#177 – Dick Bernard: Health Care Reform and Taxes

/in , , /by

Strictly by coincidence, our appointment with the tax preparer today was at the same time President Obama was signing the Health Care Reform Act passed by Congress on Sunday evening. Preparing for the tax preparer the last few days gave me the annual up close and personal look at my own economic facts, as opposed to the abundant written, spoken and visual rhetoric surrounding tax season and health care reform. I keep records, and it is always interesting (not always fun) to review the events of the previous year. The financial documents box is my annual financial diary….
Every person and family is different, so I don’t pretend to offer us as a “typical” example.
But I would guesstimate that we are not at all unusual compared with the vast majority of ordinary middle class Americans. We are probably a little above average, but I’m not at all sure about that. Both of us worked full careers, and were fortunate to qualify for pensions.
After filing out taxes, today, we know that about 10% of our income in 2009 went to Federal taxes; another 5% to the State. It would be a real stretch to claim that this is confiscatory or unreasonable. Another percent or two paid on top of both Federal and State, or even more, would not kill us financially, and would do a whole lot of good for things like repairing potholes, and taking care of more vulnerable citizens than ourselves. It’s our dues for living in society.
Sure, I know: every time we buy something we pay additional taxes. When I had my daily cup of coffee at the local coffee house early this morning (my daily luxury) about 7% over and above the cost of that cup went to taxes on the sale. The business didn’t pay those taxes; I did.
Of course, there were taxes hidden in the remaining 93% of the cost of that cup as well – assorted taxes along the line. I can’t work myself into a tizzy about that, either. Taxes are easy to kick around, but they are what makes our society into a society that works. If a penny or two of that cup helped fund public schools, more power to….
On the health care front, we are reasonably healthy for our age, both of us on Medicare. Nonetheless, we paid out roughly $1000 a month in 2009 for assorted health expenses, from Medicare insurance itself, to long term care insurance, to out of pocket for non-reimbursed expenses. The insurance is there for the inevitable time that it will be needed, big time (most of us don’t die instantly, many need lots of help). No one likes to predict personal medical catastrophe for themselves, and hope they won’t be among the unlucky. But that’s what insurance is for, and no one should have to worry about being uncovered, particularly not in a wealthy country like our own (and compared with the rest of the world, most of us, even middle class, are wealthy – no question.)
(A few days ago, we took a friend out to dinner. She was laid off three months ago from a relatively low paying job. She gets unemployment, but she said she’s uninsured, as she can’t afford the premium for the insurance available to her. There is a cheaper alternative, apparently, but it is not accessible to her until she’s been unemployed for four months. So she’s playing the lottery, hoping she won’t have some kind of serious problem. She’s not alone. Some would say, “it’s her problem”. I’m not among them.)
In a couple hours we go to a grandson’s birthday party at a local pizza restaurant. Somebody will pay the bill there. There will be taxes, as there was with my coffee this morning.
I have no beef with taxes.
I’ll be wishing the new 10-year old a good future in this country of ours.
The Health Care Reform package just signed is not perfect, but it is a whole lot better than the alternative of keeping the status quo.

#176- Dick Bernard: The next seven months

/in , /by

I think, this morning, of the one time I did a major construction project.
Back in the very early 1970s, we bought a package including a concrete slab and the framework and materials for a two-car garage, and I spent the better part of a summer doing the vast majority of the work to complete the structure. I’m not a carpenter, and it was a great deal of work, but each time I’ve been by that house in subsequent years, that garage is still standing, a testimony to a very good job.
The Health Care Reform Bill passed last night and now nearly ready to begin life is a similar piece of construction: it’s new, it’s not perfect, and it’s not done. But it’s a start.
The big difference between the Reform bill and that garage of mine, is that there’s a gang down the street whose cause in life, now, will be to tear down that frame, and if it can’t be torn down, to make it look like a rotten piece of construction. “Who could possibly make such a stupid decision? Call us in and let us start over, and make a good building.” Of course, these are the same folks fought against the building in the first place, but no matter. “Let us start over and do it right.”
The narrative for the opposition is very simple. I haven’t seen their script, but it is obvious in the rhetoric: suddenly it will be suggested that the evil ones, called “socialism”, have taken over. The research on opposing has been well done. The icky words which resonate with the people who have been taught to fear Health Care Reform will be dragged out constantly. That is how the game is played.
I’ve been through the training, years ago: stay on message; make sure that message is never more than three parts. Don’t allow anyone to divert you from your message.
There is an antidote to the nay-sayers, and that is to go, and stay, on the offense.
It is not enough for us to be spectators in a TV drama. We need to learn about what is going on, and participate.
We can start by keeping in mind that every single Republican – every single one – voted against the Reform initiative, this over a year from the inception of the debate. We are not a country that is that polarized. The Democrats who voted against the initiative for their own reasons probably better reflect the diverse views of the country than the Republicans who simply represent a monolith of NO.
Health Care Reform is not an ideological hate phrase. Rather it is an absolutely essential (and long overdue) move in a better direction. It won’t be perfect, and its every imperfection will be pointed out ad nauseum.
In my opinion, there are two constituencies who will be most courted to be against Health Care Reform, and they are a very odd couple:
1) They will be the senior citizens, like me, who will be made to feel that their Social Security and Medicare is at risk (it is not.)
2) And they will be the young, healthier people who cannot conceive of ever needing insurance, and don’t want to pay insurance premiums. In a sad sense, I was once in their shoes. “Been there, done that” 1963-65 (note Story #1).
Both groups will be courted on the premise of individual rights as opposed to responsibility to the greater good – to the society of which they are a part. Little things will be left out of the story: like the absolute requirement for people who own cars to have insurance; or the massive positive benefit of Medicare to senior citizens in this country – a benefit which should be shared with everyone.
There will be other segments as well, but these are the two I’d watch.

#175 – Dick Bernard: The Nuns, the Bishops and Rome

/in , /by

Teaching Nuns at Sykeston ND ca 1960


In the weeks just past the Catholic Hospital Association and a coalition of Catholic Nuns, leaders of their orders, basically changed the conversation on the Health Care Reform legislation by coming out in support of the Health Care Reform proposal which passed tonight.
On the other hand, the Catholic Bishops and Rome didn’t have a particularly good week last week.
I’m a lifelong Catholic, and an active one. Personal circumstances years ago have made me a pro-choice Catholic. I spent my first six school years in Catholic grade schools, and in the years since I’ve had some great friends who are, and who were, Sisters. I offer my own thoughts, from my own experience.
Statistics indicate that perhaps one-fourth of the population of the United States might be Catholic. I’m always intrigued by this statistic: I wonder how they arrive at these numbers.
But, assuming that it’s true, three-fourths of the population has no reason to care or understand how the Catholic Church works. Most Catholics don’t either. I’ve had an interest in the topic for years, and even after years of seeking, I have only an imperfect understanding of the topic of “the Church”.
Nuns – also called Sisters, and Religious – were a huge influence during my growing up years. They were our parents during the school day, if we were attending Catholic Schools. We lived with them, in small towns and large. They are the stuff of legend.
I never had a bad experience with Nuns (nor with Priests, but that’s a different story). Nuns were our every day teachers, counselors, disciplinarians. They were powerful people, in our eyes. So we remember them. They never had easy conditions. They had large classes, often more than one grade, and I don’t recall one of them being sick – at least no calling in sick!
Priests were not nearly as visible or as truly influential (they don’t appear in my title for a reason). Altar Boys (one of which I was in my youth) had a closer connection. The mysterious Bishop was the real “father”, who came by once a year for confirmation, and one time in one’s adolescence a kid might have a personal moment with the Bishop, when the Bishop asked some softball question about the Catholic Catechism. The Pope and Rome were a picture on the wall: in my day, it was Pope Pius XII.
In Catholic Hospitals, it was the Nuns who were the “boots on the ground” folks. In most cases they established and staffed the hospitals, and helped them grow into pillars of thousands of communities in this country and others. Hospitals and Catholic Nuns are virtually synonymous everywhere.
Without Catholic Nuns, there would not have been Catholic Hospitals; nor would there have been Catholic Schools. Nuns are largely elderly now, and they’re not being replaced. There are good reasons for this; when they are no longer around, they will be missed. Four of my great Nun friends have died in recent years; a fifth, near 90 now, no longer knows who I am. It is sad.
I’ve had extended conversations with Nuns from time to time over the years, and what is apparent is that the assorted orders of Nuns, while generally obedient to the Bishop and thus to Rome, are not necessarily subservient to the dictates of their local Bishop.
In the case at issue, health care reform, I think the tipping point for the Nuns was finally reached where the leaders of numerous orders of Catholic Nuns, as well as Catholic Hospitals, could no longer stay below the radar, and felt a need to speak out in favor of what was plainly needed by our society.
The Bishops took a strident and rigid position on a single aspect of the reform question, and allied themselves with others taking a strident position.
This led to a significant parting of the ways. For most of history, the orders of Nuns have stayed in the background, silent, doing their jobs. There could be an illusion that they were completely obedient.
(At times during the civil rights movement, they also violated the rules by participating in civil rights marches in the south, while the local Bishop specifically prohibited their participation. But this is one of the few times they’ve taken an overt stand.)
No one questions the respect for life these Nuns have.
For that matter, those of us who are pro-choice equally respect life.

#173 – Dick Bernard: Health Care Reform Round One – the last few days

/in , /by

I write and will publish this post before I know what Rep. Dennis Kucinich says this morning. Except for correcting the usual punctuation and grammar maladies that affect an amateur writer, the content will remain identical. Any new content will be in a specific update.
Barring unforeseen calamity’s, Mr. Kucinich will have the spotlight on himself. It is a most desirable position for a politician.
Depending on what he says, and depending on the point of view of the person or constituency which wants to know his position, he will be a hero, an unsung hero, a goat, or irrelevant. (The unsung hero status will be reserved to his enemies, who hope he says heroic things advancing his own ideology, which can be useful to kill his objective on health care reform.)
Propaganda under any of its names (“spin” is a very common one) is always fascinating. I have been an amateur student of propaganda for many years, dating back to teaching junior high kids about advertising tactics in the late 1960s, to being an intended victim of propaganda in the early 1970s, to being formally taught about it in later years. I know how propaganda works, and how it feels.
Of course, speculation is rampant about what Kucinich will say. Whatever he says, doubtless partisans on all sides have primary and alternative messages already prepared, and roll them out, instantly.
As to the actual vote, whenever it happens, and whatever it is called, and however it happens, nobody knows absolutely for sure how it will go, since a number of Democrats are playing coy with their position. Last night Ezra Klein of the Washington Post observed that this is the normal lying that happens in advance of an important vote. This is the time, members reason, to attempt to extract this concession or that as the price of their vote. It is something of a dangerous game but it is just another proof that just because some legislator carries a label of this party or that, he or she is a free agent, hopefully voting correctly for a majority of his/her constituents as measured in the next election.
Rep. Kucinich is just one of 535, only with a little more spotlight at the moment, and a little more risk.
My personal prediction: Kucinich will say he’ll vote yes, but with a probably long list of expectations and demands. Health Care Reform Round One will ultimately pass House and Senate, and will be shown to be a major (if inadequate) improvement over what is, and will be a platform for future modifications.
Round Two is the November election, and we the people will be asked to decide our future course. My bet is that enough of us will respect the results of Round One, and the risks taken to pass it, that we will not choose to go back to the good old days.
Now I’ll see if I can find out what Kucinich said this morning…I publish at 10:06 a.m. CDT. Update will include a comment about the recent Michele Bachmann anti-Reform rallies in St. Paul and Washington.

#172 – Dick Bernard: "Chickens", meet "Roost"

/in , /by

I grew up in rural North Dakota, surrounded by all sorts of sayings such as “your chickens will come home to roost” which meant, basically, that ultimately you’d get what you deserved….
This comes to mind with reference to our entire society, which generally does not seem to get it that there is a certain relationship between actions and results. An endless list could be made.
A cartoon in yesterday mornings Minneapolis paper said it well, through the voice of Eric Hoffer, American Social Writer and Philosopher: “Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.”
Quite often my in-box will include something from someone I know, forwarded from an unknown source. More often than not, the forward is demonstrably false, or hopelessly misleading, or not sourced at all. But it is passed along as truth. People who should know better pass the falsehood along, and then get angry when I dare to respond.
Last week someone forwarded a litany of complaints about assorted things like not getting a social security cost of living this year, Medicare costs going up, while Congress was giving itself a raise. “7. Do you feel SCREWED?…Why should they care about you? You never did anything about it in the past. You obviously are too stupid or don’t care…Send the message to [Congress] — YOU’RE FIRED!…It’s time for retribution. Let’s take back America.” The rest of the fairly short mention was similarly angry.
Well, thank you very much.
As I customarily do, I filed a brief response with the person who sent the forward to me, and copied the person who had forwarded it to him. Both are retired professional people who I know, personally.
The initator of the e-mail blasted back to me: “I am receiving less from SS [Social Security] than I did in 2009. Tell me why congress should not take a cut in pay along with those of us on a fixed income? … Simply answer my question.”
So, I did answer the question, but only sent it to him. My answer made him even angrier. “I worked hard in my business and do not need a social security check…Furthermore, following your possible response, I will mark all future e-mail messages from you as “junk mail” so I do not have to waste my time with your typical liberal ideas [this is probably the nub of his issue: “liberal”]. I suggest you do the same.” I thought to myself, lots of people work very hard…if he doesn’t need social security and there’s an economic crisis, why is he insisting on a raise (I think I know why, but that doesn’t make any difference.)
I didn’t bother him with another e-mail, but I did hand-write him a brief U.S. mail letter, including copies of the stuff he had sent me. It’ll soon be in his mailbox at his winter home outside Tucson AZ. I didn’t bother to engage in a reasoned response, or in an angry one. It is a waste of time. My guess is he will remain angry.
There are legions of angry people like him who add to the problem, rather than contribute to the solution in this country. People who felt they had control and now feel they have lost it. People who (they feel) KNOW the answers, but are intolerant of others with opposing but at least equally logical answers as well.
Personally, with attitudes like his, I’m happy his faction is out of power. Maybe there might be a chance to resolve some of the deep problems that we’re mired in.
Unfortunately, on the other end of the political ideology spectrum, there are lots of “my way or the highway” folks as well. I heard one or two yesterday, and I hear people like them every day. These, right and left, are the people who dominate the visible political conversation in this country (what most people see or read), and too often neither end distinguishes themselves.
It will take a lot of work to effect change, but I’m willing to work at it.
We don’t need our country’s “chickens to come home to roost.”

#171 – Dick Bernard: Big Dogs* out for the kill (who may unwittingly kill themselves, and us, too.)

/in , /by

Last evening’s 60 Minutes on CBS had a long and very useful segment about the why’s of the Wall Street collapse, and why the Big Dogs on the Street haven’t learned their lessons. It is very worth your while to watch the segment in its entirety. It is about half an hour.
Earlier in the week, and presumably this week as well, the monolith U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been flooding the local TV airwaves with intentionally scary prime time ads against Health Care Reform legislation. The prime target is Rep. Collin Peterson, in Minnesota’s rural 7th District, a sprawling rural district that essentially covers the western third of Minnesota. Peterson is a Democrat, and apparently is viewed as a target because he is wavering on supporting health care reform.
Yesterday, I read an interesting commentary by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its campaign. Succinctly, the U.S. Chamber is not really what it portrays itself to be: a coalition of small business owners across the U.S. It’s funding comes primarily from 19 major corporations who names are not disclosed (and need not be). You can read the commentary, published on Friday, March 12, here.
The Chamber of Commerce’s railing against Health Care Reform seems absurd on its face. After all, all of these supposed “trillions of dollars” and “billions in new taxes” they allege will be spent will flow into Big Business coffers, one way or another. Capitalism will make out big time from Reform. I think the real back story here is that the Chamber fears competition, and regulation, both of which are positives for consumers, but bad if one’s sole objective is making more and more and more money. But…what do I know?
Also, yesterday, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune was a long front page article in the OpEx (Commentary) section about government subsidies to Farmers, who gets them, and why they continue, even though they are dinosaurs which basically benefit the biggest farmers the most, and generally hurt agriculture and the economy. The same Rep Collin Peterson, mentioned above, is the Chair of the House Committee that fails to rein in the subsidies. His problem: reelection. This is not an uncommon problem for legislators. “We the people” regularly kill ourselves by our own greed and stupidity. To be courageous and a lawmaker is an almost certain recipe for political death.
None of these links are uplifting, about our future, but nonetheless they are informative, and worth the time to watch and or read.
And then to act.
Knowledge is power, but only if it is used and shared.
* – My apologies to dogs, for which I have great affection. I’m talking about the occasional destructive rogues.

#170 – Dick Bernard: "Big Brother is [Manipulating] You"

/in , , /by

Yesterday I went through the aggravating exercise of converting our television to a new system required by our provider, a company not to be named, though it shares the first three letters of “company” as the first three letters of its name.
For some weeks we had been warned by an endless trailer on screen that if we didn’t get their conversion equipment – at no charge, of course – our TV reception would be interfered with until the equipment had been installed. So, I dutifully ordered the box and the remote, which took twice as long as promised to arrive, and set about to install it, always easier said than done.
The installation finally succeeded, after a Helpful Technician for the company, Com…., helped me through it (and before I noticed the toll-free number that would virtually automatically do the same thing.) During the lulls in installation, the Helpful Technician, in response to my question, said this new technology was to make it possible for Com…. to bring more programs to our home. “More band-width”, he described as the function of that new box plugged into our TV.
The aggravating task concluded, I spent some time practicing with the new remote, so that I could at least tell my spouse how it worked.
Scrolling through, I came across C-SPAN, truly one of the benefits of the early days of the cable revolution, and happened across a tape of a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing where Senators were quizzing the CEO of Com…., the son of the founder of the company, about a proposed merger of this mega-provider with another mega-media company. The hearing was interesting enough to spend some time watching.
The Senator from Mississippi got his turn to quiz the executive, and proudly pointed out that Com…. got its start as a tiny cable company in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1963. In the hearing room, out of camera sight behind his son, was the Founder of Com…., now a very old and very wealthy man, who was introduced and poked his head into camera view to be recognized. (For over 40 years, Com…. has headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, hardly small town deep south any more.)
“Tupelo” rang a bell for me. I had purposely been there one time in my life, in the summer of 1966. I had gone through Tupelo because it was the birthplace of Elvis Presley, the music icon who burst out of obscurity when I was in high school in the 1950s (“Heartbreak Hotel”, and on and on). I liked Elvis. It was probably not the best idea for me to go through Tupelo in 1966 with my grey Volkswagen with Minnesota license plates, since those were tense civil rights times in the deep south. But I came east to Tupelo via Oxford, Mississippi, and continued east to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and arrived home safely.
Back at the hearing, the very-smooth testimony continued. Of course, there were only benefits to this proposed mega-merger. Someone else, from the Consumer Federation of America, pointed out from the same hearing table that the distinguished CEO had left out of his testimony one very important fact, and brought that to the deliberation.
I continued to experiment with the remote, and in the end came to the conclusion that the only reason for the modification was to facilitate Com….’s making much more money from consumers like ourselves, and taking business away from lesser providers, like the local movie theaters and purveyors of videos. Ditto for the proposed merger. Now our house can smell of freshly popped popcorn….
Such is how it is in the land of the free and the home of the brave in 2010.
Things have changed since Elvis left Tupelo in 1948, Com…. was born there in 1963, and I passed through in 1966. They haven’t all changed for the better.
Caveat Emptor. My spouse, who watches more TV than I, but increasingly finds it a wasteland as well, wonders how long it would take for the ‘free’ box to result in higher fees for Com…. service.
In the end, we will all lose, including the monopolists who have virtually an open road to riches.

#169 – Dick Bernard: A Crazy Country? How can we win when we fight against our own best interests as a society?

/in /by

This week ended with an anti-Health Care Reform Rally at the State Capitol in St. Paul. I wasn’t there, and the local news channel in early evening gave the event only cursory attention and announced that there were perhaps 100 people at the rally – pretty dismal considering the nice weather for this time of year. The visual of the rally supported the low crowd estimate. Later came a blog post which speaks very well for itself about the event, and the intention by organizers of the rally to estimate 4,000 in attendance. There is no shame when it comes to propaganda. (The estimate of several hundred attending, posted in the blog, is probably closest to accurate, but accuracy is of little interest in such matters.)
Probably Monday, I will get a post from my local Congresswoman, organizer of the event at the State Capitol, and my guess is that it will say thousands attended, perhaps even the fantasy number 4,000. I actually look forward to seeing her spin (lie). Whatever she says, whenever she says it, about the crowd, I will insert here, as well as other reports about the mythical marching millions. [UPDATE 7:45 a.m. Sunday morning: St. Paul Pioneer Press, in a hard-to-find Associated Press clip on page 2B: “A rally Saturday against a health care overhaul drew hundreds of people to the Minnesota Capitol.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, in a longer article, with photos, on page B4: headline “Thousands went to State Capitol“…in the body, “Rally organizers said 4,000 people attended, but Capitol police estimated the crowd at 2,000 or fewer.“]
[UPDATE 5:40 a.m. Friday, March 19: Not a peep on anything out of Bachmann’s office, this week. This is very unusual, as there are frequent e-mail bulletins sent to its mailing list on sundry topics. I’m on the list.]
A most telling (and discouraging) comment in the blog entry at the Health Care event was the comment of a mother of several who admitted they didn’t have insurance, yet they were rallying against health care reform.
I wish she were the odd exception, but there are lots and lots of people who for some reason are being convinced to lobby against their own best interests in this society. They are – We are – apparently easy to manipulate.
During the same evening news period came a report from Texas about arch-conservatives successfully revising many long-established portions of the Texas school childrens curriculum to mesh with their own ideological beliefs. (See a Commentary here.) With curriculum comes textbooks, and Texas is a big market, and textbook publishers will tend to revise their texts to fit the Texas market. This is not a new strategy: some predecessors of the current ideologues began pursuing this idea years ago, and now, at least for the short term, have been successful.
All of this happened AFTER I had my own op ed published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune this week. I submitted the column because I am seeing what appears to be an organized though covert attack on basic rights of organized teachers, and it has brought back memories of parents who were teachers and worked in the days before there were any teacher rights. I lived in those “good old days”, that weren’t really all that good.
In the midst of bold (some would say too timid) initiatives to make changes in basic policy like reforming health care, there is a cacophony from a truly radical right wing, demanding that we go back to failed policies of the past few years. The base of support for this initiative is, ironically, the ultimate victims of those urging that change be resisted.
We have no choice but to be vigilant, courageous and active.

#168 – Dick Bernard: Martti Ahtisaari, Peace Prize winner and a teacher

/in , , /by

The posts for March 7&8 relate to this post. UPDATE March 15, 2010, Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial writer John Rash wrote a column about Mr. Ahtisaari.

Friday, March 5, I had the opportunity to observe a great teacher in action: 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari speaking to school children; Martti Ahtisaari participating in a low-key and very casual lunch and conversation with ordinary people; Martti Ahtisaari talking about mediation of the worlds greatest problems to an audience of adults.
In each venue he appeared to be at ease, comfortable with his company, comfortable with himself.

Martti Ahtisaari speaks to children at Augsburg Nobel Peace Prize Festival March 5, 2010


Mr. Ahtisaari is a little older than I am, and certainly far more famous, and by all accounts far more accomplished as well.
But he tended to burst that celebrity bubble by his demeanor in person, and by his comments both to school children, and later to adults, at the Nobel Peace Prize and Forum.
Ahtisaari quietly asserted that the dynamics for settling even the most difficult problems resides most effectively with leaders in local communities. He mentioned at one point a wait of two years before the most effective mediator within a particular society was identified – a person who could help bring parties together to settle a long festering conflict.
Even from far away, you could sense that this man is a listener, one who wants to know to whom he is speaking, and listening even while speaking. In the evening we were in a dark auditorium, and he asked for lights so that he could at least see those to whom he was speaking.
I have participated in many mediations over the years, and came to feel that skill as a mediator is as much a gift as it is a specific set of professional tools and tactics. Someone like Mr. Ahtisaari has to be a very keen observer and a very active listener. When he asked for lights, he was saying much about his style, talking with, more than talking at, an audience.
Another essential skill for a mediator is the ability to be very, very patient.
After receiving the Peace Prize in 2008, he was invited to join The Elders, a prestigious group of leaders with a world reputation.
Among his role models were Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu of South Africa, both of whom are legendary in reconciliation with enemies who most would have found difficult to forgive.
I don’t recall anything dramatic in Ahtisaari’s talks (at any rate, the auditorium was too dark to take notes!). He was a down-to-earth man, seeming to be completely congruent with his roots in rural Finland.
Someone asked him to comment on his successor as Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack Obama. He said he was honored to precede President Obama. Someone else asked about Obama’s military engagement in Afghanistan. To this listener, Ahtisaari understood the quandary faced by the U.S. President.
We tend to set on a pedestal people of Martti Ahtisaari’s stature.
Mr. Ahtisaari in his quiet but persuasive way said to all of us, “you can do it, too, and you must….

Martii Ahtisaari with World Citizen founder Lynn Elling, March 5, 2010

#163 – Dick Bernard: "I hope he fails…."

/in /by

Today is the Health Care Reform summit in D.C. It is scheduled to begin in a few minutes….
I have been thinking a lot about what most thought was an astonishing comment by Rush Limbaugh on January 16, 2009, before the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Limbaugh said it best, himself: “I hope he fails”.
I would venture that most people in this country, including those who like Limbaugh, were put off by his comment over a year ago. After all, who in his or her right mind would wish the failure of a democratically elected President of the United States, especially at a time in our history when quite literally all was virtually lost: the economy on the verge of total collapse, an unwinnable war bankrupting us, and on and on and on.
But Limbaugh said, “I hope he fails“, and for the past thirteen months the Republican party has adopted Limbaughs position as their own and incredibly an astonishing percentage of the American public have adopted in one way or another Limbaugh’s mantra.
People who study such things note that the obstruction mentality in the U.S. Congress is worse now than it has likely ever been, at minimum in modern American history.
It is as if we have some kind of death wish. To paraphrase George Orwell, in 1984, “Failure is success”…at least in the eyes of the Republican Party and those who support its aims.
The issue in the spotlight today will be reform of Health Care in this country. For six months or more, in all sorts of ways, the mantra has been to “Kill the Bill” or, at the very least, to make the resulting policy appear to be a total failure, and to make the failure appear to be the Democrats fault. It is, in medical terms, a “sick” strategy, but it seems to be working: work against, then vote against, health care reform, and blame the Democrats for the lack of adequate reform, and carry this forward to a win in Congressional races in November, 2010.
On every major issue, in every way, the focus has been on assuring failure of the President and the Democrats. Simply look at the record of the major votes in the House and Senate. It is unprecedented in its unity and its viciousness.
If the strategy succeeds (it appears that it is), we deserve exactly what we’re going to get as “American people”.
“I hope he fails”, are words that deserve, richly, to be eaten. As a country, we cannot afford this war against ourselves.
Dismiss me as “Democrat”, “liberal”, “socialist”, even “communist” if you wish. But think about the consequences of staying the course on this absurd strategy…if by some chance the Republicans “win” in November, why should the Democrats treat them any more kindly in 2011 and beyond? Where is the common sense?
“We, the people” need to play more than a spectator role in all of this.
PS: Astonishing to me is the fundamental lack of knowledge most of us have about even recent history in our own country.
Here’s the succinct summary:
1) Republicans controlled the U.S. House and the Senate from January 1995 to January 2009. Yes, the majority shifted in 2007, but as we have seen even a near 60% majority in the Senate can be (and has been) thwarted. Tactics the Republicans used freely (i.e. reconciliation) are condemned if possibly used by the Democrats Remember: The Congress makes the national policy. The President can only recommend.
2) From January 2001 through January 2009 Republicans ruled the roost in the White House and also in Congress (see 2007-2009 above).
3) The Republicans had 15 years to reform Health Care. Take an objective look at the results including 1996. It is not pleasant.
4) We, the people, are the government that we elect. If things are a mess, it’s not their fault, it’s ours.
The record speaks for itself.
Be aware.