Blog: Margaret & Helen...

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Registered: 03-18-2000
Blog: Margaret & Helen...
2
Sat, 08-15-2009 - 11:43am

I remember an America where black men didn��t grow up to be President.


Margaret is it just me or did combing your hair become optional when going out in public?  I’ve been watching news clips of these town hall free-for-alls and we have definitely become a nation of tired,  poor, and huddled masses  clearly tempest-tossed, but without access to a good beauty salon.   Universal Hygiene – now that is something I could get behind.  And all of them are asking for their America back.  I wonder which America that would be?


Would that be the America where the Supreme Court picks your president instead of counting all the votes?  Would that be the America where rights to privacy are ignored?  Would that be the America where the Vice President shoots his best friend in the face?  Or would that be the America where an idiot from Alaska and a college drop-out with a radio show could become the torchbearers for the now illiterate Republican party?


I fear that would not be the America they want back.  I fear that the America they want back is the one where black men don’t become President.


I remember that America.  In that America people screaming at public gatherings were called out for what they were – an angry mob.   Of course, they wore sheets to cover up their bad hair.  Let’s be clear about something:  if you show up to a town hall meeting with a gun strapped to your leg, the point you are trying to make isn’t a good one.  Fear never produced anything worthwhile.


And what’s all this crap about killing your grandmother?  Are you people honestly that stupid?  This has become less an argument about healthcare reform and more a statement about our failed education system.  Margaret, I don’t know what plans you’ve made up there with Howard, but down here with Harold, we have living wills to determine how we will leave this world when the time comes.  Mine states that unless the feeding tube is large enough for a piece of pie, I don’t want to be hooked up to it.  Harold, of course, says his can only be connected to him if the other end is connected to a bottle of single malt scotch.


Now shame on me for making a joke about a serious subject, but if these morons are going to show up and scream at their elected officials, they need to educate themselves about the subject at hand.   No one is planning on killing you or your grandmother with rationed healthcare or death squads.  By the looks of the American citizenry turning out for these town hall meetings,  we’re doing a fine  job of killing ourselves with fast food, cigarettes and an overindulgence of ignorance.


The Founding Fathers couldn’t have seen this coming.  If they had, the right to free speech would have been conditional upon one’s ability to read.  But the  Founding Fathers didn’t plan on the likes of Palin, Cheney and Limbaugh.


I too long for the America I remember as a child, Margaret.  The one where men used guns to hunt quail and women visited a beauty salon at least once a week.  Oh, those were the days. I wish we had them back.  I mean it. Really






Photobucket      The WeatherPixie 




Edited 8/15/2009 11:46 am ET by libraone

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Sat, 08-15-2009 - 5:01pm

Liked the bit about the feeding tube big enough for a piece of pie ;-) ; not so much the bit about hunting small game or cemented hair ladies on regular visits to beauty salons. Quails are cute and am not particularly interested in having them slaughtered to nibble on the few bites of their flesh clinging to mostly bone and feather! Blue hair? Shellac? Not for me, thanks ever so!

Last weekend, I called my father (of Margaret's and Helen's generation) to inquire about his well-being. Been calling him at least weekly for the last year or so. He's almost a thousand miles away, old (87), and his female friend of 27 years is deteriorating in both body and mind.

He brought up the subject of health reform and was clearly waaaaaay out there on the stark raving lunatic right. Talked about death panels, reducing Medicare benefits, socialism, the whole sorry lot of dreck. I asked him who he had been listening to/watching. Had my suspicions that it was Limbaugh and Fox but he claimed otherwise and said it was on ABC, CBS, NBC, the old network giants. Am not sure why he felt compelled to avoid telling me of other sources. Probably because he knows that Fox and Limbaugh don't have the most stellar of reputations for hewing to the truth and doesn't particularly like that salient fact rubbed in his face.

Thankfully, DH called and interrupted us from having our usual spirited set-to about politics. There are days when I want to massage my father's neck--hard. Under some pressure from his children, he made a living will several years ago about his wishes for extraordinary health care measures (didn't want them). He receives Medicare to cover his health care costs but doesn't want the rest of the nation to have access to any of the same benefits if they're not old (speaking of which, I foresee a generational tussle for metaphorical slices of pie). And he's a retired Department of Defense civilian who has good coverage with reasonable premiums under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (same as the one under which Congress operates). That program doesn't allow insurers to refuse or limit coverage for "pre-existing" conditions.

In short, my father has had cheap easy access for a long time to the very things he now, in knee-jerk reaction, wants to deny others. Without reason, without sense of ridiculous, seemingly without sense of morals. Considers himself an intelligent, well-educated person, good upright Christian and (this probably will come as no shock to readers) a staunch Republican.

Before Obama started the dialog about health reform, my father complained regularly about the nasty way insurance companies drove patient care though doctor and hospital policies. Particularly, as his female friend, with a significantly less-generous insurance program, has been in and out of emergency rooms and hospitals on the average of at least once every couple of months.

AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 08-16-2009 - 8:05am

"Quails are cute and am not particularly interested in having them slaughtered to nibble on the few bites of their flesh clinging to mostly bone and feather!"


I totally agree with you on that point. Love the blog though 'cause I always have to good

 


Photobucket&nbs