Politics and Controversy
Jean-Pierre Crisan, author
Veritas
My pen is my sword and it's name is Veritas With it I neatly shear From the truth's visage The Veils of denial and the strands that would tug it to a particular bent And with it to let shine from shadowy folds That which surrounds us For all clearly to see
Conservatives, Healthcare, And The Rowdy Little Mob
It is disturbing to see the descent into dysfunctionality of the small group of ideologues who masquerade as conservatives, who have been rejected as one of the greatest failures in American history, who would rather see independent businessmen and 45 million other people DIE rather than get health insurance. Many of these so-called conservatives smugly enjoy the benefits of socialized medicine because they or one of their family members have, or has had a government job, giving them a lifetime of entitlement to guaranteed health coverage, and who don’t know the difference between a co-pay and a deductible, and who don’t know the meaning of a twenty thousand dollar stop limit or of an exclusion, and whose hard-hearted, self centered beliefs live in small minded, fenced-in worlds with utter disregard for their fellow citizens while they spew their ignorant hypocrisy, repeating verbatim the hate-mongering rants of their fat, drug addicted leader or of the well paid mouthpieces of the lobbying underworld. They are all too happy to allow corporations, which have no mention in our constitution, to rapaciously, unaccountably profiteer and rob our nation, and they have no qualms about spending over a trillion dollars on a useless war that has killed thousands of our sons and daughters and countless innocent people. Any mention of helping their own countrymen, however, on whose backs this nation was built, cleaned, painted, repaired, planted and picked, is met with their chorus of angry, corporate logo wearing, intemperate, lying nay-sayers who have neither the desire, nor the ability to have a rational, civilized debate because they are utterly ignorant of, or are so willing to distort the facts to suit their own narrow points of view.
To see the racist and irrational rabble rise up from the southern states is especially galling, considering that the South has worked against the progress and unity of our nation for over two hundred years, and has been unapologetically on the wrong side of moral issues since our nation was founded.
To the reasoning majority, what is playing out in our public arena is a disgrace and an embarrassment to our great nation. It is a stain on the history of a nation that rose out of impossible odds, with uncommon unity, for which many have died on the cold fields of battle to defend and build. The coarse and vulgar discourse that we see today, compared to the towering grace, timeless truth, and classical eloquence of our nation’s forefathers would seem only to be the pathetic, drunken, fractured degeneration and crumbling of a nation fallen far from its zenith, and limping into its last days.
It is mostly the clowns, madmen, and shrill and unreasoned voices that are aired on our media, who, like circus men or boxing promoters, are concerned only with their take at the box office, serving only spectacle, entertainment, and junk food, knowing that a sucker is born every minute, while the masses are left only to try to sift truth from lies, and sort reality from distorted reflections.
I can only say that we must stand tall, honorably, with our mind’s eyes looking across the span of our great history to see with vision and clarity, to act with the considered, studied, and calm grace of a nation that is like a man who has the confidence of knowing himself, of being able to carry his thought beyond the argument at hand, and of having his highest view of all matters near and far.
Letter to the editor of The Athens Banner-Herald, August 30, 2009
My wife ‘Red’ and I attended the GOP healthcare rally at Veterans Park in Oconee County on Saturday, August 29th. The fact that the placard that I was holding that read, simply: “Yes! Healthcare and insurance reform now!” drew vitriolic and vulgar epithets from other attendees demonstrates not only the poor personal behavior of a few individuals, but more importantly, that debate of one of our nation’s most important and complex issues of the past half century has been diverted into needless fighting over falsehoods and distortions using spurious and tactical arguments.
It is a fact that the healthcare system in the United States is already substantially socialized, in that over eighty percent of people have health insurance through either heavily regulated group plans, or through the government administered plans offered to public employees, veterans, or Medicare or low income assistance recipients. The small remaining fraction is uninsured either by choice, exclusion, or they are self insured, or buy private insurance. We can only improve the quality of the existing system, or create a better environment in which the public-private partnership can flourish.
The Obama administration has urged Congress to provide leadership in the issue with the aim of increasing the vitality and competition in the private insurance industry, and substantial concessions have already been promised to pharma and insurance representatives.
Provisions to improve the medical information system and to dis-incentivize misdiagnoses and hospital error would improve quality, save billions of dollars annually, and substantially reduce medical litigation.
While a few politicians have suggested a single payer plan and amendments to the bill that fall outside of the mainstream discussion or of the general interest, we do have a foundation on which most people can agree.
I am urging the citizenry to voice their opinions and constructive suggestions regarding the American healthcare system with properly researched and well constructed correspondence to party leaders, senators, the Obama administration, and to the media.
Our nation has forged a unique place in world history, has earned the responsibility, and we are at our best by providing the brilliant leadership, vigor, and innovation of our founders to vault us from the platform of our world’s millennia of discovery and understanding to illuminate a better way into our world’s future.
Just The Good Old Boys
I attended an anti-healthcare rally recently to participate directly and to see for myself why this has been such a difficult issue for our nation to deal with. As a small business owner, I made my decision thirty five years ago to never be the employee of a corporation or of the government. I have been shunned by insurance companies and by some doctors, and can get only expensive, limited, high deductible health coverage that could be dropped at any time if the insurance company deems me too high a risk.
At the rally, my assertions for the need for reform drew cold-hearted and vulgar responses from attendees, and indeed, I felt like I was risking my life being there. The crowd expressed blanket opposition to the president, no matter what the issue, and they manufactured falsehoods for which to vilify him. Attempts to have any form of logical debate with these people were absolutely futile, as they had no intention nor desire for debate and they had no constructive answers beyond such epithets as “Obamination” or “Nobama”, nevermind that the legislation was written in congressional committees. There was not going to be any Oxford style debate here.
It eventually dawned on me that many of the protesters were living out the stereotypes of good old boys whose Dixie flag waving, secessionist and intolerant attitudes have, over the years, perpetuated the South’s image of prejudice and ignorance. These people simply can’t accept that our nation has rejected their failed ideologies and that they were soundly defeated in the election, and these people can’t accept a person like me who seeks reasoned, constructive progress, nor can they accept a man in the White House who doesn’t think just like they do.
The Two Party System Stinks!
There are far more than two interests in this country, yet we have to choose between a bag of bullets and a bag of beans, with nothing in between!
The Art Of BS
Lies used to mean not telling the truth, politicians, however, have elevated dishonesty to a high art, with schemes one could never imagine, the artful deceptions of Enron, the marketing slogan ditto-speak that replaces intellectualism, and the many ways they so casually explain away mass murder.
No Insurance For The Free
How can it be, in this greatest of nations, if you are self employed, you must buy expensive private health insurance, which may be unavailable to persons nearing retirement age or those with chronic conditions. Unlike health plans for government and corporate employees, Private health insurance companies are indemnified against legal claims and are under no obligation to provide any guarantee of continued coverage or price stability, leaving many independant professionals and small business owners a diagnosis or an accident away from financial ruin. How can it be that this mighty nation leaves its people in such insecurity.
Who are the real anti-Americans?
The damage done to the United States by the so called Conservatives and Neoprotestant Christians has far exceeded that done by any terrorist group or nation, or any war or disaster since the attempt at secession by the southern states and the resulting civil war. At no other time than now has there been a more visible demonstration in words, deeds, and fact that the Destructive Right, with their ideologically perverse reasoning, is a destructive force not only in our country, but around the globe as well. The horrible destruction in New York in 2001 is diminutive in scale compared to the horrors, mass murder in wars upon innocents, lies, theft and corruption on the largest possible scale that we have seen since.
Their leaders would warp our Constitution to allow their exigencies, and they would leave our healthcare and retirement in the hands of unbridled corporate profiteers. Their clever schemes have eliminated millions of jobs. They are the next generation of the corporate raiders of the 1980’s, but it is now our entire nation they would have in a hostile take-over, to leave only the shriveled remains after they have extracted the assets into their own coffers. But alas, we now see that their blind excesses have hurt all, even themselves, with a morally and financially bankrupt ideology that has the underpinnings of apocalyptic Christian prophecy.
The Destructive Right, with increasing greed, arrogance and vulgarity, has shamelessly dragged into the day's light their self indulgent and misguided plans, as if to brag that the pay is better for the wolf than for the sheep dog in keeping the flock, and attacking any who would utter words of contravention.
Perhaps this is the debate between good and evil, of religion, of dark and light, of order or anarchy, not played out in dark corridors, but across the world stage as the devil's grandest possible conspiracy...
They pull the gallows' lever at the polls, wishing away with loathsome grimace our Constitution, healthcare, retirement income, and education as if to scream in their intemperate, ragged voices "Death to America!".
Better would it be, so the good can live in peace, that these gremlins find their home in Alaska, where they can take comfort in the secessionist Alaskan Independence Party's founder Joe Vogler's statement " I'm not an American. I've got no use for America or her (expletive) institutions."
Will the real Americans ever live in peace?...
