Live from New York...
Chicago on the edge of anarchy. My brother is above the fold in the NY Times. NY teacher healthcare.
When the notorious 1968 Democratic Convention took place in Chicago, I was a 20 year-old thumbing my way around Europe.
On the day after the Battle of Michigan Avenue and the police riot that took place in front of the Hilton Hotel, I arrived in London. I had found a youth hostile in the Nottinghill section of town, down the block from the Soviet and American embassies.
Soviet troops had just entered Prague to suppress the Czech democracy movement. As I came out of the Underground, I found myself in the middle of thousands protesting in front of the Soviet embassy.
As I turned and faced a news kiosk, I stared at the headline, “Blood flows in the streets of Chicago.”
I’m away from Chicago for another Democratic National Convention, having just moved to Brooklyn from Chicago a couple of months ago.
Hopefully there will be no blood flowing in the streets.
Unfortunately the city’s leadership and police superintendent have been irresposible in ginning up the narrative of potential violence coming from peace protesters.
Picking up a breakfast bagel at my neighborhood Bagel World, I spotted this morning’s sensational NY Post headline. It was something about Chicago being “crime ridden” and a city “teetering” on the brink of anarchy.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters will march this week and I believe that the only anarchy will be the traffic on the streets and expressways. At least that’s what I’m hearing from family and friends.
And, frankly, that’s the case any rush hour and Saturday afternoon.
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My brother Mike Klonsky and I co-hosted Hitting Left, a podcast and radio show from Chicago’s Lumpen Radio.
He continues hosting.
This week, every day during the DNC, Mike will be hosting guests to discuss what has been going on in the United Center and on the streets.
Hitting Left will be live streaming at Lumpenradio.com. 2:00pm CDT and later that day on podcast. Hittingleft.libsyn.com
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If you are a regular reader than you know that among my issues is America’s dreadful healthcare system and particularly teacher retirement healthcare.
This was true even before I was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2000.
The doctors at Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine removed a tumor about the size of an orange and took my left kidney along with it.
I still have my right kidney although it is being asked to do the work of two.
Whether it is a worker or a kidney, one can never do the work of two and do it as well.
The good news is that my Illinois retired teacher healthcare has paid for most of what I have had to go through.
Now living in Brooklyn I have been following the story of the impasse between Memorial Sloan-Kettering and NY public employee’s Anthem health insurance.
MSK is one of the premiere cancer treatment providers in the world.
Renegotiating health coverage plans for public employees (and private plans) face these kinds of crises all the time.
And that’s the point.
I can easily imagine the stress these negotiations have created for retirees facing cancer treatment.
It’s another example of why we need national healthcare.
But I’m almost certain that this will NOT be a serious topic at the DNC in Chicago this week.
The Dems are all about “joy” right now.
There is not too much joy for those facing cancer without knowing how the treatment will be paid for.