Benefit art auction for Hayley Barker (1 Viewer)

Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
My daughter, Hayley Barker, is an artist and a teacher at Pacific Northwest College of Art. This summer she was suddenly stricken with cancer and had surgery. She's doing well, but could use help with the bills as she cannot teach this term. Friends in the northwest art community are holding a benefit art auction for her. Take a look here:

http://www.32auctions.com/organizations/2208/auctions/2411?page=1

Hayley's website:

http://www.hayleybarker.com/hayley_barker/hayleybarker.html

And, she has a big, favorable review in the new issue of Art In America. It's in print but not yet on line.
 
Yeah, I'm happy that Hayley is past the worst part and that the future is bright.

She'll be back teaching soon. Hopefully they are able to raise some money to get her through in the mean time.

Bill
 
Rekrab said:
she has a big, favorable review in the new issue of Art In America. It's in print but not yet on line.
Click to expand...
Now it is.

barker.jpg
 
it all depends on what state you are in and your job. There are no national guarantees and with the tea baggers taking over the republican party they are doing there best to make sure that anyone that cannot work will be thrown to the wolves.

Funny that most tea baggers are evangelical christians. Very compassionate of them, really.

Bill
 
She's lucky to have good health insurance, so the main problem is if she's not working, she's not getting a salary. Some jobs have sick leave, but it accrues slowly and can be used up quickly by a major illness. Many people here in the U.S. have no benefits at work: no health insurance, no vacation or sick leave, nothing -- especially part timers. It's a harsh system. The teabaggers would have us all working as slaves building their pyramids, or dying in debtors prisons. They're "Christian" like I'm a New York Time bestselling author.
 
I have short term disability insurance (I pay monthly) and long term disability (Paid by my employer). If I got sick or hurt, they pay me as long as I'm out. This could go for years.
 
if i get hurt and can't work, i'm fucked. out of a job (they will fire me if i can't work for more than a month), out of my apartment, no more health insurance once i'm fired, etc. in the US, when things are good (which they are now, more or less), you still have to live with the reality that they're really only one accident from turning to shit almost overnight.

edit: by "when things are good" i meant "when things are going well for you." i certainly wouldn't agree that "things are good" in the US now. the right wing has all but succeeded in its goal of convincing people that everything the government does is pure evil, and they are better off entrusting their entire well-being to corporations, which we all know act ethically in every situation all of the time.
 
I wish your daughter all the best with her recovery, I think most people know what a long term struggle cancer is.

It does sicken me that in so-called developed countries you find citizens having to fundraise to cover their needs when they get sick. I've also read too many articles of late about patients being denied life saving medication because it's too expensive (despite evidence that shows cuts could be made in other areas to free up the funds). There is an underlying (misguided) belief in the western world that the parties on the Right are the ones who can bring about economic stability. What scares me is what policies will sneak in as a result of governments using the economic problems to squeeze through their own ideologies/agendas (in England this would be the privatisation of everything, including our health system, and forcing anyone who can open their eyes into work).
 
In America, we are expanding the income gap. Less "haves", but they have MORE. More "have nots" and they have less. Less and less people in the middle. We are working to emulate the caste system of India.
 
There aren't many governments in the world who are genuinely looking to address that issue though, are there? Hugo Chavez comes to mind, but the western media will say anything to convince us he's ruining Venezuela. He built a cable car system to provide free transport for the poor- I mean, how cool is that! I know some will point to the inherent problems with taking land from private companies and redistributing it to co-operatives, but at least he's trying. If it wasn't for their massive oil reserves then the west probably wouldn't give a shit anyway.

I'm not Hugo Chavez by the way!
 
Thanks for all your good wishes for my daughter. If you haven't, please take a look at the auction. There are some low cost bargains there. I'm without health care insurance myself. I had good coverage, paid for by my employer, but was laid off and the health insurance went with the job. I could have bought in at $1200 a month for me and my wife, but couldn't afford that, so now I'm shopping for cheaper insurance, and hoping we stay healthy.
 
Sorry for taking over the thread there David, these things just wind me up. Health care should be a right, not a luxury. I wish you both all the best.
 
Don't want to get all mushy here but I've a good deal of affection for Rekrab. Enjoy his poetry and fiction (plus non-) and postings here. Don't know him personally but have this sneaking suspicion he's a damn good soul and the type of father a child would be lucky to have (a good wife I suspect doesn't hurt). I read the initial post in this thread several days ago and it really bothered me - enough so I couldn't post anything. Good to hear she's doing well and hopefully the worst is behind her.
 
Hi stav, I really appreciate the mush. I make a lot of harebrained comments here, and at times I think you all must think me a goofball. It's good to know that some of you realize there's a real person behind the wacky early morning posts. This past summer was the most difficult period of my life so far. It seemed like everything that could go wrong did. But when Hayley suddenly got sick, all the other problems fell away from me. Instantly they lost their power. We would get through them somehow, but how would we get through this? She had a very serious, life-threatening condition, and emergency surgery was required. That week was hell, waiting for the news. We were very very lucky. The form of cancer she had is hard to detect and is usually fatal because it's caught too late. Her's was caught very early, and the doctors believe they got it all and it had not spread. She's had a zillion tests since then and has come up cancer free. Okay, suddenly it's the best summer of my life. Now I'm getting weepy so I better stop or I'll be telling Stephen Hawking he's full of shit.
 

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