First they started out by protesting the stimulus package that is starting to turn the economy around, and if given enough time will put a lot of us back to work. They did this by holding “Tea Parties” claiming that the stimulus was “taxation without representation” and that they didn’t want to see their money go towards putting some of us back to work so that we could stay in our homes and keep our families fed.
Then they tried to awaken that stupid, lumbering Frankenstein monster known as “Obama is not a citizen” and tried to convince us all that President Obama was not born in this country. Apparently some of them are on record saying that they don’t believe Hawaii is a state – therefore President Obama is not an American citizen. I wish I were making that last part up, but I’m not. According to a recent poll taken in North Carolina, when the question “Is Hawaii a State” was asked, 8% of the respondents said “no” while 2% said that they didn’t know!!!
And neo-Conservative Politicians in Congress and pundits in the media say that we don’t have to improve education in this country!
But now we have the health-care “debate” that is like tuning into Wrestlemania or the UFC every night. We’ve all seen the video tape of people who are retired or nearing retirement screaming at the top of their lungs that they don’t want health care reform because of….whatever lie they have been spoon-fed by the HMO’s. They are getting into the faces of Democratic politicians, their neighbors, strangers on the street and saying and doing things that have not been seen since the mid-1960′s in places like Selma, Alabama. No, I was not there I wasn’t even alive at the time, but there are some people who were there who are saying that this has the same feel to it. Threats are being issued, people are being attacked, police are making arrests and we are just one video of a Grandmother being sprayed with a fire hose posted on YouTube away from this turning into the largest generational Civil War in history.
A lot of these people who are screaming at these town halls just don’t get it. They are screaming that they don’t want the Government involved in Health Care, and that they don’t want our Government to run it because that would be socialized medicine. Well most of these people have either Medicare, Medicaid or they go to a VA Hospital. Medicare is a Government-run health care system. Medicaid is a Government-run health-care system. The VA Hospitals are Government-run health-care facilities. They are already benefiting from socialized medicine because according to their definitions of what socialized medicine is, The VA, Medicare and Medicaid are all socialized medicine!!!
They keep going on about how socialized medicine is evil and is the downfall of civilization as we know it – if someone else can benefit from it. But when they take advantage of socialized medicine then that’s okay – it’s a well-earned benefit that they deserve for a lifetime of hard work. As far as they are concerned they are the only ones who deserve socialized medicine – they just don’t want to see their children or their grandchildren benefit from the same system. And that is exactly what these “deathers” are saying to Generations X and Y – they don’t care if we get health care or not. Just don’t try to deny them their socialized medicine or there will be hell to pay.
What kind of a message does that send to their own children when they can’t afford to take their grandchild to a doctor when they are sick or hurt? What do they tell their grandchild when they are suffering because mommy and daddy can’t pay a doctor bill? Do they tell them to “suck it up” and “go out and get a job” if they want to get better? The “I’ve got mine so fuck everybody else” crowd had better take a good, long, hard look at just who they are trying to disenfranchise right now, because some of those people they are trying to screw might not be bringing their kids to Grandma and Grandpa’s house this Christmas!
And about all of this “Obama will form ‘death panels’ to decide who will live and who will die” crap – that’s all that it is…crap!!! What do you think that if the bill passes we’re suddenly going to be living “Logan’s Run?!?” You honestly think that we will start putting anyone over the age of 30 to death? It is a lie that President Obama will commission “death panels” to decide whose life is worth saving and who’s life is not. Why would the President of the United States form a panel to do that job when the HMO’s are already performing that job for him?
"If they are to die then they should get to it, and decrease the surplus population!"
Yes you read that correctly – we already have “death panels” in this country and they are run by the HMO’s themselves!!! You think I’m kidding?!? Then answer me this, HMO’s decide which life-saving procedures are “medically necessary”, do they not? And HMO’s decide whether or not a procedure will be done based on the fact that a person might be too far gone or that they are too old and are going to die anyway, do they not? And HMO’s decide to deny procedures based on the family’s ability to pay the bill, do they not? And HMO’s make these decisions every day regardless of the feelings of the families because they know that they are untouchable in Civil Court, do they not?
If HMO’s don’t already run “death panels” in this country, then what would you call them? Seriously?
Look, I’m prejudiced when it comes to this subject. Right now I’m having to watch Wifey stress out about the fact that because I don’t have a job right now and because we are unable to pay our bills that she is being denied health care. The last time we took her to see our doctor we were told by their billing department that we would no longer be welcome there unless we were able to bring our payments up to date. Until we were able to do that we would not be able to see him no matter what was wrong with either one of us. If we are ill or seriously injured – too bad – we have been told that they will not help us.
Let me give you a little background into what Wifey has to deal with and what goes on around here on a typical day. Wifey is, shall we say overweight and asthmatic, she has two bad knees because of a slip-and-fall accident she had in a restaurant at age 20. The restaurant covered their tracks extremely well and she was unable to sue them for compensation. She has a nerve condition in her face called Trigeminal Nuralga that if left unmedicated can cause her blinding, debilitating pain on the right side of her face that is 100 times worse than a Migraine, and according to women who have the condition – about 50 times worse than the pain of childbirth. She has a Pituitary Tumor that thankfully is benign, but if left unmedicated could grow to a size that would press on her optic nerves and could blind her for life. As it is the tumor causes severe dizzy spells which means she cannot operate a motor vehicle since they come on without warning. To top that off she has been fighting an external yeast infection for the past couple of months because the medications she is on compromise her immune system, and this yeast infection has now turned into Shingles.
While dealing with all of this I am trying to comfort her and tell her that everything is going to be okay and that we are not going to lose the house while trying to get a job despite a bad credit rating and criticism from others that I’m “not trying hard enough” or that I really “don’t want to work” and having to watch complete strangers protest a piece of legislation that might make it possible for Wifey to get covered by insurance once I do get a job if we don’t have to worry about her being disqualified due to “pre-existing conditions” while trying to take care of things that need to be done around the house because Wifey sprained her right knee and ankle last week and has had to ice her entire right leg while I do dishes, laundry and most of the cooking in between checking Craigslist for local jobs that have just not been showing up for the last couple of weeks.
Having said all of that you can only imagine which side of this debate I happen to be on right now. As far as I am concerned the Baby Boomers can keep their health plans. They can keep their socialized medicine and consider themselves so “holier than thou” for having it – I don’t care. What I do care about is when you want to get in my face and tell me that you don’t want my wife to have the same kind of health plan that you have because socialism is bad for me but it’s all right for you. Anyone gets in my face and yells that at me is going to be going ten rounds with me and a 2×4. I don’t care what you say about me, you can call me whatever name you can think of, you can call me a socialist, communist nazi pig for all I care – but if you start in on Wifey and you start letting your bile loose on her then you are going to need every bit of that socialized health care that you can take advantage of. I don’t care what you may have done for this country in the past and I don’t care how hard you’ve worked before this…
When it comes to my woman I am not a reasonable man – I am a pissed off Neanderthal with a club in his hand who’s looking to smash some skulls whenever she is threatened.
Don’t believe me? Try getting in my face and find out!
Or even worse…try getting in her face…
…then run!!!
*sigh*
Some things it feels good to get off one’s chest and just bleed the pressure valve. I can already feel my blood pressure is down just by typing this.
Guess this blog is a version of my health care system, huh?
