BuzzFlash Mailbag for November 11, 2009

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Subject: Health Care Reform? Not as it stands now

We cannot control the fact that we have Female Organs just like men can’t control that they have Male Organs. I can control if I smoke. Should people who could possibly get heart disease be charged more? What about people who have the potential to get diabetes? Where does it end? By just having certain DNA markers, we have the potential to have a whole host of diseases. Charging more because I am a Woman is discriminatory, period. Where do we draw the line? Do we make a list of all behaviors and DNA markers, have everyone tested and integrated to find out what they are doing so we can determine their risk? Well, we already do that for life insurance, why can’t we do that for health insurance? That is a very common argument.

But we are not talking about life insurance. Health insurance involves activity to keep us healthy as well as addressing when we get sick or injured. There is only one event that can initiate the payment of life insurance – and that is death. There are millions of possible events that can initiate the payment of health insurance. It would be exhausting and too costly to develop a fair payment method based on sex, DNA markers, lifestyle choices, etc. Where would we draw the line anyway? Behaviors that are thought of as good for you, like jogging, can cause injuries; football can cause brain damage, and the list goes on.

Ilene Flannery Wells
Saugertis, NY

Subject: I am a veteran

I was drafted right out of college in 1967 during the largest Vietnam troop build up at the time. Like the Dick Cheneys, Rush Limbaughs and even the Bill Clintons, I did not want to be drafted and certainly did not want to go fight a war on the other side of the world that I truly did not understand. If you did not live through those times, you can not understand the feeling of what was happening. I thought about going to Canada. My draft notice was looming, and my future wife was willing to give up everything and move north with me. Together we decided that it would be better for all of us, family, friends and even our conscience, if I fulfilled my military obligation. In October 1967 I became an employee of The United States of America.

I entered a new life. Totally foreign to anything I have experienced before. I was a middle class kid in a white middle class neighborhood. My whole school was white including all the teachers. I had no interaction with people that were different in any way from what I was. Suddenly I was bunking with a black guy from Mississippi. Eating meals with a kid straight out of the hills of Kentucky. And cleaning toilets with inner city gang members.

I suppose I was lucky and did not go to Vietnam. I was sent to Korea instead. It was interesting times. Vietnam, MLK, RFK, war protests, Bob Hope UFO Shows, the hippie culture. I took it all in from the view of my military service. I watched and listened to our military leaders and no matter what, my perception and thoughts of war never changed. It seemed so pointless, worthless and a waste of lives and dollars.

My military experience taught me a valuable life lesson that I cherish to this day. Tolerance. I became very good friends with that guy from the hills, the gang member and the black kid. I discovered that people are people no matter what race, religion or background. These are people I would never have been friends with in the outside world. We are all still in contact to this day. We have watched our kids grow up and we all have grandchildren.

I was standing near the end of The Bridge Of No Return when the crew of the USS Pueblo was released from North Korea. We watched as the Americans were walking back to the south and their freedom restored. One man died while in captivity and as his casket crossed the bridge, tears ran down all the faces of those in attendance. I was proud to be an American.

I do not regret one minute of my military experience. It gave me an outlook of life that has become valuable in my outlook of the world today. I went into the Army as a liberal and came out as a liberal with very high regard for those that serve. Today, I am still a liberal and a progressive. I know that the progressive ideas are what will make our country and world a better place. We have lost our country. We all can do some sort of service for this wonderful country.

Today I am proud to be called a veteran.

Bob Lambert
Northridge, CA

Subject: For The Umpty-Umpth Time Proof That America Is Not A Democracy

If not a democracy, what? A nation that masquerades as a democracy by holding periodic elections, except when it comes to crucial matters, such as war & peace and what sort of health care system, our elected so-called representatives couldn't care less what the public wants, which is why President Barack Obama may be able to get away with sending additional troops to Afghanistan despite a majority of Americans being opposed to this move.

Likewise President George W. Bush got away with ordering troops to invade Iraq, despite the public being opposed to him on this, and never mind the millions of Americans who took to the streets in protest against making war on Iraq. So what can we do to turn our nation into a real, instead of a pretend democracy? Momentarily give up on ending these wars until next year's election when once again we'll have a chance to send represenatives to Washington who'll support bringing our troops home? But didn't we try for that in both the 2006 & 2008 elections and a lot that helped the cause of peace.

Worse yet, each time we say "next time," what happens is that "next time" the peace movement is that much smaller than it was before, less determined & yet easier for our government to dismiss as irrelevent. Which leaves us but one option - That we rise up en masse and stay mobilized until President Obama and Congress end these perpetual wars, whereupon, empowered by our victory over the powers that be, guess what? That's right, we'll be a real democracy. But if we don't rise up? Doomsday, based on perpetual war + global warming + economic collapse. And then two or three generations down the road who's grandchild or great-grandchild will it be that ends up answering the call, "Will the last one out please turn off the lights?" Could be mine, could be yours, could be anyone's.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Assuming Barack Obama The Populist Doesn't Reemerge, What Then?

"Depends on whether progressives remain disengaged or rise up en masse."

"If we remain disengaged?"

"Republican victories in 2010 & 2012 will bring in a fascist government and there goes any chance for averting doomsday."

"Based on?"

"Time running out & the republicans refusing to end these perpetual wars, get serious about global warming or resolve the economic crisis."

"Whereas, if we rise up en masse?"

"We cam make sure that candidates who support the progressive agenda are elected, whereupon, empowered by our victory over the powers that be, it'll be up to us, the what sort of world."

"Anything else?'

"There is no alternative."

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: mailbag 11/10/09

Mike Curtis....Arkansas.....I love the description of that meeting, the republican who was so disruptive. Wish I had seen it...I loved so much your description of him and how he "Objected" I am not surprised...when you see pictures of our president on your facebook.....with the little "Hitler" mustasche ...it really does turn my stomach...and I know so many people who feel like that, that even turns my stomach more! It is so silly, nasty, and sooooooooo like every dyed in the wool republican I have ever known in my life. I hate it....I just watched the Obamas on TV at the tribute in Ft.Hood....how could anyone think that man is anything but good.....after what we had the past 8 years before him?

Libby
SW St. Louis

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