Once in a Blue Moon

Once in a Blue Moon, originally uploaded by lucienphoto.

I have been giving long and serious thought to the arguments about HEALTHCARE reform. I have read some of the arguments from the conservative (what is in a name) and the non-reformists perspectives. I have also read arguments of those who are in favor of this reform and the liberals (again just a name).

Here is what I am taking from all this. Many people are fearful of GOVERNMENT intervention into an already failing system. Healthcare is about having healthy citizenry. We need a healthy citizenry so that we can have a productive and enjoyable life and productive social environment.

One large question looms. Why do we fear government involvement? Have we truly forgotten that WE are the government. WE chose the elected officials. We have a right to use monies that WE have collected for the collective good.

We the people elected to bail out banks, credit card companies, and automobile companies. We the people choose to work daily, pay our taxes and produce so that some can have MORE. WE choose to have police departments, National Guard and an active military rather than mob rule. We choose to have public schools (and private) so that we have standards for learning and excellence. We choose to pave roads, provide sanitation services, and have agencies that oversee our food, our infrastructure and our lives.

If we do not trust the government, we in reality are simply saying that we do not trust ourselves. That we are not capable of compromise, self-regulation and meeting the needs of our families and our society. Corporations do not have souls. Corporations do not have neighbors. Capitalism is no more an ideal than democracy. Each man (women and some minorities were excluded) had a vote and all did not take advantage of that system.

Women, minorities, and non-citizens have had to go with the flow. It is only less that 1/2 century that African-Americans have begun to be fully participative individuals within our system. That time the majority was wrong. Women were deprived of the right to participate. That time the minority was wrong. We encamped Asians, but not Germans (why did we let this happen?) We enslaved generations of Africans for cheap labor (WE know this was a rationalization). We herded Native-Americans into reservations (majority was wrong).

We performed experiments on unwitting people. We provided unsafe drugs to people and had thalidomide problems. We are purposefully fed misinformation because the motive is not progress but to maintain the status quo.

Each time in our history that we have had opportunity to make the right moral decisions we have come to this same crossroad. This time, WE the PEOPLE should exercise the freedoms others have fought to gain for us and DO what is in our common good. If we do not, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

I do not have the answer to this problem or many of the problems that plague us as an aging, diverse and influential culture; but WE do.

We have to start honest dialogues. Start talking with each other and stop talking about each other. WE have to stop pretending that someone else is doing this to US.