Tidbits for December 12, 2011

1. Announcing Formation of Occupy History
2.  Take a Stand for Voting Rights
3. Commentary on So Chemotherapy Does Work, After All by Orac
4. Obituary for Leonard Joseph Fichtenbaum

===

1.
Mon, 12 Dec 2011
From:	Jesse Lemisch
Announcing Formation of Occupy History

Inspired by the creativity and strength of Occupy Wall
Street and the Occupy movement around the world, Occupy
History seeks to add its voice in support of those
speaking out against and demanding solutions to growing
injustice and inequality, both economic and social. We
encourage historians to work to build the discussion
beyond inequality and injustice to include the history
of the struggle for equality and justice and the
changes needed in our countries' governments.

In addition to showing our support for the Occupy
Movement, Occupy History plans to provide resources to
the Occupiers. Locally we would like to be a resource
Occupiers can go to for speakers and discussion
leaders. On our website we plan to provide resource
pages with book and film recommendations Occupiers can
use for educational purposes.

We hope to develop a list of films, or perhaps the
films themselves, that could comprise a film festival
of the history of progressive political movements in
America and around the world.

To learn more about Occupy History, including how you
can participate, please visit our website at
occupyhistoryna.wordpress.com.

==
2.
From: Carl Bloice
Date: December 12, 2011
Subject: Take a Stand for Voting Rights
	
Our nation is in the midst of the most aggressive
attempt to roll back voting rights in over a century.

A century ago, the target was the voting rights of
Black voters and other voters of color. The goal was to
eliminate their presence at the polls to accelerate the
spread of racial segregation.

Today, the target is the voting rights of Black,
Latino, Asian American and Native American voters, as
well as students and young people, seniors, working
women, and immigrants of all colors. These are also
among the voting demographics who are most likely to
support workers rights, equal opportunity, women's
rights, LBGT rights, environmental protection, and
peace.

Voter suppression is un-American no matter what form it
takes. On December 10, 2011--International Human Rights
Day-- Twenty -five thousand people gathered to march and
rally at the United Nations to say no more. Check out
the video highlights:

http://www.stand4freedom.org/pages/video-highlights

Please take a stand against voting rights attacks in
your community. Join me as we Stand For Freedom.

===
3.
Date:  	Mon, 12 Dec 2011
From:  	Annabeth Karson 
Subject: Commentary on So Chemotherapy Does Work, After All by Orac

Dear Editor,

I appreciate the excellent quality of the articles I
receive from Portside Moderator. However, the article
"So Chemotherapy Does Work, After All" is disturbingly
out of character. Orac may be supplying valuable
medical information but the comments about alternative
medicine are biased and misinformed. If Orac can be so
misinformed about alternative medical modalities, then
I cannot trust this source for any medical information.

In the 1980's I worked as a clinician at the Holistic
Medical Center in Lexington, KY. The Center was
directed by Dr. Walt Stoll, a brilliant holistic
physician.  Our patients were regular folks who had
illness that couldn't be treated by mainstream
medicine. Many of these people were severly ill and
unable to function in their lives. Some were dying. We
used a team approach and created holistic treatment
protocols. Amazingly, most of our patients got well.
Within weeks or months of beginning treatment, I saw
people of all ages regain their health and resume their
daily activities. This experience forever changed my
view of medicine.

Every year, the Kentucky Medical Association would look
for a way to shut Dr. Stoll down, trying to present him
as a quack. Every year, he would spend enormous amounts
of time defending himself. Finally, around 1987, he was
accused and found guilty of prescribing a medication to
treat a condition other than it was normally prescribed
for, to a patient in another state. The treatment was
not harmful, the patient was fine, and the case had
nothing to do with holistic medicine. But the KMA
publicized the case and eventually Dr. Stoll's
reputation was impacted. Our patient load decreased,
clinicians were let go, and finally the doors were
closed. Patients with "untreatable" conditions lost the
possibility of finding help.

Has anyone on your staff investigated why there are so
many alternative medical centers in Tijuana, Mexico? 
Here's a very simplified version of what I've heard and
read several times: A MD or DVM in private practice
happens to discover a natural treatment for cancer or
other life-threatening disease.  He/she is getting
excellent results and word spreads. The AMA steps in
and tells the practitioner to stop using the treatment
or expect legal consequences.  The practitioner fight a
battle, loses, shuts down, and eventually opens a
center in Tijuana.  Sometimes, years later, a
pharmaceutical company produces a watered down and
minimally effective version of the treatment, marketed
as a new discovery.

I visited Tijuana and I've read about some of the
therapies used there. Some of the treatments appear to
be very effective and some do not.  Until funding is
committed to support unbiased research into alternative
cancer therapies, physicians and cancer patients have
no objective way to evaluate which alternative
treatment is likley to be effective for a particular
type of cancer, at a particular stage.

In addition to misrepresenting alternative medicine, in
the concluding paragraph Orac is blatantly misleading
with regards to the impacts of chemotherapy. "In order
to save that one- third, we have to treat most women,
who segregate into three groups: those who would have
done well without chemotherapy, who are treated
unnecessarily; those who would do poorly regardless of
chemotherapy, who are also treated unnecessarily; and
those for whom chemotherapy is the difference between
life and death."

The above statement disregards the important 4th group:
"would have done better if they had not received
chemotherapy; those who are harmed, with no benefit." 
The short-term and long-term side-effects of
chemotherapy are the main reason it is so
controversial. The auther appears to ignore the
foundational dictate of medicine: First, do no harm.

My final concern is political.  Orac's view supports
the pharmaceutical industry's continued control over
the U.S. health care industry. The pharmaceutical
industry is the largest lobby in Washington and is an
arm of the corporate right. I believe that publishing
material that supports the corporate right is counter
to Portside's aim: "to provide material of interest to
people on the left that will help them to interpret the
world and to change it."

Please continue to do your great work. And please be
savvy when it comes to biased authors.

Thank you,

Annabeth Karson, LMT, RN, BSN

===
4.
Obituary for Leonard Joseph Fichtenbaum

Submitted by Carl Bloice 

Leonard Joseph Fichtenbaum (Leo) born on June 7, 1924,
the son of Helen and Jack Fichtenbaum died on November
27, 2011. He is survived by his loving wife Myrna,
three children Rudy, Heidi and Carl and their
respective spouses Bonnie, Antonio and Mary Beth. He
was also the proud grandfather of Nicholas, Alexis,
Andres, Eric, Diego, Walter, Jeremy and Adrienne.

As a teenager and a member of the Young Communist
League, he was active in the struggle to free the
Scottsboro Boys and helped to organize the fur workers.
He fought to end fascism during World War II. As an
infantryman he landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on
June 7, 1944, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, then
liberating a concentration camp. He was then appointed
Mayor of a city in occupied Germany and remained in the
Army until his honorable discharge at the end of the
War. Under the GI Bill, he attended City College of New
York (CCNY) graduating with a degree in history. While
at CCNY he was active in a variety of struggles for
social justice including the fight to free Willie
McGee. He worked as a machinist until he was
blacklisted during the McCarthy period.

He returned to school getting an MSW from the
University of Connecticut. After graduation he was
employed as psychiatric social worker at the Clifford
Beers Child Guidance Clinic. Later he worked as a
social worker and community organizer at the
Connecticut Mental Health Center, while earning a
Masters in Public Health from Yale.  He was very active
in many civil rights campaigns and was part of the
anti-War movement, protesting the war in Vietnam. As a
community organizer he spearheaded the fight to prevent
lead poisoning, committing civil disobedience to bring
attention to the problem in young children,
particularly in the African American community. He was
also active in leading the movement to desegregate the
public schools in New Haven. He helped found the
National Alliance Against Racist and Political
Repression and was active in the movement to Free
Angela Davis, and the Reverend Ben Chavis and the
Wilmington 10.

In 1970 he moved to St. Louis where he worked for two
neighborhood health centers, Yeatmann and Union Sara
and was an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Community Medicine at St. Louis University until his
retirement in 1986. In St. Louis he fought against
police brutality in the African-American community and
against the closing of Homer G. Phillips Hospital. He
campaigned for the release of prisoners unjustly jailed
and for justice in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

For more than fifty years, he was a member of the
Communist Party and was an ardent fighter for labor
rights, social justice, peace and human rights.

Wherever he went he touched the lives of others. He was
a courageous man who fought like hell to make the world
a better place for his family, friends and all of
humanity. He cared deeply for his wife Myrna who was
his lifelong partner and was a fierce defender of his
family taking great pride in their achievements. He was
a generous man, always willing to share what he had
with others. He had a great sense of humor and his
laughter was contagious. Throughout his lifetime, he
raised his voice for the concern of others and stood
fast to his ideals and left the world a better place.
Although he is gone his legacy remains.

___________________________________________

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