Sunday, February 28, 2010

A Pagan’s View of Health Care Reform and the Party of God



Shortly after President Obama's health care summit I began to see ads from an organization called "Patients United Now." Essentially these ads were spewing the standard Republican talking points, including the need to scrap the current legislation and start over. Predictably the ads were utilizing an attractive shill to distort the medical outcomes of other countries and implying the usual nonsense about the President being a malignant socialist who wants to take over health care and kill us all.

If this stuff weren't so pervasive in the body politic today it would be hysterically funny - in much the same way that Buster Keaton's falling over furniture was funny. After listening to six hours of back and forth between the Democrats and the Republicans at the summit, of this I am sure: the strategy of walking away from the House and Senate reform bills advocated by the right is very simply a way to stop reform in its entirety, and there is nothing funny about that bit of foolishness. I find it difficult to believe that the Republicans have any intension of doing anything other than stall and delay until they can gain control of the Congress once again in which case they will basically ignore the issue as they always have. A good indication of this is the fact that these people see no reason to stop the deplorable practice of denying coverage on the bases of pre-existing conditions.

"Patients United Now" is on the internet, although I was unable to link to their website. I wrote and told them what I think of them. I am telling everyone I know and suggesting that they tell everyone they know to watch out for this bunch.

Millions of people are uninsured in this country. Hundreds of people die every day - thousands every year from lack of health care. This is a moral issue not a business issue. I would think that a Christian nation would understand the difference and be willing to put caring for its sick and dying in a humane and decent way ahead of supporting - in the name of the bloody free market - a well healed special interest group that sucks up more and more of the American dollar every year.

I hear many of our "leaders" asking for forgiveness when they get caught doing something they shouldn’t, but who will ask for forgiveness for ignoring the people who are dying today and every day. It is the will of the God of the Christians that we love and care for one another above all thing, or so I am told. I hear a great deal from some politicians about the immorality of abortion, gay marriage and the like. I never hear any of them repeating Christ's admonition to, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God's."

The rose above is the Peace Rose. Her legend is timely. On the night before Hitler invaded Paris a French diplomat brought her seedling to the US in his pouch. Roosevelt called her the Peace Rose in the hope of peace to come. I never expect to see peace in my life again. I have no doubt that people who would deny their countrymen the right to be treated decently when sick and dying would be indifferent to the sickness of war and the dying of soldiers and civilians. Still, I plant a Peace Rose somewhere every season and will as long as I can lift a shovel. Like Roosevelt, I hope for peace.

5 comments:

  1. All that you write is true and immensely sad. The people who call themselves 'christian' do not by any means follow the leader called The Christ. He would fling them out of the temple. I do not belong to a Christian church of any denomination though I do believe that there is a "god". During the Vietnam war I was repelled by most of my fellow parishioners who supported the destruction of a country, the murder of a people and the senseless sacrifice of young lives. I have not seen any change in this condition, indeed it is worse than it as then. How I hate that a person must profess "faith" in order to be considered for a public office. These people who love the words of the old testament and ignore the words of the man who they profess to follow.

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  2. As you know, I was raised Pagan. I don't know much about Christianity. You are so right about everyone who runs for office paying lip service to faith and then behaving like Nero watching Rome burn. Kitty, have you ever seen such hatred of government? The crazies have taken over, yes?

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  3. As in the past, the crazies gain the upper hand, but in my past experience the insanity soon ended; people came to their senses and forgot that they had been dupes of a malignant movement, but this time I see the insanity escalating. I believe it is racism for the most part that drives the Tea Party groups, even if they don't say it out loud. I missed your reply to my comment until just now. We are in a dangerous time.

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  4. I just read your comment on a blog I posted asking the left to continue to support Obama. I wanted to tell you that I have seen young presidents (JFK) flounder and make errors in their first year (ie: Bay of Pigs) and so I still have a lot of hope that he will see that he is being manipulated by the people in his administration and the Generals he has appointed at the recommendation of Gates, one who should not be trusted since he has never been right about anything. I still believe that Obama will assess his past performance and begin to look at his Cabinet and Pentagon leaders and Senior staff and recognize that HE needs change. At least he is turning to the Volcker Resolution for reforming the banking industry. First things first.

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  5. To answer the question you asked in your comment: yes, I have seen this degree of strife, attack politics and dumbass thinking before. Too many times to count. The Demcorats allowed Sen. Joe McCarthy to destroy many lives before a witness he had subpoenaed called him out, asking him if in the end he had no decency.

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