Category Archives: Health care

Who else will protect the kids during a pandemic?

Health care, Inspirational, State government

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Who are the unsung heroes of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic? Let’s add child abuse investigator Rachel Speights of Texarkana to that list.

The 37-year-old walks into strangers’ homes and interviews children, their sometimes hostile (and sometimes drinking or drugged) parents, and others, and then decides if the children should be removed.

It takes guts for Speights to do her job under normal circumstances, let alone during a pandemic. She conducted six face-to-face interviews in two homes April 7 while wearing a mask.

“Yes, the coronavirus is here, and yes, it’s a very scary thing, but I don’t let it stop me protecting these children because these children are vulnerable and they need us, and if I don’t go in there, then who’s going to go in there and help them?” she told me.

Speights is an investigation supervisor managing five counties for the Division of Children and Family Services. Like many other employers, DCFS has had to improvise during this crazy time. More work is being done remotely or by videoconference. But as Director Mischa Martin told me, some things still must be done in person. Continue reading Who else will protect the kids during a pandemic? →

Fighting World War III against a virus

Health care
Malvern’s Cletis Overton survived the Bataan Death March and years of imprisonment.

April 2, 2020

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

We’re possibly engaged in World War III, so this might be a good time to recall World War II, and what was required to win it from people like Malvern’s Cletis Overton.

Cletis was serving as a U.S. Army aircraft mechanic in the Philippines in December 1941 when Japan attacked that country along with Pearl Harbor. For months, he and his fellow soldiers retreated until there was nowhere to go, and they were captured and forced to walk 60 miles in what became known as the Bataan Death March. From there he endured a series of prison camps marked by forced labor, limited food, malaria and dysentery.

Eventually the tide of the war reversed. As American forces closed in on the weakening Japanese strongholds, he and his 750 fellow prisoners were herded into the sweltering hold of a cargo ship, where they survived on a cupful of rice and a few swallows of water twice a day. Two five-gallon barrels served as toilet facilities. They were transferred to another ship, the Shinyo Maru, for transport to Japan, but near the coast of the Philippines the ship was sunk by an American submarine that was unaware of its cargo. That torpedo resulted in the deaths of 668 Americans. Cletis swam to shore and eventually made it home. When his mother, Virgie, saw him approach, she prayed a beautiful thanksgiving prayer and then cooked him fried chicken, his favorite meal. Continue reading Fighting World War III against a virus →

Hutchinson, Cotton attack virus threat the same

Health care

March 26, 2020

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansas’ two most prominent elected officials have backgrounds in threat assessment and response, so it’s not surprising that they wouldn’t hesitate to go to war against the COVID-19 coronavirus – and use every weapon at their disposal to do it.

Those two officials would be Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former under secretary for border and transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security, and Sen. Tom Cotton, veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Let’s start with Cotton, who recognized the coronavirus threat back when everyone in Washington was obsessed with impeachment. In late January, he was skipping parts of the trial to advise President Trump on the virus while it was still localized in China. On Jan. 28, Cotton sent a letter to members of Trump’s cabinet urging a ban on commercial flights between the United States and China. On Jan. 29, he was tweeting urgently about the threat. On Jan. 30, he called for a “Manhattan Project-level effort” to develop a vaccine, referring to the World War II effort to develop the atomic bomb. He also called the coronavirus “the biggest and most important story in the world,” saying it “could result in a global pandemic.”

Called that one right, didn’t he? Continue reading Hutchinson, Cotton attack virus threat the same →

Time not on side of just-in-time nation

Debt and deficits, Health care

March 19, 2020

By Steve Brawner
© 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

You know how personal financial planners are always telling us to save six months of living expenses in case we face hard times?

Turns out that’s good advice for a nation as well.

No one knows what the future will hold, but a Department of Health and Human Services plan, as reported by the New York Times, anticipates an 18-month coronavirus pandemic that “could include multiple waves of illness” with “significant shortages for government, private sector, and individual U.S. consumers.” Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Republican senators the unemployment rate could reach 20%.

To cushion the blow, Congress and the Trump administration are hatching plans that would exceed the bailouts of a decade ago. The number $2 trillion is being reported. Both of Arkansas’ senators, Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton, are willing to go big. Cotton on Jan. 30 called for a “Manhattan Project-level effort” to develop a vaccine – the Manhattan Project being the World War II effort to develop the atomic bomb. He gave a chilling speech Monday urging “extraordinary measures,” saying, “(O)ur hour of great national testing has arrived.” He’s introduced four bills that would provide money to individuals and businesses, including $1,000 checks to individuals making less than $100,000 annually plus $500 for dependents.

That would pay the mortgage. Meanwhile, utilities in Arkansas are saying they won’t shut off power and water for those who can’t pay their bills. Continue reading Time not on side of just-in-time nation →