Archive for September, 2011
Tomorrow is a big day for our family. My daughter in law is going to address congress in hearings about the need for funding for rheumatoid arthritis, all manner of auto immune diseases and health care in general. This is a very big honor and I am very proud of her. I would love to be able to go myself and just watch from the gallery but I can’t do that so maybe I can get her to guest author a post or two detailing it and her feelings on the state of our government and health care issues where we tend to agree on a large portion of things. She is quite intelligent and I am sure she will make a good showing with them. I only hope that they will actually listen and make changes for the good of all citizens instead of just making corporations happy.
Yesterday was a big day for the United States. Unless you are totally deprived of communication then you already know that yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. I am sure that everyone of you who are old enough to remember that day will also remember exactly what they were doing and where they were. I myself was on I-26 heading east for Orangeburg South Carolina to do a little service job on a office trailer. I was able to work some then but even then my capabilities were diminished. Most of my working years were spent behind a steering wheel heading to one job or another. That or driving the truck that delivered and picked up the trailer. It was hard work but enjoyable at the same time. It made me feel proud when some big muscle bound man tried to work for us and could not handle the hard work. It has been pointed out to me that part of my troubles stemmed from abusing my body. Maybe, maybe not. I always called the shots either running a crew for someone else or running my own business. That gave me the privilege of bringing my son to work for me. To me some of my best memories stem from him and I on the road together. Then by time he was in his teens he knew more than half the men did about setting up trailers. But I have rambled on and gotten off of track. I was listening in on the radio as we put the miles behind us. I stopped at a truck stop to get fuel and watched the second plane hit the World Trade Tower and just knew it was a goner. It so happened that my son wasn’t with me but a friend was instead. We discussed it on our way to the job and followed closely on the radio. I told him then that we were under attack and were going to war. Before the smoke had cleared good we had troops on the ground in Afghanistan. Before too long we had Al Qaeda on the ropes. Then just when I thought they were going to wipe them all out we took our eye off the prize. Instead of keeping the pressure on we dropped the ball so to speak and went off on a tangent. We up and attacked Iraq. Its hard to win a war with two fronts. Especially when they were no threat to us in anyway. Now we are floundering on two fronts despite all the hard and valiant work of our military. But there I go off on another tangent. We finished that job in record time, called off other service work for that day and hurried home. The few minutes watching the boob tube in the truckers lounge were not enough. I rushed home and was mesmerized by the images on the television. I watched and re-watched as the towers crumbled and fell. I thought of when I was a teen and my first weekend pass my cohorts and I went to New York city. We did all the tourist things while we weren’t busy at the bar. I thought of our trip to the top of one of the towers. I can not remember which one of the two it was but I remember feeling like I was on top of the world. I have other memories from that trip to the city that I remember well but will not share them as they are not G-Rated. I thought of our trip and thought how no one would ever stand on top of them again. Ever again. I was furious that someone would attack us on our shores. Last time we were attacked on our shores it was Pearl Harbor and it got us into a war we did not ask for same as the crumbling of the towers did that day. Well as it stands now we are ten years into a war that seems to have no end in site. That war ended to much jubilation on 14th of August 1945. If something is not done we will be at war until I am planted deep into the ground. I hope not though. I dread the thought of our losing even one more soldier to this war that never ends. We have came a long way since 9-11 we have surrendered part of our rights and freedoms in the name of this war. So much crumbled along with the towers. We saw the images of the past as we remembered the tenth anniversary. Let us we never forget the past. Lest we be doomed to repeat it.
Today I site here feeling very privileged. I just got through a private screening of a movie that is to be released later this year. It was a documentary about our failing health care in the United States. The working title is “The Health Care Movie” and is narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. It compares our health care system to Canada’s health care system. Seeing it made the plan we have here in the good ol’ USA pale in comparison to theirs. They believe in taking care of their citizens and not favoring huge corporations over the masses. They also see it as a basic human right. Something we agreed to, and ratified when we signed the “The Declaration of Human Rights”. If you look it up and start reading go down to article 25. There you will find us agreeing that health care is a human right. But I am off topic here somewhat.
I was talking about the movie I was allowed to see. It gives some shocking facts and numbers about our nonexistent health care. I hope that everyone will see this and be mad as hell. Writing their congressman or senator mad. Everyone needs health care at some point in their lives. That is a fact no one can dispute. The question is can you afford it? Is your insurance going to cover it. How much money comes out of my pocket? None of us can deny it. Even if you have health care you will have a co-pay and how large does that go? What if my bill becomes so large that my out of pocket money is too high for me? Will I have to sell the house to pay? Will I have to file bankruptcy because of an illness or accident? In our system all of these scenarios are not only possible but happen. A lot of times this is the story. Even a wealthy family can be bankrupted by a prolonged illness. I feel like this is a travesty that we allow for profit, private insurance companies run our health care system. They arbitrarily dictate what treatments we can or can’t have and we let them have their way in the name of democracy. If you were to remember your history you will find that Lyndon Johnson pushed medicare and medicaid through the halls of Congress. That was in direct apposition with insurance companies and their lackeys in Congress. Back then it was painted as an end to democracy and the beginning of socialism. Now it is considered essential. It is a sure fired method of losing votes if you voice a plan on cutting medicare and medicaid. It took some wrangling and over the objections of insurance companies they were passed into law. That is what we need now. someone to push expanding medicare and medicaid to cover everyone in the USA. But that is my simple plan. No need for all these tax credits and vouchers.
Anyhow that is my opinion. I have good health care from the VA but not everyone has served their country.
I was able to view the movie early because they used my sons song part of the movie. The title is “Silence
Is Consent“ It was really great to see my sons name in the credits. It brought tears to my eyes for him to be so honored. The song fits this movie perfectly as my son feels very strongly that everyone should have access to health care regardless of whether they have money or not. I made the song title a link to his “website“ joshua121. You can hear the song there on the site. I recommend that you listen to it then write your congressman or woman. Don’t forget that you have a senator that needs to know that we need health care. That is the only thing that matters to a politician, votes and how much money he can gather from corporations and others for his next reelection campaign.