Medical Insurance for All

THE KNEEJERK DANCE

(or, A Narrative Addressed to the Stranger Overheard Today Discussing THE Topic of the Last Few Weeks)


Just for a second or two, please put yourself in the place of a person you've heard of or perhaps even known, a person who's MOST worse off in this life.

Feel that life.

Think about it.

(By the way, that person isn't you either. If you have even one other electronic device besides that flippety floppity keyboardy glow-y screen "phone" on your table on which you are accessing and spending time on the internet, or Facebook, as you mentioned, for example, my friend, it sure isn't you. Yeah, times ARE tough, but, really, it ain't you.)

Are you in the place of that poor person yet? Spent a second or two as her or him...?





AS THAT PERSON, now how do you feel about the issue of medical coverage and government mandates and rules and such concerning medical coverage?

Hmmm...?

What's your kneejerk reaction when you're downtrodden? What're your self and selfish thoughts on the matters? Helpful? To be taken advantage of? Bad? Good?

Hmm... indeed.

Cool, come back to yourself.

Thanks for your time. Maybe just for a second, we were able to dance to the beat beat beat beating down of a different socio-economic friend, friend. EMPATHY rocks!



Now, opening a separate but similar vein, a vein where sentences end in prepositions, if we were to make a list of all the stupid-a$$ crapapple the government spends our tax dollars on...

Looking at that list, AND WRITING ONLY OF MYSELF HERE, I will complain here and there about various stupidities, but I am CERTAINLY not going to moan about my money paying for somebody's medicine, SOMEBODY'S MEDICINE!, not when that's ten-thousandth on the list of stupid-a$$ crapapple and there are nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine others things more stupid-a$$ crapapple-y for which my tax dollars are used. Really, it ain't the worst thing!

Hey, look, I'm far more angry about some government spending I studied in history class in high school years ago, and that was not just years ago, that was YEARS AGO. We learned about how each toilet-seat cover in the thousands of military-industrial war machines that were roaming the Cold-War-plagued planet at the time each cost the government anywhere from $500 to $3000. And, look, I'm not bagging on the military--I, for one, am the son of many proud military generations dating back to the American Revolution (yeah, that one, the one in the 1700s)--I happen to love the military. Years ago,... I read about the government mixing with the military-industrial complex, getting together and balancing my parents' and grandparents' tax dollars with $400 hammers and $3,000 toilet-seat covers and the like! This is years in the past, and I'm still perturbed by that particular instance of tax (over)spending, years in the past...

--Toilet-seat covers vs. Any citizen's health--

...BUT, EVEN IF THE GOV'T SPENDING MONEY ON MEDICAL COVERAGE in the future MAKES IT EVEN HARDER FOR ME TO PAY MY MORTGAGE AND GET ANOTHER CAR, I - AM - STILL - NOT - GOING - TO - SIT - AROUND - AND -MOAN - KNEEJERKEDLY - ABOUT - SOME - OF - MY - TAX - DOLLARS - BEING - SPENT - ON - SOMEBODY'S - MEDICINE.

Someone else is sick.

Of course, the debate requires more thought and study, but...

...if it's a little girl who's poor and sick, that'll be awesome if my money helps her.

Y'know, if it's the rude drug-addled hater you mentioned, well, that has to be OK, too, doesn't it.

After the hater gets better, perhaps we'll debate him on the issues. I admit it is alarming to think that perhaps after my money is spent on making him better,... what if he does go out and kill someone? Well, that makes it difficult, huh... but are you the ultimate judge of humanity and the future of us all? Am I?

I know I'm not. You're not either.

Maybe that sick little girl who was not well off and was also helped to medicine by our government grows up. She grows up healthy and strong. She grows up healthy and strong and becomes a great president, a great president in YOUR favorite political party, a great president greater than all who came before; and just maybe she teaches us a better way by using the drug-addled fool hater's story as a teaching tool.

Who knows?

Good health to all.


By the way, don't take this narrative to mean I don't debate and even moan about things the government does with my tax money. I do believe I mentioned, using two dollar marks with double meanings, a list of stupid-a$$ crapapple-y items above. Some of them certainly rate my ire and every once in a while rate my two cents, especially when it's my two cents about my two dollars being spent on something stupid. Even this particular issue of medical coverage is not perfect (i.e., contains some stupidity) and is well worth more and more and more debate.

DEBATE. DEBATE AWAY, my friend.

DEBATE... DEBATE but don't kneejerkedly selfishly moan about your money and your taxes and you, you, you, you, you when somebody else is sick and needs health care.

You may someday come face to Face with the fact that it's not all about you. Certainly, debate about yours and somebody else's medicine, but don't selfishly kneejerkedly moan about somebody else's medicine.

This moaning is just you jibber-jabbering away just waiting for your turn to talk and not even listening to anyone else at your table. Debating perhaps implies at least a little bit of listening--certainly, listening at least enough to enable a stronger argument against your opponent. But, debate, when the planets align, perhaps perfect debate is like empathy rocking out; healthy, "healthy" debate is like the marketplace of ideas, where mixed metaphors and the cream rise to the top to the good of all.

The cream, the empathy, the top....

Good health to all!


I mean you when I say, "Good health to all," but I don't mean just you.

Good Health to ALL!


Peace, my friend. The floor is yours. I'd love you to rock out on the floor, too. Rock out to the Safety-for-All Dance, The Healthy-Debate Dance, the one with the Empathic Slide. Line up here. This is a line-dance for us all. Really, it IS you.

Dance however you like but please... not that kneejerking move you've been showing us. There's just a bit too much ass in that move, my friend. Doesn't that hurt?


(The web-log entry is COPYRIGHT 2010 Michael S. Adams.)