An Uneducated Electorate

August 2009 should go down in American History as the time in which we realized just how uneducated and ignorant so many of us are.  The Congressional recess, and the Town Hall meetings taking place across our land, combined with the 24/7 Media coverage of the events themselves, and the firestorm that is the debate over “Healthcare Reform” is so ugly, that when the dog walks in the room, I turn the News off.  The situation is really that bad.  We can only hope that we are a society still civilized enough that we’ll come together to bring positive change from the demonstrations of ignorance, hate, intolerance and hypocrisy that we have witnessed recently.  

Recently, a political commentator said, “Americans are STUPID.”  So far, I have heard no one stand up to refute the claim.

 Thomas Jefferson warned us in 1806 that a free society could only exist if we were educated.  The Healthcare Debate, and it is only still a debate, has exposed just how truly uneducated so many of our citizen’s are.  Terms like Socialism, Nazi’s, and Communism are being thrown about without any regard to their meaning.  People are up in arms (some carrying Arms) and yelling about issues that they do not understand.  How could they, the very people elected to discuss and decide on the issues (The Congress) does not even have a grasp on the Healthcare issue themselves.  So in every daily News cycle in the Mass Media, we are being bombarded  with misinformation, half-truths and hearsay.  And too many of us are believing what we hear. 

Many folks are calling for the America that they once knew.  I couldn’t agree with them more.  That was an America where we had the best Public School System in the world.  What we turned out from that system, regardless of wealth, race or other factors, was an “educated electorate.”  After WWII, we had both a very high tax-rate on the wealthy, and the largest growth of a middle-class in the history of the world.  We had a population where everyone saw each other as a part of the whole, humanitarianism grew, as did care for the lowliest of our society.  We had FDR’s  New Deal, and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.  The New Deal brought us Social Security, and it was during the Johnson Presidency that the  “social” program MEDICARE came into existence.  Two very “SOCIAL” programs, both revered by the past three generations. 

So here we are in 2009, and almost 100% of the population believes Healthcare needs reform, but there is a giant chasm between what type of reform is needed.  And the misinformation being spread throughout the Mass Media, and then from neighbor to neighbor, and from Town Hall to Town Hall is wholly representative of the segregated, militaristic, FEAR of the unknown that was (and still is) part of the America I grew up in.  What is different today however is that people are more selfish, greedier, filled with fear and anxiety, and have been brainwashed to believe that Government is Bad, and Freedom is all that is necessary.  Just listen to the uneducated Glenn Beck on Fox, and you’ll be filled with enough lies and untruths in one hour that your head may actually just spin off your shoulders.  Unless of course you believe him, in which case you are probably loading a gun right now and searching for the next Town Hall with President Obama.

Barack Obama needs to stand up and truly lead our country on this matter.  He has been right to leave the policy making to the Legislators as that is their role.  Now he needs to “bully” Congress and America a lot more from his pulpit in the White House.  He won an electoral landslide to “CHANGE” our country’s direction. 

To all the folks who say Government can’t do anything right, where are their voices screaming about the Education they got for free, or the Police and Fire Departments that protect them and their families, or Social Security and Medicare, not to mention the Libraries and National Parks that make our land great.  And when it comes to the Tea Party folks who complain about paying taxes, where is the outrage over the Trillions of dollars that pay for a military budget that is higher than the next 13 countires combined. 

The Congress and the Media, all of whom are multi-millionaires, and some who are even heavily invested in HealthCare Company stocks, as well as the recipients of the HealthCare Industry profits are truly the major culprits misinforming and misleading Americans.  They are simply not being honest and faithful to us in this debate.  Democrats and Republicans both!  This is going to be a defining moment for Barack Obama to stand up to this dishonest group of unethical politicians.

The HealthCare issue to me is not one of dollars and cents, profits and afforability.  The entire issue to me is related to HUMAN RIGHTS!  We ship “free” medical care to every country that needs it.  We in America also treat our Pets and Animals to free Medical Care.  It is an essential need of every Human Being.  Ed Schultz on MSNBC even mentioned correctly that Jesus healed the sick, and commanded us to do the same.

To the Constitution, Give me back my America, gun-toting  crowd, I suggest reading Thomas Paine (Father Of The American Revolution), Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Ralph Nader, and the other great Americans down through history who have called for Universal Healthcare.  And to find out what really goes on in every Wealthy Industrial country that all have a form of Universal HealthCare or Single Payer System, read what people in those countries say, not what corrupt politicians in America are telling you.  All the countries with Universal Healthcare have better health than Americans.  That is not by accident, that is because of access.   And they consider themselves fortunate and lucky to not have to worry about whether or not they can afford Medical Care!

Educate yourselves…..so you can again live in the America you love.  And think about our society as a whole, not just yourself.  Then you will begin to see again the Country you knew.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson felt so strongly about education as being indispensible to a free society that while he was President he submitted an Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in his State Of The Union address on December 2, 1806. 

Jefferson’s plan for Education consisted of 4 basic principles:

1) That Democracy cannot long exist without enlightenment

2) That it cannot function without wise and honest officials

3) That talent and virtue, needed in a free society, should be educated regardless of wealth, birth, or other accidental condition

4) That the children of the poor must be thus educated at the common expense

 

Thomas Jefferson also said…..”Banking Establishments are more dangerous than standing Armies.”   Does that have any meaning or truth to anyone in 2009?

Mark Twain

“Who are the oppressors?  The few: the king, the capitalist, and a handful of other overseers and superintendents.  Who are the oppressed?  The many: the nations of the earth, the valuable personages, the workers, they that make the bread that the soft handed and idle eat.”

Howard Zinn

“In between war and passivity there are a thousand possibilities.”

They Did Act Stupidly

Bill Maher speaking today on CNN summed up the Obama/Gates/Cambridge Police matter that has dominated the airwaves since last Thursday. Maher was the first voice I’ve heard who noted that the entire incident is not one of “race,” but one of the Police overstepping their bounds and arresting a man for no reason.

Protect and Serve. That is the motto of the Police. To that end, the Gates arrest protected nobody, and served nobody. The fact that Henry Gates “mouthed off” to the cops is not an arrestable act.  The fact that the entire incident occurred in Henry Gates’ home is evidence of the Police going over the line in their behavior.   

We in America should have the right to tell a Police Officer, anywhere or anytime whatever is on our minds, be it kind, or be it hateful. There simply is no law against speaking our minds to the men in blue!

This entiire incident, and the Media’s reaction to it is just another example of the Mass Media in America failing all of us.

Healthcare Not Warfare

The late Republican President Dwight David Eisenhower warned America in 1961 as he left office that the Industrial Military Complex could eventually place Americans “toil, resources and livelihoods at stake.”

This is playing out today as we are told we cannot afford to extend Medical Care to all Americans while we spend more than every other country combined on our military.

Walter Cronkite

The passing of the “avowed Liberal” Walter Cronkite reminds America of a better day in News Reporting by the Mass Madia.

The Wedge Issues

The WEDGE Issues of the Republican Party showed themselves in force this week. You choose: GENDER, RACE, or CLASS. And don’t be fooled…..there are many Democrats who play the same game.

SONIA SOTOMAYOR – Yes, an American Latina Woman is being confirmed this week by the Senate, and YES, she has ruled correctly on the U. S. Constitution, throughout her 17 years as a Judge, much to the dismay of the All White Republican Right, who just happen to be ALL from the South! The Southern Strategy is dead and buried. Someone close to Pat Buchanon should tell him. Your Southern “Race” Strategy is over. And it won’t be comin’ back.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS – The Obama Administration this week overturned a Bush policy, and will allow Women who are beaten and abused in other countries to seek asylum in the U. S.

OBAMA ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL – His first campaigning since America’s historic Inauguration in 2009, and he hasn’t lost his touch.

THE STIMULUS – As the Recession moves slowly into a Depression, all Americans should be asking themselves, Why are all the States Broke and facing HUGE deficits? Not only is the Stimulus money needed, it isn’t enough!

HEALTH CARE REFORM – Will not be happening as needed with the Bill’s put forth in the House and Senate this week. Just picture the consequences of President Obama’s Bill signing party in the Rose Garden this Fall, and how reminiscient it will be to Bush’s Medicare Part D signing debacle. Americans need to rise up and revolt quickly against the lies of the Left and the Right. No other country in the world considers their National Health Insurance as “rationed care,” or “socialized medicine.” In FACT, every country that has a SINGLE PAYER Healthcare System, which is PUBLICLY FUNDED and PRIVATELY DELIVERED, considers themselves lucky, and do not even understand a country that would allow Medical Care to be SOLD FOR A PROFIT. This is the Class Wedge Issue Of Our Time! And the trophy goes to…..The Republicans. Scare America once, shame on you. Scare America twice, shame on America.

C. I. A., Lies And Foreign Wars

Revelations that Congress was misled by the CIA should come as no surprise to anyone. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that The Bush Administration manipulated the CIA and George Tenet to lie to all of America. The consequences of those lies, and America’s failure to address not only the lies, but the policies those lies produced are devastating our country.

Defense Of Marriage Act Is Unconstitutional

The 1996 Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a law created by the Legislature in the United States, that is and will be ruled UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The law clearly violates the Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution. Several Federal Courts have already ruled DOMA is unconstitutional, and with the Attorney General of The State of Massachusetts filing suit yesterday against The United States Department Of Health And Human Services challenging DOMA, the case will join Smelt v. United States Of America and force the Supreme Court to rule on it.

Ted Olson, and David Boies (opposing lawyers in Bush v Gore) have denounced both Proposition 8 in California, and the DOMA. This is not a partisan battle, this is an American legal battle. And the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the Constitution.

President Barack Obama needs to explain his platform as a candidate stating support for full-repeal of DOMA, and the actions of his Justice Department in issuing a brief in the Smelt case defending its constitutionality.