On Healthcare

I promised previously not to make this a political blog....but, I just have to:

This past Sunday the House passed a health care bill, that by many polls show that the American public is by significant numbers vastly opposed to. In addition to the greater intrusion in American's personal health related issues and the extended financial burden placed on struggling American tax payers and on our already economically weakened businesses, the passage of this monstrosity brings up an even greater concern for me.

Why are Nancy Pelosi and the other democrats running around pretending that they are some kind of civil rights heros??? The House majority whip, James Clyburn even went so far as to say, "I could say it is on par with the passing of the Civil Rights Act." OH PLEASE!!! Stop flattering yourselves. By no means are you on par with or anywhere near the level of the civil rights activists. I am sorry, did I miss burning crosses, KKK conventions and legitimate threats on their families? The men and women who marched for equal rights risked their lives each and every time they spoke, marched or protested. The climate for passing the CRA was laced with great ignorance and bigotry, passing a health care bill that spends money you don't have (and spare me the, "its going to reduce the budget argument," the bill requires 3 years of front loaded funding, of course the additional 3 years of taxation for 7 years of benefits is going to reduce the budget over 10 years! But what happens the next 10 years where there is not those 3 years of advanced funding?) is nowhere near the caliber of the historic civil rights legislation. So do us all a favor and stop parading around town comparing yourself to great civil rights leaders and trouncing on their legacies.

Second, I have spent a great deal of time reading news articles and watching news reports citing that politics has lost its civility. Lost its civility? Politics has never been civil! Politics is a full contact sport, lest we forget that Aaron Burr (our great nations 3rd Vice President) murdered Alexander Hamilton because of political differences. Politics is nasty. You can make an argument, and I would likely agree, that it is a sad state that politics is at. Perhaps things should be more civil (and I wish they were), but that is not the reality! Do I condone the actions of a few whom are using racial slurs and other unspeakable derogatory speech? NO, absolutely not! I personally feel when people use inflammatory speech and other vulgarities it is merely a reflection of their tiny vocabularies. But lets face it, politicians under fire by their constituents is nothing new, that is after all the basis of our Constitution. The House of Representative by design is meant to represent their constituents (the Senate on the other hand is another story) and if their voters feel as though they are not being adequately represented it is their Constitutional right to let their voices be heard, I think it is important we not trample on our first amendment rights in the name of civility. I wish that the politicians that had ugly words hurled at them would have stood up at that moment and called out the behavior instead of crying to the media! For goodness sake, you have a slue of bodyguards and aids walking with you, stand up for what is right AT THAT MOMENT instead of running to the media because you know that it will gain greater traction.

I have already told you how I feel about the handful of individuals using alleged hate speech, I think we should also remember that a few bad protesters does not reflect wholly on the group/movement. I have been to 2 tea party protests: one intentionally and one incidentally, and at neither did I see any actions on behalf of the protesters that was less than respectful or dignified, they even had a designated crew to clean up any left behind trash! How many groups do you know of that make a conscience effort to clean up after 1000s of protesters? So please stop pretending that those of us who peacefully protest or disagree with this body of legislation are equally represented by those few that have chosen to protest with less than stately behavior. But don't expect civil behavior at the ballot box come November 2, because I do believe that November 2 could be a very long, borderline 'uncivil' night for the democrats!