Whatever happened to bipartisanship?

Years ago, we frequently saw examples of bipartisanship in legislation and policy.  Our country had a bipartisan foreign policy that, at its core, continued from administration to administration with small changes and tweaks.
In recent years the opposite is true.   Each administration seems intent on erasing a predecessor administration's record.   Candidates bluster about all the stuff they will do on Day 1.  Especially amusing since Day 1 is Inauguration Day.   They mean Day 2, but Day 1 is more dramatic.

At an administrative level, this means that the US is more unpredictable for foreign policies.   We always had an element of unpredictability but now it may mean reversals as much as continuity.

In domestic policy, we have been seeing various phenomena resulting from the collapse of bipartisanship.   On the one hand, we see gridlock, the most dominant characteristic.   We also discover that our political parties, especially the current Republican Party, have such great differences within them that they have created a new kind of gridlock.    

The opposition party has increasingly become less a partner than an outsider.   The fact that a health bill could be legislated in the House of Representatives without consulting the Democrats is symptomatic.  

Everyone agrees that the Affordable Care Act can be improved, but the language of "repeal and replace' is the language of destroy and replace.    Not fix, but demolish, before rebuilding.   I have not read the bill passed by the House (neither have a lot of House members) but it has a lot of the Affordable Care Act in it despite the rhetoric.

The Senate, with its customary sense of being the "superior" chamber, despite co-equal status, has said it will create its own bill.

The drama will continue.   But it is a good example of the collapse of bipartisanship.

The other pending issue - tax reform - will doubtless demonstrate the same tendencies when its turn comes.

The collapse of bipartisanship affects all of us on a daily basis but what it does internationally to the image and status of the United States has not yet been fully assessed.

Surviving an Injury (or Illness) with Grace and Humor

 Surviving an Injury (or Illness) with Grace and Humor    Norma Noonan

Whether young or old (and especially as we age), we all experience an injury or illness that can disrupt or change our lives.   I suffered a serious injury in the summer of 2016 in an auto accident.   Besides bruises over much of my body and a giant hematoma on my left thigh, my right leg was fractured in two places: the tibial plateau (which required surgery) and the top of the foot which did not require surgery but needed a long time to heal.  

I was in the hospital and rehab for one month and in a wheelchair at home for another month (unable to put weight on my right leg) and then slowly began to walk again with a walker and later a cane.   Now I walk without assistance.

One learns many lessons including patience during the long recovery period.  I had wonderful care in the hospital and rehab and had to exercise even though I could not put weight on the leg.  I learned how to use a walker (I had previous surgery in which I used a walker without learning how to use it). 

I learned a lot about people’s kindness since I had many visitors in the hospital and at home over the months of my recovery.    There was much to learn about gratitude, both that I had survived the accident and that people (family and friends) were so helpful. 

I went from wondering “why me?” to accepting that we all have a cross to bear, and this would be one of mine since I have a permanent reminder in my leg (in the form of a piece of metal shaped like a flagpole with little banners). 

But, I also learned the grace of good humor.   In the early months I had to repeat the story of the accident countless times, while wishing that I did not have to tell the tale again and again.   But, of course, people are curious, and they were hearing it for the first time whereas I was telling the story for perhaps the 100^th time.  

Eventually, however, some humorous incidents struck me.  In November (3 months after the accident) the young PA who saw me in her office announced that I could drive.   At that time, I was walking slowly with a walker, could get into the passenger side of only lower-slung cars (and then only backwards), and had a painful right ankle and foot swollen two-three times its normal size and unable to respond quickly.   How was I to drive with my recovering right leg?      Clearly a 25 year old does not understand fully the healing process.   It was several months more before I felt the leg was strong enough to drive.

Perhaps even funnier are the questions I get about whether the metal implant in my leg will be removed.   I point it that it is holding my tibia in place under the knee and will never come out.    This is perhaps the funniest of all the questions since implants generally are never removed.    Another friend, confusing my situation with knee replacement surgery, commented that my knee should feel better after the surgery.  I keep telling her that there was nothing wrong with my knee before the accident so how can it feel better afterward when it was fine beforehand and now has an implant.

Another statement (or question) is:  it doesn’t hurt anymore, does it?    Well, does a  surgically repaired leg ever feel normal?    If I walk too much or stand too long, it aches at night.  There is almost never a time when it feels normal (that is, as it did before the accident).   It feels strange when I sit, when I stand, and when I move.

I sometimes quip in response to the question:  does it hurt?   Only when I move.

I feel certain that others, who have had major surgery on any part of the body involving permanent implants, get similar questions and have a similar reaction.

For those of us who have endured long illnesses or serious injuries, we have to have the grace to say – well, no, it does hurt a little, but I will live with it.     It takes a little time to see the humor in these well-meaning but peculiar questions, but that is life.