Dear friends,
Recently, on a walk in the park, we ran into a friend. While we were standing and talking, a friend of hers happened upon us. It turned out that he is a science writer and the author of a book I wanted to read, called Us & Them: The Science of Identity.
In the preface of his book, David Berreby, explains:
Us & Them is about group awareness — awareness of typed, sorted, and classified humanity, which speaks to us of a world in which people are expected to do x because of their membership in category y. It’s about the mental factory that makes this map of humanity in all our heads. I believe that much of what we thought we knew about this subject is wrong, and that getting it right is one of the most important tasks of this century.
The book is very compelling. Berreby’s big idea is that we can’t turn off the mental activity of classifying people into different kinds; if we can develop a more expansive idea of what he calls ‘kind sight’, we can “see shared humanity with total strangers.”
Berreby posits that who we are AND what we believe are both important to forming us into kinds of humans. Scientific interrogation of this interaction will likely upend our ideas of the kinds of people there are.
It’s part of the job of science to explain why you can’t trust what you are sure you know, and then to give you today’s best picture of what’s really happening. That picture is sure to change, but today’s version is useful right now. Truth and certainty and fact are not matters that endure forever. For knowledge to increase, they must be subject to the useful discipline of doubt.
Perhaps science will provide new insights into why we make war against other kinds of human or go to such lengths to keep them from crossing our borders or obtaining the medical care they need.
So far, I have read only the preface and introduction to Berreby’s book. I don’t know what I will learn and I am excited to find out. I’m trying to learn more science.
Because the US Congress has kicked the can down the road with regard to the Farm Bill (which was supposed to be passed this year), we have an opportunity to work for a legislation that addresses agricultural emissions and other unsustainable practices, according the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The new farm bill should support farmers who
retire land from farming in order to improve soil health, water quality, and biodiversity.
Protect climate-focused investments in the next Farm Bill. This action comes from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Please personalize!
An interview with Deepak Bhargava and Stephanie Luce, authors of Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World, includes Bhargava’s wonderful response to a question about electoral change, in which he champions
electoral strategies driven by community groups and unions that aren’t just inviting people to vote, but are inviting people to be part of organizations to work on the issues they care most about.
As we look ahead to 2024, an election year full of uncertainty, danger, and the possibility of important victories, I want to highlight this cogent recommendation to work with groups on the issues that matter to you.
A few years ago, I got involved with the NY Caring Majority. I was interested in their Fair Pay for Home Care Campaign. I had found myself employing home care workers to care for my mom and wondering why these extraordinary people, whose labor is in great demand, are so often paid poverty wages.
You never know where a path will lead you. Among other things, I developed deeper friendships and working relationships with people with disabilities than I had ever had before, which afforded me a window into the challenges they face.
Most people in the US are not aware that there are strict asset limits ($2,000 for individual or $3,000 for couple) for people with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments.
Here’s an opportunity to sharpen your kind sight. Like the rest of us, folks with disabilities have talents and skills that are valuable. They want to work and contribute to their communities. They want to save for the future.
Tell your members of Congress to pass the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act. This quick action is from Cure SMA.
The Caring Majority’s new campaign — we’re still working to win Fair Pay for Home Care and focusing on a key stepping stone — is to pass the Home Care Savings & Reinvestment Act.
A Caring Majority colleague explained it this way:
Insurance companies are stealing home care dollars.
How are they getting away with it? The state is giving billions of Medicaid home care dollars to private insurance companies, called Managed Long Term Care (MLTC) plans. The implications are terrible for care workers and those who need care, since Managed Long Term Care companies are profiting while withholding needed care.
This legislation will stop the state from diverting Medicaid funds to MLTCs.
The case for the passage of the Home Care Savings and Reinvestment Act is that
the state’s Medicaid program would save approximately $2.5 billion a year by directly paying for home care services, rather than paying a flat per-member, per-month rate to managed care plans to coordinate services and reimburse providers.
That’s because managed care plans have spent $3.1 billion of the state’s money on administrative costs and pocketed $2.4 billion in profits from 2019 through the third quarter of 2022, according to an 1199SEIU analysis of the plans’ most recent available cost reports.
In that time the state paid Medicaid managed long-term care plans $52 billion worth of premiums to administer the benefit, according to the union’s analysis.
The insurance companies are going to fight to keep their giant profits.
Tell your state legislators that you want Medicaid funds to provide direct services to people with disabilities and older adults and provide support for family caregivers so that people receive the care they need.
More than 750,000 Americans received at least one drug that outpaced inflation, according to HHS.
The 48 new drugs on the HHS list will save seniors up to $700 per dose for expensive cancer drugs, the department estimates.
More coverage means more care. In Michigan, Governor Whitmer enacted the last bill in the Reproductive Health Act, with these words:
"The bill we were debating at the time would have forced me to buy insurance for my own rape before it happened or to bear the child of my attacker. Ten years ago today, I gave that speech, and it didn't change a single vote on the Senate floor," said Whitmer during her remarks prior to the signing. "Today, exactly ten years later, I'm honored to stand here as the governor and sign the repeal of that awful law."
Reproductive care must be covered and must be legal.
Let’s end with a poem, “Circles of Love, by Edwin Markham.
He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.
with love,
L