unjustified termination" during the morning of September 11, 2001.
"This is just another example of U.S. insensitivity to cultural diversity," said the unnamed ACLU spokesman. "To add insult to injury, anonymous sources say that some of the Koran fragments may have been unceremoniously dumped in a landfill."
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The ‘Martyr’ and the Matriarch
Jewish World Review May 30, 2005 / 21 Iyar, 5765
By Jonathan Tobin
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Distorted images litter London's theaters and American newspapers
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In case you think that all U.S. citizens are unpopular in Europe these days, it turns out at least one American is getting the hero treatment. MISSING ELEMENTS SOME OTHER NOTABLE WOMEN
Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old woman from Olympia, Washington, who served as a volunteer for the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement is the subject of a popular play that has earned rave reviews from London's notoriously hard-to-please critics.
Corrie was killed in March 2003 by an Israeli army bulldozer she'd attempted to stop from completing its mission of destroying a Palestinian building in Gaza that was believed to be sheltering terrorists.
Derived from the letters and e-mails sent home by Corrie before her death, the play by British journalist Katharine Viner and film star Alan Rickman has helped continue the process by which the young American is being transformed into a martyr for the Palestinian cause.
Virtually all of the British reviewers took it for granted that Corrie's idealized view of Palestinians and the terror groups that used the ISM as human shields was unassailable. No one was interested in the fact that the tunnels in the building Corrie defended were being used to bring in missiles and ammunition that were then turned on Israeli children.
A reading of Corrie's diaries, published in Harper's in June 2003, show that she expressed no interest in, let alone remorse for, the campaign of bloody terror carried out by her Palestinian friends — terror that took hundreds of Jewish lives. For her, Israel was an "evil" abstraction whose purpose is "genocide," while all Palestinians, including the terrorists she helped shelter, proved heroic and kind.
None of this should make us regard her death as anything but tragic. For all of the invective thrown at Corrie by some supporters of Israel who are repulsed by those who deem her a secular saint — much like many another left-wing pilgrim — Corrie was the victim of her own side's lies.
All of which can only make us wonder how an American could have managed to acquire such a distorted view of this complicated conflict. But given the ability of the mainstream media to make a hash out of even the most straightforward of stories, it's hardly surprising that there are some here who accept Palestinian propaganda as fact.
As it so happens, a story published on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer last week gave us a perfect example of how the twisted lens of the media can operate.
In his May 19 dispatch titled "Raising a barrier and disputes," Michael Matza discussed the final resting place of another Rachel, the wife of the Patriarch Jacob, who, the Bible teaches us, died giving birth to a son, Benjamin.
The Tanach says she "was buried on the road to Efrat — now Bethlehem. Over her grave, Jacob set up a pillar, it is the pillar at Rachel's grave to this day."
The Inquirer story focused on the building of Israel's security barrier in the vicinity of the tomb and the hardship it placed on local Arabs. In particular, author Matza was at pains to quote Palestinians who viewed the area around the tomb as a natural site for expansion of Arab housing and resented the fact that the barrier would prevent that.
But amid quotes about Palestinians being "imprisoned" and speculations about annexations, there were two crucial elements of the story that were missing.
One was the fact that while it's true that the "white-domed shrine" has been converted into a "heavily fortified mausoleum" by Israel in recent years, this was caused by a virtual hale of Palestinian bullets and bombs aimed at Jewish pilgrims to the tomb since the start of the intifada in the fall of 2000.
What was once a place open to visitors of all faiths was transformed into a battleground by terrorists who operated with impunity from adjacent Bethlehem, something Matza failed to mention in a story that included no quotes from Israelis — except one from a political scientist critical of Israel's current government.
Also missing — despite Matza's description of the place as part of a "historic" Arab town — is the fact that the tomb has the distinction of being one of the few Jewish holy spots in the country that is not also claimed by Muslims.
So instead of a report that placed the building of a security fence in the context of a campaign of Arab terrorism aimed at preventing access to a Jewish holy site, all Inqy readers got was yet another tale of hard-hearted Israeli imperialism.
Matza's story is far from unique, but in its own small and undistinguished way, this piece of botched journalism is telling. It gives us an understanding of how people who don't already know the facts reporters leave out can get a totally incomplete — and often erroneous — idea about what's going on.
Inevitably, the stories that aren't told are the ones that cry out for the sort of coverage that's handed to false martyrs like Rachel Corrie. As The Jerusalem Post's Tom Gross eloquently wrote last month, Corrie wasn't the only Rachel whose recent death should be mourned.
There was Rachel Thaler, age 16, who was born in London but killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber who exploded himself at an Israeli mall. And there was also 17-year-old Rachel Levy, blown up at a grocery store; 19-year-old Rachel Levi, shot while waiting for a bus; and Rachel Gavish, a mother murdered with the rest of her family while celebrating Passover.
But none of those Rachels interest most journalists or inspire actors like Alan Rickman to produce plays.
Juxtaposed against the growing cult of Rachel Corrie, it is also not out of place to think about the figure of the biblical Rachel, whose tomb became a target for terrorists. The Prophet Jeremiah writes that when the Jewish people were first exiled by the Babylonian conquest some 2,600 years ago, the matriarch saw her descendants being herded along by their conquerors and wept for her children.
But the prophet says that the Lord consoled her saying: "They shall return from the enemy's land. And there is hope for your future declares the Lord: Your children shall return to their country."
Rachel's children have indeed returned and, the malice of the Palestinians and their foreign sympathizers notwithstanding, they intend to stay.
Would it be too much to ask that those who write about their struggles depict them truthfully?
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JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. Let him know what you think by clicking here.
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Next Call
I just took care of a nice older gentleman from a nursing home having difficulty breathing, likely from a cold exhaserbating his COPD. Once I had sat him up and given him a couple of breathing treatments, he was feeling somewhat better.
K'ville officials, resident sound off about need for EMS site
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| (May 29, 2005) KENANSVILLE - Town officials and residents are not taking no for an answer when it comes to getting an EMS site in their town. Duplin County named six EMS sites in the county last year and Kenansville, much to the disappointment of town officials, was not on that list. |
| But that hasn't stopped them from trying. |
Kenansville mayor Betty Long has been attending Duplin County Commissioners meetings and recently presented a resolution requesting that a site be added in the town or to at least reevaluate the current EMS sites to include a location in the town.
The resolution notes that Kenansville is the largest district and has the largest population during weekdays with people coming in to work.
It also notes that the town has one elementary school, a junior high school, a community college, two large daycare facilities and three nursing homes.
Town commissioner Stephen Williamson Jr. has been very vocal in the fight for an EMS site and said that residents have been accustomed to having a site in the town.
"We were one of the first or second sites where there was an ambulance," Williamson said. "One part is tradition, but the main thing is having service to folks in Kenansville."
Williamson said he has no way of knowing if the town will ever see a site, but he does hope there will be one. "I feel that with the situation the county is in terms of money. We realize there's going to have to be some reorganization to accomplish having what we think they need to do.
"We truly believe that the county can accomplish having eight sites in the county and save money, but they've got to be willing to make some changes," he added.
Commissioner Mark Vinson is also adamant about the need for an EMS site in the town, but said he can't be very optimistic about getting one any time soon.
"We have four major highways that converge here. There is a lot of traffic through and around the town on a daily basis," Vinson said.
He also noted that Kenansville is the county seat and people come from all around to work at the county offices.
Vinson said he thinks it is ridiculous that if someone in the town were to get hurt or fall ill they would have to wait for an ambulance to come from out of town when the hospital is only minutes away.
Vinson said it is hard to read what the county commissioners are planning to do. "They use the argument that they have first responders in Kenansville to go to the scene, but she can't transport anyone," he explained.
He said for now they will just have to wait and see what the future will bring.
Kenansville resident Patrick Bell has also pleaded the town's case for county commissioners at several meetings.
"Kenansville needs an EMS unit," he said. "We're the county seat. Within the five mile radius of Kenansville, there are 3,000 people here in the middle of the day with people coming in to work. And these people have no ambulance."
Bell said he isn't privy to any inside information about the fate of an EMS site in Kenansville. He only knows that they need one.
Mayor Betty Long has been leading the battle for an EMS site and said she and Williamson had just met with the county manager about the issue again Wednesday morning.
"There is not progress as far as getting an ambulance," she noted.
Long said that with Duplin Commons opening soon in the town, even more traffic would be entering, a fact that only punctuates the town's need for an EMS site.
The mayor said county commissioners recently asked the county EMS director which sites he would recommend. "The director of EMS stated the six sites in place now were sites he would recommend," which leaves Kenansville out of the mix once again.
"At the present time I do not feel like they are going to place a site in Kenansville," Long said.
But that is not going to stop Long - or others - from trying.
"I will continue to work and do everything I can to try to get an ambulance for Kenansville," she said.
Nikki Willis can be reached 592-8137 ext. 19 or email at: sipage@intrstar.net
EMS News
Fallen EMS workers honored in Roanoke
Roanoke Times - Roanoke,VA,USA
... t and celebration for the lives of the 26 EMS workers honored at the 13th annual National EMS Memorial Service for losing their lives in the line of duty. ...
Lubbock EMS Observe Moment of Silence
KCBD-TV - Lubbock,TX,USA
Everyday they respond to calls that make a difference in a life; at 7pm Saturday, Lubbock EMS observed a moment of silence in honor of all fallen first ...
No injuries reported in camper, trailer fire in Chemung, NY
Towanda Daily Review - Towanda,PA,USA
... The fire occurred Friday around 3 pm and the fire department was assisted by Greater Valley EMS, the Valley Rapid Intervention Team and the Waverly-Barton Fire ...
Ambulance News
The Cheese Chasing one is just so weird I had to leave it in despite it's tenuous ties to EMS...
Long ambulances delays
Melbourne Herald Sun - Melbourne,Australia
Lagging ambulance response times are putting lives at risk and leaving ill patients in limbo, industry members say. Freedom of Information ...
Ambulance gear on eBay
The Sun - UK
... Worried ambulance chiefs last night vowed to crack down on the illegal trade. They say the thefts are a major drain on their life-saving capabilities. ...
Cheese Chasers Risk Life and Limb to Uphold Tradition
Scotsman - Edinburgh,Scotland,UK
... St John's Ambulance will be on hand to treat the injured, and a team from Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters (SARAID) will rescue casualties from the ...
Ambulance corp honors 20 members who have died
Capital News 9 - Albany,NY,USA
... as well. On Sunday, the Rensselaer Volunteer Ambulance Corp honored 20 members who have died in the last three decades. Officials ...
Paramedic News
Paramedic died from injuries in 2004 attack
Halifax Herald (subscription) - Halifax,Nova Scotia,Canada
Two young men were found guilty Saturday of cruelly killing a West Lawrencetown paramedic during a home invasion last January. After ...
Indian River, unions work on contracts
Vero Beach Press-Journal (subscription) - Vero Beach,FL,USA
... County officials, meanwhile, have calculated the paramedic union's salary demands at $2.1 million, with an average raise of 9.5 percent. ... Paramedic Capt. ...
Cyclist News
Police claim cyclist killed by drink-driver
ABC Regional Online - Australia
Police allege the driver of a car that hit and killed a cyclist near Wollongong yesterday was over the blood alcohol limit. A 55 ...
Cyclist to precede Tour de France
Greenwich Time - Greenwich,CT,USA
... With a general goal of becoming a competitive cyclist within three years, he hired a professional coach and, in 2002, started cycling for an hour and 15 minutes ...
Today's Ride In
I rode in to work today as usual until I got to Route-83. The car traffic was pretty light due to the holiday, and I figured that the rail trail I usually ride would be packed on such a nice day and a holiday, so I took Route-83. It was such a pleasure! No real bad grades the whole way and smooth pavement... kept a great pace and made it to work in less than an hour where it usually takes me an hour and a quarter at the least using the rail trail.
Too bad the traffic's too thick on that road to use it more often...
In other news, my first call tonight was a woman who has just started in the past two weeks to get chemotherapy treatments for ovarian cancer. Today she was c/o nausea and fever. Manchester Hopsital diagnosed her with an UTI and an infection of her portacath site. We transported her to John Dempsey Hospital (UConn Health Center) because that's where her doctors are and also because of a lack of admitting beds at Manchester. She was getting IV antibiotics and the IV pump's battery ran out not ten minutes into the ride, and my truck is our only paramedic truck that doesn't have an inverter. I had to drip out the meds... But the ride was w/out any other incident.
Our second call was for a nice old lady whose knees gave out on her today and she couldn't stand even with her walker. We took her and her husband to Saint Francis Hospital so they could check out her weakness and also to see if we could set up some social services to help them out because they didn't seem to be doing that well making it on their own.
I'm working tonight with Melissa Fletcher. She just started out on nights. Melissa Eaton just left last week in preperation for her move to FL, so we traded one Melissa for another.
Last night I went to see Madagascar with Krista Berry. It was pretty funny. The were alluding to other movies nearly continuously through the movie, it was kind of fun watching for all of them. Krista has some coupons to fly anywhere in the USA on the cheap so I told her I'd go with her somewhere, so I have to figure that out now.
2005-05-30
Emergency Medical Services News
New volunteer services head takes reins
Baltimore Sun - Baltimore,MD,USA
Marianne Warehime, the first female president of Carroll County's firefighters and emergency medical services groups, turned the reins of power over to a third ...
EMT News
Teen channels her grief into reaching out
Roanoke Times - Roanoke,VA,USA
... crash. "My father is a volunteer EMT [emergency medical technician]. ... life. She is now a volunteer EMT and plans to become a paramedic. ...
Bicycle News
Former railroad trestle reopens as Fox Cities bicycle trail
Green Bay Press Gazette - Green Bay,WI,USA
By Michael King. TOWN OF MENASHA -- The long-awaited trestle trail spanning Little Lake Butte des Morts has an official name and opening date. ...
Bicycle, car collide on St. Stephens Road
Mobile Register - Mobile,AL,USA
A Mobile man was struck and injured Saturday as he crossed St. Stephens Road on a bicycle. James Campbell, 54, was knocked from ...
Iron Horse pits 2,000 bicyclists against train to Silverton
Durango Herald - Durango,CO,USA
... It was the beginning of the 34th annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Locals and tourists gather at County Road 250 on US Highway ...
2005-05-29
Emergency Medical Service News
St. Joe may get forward response team
St. Joseph News Press - St. Joseph,MO,USA
... The team volunteers -- which would be comprised of six hazardous material personnel, eight emergency medical service personnel and 10 law enforcement officers ...
Truck rigs collide in Kosciusko; 3 injured
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne,IN,USA
... were the Indiana State Police, Bourbon Police Department, Etna Green Fire Department, the Bourbon and Multi-Township Emergency Medical Service departments and ...
Ambulance News
Defibrillator stolen from ambulance
Newstalk ZB - New Zealand
A valuable piece of life-saving equipment has been stolen from an ambulance in the Wellington region. A free ambulance crew noticed ...
Stafford passes new ambulance policy
The Free Lance-Star - Fredericksburg,VA,USA
The Stafford County Fire and EMS Commission voted this week to implement a policy of not sending an ambulance to Fredericksburg when only two county ambulances ...
Ex-ambulance chief in court
Yorkshire Post Today - Leeds,Yorkshire,UK
... chief appeared in court yesterday charged with conspiring with three others, including his wife, to defraud West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service (WYMAS ...
Ambulance has emergency
Wilson Daily Times (subscription) - Wilson,NC,USA
An ambulance en route to a call Friday morning caught fire and burned on Holdens Cross Road. ... EMS acquired the ambulance in 2000, Barber said. ...
EMS News
EMS fee increase proposed to county
Winchester Sun - Winchester,KY,USA
By TIM WELDON/Sun Staff Writer. The Winchester Fire/EMS took its case for an increase in EMS fees to the Clark County Fiscal Court Thursday evening. ...
Action EMS seeks dismissal of lawsuit
Baxter Bulletin - Baxter,AR,USA
Action EMS ambulance service filed a motion in Baxter County Circuit Court this week asking that the suit filed against it by Baxter Regional Medical Center be ...
Officials look for budget balance
Eden Daily News - Eden,NC,USA
... Those include a new $16.5 million courthouse, an emergency operations center, two new EMS basis, water and sewer improvements along US 220 and a new emergency ...
Cyclist News
Amtrak Train Hits, Kills Cyclist Crossing Tracks
Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
A bicyclist died Thursday after being struck by an Amtrak train traveling from Los Angeles to San Diego. Robert Darnell Jordan, 42 ...
Cyclist fighting for life
ic Scotland.co.uk - Scotland,UK
A cyclist has been left fighting for his life after being in collision with a truck in Kirkliston, West Lothian. The injuries of ...
Cyclist, 68, dies after hit by car
Chicago Tribune - Chicago,IL,USA
The Channahon woman killed Thursday afternoon while riding her bike was an avid cyclist who had pulled away from her group because she wanted to get home ...
Bicycle News
Child's bicycle thrown onto car from bridge
Daily Yomiuri - Tokyo,Japan
A child's bicycle fell onto a car on the Tokyo-bound lane of the Keiyo Expressway in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, on Friday night, denting the hood, police ...
Bicycle race to spin Sunday in Homewood
AL.com - Birmingham,AL,USA
The Downtown Homewood Criterium, a series of road bicycle races, is scheduled to start at 7:45 am It should end by noon. The races ...
Bicycle inspections and safety course
Asbury Park Press - Asbury Park,NJ,USA
HOLMDEL: Township police officers will conduct bicycle inspections and a bike safety course from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm June 4 in the PNC Bank parking lot in ...
Mass Bicycle Ride Leads to Few Arrests
New York Times - New York,NY,USA
The monthly Critical Mass bicycle ride, which has often been met by a large police presence and many arrests, began more peacefully last night and ended with a ...
BICYCLE-BORNE YOUTH SNATCHES GOLD CHAIN FROM HOUSEWIFE
Star of Mysore - Mysore,India
Mysore, May 28 (RK&KVV)- An incident of a bicycle-borne youth snatching the chain from a housewife has been reported from city this morning. ...
Pinellas Park, FL - Firefighter demoted over crude remarks to woman
 |
| Firefighter demoted over crude remarks to woman; [STATE Edition] |
| ANNE LINDBERG. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: May 22, 2005. pg. 10 |
| Abstract (Document Summary) |
| At the time, [Robin Brightbill], 40, had been serving as the emergency medical services staff lieutenant for about two years. A 10-year veteran of the Pinellas Park Fire Department, Brightbill was earning about $58,791 a year. [Kristen Callihan] testified that the crude language began within minutes after the ride began. Callihan agreed that Brightbill had asked her if she minded if he cursed. She said no, but the comments went beyond cursing. Brightbill told lead investigator Dorene Thomas, Pinellas Park's police chief, that he did not think he was being offensive because Callihan did not object. But Callihan said she kept changing the subject and was unable to eat lunch because of her reaction to the talk. |
| Full Text (565 words) |
| Copyright Times Publishing Co. May 22, 2005 A firefighter accused of making crude comments to a college student will be demoted and lose thousands of dollars in income. Robin Brightbill admitted during an internal investigation that he made comments that included details of homosexual rape, sex in fire stations and his own sex life while conducting a ride-along with a female University of South Florida student in March. At the time, Brightbill, 40, had been serving as the emergency medical services staff lieutenant for about two years. A 10-year veteran of the Pinellas Park Fire Department, Brightbill was earning about $58,791 a year. As punishment for his comments, which internal investigators determined amounted to sexual harassment, Brightbill will be demoted Monday to a job as firefighter/paramedic. "He's losing his rank, which will cost him about $11,000 a year," Pinellas Park spokesman Tim Caddell said. "It's a permanent reassignment (but) I don't think that means he can never work his way back up." Brightbill will also lose the use of a Pinellas Park car and have to attend remedial training on "proper workplace conduct and sexual harassment." Fire Chief Doug Lewis said he would choose the training course. Brightbill was off Friday and could not be reached for comment. But he wrote an apology on the disciplinary action form: "I would like to apologize to the city, the Fire Department, the city manager and the fire chief for my actions and comments. I have brought embarrassment to the city and for that I sincerely apologize." This is the third disciplinary action for Brightbill. He received a verbal reprimand for failure to complete time sheets in a timely manner in December 1997, according to Pinellas Park records. Records show he also received a suspension for two 24-hour shifts and had to give back 23 hours worth of pay for falsifying leave records while on disability leave. He was apparently working a part- time job while on disability. The latest allegations against Brightbill arose from a March 17 ride-along he gave to 24-year-old Kristen Callihan, a graduate journalism student at USF, while she was serving as a volunteer photographer for a Pinellas Park program designed to teach residents about their city. Callihan had complained to her professor after the ride. The professor, Beth Reynolds, urged her to report the incident to city officials. Callihan testified that the crude language began within minutes after the ride began. Callihan agreed that Brightbill had asked her if she minded if he cursed. She said no, but the comments went beyond cursing. Brightbill admitted that he talked about homosexual rapes, including graphic details of one of them. He also conceded, among other things, that he "must have" told her that his ex-wife allowed him to have sex with other women if he used a condom. He also admitted discussing California firefighters who had sex in the station and used crude language to discuss parts of the male body. He also used the f-word. Brightbill told Callihan she was demure, "like a librarian," but that he bet she was wild when she let her hair down. Brightbill told lead investigator Dorene Thomas, Pinellas Park's police chief, that he did not think he was being offensive because Callihan did not object. But Callihan said she kept changing the subject and was unable to eat lunch because of her reaction to the talk. Callihan later said she felt "slimy" after the ride-along. |
Clearwater Fire & Rescue, FL - Veteran medic accused of stealing drug
| http://tinyurl.com/bg3j7 |
| Veteran medic accused of stealing drug; [STATE Edition] |
| AARON SHAROCKMAN. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: May 21, 2005. pg. 1 |
| Abstract (Document Summary) |
| Clearwater fire Chief Jamie Geer said there was no indication that Keith, who resigned from the department last week, stole more drugs. Geer also said he thinks no patient was denied the drug. At the fire station, Keith then told his supervisor that the vials may have been spoiled. Lab tests revealed they had been replaced by water. Keith later admitted he took the drugs, police said. Keith, Jones and [Trevor Murray] were all medics working out of Station 49, near Clearwater Mall. Geer said he thinks the two incidents - which occurred one day apart - were coincidence. |
| Full Text (564 words) |
| Copyright Times Publishing Co. May 21, 2005 A seasoned city paramedic was arrested Friday after he admitted stealing powerful narcotics from a fire station to satisfy his drug addiction, authorities said. Lead medic Darren Keith switched two vials of fentanyl with water during an overtime shift at the Sand Key station March 27. A painkiller, fentanyl is 100 times as strong as heroin, according to the National Institutes of Health. Clearwater fire Chief Jamie Geer said there was no indication that Keith, who resigned from the department last week, stole more drugs. Geer also said he thinks no patient was denied the drug. But he said Friday that he has asked the county Medical Director's Office to audit how his department handles narcotics. The city will also conduct an internal investigation. Geer said. Keith, 44, told investigators that his drug addiction was related to back pain. He injected the narcotic at home the next day, he told police. At the fire station, Keith then told his supervisor that the vials may have been spoiled. Lab tests revealed they had been replaced by water. Keith later admitted he took the drugs, police said. "He brought it to our attention, which was kind of unusual," Geer said. "It was extremely difficult to detect any tampering." An 18-year city veteran who earned $68,337 last year, Keith turned himself in to authorities Friday morning. He declined to comment to the Times after posting bail Friday afternoon. "He has been forthcoming since we first started asking him about the vials," police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. "It's a pretty serious public issue. Ultimately, he admitted to doing it." Fentanyl is an addictive drug 80 times as strong as morphine, according the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Side effects include pain relief, euphoria and confusion. "It's an extremely powerful narcotic used primarily for pain management," said Dr. Laurie Romig, the county's medical director. In auditing Clearwater Fire & Rescue, "we will be looking for potential lack of compliance in places, looking for other vulnerabilities. Where there's smoke, there's fire," Romig said. Keith had received exemplary marks from supervisors in his most recent evaluation. But in 1997, the former military policeman was arrested in Hillsborough County and accused of driving under the influence, according to criminal records. He was also arrested and accused of battery and disorderly conduct in Key West in 1994. Geer said Keith's actions should not reflect on the entire department. Keith's arrest, however, is the second major incident involving fire department paramedics this month. Last week, two paramedics were fired after they failed to respond to an early morning 911 call. Medics Michael Jones and Trevor Murray have appealed that decision, and the firefighters union has called their dismissals "illegal." Keith, Jones and Murray were all medics working out of Station 49, near Clearwater Mall. Geer said he thinks the two incidents - which occurred one day apart - were coincidence. On the job since September, the chief has been tasked with mending a department rife with troubles and questioned by many residents. Already, he has overhauled the department's administration, replacing several high-ranking managers. Earlier this week, he helped broker a labor agreement with the firefighters union after 32 months of often-hostile negotiations. "I knew the challenges when I took the job," Geer said. "We have more to do." Aaron Sharockman can be reached at (727) 445-4160 or asharockman@sptimes.com. |
FL - Clearwater fire chief tackles lax oversight
| http://tinyurl.com/dosvo |
| Clearwater fire chief tackles lax oversight Series: EDITORIAL; [STATE Edition] |
| St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: May 24, 2005. pg. 2 |
| Abstract (Document Summary) |
| With the police investigation of the theft completed, fire Chief Jamie Geer is now beginning his own internal investigation of how the drug was taken and why the theft was not detected. The Pinellas County Medical Director's Office also is auditing the department's medical supplies and its procedures for tracking and safeguarding drugs. Clearwater is fortunate to have Geer as its new fire chief. Geer is seasoned, tough and determined to fix the problems. You won't find him sitting behind a locked office door or looking the other way when someone does wrong, as the previous chief did. All Geer needs is the support of the community and the cooperation of the caring members of his own department, and he will bring about changes that have been needed in the department for a long time. |
| Full Text (475 words) |
| Copyright Times Publishing Co. May 24, 2005 Problems just seem to keep cropping up in the Clearwater Fire Department. A deadly fire, resignations and investigations, union issues, public demonstrations, bad behavior - the stories have just kept coming during the past three years. Two weeks ago the Times wrote about the firing of two paramedics, Trevor Murray and Michael Jones, who decided to stay at the station rather than answer an early morning 911 call from a woman who they said frequently made bogus 911 calls. Then last Friday, veteran paramedic Darren Keith was arrested, accused of stealing a strong liquid narcotic from the Sand Key fire station's medical supplies and replacing it with water. The drug, Fentanyl, is used to treat patients in great pain and can be addictive. The theft was done so carefully that it likely would not have been discovered if not for Keith himself reporting that a vial had been tampered with. Police said Keith later admitted he stole the drug and injected himself. With the police investigation of the theft completed, fire Chief Jamie Geer is now beginning his own internal investigation of how the drug was taken and why the theft was not detected. The Pinellas County Medical Director's Office also is auditing the department's medical supplies and its procedures for tracking and safeguarding drugs. Though there is no evidence now that other drugs were taken or that anyone else was involved, Geer acknowledges that if it happened this time without anyone noticing, it could have happened other times as well. Or as county medical director Dr. Laurie Romig put it, "Where there's smoke, there's fire." These incidents raise a question about the quality of supervision in the Fire Department, especially at Station 49, where all three paramedics were assigned. Why didn't supervisors know that Murray and Jones did not answer that 911 call back in March? Why didn't they know what Keith was up to? Supervisors are assigned to the stations around the clock and should be aware of what goes on there. These frequent reports of shortcomings and dissension in the Fire Department must be very upsetting for department personnel who follow the rules and do their jobs every day in a caring and professional manner. Those people make up a majority of the department, but they suffer consequences when their co-workers cause trouble. Clearwater is fortunate to have Geer as its new fire chief. Geer is seasoned, tough and determined to fix the problems. You won't find him sitting behind a locked office door or looking the other way when someone does wrong, as the previous chief did. All Geer needs is the support of the community and the cooperation of the caring members of his own department, and he will bring about changes that have been needed in the department for a long time. |
Queensland, Aus - Meal pay blow-out
http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,15433891%255E2765,00.html
Meal pay blow-out
DARRELL GILES political editor
29may05
AMBULANCE officers say a $3 million blowout in meal allowances has
contributed to their controversial new roster system.
Government sources told The Sunday Mail that Treasury was stunned by the
over-spending in the Queensland Ambulance Service budget and demanded
cutbacks.
One informant said the unexpected $3 million bill from the first quarter of
the 2004-05 financial year was part of the reason that 14- and 12-hour
shifts were being cut back to 10 hours.
Ambos who worked the longer shift were entitled to two meals. But if they
were able to eat only once on the shift, any work over the 10 hours was paid
at double time.
"It could add about $6000 to the average annual take-home pay for a
paramedic," said one officer, who declined to be identified.
"Suddenly, we have to do all these 10-hour shifts . . . I don't think it is
coincidental."
The new roster regime - shorter, but more shifts - has not gone down well
with ambos. More than 75 per cent of respondents to an internal survey said
their working life was significantly worse, they had less family time and
were more fatigued.
The Sunday Mail reported last weekend that staff had been threatened with a
$3000 fine if they spoke out about new rosters. QAS management said it would
seek disciplinary action by the Industrial Relations Commission against
anyone who joined "some form of campaign designed to undermine the roster
reform process".
In Parliament this week, National Party emergency services spokesman Marc
Rowell accused the Government of bullying ambos into silence.
Liberal industrial relations spokeswoman Jann Stuckey told the House that
ambos were "being treated like second-class citizens".
But Emergency Services Minister Chris Cummins said roster changes had been
made to prevent fatigue and burnout on the job, and had been done with union
agreement. He said there had been an increase of almost 5000 Code 1
emergencies this financial year - about 10 per cent - meaning paramedics
were working harder.
"Who in their right mind would think that anyone working in a very stressful
job is going to be at their optimum after 14 hours of work?" Mr Cummins
said.
He added paramedics had told him of concerns about driving a high-speed
vehicle and making life-saving decisions after a 14-hour shift.
However, the wife of a serving paramedic slammed the Government for not
increasing staff levels to cope with the increase in shifts.
"My husband is far more exhausted and stressed than he ever was under the
old system," she said.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said the roster changes appeared to be
more about saving money than saving lives.
Meal pay blow-out
DARRELL GILES political editor
29may05
AMBULANCE officers say a $3 million blowout in meal allowances has
contributed to their controversial new roster system.
Government sources told The Sunday Mail that Treasury was stunned by the
over-spending in the Queensland Ambulance Service budget and demanded
cutbacks.
One informant said the unexpected $3 million bill from the first quarter of
the 2004-05 financial year was part of the reason that 14- and 12-hour
shifts were being cut back to 10 hours.
Ambos who worked the longer shift were entitled to two meals. But if they
were able to eat only once on the shift, any work over the 10 hours was paid
at double time.
"It could add about $6000 to the average annual take-home pay for a
paramedic," said one officer, who declined to be identified.
"Suddenly, we have to do all these 10-hour shifts . . . I don't think it is
coincidental."
The new roster regime - shorter, but more shifts - has not gone down well
with ambos. More than 75 per cent of respondents to an internal survey said
their working life was significantly worse, they had less family time and
were more fatigued.
The Sunday Mail reported last weekend that staff had been threatened with a
$3000 fine if they spoke out about new rosters. QAS management said it would
seek disciplinary action by the Industrial Relations Commission against
anyone who joined "some form of campaign designed to undermine the roster
reform process".
In Parliament this week, National Party emergency services spokesman Marc
Rowell accused the Government of bullying ambos into silence.
Liberal industrial relations spokeswoman Jann Stuckey told the House that
ambos were "being treated like second-class citizens".
But Emergency Services Minister Chris Cummins said roster changes had been
made to prevent fatigue and burnout on the job, and had been done with union
agreement. He said there had been an increase of almost 5000 Code 1
emergencies this financial year - about 10 per cent - meaning paramedics
were working harder.
"Who in their right mind would think that anyone working in a very stressful
job is going to be at their optimum after 14 hours of work?" Mr Cummins
said.
He added paramedics had told him of concerns about driving a high-speed
vehicle and making life-saving decisions after a 14-hour shift.
However, the wife of a serving paramedic slammed the Government for not
increasing staff levels to cope with the increase in shifts.
"My husband is far more exhausted and stressed than he ever was under the
old system," she said.
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said the roster changes appeared to be
more about saving money than saving lives.
NC - Ambulance has emergency (vehicle fire)
http://www.wilsondaily.com/Wil_region/Local_News/283402831478492.php
Ambulance has emergency
By Jeff Kennedy Daily Times Staff Writer
An ambulance en route to a call Friday morning caught fire and burned on
Holdens Cross Road.
No one was injured as a result of the fire. However, the Wilson County
Emergency Medical Services ambulance will most likely be a total loss, EMS
director Terry Barber said Friday afternoon. The fire, which started in the
engine, severely damaged the passenger compartment, chassis and front of the
ambulance box where patients are transported.
"It made a real mess out of the whole thing," Barber said. "... Fortunately,
there were no patients on board. ... It was quite a way to start the
weekend."
EMS acquired the ambulance in 2000, Barber said. The ambulance was built
from a 2000 Ford F-550 chassis and engine. The ambulance box came from an
older model ambulance and was refurbished.
Until the burned-out ambulance can be replaced, EMS will operate using seven
ambulances, instead of its normal eight, Barber said. Replacement costs for
a similar ambulance are estimated at $90,000 to $110,000. The ambulance is
insured by the county through the Association of County Commissioners' pool,
County Manager Ellis Williford said.
A paramedic and an emergency medical technician were responding to a medical
call on Holdens Cross Road around 9 a.m. when they saw what appeared to be
smoke or steam coming from under the ambulance's hood, Barber said.
"They thought they had a blown hose," Barber said.
Soon after getting out of the ambulance to investigate, the two saw smoke
and flames coming from under the closed hood of the ambulance, he said.
After they advised their command center of their situation, another
ambulance was dispatched to the Holdens Cross Road location that had been
their destination. The two then began to get as much equipment out of the
ambulance as they could before firefighters arrived to extinguish the fire.
Firefighters from East Nash, Sanoca and Bakerstown volunteer fire
departments responded to the fire, as did the Stantonsburg-Moyton Fire
Department.
"The fire departments responded appropriately and quickly as did the Wilson
County Sheriff's Office," Barber said.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
The fire occurred about four miles down Holdens Cross Road from U.S. 264
Alternate, near the intersection with Gardners School Road, Barber said.
The ambulance was responding to a 911 call that had referenced two overdose
patients, scanner traffic indicated. Barber said the patients were
transported to Wilson Medical Center by the second ambulance and arrived in
fair condition.
Ambulance has emergency
By Jeff Kennedy Daily Times Staff Writer
An ambulance en route to a call Friday morning caught fire and burned on
Holdens Cross Road.
No one was injured as a result of the fire. However, the Wilson County
Emergency Medical Services ambulance will most likely be a total loss, EMS
director Terry Barber said Friday afternoon. The fire, which started in the
engine, severely damaged the passenger compartment, chassis and front of the
ambulance box where patients are transported.
"It made a real mess out of the whole thing," Barber said. "... Fortunately,
there were no patients on board. ... It was quite a way to start the
weekend."
EMS acquired the ambulance in 2000, Barber said. The ambulance was built
from a 2000 Ford F-550 chassis and engine. The ambulance box came from an
older model ambulance and was refurbished.
Until the burned-out ambulance can be replaced, EMS will operate using seven
ambulances, instead of its normal eight, Barber said. Replacement costs for
a similar ambulance are estimated at $90,000 to $110,000. The ambulance is
insured by the county through the Association of County Commissioners' pool,
County Manager Ellis Williford said.
A paramedic and an emergency medical technician were responding to a medical
call on Holdens Cross Road around 9 a.m. when they saw what appeared to be
smoke or steam coming from under the ambulance's hood, Barber said.
"They thought they had a blown hose," Barber said.
Soon after getting out of the ambulance to investigate, the two saw smoke
and flames coming from under the closed hood of the ambulance, he said.
After they advised their command center of their situation, another
ambulance was dispatched to the Holdens Cross Road location that had been
their destination. The two then began to get as much equipment out of the
ambulance as they could before firefighters arrived to extinguish the fire.
Firefighters from East Nash, Sanoca and Bakerstown volunteer fire
departments responded to the fire, as did the Stantonsburg-Moyton Fire
Department.
"The fire departments responded appropriately and quickly as did the Wilson
County Sheriff's Office," Barber said.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
The fire occurred about four miles down Holdens Cross Road from U.S. 264
Alternate, near the intersection with Gardners School Road, Barber said.
The ambulance was responding to a 911 call that had referenced two overdose
patients, scanner traffic indicated. Barber said the patients were
transported to Wilson Medical Center by the second ambulance and arrived in
fair condition.
EMS News
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Paramedic News
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... EMTs who have been members of the Columbia County Emergency Medical Services agency for two years and who wish to advance to the paramedic level of training ...
Rockland County honors EMS workers, volunteers
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... of Health's Award of Excellence in EMS Activities was presented to Desiree' Leone, Rockland County EMS and Frank Deschino, Rockland Paramedic Services. ...
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