MEAN SPIRITS

The spectacle of Republican governors doing everything they can to deprive the neediest of their citizens of the benefits afforded them by President Obama's health care act would be laughable were it not so cruelly appalling.  Now that the measure has been declared constitutional by decision of the US Supreme Court, failure to implement it looks like nothing more than sour grapes on the part of the right-wing ideologues who now dominate the Republican party.  My hope is that those who suffer as a result of this intransigence will finally recognize that it is being employed to deny them the basic care that is rightfully theirs, and that the November vote will reflect their outrage.  Is this what it will take to bring the American electorate to its senses?

I have been reading articles that criticize the Obama administration for not having done a better sales job on their bill.  It seems to me that the benefits are out there in plain sight for anyone with half a brain to understand.  Those who protest most loudly against their own interests, whether immediate or long-term, are choosing to listen to their own prejudices rather than the readily available facts; to the distortions and outright lies broadcast loudly and repeatedly by the ideologues rather than the simple truth.  I honestly don't know how things could be made much clearer than they already are.

How many people will have to suffer needlessly before we reach critical mass in the public's realization that the provision of universal health care is the hallmark of a society that cares for its own and for each other?  And that each one of us will have reason, sooner or later, to call upon that system for its help?  We are all bound together in the inevitable process of aging, illness and death.  Not one of us can reasonably expect to be spared.  We need to approach this issue with mutual compassion, which asks us to discover our generosity of heart and spirit in order to counteract the small minds and mean spirits of those who speak out of mistrust, selfishness, and fear.