It's not easy to catch a falling star.

However you view America's last eight years, you're not likely to be fond of everything about them. If the polls can be believed, only a tiny few are comfortable with this country's situation in the world as it has evolved under W & Co.

But Barack Obama cannot simply intercept our declining arc. He must reverse it, finding a new direction for this new century, setting out plans that will create a new arc.

Here on Roosevelt Island, there is precious little we can do about Afghanistan and Iraq. We can't launch bailouts or print the required currency. We can't set plans for high-speed rail into motion or drill for oil.

But in at least two disciplines, we are far ahead of the curve.

On our east shore, north of the Roosevelt Island Bridge, Verdant Power is well along in the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy project, turning the motion of the moon into clean power. It's been a slow go to get where Verdant is now - ready to build out a field of tide-driven turbines that will help light our retreat from dependence on foreign oil, even while bringing electric power to remote jungles otherwise disconnected from modernity. This is happening here, and our Island is part of it.

But there's another opportunity that is very likely to affect us all, and upon which we can all have an effect.

As we report in our lead story, Roosevelt Island has a highly unusual health-care system in place for those who most need it - the elderly and disabled.

Dr. Jack Resnick's approach is a close connection among patients, their homes, and their health-care support system, including their physician - in this particular case, Jack himself.
* It saves money because health care at home is less costly.
* It saves lives because it means patients receive care from people tightly familiar with their needs.
* It reduces illness by keeping people out of hospitals and away from the dangers that thrive there.
* It keeps patients happier - at home, unless last-resort hospitalization is unavoidable.
* It serves patient needs better by keeping them in familiar surroundings with a feeling of personal control.
* And, to repeat, it saves money.

Barack Obama's administration-in-waiting is reaching out, asking for ideas. This is one idea that will make a lot of difference if it is seen, understood, grasped, and propagated nationally.

On December 29, you can be a part of that, by joining in the Community Health Forum that Jack is mounting at the Good Shepherd Community Center. If you have a story to tell, bring it and tell it, but bring it in writing, too, to be sure it reaches its intended audience. If you have no story to tell, come anyway and learn about this approach that could accomplish the dual purposes of reducing costs while improving care.

DL