Healthcare reform and Evolutionary Irony

So I realize these "Town Hall" meetings are becoming the Brett Favre of politics, we really dont want to hear about them anymore till its all figured out, but somehow I am still hooked on watching the clips and in awe of the stories I hear. I wouldn't even be bringing this up but last week Jackie, my youngest brothers girlfriend, went to one of these meetings in Middletown, NJ. She sent me a couple texts from the meeting that blew me away. "A man here has a sign that says Ted Kennedy should burn in hell" , and " fist fights are breaking out !"... Seriously? Middletown is only a small distance from where I grew up, really the towns are so small I may as well say that it IS where I grew up. I would like to think I could expect better behavior. When these clips and soundbites first surfaced from these crazy meetings my initial instinct was to wonder what kind of rinky dink, backwoods, home schooled towns would produce people who would act like that. Well, my judgemental thought manifested instant karma ! Even in my well polished home town area full of stock trading, Ivy League educated, seer sucker wearing beach goers, they were not above the barbaric behavior demonstrated in some of the meetings we all saw on TV. "Ted Kennedy should burn in hell" ??...again, seriously? These were people that seemed to me to want to BE the Kennedys ! Now I wonder if they really even knew the genuine care for all walks of life that motivated any of the Kennedys to push for the type of reform they achieved in their lives. I think they were blinded by the beauty and image of the family. They "looked" like what others wanted to be... so they must have the same views as us. The complexity of the situation is unending. People are confused, some are uneducated at least on the subject, and there are lies being tossed around by politicians and laymen alike.




Although I am aware that there are exceptions to every rule, and really I myself am not much a fan of generalizing or using stereotypes, I think I can almost make two groups out the people opposing healthcare reform. Group one is simple, the people with enough money not to care for or need change. They may even have stock in pharmaceuticals, and probably didnt vote for Obama in the first place because they were scared they may actually be taxed on the money they "earned" raping the stock market. Group two is a little more complicated but generally consists of more religious types that like to use over- patriotic rhetoric to guilt or corner the opposition. Now yes, I did say "over-patriotic", but what I mean by that is that they use and exploit talk of the country, what it is or should be to further their own views ( fear) and agendas. To me, that is the least patriotic thing you can do. Patriotism is meant to be a unifying agent. The glue that holds us all together. The reason I get a tear in my eye every Fourth of July watching fireworks !

Lets take a moment to watch a clip...Now Im pretty sure the people in this meeting below have no idea what it was intended to be about... I believe this is more than half of our battle. People seem to want to yell and scream and feel they have conviction when they arent even informed an IOTA on the issues. At least have the dignity to educate yourself before you go and disrupt what is meant to be an exercise in democracy.



This second group of anti-health reformers are the ones who have shown me what I feel is the most interesting insight ( at least for me) in the whole ball of wax. Lets go back to the fact that many of the people within this group would consider themselves religious, typically Christian. I am not sure what you have and have not seen on the news but many of the TH meetings had instances where both women and men made a point about not wanting any of their tax money being put towards a system that may help pay for any abortion related appointment. I can understand that. If my convictions were strongly against abortion I suppose that would be a concern of mine as well. Naturally we can progress from this and say, I think with confidence, that these are the same people who have been against or would be against the teaching of evolution in schools. They feel that we are chosen beings, very much distinct from any other animal, and the idea that we evolved from monkeys is preposterous and insulting. Have you seen what those animals act like? The pounding on their chests? The yelling and screaming ? The going after one another like that? How these people can look at themselves in the mirror after their behavior in some of these meetings and NOT see a monkey is beyond me ! Their emotions and fear have overcome them to the point that what ever they learned acceptable has gone right out the window and they have regressed right back to our monkey uncles !! Just embrace it, and pound on your chest, it feels good ! But lets not let it come to this...