The Undecideds

Is that even a word? "Undecideds", the plural noun? Pundits these days use it when describing that portion of the American electorate who is just that... undecided, as in the current election process. My thought: what the hell?! What's taking so long? Decide already!
I'm astounded watching these focus groups on debate nights, saying stuff like, "Well, I voted Bush in '04, but McCain has a bad temper so I'm thinking more about Obama." As much as I like that answer (and its truthfulness), it is ridiculous to me that people today let each 24-hour news cycle sway them so radically. These are two polar opposite candidates. One debate doesn't say it all, one story about ACORN or Congress or Vietnam or the Alaskan pipeline does not say it all about these two teams vying for the presidency. All the information is out there, if you want to know something, Google it. If you have questions about policy, resume, philosophy, check out the respective websites. But for a third of Americans to be still, at two weeks out, undecided is stupid. This is your job, people. Wake up and watch the news. Find out. Be a truthseeker.

If you're voting, as you should, you ought to be informed. Pretend you had never seen pictures of these two men before. No black or white, no old or young. Just Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin. Important factors for me include character, policy ideas, trust, record, experiences. This is the perspective from which I choose to look at the race today. I'm a nurse. I've worked on a busy medical/surgical floor for 2 1/2 years as an RN. There are people who have been at Mayo a lot longer than me. There are equally as many who have not been. I'm no expert, but I think I can do my job pretty well. Here's the catch. Some have been medical secretaries for 15 years, some have been nurses for 30. Some nurses have been on the floor for less than 6 months. We work together to get the job done. We each bring our own personality, experience, and education to the table. Sure there's a nurse manager, there's a CEO, but would he or she have a job without the rest of us pulling our weight? Would there be a need for us if there was no patient in the bed? I'm getting at my point. Sometimes, patients prefer a nurse with tons of experience, 20 or 30 years, a room full of knowledge. These nurses tend to take a lot of time in the patient's room, caring for every aspect of the patient. They stay late to catch up on charting that wasn't completed until 8 hours after the fact. It's OK, it's just the way it has to be when you don't sit down all day. Some patients prefer a nurse with 2-5 years' experience. Usually moves quick, thinks a little more narrowly in the scheme of things, is task-oriented, good with technology and the things that make work work. They usually get charting done on time because they spend less time in a patient's room, feeling comfortable with the patient's status. Finally sometimes, and maybe not often, a patient prefers a new nurse. Usually very by-the-book, completes required tasks only, usually into talking, finding out about history, family, and all that. This nurse often gets roped into complex situations he/she hasn't had to deal with before and can lose his/her cool. The end of the shift almost never comes soon enough, and the new nurse gets easily overwhelmed at the significance of his or her newfound responsibilites. Now.... there are these nurses and everything in between, but you can be assured that these nurses never work alone. There is never one nurse alone on a floor probably anywhere because in life-saving or emergency situations, it is obvious and probably proven that one mind and two hands is not enough. In my mind, this can relate to the presidential election in some abstract way. Vote for who you prefer, who you'd like to spend a day with or drink a beer with or go to war with, and be assured that he never works alone. Go do it!

What an idiot.... a Special Comment.

John McCain tried to hit it out of the park tonight. It was a bunt. A pop out. A forced out perhaps. In the paraphrased words of Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, he's acting like an angry old man in his bathrobe and slippers, trying to keep kids off the lawn. In tonight's debate, he continued to be erratic, bringing up topics unrelated to the question, reminiscent of one "Caribou Barbie" running mate. Did anyone tell him Palin's son doesn't have autism? For real! He brought up the "no preconditions" argument again, this time talking about Chavez of Venezuela in a debate that had nothing to do with foreign policy. Things he didn't mention surprisingly: POW, Rev. Wright, experience, judgment. Lots of: blinking, scribbling, jaw clenches. I'm no body language expert, but the cool and collected Obama seemed a lot more confident, and the losing McCain was fighting. Always fighting.
When asked about Palin as President, God forbid, he didn't answer the question. Would she be better than Jokin' Joe? His spiel went like this: she's a reformer. She's a maverick, yada, yada, yada. She'll be my partner. We'll fight to make this country great... or whatever. What he didn't say is how she'd stand alone. Because she couldn't possibly! How could he be expected to answer that?! Great question, dumbass answer.
I agree with Chris Matthews about something tonight. You can't belittle the inclusion of the "health of the mother" in the abortion agrument. McCain made some awkward little joke about it, not even well understood by the pundits. Or me. What the hell did he mean by that? Only when death is iminent can you perform abortion? Not her health, only death. Great timing. Maybe when you're coding Mom or watching her seize. Maybe when you're hanging the 10th unit of blood? Maybe not until the 15th? When Senator?!
I'm astounded that the pundits, even on MSNBC :), think McCain wins these things. Pat Buchanan even said tonight, usually the public disagrees with him after all is said and done. Andrea Mitchell: clearly the stongest debate for him by far. What? People see through him. The public knows that he is behind. He needed a one-liner like "I'm not George Bush" and got it out tonight. Fact is though, he is 94% of the time. As Obama pointed out, on the policies that matter now, energy, taxes, the economy, he's voted with Bush and the elephants. It's great to be a maverick on issues like torture and immigration. He prides himself on this idea of breaking from party lines on issues, but when neither side agrees with you, how are you going to get anything done? Joe Lieberman only gives you one vote! (And he's going to be out the next go-round.)
Bring on Keith and Rachel.

Knox Soapbox

I've considered starting a blog for a long time. Now with so much in the news, in life, in the family worth writing about, it's done! This is my soapbox.

The Story of a Man

So this week at work was the one that all of us didn't want to believe would happen, thought might happen, but didn't actually think would happen! A young man who could be anybody's son, father, brother, husband, or friend... he died Monday after a battle, a war with his own body. Through no fault of his own, he developed an occult disease he didn't know he had until his eyes turned yellow. After spending the last ten months of his life away from southern California, where his Lakers played a championship series, where wildfires threatened the homes of people he knew, where politics from Iowa to New Hampshire to his home state have carried on since January 3, life for everyone around him has gone on. He missed spring, summer and the beautiful beginning of fall. He couldn't eat buffalo wings with a beer at the beginning of football season, and he won't see the Dodgers play in the playoffs.
With his never-ending advocate of a mother at his bedside, this young man faced the darkest times a person can face. Sickness, hope, life, sickness, near death, hope, life again, and again, and again until last week when it all came to an end for him. You see, one new organ sometimes isn't enough for some people. We've transplanted people more than once before and it's like starting over each time. There isn't a "limit" per se, and when you are invested in something or someone, you fight for it or him or her. You can't give up because of a shortage of livers, there's always been and always will be a shortage. If we let that hold us back, no one would ever have the chances that so many of our other near-death to life patients have had. One man got to go home to Alabama to see his first granddaughter who was born in July while he was here for treatment. One young man received half a liver from his wife's salon co-worker's husband. One woman took too many hepatotoxic herbal (non-FDA-approved) preparations and lost two weeks of time being unconcious in the ICU, to wake up to two teenage daughters who want to go to nursing school after seeing the death-to-life care their mother received. There is hope out there. And you can pass it forward.
So, on 10-2, we'll miss him. It's too bad we all got to know him as well as we did. We got to know his mother and watched her shed tears of hope and elation and grief. We gave her hugs after he died. We got to know his godmother, girlfriend, and about his father. He's one of those patients you hear about, you read about, that papers are written about, and one of the one's the nurses who had the chance to take care of him will never forget. He gave us the chance to learn and get better at what we do; he forced our patience, understanding, and skill. I hope his story makes up your mind about the importance of donating your organs when you're done with them. It's the greatest hope out there for young men like him and his mom, even if for just another month.