Patricia's Sharebook 

I guess the good folks of Massachusetts have decided that even though they enjoy universal healthcare statewide, the rest of the nation is just not deserving enough and so they have thrown the Kennedy legacy out the window.  Scott Brown ran on the promise that he would vote against healthcare reform.  I doubt I am the only one to see the irony.

What does this say about us as a nation?  That we are content with economic slavery, with an elite "ruling class" that the rest of us toil to serve?  I don't think this is what we want, and yet we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.  Is it complacency, apathy, dissillusionment....what is it that stops us in our tracks every time we try to move forward?

I can only speak for myself when I say this, but I don't feel our president has let us down; rather, I think it is us who has let him down.  Our eagerness to believe every charismatic snake oil salesman who goes on television rather than do our own research and learn the truth is pitiful.  We should be ever vigilant, especially in these trying times; we should be informed and make our voices heard.

If it sounds like I'm taking this personally, well damn right I am.  Those of us who truly believe in healthcare reform know that we are not asking for a handout; we just want to be able to purchase a health insurance policy that will cover us, pre-existing conditions and all, at an affordable price.  We don't want to go bankrupt when we get sick, or die sooner than the rest of the population because we cannot afford adequate preventative medical care.  The whole thing has been perverted to such an extent that now many of those who were formerly for healthcare reform now oppose it, as they have bought into the notion that it will somehow be harmful to us as a whole. 

Truth is, the only ones who will be harmed by healthcare reform are the corporations who know their underpaid employees can't afford to leave because of the health insurance benefits they can't get elsewhere, the health insurance companies themselves who reward their employees with bonuses based on how many claims they deny, and those elite few who can afford the very best medical care available and fear that if it were offered to all, their superior status might somehow be undermined.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this is a pitiful representation of the U.S.  Oh, and by the way, congrats to those of you who have the best of the best and now, by the looks of it, will get to remain the the sole members of the exclusive, elite club of the medically insured!