So, what does it mean really? Can you tell the difference? Although it is undoubtedly a pain for many government workers, and a huge, colossal waste of tax-payers’ money, I guess the Tea Party showed us! Over something as simple and humane as healthcare, the neo-cons have shut down the US government. To be honest, I can barely recall the last time this happened. Why do I suddenly feel the need to sit on a rocking chair on the front porch and kvetch? Perhaps we don’t pay them enough to care? Maybe the poor just aren’t worth saving? What can possibly be going through the minds of elected officials who are willing to punish the entire nation just because they can’t pack up their marbles and go home? Of course, I am presuming that they have marbles to pack up. As a tax-payer of over thirty years (pushing on forty), I think I have earned the right to say, “Children behave!” The Tea Party shenanigans have been childish from the start, trying to co-opt the spirit of rebellion against tyranny in a country that plainly has too much. Too much time on its hands, among other things.
I often ponder how a nation with the resources of the United States can proudly tote one of the most inhumane healthcare systems in the developed world (and I’m not talking about Obamacare!). We live in a country, if best-selling author John Green is to be believed (and I’m a believer), we pay more for healthcare than countries with socialized medicine and get less out of it. Why do we put up with it? Tea, anyone? Who has the actual gumption to climb aboard a ship and throw the cargo overboard? Today we call it piracy—hey! Stop that download! And we throw people into jail for it. But shut down the government? That’s okay. The bus still runs and I’m still expected at work. Oh, and I work for a UK company. The irony of it all. When I lived in the United Kingdom, people complained about the healthcare, but I will say there was no child left behind, if you get my meaning.
Our military, I see, remains open for business. We won’t cut off the life-support of the Tea Party’s favorite department. We have our priorities. Somebody has to defend the millions that can’t afford health insurance. There was a time when Christianity was all about healing and taking care of people. Of course, in those days it wasn’t yet called Christianity, or even the Tea Party. It was just a guy and his healing touch. Today, some of the most abstract tenets of a fully corporate religious infrastructure determine who it is that deserves health care and who does not. Call it morals or call it marbles, we have a right to decide who can be afforded and who cannot. And anybody who tries to start legislating fair treatment better not try to stand in the way of our comfortable worldview where those who can afford to withhold compassion can do so under the rule of law, and the unborn smile until they become born when they will soon have to fend for themselves with a government that demands monetary exchange for bodily health. Gee, my blood-pressure seems to be up. Good thing the doctor’s office is open. At least I hope it is.
Outside the United Nations
