Sometimes it is hard not to get disheartened | Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

…Let us put an end to the creation of yet more suffering! There is enough suffering in this world that we cannot change. Right now and already for a long time, a lunacy wave of unnecessary suffering is swashing over the world, and it seems that nobody is asking themselves, what the heck we are doing.

Photo: Pixabay

Source: Sometimes it is hard not to get disheartened | Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

Patients see first savings from Biden’s drug price push, as pharma lines up its lawyers – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Last year alone, David Mitchell paid $16,525 for 12 little bottles of Pomalyst, one of the pricey medications that treat his multiple myeloma, a blood cancer he was diagnosed with in 2010.

The drugs have kept his cancer at bay. But their rapidly increasing costs so infuriated Mitchell that he was inspired to create an advocacy movement.

Patients for Affordable Drugs, which he founded in 2016, was instrumental in getting drug price reforms into the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Those changes are kicking in now, and Mitchell, 73, is an early beneficiary.

In January, he plunked down $3,308 for a Pomalyst refill “and that’s it,” he said. Under the law, he has no further responsibility for his drug costs this year — a savings of more than $13,000.

The law caps out-of-pocket spending on brand-name drugs for Medicare beneficiaries at about $3,500 in 2024. The patient cap for all drugs drops to $2,000 next year…

Source: Patients see first savings from Biden’s drug price push, as pharma lines up its lawyers – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

US proposes UN Security Council oppose Rafah assault, back temporary Gaza ceasefire | Reuters

The United States has proposed an alternative draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and opposing a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza, according to the text seen by Reuters on Monday.
Washington has been averse to the word ceasefire in any U.N. action on the Israel-Hamas war, but the U.S. draft text echoes language that President Joe Biden said he used last week in conversations with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Source: US proposes UN Security Council oppose Rafah assault, back temporary Gaza ceasefire | Reuters

Black History Month — The First Black Voter | Filosofa’s Word

Thomas_Mundy

America’s first Black vote was cast in New Jersey

On Feb. 3, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting “the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s race, color, or previous condition of servitude” giving Black men the right to vote across the nation.

Just under a month later the first African American vote was cast in Perth Amboy, N.J. on March 31, 1870 by Thomas Mundy Peterson. 

Source: Black History Month — The First Black Voter | Filosofa’s Word

“Melancholy Sky” on Medusa’s Kitchen | Dawn Pisturino’s Blog

“Melancholy Sky” on Medusa’s Kitchen

 ON FEBRUARY 19, 2024

(Photo by Dawn Pisturino. Copyright 2012-2024 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.)

I’m pleased to announce that my photo and poem, “Melancholy Sky,” have been published today on Medusa’s Kitchen. I want to express my heartfelt thanks to Kathy Kieth for publishing them. When you visit the site, you will need to scroll down the page to find my black and white photo and poem. Thank you!

Melancholy Sky

by Dawn Pisturino

I stand alone beneath a melancholy sky,

Tears mingled with the rain.

Just a few miles around the corner.

That’s where you live.

I long to go to you. . .

Please click HERE to read the rest of the poem (scroll down the page once you get there to find it)…

Source: “Melancholy Sky” on Medusa’s Kitchen | Dawn Pisturino’s Blog

दिल का टूटन / Heartbreak  – Kaushal Kishore

 

मेरा भी दिल टूटा था एक बार, 

लेकिन मेरे उस गम से 

एक खुशी उभरी थी, 

जब एक दिल के टूटने से 

दो अन्य दिल जुड़ गए 

एक दूसरे से…

💔💔💔

I had my heart broken once, 

yet from that sorrow 

emerged happiness, 

as two other hearts 

found solace in each other 

due to one heartbreak…

*

–Kaushal Kishore  

Source: दिल का टूटन / Heartbreak  – Kaushal Kishore