Bobert- It is right that you should share your anger, and politicize the situation. Maybe when enough of us peons get mad enough, something will be done. Maybe the powers that be will drop a few more crumbs, so the average Joe can die without bankrupting his grandchildren.

This shell game we call capitalism can't go on forever. I now pay over $500 monthly for sucky health insurance. I can't afford a new car. My disposable income is all sucked into gasoline, electicity and heating. And a limited amount of food. I even have to buy my drinking water because our local drought has left our town unable to provide water that doesn't taste like frog shit.

I think the recent corporate scandals, like Enron, etc. may have enlightened a few folks, (e.g., the ones no longer with any provision for retirement). But I fear that number is far too few, for now.

The upper class won't change. Why should they? WalMart is now America's largest employer. But those folks who sell you popcorn and vacuum cleaners make an average of $250 a week! How can they afford to get sick? Or buy a goddam Ford?

Sure, I know a lot of people will say, "I've educated myself, I'm a goddam civil engineer, or a fucking good accountant. I'm voting Republican, because they've feathered my nest.

Well guess what. I've educated myself as well. I am a registered nurse, who might have to care for your mother who inhaled her pearls. And I'm pissed off that I can't afford the level of care she gets for my own children. Folks like you are living in a dreamland. You are actually only one rung up the ladder from me, and the time is coming when you will be faced with some of the choices "the underpriveliged" have had to make for years.

It seems to me, America was founded with the help of slavery, and it hasn't changed much. The blacks just got the right to join the rest of us bottom three fourths of the population of the United States.

Enough rant. Bobert- Hospice could be a good thing, but it's not practical in all cases. It seems to me you are well aware it can be difficult, physically and emotionally. I am a nurse. And if I know my fellow nurses, I think you can rest assured that your father will receive good care, even if it is in the corridor. Nurses are worked to a frazzle these days, but our priorities tend to be straight. Dying folks, and their families, deserve extra consideration, and usually get it. Thanks and good luck, BlueJay