Liberal Lenses

There I was, enjoying a mainstay of my childhood, the Sundance Channel's "Gilligan's Island" marathon, and decided to put my Liberal Lenses on.

Liberal Lenses are lenses that one uses to judge past events by today's PC standards. For instance, we now realize, as a society, that the "N" word is an abhorrent word and we don't even say it in our thoughts because of the history of using said word when putting down an entire race of people, regardless of their contribution to society. But because said word is in a few pieces of American literature, many want said literature banned because it contains that abhorrent language. Those that condemn the literature are wearing Liberal Lenses as it was once perfectly fine for free Americans to say that word.

Now back to the Sherwood Schwartz classic TV show. Just as many of today's profanity  laden entertainment would NEVER pass 1960's censorship, "Gilligan's Island", would never make it past today's PC Police. With the many stereotypes (all natives are cannibals, all wealthy people are snobs, all movie stars are glamorous, the 2nd in charge is always an idiot, etc.) and lack of diversity (where's the token Hispanic? African American? Asian?) it would certainly end with the pilot, IF the pilot had even been allowed to have been filmed.

And THAT'S the problem with Liberal Lenses. Does that make it okay to make today's entertainment using yesterday's guidelines? No. Because the 'N' word DOES harm many in our multicultural society. But it doesn't give anyone carte blanche to put Liberal Lenses on EVERYTHING. Because then our multicultural society is denied knowing our history, how far we've come and how much farther we've yet to go.

That Damned SPACE!

     Unless you have a last name that begins with Mc or Mac, you can't understand the pain of the SPACE. 

      I've spelled my last name McMahan, without a space for the past 55 years or so, since I learned how to write it. But when mom got our Social Security cards when we were kids, there was a space between the little 'c' and the second M. My younger sister warned me that there was ALWAYS a space there, even though I never paid attention. It was no problem in the analog age. But in the digital age, THAT DAMNED SPACE is the difference between my vote being counted or not, whether I'm called to jury or not - my previous doctor let them know 10 years ago that I was disabled and unable to sit all day for jury duty but that was without THAT DAMNED SPACE, so I was summoned again, it's the difference as to whether I can get into my bank account and every other legal document known to mankind. My birth certificate has my first name spelled differently than the way it's spelled on my Social Security card and my Driver's License. If those three documents can play well in the sandbox, why can't the federal government just leave THAT DAMNED SPACE alone?

     For the past two years, since my healthcare group decided to drop United Healthcare, it's been HELL trying to find Medicare Advantage health insurance that will accept my healthcare group. After spending hours on the phone last November and December trying to find insurance to satisfy both entities, an insurance agent contacted ME. A mere 2 hours later and I was enrolled with United Healthcare again. The agent assured me that they accepted my healthcare group. I received my card in the mail mid December. I didn't pay attention to it since it didn't kick in until January, and put it in my wallet forgetting about it. When I purchased my first medications with the card, I noticed it had a different healthcare group on it, one where only 1 of my TEN doctors (i'm getting older. I have a doctor for every condition.) would be accepted because he's the ONLY endocrinologist in the county. I kept reminding myself to call United Healthcare and have them send me a new card with the correct information on it. I finally did that and found out that my healthcare group and United Healthcare don't like each other. ARGGGGHHHHH! I now had to find an insurance company that did work with my healthcare group or I'd be once again be fined for not having insurance, even though I pay for Medicare A&B. 

     Part of the reason it was so hard to find insurance in November and December of last year was THAT DAMNED SPACE. The person I'd talk to would forget the space and erroneously tell me that this or that insurance accepted me, when, in fact, they didn't. But I'd not find out about that until an hour and a half into the phone call. Then I'd call the insurance and have the SAME issue. All because of THAT DAMNED SPACE! When someone on Nextdoor suggested I contact a friend of hers who would find insurance for me, I told the lady on the phone about THAT DAMNED SPACE. She said she wasn't able to fill out the information with the space there. I was flummoxed. How would the insurance go through without THAT DAMNED SPACE? She had to sign me up in person because this particular insurance thought it was 1985 instead of 2025 and the application had to handwritten and faxed over. She still didn't use THAT DAMNED SPACE, yet it went through. I just hope that my doctors will accept this insurance without THAT DAMNED SPACE because there's no other insurance that will accept my Healthcare group and my ten doctors. I'll find out tomorrow as I go to my first appointment (I have 3) with the new insurance, sans THAT DAMNED SPACE.