The healthcare reform debate, global warming, moving to a "green economy," the financial industry debacle, most wars, are really all about one thing - Capitalism. The question we, as a people, must ask is "what price are we willing to pay to keep Capitalism alive?"
I couldn't believe my ears. This short, middle-aged white woman stood before me, telling me about her $10,000 health insurance deductible, about how her young adult daughter couldn't be covered under her health insuance policy, and yet she was a most vociferous opponent to healthcare reform at the John Lewis Town Hall Meeting on Healthcare Reform. I was so flabbergasted at the disconnect between the oppression of her life and her defense of the oppressors, that I could only blurt out, "Ma'am you are a slave to the health insurance industry!"
Upon further reflection, I would assert that we are all slaves to the health insurance industry. We have had little say in how they conduct their business practices - business practices that can determine who lives and who dies. The fight against the Public Option is the fight of Capitalists to maintain their industry - and their profits. They've done a masterful job of creating mistrust in government (of course corrupt elected officials have given us all much grist for the mill), while all the time dodging the accountability they must have for the practices of cherry picking subscribers, denials and restrictions on treatment that constitute the true death panels.
The Capitalists who are creating climate change are no different. They resist retooling their manufacturing plants to reduce harmful carbon emissions. The coal industry fights hard to make us believe that there is such a thing as "clean coal." The situation is critical. We must act now to save the planet for our future. I want my grand-daughter to live in a planet that is healthy and sustainable. I want the planet to survive.
The greed in Wall Street is unquestionable. The bigwigs have been playing a dangerous smoke and mirrors game of making shady real estate deals and devising financial programs that are only a hair's breadth from a Ponzi scheme.
Most wars are fought for the control of natural resources. Does anybody doubt that Bush the Lesser invaded Iraq for the oil? Our men and women are fighting a war to enrich the few. They are laying down their lives so that Capitalists can get richer and more powerful.
And all the while the American people suffer through lack of comprehensive healthcare, depletion of the ozone layer, unemployment, home foreclosures, lost retirement funds, and the loss of their loved ones in wars that make no sense.
I will state for the record that I believe Capitalism has run amok. I believe our government has been sold to the highest bidder. Lieberman's stance that he will never vote for a healthcare bill with a public option is not surprising given his wife's ties to the healthcare industry. The health insurance industry has hired 6 lobbyists for every member of congress. They have spent more than a $1.4 million A DAY to push their agenda: save the health insurance industry; save health insurance Capitalists.
We've got to take our government back, folks. We've got to elect people who really have the best interests of the people at heart. Stop being so disgusted with politicians. Become the honest politician you would like to see in power. We can complain and do nothing, or we can take our country into a new direction that puts its people first. You and I can be those politicians who make decisions based on what is best for the American people, rather than what is best for the deep-pocketed Capitalists. We can do it. We've got to do it...