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It wasn’t until the 1960s that people began to realize that we needed to provide better emergency care on the streets of our cities. It wasn’t enough to simply send a driver, in an ambulance, to go get people and bring them back to the hospital or morgue. While some of the (mostly) men who drove ambulances, were pretty good at taking care of people, they simply didn’t have the training or skills to provide advanced life support medical care.
It was during the tumultuous times of the late 60s and early 70s that the paramedic program was birthed. The first, out of hospital, cardiac arrest save was performed by Buck Ambulance “cardiac technicians” in 1969. It was another four years before the actual paramedic program began to take shape. In the world of emergency services, it was an exciting time. I ran my first EMS call in 1974, got my EMT-Basic certification in 1978, and became certified as a paramedic five years later in 1983. read more…
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Driving home from my first day of work on Monday, I looked over to see my old friend Steve*, driving in the lane next to me. I haven’t seen him in over nine months, and the last thing he said to me was very hurtful. Over the past several months, I’ve been struggling with forgiving him – strangely, it isn’t the first time I’ve had to work on this in my relationship with him.
We met at college through mutual friends. One weekend, most of the others took off on a trip to Portland, and the two of us found ourselves standing on the sidewalk in front of the Conard Hall, wondering what we were going to do. As we walked to the cafeteria, we hatched a plan to go backpacking. It was one of the most memorable trips I’ve been on. From that point forward, we became great friends. A few years later, he was the Best Man in my wedding, and a couple of years after that, I returned the favor and served as his Best Man. read more…
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I was there, but I don’t remember much about it. They tell me it was hard – 36+ hours hard. Then the nurses called the doctor and interrupted his night out on the town. He arrived at the hospital shortly thereafter and decided that I wasn’t going to be delivered conventionally. That’s when he did the C-Section on my Mom. Not surprisingly, she gladly shared this with me whenever I was being particularly difficult.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Once born, it was discovered that I was born with a severe, bilateral, cleft palate and lip. Although one out of 500 people are born with some sort of cleft palate, many are relatively unnoticeable. Mine was one of the worst. Of course this made for a difficult childhood – and I certainly wouldn’t want to repeat my teenage years. Those years are hard enough already, but kids with differences – even subtle ones – never have it easy. Interestingly, there are very few “normal” teenagers, but that doesn’t stop the ostracizing and abuse. read more…
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We face a very real possibility of having our mortgage foreclosed. Some have told us it is unethical and immoral for us to default on our loan. However, we (nor the 7 million other homeowners who face foreclosure) didn’t cause this crisis. It was the corrupt, greedy, and shady business practices of the big lenders who created this – along with the lack of oversight by our regulators. Not only did they sell loans to people who couldn’t afford them, engage in predatory lending practices, but they bet against those loans – knowing they would make more money if the loans failed.
It isn’t right to expect the common homeowners to bear the brunt of this crisis. Granted, not all seven million homeowners who face foreclosure did the right thing, engaged in ethical behavior, or made correct choices. But don’t tell me I’m immoral for defaulting.
In the last three years, we have lost over $100,000 in equity.
We didn’t buy too much house. We don’t live a life of debt. Both our cars are paid off. We had 3-4 months salary saved – in addition to long-term savings. It was a perfect storm of the worst recession since 1929, an unexpected job loss, the bursting of the housing bubble, and corrupt lenders. Now, with the surviving lenders making record profits, and paying out millions of dollars in executive bonuses, people are telling me that I”m immoral for defaulting on my loan.
I don’t think so…
If we had gone into this expecting to default, that would be another story – but we entered into this secured mortgage, expecting to stay with the house for awhile. But the rug got pulled out from underneath us.
If you want to point fingers, point them at the lenders who made shady deals and then bet on failure. Hold their feet to the fire – not mine.
Oh, by the way, I’ve created a Facebook page here, for people to share their collective wisdom on navigating the foreclosure minefield.
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A couple decades ago, as I was recovering from divorce, I met someone who would become a good friend, confidant, and soon enough, a house-mate. It was a rough time in my life, and it was great to connect with someone who shared so many common interests. Motorcycles, EMS, fire service, and recent divorces. We had some good times together – camping, partying, even a memorable trip to San Francisco on our bikes.
Just as suddenly as our friendship started, it seemed to end. He met someone who eventually became his wife, and they went on to live happily ever after. I’m glad for that – they have always made a good couple. It just caught me a little off-guard. And being guys, we didn’t have the luxury of the break-up conversation. He didn’t come to me and say directly that he’d met someone else, nor did he ask for “a break.“ read more…
