Myself Included

Maybe by now, I should be an expert on the whole Health Care Debate thing. But I am not. I am more in tune to the conversation now more than ever, but who says what and what says who is currently beyond my comprehension.

However, the system is messed up. Everyone should have access to equal care. Regardless of economic status. In a capitalist society, it is perceived that economic standing dictates what level of commodity is attainable for an individual. Houses, cars, clothing, vacations, entertainment, travel are commodities. Life is not.

As of the writing of this post, I do not know what was the motivation for the gunman who shot on a crowd of people and killed 6 of them yesterday in Tucson. However, this chart troubles me. I doubt it was the intent of the originator of this chart that the people listed in this chart should be shot. I know that, and hopefully you know that. But, did yesterday's shooter know that?

I had a conversation the other day with someone about the health care debate. I told them that I thought I had a reasonably good health care plan. Then I asked them how much a month, in addition to my current health care premium, they thought I would have to pay out of pocket for the next few years for my testing (4 oncologist visits a year, 2 CT scans a year, 2 Bone Marrow Biopsies a year, 2 visits to the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic a year, regular medical and optician appts.). When I told them, they were surprised and they said, "Something has to be done." "Exactly," I responded, "So if someone makes health care a part of the national conversation, what is wrong with that? Why do we want to leave it alone while for profit companies treat it like a commodity?"


"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, (welfare n. 1. health, happiness, or prosperity; well-being) and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." - The Founding Fathers


 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.....

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

 And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

                Free at last! Free at last!

                Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King - August 28 1963