Peter's Place

February is American Heart Month , a federally designated event designed to remind Americans to focus on their hearts and encourage them to get their families, friends. and communities involved. As anyone who has supported or followed US Senator Bernie Sanders knows, the costs associated with healthcare in the United States continue to skyrocket , while the outcomes of that care continue to decline . It's gotten so bad that major corporations are forming their own healthcare networks to help keep costs down. The American Heart Association (AHA) provides the following facts that confirm our nation's declining health and broken healthcare system: Graphic from the Go Red for Women campaign of the American Heart Association showcasing fact that heart disease is the #1 killer of women in the USA Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, remains the leading global cause of death with more than 17.9 million deaths each year. This amounts to 2,300 Amer...

I feel as though I've just given birth but, as I'm 100% biological male, I know that's an impossibility in our reality. I've had this feeling on a near-daily basis for the past twelve months. I feel as though my normal life has become amplified, like how a headache amplifies into a migraine. That is to say, I've been taking care of my mother, who on top of her ongoing health issues was diagnosed with her fourth round of breast cancer at the beginning of last November, supporting my sister with her four daughters (the eldest of whom I've  previously written about is very special needs), helping my father (who's recently moved back to the area) launch a new business, and once in a while squeeze in an appointment or two for my own health needs that are ever-growing in this cosmic journey we're all in together as we swirl around through space on a water-covered rock orbiting around a giant blob of hydrogen and helium entwined in a fusion reaction we call ...

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At 9am today, 68 year-old West Hartford resident Sujitno Sajuti must check in with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at JFK Airport in New York City to be deported back to his home country of Indonesia—a land he hasn't seen in nearly 40 years. A practicing Muslim, Sajuti has no ties to any family there, no assets, no anything. Mr. Sujitno Sajuti I have been living here for almost four decades—nearly forty years, more than half my life. If I am sent back to my native country, I wouldn't even recognize it. I have nothing there, I know no one. All my assets are here, in this country. I would have no money, no house, no retirement, no income, no jobs, no pension, no family, no friends, no medical, nothing. I would be an outcast, due to my failure [in completing my PhD program]... I would not be able to help anyone, as I do here. My wife and I enjoy, so much, helping people in our community. I could not work, due to forced retirement age. I would be useless, ju...