Put down the Pitchforks and Just Talk
We get it: some people really don't like the new Health Care bill. Fine. There's plenty not to like. Let's talk about it.
But first- can we get off the hyperbole express? Can we agree that, unless the earth is actually going to end in fire and smoke tomorrow directly as a result of children no longer being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions- we will NOT call passage of this bill "Armageddon"? Can we just stipulate that a bill, however flawed, that provides babies with health care, which will, you know, keep them alive is NOT a "baby killer"? Is that too much common sense for people today?
And "death panels"? Come on! If you don't have any fact-based arguments against the bill, maybe you should shut your mouth and let the people who do speak up.
Dissent and disagreement are fundamental America rights. But deception, distortion and outright lies serve no common good. Hurling hideous epithets, mocking those afflicted with a terrible disease who simply hope all like them can get care, invoking Stalin and Hitler (as if they tried to improve the quality of life for the poor), inciting fear and anger with talk of the president pulling the plug on people's grandmothers or Downs syndrome babies- how does this help the country? How does this improve the life of anyone? And how does this create a better health care bill?
Though I agreed with their position, I did not approve of the Code Pink women who shouted at Bush Administration officials in hearings and confronted them with bloody hands- and I told them so. Now we see not just the empty talking heads on FOX News but even Republican members of congress encouraging even worse behavior, actually cheering a man who was removed from the House chamber for screaming "Kill the Bill!". They whip crowds of the ignorant and angry into a frenzy with rhetoric like "lock and load", talk of the impending end of our nation and a Communist take-over… and all this because my unemployed son can now be covered by my health insurance until he is 26, if I choose to pay for it.
Wow. Yeah. That does sound like Armageddon.
People, we need to put down the pitchforks, stop trying to storm the castle gates and just ring the doorbell and ask to talk! Because when Frankenstein answers the bell, you'll find that he's just a guy with bad hair and a limp, and not a monster at all.
America should be working on the important details of how to craft a better piece of legislation. Instead, we act like this is a hockey game, cheering when "our side" draws blood.
At the risk of sounding like a communist, Nazi, baby-killing America-hater: shouldn't we all be on the side of helping people who can't get the care they need, either because they can't afford it or because their insurance company is in the business of finding ways not to pay for care? Is that too much to ask?
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Tracy Meisky is a poet, writer, singer, songwriter and all-around boat rocker from way back. Feel free to look around, but if you break it, you bought it.
Amen. At the moment, I can't put my head around this health care thing. All of this epithet-throwing and insulting dialogue and "The Conservatives said this" on one news channel and "The Liberals said that" on the other just makes current events look like the stuff of junior high gossip. It makes me sad. How am I supposed to be a good American citizen and a responsible voter and stay on top of the news when all newspeople want to do is argue about which party is right and which party is wrong?
Oh, how true this is. Thank you.