Next Meeting - July 18, 2017, Tuesday noon, at the Coliseum Bar & Restaurant, as usual. The speaker will be 2nd Vice District Governor CONRAD DREYER. We do not know specifically what his “presentation” will be, but an old WWII piece of USAF slang comes to mind: “The Poop From Group.” It will be interesting to hear what the current hot items from International, Multiple District (State), and District 27D-1 are.

As an aside, we are a part of Multiple District 27, usually referred to in casual conversation as “State.” In Wisconsin that's correct, because the boundaries of the District are the boundaries of the state. But that's not always true, because some Multiple Districts include Clubs from more than one State or Province, and in some places even more than one country. Now you know.

Our “Summer Social” is set for Tuesday, August 1, at Vitense GolfLand, located at the intersection of the West Beltline and Whitney Way (on Schroeder Rd, south side of the Beltline.) Note that there will NOT be a usual noon meeting. Start time for the Social is 5:30 PM, and of course 9-hole golf is available in the afternoon. If you have an excess of competitive spirit, but limited real golf skills, there are three miniature golf courses to play a-round on. We have a room with access to outdoors if the weather's good, and a roof and windows if it's not. LINDA BERGREN most likely will have details at the upcoming meeting, but there will probably be some kind of “finger food” and the bar is next door.

Our Bags Tournament, which was scheduled for July 15, did not occur, because we had only one team preregistered before the event, unlike last year when there were a number of advance entries. Event chairman KEVIN OLSON is hoping to take another shot at it sometime this Fall. You WILL be asked to volunteer, in some capacity.

At our last meeting, which seems very long ago, because it was, the “Man For All Reasons” SCOTT GROVER opened the meeting with the usual bell clang. We had reminders about our Social and a couple of other events now passed, and preliminary for “Stuff The Bus”, which is scheduled for Aug. 12. Volunteers, please, as usual.

GAIL STIRR introduced our speaker, Dr. Joseph Eichenseher, from the UW and an organization called Physicians for National Healthcare Program. The current national debate has highlighted many of the difficulties in obtaining “Health Care For All”, and he discussed some of the alternatives to our current US system. Some are socialized medicine, under which the government owns and operates the medical clinics, hospitals, etc. as in England, the European system of payment by nonprofit organizations, and “single payer” whereby the government pays the providers directly, as practiced in Canada and Taiwan. All seem less confusing than our tangle of hospitals, clinics and doctors, mostly private and for profit, with some direct patient payment, some from “insurance” plans administered by insurance companies, and some government direct payment, thru Medicare and Medicaid. The arguments and opinions on these various issues are way too complex to be covered in the Lions Tale, but it was an interesting and informative session. The simple fact that there is a group of real life doctors who think there is a need for improvement in the current US system is attention-getting in itself.

The Editor will content himself with two personal observations. One, our present system is not really insurance (textbook quote “spreading the misfortunes of the few among the many”) but prepaid health care, which is a completely different matter. Two, another old adage quote “he who pays the piper calls the tune” meaning that what the system does to provide care is controlled by the party, government or otherwise, who pays the bill.