Healthcare Shmealthcare

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Now, on to the article:

The media wants you to believe that America is divided by this MAJOR IDEOLOGY ENDING issue. The fact of the matter is that if you ask the average American about this oh-so important topic they will most probably give your their opinion on whether it is "good" or "bad", "right" or "wrong" and "necessary" or "evil" but ask them to detail the plan, to explain why they have chosen this side of the issue and all you will probably get is, "oh, I'm a..." and they will say either Republican or Democrat.

This is the issue I would like to discuss here, this line-in-the-sand political enmity.


Growing up in The Bronx it was sort of a given that I would be a Yankees fan. I went to games in The House Ruth Built and any sport T-shirts I owned were either pinstripe or navy blue. Being a Yankee fan had, inherent in it, love of the Franchise and hatred of the Boston Red Soxs (if you don't know, it's not worth explaining, just go with it). Now, New York had another Baseball team, still does, called The Mets. As a Yankee fan you just didn't care about The Mets. You barely thought of them, except maybe to feel pity, or at worst- scorn, for their fans. Mets fans and Yankee fans were friends and could joke about each others teams, players or policies.


Sometime when I was in High School that changed. Yankee fans became derisive towards Met fans, caustic. Sometimes even downright mean. Suddenly, the other team was Evil, was "the enemy".


This is the issue with the healthcare plan and U.S. Politics in general. About twenty years ago bipartisanship became a dirty word, something only done in dire need and with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. You can blame Bill Clinton or Newt Gingrich but that doesn't change the fact that the days of the gentleman politician is gone. No longer were important votes decided by policy or acumen, but by an "us or them" mentality that has finally reached a horrific crescendo during this current healthcare debate.


The President has provided plans that, at times, almost mirror those of his Republican opponent for office, John McCain. He has made concessions that solve, at least partially, a majority of "Republican" problems with the plan, but to no avail. He is one of "them" and WE do not do business with THEM.


Cries of socialism are bandied about by the same people who vote to spend more money on the public school system- a system that guarantees free education to all, a system that is the very definition of a socialist ideal.


Please don't think this is another "Left-wing Liberal" rant, the Democrats are just as bad, storming and thundering about the evil, unjust Conservatives that are undermining our government.


It is not one party or another that is destroying our country, it is not crazed Liberals or fascist Conservatives. It is the very issue of using those labels and brandishing those fright-masks. Riling up the public one way or the other without educating them as to why one group feels the way they do.


I could make a list of all the countries that have good, working, reasonable Nationalized Medicine and I could equally make a list of the numbers of people in those countries dying from lack of treatment. Both of those list would be beside the point. What matters is that if we, as a country, keep dividing ourselves into black hats and white hats, heroes and villains, nothing is going to get done. Not healthcare, not the deficit, NOTHING.


It's time we as a people stop letting ourselves be led by fear-mongers and rabble-rousers, stop picking one side and sticking with it, stop spouting one-liners and Sound-bites to defend our "beliefs".


It is time we educate ourselves, since those in power clearly have other things planned. It is time we start thinking about what we need, as a country, as a civilization- not as individuals. Lastly, it is time we put in to power people who are going to help us do this, rather than just play on our emotions and hot buttons.


Principle: Sense