THE AMERICAN BATTLE

BETWEEN

GENEROSITY

AND PARANOIA

La bataille américaine :
entre la générosité et
la paranoï a
   






Linda Mullally (NOTRE PHOTO)

MONTERRY, CALIFORNIA

Chronique américaine

Journal Québec Presse


La bataille américaine : entre la générosité et la paranoï a

The American psyche continues to astound me.

Every American I know, republican or democrat has a complaint about health insurance companies, the lack of coverage and the high cost of their premiums. 

But when a president and an administration actually steps up to the plate to take the insurance companies to task, stand up for the citizens who can’t afford coverage or are being fleeced by the insurance company with whom they do have coverage, that president becomes a “socialist” and a “communist”.   

Americans love to think of themselves as “generous” and “compassionate”, but when they embrace propaganda about “death panels” and would prefer to see their fellow citizens remain sick and vulnerable to financial destitution, and giving excessive profits to insurance and drug companies rather than risking spreading the wealth a little, it makes you wonder about their true nature.

Fear of giving up the least little bit grips them and robs them of the simplest ability to think and reason, and consider that perhaps those screaming about all the ills of a healthcare reform, may be those who have the most to lose, greedy insurance companies backed by sleazy politicians, not them, the consumer, and that maybe, they, the consumer may even come out ahead and take the rest of the uninsured along with them. 

There is such a thing as healthy skepticism when it comes to government, but there is also this childish rebellion and distrust of everything that is “government” in the United States. 

Given a choice between the elected government and a social program and corporate lobbyist and their insatiable appetite for profit, you would think that the choice wouldn’t be that difficult when it comes to health care reform.

Then, there’s the unspoken, is America still more racist than it wants to admit?  Is anything that President Obama, part African American, proposes automatically viewed with suspicion because he does not belong to the “good ole white boys’” club?
 
Would you reject anything that this president proposes because he is black, even if you knew you were shooting yourself and your constituents in the foot?  It is evident that many Americans and their politicians would.  I ask myself, when was the last president’s birth certificate put into question and his patriotism so vehemently questioned? 

There is no question that there will always be people finding ways to abuse the social safety nets put in place to protect those who legitimately need it.  But the facts and figures are indisputable about where the United States with 45 million of its citizens uninsured, a wealthy industrial nation, ranks on health care - 37^th in the world.
 
But if a country can enter a war by choice that makes profits for some and debt for others, and can support a system that rescues the sociopaths on Wall Street who jeopardize a world economy for greed, then I think there is no excuse for a country that turns its back on its people and refuses to invest in affordable healthcare. 

The next question on saving money in a revamped health care system is, will the administration have the nerve to make people take personal responsibility for their health and address the plague of “fat” which contributes to other health conditions that increase the cost of everyone’s coverage as well as the national budget deficit? 

I recently found out that my sister in law has been diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer.   She and my brother live modestly in Montreal and would be among the millions of people who could not afford the tests and definitely not the treatments, were they American citizens rather than Canadian citizens. 

That gives some of my American friends pause. 

I love many things about the United States and life in California in particular, the Obama presidency being one of them.  If the lobbyists, special corporate interest groups and the vocal bigots willing to be manipulated prevail to squash health care reform under the most inspiring leadership this country has seen in decades, the American people will have earned the label “stupid” and their own demise. 

After all, if you are among those who scream, “keep your government hands off my Medicare”, at town hall meetings, and believe that the Obama administration would rather euthanize your grand-ma rather than pay for her medication, you had better review the facts and the source. 

For starters Medicare for seniors was a program instated by the government for the people.  Seniors love it and it wouldn’t exist without the government, and would be long gone had the Bush administration had its way. 

The person, who started the rumor about “death panels”, is the same person whose foreign policy credentials begin and end with her claim that she can see Russia from her house. 

The best teachers for Americans right now might just be their Canadian neighbors and friends, real people living in a capitalistic democracy balanced by social programs, such as imperfect health care system, but a system nonetheless, that doesn’t bankrupt hardworking people because of an illness or a surgery. 

I hope that Canadians typically respected for their common sense, will step up to the plate and help educate their American neighbors, before they shoot themselves in the foot on yet another issue.