I like something Colin Powell says about information.
"Tell me what you know, then tell me what you don't know. Only then can you tell me what you think."
Well, I know I have Healthcare. I know I'm lucky because I have Healthcare. I know that if I get sick, I'm covered and that I am able to keep myself healthy even in some preventive ways due to the fact that I have Healthcare.
I don't know much about the new plans for universal Healthcare. I don't follow up on every pro and con that is tossed out into the media by both parties. I have not read the exhaustive comprehensive plan.
That's what I know and what I don't know.
Here's what I think.
I think that other countries have proven that universal healthcare works, at least to the extend that their entire infrastructure hasn't fallen apart by implementing it. Are things perfect? I'm sure they're not, but things are much farther from perfect here then they seem in Canada as far as the Heathcare system goes.
I think that if a country has the capabilities and opportunities to help people who are sick and need medical attention and doesn't do so because of paperwork, policy, business, or greed, that country is in trouble. I'm actually going to use the objective "right" and "wrong" here. A country that can help people who need it and doesn't is in a country that is wrong. Notice that I'm not saying Republicans, Democrats, the North, the South, the red states, the blue states, you or me. I'm saying the country. All of us. We're wrong if we don't do something to fix this.
I think that somewhere there must be parents whose children are either sick or dying and can't get medical attention because of the way the system is now. I don't know the unimaginable depths of frustration and helplessness those parents must feel, but I think that it's ridiculous for a situation like that to exist in a country where people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on meaningless garbage on a daily basis. If that makes me sound like a socialist, so be it. I think any parent would memorize Marx in a heartbeat if it meant getting their child help when they needed it.
I think that doing something is better than doing nothing. The Healthcare system is not getting better; it is getting worse in that it is not changing and it's never been any good. At least in the past, if you had a full-time job, you most likely had Healthcare. That is not the case now, and it is going to get worse. Healthcare is expensive so less and less employers are offering it regardless of how much their company is making. I think that my children and my grandchildren are going to have a much, much harder time getting Heatlhcare than I did if things don't change.
I think most senior citizens who oppose universal Healthcare are being very selfish in all this. I think people who are on Medicare and protest "government intervention" should not even be listened to. I don't believe an opinion is valid if it is an ignorant opinion. Not an uneducated opinion obviously, since that's what I and most of the country have, but an ignorant opinion based on selfish motives.
I think that the people on the right who oppose universal Healthcare are doing it for motives other than what they are admitting to. I believe their scare tactics are only convincing people who want to be scared anyway. I think we should force this issue whether or not everyone is coming along on the ride. The right got to have a war that didn't make sense and a President who was rash and destructive for eight years. I think that anyone who says things were better in 2008 than they were during the Clinton years is lying and knows they're lying.
Most of all, I think I'd rather be the generation that acted--that did something. If it doesn't work, I can stand behind saying 'My country tried, and we failed, but we really did try' than 'We let it stay the way it was knowing it wasn't working and hoping our kids would fix it.'
That's what I think.
"Tell me what you know, then tell me what you don't know. Only then can you tell me what you think."
Well, I know I have Healthcare. I know I'm lucky because I have Healthcare. I know that if I get sick, I'm covered and that I am able to keep myself healthy even in some preventive ways due to the fact that I have Healthcare.
I don't know much about the new plans for universal Healthcare. I don't follow up on every pro and con that is tossed out into the media by both parties. I have not read the exhaustive comprehensive plan.
That's what I know and what I don't know.
Here's what I think.
I think that other countries have proven that universal healthcare works, at least to the extend that their entire infrastructure hasn't fallen apart by implementing it. Are things perfect? I'm sure they're not, but things are much farther from perfect here then they seem in Canada as far as the Heathcare system goes.
I think that if a country has the capabilities and opportunities to help people who are sick and need medical attention and doesn't do so because of paperwork, policy, business, or greed, that country is in trouble. I'm actually going to use the objective "right" and "wrong" here. A country that can help people who need it and doesn't is in a country that is wrong. Notice that I'm not saying Republicans, Democrats, the North, the South, the red states, the blue states, you or me. I'm saying the country. All of us. We're wrong if we don't do something to fix this.
I think that somewhere there must be parents whose children are either sick or dying and can't get medical attention because of the way the system is now. I don't know the unimaginable depths of frustration and helplessness those parents must feel, but I think that it's ridiculous for a situation like that to exist in a country where people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on meaningless garbage on a daily basis. If that makes me sound like a socialist, so be it. I think any parent would memorize Marx in a heartbeat if it meant getting their child help when they needed it.
I think that doing something is better than doing nothing. The Healthcare system is not getting better; it is getting worse in that it is not changing and it's never been any good. At least in the past, if you had a full-time job, you most likely had Healthcare. That is not the case now, and it is going to get worse. Healthcare is expensive so less and less employers are offering it regardless of how much their company is making. I think that my children and my grandchildren are going to have a much, much harder time getting Heatlhcare than I did if things don't change.
I think most senior citizens who oppose universal Healthcare are being very selfish in all this. I think people who are on Medicare and protest "government intervention" should not even be listened to. I don't believe an opinion is valid if it is an ignorant opinion. Not an uneducated opinion obviously, since that's what I and most of the country have, but an ignorant opinion based on selfish motives.
I think that the people on the right who oppose universal Healthcare are doing it for motives other than what they are admitting to. I believe their scare tactics are only convincing people who want to be scared anyway. I think we should force this issue whether or not everyone is coming along on the ride. The right got to have a war that didn't make sense and a President who was rash and destructive for eight years. I think that anyone who says things were better in 2008 than they were during the Clinton years is lying and knows they're lying.
Most of all, I think I'd rather be the generation that acted--that did something. If it doesn't work, I can stand behind saying 'My country tried, and we failed, but we really did try' than 'We let it stay the way it was knowing it wasn't working and hoping our kids would fix it.'
That's what I think.
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