The Bad Penny (beta)

Hi readers. I rarely, if ever, speak directly to you on this website. Unfortunately, I’m called to do so now.

Today my doctor said my Medicaid coverage is ending, with an exact date TBD. He said the new hotshots at MAGA-controlled Medicaid have decided that my health insurance plan is not worth continuing. Thus, my years-long program involving mental-health therapy in tandem with antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications will soon be no more. The absence of that care will have immediate, deleterious, potentially fatal implications on my health and emotional well-being.

Let’s take a breather.

In November 2018, Idahoans–by a 20-plus-point margin–passed a Statewide voter initiative (“Idaho Proposition 2, Medicaid Expansion Initiative”) that expanded access to Medicaid to state residents who couldn’t afford far pricier health insurance otherwise. Before and after that transpired, I served as the Manager of a homeless shelter in downtown Boise, as the Communications Coordinator for one of the biggest Christian churches in the city, presented multiple courses at the Osher Institute for Higher Learning at Boise State University, wrote for local and state papers, wrote profiles on local Boise businesses and artists, worked for the Idaho Housing and Finance Commission, served as both the Chief Clerk and the Assistant Editor at the Idaho State Senate for one term (my first day on the job was Jan. 6, 2021), and much more.

Meanwhile, during that same time period, furious ultra-conservatives and Libertarians devised nefarious new ways to give the middle finger to the popular voters and dismantle that widely approved voter initiative. At this particular moment–feeling the walloping winds at their sails all the way from Washington–the nihilists have snatched on this potentially once-in-a-lifetime chance in furtherance of their efforts crush government in all its forms (citizens be damned).

As a freelance writer with a penchant for writing prolifically and an Achilles tendon for writing pro bono, Medicaid allowed me to pursue, for years, my calling to inform music lovers of other good music they may love, not to mention write features and tell stories about Boise culture, community events and, most importantly, community heroes who rarely get their due.

I will deeply miss all of this, and most of all you readers. Hope to see you again when I re-obtain health coverage and arrive at a place where I’m at least someone financially stable. As most of you know, I wrote 95 percent of the editorial on this website for free. That’s how much I believe in the importance of underground music, how much I’m willing to sacrifice for it. I’ve even tapped my my paltry remaining retirement funds so I could keep writing about music, but that strategy has now hit a wall too.

Hopefully this message will inspire some of you to pick up the torch for the time behind. Just please don’t get upset when I’m ready to snag it back. I have a red-hot stack of stories I’m dying to publish and hope to do so once at least some of this dust settles. Till then, don’t expect many more updates here for an undetermined length of time.

Love to all of you–especially for those who will suffer far more disastrous, horrific, and even fatal repercussions from this sick and depraved nationwide Sarlacc Pit that a sociopathic narcissist and the equally sadistic man — who also happens to be the world’s richest — are gleefully creating.

Never forget: “The Creature Lives!“