Grab bag: Unwelcome changes

Aaargh! But I agree with Chris. The juice went out of Dee a while back. Can’t wait to see the next adventure.

This makes me very angry. The initial Recovery.gov didn’t have a lot of functionality, but it was well constructed and standards compliant. Then some hack of a consultant charged the government HOW MUCH? to shift it to an unfunctional platform (I’m sorry, Sharepoint, but you weren’t made for this project) that didn’t even meet the government’s OWN STANDARDS for accessibility. This is a travesty.

Awesome: “And you don’t need to be rich or powerful to lift your voice in song or get out of your seat and shake your groove thing. (Laughter.) You don’t need to be a Van Gogh to paint a picture, or a Maya Angelou to write a poem. You don’t need a Grammy or an Oscar or an Emmy to make your work on the cultural life of your community or your country a valuable one. And to people who might not speak a single word of the same language, who might not have a single shared experience, might still be drawn together when their hearts are lifted by the notes of a song, or their souls are stirred by a vision on a canvas. That is the power of the arts — to remind us of what we each have to offer, and what we all have in common; to help us understand our history and imagine our future; to give us hope in the moments of struggle; and to bring us together when nothing else will.”

I think this is an important note that has been lost in the debate. Part of what is being done in the healthcare reform proposals is to try to address the uninsured–and the 44000 deaths each year that result from lack of health coverage. When someone tells you that the new plans will cost more, it’s because they’re trying to solve a problem that the other side hasn’t begun to address.