i like this guy (David Price, D, NC)

Thank you for contacting me regarding your support of a single-payer program to achieve universal healthcare system in the United States. It is good to hear from you.



Like you, I understand that universal coverage must be a key element of the health care reform package, and I believe that any plan to achieve universal coverage must include a carefully crafted, publicly-administered option in the health insurance "exchange." While I am sympathetic to arguments that a single-payer health care plan along the lines of Medicare would achieve universal coverage more quickly, we do not yet have the votes for a bill with a public option. A broader single-payer plan would have even more difficulty.



A number of analysts have examined single-payer systems in other countries as well as Medicare, which is already larger than the Canadian national system. Medicare has performed well in keeping administrative costs low, less well in encouraging coordinated and collaborative models of care. In any event, President Obama made the strategic judgment to build upon rather than replace the present workplace-based system of insurance. Opponents were thus denied the opportunity to threaten people with the loss of something they have and value, a tactic which helped produce the defeat of reform in 1994. But they still are determined to raise the bugaboo of "government run" health insurance, which they have proceeded to apply to the public option with a vengeance. I am determined to beat back these attacks.



Serious health care reform is an essential investment in our nation's long-term fiscal, economic, and personal well-being. The American people need a health care system that ensures stable coverage, affordable premiums and copayments, and quality care. My concept of reform - which is embodied in each of the three committee bills that are now being combined into a single measure in the House - contains two simple principles: (1) an end to insurance discrimination based on one's medical history, age, or gender and (2) a widening of the "pool" of the insured to as near universal coverage as possible. This is a matter of justice and basic security for all Americans, and also a necessity if we are to require insurance plans to take all comers. All three bills also allow Americans who have and value their insurance at work to keep it, while creating a new insurance "exchange" offering a range of private plans and a publicly-administered plan to uncovered individuals and small businesses.



There are still some details to work out, but I expect the House bill to contain these basic features, and I hope we can pass it very soon. Thank you for contacting me, and please continue to keep in touch.



Sincerely,

DAVID PRICE

and i don't think it's an accident that it's come to this. how much does this country spend on the MIC compared to what it spends on educating its citizens? it's rapidly approaching the day when only rich kids will be able to be educated well enough to have options that don't necessarily include a stint in the army.

since at least Reagan this has been going on and as i said, i don't think it's an accident. these are our children, and those raised without all the advantages are nothing to the MIC but bodies to throw at their fucking wars. chattel. assets. i don't think they even think of them as human beings. witness stop-loss and the general neglect of the troops, not to mention the fucking WARS.

and i despise that!! my son graduates high school next year. how the hell am i going to get him through college??? he casually mentions he's gonna join the military and i take it as a not so passive form of aggression toward me. he doesn't even appreciate that i cannot take it as a joke and i'd rather move him out of the US than to see him in the military at this point in time, when the USA is involved in these horribly wrong wars of aggression, killing people who even if they want to have no realistic way of posing a threat to us.

he will be 18 years old in May. if he enlists there will be nothing i can do personally to change it. in the meantime he gets an earful on a regular basis about why he just can't do that!

sorry if i don't make sense you touched a nerve but i'm at work.

i still say no. if the question had been "are you a responsible citizen?" i would have said yes. worded as it is, "responsible for the deaths caused by these wars" - i cannot unlink that statement from guilt. my daughter was killed, and the person who was "responsible" for her death was and remains guilty indeed.

i might have responded that i am responsible in this context if i had voted for gw and supported the wars but i never did, ever. i am responsible in the sense that being part of a government of, for, and by the people means we all have a responsibility to vote and to the extent we are able, to engage in the workings of that democracy. but i'm not sure that is even a matter of opinion.

you say my doing what i can "makes a HUGE difference." i only wish! i only wish.

when i was still living in CA i went into the CYA to teach victim impact classes to youthful offenders. that's not cover your ass, it's the California Youth Authority, and the people with whom i interacted were guilty of the most egregious crimes. most of them were gang members. at least there i could look into their eyes and with some of them see that there was still a spark of humanity within them, that possibly i could reach. that possibly somewhere down the line, there would be one less victim because of the work i had done. that was satisfying.

but these days, and with these wars, nothing i do seems to make a single whit of difference. i am astonished to note that this has been going on for over eight years! i have to make a living and i'm tired. i keep writing and i keep calling and i keep signing petitions but it seems as if the only people who can get in the same room with the people who are making the decisions are the bankers, the MIC, and the corporate lobbyists. (people guilty of the most egregious crimes imo)

i do strive to stay engaged in spite of this nearly hopeless perception i have. i feel anguished because these wars our country won't quit remind me so much of vietnam and iirc, popular sentiment against the war did not rise until some 30,000 americans had died over there. then finally the people took to the streets and the lawmakers understood that they had to end it, and the number of american dead still almost doubled before they finally did. will it take 50 to 60 thousand american dead to stop these senseless wars? i'm afraid that it may. at this point i feel responsible enough to do eveything in my power to ensure that my son and grandchildren don't end up among the dead.

that's not even touching on the innocents whose lives are destroyed or ended in foreign countries because of the aggression of the US. nor on the maimed and injured americans, nor on those whose psyches have and will sustain irreparable damage, effectively ruining their chances for a happy and fulfilled life.

i guess it boils down to semantics, and my saying "no" absolves me of nothing. i can say that when the people finally do get together to change the status quo i will then know i have done my part. i knew bush would throw a war before he ever took office, and have been steadfastly and vocally against the wars to this day. eventually i suppose the losses will rise to numbers higher than the majority of americans will countenance, and finally these travesties will end. no telling what happens then. no way to really affect it either. at least that's how it feels.

the more i think about mandated health insurance without any public option, the more pissed off i get. my plan if such a thing happens is to refuse to buy insurance at all (disclaimer: i have ins through my employer at the moment and have been without it in the recent past).

If we cannot have universal single payer health care in this country, the very least we must have is a robust public option for health insurance. if congress passes a bill mandating health insurance and all the people can choose from are the huge, greedy health insurance companies - who care not for the welfare of the people but only for their bottom line - i will not take part. it is worse than disingenuous to claim that the people of this wealthy country have some sort of responsibility to feed the gravy train of profits to heartless corporations. Vote for a robust and meaningful public option or lose my vote in the next election. thank you.

i can't listen to a republican anymore. just seeing that R next to the name turns me off. they could be making total sense and i'd never know it because i am totally prejudiced. i just despise them.

i was in LA when the Simi Valley jury came back with acquittals for the policemen who had beaten Rodney King to a pulp. i knew it was about race, and that it was racism. and on that afternoon, almost nine months pregnant, knowing my city was about to erupt in a very ugly way, i made a decision. i would never again claim, "i am not a racist." because i knew that if asked every one of those jurors would claim, "i'm not a racist," but their decision was clearly racist, which meant that their denials were lies, even if they were lies they believed themselves.

my mother used to make the same claim. "i'm not a racist, i just think they should stay in their place and we should stay in ours. i'm not a racist, but if you marry a black man i will disown you."

i deplore racism. i have done my level best to raise my children to not so engage. but i will never claim, "i am not a racist," because what if i am? if i can plainly see that so many people who are racists cannot recognize it in themselves, i cannot be content that it might not be me as well. and my personal belief is that this insidious, veiled racism that refuses to acknowledge itself is perhaps the most dangerous form of racism of all. because it is infectious and it masquerades as reason, and because it goes unacknowledged and unrecognized, it's like a bacteria or a cancer, multiplying and growing unchecked.

thank you for an important post. i believe that many here on DU might gain from reading it, and i hope so. i know i have.

VENUE

Americans United for Health Care and Insurance Reform

September 13, 2009, 12Noon – 5pm

Upper Senate Park



The location has changed from a march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol to a rally at the Upper Senate Park.



All buses must be routed through Union Station. There will be no bus parking at the Upper Senate Park.



The Upper Senate Park permit will be issued to Julie Paulsen and Americans United for Health Care and Insurance Reform. Those rallying from other groups, not associated to Americans United for Health Care and Insurance Reform, may be asked to leave. The Upper Senate Park must be thoroughly cleaned up after the rally. All trash is to be disposed of in proper receptacles.



This rally is to be peaceful not a demonstration. Singing, chanting, speeches, stories of health care difficulties and peaceful participation is expected. Obstructive yelling, screaming, fighting or name calling is not acceptable. If we are approached by GOP, right-wing, 9/12 demonstrators the rule of thumb is to ignore them. We are not to acknowledge their presence. If that goal cannot be obtained you may have officials remove them. This is our rally for health care reform.



If approached by the media our response should be similar, if not identical, to White House health care insurance reform verbiage. If asked about GOP, right-wing myths on health care reform persons should be directed to White House.gov.



Each participant, who is staying through Monday, is asked to set up an appointment with their congressman and senators to discuss their support of health care and insurance reform. This meeting will probably with an aide.



If asked Americans United for Health Care and Insurance Reform is not affiliated with Organizing for America or the Democratic National Committee or affiliated with any other groups, special interests or lobbying forums. Americans United for Health Care and Insurance Reform is a grassroots organization. Neither Julie Paulsen or members of Americans United for Health Care and Insurance Reform will not be held liable for property, personal property, person(s) or actions of any person, group or association.



Speakers



Leslie Boyd has asked to speak to the group about her son’s fight against insurance companies and health care institutions. Her son, Mike, not only lost his fight with institutions, but also his life.



J.A. Ribelles, MD has asked to speak about analysis of the causes of run away costs and the measures to be implemented to contain them


i rented a car to go to DC and march. really debating whether i'll just take my son and go somewhere else we haven't been, maybe to the coast. i don't know. are any other DUer's going, and/or do you know of any MARCH that still may take place? what's code pink up to this weekend? i was really ready to put on my marching shoes.

have not done so well by those your age.

for me, 911 occurred less than 2 months after my life was hacked into two parts by the death of my daughter. but it is a digression and an indulgence to bring that up.

what i recall is that until 911 - or the gwbush presidency - i actually believed that i lived in the best nation on the face of the earth. that i had a government of, for, and by the people. i despised all the republicans but until gw came along, i felt secure that with our system of government, this was indeed the home of the free and the land of the brave. i have since believed and felt very strongly that we teeter on a slippery slope of powerful fascism that would like nothing better than to see the vast majority of americans and indeed all humans living as slaves to the elite. corporatism, the MIC, patriot act, WAR, WAR, WAR.

not just any wars, wars without reason or justification. wars invented and designed for the sole purpose of making the rich, richer and the poor, poorer.

i used to actually get choked up when i voted, or when i heard the star spangled banner. it doesn't really work that way anymore. but i learned something - belatedly, i have to admit - during the obama campaign. and that it is up to me to stay engaged to as great an extent as i possibly can, to be active, to keep communicating with the powers that be.

because if this democracy is ultimately saved (i hope and believe that it can be and will be), it will only be because the people insist upon it. and the fact is that that has always been the case. the threats that Eisenhower mentioned so long ago were all along busily chipping away to their own ends and against the greater ends of the public good, and peace. when 911 happened they jumped on that in a big big way to step up their game and speed up the destruction of a free society. i went from LIHOP to MIHOP with regard to my beliefs about what happened 8 years ago today, but regardless of who was behind the attacks, the bush admin USED them to further a very nefarious agenda, and they were very successful for quite a long time.

big messes to clean up. wars to be ended, rights to be restored, justice to be served. i'll be staying awake from here on out and trying my best to wield whatever power i do possess as a citizen of the USA, and hope you'll do the same. it does get very discouraging, and i feel a pull to apathy all the time. i just don't want to give in to it and watch something even remotely like the gwbush years happen again. please not in this lifetime.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/10/11...
March for Health Care September 13, 2009

yesterday i posted the email i wrote to my son's principal expressing my feelings about President Obama's speech not being shown at school.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...


i got a response this morning:

Thank you for bringing your concern to my attention. I would have loved nothing more than to show the speech to our entire student body at the same time. Unfortunately, we did not receive information on the speech until last week. The speech took place during part of our B lunch and part of our C lunch, so 2/3 of our student body would not have been able to watch without the schedule being changed. Given the late notice of this speech, we were unable to coordinate a last minute plan that accommodated the entire student body minus those whose parents refused to allow their student to watch the speech. Teachers were given the option to show the speech in their classroom, but many were unable to because of their lunch period.

Good news, the speech is on the WRAL website and I have included the link.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/vi... /

i'm mollified by the response; it makes sense to me. except the "minus those whose parents refused to allow their student to watch the speech" - aargh.

comments welcome, thank you

Dear ---,

I am writing to learn the reason why my son was not allowed to take part in listening to President Barack Obama's back to school speech to the nation's schoolchildren today. I am incensed that he could not share in the nationwide experience of the students of America being addressed directly by our President.

I certainly hope your reasons do not involve a contrived and absurd controversy invented by radio hatemongers and right-wing propaganda cable television.

Please respond.

Sincerely,

to a live news feed for southern california? i'm in NC and my family's all out there.

eta thank you!

if health insurance is mandated and i can't afford it? fuck the insurance companies. i would much prefer to pay the doctor directly to tossing away unnecessary bucks that i can't afford just for the sake of the CEOs of some coldhearted corporation making a million or more bucks in a year.

i am very fortunate in that i have a great job with excellent benefits, 90% of which are covered by my employer. but when my job ends, and it will end, i'll be up shitcreek and i will still have high blood pressure. i'm not getting any younger. and how many - what is it, close to 50 million now, are not as fortunate as i am?

why should i be able to go to the doctor when necessary and get the meds i need when i need them, and others cannot, because they are poor? how can it be fair or right in any way at all that my ability to take care of my and my son's health depends on me staying employed? not just employed, but employed here (cause most employers do not provide such good benefits)?

so my fantasy these days is simply shucking any pretense to health "insurance" and going back to the olden days of paying the doctor directly, in the office. i actually know of a practice here in raleigh, with good doctors, that does not contract with any health insurance company. they took care of me when i was sick and my PCP on the HMO plan refused to see me for 3 months because i was a new patient. i paid them directly and it was worth every cent.

Demand all Americans have health care and let the insurance companies try to squeeze payments out of everyone.

i'm all for a movement of consumers that simply says no, if real reform fails at this point. that would definitely be a bottom up solution, from those of us on the bottom getting screwed.

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art


********

i watched a biography of him over the weekend and heard this poem. it made me think of the people protesting these days, the teabaggers and "anti-socialists" who don't apparently recognize that they are advocating against their very own best interests. never mind that they'll never give a rat's ass about anybody else - they don't even want what would be good for themselves. just wanted to share this. genius in their hatred.