My first post on Personal Accountability will be about ways we can help others. How does helping others translate into "personal" accountability? Nearly every religion on this planet includes some proverb or prescription about feeding the poor or helping those in need. If you ask me, it's a very endearing characteristic of humans - the ability to look beyond our own needs and help others who may not survive otherwise.

This is a guest post by Dr. Joshua Freeman, a family physician, educator and author of the blog, Medicine and Social Justice. As we wait to see if the President’s health reform bill passes, it is a good time to review the actual core reasons why we need health reform. I believe that this will help ground us, and allow us to evaluate both whatever finally passes, and help us ignore the political posturing and maneuvering that distract us from them.