No Joy in the Outcome: A Personal Statement

I’m glad this health care bill seems to have passed. I reluctantly supported it because it was infinitely better than what we have now. I’m delighted simply because some attention may now be made to lowering the unemployment in this country to a manageable rate. I felt (although I could be wrong) that they got the order backward---first jobs--- then healthcare.

The bill that will finally take effect is seriously flawed in several of its mandates. If the Conservative Republicans had not been so intent on embarrassing and defeating this President and had not been so frightened of its extreme right wing and its prophets of hatred and paranoia in the press and entertainment media (i.e. Fox’s Beck, Rupert Murdoch, Rush Limbaugh,etc.), they would have put together a truly bipartisan effort to generate a fiscally sound and yet humane reform measure. Read David Frum’s article:

http://www.frumforum.com/waterloo

It’s flawed in several ways:

Ø There is no public option

Ø Some of it’s provisions are delayed for too long (i.e. four years)

Ø There are hidden tax increases in it that will come into effect several years down the line

Ø There is an unfunded mandate in it (down the line) that will have to be borne by the State Legislatures.

But I supported it for personal reasons:

Ø For me, health care is a right in any democracy and a moral issue more than political or fiscal. I go to services but I am hardly a religious person. I do, however, believe in one thing: that the message that Christ delivered in the New Testament about how we should live is difficult to maintain but gives meaning to life.

Ø I am dismayed by the prejudice, racism and homophobia that pervade a large percentage of the population in this country. When I was moderately active in the civil rights movement in the ‘60’s, I saw it up close and personal. I am also a student of history and know how ugly it was for Italian-American immigrants in this country in the first half of the 20^th century. That is why it disappoints and saddens me when I hear those same ugly epithets coming out of the mouths of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those immigrants.

I am afraid that I may have upset and even angered some of my closest friends on these issues by going public with my opinions. But , I do strongly believe that people at the very least , have the moral responsibility to “speak out” when you see and hear this ugliness in our society. But, as some wise person has said, “we can agree to disagree”.