Dorothy Height: a great American & crusader for civil rights

Watch this PBS News Hour segment on Dorothy Height.

A gay officer at war...read his online journal

Read this fascinating, inside look at the DADT.

One of my favorite political reads in a long time

I loved this book about 2008 election. It takes a "Vanity Fair" approach to what really was happening behind the scenes. A great read.

The President delivers another important civil right for gay citizens and everyone benefits from it, including those who hate us

Here's the text of the memorandum issued by Obama tonight directing hospitals to allow same-sex couples visitation rights and medical power of attorney.

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

SUBJECT: Respecting the Rights of Hospital Patients to Receive Visitors and to Designate Surrogate Decision Makers for Medical Emergencies

There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital. In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean -- a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them.

Yet every day, all across America, patients are denied the kindnesses and caring of a loved one at their sides -- whether in a sudden medical emergency or a prolonged hospital stay. Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives -- unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.

For all of these Americans, the failure to have their wishes respected concerning who may visit them or make medical decisions on their behalf has real consequences. It means that doctors and nurses do not always have the best information about patients' medications and medical histories and that friends and certain family members are unable to serve as intermediaries to help communicate patients' needs. It means that a stressful and at times terrifying experience for patients is senselessly compounded by indignity and unfairness. And it means that all too often, people are made to suffer or even to pass away alone, denied the comfort of companionship in their final moments while a loved one is left worrying and pacing down the hall.

Many States have taken steps to try to put an end to these problems. North Carolina recently amended its Patients' Bill of Rights to give each patient "the right to designate visitors who shall receive the same visitation privileges as the patient's immediate family members, regardless of whether the visitors are legally related to the patient" -- a right that applies in every hospital in the State. Delaware, Nebraska, and Minnesota have adopted similar laws.

My Administration can expand on these important steps to ensure that patients can receive compassionate care and equal treatment during their hospital stays. By this memorandum, I request that you take the following steps:

1. Initiate appropriate rulemaking, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395x and other relevant provisions of law, to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors. It should be made clear that designated visitors, including individuals designated by legally valid advance directives (such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies), should enjoy visitation privileges that are no more restrictive than those that immediate family members enjoy. You should also provide that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The rulemaking should take into account the need for hospitals to restrict visitation in medically appropriate circumstances as well as the clinical decisions that medical professionals make about a patient's care or treatment.

2. Ensure that all hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid are in full compliance with regulations, codified at 42 CFR 482.13 and 42 CFR 489.102(a), promulgated to guarantee that all patients' advance directives, such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies, are respected, and that patients' representatives otherwise have the right to make informed decisions regarding patients' care. Additionally, I request that you issue new guidelines, pursuant to your authority under 42 U.S.C. 1395cc and other relevant provisions of law, and provide technical assistance on how hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid can best comply with the regulations and take any additional appropriate measures to fully enforce the regulations.

3. Provide additional recommendations to me, within 180 days of the date of this memorandum, on actions the Department of Health and Human Services can take to address hospital visitation, medical decisionmaking, or other health care issues that affect LGBT patients and their families. This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

You are hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

--BARACK OBAMA

Creating the ground for life to happen

It’s important in all practice to realize that you’re the one that’s creating the ground for it to happen. Not that you are it, or that your ego identifies with it, but that you can take responsibility for having created the fertile ground for this thing to happen. You know, the correct theatrical lights and costumes and feeding it with the right energy so that the magic happens. I think that’s important, to take credit for it. It adds confidence and strength to the practice.

--Richard Gere, "Everything's About the Heart" (Spring 1996)

High zen master teaching

"Just to be alive is enough."

--Suzuki Roshi

A neuroscientific look at happiness, love and wisdom

I heard Rick Hanson speak on Sunday night and was very impressed with what he had to say about the relationship between the brain, our minds and happiness. Bottom line: we are what we think. The more we live in fear, the more that part of the brain will be stimulated and we will be upset about life. The more grateful and loving we are, the more that part of the brain will physically thicken and we will feel more happiness. However, this is not a Pollyanna, "power of positive thinking" approach from the 1970s. Rather, this is a grounded, scientific and Buddhist look at happiness.

Listen to Rick Hanson discuss his new book here.

About life

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

--Elbert Hubbard

Former priest and sexual abuse "fixer" tells how the Church protected its "shepherds" not its "sheep"

While driving around in LA today, I heard the most riveting account from an insider in this Catholic priest sex scandal. The segment, "The Confession," is so insightful and worth listening to, as this former priest, Patrick J. Wall, tells all about his role as a trouble-shooter for the Church as it tried to cover up its numerous priest scandals, all while the protecting the hierarchy and assets of the institution (and not doing much for the victims).

Also, one of the best movie documentaries that I have ever seen is this Oscar nominated film, an up-close-look at a predatory priest who was moved from church to church in California, sexually-abusing countless kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scW90Q6Z_OM

Feeling the ground

My sense is that there is a very real problem among Western Buddhist practitioners. We are attempting to practice meditation and to follow a spiritual path in a disembodied state, and our practice is therefore doomed to failure. The full benefits and fruition of meditation cannot be experienced or enjoyed when we are not grounded in our bodies. The phrase from the early text, when understood fully, implies not only that we are able to touch enlightenment with our bodies, but that we must do so--that in fact there is no other way to touch enlightenment except in and through our bodies.

--Reggie Ray, "Touching Enlightenment" (Spring 2006)