Professor J,
Thanks for keeping everyone updated
during my absence. Your clarity is helpful in catching up when one has
been away and cut off from the news (A blissfully ignorant state, I'll
admit). I'll also admit that recovering from vacation brain is hard.
In your January 10th posting the four
expansions you proposed to add to the Norris Amendment to the
Constitution seemed simple and doable enough. While #3 would certainly
be a fight, numbers 1,2,4 really seemed as if they could be done fairly
quickly and easily.
Can you expound on why you said that Medicare wasn't a well thought out program?
Your comments about medical spending
on the elderly are practical and I agree with them. We spend
astronomical amounts of money on those near the end of life while not
providing resources for those in the productive years of life. This kind
of talk (as you allude to) makes people nervous as if we are valuing
life based on how productive it is, or advocating the Palinesque "death
squads." A far better solution would be
to encourage people to take more personal responsibility for their own
health, and spend an increased portion of public funds to that end. Just
as in so many other areas of our society as well as personal lives, we
need balance. We are unable to speak the truth about what we value. We
value war over health. Politics over solutions. Profit over nearly
everything else. But we don't say these things of course. They are too true and brutal for us to acknowledge.
On a side note: for everyone who's
tired of sorting out information, championing common sense, and being
the adult in a room full of paste eating toddlers, I say, don't give up.
(This is where I like to add the movie quote from the idealistic
character. In this case it's from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington):
Jefferson Smith:
[His voice very hoarse] Just get up off the ground,
that's all I ask. Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this
Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this
country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you
won't just see scenery; you'll see the whole parade of what Man's carved
out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something
better than just jungle law, fighting so's he can stand on his own two
feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race,
color, or creed. That's what you'd see. There's no place out there for
graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties. And, uh,
if that's what the grownups have done with this world that was given to
them, then we'd better get those boys' camps started fast and see what
the kids can do. And it's not too late, because this country is bigger
than the Taylors, or you, or me, or anything else. Great principles
don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here; you just
have to see them again!
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