Balloon Release

There was an article in the newspaper about a local funeral home releasing hundreds of balloons into the air to remember those who have died, seemingly a great idea. However, I cannot believe they thought this ceremony through very carefully. I'm sure they didn't think of the environmental consequences of what will happen when all those balloons come back down to earth. They have to land somewhere, and a lot of them will fall into Lake Erie.

The fish and birds that depend on Lake Erie will come across these balloons and could either get tangled in the strings attached or try to eat them. Either way, the consequences will be deadly. I'm not sure how far out we could extrapolate this outcome, but I sit here wondering if the kingfishers we enjoy watching will be effected, or even the eagle that appears to have made its home along the south shore of the lake.

I do believe that there are fewer of these balloon releases as more people realize what damage they can do in the long run. Can bubbles released into the air be a substitute? I don't know if there are any long term dangerous or harmful results from this practice, but I'm sure someone out there could tell me.

Health Care

The big issue today is health care. Should we have universal health care? If so, how do we do that? How do we pay for it? Do we want a system that is like Canada, Great Britain, or any of the other nations that have a socialized medical care system? How do we know what is best? Perhaps most important of all, who will pay for it, and how?

I, for one, would like to see a side-by-side comparison of the way different health systems work. Maybe compare our system with Finland's, Canada's and Switzerland's, or pick any three modern nations. All we hear is that we will not get the same quality of care if we change, that we will have to wait a long time for the care we do get, and that someone other than ourselves will be in charge of the care we receive. We are already putting up with these things -- when was the last time you had to visit an emergency room?

These claims leave me feeling pretty skeptical, especially when most of them are coming from insurance companies who are making obscene amounts of money off the system as it now exists. I don't believe we have a monopoly on good doctors, or researchers, or medicines. I do think that our infant mortality rate is too high (higher than several other western nations), and we do not live as long, on average, as citizens of some other countries. Maybe health care should be the responsibility of localities, like education once was. I don't claim to know how to fix the system that we now have, or even if we should fix it. Maybe we should discard it and start all over. I do know that too many people don't have health care, and that too many people are paying too much for the health care they do receive. In a country as great as ours, this is intolerable.

Scarlett and Rhett

Rhett and Scarlett are at it again. These are two mourning doves who have made themselves at home in our back yard. Only an hour or so after Den moved our Norfolk Island Pine tree from the house to right outside the back door ( and I mean right outside -- hardly a foot away), two mourning doves were busy making a nest. This was back in May. Within a few weeks we had two baby mourning doves trying to get up enough courage to fly from that nest. For two or three days, our back yard was their world and we would have to watch when we let the dog outside so he wouldn't catch any little birds. We also didn't want him to be dive bombed by Rhett or Scarlett if they thought their babies were in jeopardy.

Within two days of the time the first set of babies went out on their own, Scarlett was again sitting on the nest. To give him his due, Rhett did change places with her every morning, so she could exercise her wings. By the end of June, this second set of babies had flown the nest, and our back yard. After doing some research, we thought that would be the end of Rhett and Scarlett as such close neighbors. But no, Scarlett is back on the nest, quietly waiting for Rhett to relieve her every once in a while. I am sure there are two more eggs in that nest, although I haven't actually seen them yet.

These birds don't seem at all afraid of us as we come and go through the back door. The nest is so close to the door, I could reach up and touch it as I come outside. I do hope this is the last family Scarlett and Rhett have this year. I would like to get my back yard-- fence, chairs, bench, fire pit -- cleaned up so that it stays clean for a while. In the meantime it has been interesting to have such different and well-mannered (mostly) neighbors.