Levi is a post-teenager blip on the radar screen of life. Everyone who has been a teen at one time or another or who has had the joy of living with them knows that they speak before they think. Anyone ever seen "Bridezillas"?  Well there should be a Teenzilla program.  As for Sara Palin, that is old news.  We should only care about her as a possible future political menace.  But we know there is always a shade of truth in the Teenzillas’ when they speak.  Go Margo.  P.S. Sara will never be a real influence in politics again..She has found a new way to get wealthy. 

Stop talking personal stuff in front of your teenzillas. Sara is done with higher office.  Very sad.

Write a book, Go on National TV shows, Hang on the coat-tails of the Republican party. Maybe even become a spokesman for handi-capable children.  There must be a way to stay in the public eye and she will find it.

You are 100% right.  If we do correct the Health Care and Prevention program there must be a way to pay for it. Here in California all of the taxes going to state level seem to get diverted no matter who is in charge.’

Perhaps it means more taxes for everyone.  If so then I believe it would be worth the pain. I am retired and on a fixed income and Nurses starting when I became one did not earn much money.  I still believe in expanding our health care to everyone and there must be some guarantee. First we support our troops and get them out of foreign soil as soon as possible.  Use some of that money . 

You are totally right on.  Preventative care is the key.  And I believe that complications of heart attacks, cancer, etc.  along with prevention of everyday diseases is the way to go.  I believe that at one time or another every family in the U.S. will cope with the aftermath of illnesses that could have been prevented.  This is a personal issue for everyone.  they just may not have dealt with personal or family illness.  

I wish I Had the solutions.  No one is saying Senior Citizens should lose anything. What we are saying is that the type of care some are entitled to should be available to everyone.We do not all want to go to the Mayo Clinic. 

The Government has to get their priorities in order. Lower some of the privileges of our Legislature members in Washington. Reorder the spending practices of add-ons to legislation that makes their rich or powerful supporers happy.

This down financial period will end. As a child of the depression Health Care was more available  then it is now. Mainly the medications and treatments were limited.  And the follow up expenses were low.  I do not say we should go back to the time with no antibiotics or heart surgery and medieval medicine.We just have to find a way to include everyone. No one is lucky enough to escape family and personal health issues if they live long enough.  

I do wish I had the solutions except for prioritizing our needs and Health Care is number one on the list.

I repeat.  People should not lose care, but all families as far as Health Care and Prevention should be on the same level. Prevention and proper treatment is the key for everyone.

As a Health Care worker and Child Advocate, I know that we need universal Health Care. At this moment in the U.S. very poor people, single mothers,welfare families and all ages with mental or physical problems actually do have access to health care.  It is through Clinics and Welfare programs and aide to pregnant women etc.  But the catch is that you need to know how to access what is available in all big cities .And if you are above the poverty level you do not have access to care without the possibility of being bankrupt. Or if you do have the money for a doctor, you don’t get the medicines prescribed because you cannot afford it.

I can only speak for the Los Angeles area where I have worked in public schools, nursing homes and major hospitals all of my life.  The people that have problems are the ones who have no access to the in place support systems.  Undocumented families have their own networks of family or friends who steer them into the local programs.  Teen-age mothers have access also through family support and the local clinics in their neighborhood   

The people who suffer are the middle or slightly lower economic groups who do not qualify for aid of any kind.  They are the ones who send their children to school with contagious diseases or illnesses or injuries and expect the school nurse to cure them or to get them to the right resources. This is a good thing but the truth is that the families should have access without having to search for a stranger to help them.

My point is that everyone needs access to basic health care.

1.To help contain the spread of contagious diseases of all kinds in this day of world-wide threat of flu or HIV or any of the other diseases in this world.

2.No one should be allowed to suffer pain or terrible illnesses like cancer or injuries or contagious disease. The only way to stop a contagious disease from spreading is treating it if possible and helping the individual to survive. 

3 We the citizens of the U.S. who are lucky enough to have good health care should be willing to offer the same resources as we have. I know some will say," I worked for my self why shouldn’t "The unknown masses without access to health care."  It doesn’t work that way.  Illness and disease are spreadable and we should really think about that truth.

4. Let’s protect ourselves and families in the long run by looking at the real Health Care picture now. Extend medicare in some reasonable way. Spend the money on Universal Health Care.

5. Let the U.S. Senators, Representatives and everyday government workers be willing to share the same health plans that they have and access to the same Top Hospitals and Services.  Expand Health Care and figure out how to pay for it.  That is the Governments responsibility among others.  Skip some of the golfing trips to the Bahamas’ and Scotland and Dubai and learn to share with the people you represent.

Liz, you are so right. Being in your age group even if I was brought up in New Jersey, I relate to your summer experiences. It was fun to be free and safe in a small town. But my most independent experience was when I crossed the Ocean from the U.K. when I was nine years old travelling by myself on a Cunard liner called The California. Talk about independent I have felt independent since that week long trip so many years ago.

Happy Fourth of July 

The simple fact is that friends and relatives who try to intervene in drug abuse or surgery abuse end up not being friends. Michael practiced avoidance from reality and apparently anyone who disagreed with him was out of his circle.

The truth is that intervention sometimes works but usually it is the abuser him or herself who have to accept reality. In this case he passed away before getting to the awareness part.

May he rest in peace.  I always hope that the last drug related death will be the last one.  Now I think you are just plain lucky if you survive in the Show Business world. 

Very sad to see a young man in the prime of his life go so suddenly. He was Peter Pan and he never wanted to grow up and now he never will.

A great performer but a childlike person who allowed himself to be ruled by just a few people in his life. Obviously they did not want him to die as they lose a steady income. But with the chaos and inevitable law suits and child custody questions to come, Michael is resting in peace and God Rest His Soul forever. 

Very interesting viewpoints on the above opinions. Mental health is a very frustrating subject especially when it comes to diagnoses.

This is not an exact quote but one that I remember when I was studying Counseling of special needs children. I don’t remember even the book or who wrote it but it stuck with me.

"Eventually all of the children with mental health problems are adsorbed into the community as adults and no one knows the difference."

At that time the professor was talking mainly about kids with varying degrees of IQ’s which was the popular measurement at the time. And also other learning and living issues such as ADD and ADHD etc.

I have lived long enough working in schools and hospitals etc. to see that this is true.  Those  parents who work with their children and take advantage of all the help offered will see this too.

Even Down syndrome children and other serious diagnoses join in society in some productive way.  After you get out of school no one knows or cares if you were an "A" student or failed every subject. They only know you as the person you have become.

So stick with the treatments and the meds available and get all the help you need from the schools and professionals to help your child.

Kristi, no one is denying that there are real serious problems like autism,down syndrome,ADHD etc. And they should be treated. What I tried to say in my earlier response is that children were basically untreated in the early 20th century.

I am a school nurse with a degree in special education and I know these are real. Luckily medications and treatments and psychiatric methods are available today.  And they should and are treated appropriately I hope.

In New Jersey where I grew up there were special schools for treatment of special problems and some kids were bussed to them.  I did not say they were not available at all or that true diagnosis was not there if you needed it.

What I tried to say is that the average child needs parental supervision and guidance but they need some freedom to learn from their own mistakes. Plus they have to be allowed to make those mistakes without being kept under restrictive conditions.

I had a sister with Down Syndrome who was treated as a normal child by my family but also received extra help from the school system. 

I still say children need more freedom in some ways along with parental supervision.  This applies to all children. Also it would be good to have the old neighborhood system where everyone looked after everyone elses’ children if they were in trouble or injured or mistreated.

Just my opinion. I would never deny the hardships of parents who have to work hard every day with special needs children. I’ve spent my life working with them and I know. My parents kept my special needs sister when the fashion in the 1930’s was to put them into institutions.

So I apologize if I offended any dedicated, loving parents who struggle every day. 

Children were the same up until the ’40s when "Teen-agers" were invented.  Behavior has not changed. There was just more freedom for children from the 1900’s until the middle of the century. Children were allowed to run free and feel safe in the streets.  There were the same kind of behavior problems but no one had them diagnosed and treated with drugs.

Schools just controlled the behaviors by working with the parents. Kids dropped out of schools, misbehaved, stole, got drunk, had car accidents. Psychiatrists and psychologists were not readily available so families just dealt with their children as they were.

Wars came along and many young men barely out of childhood died. The USA as well as the world became more crowded . Diseases were rampant until the 1950’s so there were a lot more child deaths along the way. There were no antibiotics and only a few immunizations.  But the behavior was always the same, only with better communications do we really know a lot about children and misbehavior etc.

When a child disappeared often in big cities like New York there was no real nation wide effort made to find them.  There were very few resources for parents to turn to for advice and not much help from the police. There was not a lot of time spent looking for "runaways".

It is just different now. 

You are absolutely right Della because sometimes it takes time and distance to change relationships. I confess that when I was a young mother and went to visit my dad and stepmom I used to get annoyed, not angry. Because she would be on the phone with friends telling them that her daughter was here and then go into the fact that all of her children were college graduates etc.

It was annoying because they did not help us.  My brothers went to college through being US Veterans. I got scholarships by myself.  But I eventually got over all that and as I said I was grateful that she was there when my dad developed emphesyma and had to be his caretaker and did a good job.

Amanda it does take time and it is your choice later on.  When you are young and feel rejected it really hurts and the loss of a mother at an early age whether by death or divorce or separation is a killer.  So you make your own life and enjoy it and let the angry, hurt stuff go. You won’t regret it.  Sincerely (One who has been there.) 

My stepmother inherited five children between the ages of 8 and 17. She did not like children but did the best she could with my sister and I who were 16 and 17 and graduating from high school.

We called her the proverbial "wicked stepmother" for a long time but in time we grew to like her and she never tried to separate his children from him.  He would never allow it.

My mother and father were 39 years old when she died suddenly and only married 14 years. My stepmother and father were married and happy together for 40 years.  It just took time and a stubborn father who loved the stepmother dearly and she him. But his children never felt any preference. We were just wicked teen-agers I guess. Actually there were no teen-agers then, we were considered children or grown up. Luckily college intervened for us and took us out of the situation.