The 2010 Health Care Reform Law
Does it Make Sense for America?

Before passage of the Health Care Reform Law, most Americans would have agreed that our health care system was flawed, citing high premiums, rapidly rising costs, insurance companies denying coverage at their discretion, and millions of American citizens unable to afford quality health care at affordable prices. So why now the cry to repeal this law, which appeared to have remedied many of those flaws?

Both political parties share responsibility for the flapdoodle, with the roots of the problem appearing well before the bill passed. Among them were the lack of objective debate; ambiguous wording of the voluminous 1,017-page bill; wide disagreement between Democrats on how to implement universal health care; Washington making side deals to purchase passage of the law; and the President’s inability to frame objectives for reform in easy-to-understand language.

To add insult to injury, we are bombarded with misinformation about the Law. If Mark Twain were alive today, he might have diagnosed our problem as: “What gets most Americans into trouble in this health care debate is not that they know so little, but that they know so many things that ain’t so.”

Giving credibility to borrowing Twain’s assertion are polls showing an alarmingly disproportionate number of Americans believe these things that ain’t so, including fabrications such as the new health care law covers illegal immigrants; Americans have no choice in the health benefits they receive; death panels will decide who lives; the government will set doctors’ wages; and no chemo treatment for older Medicare patients.

Per PolitiFact, the number one that ain’t so for 2010, because virtually every Republican leader told it repeatedly to the American public, was: the health care reform law is a “government takeover of health care.”

The facts show that the 2010 Health Care Reform Law does not allow the government to operate the health care system. Unlike Canada, England and numerous European countries, public-sector or private-sector insurance companies are responsible for operations. The truth is: the current health care reform law provides (95%) universal coverage through regulated private markets.

So what do we do? Accept the Law as currently written? Tweak it to improve it? Repeal it? And if so, what do we replace it with? If the “individual mandate,” requiring everyone to have health insurance by 2014, is deemed unconstitutional, is it possible to have universal coverage? And who pays for the medical costs of the uninsured? What happens to the one in seven Americans who did not have or could not afford health insurance before the 2010 Law? Is it still possible to have universal health care by dramatically lowering the age of Medicare?

Whatever answers we eventually embrace as a country, it’s important for well-informed citizens to honestly debate health care reform. But, before axing the Law—if that’s our country’s choice—or trying to answer the aforementioned questions, we need to objectively identify its pros and cons. Branding or demonizing it as “Obamacare” or “the work of liberals” does not make for constructive dialogue.

If a person wants unbiased information, several organizations not beholden to a political party or private interest group can provide help. A few of them are The Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA, AARP, and Docs for America.

While I would like to see an amenable resolution to the health care issue, my motivation for writing this article incubated during the 2010 elections in southern Arizona. One candidate trying to unseat Gabrielle Giffords besieged the Tucson landscape with billboards reading, “Giffords forced Obamacare on You!” Many voters accepted this that ain’t so with little or no knowledge of the health care law and, they weren’t embarrassed by the lack of civil, constructive debate. After the assassination attempt on Gifford’ life, I vowed to do what I could to convince people that we need to have rules for civil debate if our democracy is going to work.

Postscript: As I prepared this article for a press release, I was pleased to see Bill Frist, a medical doctor and former Senate Majority Leader (R-Tenn.), telling his constituents that instead of mounting an effort to repeal the Health Reform Law, Republicans should use it as a “platform” for improvements. He further stated that the law has elements that Republicans should be able to get behind, particularly its “federalism” approach to providing health care. “(The Law) has many strong elements, and those elements, whatever happens, need to be preserved, need to be cuddled, need to be snuggled, need to be promoted and need to be implemented.”

After 1845, when the United States annexed Texas, Santa Anna continued to claim that Texas was still a province of Mexico. He refused to recognize the secession and ignored the decisive victories by the predominantly American Texicans in 1836. His attitude eventually led to war.

Early on September 12, 1847 the Americans began an artillery barrage against the Castle that continued throughout the day and resumed at dawn the next day.  After the artillery bombardment ceased, General Winfield Scott ordered his troops to charge the Castle.

A storming party led by forty Marines was followed by a brigade of volunteers. For a time the detachment stalled while they waited for ladders to arrive and for reinforcements held up by heavy Mexican artillery. When the ladders finally arrived, the first wave of Americans ascended the walls led by the Marines. George Pickett (later famous for “Pickett’s Charge” at Gettysburg) was the first over the wall. Several American Generals and other officers were wounded as they led their men over the walls before the Marines were finally able to raise the U.S. Flag over the castle.

During the battle a Mexican army cadet wrapped himself in the Mexican flag and jumped from the extremely high wall to prevent the seizure of the Mexican flag by the Americans.  From a very safe distance, General Santa Anna (yes, the same Santa Anna who captured the Alamo in 1836) watched his army troops melt away in defeat.

The Battle for Chapultepec Castle was marked with extreme bravery and sacrifice by soldiers on both sides, many who were just cadets and volunteers. This was just one of several great battles fought during The Mexican–American War, now an almost obscure conflict between the United States and Mexico (1846-48).

At the end of the Mexican-American War, the United States forced the Mexican government, under the terms of the “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,” to give up the Mexican territories of Alta California (now the state of California) and Santa Fe de Nuevo México (parts of west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada). The Rio Grande became the official boundary between Texas and Mexico. Mexico was forced to forever drop all claims to Texas and California and all of the land between them.

Thus the southern boundaries of the United States of America were set and secured, guaranteeing peace between the the two North American nations for generations to come.

Of course, that was not the case then -- nor is it now.

In 1914, the United States occupied the Mexican port of Veracruz for six months due to a misunderstanding between Mexican guard troops and some U.S. soldiers who had been sent to protect American citizens living there. This incident was one of several diplomatic problems between the two countries related to the Mexican Revolution that was going on at the time.

In response to that misunderstanding, known as the “Tampico Affair,” President Woodrow Wilson ordered the U.S. Navy to occupy both the city and port of Veracruz. When Wilson received an alert that a German delivery of weapons to Mexican rebels was due to arrive there, he ordered the port’s customs office be seized and the weapons confiscated.

In 1913, Mexican rebel armies overthrew the Mexican government during a coup d’état. Wilson refused to recognize the rebels as the legitimate government of Mexico and embargoed all arms shipments to them. Unofficially, Wilson supported what little remained of the Constitutional Army of the previous elected government of Mexico.

It turned out that the arms shipment to Mexico actually originated at the Remington Arms Company in the United States. Remington’s guns and ammunition were shipped first to Hamburg, Germany, and then on to Mexico, an attempt by the company to effectively skirt around the American arms embargo.

Three years later on March 9, 1916, General Pancho Villa ordered nearly five hundred Mexican members of his revolutionary group who were armed to the teeth with American guns and ammunition, to go across the border and attack Columbus, New Mexico. Villa felt the raid was justified because of the American government’s recognition of his enemies, the Carranza regime, and also for the loss of many of his soldiers due to defective bullets that he’d purchased from the United States.

On May 15th, Villa attacked Glen Springs, Texas. One civilian was killed and three American soldiers were wounded. On June 15th, “bandits” (thought to really be Villa soldiers) killed four soldiers at San Ygnacio, Texas. On July 31st, one American soldier and a customs inspector were killed at a Rio Grande border crossing. In each of these incidents all weapons and ammunition used by the Mexican soldiers and bandits were manufactured by esteemed American companies like Winchester, Remington, and Smith & Wesson.

Now, nearly one hundred years later, we are facing another border war with Mexico, presumably not against the legitimate military, but against the warlords of the Mexican drug cartels.

Unlike the brave, dedicated Mexican soldiers and cadets who fought during the Battle of Chapultepec, the armies of these criminal cartels are made up of desperate men. Their only objective is to make huge amounts of money by controlling the flow of illegal drugs and weapons across the North American continent.

President Barack Obama recently met with President Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa of Mexico to try and find a unified way for our countries to defeat the drug cartels. Calderon promised to work with Obama to find a way to stop the flow of illegal drugs and weapons across the border, committing national army and guard troops, local and national police forces, and millions of pesos toward the effort.

Both Obama and Calderon have admitted that the United States bears a heavy responsibility for the successes of the drug trade. Most of the buyers of illegal drugs are Americans. Just as it was when our soldiers and Marines fought the Mexican rebel army at Vera Cruz and against Pancho Villa -- all who were equipped with American made rifles, pistols and ammunition -- the weapons and sophisticated military devices being used by drug cartel soldiers and enforcers are made in U.S. factories, sold by U.S. arms dealers, and then smuggled into Mexico.

American made guns support the drug cartels in Mexico…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNNRwIKgweM

We find ourselves fighting the Mexican-American War all over again on several fronts. Our borders are like sieves, allowing illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America access to all of our country, but especially the southwestern states. Mexican Mafia gangs made up of both citizens and illegal aliens of Mexican descent control entire neighborhoods in some of our largest cities. They easily travel between the two countries carrying drugs and weapons.

The Mexican Mafia controls large groups of prison inmates on both sides of the border -- and in some cases even the prisons themselves. Teenagers are recruited or drafted into area gangs to act as soldiers, enforcers and drug dealers in neighborhoods of our largest cities. The sad truth is that these gangs have also spread their poison out into the smaller towns and rural areas that were previously untouched by crime and the drug trade.

While the primary focus of our political leaders is on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, these small armies that owe their existence to the Mexican drug cartels are spreading throughout our country. We tend to worry about a few dozen Muslim terrorists sneaking weapons into our country, while thousands of well armed Mexican gang members and drug cartel enforcers are already living in the hearts of our cities, ready to rise up against the civilian authorities at a moment’s notice if and when they are given the order by cartel leaders.

Like Al-Qaeda and Muslim extremist terrorists, these cartel members are vicious, uncaring, and very dangerous. They are willing to kill police officers, government officials, news reporters, and even innocent civilians. They are perfectly willing to kill each other as well, both rival gang members and weak or disloyal members of their own gangs. They do their nasty deeds just like the Islamic terrorists: beheading, extreme and prolonged torture, dismemberment, live burial, hanging, rape and strangulation. While what they do is primarily meant to send a message to their enemies and competitors - and to some extent to create fear among the general public -- they are also happy to commit these atrocities just for the fun of watching other human beings suffer indignities and unbearable pain.

We must face the fact that we are once again at war on our southern border. Fortunately, in this case the Mexican Army and the civil authorities are our allies. That could quickly change should the Mexican military and police forces lose their will to fight or should the leadership of the central government be taken over by politicians with ties to the cartels.

Yes, the battles we face in the Middle East and Asia are critical and must be managed, but President Obama must realize that we have enemy armies on both sides of our southern border. These cartel soldiers (who are nominally Christian and Catholic) are potentially far more dangerous and evil than the armies of Taliban fundamentalists and Islamic extremists located on the other side of the planet.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and local police recently rounded up over one hundred street gang members in a series of raids in North Texas cities. Most of the arrests were for serious criminal charges. A few were arrested on administrative, or immigration violations.

An ICE spokesman said the those arrested represented members of twenty-seven gangs, including the Asian Boyz, Latin Kings, Eastside Locos, Northside Locos, Westside 12, 18th Street, 28th Street, Love Field Players, Mexican Mafia and MS-13. Most of the gangs were affiliated with each other in some way, with MS-13 being the largest and most powerful, taking its orders directly from drug cartel leaders in Mexico.

When we were stationed in Kampala, Uganda, I had two neighbors. On my right was an East Indian couple. The wife could only speak her native tongue so we never could never really talk to each other. I had not yet learned how to play bridge or tennis so was at home a lot. We would wave to each other and we would go to each others’ homes and usually ended up in the kitchen teaching and cooking for each other. She had a big kitchen but completely without furniture, so we sat on the floor on straw mats. On one side of the kitchen there was a huge stack of shelves divided by many little cabinets where she kept her Indian spices to make curry. She also had a heavy stone mortar and pestle. I realized then that curry powder was a little different in each Indian home, depending on the cook’s choice of ingredients. She would mix a little of this and a little of that and throw it in the mortar and then with her pestle she would pound it into powder for the delicious curry she was preparing that day. Certainly not the same as buying curry paste or powder in a bottle! She taught me how to make Naan, Puri, and Indian deserts. We had a wonderful time gesturing and laughing. Some days she would come to my house and I would show her how to use my Chinese cleaver to slice and dice the ingredients that go into Chinese cooking. I even showed her how to make Chinese spring roll skins. We would leave my kitchen in one big mess which did not make John, my houseboy, very happy. This lasted for over two years; I have not forgotten her and I am sure she thinks of me when cooking Chinese meals.

On our left was an American couple who also worked for the embassy. One summer their son, Danny, who was 17 years old, came to visit. We became good friends immediately. When the men went to the Embassy, Danny would come over and visit me. He had rented a beautiful Harley-Davidson for his means of transportation. One day he took me for a ride. At 75 mph, I felt that my head would fall off or I would lose all my hair. It was scary but lots of fun. I had a brand new gold convertible Corvair, and when I went shopping I would put the top down, and Danny would ride his cycle behind me acting as my security guard. Everyone would stop to stare at us, which we found very amusing. When Kasalina, the nanny for my two small children, Jeffrey and Leslie, had to take the day off, Danny would come over and be their baby sitter. He was always so patient with them, playing hide and seek, riding Leslie’s tricycle, making funny faces and joking until the kids would be giggling with delight. Of course Danny left when the summer was over to go back to the USA to begin college.

When we were in Chile, we decided to take a vacation in Barilochi, a famous and very beautiful resort area in Argentina. With both children in tow, we drove from Puerto Montt, Chile to San Carlos de Barolochi in our Pontiac Firebird. It was the custom of truck drivers to take a break by parking the truck under any one of the large shade trees that lined the dirt road between the Argentine and Chilean customs posts, a distance of about ten miles of open countryside. The driver would chock the truck wheels with a couple of rocks, then just drive off. Unfortunately for us, it was very difficult to see the rocks in the shade of the tree and we had the misfortune to drive our low-slung car over a couple of them. A horrible screeching sound coming from the underside of the car brought us to an immediate halt. It was around five in the afternoon and the shadows were growing long. We knew that we had damaged something, as we could see a little oil leaking onto the dirt. As twilight fell there was no sound other than from a few birds and there was not a car in sight. We were getting very nervous and really did not know what to do next. I thought I heard the sound of a vehicle approaching, so I hopped out of the car and prayed that somebody would come by and help us out, since the next town was quite far away. It seemed like an eternity before I saw a Volkswagen bus coming towards us. I stuck my thumb out and struck the hitchhiker pose. The Volkswagen pulled to a stop and out jumped four young German men. One of them could speak some English. They talked among themselves for a few minutes and then seemed quite happy with their decision. In the bus they had a small kitchen and under the stove they had a rectangular linoleum rug. They pulled it out of the bus, together with some cord. One of them then managed to crawl under the car and made a temporary blanket to cover the leak and pulled the damaged sheet metal away from the flywheel. We started our car and drove slowly into Chile and on to Puerto Montt, where we could have proper repairs done and find a place to eat and sleep. The young men followed us all the way into town, but declined our offer of a meal. They wanted to drive on to a destination nearer Santiago. We thanked these kind young men and gave them our address in Santiago, but unfortunately we never saw them again. I have many German friends now, a very special one is a director at my duplicate bridge club, and when I see him every week, I am always always reminded of our saviors of long ago.

When we were in Guatemala, Dick was kidnapped by Marxist guerillas. He was at a senior staff meeting at INCAP campus, part of the World Health installation, when four young men came bursting into the room with sub-machine guns. One pointed it to his forehead, and another man tied his arms behind him with shoelaces around his thumbs and they took him away. I did not know if he was dead or alive until I got a photo of him looking like a prisoner of war. My children were back in the United States so I was alone to deal with this dreadful situation. It was then that I realized how kind people were. My Guatemalan friends took me to their fincas on weekends, others would bring me food, trays laden with everything from soup to nuts. A wealthy American lady married to a Guatemalan, offered me her tennis court from eight to ten every morning and the American Ambassador promised that the Embassy would be watching over me. One of the ladies who worked with Dick offered to come and live with me. Marilu had cancer, but she forgot her problems, left her family and moved right in. My German landlord had me over many times for dinner and served me sausages, black bread and other specialties from his country. After Dick was released, we had to leave Guatemala the next day with forged passports. A month later we went back to pack up our belongings and were overwhelmed at the welcome we received.

Ten years later, after we were already settled in Tucson, Arizona, we got a long distance call from our Guatemalan friend, Dorothy, and her German husband Hanno, inviting us to return to Guatemala to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Dick’s release. They were going to Germany to visit Hanno”s family, and we stayed in their fabulous house for three weeks. The next house was where the Vice President of Guatemala lived. They left us a Mercedes to drive, memberships to the German and American Clubs to play tennis and bridge, and a maid, cook and gardener to cater to our every need.

I could circle the world and write about all the wonderful people we met and loved, but it would take forever. One thing I know for sure, people are people and love and understanding is in all of us. I will write about the latest incident that happened right here in Tucson, Arizona, with a most adorable lady.

One of my favorite pastimes is reading cook books. About six months ago, I found a recipe in a one book that called for pie crust mix and I was determined to try it out. I went to my favorite Fry’s on 1st Avenue, and was told to go to the aisle where they sold the Bisquick Mix. Two store workers were helping me. We looked and looked but no luck. Standing nearby was a very cute older lady and she was determined to help me find it. Her name is Nancy North. She said she had been baking and cooking forever. She took me to all the counters where we might find the mix, but again with no success. I thanked her for being so helpful and went home. I forgot about the incident. Several days later, Nancy called me,saying that she had three boxes of the pie crust mix and that I should meet her the next morning before ten at the same Fry’s. She explained that she was in the middle of looking for a place to rent and was very busy with rental agents. I asked her where she had located the mix and she told me that she had telephoned her daughter, Cheryl, in Bay City, Michigan. She said that Bay City was a small town and that Cheryl knew almost everyone who worked in the town supermarkets. One was able to supply the pie crust mix, and Cheryl had it sent it by overnight mail. I met Nancy the next morning and she handed me the crust mix and would not allow me to pay her. We will be getting together as soon as her family leaves after Halloween. I will tell her about China and she will tell me about life back in the good old days, a half century or more ago. By the way, Nancy has four daughters, ten granddaughters, and ten great granddaughters – and one pit bull dog. I can’t wait to see her again.

What a life! What a world!

[Photo credits: "Connected Hands," Julia Freeman-Woolpert, USA; "Two Hands Reaching," Charlotte Na, USA; "Sharing Her Harvest," Sava Marinkovic, Serbia.]

Why should you be concerned with a small volcano on a tiny island nation so far away? Because sometime in the future it could affect your quality of life. Volcanic activity has always been a precursor to large eruptions under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland. In 1783 an eruption killed a fifth of the population by famine, and created severe climate disruptions across Europe. Even today, a large ash-producing eruption could cause rapid, if temporary, climate changes in the northern hemisphere. Geologic evidence points to many past events in human history.

My wife Claire and I rode mountain bikes across the center of Iceland one spring. We found ourselves surrounded by a stunning landscape of green meadows dotted with sheep and horses, sod covered homesteads, snow-capped mountains against cobalt blue skies, an omnipresent northern ocean, crystal rivers and thundering white waterfalls. In fact, the island nation is so full of extremes, we found the landscape  slightly unsettling. Everywhere we saw evidence of the violence that created Iceland. Gray volcanic rock, collapsed lava tubes, and active steam vents cuddle up against villages of brightly painted homes.

Iceland is a magical place for more than just its landscape. Possibly because of the harshly beautiful landscape, Icelanders believe a variety of wee beings share their magic island: elves, fairies, dwarfs, mountain spirits, hidden people, gnomes, and lovelings. Most modern Icelanders scoff at the beliefs, and yet many still believe in these beings. In recent years, local authorities relocated at least one road  because of unnatural events ultimately blamed on the wee people.

Iceland is part of the Mid Atlantic Ridge, an area where Earth’s crust rises above sea level, continually ripping apart as the tectonic plates slide on the molten mantle. In one photo we took, Claire is straddling the North American plate and the Euro-Asian plate. (See photo below)Iceland is splitting apart slowly and consistently – and yet the people thrive. From its small population of less than 300,000, Iceland has produced many internationally acclaimed writers, painters and musicians. Could the belief in wee people have something to do with their creativity? Go ask a gnome. After all, Iceland is a place of magic.

All this volcanic activity so close to the surface has been a blessing and curse to Icelanders since its earliest settlements. Steam from vents warms homes, produces electricity, and draws tourists during the short summer. Where there is steam, there is fire and water. With lots of precipitation and a location barely kissing the Arctic Circle, Iceland is a unique land with its unusual combination of fire, ice, and rumbling rivers.

Iceland has the third, fourth, and fifth largest ice sheets on Earth – quite a distinction for such a small island nation. Rivers are harnessed for electricity to smelt aluminum as thundering waterfalls carry the rain and glacier melt to the sea. Aluminum ore arrives from all over the world, coming to this small island because of access to cheap hydro-electric power. In recent years, the aluminum smelting industry has been a major contributor to Iceland’s economy, overtaking commercial fishing, an industry in trouble because of increasing competition in the North Atlantic fishery.

The harnessing of rivers has become a contentious issue with Icelanders. While they like the economic benefits, they aren’t so sure about the environmental consequences. They’re also afraid of the consequences to the unmatched purity of their gene pool due to an influx of foreign smelter workers into their island country.

We met a young Icelander, a ranger assigned to a national park in the far north. She is pure Icelandic, lovely and pleasant. She studies opera in Europe, and works summers to pay for her education. We asked about her lineage, and how she could trace her heredity to early settlements of Iceland by the Norse. For years, scientists have used Iceland as a place to study the genetic makeup of humans because the line goes back to the 9th century. These isolated genes were halfway between continents and located far into the inhospitable north. There was little to gain for others in conquering this small island, so Icelanders were left to fight among themselves, and then write epic stories about the battles.

With new gene sequencing methods, it won’t matter much to science if the Icelandic pool  loses its purity, but it’s still important to the people of Iceland. I wouldn’t call it racism in this case, but more akin to their cultural pride. There might be a change in attitude if pure Icelanders begin to intermarry with foreign workers brought in to do the backbreaking and isolated work at the smelters. The social contract within Icelandic culture has many subtleties not easily assimilated or even understood by outsiders. That, of course, is part of the charm of Iceland and its people.

For the well-prepared visitor who arrives properly clothed for wind, rain and snow, bringing along a reasonable amount of cash, Iceland will be a very special treat. Travelers looking for just a bit of adventure, exciting landscapes, and a rather different culture, will find what they are looking for. What they find certainly won’t disappoint them.

In the meantime, let’s hope that Iceland’s fire stays beneath its ice.

For more pictures and facts about Iceland, go to this page at Bob and Claire Rogers’ website.

Culp was best known for co-starring with Bill Cosby in the ground-breaking television series “I Spy” during the 1960s, Culp was 79 years old at the time of his passing on March 24.

“I Spy” was a groundbreaking first for TV, teaming Culp and Cosby as two buddies that traveled the world as spies -- but posing as tournament tennis competitors. The first of many TV and movie interracial pairings, such as “Miami Vice” and many cops and robbers “buddy movies,” “I Spy” began during a period when racial equality was still just a dream and real racial and sexual diversity on TV was still at least fifteen years away. Black faces on TV were still very much a rarity in the mid to late 1960s.

In later years, Culp played presidents, cops, senators, devious businessmen, occasional villains, and more recently, a repeating role as Ray Romano’s father-in-law in the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

“I Spy” came along when fictional secret agents were very popular on both big and small screens, riding on the success of the James Bond movies starring Sean Connery and TV’s “Secret Agent,” Patrick McGoohan. Culp and Cosby played their roles with humor and occasional horseplay, rather than the brutality and violence that were central to the themes of their competitors.

Robert Culp on his relationship with Bill Cosby…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7up2M_cbKs

After “I Spy” ended, Culp took a starring role with Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon in the groundbreaking movie “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.” At the time quite daring and risqué, “B&C&T&A” explored the rather taboo subject (even for the late 1960s) of group sex and wife swapping.

In 1968, I was working for Pacific Telephone Company in Hollywood. After two years of working in the field as a telephone installer/repairman, I accepted a job as a “line assigner” -- a somewhat advanced clerical and technical position. My office was on the second floor of the Hollywood Exchange Central Office at 1429 N. Gower Street. The building sat a half block south of Sunset Boulevard and less than a half mile from the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

Directly across the street from my office, at 1438 N. Gower, was the Columbia Studios movie lot (now known as “Capital Studios at Sunset-Gower”). Even with a studio right next door, we rarely saw movie stars out on the street, most of them preferring to stay behind the 25-foot high walls that surrounded the studio lot. Occasionally I’d see Henry Fonda drive by in his Mustang or catch a glimpse of Elizabeth Montgomery grabbing a quick sandwich at the little coffee shop down near the corner.

In those days I knew what it was like being poor -- really, really poor. I was trying to support my wife and three babies on something less than $3.00 per hour. The only place we could afford to live in was a horrible little house near First Street and Western Avenue, where for $75 per month rent we got a roof over our heads and the company of rats and cockroaches.

Our main transportation at the time was an old 1952 Cadillac that I’d bought for $100. It was nasty -- really nasty. The headliner and door panels were ripped and badly stained. We had to put blankets over the seats just to keep the stuffing in and to prevent the springs from scratching our asses.

I started riding a bicycle to work several days a week to save on gas and to avoid rush hour accidents. We had no car insurance; we simply could not afford to pay Allstate and buy food out of the same paycheck. On days when my wife drove the car to do errands, she would sometimes drive to the office to pick me up at the end of my shift.

One evening at quitting time, she parked across the street and waited for me to come out the door. My two older daughters were sitting in the back seat; she was holding the baby. As luck would have it, I was forced to stay for about thirty minutes of overtime, making her wait for what surely seemed an eternity. By the time I got out the door, after work traffic filled the entire length of Gower Street in both directions.

Location of my encounter with Robert Culp in 1968. Columbia Studios is on the right, telephone central office is red building on left.

I ran out the front door and across the street, working my way between cars that were waiting for the light at Sunset to change. I jumped in on the driver’s side, gave everyone a kiss, and turned the key. Nothing happened and I knew immediately what was wrong. I knew how to fix it, but getting the car started would be a two-person job. My wife couldn’t help because she had her hands full of crying baby, plus two very hungry little girls in the back seat whining because they were hungry and tired.

I got out of the car and lifted the hood. I looked at the voltage regulator and saw that a ground wire had pulled loose from the firewall. I just needed to jiggle the wire a few times to make contact until the car started and then we could drive away. Even if the wire came loose later, everything would be OK after the engine started. As long as I could keep my foot on the gas and the generator spinning, the car would run and get us home.

With my head under the hood, I tried to find a way to wrap the wire around a bolt or screw in the firewall. I was having no luck at all.

“Can I help you?” I lifted up and turned around. A very tall and slender fellow was standing behind me dressed in a crisp white shirt and light tan pants. His face had a soft orange tint, probably residue from movie makeup. I immediately realized that it was Robert Culp standing there. The “I Spy” guy was offering to get his hands dirty on our behalf.

“Well, well, yes you can -- I guess.” I explained the problem and how the fix would work. I offered to let him sit inside the car to turn the key and step on the gas. However, I think that the three crying babies and the old army blankets covering the seats scared him off, leading to his decision to remain on the outside of our car.

“No. Why don’t you show me what you need me to do under the hood? Then you get in and start the car.”

“That would be very nice of you, but I don’t want you to get dirty.”

He smiled back at me and quipped, “It won’t hurt me to get a little dirty. Might even help my image a bit.”

Sure enough, he grabbed the wire, held it up against the firewall, holding it in place even as it sparked away every time I turned the key and cranked the starter. After a half dozen tries, the wire finally made a decent connection and the old Caddie fired up, rumbling back to life.

Culp went around, dropped the hood, checked it to be sure it was latched, and then came around to my wife’s window. “Need anything else?”

My wife offered him a diaper to wipe his hands, but he deferred. I could see visible streaks of grease on his shirt sleeve and right above his belt, from leaning across the fender and into the engine compartment. My wife made a feeble attempt to offer to pay to have his shirt cleaned. “No mam. Thank you anyway. I’ll take care of it. You folks have a nice evening, OK?”

With that, Robert Culp, big time movie and TV star, stepped away and continued his walk, somewhat worse for wear, south on Gower Street.

To everyone else looking on as we drove away in our rust-bucket Cadillac, I’m sure the man we left standing there just looked like any other 38-year old man with a few premature gray streaks in his hair and grease on his shirt. To us, he looked like an angel -- an angel that came to our aid at exactly the right time. It was if heaven sent him to us at the very moment we were most desperate.

When we got home, we talked about what had happened. Checking our pockets, we realized that between the two of us we had less than two dollars, not nearly enough for cab or bus fare to get us home that night. If I hadn’t been able to get the car started, we would have had to walk home, about five miles, carrying two babies. Our 4-year old would have had to walk the entire distance on her own.

“You know who that was, don’t you?” I asked my wife.

“No. I have no idea.”

“You’re kidding. That was Robert Culp!”

“Who’s Robert Culp?” she asked.

“You know -- the ‘I Spy’ guy. He’s married to France Nuyen.”

For some reason, until I finally told her that he was on the TV show with Bill Cosby, she simply didn’t seem to know who he was. We didn’t watch the show. We rarely watched Johnny Carson -- because it was on just too late at night. Culp and Cosby were on the Tonight Show often in those days, but we missed them because we weren’t watching.

Finally, it dawned on my wife what had just happened to us. “We were just helped by a TV star! Good God.” It wasn’t just any run of the mill TV star either, but one of the biggest at the time.

I’m sure it was no big deal for Mr. Culp. He probably never gave it a second thought, just doing what any other Good Samaritan would have done in those same circumstances.

Later, I found out that on the day of our encounter, he had been on the Columbia lot making “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.” After the movie was released in late 1969 it was quite successful -- and in 1970 was nominated for four Academy Awards.

Years later I saw Culp play three excellent villains on “Columbo.” During the 1970s it seemed like he was showing up on TV several times a week, almost to the point of over-exposure.

I’ve told this story several times to friends and family whenever I’d reminisce about my old telephone company days. More often than not I’d get a blank stare when I would mention Culp. “Who was that? What was he in?”

Robert Culp may have faded from the collective memory of 21st Century movie goers and TV watchers. But not from mine. Never. I’ll never forget his random act of kindness to me and my family that late evening. I hope my readers won’t forget it either.

During my career with the telephone company I came in contact with many movie actors and TV personalities. A few were cordial, but many were demanding, argumentative, and unpleasant. Some wouldn’t even acknowledge my presence, letting their maid or other employee deal with me. I have many stories I could share about my encounters with the rich and famous, but very few of those tales of the Hollywood Hills would be complimentary. There is one very significant exception: Robert Culp.

May you rest in peace, Bob. Your small act of kindness that one evening forty-two years ago made a lifetime impression on one of your fans. You will always be an “action hero” to me -- remembered and appreciated.

The point of the story, in case you either missed the article (click here to read it again) or the underlying message, was that even intelligent and well-meaning people sometimes just get things wrong.

The day after President John F. Kennedy was elected, Mr. Phillips made a brief comment to the class before we started our day’s lessons and writing exercises. He warned that the election of a Catholic to the highest office of the country might very well end forever our religious freedoms. His main point was that he wondered what President Kennedy would do if he was given a direct order by the Pope in Rome. Would he obey the head of his church? Or would he make an independent decision based only on what was good for our country.

You’d have to have been there to understand how this was presented to us. Although Mr. Phillips was always able to command our attention, his usual manner was to be soft-spoken and almost casual. That’s the way he began his short – but intense and pointed – little speech to us that morning.

My guess is that thirty minutes after his comments, most of the other students in the class probably forgot about it and went on about their business. For me, however, since I was very much in tune with current events and politics, his words really stuck in my brain – so much so, that I can still conjure up the vision of him standing before the class and hearing his words to this day, nearly fifty years later.

My motivation to write the article about Mr. Phillips was to show that the fear-mongering surrounding the election of President Barack Obama is not something new to this country. It had actually been worse when John Kennedy was elected and Mr. Phillips’ classroom comments at the time illustrated that fact.

In November, I received this very nice email from a very unexpected source:

Wed, November 18, 2009 9:42:57 PM
To: editor@justoneopinion.com

Dear Mr. Hoyle,

I tried to post the following comment to your article mentioning my father Robert Phillips, but, for some reason, the comment couldn’t be submitted. Anyway, here is what I was going to post:

I was Googling my father’s name and found this…[referring to the article published in September]

My father committed suicide in 1990 at age 72 after a lifetime of battling depression. My mother died of cancer in 1972, the year I graduated from North High [Riverside, CA]. Later my dad had a relationship with another woman who also died of cancer. I don’t think he ever recovered from these blows.

Ironically, given your article, he was a staunch atheist who had rebelled against a strict religious background. He was fairly conservative until the Vietnam War, but somewhat radicalized along with my brother Rick (grad – Ramona HS 1968 [Riverside, CA]) and me, and then became extremely cynical about politics in the 1970s, when he told me he agreed with my socialist views and activism in an ideal sense, except he didn’t think anything would ever work to improve our miserable lot.

He was a brilliant man with strong personal ethics, but often very angry and rigid, something his students probably didn’t see. I knew he wasn’t fond of Catholicism, but I didn’t know he singled it out among religions in general – I thought he despised all of them equally.

Millie Phillips, daughter of Bob Phillips

What a pleasant surprise this was for me. Just knowing that an article published in Just One Opinion would connect me with a little girl (all grown up now) that I had met a few times over fifty years ago. Such is the power of the Internet. Over the next few weeks, Millie and I exchanged several emails and got reacquainted.

In part two of this followup to Mr. Phillips’ story, I will share those exchanges with you. I hope you will find them an interesting followup to my original story.

The problem is that very few people will take advantage of The Cure in spite of the fact that it has been known for decades, requires no direct intervention by a doctor, no insulin pumps or blood sugar tests. The Cure would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars of healthcare costs every year. It would dramatically reduce the personal pain associated with thousands of amputations, bypass surgeries, strokes, years of severely degraded quality of life -- and early death.

So why does  this insidious disease continue to spread? In spite of the fact that the consequences of not taking The Cure can be severe, most victims of the disease reject The Cure.

Is The Cure an inexpensive “magic pill” that has been kept from us by some nefarious plot of the drug industry? No, it’s actually much worse than that.

Well-meaning people are often willing to walk or bicycle to raise money to find a cure for this disease for their loved ones and friends. Each year millions of dollars are donated for research into finding a new “magic” (but probably very expensive) pill, when the nearly free Cure is readily available.

Magazines, television and the Internet have touted this cure for years. By now every Type 2 diabetic and obese person has surely heard about it -- and yet most diabetics choose not to avail themselves of The Cure.

So just what is this magic cure? The way sufferers avoid it, it must be a very bitter pill indeed. However, before I tell you about The Cure, lets look at the disease:

Type 2 Diabetes is not a disease in isolation. It is associated with a larger set of health and lifestyle issues called Metabolic Syndrome, and is endemic in American society. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) based on a sample of 8,842 Americans,“The unadjusted and age-adjusted prevalence of the metabolic syndrome were 21.8% and 23.7%, respectively. The prevalence increased from 6.7% among participants aged 20 through 29 years to 43.5% and 42.0% for participants aged 60 through 69 years…”

Metabolic Syndrome, as generally defined by the American Heart Association and others, can usually be identified as having these characteristics:

• Abdominal obesity (waist of 42 for men and 35 for women)
• High triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and high LDL cholesterol
• Elevated blood pressure (more than 130 over 85)
• Insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (fasting glucose greater than 100 mg/dL)

It’s true that not all people with these issues will develop Type 2 Diabetes, but if their symptoms are left unaddressed, many likely will. Metabolic Syndrome is a continuum leading to full-blown Type 2 Diabetes, leading to various forms of cardiovascular and organ failure, with dire results.

Diabetes was the seventh leading underlying cause of death listed on death certificates in 2006. Even at that level, diabetes is still greatly underreported as a cause of death. Only about 35 to 40% of those who died with diabetes had it listed anywhere on the death certificate. Only 10 to 15% of studied cases had it listed as the underlying cause of death.

Here’s the kicker: The risk for death among people with diabetes is about twice that of those without diabetes of similar age.

Death is often not the worst part of runaway Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes. Let me illustrate by sharing a personal story:

My best female friend going back to the first grade -- who was also a church choir mate and high school confidant -- became obese during a bad marriage while she was in her twenties. By the time my wife and I reconnected with her when she was fifty, she had taken insulin injections for years. We convinced her to take a medical retirement to better deal with her disease and to also avoid a work environment that fostered her smoking and constant snacking on unhealthy food. We returned to visit her twice after she retired, and found her making slow progress and enjoying life again. On our last visit she crocheted an Afghan for us to use in our motor home. We still treasure her gift and even named it “Linda.” I’m sure you can see where this is going…

Suffering from severely blocked arteries in her heart, brought on by her Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 diabetes, she went in to the hospital for bypass surgery. At her relatively young age of 53, bypass surgery is a procedure assumed generally safe and effective, at least for the short-term.

Unfortunately, our friend went directly from surgery into intensive care, and suffered there for a month before she died. Diabetes severely limits the body’s ability to heal, and in her case her heart never responded. I cannot imagine a worse death -- being hooked up to tubes, feeling helpless -- and then slowly, painfully slipping away.

She was lucky in some ways. She didn’t have to endure limb amputations, or slow organ failure. She didn’t have to manage most of the myriad of health issues facing Type 2 Diabetics as they grow older, dying before her condition could reach that level.

By writing this I am not trying to make those who are Type 2 Diabetics -- or have Metabolic Syndrome and are pre-diabetic -- feel guilty. Guilt is not a motivator. There is a genetic component that contributes to the development of Type 2 Diabetes in those with Metabolic Syndrome, and even some without the syndrome. My mother had “sugar” -- as they once called mildly elevated blood sugar -- and yet she was never overweight. I know that it is in my genetic makeup and it is as important for me to avoid Metabolic Syndrome as anyone else.

Besides all the pain and suffering caused indirectly by Metabolic Syndrome, the direct yearly costs to our economy for diabetes is $174 billion. A number like that spent on just one disease puts total Medicare expenditures in perspective. We could save all of that every year by just using The Cure.

Here is the good news: Several avenues of research have shown that Metabolic Syndrome and even entrenched Type 2 Diabetes can be reversed with The Cure I mentioned at the beginning of this article. This readily available, inexpensive Cure, is not being accessed by most of the millions of Americans with Type 2 Diabetics. For them it must be a bitter pill indeed.

By now you have probably guessed The Cure:

• Weight loss to achieve a desirable weight (BMI less than 25 kg/m2)
• Increased physical activity, with a goal of at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity on most days of the week
• Healthy eating habits that include reduced intake of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol

That doesn’t sound so difficult does it? Yes, it takes time, a little sweat equity and changing a few dietary habits. It also requires some lifestyle changes that many people find difficult.

For some the dietary and exercise changes are a threat to their self-image -- even their culture. British television star, Jamie Oliver (“The Naked Chef”), came to Huntington, West Virginia. It’s my home state, and Huntington is a college town. That city had the dubious distinction of being America’s “most obese city” in 2008, with a population suffering a very high incidence of Type 2 Diabetes. Oliver’s mission was to bring his healthy eating program to the children of the public schools. What he found was that the children could not name common vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and turnips. Nor could they identify any of the vegetables that I’d grown as a child on a small farm forty miles away, and available in chain grocery stores everywhere.

Surprisingly, Jamie Oliver was not met with appreciation, but with virulent opposition from many of the locals. They claimed he was trying to take away the culture of the mountains and making them the laughing-stock of the country.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcprJs7euRQ

I suggested through my Facebook posts that doing something about the problem might be a better response. The comments that came back to me were filled with sarcasm about my personal life of exercise and interest in healthy eating.

I tried to point out, with little success, that the original mountain culture did not include fast food, fatty barbecue, pizzas, and popular eating contests. Instead, it included lots of vegetables, whole grains, and local meat. It also included plenty of exercise. My grandfather ate pork most days, and must have had awful LDL numbers, but he was still swinging a mowing scythe when he was ninety.

My friends in West Virginia, and all over America, no longer follow that original lifestyle. Instead, they are eating what the large processed food companies tell them to eat, and are experiencing the consequences of that choice.

I assume this article will upset some readers. We are not a society that likes to take personal responsibility for our health, and we don’t like being preached to or nagged about it. If I have offended you, please know it is not personal. On the other hand, if you have Metabolic Syndrome, or Type 2 Diabetes, I sincerely hope you will reconsider The Cure.

I can assure you that it’s a pill that’s not nearly as bitter as you might think.

I voted for you in November, 2008. I don’t apologize for being a big fan of your style, intelligence, and your dedication to being a good President. A lot of people, including some in my own family, think I’ve lost my mind or gone over to the “Dark Side” because I support you most of the time.

You have a particular talent as a public speaker. I won’t offer any advice to you on how you might improve your delivery, pronunciation, enunciation, or other presentational skills. I personally think that you are the best public speaker to live in the White House since President Ronald Reagan. Reagan had some professional training as an actor and TV host. I think your skill comes from the heart.

Let’s face the facts. If you had managed your presidential campaign like you have the Office of the President, you’d still be a junior Senator from Illinois. Hillary Clinton would probably be president this term – or, heaven forbid, John McCain. We’d all have remembered you only as “that good-looking young African-American fellow from Chicago that ran for President, but lost the primaries to John Edwards.”

Where is the fire in your belly? What happened to your insistence on sticking to the facts? Why won’t you immediately counter-punch whenever someone goes on Fox News and tells a bald-faced lie? When Representative Stupak comes out and says that the new Senate version of the healthcare bill “allows federal money to pay for abortions” – make him prove it.

Don’t just make a sissified statement like, “I’m sure that the Congressman is sincere in his beliefs, but we don’t want to hold up healthcare for the majority of Americans.” Make Stupak quote the chapter and verse in the Senate bill that supports his statement. Don’t avoid the issue to keep from hurting his feelings, attack the falsehood! Make him prove the facts of his statements!

It’s already been proven numerous times by several TV, radio, and newspaper commentators, House Leader Nancy Pelosi, and other prominent House and Senate leaders that the new bill specifically does not include any allowance for payments for abortions using federal money. However, a fair majority of American voters DO BELIEVE what Stupak is asserting. Why? It’s because you’ve avoided calling him out on the issue. You’ve lost the battle before it started because you refuse to shoot back or defuse the bomb that Stupak has dropped on healthcare reform.

All this does is make voters like me, who have continued to support you all this time, wonder if your hands are also in the pockets of the big insurance cartel. If not, why won’t you speak up – loud and clear?

Instead of appealing for the support of the vast majority of people who voted for you and supported your plans to reform government, provide universal healthcare, and bring the war in Iraq to a close — you’ve been in Washington negotiating with special interest groups and wasting your time trying to appease the Republicans in Congress. They have made no secret that they despise you and have vowed to oppose you at every turn. Your choosing to ignore them has put the brakes on all the momentum you had when you were elected our President. By trying to be “Mr. Nice Guy” you’re barely treading water at this stage of your first term.

Well-funded opponents of health reform continue to gain ground by convincing the American middle-class that your plan is a false choice: Keep the healthcare plans they have now, or gamble on “Obama’s government takeover of healthcare with his socialist ideals and lose everything.”

You’re losing the battle because you’re still wasting your time trying to appeal to members of the Republican Party who hate you. Quit trying to be friends with the enemy. The truth is that they will not play your game and they don’t play fair. They don’t give a damn about America’s middle or low-income classes, only the insurance companies and their lobbyists who are financing their next election. You must take control and directly confront their cynicism and deceptions. Don’t be afraid to call them out on their lies and ties to the insurance industry, Mr. President.

If roles were reversed and the Republicans were still in power, do you think they would be playing nice with a minority of Democrats? Well? Did they play nice during the Bush Administration? How many bills did they pass using “Reconciliation” in the Senate?

Mr. President – you must explain clearly and forthrightly that a financially secure future for middle-class families, and for the entire nation, depends on reforming the entire health care industry and finding ways to control its runaway costs before it bankrupts the country and each and every individual.

It’s ironic that middle-class families have the most to lose if healthcare reform fails to pass. The problem is that most of them have yet to realize that fact. You’ve got to impress upon them what personal and financial pain they have to look forward to if you fail in your quest for universal, low-cost healthcare.

Without reform, it has been estimated that in ten years premiums for the average family’s health insurance coverage will cost nearly $25,000 per annum, and that’s based on current low inflationary rates. According to the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, rates could reach as high as $30,000, pricing all but the wealthiest families completely out of the health insurance market. With costs that high, most medium and small businesses will be unable to afford to contribute anything toward subsidized health insurance plans for their employees.

The very rich can afford the best available health care with or without private or public insurance. Unfortunately, the American middle class, even those who are comfortable with their present insurance coverage, could soon find themselves under-insured or unable to get any affordable insurance coverage.

Your Republican and Fox News opponents are buying hundreds of daily sound bites accusing your program of being “socialized medicine” and allowing a “government takeover” of the “best healthcare system in the world!” They accuse you of wanting to set up “death panels” and using government bureaucrats to deny quality healthcare to the elderly and the sickest among us. They present this as a future probability under your plan, while at this very moment insurance companies are doing this every day in every state to every class of patient. Insurance companies are already making decisions about patients’ health care with only one objective: increasing insurance company profits.

I hate to admit it, but the Republican Party and Fox News’ decision to promote lies and half-truths are working – and continue to destroy your standing with American voters in all parts of the country. Why? Because so far you’ve refused to take a stand for truth and justice for middle-class and average working families. So far you have done far too little to effectively counter those charges. I sometimes wonder if you really care. Is your heart really in the fight?

Mr. President – now is the time to speak out forcefully against the liars and propagandists in and out of the political arena. Make it clear that simply because they wrap an American flag around their shoulders and carry a King James Bible in their hands, that does not make everything your opponents say “The Truth.” They have to realize that it’s not just for the maintenance of your political reputation that you should come out and force the truth to be told. After all, healthcare reform is for the benefit of those very same Bible-thumping, flag-waving, tea-bagging Republicans – and for the rest of us who depend on affordable access to doctors, clinics, and hospitals when the need arises.

If your healthcare reform programs fail, it will be the middle-class and low-income families, the very people who tend to believe most of the Republican Party’s lies, who will ultimately pay the highest price for the least amount of healthcare.

Help them. Help us all. Fight for us, Mr. President!

I want to thank our old and new visitors for sticking by us these past couple of months. There are a few die-hard readers that check in from time to time, and we still get a lot of hits from first-time visitors. This traffic is surprising considering the fact that we’ve put very little new up on JustOneOpinion.com since Christmas. It’s clear that some of our articles have gone well-past their “do not sell” date.

My excuse is that I’ve simply been overwhelmed for the past three months due to construction work going on in my home. Just before Christmas we had a hard freeze here in Oregon that resulted in frozen pipes bursting all through the Willamette Valley. In my home, a pipe froze and burst in mid-day causing minimal damage to my garage. A few hours later, it burst again in another location while we were away, effectively destroying the garage and doing extensive damage to our laundry room, tiled front entryway, and our hallway.

While we suffered a rather alarming loss just before the Christmas holiday weeks, we were able to get plumbers, restoration contractors, and other craftspeople out to the house to help us. This was in spite of the fact that the freeze damaged hundreds of homes and businesses in the area, most as a result of broken pipes, leaving homeowners scrambling to find any available contractors to repair their homes.

Our insurance company gave us immediate and excellent service so that we could get everything cleaned up and repaired. This is not a paid plug, but an honest testimonial for Ameriprise Homeowner’s Insurance, the company that provides customer service and underwriting for Costco here in the western states. I have nothing but good things to report about how their claims representative, Scott Miles, handled our account, immediately paid contractors for the emergency work that had already been done, and then quickly cut us a check that was fair and representative of the repairs we needed to get everything back to normal.

We were also fortunate to have a great local contractor referred to us by our Realtor, Rhonda Marshall. Eric Sorenson exceeded our expectations by making absolutely sure that everything was completed in an organized, timely, and professional way. His dedication to high-quality work was commendable, his quotes were reasonable, and he made sure that everything that was done met our expectations. The walls and ceiling work in the garage looks great and the updated flooring in the entry-hallway and laundry room give our home an entirely new look.

But for me, it has been three months of demolition, restoration, installation, and reconstruction going on right behind my head. That’s my main excuse for why my recent productivity has absolutely sucked.

I’ve been working with Dick Kelly on a book project since last summer and my goal was to have my part completed by Christmas. Finally, just after Thanksgiving, I told my wife that I wouldn’t shave again until I’d completed the project - and I haven’t shaved since. She hasn’t left me yet, but if this project isn’t done within the next few weeks, one of us will be sleeping in our new garage.

On the other hand, being creative is very difficult when you have hammers, saws, nail guns, staplers, paint sprayers and what-all making noise just a few feet away from your office door.

Although most of the blame sits squarely on my shoulders, the other contributors to JustOneOpinion.com have also been quiet over the past few months. Everyone seems to have a lot on their plates these days.

Dick Kelly has been finishing up his sequel to his first book, Growing Up in Mama’s Club. He and his wife have also been living with contractors working in their home in Tucson during the past six months. I hear that they had much of the interior redesigned and updated. I can’t wait to see the results.

Craig Bieber is finishing his new book and hopes to have it published later this year. He was able to take a break and contributed a most interesting article about his Christmas trip to New York that continues, even at this late date, to get a lot of hits from our readers.

Bob and Claire kept us entertained as well as on the edge of our seats during the fall. Their trip all over southeast Asia was exciting and nerve-wracking for all of us during the several weeks they were gone. Not only did we understand the danger and complexity of the trip that they were taking, but we’d also worry every time they would go completely silent for several days. Eventually they would come to a village or city where they could once again access the Internet and finally send us some updates, photos, and videos. They are home now and resting up for their next grand adventure later this year. I’m hoping that they can swing through central Oregon and pay us a visit for a few days.

In the meantime, Bob and Claire are sharing some of their favorite recipes on their website at NewBohemians.net. Go check them out.

Chi Newman maintains a busy schedule with speaking engagements and her usual rounds of bridge parties and other social activities.

I hope that we can all get back in the writing groove over the next few months and expand our readership again. I realize that we’re no Huffington Post, and probably never will be, but we do have a great number of readers and fans – and we thank them all for their patience.

I’ll try to do better over the next few weeks – now that I can hear myself think. Please come back and check us out.

This is a question Claire and I get from Americans when they hear of our tandem bicycle travels in third-world countries and our perseverance in spite of difficult conditions. Of course, there is no answer to such a pejorative question. By using the phrase “possess you” they are saying they think us possessed – maybe even crazy. Perhaps we are. Crazy – but also fulfilled.

Many JOO readers visited our New Bohemians website between early September and late December of 2009. We hope you enjoyed the journals, photos, and videos you found there, and we hope you learned something about Asia.

Just in case you joined us in the middle, I’ll give you a snapshot of our journey, and what inspired us to pick our difficult route.

The first part of our plan was to ride our tandem bicycle across the mountains of historic Tibet and into Yunnan province, to the mythical and literal land of Shangri-la. The concept of seeking out Shangri-la the hard way, on a tandem bicycle, came from ongoing motivations:

• To see our World from a unique perspective, at a speed that allows for contemplation of its many mysteries.
• To challenge ourselves against the unknown, find adventure, excitement, and fulfillment doing what we love.
• To represent a side of America foreigners seldom see on TV: wholesome, optimistic, open and caring, with a physical work ethic like their own.
• To share with diverse peoples our joy in life. From Urumchi to Winnemucca, from Alice Springs to Baku, the love for a spouse and shared labor is universally appealing.
• To gather material for our magazine writing, Just One Opinion, and NewBohemians.net.

This is not our first such adventure. Our tandem bicycle, somewhat inappropriately named Zippy, has carried us 40,000 plus miles (nearly 1.6 times around the world) over the last few years. “In Search of Shangri-la” was our second tandem journey in Asia, our first being our Silk Road Crossing from Beijing to Istanbul. Despite the difficulties of that trip – language, political unrest, route location, illness, and food – we wanted to go back.

We chose the most mountainous route possible to Shangri-la, over the steep fingers of the east end of the Himalayas. This turned out to be almost too much for this not-so-young-anymore tandem team, but by cooperation, tenacity, and thanks to a lot of help from friends we made along the way, we prevailed. There was the Tibetan family who took us in when a snowy night overhauled us. Later, a road crew shared their space and dinner with us as high winds, sleet, and our own exhaustion threatened our ability to go on.

After descending into Yunnan, China we found the literal Shangri-la, and were somewhat disappointed by its touristy reality. On the other hand, it did have a certain charm, sheltered us for three days, and provided better food to help us continue our trip. Did we actually find the mythical Shangri-la? Read on:

The “Shangri-la” most of us know is the mythical place of perfect happiness. The word and the concept were invented by the British author James Hilton in 1933. He described a Utopian kingdom where people lived to healthy old age, content and happy beyond the understanding of most Westerners. His “Shangri-la” was located in the mountains of northern Yunnan Province and western Sichuan Province where the Tibetans and most of the other fifty-three minorities of China live. It is a spectacularly beautiful part of the world, from the plateaus and barren gorges of Tibetan Sichuan, to the botanical paradise of the mountains of Yunnan.

Unfortunately, life is not always easy for the people living there. The terrain is brutally steep, the rivers violent, the winters high-altitude harsh, and the ethnic majority Han population of China is not always kind to them. Some residents are stoic and others are happy – not too different than those of us from the West – but their happiness quotient is very high considering the challenges they face in their daily life.

Further along in our journey we found the people who would be most like the mythical Shangri-la people – and in a most unlikely place.

Laos has been the whipping boy for Southeast Asia for much of its ancient history. In recent history it has been misused by its neighbors and colonial powers alike. During the “American War” (as southeast Asians call the Vietnam War), more total tonnage of bombs was dropped on Laos than by all sides during World War II. Even now, hundreds of people are killed and maimed every year by unexploded anti-personnel ordinance dropped over 40 years ago.

We felt the fear they live with every day when we were lost for two days in an area not cleared by bomb disposal crews. They go to work in their rice paddies or hunt in the jungle each day, knowing there may be a “bombie” out there with their name on it. And yet they bear no grudge against the Americans who salted their land with death.

The Lao we met are happy, well nourished, and live a rich family and village life. Laos has one of the few Communist governments left in the world, but it seems to have little influence on the lives of the people.

Is Laos Shangri-la? As we worked our way up a Lao mountain, we met a German with a story to tell. He was bicycle touring nine years ago when he became ill with food poisoning in Laos. While recovering, he met his future wife, and they now have two children. He runs his father-in-law’s pig farm, and has become Lao in every way except for his race. I asked if he would ever return to Germany. “Never!” was his answer. He has found his Shangri-la.

After eight months of bicycle touring in Asia over the last few years, the continent has again left me staggered. Just as I think I have the real Asia nailed, I find myself blindsided by the reality, the vitality, the sheer size and complexity of the continent.

Some will say I should just stay home and absorb the opinions of the talking heads, those government and politically motivated experts – most who have never set foot in Asia outside the capitals. I don’t believe that accepting observations from someone riding in the back seat of a Mercedes with darkened windows – never stopping, but just driving past the toiling masses – necessarily offers a true picture of that great continent.

Westerners have always misunderstood the Asian ethos, and underestimated the tenacity of the people. We need to get past stereotypes and open our eyes. Those of us living in the West will be competing with Asians and need to understand their hopes and desires, allowing us to work with them in mutual respect and to our mutual benefit.

Both Claire and I will be writing about Asia for a long time, for Just One Opinion and on our own website. If you would like to read our stories and see our photos and videos during our “In Search of Shangri-la” journey, follow the link to NewBohemians.net.