Scott
Chisholm Lamont, BSN, RN, CCRN, CFRN, ENC(C)
is a pediatric critical care nurse and flight
nurse with over 23 years of health care experience,
including 16 years as an RN. A graduate
of the Mount
Royal CollegeNursing
Program, he has completed formal education
in trauma and cardiovascular critical care,
and holds both adult and pediatric critical
care certification. He is currently on
leave from the University
of California, San FranciscoSchool
of Nursing, where he is a doctoral student
in the Department
of Community Health Systems under the advisement
of Dr.
Jean Ann Seago. During his break he is busily
trying to get papers written for his qualifying
exams in hopes of advancing to candidacy. His
research interest is system of care effects
on patient safety, particularly the relationship
between nurses' cognitive workload and threats
to patient safety.
Prior
to beginning his graduate studies, he practiced
in Albuquerque,
NM at the University
of New Mexico Health Sciences Center as
a Specialty Nurse III at the Children's
Hospital. After working for several
years in the PICU, he headed up the Pediatric
Pain Team and worked at the Children’s
Hospital Heart Center. He also held
a joint appointment at the College
of Nursing as an Adjunct Clinical Lecturer.
He is curently back at UNM
Hospitals, serving as the Emergency/Trauma
Clinical Educator and as a pediatric clinical
instructor for the College of Nursing, teaching
senior students on their complex client rotation.
While
attending UCSF full time, Scott lived on an
island in the Bay and served as an adjunct lecturer
and clinical instructor at Dominican
University of CaliforniaDepartment
of Nursing. He maintained a clinical practice
as a per diem pediatric palliative care nurse
for a home hospice program called Comfort
for Kids, based in Pleasant Hill, Contra
Costa County, CA.
Scott
Lamont is a published poet and author, including
works in anthologies, nursing text books, and
spoken word on radio. He holds credentials as
clergy through the Covenant
of the Goddess, is the High Priest of Circle
of the Winter Moon, and teaches leadership
topics such as conflict resolution and consensus
facilitation for Ardantane.
He lives in the high desert with his wife and
daughter, and the two cats that run their lives.
A bit more
about me:
In
case there are any doubts about my political
and philosophical inclinations, here I am with
my good friend Doug Haigh at one of the first
major peace marches in San Francisco in the
period leading up to the most recent invasion
of Iraq by the Bush dynasty. You can find my
signature on both the original and more
recent Not
In Our Name "STATEMENT
OF CONSCIENCE AGAINST WAR AND REPRESSION".
I'm proud to say that I'm not the only Lamont
on there, and the Lambs and Lamberts are septs
of and therefore also members of Clan
Lamont. I have also supported efforts to
have him tried for crimes against humanity,
and to protest his administration's manipulation
of science (strikingly similar to the manipulation
of inteligence before the war, don't you think?).
So yeah, I'm a pacifist. A tree-hugging, touchy-feely,
bleeding-heart queer-boy pacifist at that. I
would like people to follow the examples offered
by the likes of Ghandi, King, and even Lester
B. Pearson, who amongst other things created
the concept of the peacekeeping force and while
Prime Minister implemented the world's first
race-free, points-based immigration system.
Oh,
yes - I am Canadian.
I
try, within the constraints of time available
to me, to keep politically and socially active.
I am a member of the Canadian
Green Party, support organizations like
the Sierra
Club and the Bioneers,
participate in interfaith diologue as a member
of the Covenant
of the Goddess, advocate for queer
rights, and volunteer for many worthwhile
causes in the Albuquerque
area. Probably one of the most important things,
in my opinion, is to try and protect the environment
we live in and depend on. To that end, my wife
Shara and I are interested in sustainability
and restoration through practices like permaculture,
intentional
community in the form of ecovillages,
alternative
energy sources, decreasing the impact of
automobiles in our lives and upon our landscape,
and alternative
building methods that use natural or reclaimed
materials and merge old and new technologies,
such as Earthships,
cob,
and strawbale.
However,
my big thing is nursing, which sort of spills
over into everything else - you know, things
like healthy homes, healthy food, healthy societies,
healthy conflict resolution. I guess I find
it hard to believe that any good can come of
shooting others full of bullet holes (including
children who wind up as "collateral damage")
when I've treated people, including children,
who have been shot. I've seen the damage it
does, and how far the pain spreads.
Perhaps being enthusiastic about starting wars
is a family trait? I wonder if Jeb will want
a crack at Iraq too? Or perhaps the twins? Maybe
the Bushes should spend some time in the ER.
March
10, 2006: Based on a request for an inservice
at UNM Children's Hospital on Pagan faiths
and their spiritual needs, I've posted
a
teaching handout on the basics of modern
Paganism. It is focused on the needs
of the dying and their families, as it
was originally presented to the pediatric
hospice program, but I may modify it to
reflect Pagan beliefs about other life
transitions.
March
2, 2006: Due in part to a conflict that
has erupted in the Albuquerque area Pagan
community, I have posted some new pages
in my spiritual section of this site,
in hopes that they might be a resource
not only to folks in my community, but
in communities anywhere that experience
conflicts. First, I've started a page
with some thoughts, tidbits, and essays
on community and how to support peaceful
and inclusive spiritual communities. Second,
I have posted a model
of communication styles based on the five
sacred elements of creation that I
developed with my friend Tehom for a course
last year.
September
16, 2005: I've posted some presentations
I've given on various nursing topics.
You can find the links here
under "Latest Pages Added" for
the nursing section.
May
26, 2005: The vastly delayed first edition
of my
nursing podcast is up and available.
The server the audio files are stored
on is a little twitchy at the moment (but
free, so within my budget), so if you
can't get the .mp3 to load right away,
try again in a few minutes.
(I've updated this link to reflect that
it now has it's own website)
May
5, 2005: I have posted an
essay on the concept of professional autonomy.
This was a concept analysis I wrote for
one of my doctoral courses on nursing
theory. It needs re-writing, but I thought
that it was still worth sharing even though
it is a work in progress.
Apr
28, 2005: I
have posted an
advice sheet I created for my students
on how to effectively study for and write
exams. I hope anyone who is faced
with writing exams finds it useful (and
it is certainly the time of year that
many are faced with exams!). I am also
working on developing a page about nursing
documentation and standardized nursing
classification language.
Apr
18, 2005: I
have posted the
graduation speech I made on behalf
of the RN to BSN grads at the UNM
College of Nursing December 2001 ceremony.
I think it has some points worth thinking
about regarding the challenges facing
nursing and nurses over the next decade.
I have also started work on the page that
will be hosting the very first nursing
podcast available on the web: The
Nursing Station. I will post here
when the first edition is ready to download.
Dec 21,
2004: Some of my published nursing poetry is up along
with a couple of related links in my
poetry section. I've also started to work on my
spirituality page, mainly getting some links up
and my clergy profile from the Witches
Voice.
Dec 1,
2004: I've posted a beginning page on consensus
process and my interest and involvement in it.
More to come.
Coming Soon:
Dec 7,
2004: I will be posting some information on nurse-patient
ratios that I found in my meta-analysis class last
quarter - look here for a note when it is up.
Wingnut
Site of the Week:
Just because
there are so many strange and tortured websites out
there, offered by people who seem to be able to merge
hysteria, misinformation, and mean-spiritedness into
incoherent, steaming piles of HTML, it seemed only
reasonable (and amusing) to offer you a link to whatever
site has caught my eye each week.
Here is
a site that delights in telling you all the reasons
you (yes, you!) will be going to HELL. I've got a
long list of them, it seems. Queers are at the top
of the list (of course), followed closely by Pagans.
Strangely enough, no mention of those who eat shellfish
or wear cotton/polyester blends. Does, however, include
a long list of descriptions and visions of HELL. I'm
not too worried, though, since I have a
way out.
What
can I say? It starts off like this: "At the command
of OUR BELOVED HEAVENLY FATHER, I, Tom Wells, loving
and obedient child of GOD, am running for Florida's
First Congressional seat in the United States House
of Representatives", and elsewhere details
who may NOT donate money to the party (hint: don't
be a fag).
Oh, yes,
white supremacy by any other name smells thusly rank.
If you're not convinced, check out their status as
a signatory to the "New
Orleans Protocol", authored by none other
than David Duke. Say no more.
This site
seems to be aimed at saving "our" children
from sex education, the "radical homosexual agenda"
(we also have a secret handshake, but I'm not allowed
to show it to you), and Islam, not necessarily in
that order. Of particular note, the author spends
plenty of time detailing the various horrible things
that the Koran says people should do, yet neglects
to mention similar exhortations in other sacred texts
(like the Bible). She also loves them gays, but despises
everything about them, and doesn't want children imitating
their behaviour - missing the obvious point that religion
itself is a behaviour, open to the exact same kind
of criticism. I certainly don't want my daughter imitating
this author.
Well,
not exactly. It really started
off as a critique of the lack of comprehensive
coverage in an MSM article on Wicca, which
is hardly surprising, since that is the focus
of the website (their slogan is "the press
just doesn't get religion"). Daniel
Pulliam, the writer of the post is a journalist
and Christian, and says in his profile that
he wants to adhere to fair treatment of all
subjects in his pieces. However, early on in
the post he pulls
a Bush and says of Wicca "if you can
call it a religion", wondering what could
possibly lead to the persecution some modern
Pagans have experienced. The core of his piece
is really asking what Wicca is, what the fuss
is all about, why doesn't the article being
critiqued have any real content about what it
is that Pagans believe and how they practice
their faith. Good questions, but not phrased
in the most positive manner.
Jason
Pitzl-Waters, Judy
Harrow, and Chas
Clifton all chime in under the comments
section with some excellent points. They also
recommend some really great books, including
some that I have read or recently purchased.
One of the more interesting threads in the comments
is whether or not Wicca or Paganism have "dogma"
- the answer I think boils down to some people
who adhere to these faiths have adopted dogmatic
stances on certain theological points, but the
faiths themselves are decentralized, and in
the broadest sense do not have a dogmatic theo/thealogy
nor a vehicle by which to promulgate it.
Here
is a little video of Wiccan images that was
posted with the article - I'm not really sure
why, unless it is because it really doesn't
say that much about what Wicca is or how its
adherents practice, which is kind of the theme
of the post. Jason points out in
a post on his blog that what Dan seems to
be looking for is the controversy - the 'wacky'
elements of Wicca - and perhaps the video is
supposed to point towards that.
On
a side note, GR also posts what I can only call
an
apologetic's approach to the Haggard thing.
Sorry, but hypocrisy is the name for loudly
and publicly condemning a group that you secretly
belong too. Offer him compassion and try to
understand how deeply conflicted he must be?
Sure, but it is still hypocrisy.
BTW
- if you would love to see some other charming
Bush quotes, click
here.
The
purpose
of this blog is to post interesting, day to
day tidbits that touch upon at least one of
the eclectic topics of my pages, ranging from
nursing to politics. I will try to avoid those
traps of the blogosphere, where this becomes
either part of an echo chamber or the posts
are so self-involved that they aren't worth
your time to read. Mainly, I am hoping to get
people to think a little, maybe challenge some
assumptions. I will also try to watch my spelling
while I'm at it.
Comments?
Thoughts? Rants about my rants? You can use
the convenient comment tabs found at the top
of each item, and I promise to read them and
to leave them up for others to read (within
reason, of course - plain old flames are boring,
and I'm not going to waste server space on them).
If you just want to say something to me, you
can e-mail
me.
Tonight
the girls and I were off to Spiral
Scouts, which meets at the local UU church.
Spiral Scouts is the alternative to traditional
scouting for children belonging to minority
religions, particularly Earth centered faiths.
I was a Boy
Scout when I lived in Montreal as a kid,
believe it or not, and really enjoyed it, but
of course now would be banned for being Pagan
and queer.
They
were working on painting the sculptures they
made the week before as part of their work for
their Art badge. I snapped a shot with my Treo
while they were setting up to do their thing
(Micaela is on the left, Rhiannon, my Goddess-daughter
is on the right). Very cute, and they are getting
quite creative with their use of colour.
If
you are interested, check out SacredSpiralKids,
a nice website with "free activities for
Pagan and Earth Spiritual children, homeschoolers,
organizers, and teachers".
The
NY Times headline reads "Studies
Find Danger to Forests In Thinning Without Burning",
and the story is basicaly that Bush's "Healthy
Forests Initiative" thinning plan (which
timber companies loved) leaves too much brush
and deadfall on the ground, resulting in hotter,
more destructive fires. This is according to
two separate U.S. Forest Service studies. So,
a policy leading to more threats to lives and
property. Hmmmm, that sounds familiar.....
Follow-up on the "Great Debate" -
audio and video posted.
So
the video and audio of my debate with an evangelical
pastor last month are now online. I actually
found these links about a week ago, and just
have not had the time to write what I wanted
to write and get it posted. I am still working
on a piece reflecting on my experience of the
interaction and my impression of one of the
major differences in spiritual approach between
Pagans (as I have come to understand them) and
evangelical Christians (as I am coming, in an
admittedly limited way, to understand them),
which will be entitled "Faith and Certainty"
- this will be linked to the post as soon as
I have it done and posted.
In
relation to my
earlier post on the debate, I now feel better
about my performance, although it is still ironic
to note how little of it was about Hallowe'en,
which was the supposed topic. Scott
Richards posted about the debate on his blog
(the site does not use permalinks, nor does
it have the capability for trackback and comments
- if you have something to say to him on the
subject, you'll
have to e-mail him directly) - scroll through
his October archives to find the entry for 10/27/06.
My
only beef with the whole thing, really, is the
over-the-top headline they used: War
of the World Views. Why did
they choose to cast this in the light of "civilizations
in collision" and the world in flames?
The Pagans certainly have no interest in creating
or perpetuating any conflict with other belief
systems, and I find the easy use of war as an
analogy or framework very disturbing, particularly
coming from a faith that follows the "Prince
of Peace". When Scott posted about the
audio file coming available, he linked to the
news
headlines of KNKT, one of at least 2 radio
stations sponsored by Calvary
of Albuquerque. I'm not sure how long it
will be posted there, so I thought that I would
post it here for posterity:
Opposing
world views clashed - in a very civilized
manner - on the UNM campus recently. Pastor
Scott Richards from Tucson Arizona and Scott
Lamont, High Priest of the Circle of the
Winter Moon, presented the different views
and philosophies behind Christianity and
Paganism. It was an enlightening hour of
debate; one that provided a lot of food
for thought for everyone in the room. Who
won the debate? Well, it wasn't so much
about winning as it was about Truth. Listen
for yourself.
Part
of the deal was going to be that the unanswered
questions were going to be sent to myself and
Scott, so that we could respond in writing,
and then those were going to be posted somewhere
online. That hasn't happened yet, and the person
I asked about it hasn't gotten back to me with
an answer. I'll post again if I hear more. Regarding
the "winning vs. Truth" bit in their
post about the debate, well, that is going to
be part of what I tackle in my upcoming post,
so stay tuned.
"Christ
Weary of Election Prayers" reads the
headline. What follows is a colourfully worded
rant about the Family Research Council's "Super-Duper
Prayer Team", which of course the Rude
One belongs to "under a nom de rude".
I like his closing suggesting that the religious
Right is beseeching a "micromanaging God
". My favourite old (and probably mangled)
quote is that "the Goddess does not take
sides in political debates or interspecies warfare".
She/He/It doesn't sweat the small stuff, and
we probably shouldn't either.
I
have to admit that I stayed out way too late
dancing at our annual SWEFA
Witches’ Ball last night. Then some
of us came back to our place and hot tubbed
until well after 2am. Add my sleep deprivation
from the night before (our covenSamhain,
which went until well into the night, followed
by Micaela getting up at something horrible
like 7am), and I am wiped. Today was our nephew
Cameron’s birthday party, and we did fondue
and a beer tasting. Some of the beer was really
good too – a new one by Unibroue
from Quebec (Don
de Dieu) that I have seen but not tried
before, some good beers by Rogue
including their tasty IPA,
and an excellent Trapist style called Trappistes
Rochefort.
The
joy of working for a modern and open environment
like UNM
Hospitals is that you get to take the day
off for religious observances without a hassle
- Shara and I are both home getting ready for
our personal Samhain
ritual, which will take place this evening after
the girl is off to bed. We don't hold our coven
Samhain until the end of the week (not everyone
gets to take the actual date off work, so we
must bow to the mundane when picking dates for
celebration - technically, if you go by the
Celtic Lunar calendar, Samhain isn't until the
eve of the full moon anyway, which is Nov 5th).
M.
Macha Nightmare sent me another great link,
this time to a San
Francisco Chronicle story on the famous
Spiral
Dance sponsored by Reclaiming
that takes place in the city by the Bay every
year. To quote Macha: "This has some photos
of Lauren Raine’s glorious goddess masks".
Thanks Macha, and a tip of the pointy hat to
you.
That’s
really what it comes down to when faced with
the problems of environmental degradation.A
WaPo article today stated that “Unchecked
global warming will devastate the world economy
on the scale of the world wars and the Great
Depression, a major British report said Monday”.
The report, which was commissioned by British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, appears to be his
"latest effort to enlist President Bush"
to the cause of addressing human activity influenced
climate change. “The author of the British
report, Sir Nicholas Stern, a senior government
economist, said that acting now to cut greenhouse
gas emissions would cost about 1 percent of
global GDP each year.”
Yet, Bush’s cronies continue to ignore
the science behind environmental protection,
and don’t even bother to be nice about
it: Another
WaPo article reports that “A senior
Bush political appointee at the Interior Department
has rejected staff scientists' recommendations
to protect imperiled animals and plants under
the Endangered Species Act at least six times
in the past three years, documents show. In
addition, staff complaints that their scientific
findings were frequently overruled or disparaged
at the behest of landowners or industry have
led the agency's inspector general to look into
the role of Julie MacDonald, who has been deputy
assistant secretary of the interior for fish
and wildlife and parks since 2004, in decisions
on protecting endangered species.” Documents
obtained through the Freedom of Information
Act revealed that MacDonald “mocked rank-and-file
employees' recommendations” and the documents
were “spiced by her mocking comments on
their work and their frequently expressed resentment”.
How charming - must be a Cheney protege.
What is the cost to the economy, and the environment
upon which it depends, when we wipe out a species?
We may not find out until it is too late. What
is clear is that the choices we make in the
forms of political and regulatory decisions
will have a lasting impact on the world our
children with live in.
Our own choices in things as simple as how we
travel will also have an impact on the state
of the world. The
NY Times reports that some companies are
trying to cash in on consumer awareness of how
their personal choices impact climate change:
“Eurostar, which runs the high-speed train
service linking London to Paris and Brussels
via the Channel Tunnel, has started running
ads in travel trade publications asserting that
a journey produces only one-tenth the carbon
dioxide emissions of a comparable flight.”
Once again, which politicians we support will
influence how likely it is that people perceive
a reasonable personal choice to exist, as all
forms of travel have some level of subsidy to
them. Airports, sea ports, roads, all infrastructure
involving travel are subsidized in many different
ways, yet rail is often the most targeted for
reduction. I remember when VIA cut its Calgary
to Vancouver service. It used to be almost as
cheap as the bus to get from Banff to Calgary,
and they had food service. It was often not
convenient in terms of timing, but the train
station was more conveniently located in downtown
Calgary. As the government cut subsidies, choices
became more limited.
"Humans
are ‘bankrupting' the environment"
cries a Globe and Mail headline. "The world's
natural ecosystems are being degraded at a rate
unprecedented in human history, and it's the
first-world behemoths doing most of the damage.
An international report compiled by the World
Wildlife Fund has studied the impact of each
nation on the environment as well as changes
in the world's biodiversity. Both parts of the
report deliver bad news. Despite having enough
natural resources to be an “ecological
debtor,” Canada came fourth on the list
of nations putting the heaviest burden on the
environment. The only countries with a worse
ecological footprint — the per capita
measurement of a nation's ecological impact
— were the United Arab Emirates, thanks
almost entirely to its carbon dioxide emissions
from fossil fuels, the United States and Finland."
The
NDP tables a bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Prime Minister's Clean Air Act is
dead in the water,” Mr. Layton said at
a press conference in Ottawa Tuesday. “With
it, pollution will go up, not down.”
So
here's the deal with preschoolers and the time
change: They don’t care about the clock.
The girl was up early, and I mean early even
with the 'fall back' taken into account. We
had forgotten completely about it, at least
until I turned on Shara's machine to scan the
news. At least we had plenty of time to get
ready for the Silver
Moon Health Services Annual General Meeting,
which we hosted here and Shara facilitated.
She is a very good Formal
Consensus facilitator. Now the girl is off
with her 'Unca' Tristan so that we have the
night off. We spent the day cleaning the house,
dealing with files, and buying paint for the
walls - can you tell we are married with small
child? At least we got to watch an episode of
'Battlestar
Galactica' tonight (we are enjoying it hugely)
before posting a quick note on the way to bed.
Our
bedroom - 3, with one a double, then the mini
one beside Shara's side of the bed.
Living room - 3, one being a built in wall unit
and the other some huge IKEA monstrosity.
Dining room & Kitchen - we used to have
a big one, now the books are scattered on various
shelves and the top of one wine rack.
Micaela's room - one, already hideously overcrowded.
Temple room - one, underfillled.
My office - 3 plus a half wall hanging set,
completely stuffed.
Storage unit - 3 destroyed in the move, with
boxes full of books longing for a home.
Yeah,
that article pretty much nailed it. We are at
about 15 shelves full, almost but not quite
as bad as the person interviewed who had 19.
So,
with much effort I have finally gotten my RSS
feed fixed. It has taken a long time because
when I screwed it up (remember, I'm coding this
stuff all by hand, no fancy software to help
me out), I just didn't have the time to go redo
it. So I would post, and that would take my
free time, and so the feed would get further
and further behind, until it became an unreasonably
big job to deal with. Well, I finally dealt
with it.
I'm
also trying to get listed on more directories.
Today I listed myself on Directory
2.0 with the following tags: Politics, Religion,
Queer, Opinion, Healthcare, Nursing, Environmentalism,
Wicca, Pagan, & Poetry. It has to be reviewed
by a human before showing in their listing.
Sigh. It takes too bloody long to find all these
listing sites and then get added.
While
I'm in whining mode, this has been a clunky
from the get-go, so my 10 am post got up at
about 8 pm. I really have to invest in some
software to help this process along. Either
that, or hire someone to code for me (yeah,
and win the lotto while I'm at it...).
I
use queer a lot because as Callie says
in the post: "queer connotates challenging
or questioning the status quo. In that
sense, anyone can be 'queer.'" I
have many friends in the Radical Faery
community, and would say I am at the fringe
of that group (amusingly enough, I'm way
too straight to be fae, where I once thought
that I was, as on poster above put it,
from Pluto), and that is a group that
delights in being queer. It includes many
under a big umbrella, so in my posts I
will often refer to 'queer rights' or
'queer folk'.
If
precision is needed, then I say I'm bi
and polyamourous,
which interestingly enough buys me more
conflict from within the queer community
than without. I've gotten
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