Blame, Shame and The Same

One of the heated arguments that has come out of the Tuscon, AZ tragedy is what caused the shooter to take action.  Lots of fingers being pointed at all sorts of people and areas.  The former governor of Alaska is taking a large amount of the brunt from a poster that was drafted up almost a year ago.

It depicts cross hairs on certain parts of the country where tea party candidates for congress were expected to take over.  As we learned in November's election, 18 of the 20 House seats were won by the Tea Party.  Since the Rep. Giffords shooting on Saturday, this map has been a hot bed of fervor.  People blaming Palin for placing a target that represents a gun sights on various candidates, Gabrielle Giffords included.

As it turns out, a lot of politicians, political groups and organizations have used these symbols before.  Click the following link to see a well researched post (by an ultra conservative blogger) that was done in March 2010:

Gun Symbols and Verbiage on Maps and Posters

So blame cannot be placed onto one individual, even if you don't like that person or what they stand for - even if the connection hits too close to home - it's been done by others on all sides of the political collective.

Over on my main blog, I talked about needing to reduce that negative and dividing rhetoric that is part of our society today.  While I still hold to that and really want to see people tone it the fuck down and be civil and work together, I don't think the blame rests with these posters that use firearm symbols and terminology. Do I detest their use in their rant against politicians?  I most certainly do.  Do we need to pass a law that says not to use them?  Hell no. I simply want reasonable people to think clearly with their words, actions and campaign posters before making their message public.

Because even though the shooter may not have been fueled by such messages and terminology, it can sometimes be all too real in the the here and now.

Monday's Question

With all of the discussion and debate over the proposed universal health care, a question came up that I would like to pose.

Question

How many of the people that are protesting at these town hall meetings are currently not covered by any health care plan?

And not just the ones lacking insurance coverage, but also how many of them that are needing some sort of care - covered or not - and are not able to get the care they need.

There are millions of people that live each day without any kind of health care coverage. There are millions of others that are covered but have lackluster care or get denied based on some insurance companies definition of what is considered a pre-existing condition. Young, healthy, elderly, sick, diseased... people of all stages in life need to maintain their health. Sometimes it can be as simple as eating right and exercising often. For others, it's a constant string of visits to the doctor. But regardless, just about every man, woman and child visits a doctor at least once in their lifetime - even if that single time is when they are born. The health care of our citizens shouldn't be taken for granted.

I found this video of a recent protest at a town hall meeting. The footage was great, but I was shocked at what I heard. View for yourself:



I watch a video like that and it makes me wonder how informed these people are. Are they getting their news from a limited few like Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh? Or have they been so fear driven into thinking that Obama is channeling Hitler and going to send them all into the gas chambers?

Not a single one of them mentioned a valid option for caring for the uninsured or those denied needed care. Each and every one of them were more concerned about the fear of what this country would turn into if national health care were to become available.
And they talk about waiting for weeks for health care under a government run plan. We wait now. Look at the list of people that wait for weeks for a procedure while combating insurance companies to cover something that is so obviously needed. Having another option would be a benefit.

But yet I see two major "socialist" government programs that have been in place for many years and I haven't seen a socialist takeover from their implementation. They are Social Security and Medicare. Both are tax-payer funded. Both offer care to those that are retired or unable to work. Both have been able to extend the lives of millions of Americans for many years.

And I can't help but think how many of these vocal individuals are proclaiming this takeover have benefited from Social Security or Medicare. I'm willing to bet a good amount of them have. Yet, this most recent "universal health care" proposal is "socialism" and "will be the downfall of this country." Um, Ok.

My Position

So what's my position on this? I'll go out on a comfortable limb and say that most, if not all of the people at these protests are already covered by some form of health care plan. Or Medicare. Or they don't get sick and are one of the rare group of humans that don't need pills or regular doctor visits to remain healthy.

So let's hear how you feel about this question. How many people protesting are without proper or any health care coverage? If there are some there and they are just as vocal, why do you think they are protesting?

Red Herring

red herring

- noun

2. something intended to divert attention from the real problem or matter at hand; a misleading clue

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This term gets used a lot in both politics and financial discussions.  Creating something that is simply not true just to divert one's attention from what's important seems to be a good way of simply saying, "I really don't want this to happen"

Case in point.  Barack Obama.  While 52% of the registered voters that actually voted picked him to be our next president, there was a good amount of people that didn't.  At least 40%.  And while the Maverick and his Alaskan running mate went back to their respective states, Mr. Obama went to Washington.

Ok.  Said and done, he's now our Commander-in-Chief, put aside your differences and let's start moving forward together.

Nope.

These arbitrators of herrings that are red in color decide that there's got to be a way to kick this guy out of office.  They tried to keep him out during the election, calling into question the validity of his US citizenship.  More on that in a bit.

So during Tuesday's inauguration proceedings, there's a part that takes place at exactly 12 noon.  It's the Oath of Office.  And it's pretty specific.  Certain words have to be said and in a certain order.  This is the leader of the free world we are talking about here.

So President-Elect Obama is standing at the podium with Chief Justice Roberts, who is there to conduct the big important business of swearing in a new president.  It's a couple of minutes past 12 noon.  It's cold out.  And I'm sure there's a lot of nerves in jumbles.  This is a big moment and a big deal.

Roberts starts out, Obama starts to repeat after him and jumps ahead.  Roberts gets distracted and there's a few words that are not repeated in the proper order.

Not a problem.  They correct themselves, get back on track and finish the Oath proceedings.  It's now official, we have a new president.

But wait.

That's right.  The lovers of all herrings red speak out.

"He's not really president...  they didn't stay it right."

"It was said a few minutes past 12 noon.  It's not official."

"The words were not spoken in the correct order....  Obama needs to step down"

Wha?  Huh?  Are you serious?

Last year, around mid-August, the red herring detractors came out of the woodwork.  They were questioning Obama's citizenship credentials.  In summary, they were doing their best to invalidate his qualifications for being president due to his birth certificate being a fake.

They spent endless amounts of time, energy, blog posts, Google searches and Photoshop editing making sure that they were right.  It was their goal to make sure Barack Obama was not going to "go against the Constitution" and to never take office, let alone even get a chance to be on the ballot on November 4th.

"It's a fake, the lettering is not right."

"He never lived in Hawaii"

"His father wasn't a naturalized citizen"

"His mother left the country after he was born"

And there were many other detailed and outlandish reasons why Obama shouldn't be eligible to be president.  Some even went as far as to suggest that this was one of the greatest conspiracies to happen to the United States.

Yep, 46 years in the making, before Barack Hussein Obama was born, there were some that plotted this out, carefully making alterations to his birth certificate.  Secretly throwing out valid documents.  Changing the laws so that every person with a red herring mission couldn't order a copy of the birth certificate.  Making sure that one day, in 2008, Barack could become a candidate for president, and making history.

Give me a fucking break.

Let's get this straight, people.

There was no conspiracy.

There are no faked birth certificates, except for the hundreds stored on the blogs and hard drives of red herring mongers.

Regardless of the location of his parents after his birth, Barack Obama's eligibility for the office of president met each and every requirement.

Enough, people.

Read this link if you are still clinging onto this utter and complete bullshit:

Obama's birth certificate: Final chapter

Just Stop

And so it continues today with "Flubbergate".  Which, by the way, was properly repeated on the first day in office.  Crisis avoided.

But don't worry.  There will be further red herrings drummed up in order to find a way to remove President Obama from office.  Which is simply another way of distracting from the real goal, and that is unity.  Removing divides and walls and coming together for the common good of everyone.  Putting aside partisan politics and trying to solve current problems instead of creating new ones.

So please, I beg of you.  Stop with these red herrings.  Get over your selfish nature and put aside whatever it is that bothers you that there's no Ultra Conservative Right-Wing President in office.  We have someone who has the chance - and wants the chance - to make this country a better place to live.  Let him at least try to make good on his campaign promises for the next 48 months before you start finding ways to run him out of town.

Thank you.  The world is watching.