Compounded Evil

Daily Press Victorville, Ca.

Re: “Health and Taxes”, Stan Brown, Daily Press opinion, December 8, 2011.

Stan Brown, what planet do you live on? Is everything a mere partisan squabble? Is it not time to look for the greater good for all Americans? The payroll tax cut has been tried and it failed to leverage new jobs. It only gave already working and thriving public sector workers’ a few extra dollars to spend at the expense of the governmentally abused private sector. The President wants fairness, well so does the private sector, the struggling blue collar underemployed and the unemployed.

The direct victim of these tax cuts are those of us who depend upon the Social Security system for our retirement and medical care. Did you know that the payroll tax, which we paid all of our working days, is supposed to fund this system? Of course you do but do you care? Social Security benefits are in trouble and can only get worse as we baby boomers retire. Medicare is broke, wasteful and at times dysfunctional. These systems, however, are the promise of politicians from both political parties, as a loyal Democrat you should be concerned about the viability of these systems.

Social Security and Medicare need reform but no Democrat, including the President, is stepping to the plate to suggest a fix. You glibly assign ulterior motives to the Republicans when looking in the mirror might prove useful. Instead, the President is playing Robin Hood in reverse, robbing from the poor and giving to the rich with this unfunded payroll tax cut.

Politicians from both parties have for decades pillaged the Social Security system. Now is the day of accountability, the day for politicians to begin to make amends for their thievery. Reform has to happen but asking the Social Security system to support the privileged is compounded evil.

G.Goslaw Victorville, Ca.

An Appeal

11/14/2011

Glen L. Goslaw

Scan Health Plan

ATTN:Grievance and Appeals Department 3800 Kilroy Way, Suite 100- P.O. Box 22644 Long Beach, CA 90801

Re: Notice of Denial of Medical Coverage

This is my written appeal for a 72 hour review of your denial of medical services, dated 11/08/2011 and received by mail on 11/12/2011. The basic reason for the appeal against this denial is that you contract for services with Heritage Victor Valley Medical Group, who has provided lousy care for this Scan member over the last eleven months. I could recount the long history of medical boners but let me attempt to stay on point. There seems to be no competent or appropriate vascular surgeon affiliated with this medical group and they and you have spit at the medical welfare of this patient.

Vascular surgeon # 1….. Dr. Suval of Victorville.

Dr. Suval informed me that he did not treat ascending aortic aneurisms, only the lower vascular system. He did a lower vascular CAT scan and found no abnormalities. Dr. Suval is either a liar or Heritage sent this patient to a doctor who could not treat an ascending aortic aneurism. This was an erroneous referral and should not count against the plans maximum of two referrals to an appropriate specialist.

Vascular surgeon # 2….. Dr. Alturjuman of Riverside.

Dr. Alturjuman admitted me to Riverside Community hospital the second week April, 2011, with horrendous chest pain. This was the third such occurrence since January 4 of 2011, he did another complete heart workup with multiple CAT scans and a stress test, repeating the tests of January at St. Mary’s in Apple Valley. The pain went away after about 12 hours and Dr. Alturjuman insinuated the pain wasn’t real and discharged me in one day, on a Sunday night. Monday morning I drove myself back down to Riverside and got my medical records for the stay just completed. The report from the CAT scan described my heart as “grossly enlarged”. I marched up to his office and asked pointedly, how can this be when you discharged me without a word? His only response was, “you can make another appointment”. Lame, baby, lame.

The pain returned within a week and I was rushed by ambulance to St. Mary’s in Apple Valley. With this fourth occurrence in four months, they removed 200ml of fluid from the heart sack but the fluid returned in 12 hours. With no other alternative, they sent me by ambulance to Dr. McPherson at Saint Vincent Medical Center in LA. The services at this hospital were excellent, as was the surgery to drain my heart with a “pericardial window”. Since this surgery on April 23, 2011, I have experienced no pain. Even this dummy has figured out that the “grossly enlarged heart” was fluid not a “grossly enlarged heart”. Dr. Alturjaman has caused this Scan member anxiety with his incompetent care and I will not return for more of the same.

Let’s get back to the ascending aortic aneurysm. The CAT scan in January 2011 alerted the doctors to the aneurysm. I was told by Heritage Medical group doctors that in all three Cat Scans the aneurysm measured 4.5 cm. The last was in April 2011 and again I was informed that it was 4.5 cm and stable. Not so, for at a routine appointment on November 8, 2011, my new primary care physician informed me that the written report for the April CAT scan measured the aneurysm at up to 4.9 cm. The game being played by Heritage and Scan is to risk a negative outcome to this member in order to hopefully save a few dollars. Scan and Heritage, how long are you willing to wait when my life is at risk? Possibly your plan was for me to drop dead or change insurance companies by December 7. Motive enough, I guess , for you to keep quiet about the unstable aneurysm. Thankfully, my new honest primary physician was alert to your game. I am now insisting on an appointment with a cardiovascular surgeon, other than the two aforementioned doctors.

The final injustice resulting in this diatribe is that Heritage Medical Group and Scan have failed to pay Dr. McPherson for the surgery in April. The $9000 bill has been repeatedly sent to me, and Scan. The account is now in collections with my name on it. All the TV and newspaper advertising of your organizations cannot mitigate your dismal history with this member. I shall remain locked into your system until you pay that surgery bill! After that I will make an exit asap to anywhere besides Scan and Heritage Victor Valley Medical Group.

Please send this Scan member to another vascular surgeon, preferably Dr. McPherson at LA Cardiovascular, and do it now.

G.Goslaw Victorville, CA

The Words

I Corinthians 15 : 20 to 28

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam ALL die, so also in Christ ALL shall be made alive. But in in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished ALL rule and ALL authority and power. For, He must reign until He has put ALL His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For, He HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “ALL things are put into subjection”, it is evident that He is excepted who put ALL things in subjection to Him. And when ALL things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected ALL things to Him, that God may be ALL in ALL. (New American Standard Bible… the more modern versions should be read to help clarify Paul’s thinking.)

The only point at issue in this passage is what Paul meant by that little word “ALL”? Is it a small case all or is it a large case ALL? Does all mean just the community of Christ or does Paul fly higher? Biblical scholarship is divided on this question, so what do you think?

The Beyond

No faith in God can be more elemental than the expectation of a personal and individual heaven and hell. Whether the expectation is for 27 blessed virgins or of streets paved with gold, both are elemental and an embarrassment to the living God. Faith in God is salvation from individualism. It is a salvation moving toward a reunification of all life, a melting pot, if you will, into the everlasting love of God. Each of us can choose to advance or delay this will of God but none of us can stop it.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

Sunday Sermon

October 3, 2011

Apple Valley Church of the Nazarene

Dr. Tom Taylor

"A Bridge over Troubled Water"

The analogy of this sermon to a memorable song of the sixties is intriguing and helps the listener connect. Pastor Tom is a preacher of the first order. Please allow a personal response to this sermon. As stated, the guardrails on the bridge are there to protect us as we cross but staying in lane may be difficult if we focus on the guardrails and the dangers out there. Guardrails do provide some safety but hitting a guardrail will be a negative experience in itself. This is real life, a familiar starting point, but like all analogies this one has it's limits.

Likewise, we set in place in our lives guardrails that seem to promise protection from life’s hazards. The guardrails are social, religious, economic or all of the above in varying degrees. We are all different and we all choose and value guardrails differently, but we all have guardrails. Membership in a family or group may offer protection. Partaking of a religious mission may bring a sense of community beyond the individual. An education that empowers one to a sound financial future may seem to be the safest way to navigate this life. There is nothing inherently wrong or sinful with these guardrails because the hazards of life are out there and they are real.

The message from Dr. Taylor to his people is for all of us to look for true safety elsewhere. Yes, be wise in how you live by being aware of the guardrails but look elsewhere, look down the road. With a vision that is down the road, we are more apt to stay in lane with what God really wants from us. Even with the proper long term vision, spiritual smugness about how well we’re driving can pose a greater danger than guardrails themselves. People and Church, how are we doing or driving? Are we living smugly? Are we looking down the road or building higher guardrails? Each person or church must answer for themselves but one clue is evident, a clue that Pastor Taylor missed.

Are not the social, religious and economic divisions in the church a predictable result of the church’s overemphasis on the guardrails that divide the fellowship? This list of Christian divisions is enormous. We are divided in dogma, thought, gender, practice, priorities, income, race, ethical norms, architecture and language. The list goes on. Do our divisions not advertise a scardy cat church that wants and prioritizes another higher guardrail? Try as we do, there is one hazard that has no guardrail for we all shall one day die, be dead and gone. Gone where? Subtilely the church would have us believe the answer to this question is about heaven or hell or some other humanly imposed guardrail. Not so.

The Scriptures, St. Paul and Jesus in particular, each teach that authentic spirituality is about vision down the road. A vision that fosters unity rather than divisions, God himself is about the fruit of unity, that humanly abused definition of love. Are we as a people defining the concept of love according to God’s definition? Most of us, no matter how pious, prefer our divisions, our guardrails. We could pull out innumerable Scriptures to rightly define love but the life of Mother Teresa may be more instructive. She lived most of her life eyeing the religious guardrails, fulfilling admirably the expected requirements of her calling. Frustrated with the tidiness of her life, she had a Pauline midlife crisis that drove her into the streets of Calcutta to proclaim the love and unity of God to the dying human refuse of the city. Did she ask about church membership, dogma or a confession of faith from the dying? No, with a long term vision she communicated by her presence the everlasting love of God.

The breakdown of the analogy is most glaring because of that little word “over” in the song title. To be accurate to real living, the song title should be “A Bridge through Troubled Water”, for there is no easy out from the chores of life and the troubled waters that will come to all of us. God does not act on our behalf to take away trouble, they will always come and go. The troubles may be different but they will still be troubling. However, with a long range vision, God will turn them into possibilities.

Central to each of our possibilities is a mission for others to help bring reunification to this world system that has been distorted by our selfishness. God calls us to live not by our humanly constructed guardrails but with a long range compass setting through life’s troubled waters. May we look down the road.

Thank you Pastor Tom.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca.

Simply Paul

Much of the scholarly commentary and theological thinking on St. Paul is beyond the reach of we mere mortals. It is no wonder that the lay hearer or reader is quickly lost in the technical jargon. One may question whether the said commentary really is about addressing the relevant issues or may it be that the technical filler is used to deflect possible criticism resulting from taking a stand on the bigger issues. If one says all that they believe, the criticism will make a Church career uncomfortable because church folk tend to get upset over non-essentials. The renowned and beloved biblical exegete, William Barclay is a case in point. His Daily Bible Study Series of Commentaries make little space for the concept of Christian universalism. Yet, well into his retirement he confesses in his autobiography to being a Christian universalist. With this kind of cowardice our Church will always be more of a social structure than a biblical fellowship.

This piece is an attempt to simply state the thought and theology of St. Paul. The method is not scholarly but is intended to be the common sense opinion of a lay respecter of the Scriptures, particularly those words of St. Paul. One Pauline passage is central to this attempt to understand the greatest theologian of all time. We are thrilled by this Pauline summary of the grand plan of God, a plan actualized by the risen Christ. The Plan that will be expanded and made relevant throughout all the galaxies, past present and future. Paul obviously had no scientific or cosmological knowledge but his words are so opened ended that something else must have been been going on. No attempt will be consciously made to fit Paul's words into expected theological boxes.

G.Goslaw

California Insanity

So what is coming out of Sacramento these days? Would you believe more of the same insanity? This time our illustrious politicians are funding an expanded 40 million dollar per year Dream Act, AB 131. This will make available to anyone in the world California educational financial aid. All they have to do is illegally enter the state of California and attend a taxpayer funded free California high school for three years. No citizenship questions will or can be asked. College financial assistance will then be made available. For those who graduate with an education funded by the taxpayer, where will they find the jobs?

Where is the head of our politicians or for that matter, the California voters. Isn’t anyone looking down the road just a few short years into the future? We will be another failed state, this time north of the border. We are trading short term Hispanic political points for the long term financial viability of the state. We are insane.

The kicker is that California is so pressed for money Govenor Brown is closing 25% of our state parks to save 33 million dollars a year. These parks have jobs for our citizens. Go figure.

G.Goslaw

Victorville, Ca