Hi everyone! It's so exciting to be back. Most of you probably didn't miss me, but I thought I'd check back in before posting "real" diaries again. I've missed my friends here and my routines of checking into certain diary series, both seriously informative and socially playful. I've also gotten out of the habit of writing - how quickly that can happen! Hence, this diary, just to get myself jumpstarted.
As everything is political, I thought I'd note why it has taken me so long to replace the stolen laptop and give an update on the medical insurance aspect of my Occupy arrest in December. An easy re-entry into diary land.
Other than some reading and an occasional comment, I've been away since some time in January because my laptop and phone were stolen. Yes, the very one that all you beautiful people provided for me back in November. The process of getting from realizing it was stolen to being able to make a claim to my homeowner's insurance was slow.
Everything Public is Private
I was at an Occupy meeting in the food court of a public building: City Place in the Transportation Building. I include the link so that you might note something: this is a state-owned building yet, the website has nothing but corporate links. There is no information about management of the building and how to contact anyone about simple things such as the hours of the building and security. Just another privatized public space. It is getting harder and harder to find truly public spaces where private interests don't hold sway over how the property we all own is accessed and used. Why are our public assets being used to line the coffers of private companies? It's not just about profits for them and the ostensible "savings" in the public budget. As we've seen in protests for the past decade or so, it's a very handy way to limit our ability to exercise freedom of assembly and expression of dissent. We need to stay aware of this, so I'm now pointing out whenever there is private control over public property.
Help is Not on the Way
The night my property was stolen, there had been a little chaos as our group of 25-30 people settled into a space in the food court. When I realized that my things had been left behind in the shuffling of tables and were missing I immediately sought out a security officer for assistance. I couldn't find anyone on the floor. A manager of a local restaurant looked around for me and couldn't locate anyone, either, so he sent me upstairs to the security station. Upstairs, there was an information desk. I asked for security assistance and was told to go over to an office where I was talking to someone through a huge glass wall. I asked for help and asked if they would look at the surveillance videos. I figured they could rewind a few minutes and see what happened right away. No one offered to come help me look or to check things out downstairs. I was told that they could not look at the videos. I was informed that I had to come back the next day between 9 & 5 to make a video review request.
I was frustrated. What if the person who had my computer was still in the building? What if video would show us where the person went? Perhaps we could track the thief and recover my property? But, there was not a single effort made to assist me in any way. They didn't even pretend that that was their job. So, what's the point to security? It's clearly not to aid citizens in distress. I bet if one of the restaurant chains had experienced a theft, the response would have been different. I bet if a houseless person had fallen asleep at a table, the response would have been different. I bet if I had tried to walk into a corporate office on the second floor there would have been a flurry of activity. Just sayin'.
Any Day Now
I had family obligations outside of the city the next day, so a friend of mine offered to return to the Transportation Building and ask for the video tapes. She was told that she couldn't make the request. Only I could. I had to file a paper request. She was given the forms and got them to me through Occupy networks. I wasn't able to get into town with the forms until the end of the week (I live in Boston proper, but my neighborhood is a 45 min to an hour public transport trip away from "downtown". I am having to navigate all this city travel with a back injury, so it's all the more trying.) No one else was allowed to drop off the forms. I don't know why, since when I dropped them off, there was no processing. I handed them through the glass wall. I learned then that only a supervisor could look at the video and that I would not be able to see it myself. (What if I was able to identify the thief?) It took another week before I heard back from security. A supervisor let me know that he had seen the tapes and that, yes, my property had been stolen. He said it was a "crime of opportunity". That someone had just walked by and scooped up my stuff and left the building. Nothing to be done. (Duh.) Oh well.
During this time, I checked out whether this was a claim I could make via our household insurance. It turns out that it was, but I had to have a police report and any evidence that it had actually been stolen. So, I had had to wait for the security at the Transportation Building to review the video before I made the police report. It was nearly two weeks later, now, but I was finally able to head to the police station.
Meh, Just A Theft
When you make a report with the Boston Police, it's not like in TV shows or movies. You don't get to go inside with an officer and sit at a desk. No one offers you water or coffee and asks if you're okay. (I wasn't assaulted or anything, but still, there is no attending to you as a person.) I stood in the lobby in front of another thick glass wall and had a very awkward process with a woman - who did not identify herself and I have no idea if she was even an officer - who had hearing difficulty before introducing this sound barrier. She seemed struggle with this new-fangled thing called a computer and looked at a screen and read questions to me. When I responded to the questions she transformed my answers into the most minimalist of forms. Though I was reporting the theft of about $2,500 in property, it was clear that there would be no effort to actually investigate. If there were going to be, they would have been interested in a detailed report. This was clearly just a rote exercise. (I know. We're in a city and there are bigger fish to fry. In reality, I'm not very interested in the way our 'justice' system - punishment does not equal justice - would treat the person who stole the property, anyway, so I shouldn't care. Still, there is something dehumanizing about the casual disinterest in my plight.)
I had imagined that when I made the report I would walk out of the station with a copy of it to give to my insurance company. Apparently, I have a vivid imagination. When the reporting process was complete, the woman printed out a sheet and handed it to me. It was not a copy of the report. It was a sheet informing me that I would have to go to the Police Headquarters - in an entirely different part of the city - after the next day, if I wanted a copy. Or I could pay $5 to have a copy mailed to me.
Process? What Process?
Why, exactly, can I not get a copy of the report immediately after filling it out? I am a bit suspicious of this practice. As someone filing a complaint to the police, I would like to have an unadulterated copy of what I reported with the signature of the person to whom I reported it. Why does it have to go through some bureaucratic process before I can see it? Given that the woman taking the report couldn't hear me well and didn't even use my words, I find it troubling that I can't verify immediately and have a hard copy in my hands of what I am reporting. They could make any changes they want to it and I might not realize it. Not that my case is very important. This particular report probably doesn't mean a lot to anyone else. But, as a practice, I find it disconcerting. If I were reporting a rape, would the police get to "review" that report, without me, before I could have a copy? If I'm in a state of shock, might I miss discrepancies from what I actually reported? What if I'm reporting something that involves a police officer? Or unknowingly involves someone in another branch of our security apparatus? Was the person who took the information from me even an officer of the law? Is the officer who finally signs it going to be someone who didn't even meet me? I didn't fill the form out myself. It was typed by someone else in digital form. That makes it way too easy for it to be edited after the fact without detection. I'm no technophobe, but some things seem sensitive enough that they should be rendered in a more personalized, less mutable way.
These questions over a seemingly innocuous report about some property theft may seem paranoid, but they are triggered by lingering questions about my recent arrest process. I'd like to say more about that, but I have a trial coming up and I'm part of a group of defendants planning together how we will approach all of this, both pre-trial and in court. So, I can't discuss details without clearing it through them. Suffice it to say that I have more and more concerns about the loss of the "due" in our process.
Victim Pays Forever. To Corporations.
Ok, so I've made the police report. Two days later, I get a copy of it. I can finally file the claim with the insurance company. It took about two weeks to get the check from the insurance company. Of course, there was a deductible. $500. We've been paying for homeowner's insurance for 16 years without a claim. How much money have they made off of us? Still, there will be a $500 deductible and our rates will go up. When you're the victim of a crime, you pay. With increased insurance rates, you pay for the rest of your life. So, some dude snaps up my computer and he likely makes money selling it. And then the insurance company will make money off of that theft for as long as I must have household insurance.
Insurance companies actually have a vested interest in the perpetration of the crime. They make money if there is no crime, but they make even more, in the long run, if there is. Is it any surprise then that there is so little concern on the part of our law enforcement when it comes to stolen property? Crimes where corporations lose money or can't benefit are taken seriously. Crimes where corporations can make a profit are only noted to the degree required to justify them setting their profiteering mechanism into place.
Anyway.....
We don't have that kind of money. My ex is still unemployed, nearly a year later. We're living on Unemployment checks, a little food stamp money and the few extra bucks we earn here and there. Health insurance is costing us $1600 per month - out of the $2400 we get from Unemployment. We haven't been able to pay the mortgage in a while. Foreclosure proceedings are likely to begin in May. Two and a half months later, I have scraped enough together to replace the laptop. I still don't have a phone. Next month, hopefully.
While there was still an iPad in the house, the few times I tried to post DailyKos diaries or comments with it were painful. I learned the hard way that you have to constantly "save and preview" on an iPad, because it does not store your browser page in any kind of cache or buffer if you leave the page at all. Look for a link? Work is gone. And it's slow going to type up anything beyond a text or a tweet on an iPad. So, I've been on a forced hiatus. But, I'm back now and trying to get into the swing of things.
Occupy Boston Updates to come
I'll start writing about my Occupy Boston experiences and things I'm thinking and learning with regards to an international movement towards a just and sustainable world. I continue to contemplate the value of collective thinking versus competitive thinking. I've been involved in things such as experimenting with the Spokescouncil model for organizing actions, delving into the Decolonization/Anti-Oppression work which feels like the sine qua non of transforming our nation and improving our future, and affinity groups. I've also decided to represent myself in the trial for my Occupy Boston arrest.
Speaking of Life with Insurance
A little twist on that front: Per the doctors and an MRI, I sustained a damaged to a disc and some spinal facets during the arrest. I need treatment. The plan was to start physical therapy for a bit and then see if I required injections. A last resort might be surgery, but I'm trying my best to avoid that. However, I'm not able to start therapy yet, because, well, the health insurance company is refusing to cover the costs. Why? Because, the injury was sustained inside a police vehicle. In their relentless pursuit of avoiding to actually insure anyone's health, they have determined that this counts as an auto accident. (A new euphemism for police brutality?) They claim that it must be paid for by auto insurance. I don't own a car or have auto insurance, so I can't turn to that insurer to subrogate the claim. I will have to document the health insurance denial of coverage and write to the police directly. As you can imagine, I'm waiting on paperwork..... Meanwhile, I'm already saddled with the cost of four medical appointments and tests, including that MRI.
Just another anecdote arguing for nationalized health care. I should not have an injury to my spine languishing while private companies sort out who can best maximize their profits. This is inhumane. More and more, life with insurance feels like a life sentence.
Keeping Perspective
Through all of this, I have really missed the Witnessing Revolution work. That work helps me keep perspective. As I bear witness to people around the world who are having to face bullets and bombs and torture simply for the right to speak their political truths, I feel more connected to the vital need to stand up for our human rights here at home. Our rights are being eroded in order not just to exploit us, but to keep us from noting the harm being done around the world in our name and to stop us from standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters everywhere.
We all need to realize that it is not simply that we need to reclaim power over our government. We must wake up to the fact that corporate interests are supra-national and they know it. We must work in solidarity with people over the entire planet to counter the corporate abuse of power. Right here on this continent, we have allowed corporations to continue a centuries-long genocide of the indigenous peoples. They aren't even subtle about their extra-judicial powers any longer.
Five Lakotas on Pine Ridge Indian land in South Dakota were arrested Monday after attempting to block two tarsands pipeline trucks from entering their land. According to the Lakota activist the six-hour standoff started when the trucks refused to turn around claiming they had “corporate rights that supersede any other law.”
A woman in her 90s put her body in the road to say, "no" to the people who run these corporations with the absolute belief that their rights "supersede any other law." People in Iran have been paying with their lives for decades because corporate directors are angry that the profits from Iranian oil are not going into their pockets. You'd be hard-pressed to find any major conflict on this planet which is not driven by monied interests.
I can no longer pretend that we live in the "land of the free" or even "the home of the brave". (How brave is it to force your will onto others by having the bigger weapons or remotely killing people with drones?) Until every inch of this land is recognized by the powers that be as a "free speech zone"; until every human being is treated with dignity and afforded a sustainable life; until we stop assessing the health of our nation via the economic benefits of the few and start assessing it in terms of the well-being of every person and the ecological health of the planet; until we stop idolizing those who accumulate for themselves and start elevating those who serve the needs of others; I feel obligated to bear witness to the harm we are perpetrating around the world and to remain conscious and vocal about the need for an uncompromising commitment to our civil and human rights. I have to be willing to lay my body across the road.
Witnessing Revolution reminds me of all the people around the world willing to do so and that I am not alone. So, I hope to find a balance and start publishing some of those diaries again. I'm not good at multi-tasking, but I don't want to get so caught up in my own political struggle that I leave behind those who need witnesses even more than we do.