History is what can happen when we show up, participate, roll up our sleeves, and do the work. Tonight's historic passage of HR 3962 is a giant step toward health care reform in this country. Congratulations to President Obama, members of his tireless team, the Democratic House leadership, and all congressmen and congresswomen who voted in favor tonight. Now begins the work on the Senate side. Momentum is critical.
-- Patricia McGahan
Wilmington, North Carolina
I've been watching, with amusement and downright disbelief, the recent outpouring of emotion and self-righteous theatrics by the most uninformed, fanatical element in this country, aka "The Tea-Baggers." Let's just say it, shall we? They have decided they really don't want a person of color in their "White" House, and they're using the anti-health-care-reform pulpit as an avenue for their outrage. Let's get real here. Thank God that it actually happened -- that we finally have a President with genuine integrity. But, he happens to be both a person of integrity and a person of color; his ideas and leadership are sound; and the majority of the American people voted him into office. Now, if that's not something to get all riled up about, I don't know what is. What is this, some kind of democracy?!As their premise, the Tea-Baggers state that the government, with President Obama at the helm, is trying to take over their lives and take away their personal freedom. That really was the case during the Bush administration; but back then they reacted by buying "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers (still for sale at the U.S. Postal Service, made in China) and duct-taping American flags (also made in China) to their SUV antennas (I won't say it). And, as their Commander-In-Chief had instructed them to do, after 9/11, they went shopping, and bought duct-tape by the case. That's right, duct-tape, not teabags. They proudly joined the “Let's Go Shopping and Buy Duct-Tape Movement,” to show their leader and their critics that they were indeed “real” Americans. What better way to prepare for another, inevitable attack by the ever-increasing ranks of the world's “evildoers”? (I am in no way minimizing the loss of life and terror of 9/11, only expressing an observation about reactions thereto.)If these ranting, raving, self-proclaimed patriots are that upset about the projected cost of health-care reform (the numbers aren't in yet, because there are at least eight different pieces of pending legislation) and its effect on the national debt, shouldn't they have been shouting from the rooftops during the lead-up to the war in Iraq, six long years ago – a war which has cost us trillions of dollars? That's “trillion,” with a “t.” And let's not forget the incalculable, ongoing human costs of that war as well.Why weren't the Tea-Baggers swarming Capitol Hill when billions upon billions of taxpayers' money was appropriated, often in the form of "emergency" budget resolutions, to perpetuate the unfinished business of the first Bush administration? Where were they when George and Dick and Donald and Karl and Colin and General Myers* were giving this nation, and our allies, false information about weapons of mass destruction, and leading us into a non-constitutional, preemptive war, one for which no exit strategy was planned? *(Note of interest: General Richard Myers, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George W. Bush, is now on the Board of Directors of Northrop Grumman, the third-largest arms manufacturer in the world.)
Have the Tea-Baggers been shouting and waving placards on the tarmacs in Iraq and Afghanistan, while thousands of red, white and blue, flag-draped caskets are loaded onto cargo planes for the long, lonely flight home; or while the children of Baghdad have been losing life and limb? Are they shouting and waving signs in the hallways of under-funded and under-staffed VA hospitals (like the one my father died in) and clinics, or in psychiatric hospitals all over this country, where the traumas of war are robbing countless veterans and their families of a healthy future?A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. And when you feed it with self-righteous, myopic and misleading misinformation, it evolves into a malformed, political amoeba. It's appalling.So, here's my idea: Round up the "Tea-Baggers," and give them one-way tickets to Alaska. There, they can join up with Sarah Palin and a camera crew and board a fishing vessel, and set sail for the Bering Straits. It will be a new reality TV series -- we'll call it "Deadliest Catch-Me-If-You-Can." Let's give the boat a name: “The Misguided.” Make sure that they have plenty of reading material on board, like....... hmmmmm....... what type of reading material would that be, anyway, seeing as how they don't read..... and, heck, they get all their news anyway from Fox TV. Is there cable in the Bering Straits? I know, maybe pack some copies of the Constitution in their luggage. Is that out in paperback yet? And, of course, some dictionaries. Judging by their signs, they need some help with their spelling and grammar. And, how about back issues of the Congressional Record from, say, the last nine years? There should be a copy of The Patriot Act in there somewhere.As we all know, no matter where they are, as long as the cameras are rolling, they'll be happy. And, "ya know," Sarah, you'll be able to see Russia from the front deck of your boat! And you and your friends can throw as many tea bags as you like overboard, and make yourself some real nice, “American” iced tea. And maybe you all can construct a new form of government while you're out there bobbing in the waves: Let's call it "Idiocracy."And, one more thing, as a suggestion to the Discovery Channel or National Geographic, please keep them out at sea until at least 2013. I'm sure their show will be a hit on cable TV with their counterparts back home.
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Patricia McGahan
August 18, 2009
