Healthcare in America and more Extreme thoughts

First of all thank you to those who responded with comments or emails on my latest blog on my Extreme thoughts. I want to clarify that I do think the Extreme Home Makeover show is a great show that does great things -- especially compared to a lot of the other trash on tv these days. And I'm happy that the house built in South Range is eco-friendly and much, much smaller than the typical houses they build. Like GooChick, I have always thought that it would be nice if they could spread the wealth a little -- build smaller homes so that they could help more families. I was very touched by the outpouring of volunteers and donations especially knowing how bad our economy is up here right now. I only wonder where all these volunteers have been before Hollywood came to town? Lausten commented on my earlier post about how Extreme Home Makeover shows people that volunteering can be fun -- something they may not have realized before. My concern was that many of these volunteers were volunteering simply to get on tv or meet a star, but even if this is the case, maybe it will spark them to continue volunteering on a smaller scale.

But I also saw how Extreme volunteering made people crazy. Where it became their only focus and they had no regard for those close to them. Parents spent more time in the last several weeks than they did with their kids... hard feelings were caused between coworkers... local companies bickered amongst one another about levels of publicity... Would these people have gone this crazy if it had been for the local food shelf?

Moving on to my other soapbox: Healthcare in America.

I know this is a heated topic right now, and I encourage you to watch this video:



Something has to change. We are the richest country in the world and yet there are millions of people who go without medical treatment because they can't afford it. Currently 47 million Americans have no health insurance. Nearly 9 million are children. This will continue as long as our health insurance companies are "for profit." A "for profit" company's purpose is to make money... period. And as you can see from the video, UHC has been very successful -- they are able to pay their CEO $102K an hour! This country is turning into a place where only the very rich and the very poor will have medical care and receive higher education. The rest of us will be choosing between prescription meds or food on the table. In America, NO ONE should go without healthcare. Healthcare costs are rising at 5 times the rate of inflation! A major reason for this is greed -- the insurance companies' top dogs want bigger mansions and fancier private jets.

The bottom line is that insurance companies should not make a profit. Switzerland's healthcare plan would be a good place for America to model after (if we could only put our arrogance aside -- yes, other countries are better than us in some areas). If you'd like to read more on this, follow this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92106731

No one should have to choose between food and healthcare, and that is what is happening right here in the good ole' USA.

My Extreme Experience and Thoughts

As many of you know, the Extreme Makeover Home Edition recently filmed an episode here in our Twin Ports area (South Range, WI to be exact). Five area families were competing for the spot but the Huber family was chosen. Rumors have it that one of the reasons the Hubers were chosen was because Duluth was uncooperative in pushing through the permit requirements etc to meet the show's schedule. Once again, Duluth -- and Minnesota in general -- pushes away a big money making opportunity and a boost to our economy (think Leatherheads and Public Enemies).

I didn't take many pics, but here are a few. The people in the red shirts are the paid employees from Builders Commonwealth and their selected family/friends. The blue shirts are the regular volunteers from the community. The black shirts are the stars of the show... well, except for Paige who wore pink right down to her hard hat.

First let me tell you what I liked about the show being here in town...

I went out to the site twice. The first time was with Jenn and because her employer donated goods, she had passes to the VIP tent. Parking was in a giant mowed field that a neighbor had donated. Because of my broken leg, they let us park up close and then shuttled us in to the site with a golf cart -- impressive! The VIP tent had free food and places to sit in the shade -- the food was okay at best; the view was better in the general spectator area; but the opportunity to sit was awesome. Standing on one leg gets tiresome pretty quickly.

We were there on Day 3 and watched them spend oodles of time filming one scene with Ty placing the first part of the houses frame. After they finished filming it, a crane took the wall piece away and the workers continued doing something else. Ah, hollywood...

Ty Pennington was quieter than I expected. I expected him to be running around the site with his megaphone encouraging people to work faster. Instead he came out, waved to the small crowd of fans once in awhile, ran through his scene a couple times, had a pic taken with someone, and then headed back to his trailer. But what impressed me most was that on his way off the site -- and off camera, I might add -- he shook every volunteers' hand as he passed. Good job Ty!

Other than the filming, it wasn't very exciting. Lots of volunteers standing around doing next to nothing, and a smaller group actually building the house.

The second time I visited the site was this past Sunday. Jeff and I took the kids to see the site. This time we saw Paige and Eduardo from the show being filmed. The house was up and the landscaping was in. Other than that, it was again a lot of volunteers standing around, and a smaller group fervently working on the house.

I personally like the show. I think what they are doing is basically a very good thing ala Hollywood style. I liked it better when they would simply renovate the older house to better accomodate the family living there, rather than build brand new massive homes. The house done here was one of the smaller homes built, and it was also the greenest -- this makes me happy. I understand that many families had run into trouble later because they didn't know how to keep up with the money involved in living in a mansion. However, I heard that now people are brought in to teach the families money management etc before they are handed over the keys... nice to see that they have learned from their mistakes.

Okay, here is what I don't like.... keep in mind that this is just my own piddly personal opinion...

In my opinion, the communication was lacking at best. People who wanted to volunteer were directed to an email address. They were then requested to fill out an application and were told to expect a phone call. The show has certain requirements of i's volunteers (no cameras, work shoes were required, no asking of autographs etc.) but according to the facebook page dedicated to this event, many of the volunteers never received this important bit of communication. After they reached the number of volunteers needed, they closed down the email. Which left oodles of frustrated volunteers no place to go with questions. After a few days of this, they announced on the website for them to call the office at Commonwealth. But sadly, they had a teenager manning the phone who was unable to answer most of the callers questions. All of this seemed easily avoidable with a little common sense and planning. And by the way, I saw 6 volunteers wearing flip-flops, one in high spiky heels, and too many to count who were taking pics and asking for autographs...

The community was continually told to go to the website for up-to-the-minute changes in scheduling, announcements, and news and yet most times what was communicated was too late to matter. For example, until sometime after noon on Sunday they were not letting spectators in because of the "knee-deep mud puddles" from the rain the night before. We saw hundreds of cars drive out there and then have to turn around and head home. I wondered how many had driven further than Two Harbors to see the site and had to drive home disappointed. This announcement wasn't put on the website, facebook page, or Twitter, until much later. We were able to get in because we knew someone, and yes, it was muddy, but I saw no puddles that were knee-deep, nor did it seem necessary to send people away because of it.

I am impressed with the number of people that volunteered their time, and the number of businesses that donated supplies and equipment. Apparently, our small community had more people volunteer for this episode than any other episode in the history of the show. This is one of the reasons why they have decided to make this episode their 150th episode and the 2-hour season premier. This is something to be very proud of! But where are all these people when the cameras and tv-stars are gone? There are so many places in our areas that are desperate for volunteers year round and come up short. This saddens me. I've seen how some volunteers have let this opportunity take over their lives, leaving their own kids on the wayside nothing short of being forgotten. The Huber family benefits, but their own kids are neglected and feeling unimportant and left out. This saddens me most of all.