Watching opponents of health care revel in their ability to stall reform is troubling and heart breaking. I am totally puzzled how so many can stand so aggressively and with such callousness against helping their fellow citizens.
We all know people who are hurting these days and many of us have seen friends die because of lack of, or poor health care. It is confounding to me to see a segment of our population rail against assisting the sick amongst us, while they bellow out in their healthy state, how doing so would bring an end to democracy as we know it. They lecture us all about the evils of socialism while a huge percentage of them are on, or soon will be on Social Security and Medicare. They have the nerve to call those of us who have seen friends denied health care and die as a result, “un-American”.
I was raised to believe that helping the less fortunate was the right thing, and yes, even the most American thing you could do. That is who we are as a people. We answer the call when people need us, and yet now we hear if we were to do what is in our National DNA, help the less fortunate, we are going to destroy the Country.
Here is my challenge to all you who fear health care for your fellow citizen because it represents the next great “Red scare” in your paranoid minds. If you really believe your cruel rhetoric, do not drive on another road or highway because it’s the evil government who builds and maintains these thoroughfares for you to travel on. Do not board another train as most are subsidized by local, state and federal government. Do not ever take another plane flight anywhere, as every single airport built in this nation has been built by the government for the peoples use. Bet you never realized you were stepping into a government building every time you took a plane flight did you? While you’re exercising your resistance to “socialism, do not use another National Park, as we decided a long time ago the U.S. Government was the keeper of vast lands that would have otherwise been destroyed by your loving corporations.
I have discovered how difficult it is to watch healthy people complain about sick people getting care. I refuse to let those without compassion walk all over the rights of our fellow citizens who need us the most in their time of illness. Yes that is correct, we all have the right to live and suffer if needed, and eventually die absent from the shame of lack of care. In this modern age with the technology we have available to us, it is unthinkable some of us would have access to the wonders of modern medicine and others would not, simply because they are poor, or unemployed, or dropped from coverage because they got sick or denied altogether because of what some insurance executive void of conscience came up with called, a “pre-existing condition”. Such a phase denies the absolute fact we all suffer from this horrid malady. It’s called mortally.
Let’s face it, at some point all us will eventually have a pre-existing condition of some sort as that is part of the natural aging process Many would be shocked to know just how early in life that applied to them. They have been walking around for years completely clueless they are one of the millions who have already joined those ranks but have just not had it applied to them by the insurance companies.
If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position many in our Country have, with out health care, that will be a shame. If you would like to be left alone to suffer and die because you don’t want any help from a “socialist” like me, that will be sad, but do not expect me to ignore those who want and need help, to go without it at my hand. By the way, me and my fellow “liberals” will lovingly care for you too because after all, you are one of us, and that’s what we do, we care for each other.
A very well written and passionate post. Health care is an issue that confronts this nation and in fact makes this nation look bad relative to other nations. Having said that, this is not other nations and we still have a representative government. One senator has lamented how she wishes we were not a representative government so the president could just get his agenda through without resistance, but we still ARE representative.
ReplyDeleteThere may very well be a number of callous and cruel people who are celebrating the apparent demise or at least hold up of health care reform, but I believe what we are dealing with are people who fear and distrust their government. A government whos’ solution to everything is “send more money, we have mismanaged what you sent before”. Every time something is for our “benefit”, the ones receiving the benefit are given marginal relief while the tax payers are paying premium prices, more to subsidize the perverse lifestyles of our representatives. Maybe the politicians should give up ALL of their perks before they put upon the people. That would free up some money, not much, but the politicians might not appear like blood sucking ghouls, which in turn might encourage the people to actually support something these morally bankrupt , mathematically challenged phonies put before them. I don’t distinguish between parties and we have not had a real leader for a long time, Obama is no exception. So should the people just open their wallets to these louts? No, I will help where I can on an individual level, that is where things get done, with the people who care, not government.
A gift given of free will is better than extracting goodwill by force( or taxes). People who are compassionate do help when and where they can. Government is clumsy , inefficient and now self righteous, they apparently know what is better for the people than the people do. At this point I don’t have an answer for the problem, but I know what is not the answer, government.
Dear Gentle Sven,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we do look bad compared to other nations. That should inspire us, not to try to be like them exactly, but to implement positive improvements by learning from others and putting into place the best policies in our own unique way.
I also agree that we are a representative government. I happen to think having two giant parties constantly fighting for power at the expense of the people they are supposed to be representing is not what the founders had in mind. If one is down the other is only focused on regaining power, not governing in a responsible way. That is unfortunate as there is a legitimate need for a responsible opposition party.
You and I have some different opinions but neither of us wants to see our President fail because we both know that is not good for our Nation. If the republicans end up de-legitimizing themselves with their "block everything" stance, they face the very real risk of disappearing altogether and that void will be filled by extremist which I'm sure is not what they want. We need a strong principled republican party with real policies that work to improve the lives of average Americans. Without them filling that role they are risking being the cause of the country tipping either extreme right or extreme left and I do not believe that is in our long term best interest.
I understand there are challenges when the government seeks to right social wrongs, but it is important to remember we do have a citizen government with public scrutiny. We have the freedom to criticize and protest and make our voices heard in many ways to keep things on track and we have the ultimate power of the vote to keep the government from turning totalitarian.
Life you, my wife and I are committed to volunteerism and social responsibility in helping those in need around us. In spite of efforts like your family, mine and many others across the Nation, huge gaps have developed and millions of people do not have health care in America. If volunteerism alone would resolve this I would say great, let’s organize and do better, but the reality is even with all the non-profits, churches and private organizations doing their best we have 30 million plus in our country who do not have access to health care. That is just reality and we both know it.
I do not believe government is the ultimate answer, and yes, many times they are bureaucratic and clumsy, but historically our government has been a critical piece in helping to get things done and in many cases does quite well in delivering critical services.
The current health care plan is not what I would prefer as it enriches the health care companies and does not include the public option. How in the world did the employer mandate turn into the individual mandate? What an unbelievable turn of corruption our Senate took in turning one of the lynch pins of health reform on its head. I still say, government should play a role as just leaving things up to liaise-faire capitalist in the private health care industry has delivered disastrous results for many. The current health care plans proposed does however outlaw pre-existing conditions as well as outlawing dropping patients when they get sick, two critical policies that only government can implement and enforce.
Here is my challenge to you Sven. In spite of all your concerns about the government, would you not consider it reasonable to allow us to see to the needs of our fellow citizens by making care available to them through an insurance exchange? You are a compassionate person and you know of the millions in need. Would this not be an acceptable compromise? If not, what would be? What are your inputs to resolve the rising cost of healthcare and the millions outside the system now? I genuinely would like to hear your thoughts as hearing a different perspective is very valuable to me.
Ken
Blazer I realize my response is late( after the vote), but as I stated in my original response, I had no answer for the issue other than government is not the answer. I can give two reasons why, and these are not bureaucratic or clumsy, they are overtly mean spirited and evil.
ReplyDeleteFirst the benefits of government health care. I have a friend who is legally blind, from birth( rubella), one eye is completely gone, the other works marginally and with glasses he has limited 2D vision. This man is given $800.00 a month to live on ( we spend $60,000.00 a year on criminals). What kind of life could one lead on $800.00 a month? His medical care is government run and here is one example how well it works for him. 2 years ago his primary set of glasses were damaged( he has saved old pairs of glasses just in case, but they really are broken beyond help). I brought him to our home, which I do several times a year, so he could get himself new glasses. This was January 2008, it took three visits just to get an appointment. Finally in April 2008 he got his appointment and was able to order a pair of new glasses. In the meantime my wife and I have been regularly repairing his broken glasses( repair meaning paper clips, bailing wire and bubble gum). Two weeks ago he finally received his glasses. A very compassionate system. So our government treats those who need the most help with the most contempt.
My second point is on how ethical our government is, let me be clear, this president is no different then those before him, he is not unique, he is bringing nothing new. I am going to quote my own blog
"The executive order promising that no federal funds will be used for abortion is utterly useless, the president can revoke it as quickly as he signs it. The order is judicially unenforceable. An order cannot confer jurisdiction in the courts or establish any grounds for suing anybody in court. An executive order cannot trump or change a federal statute.
Obama being a constitutional lawyer, knew he was pitching Stupak a useless piece of paper, political cover to help press forth HIS legacy. Sadly, Stupak knew this himself. Stupak, a Catholic, was told about this several times by the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, according to an article in the Washington Post.
So the health care bill was passed based on lies and deception purposely used to mislead the American people.Obama thinks Americans are stupid. The people were led to believe this scenario of a good representative standing his ground and a president concessing to the representatives principles, thus we have an acceptable and honorable solution. Ultimately, Stupak locking his office and shuting off his phones speaks for itself.
Funny, 24 hours before the vote Obama said "We are not bound to win, but we are bound to be true. We are not bound to succeed, but we are bound to let whatever light we have shine." So now lies are virtue and the American people do not matter. There is no light in a lie even if you "win". A president who cares more about "winning" cannot care about the people or principles. A president who puts on a show to deceive the people speaks for itself. Barak Obama is NOT pragmatic, he is a politician, a very good politician.