No Excuses.....

I woke up this morning and read through the tweets from last night and found a strand of thought that just struck a nerve with me. Before I go on anything that resembles a rant or tirade let me make a few points that will hopefully keep this on the track of opposing views of two people instead of it being about me going after someone more famous than me.

First off it is not my intention to play ‘neighborhood political sniper’ here. I realize the tweets were sent by this person as a thought, not as a debate and leave no avenue of a rebuttal on his part.

Secondly I realize Twitter leaves this person a bit naked and unable to defend themselves. Out respect for the person, the artist and free speech I will not reveal who posted this strand thought. Personally who posted it doesn’t matter to me, the view point and ideas expressed do though.

Lastly in no way does this person’s view make them any less American, nor does it make me any less American because I completely oppose their view points. We are both Americans, we are both right in our own way. By virtue of being American’s we have the right to argue and debate until our dying breathe. Being a Veteran nothing makes me sicker than one American calling another un-American because they disagree.

Here are the Tweets, posted in order that I received them. I have left all punctuation, spelling, everything just as it was sent in an effort to preserve the sender’s sentiment and not taint it in anyway.

1. watching my first "towne hall meeting" on c-span. the resistance is madness on health care reform. why is there so much hostile resistance?
2. seeing alot of greedy "why are my hard earned tax dollars going to....." action. i didn't hear this anger of "dollars" for bush's war...wtf?
3. could be naive. could be i have a heart. but why deny treatment to ANYBODY in this world who is sick? that logic is cruel.

In an effort to keep this short I will refer to the Tweets by Tweet X from here on out. I want to take each post and fully consider and examine them.

There are two main things that stick out for me with Tweet 1. The first is that this person is taking the time to watch the town hall meetings. That is good; I applaud the effort in being informed. I can only take issue with this if watching the town hall meetings are this person’s only source of information. Not knowing that, I cannot comment one way or the other. I personally think the town hall meetings are at this point staged, prescreened, preselected events for the most part. There is so little real information being exchanged that they have become nearly worthless in my opinion. When you have one side accusing the other being Nazi’s and then physically attacking members of the opposing view then it is no longer a useful venue to exchange info. Nor are the staged “phone hall meetings” for that matter. All the callers are handpicked and given prescreened questions and topics. My second issue that sticks out for me in this Tweet is the reference to hostile resistance. If one cannot understand why so many American’s vehemently opposed ObamaCare then they haven’t been listening. Many American’s see ObamaCare as little more than enslavement, trading civil and personal liberties for one group’s idea of health care. Don’t get me wrong I understand why some people support ObamaCare but I don’t think they have really thought about the cost. This is little more than a deal with the devil. It looks great in the onset; it fulfills your every need and is very tempting. The problem is in the delivery. What happens when the Government refuses your care? What are you left with then? Oh I know, ‘they would never do that.’ Yeah, and they take great care of Veteran’s after they spend their life serving America as well. NOT. If you support ObamaCare it is because you have never dealt with the brooding, demanding behemoth that is our Government on a first person basis. Look at the IRS and our tax system as a small example. You are guilty until proven innocent in their eyes and that won’t change with ANY government ran entity. It is the few rationing time, services and resources to the many. I won’t even get into the cost of such a system and its 98% likelihood of failure. Just because Obama and his teleprompter eloquently promise you that we can afford it DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE. He is a politician, by virtue he is a liar, they all are. Being cognizant of that does not make anyone less American or make me hostile. It does however make me realistic.

On to Tweet 2. There are few things that stick out to me here. First calling those who disagree or question ObamaCare “greedy” isn’t right. Since when does wanting to know and debate the facts on an issue make one greedy? Do I not have the right to know where, how and why my tax dollars are being spent? I was the one who earned them. I track every dollar I make and know where it goes, that is no different for my tax dollars. These people won an election, not the lottery and they need to start spending our money accordingly. This is not a Republican or Democrat problem; it is just flat out a problem without party affiliation. It was with the Bush administration and is even worse now. It is a Government problem. The indebting and enslaving of the next two generations to the Chinese must stop ASAP. “You didn’t hear this anger about dollars for “Bush’s War.”” First off how dare you trivialize the lives of Americans fighting in that conflict by labeling it as “Bush’s War.” No matter how you feel about the conflict, the President or the circumstances men and women are fighting for something they believe in everyday. I know you get to jet around the country and not worry about an insurgent killing you while you sleep or running over a land mine in your Benz, but our war fighters do. I could give a flying frack what you or Michael Moore thinks about it because people are still dying while you are trivializing. You want to know why you didn’t hear the anger over dollars for the war effort? Because American’s were united for a common goal. This is something the Obama has not been able to do. Oh yes, I know here it comes….Bush was only able to unite America through the lies of WMD. Believe me Obama is lying just the same. Lies like: “We have to pass this bill right now or the banks will fail”…We are still failing there Messiah-In-Chief. “50% of American’s aren’t covered under an insurance policy” even though the numbers are so doctored and altered that not even your staff members know where you got that figure. “70% of America wants ObamaCare”…even though polling data shows a very different story.

Next….Tweet 3. Yes, you are likely naive and you do have a heart. I do not blame your naivety all American's are naive to a degree. I do think that you have been sold a bill of goods though. ObamaCare, UtopiaCare, Single Payer System, GovCare, whatever name you want to give it sounds great. It is an absolutely beautiful concept, sentiment and at face value is well intentioned. The problem is in the implementation. The best laid plans of the government continue to screw us over. There are NO government ran systems that run under a reasonable budget AND that are also effective. There are NO government ran systems that provide everything to everyone they were designed to. There will always be those that fall through the cracks. No, I don’t think anyone should be denied treatment and as long as they can afford it or it’s an emergency they aren’t. I’ve seen some pretty bombastic payment plans where hospitals and health care providers all but take it in the a$$ in an attempt to allow everyone the chance to play and pay. The truth of the matter is a simple one…no matter how cheap we make health care there will be those that will squander away the means in which to obtain it. At some point these people have to look to themselves and ask what is wrong with what they are doing that keeps them down. Is this logic cruel? Perhaps, but so is life. Those who hunt for food and put effort into staying alive, live. Those who manage their resources live to make fight another day when disaster strikes. Our God is not a cruel God, he is a just God. Never forget that. We should never be cruel, we should never step over those in true need, but we should never allow those in need to step over us either. That is exactly what is going on here. We are attempting to implement a system that will bankrupt (this is not just a reference to money) everyone and will do more harm than good all disguised as "helping those less fortunate."

So I ask you sir, who’s being cruel? The one who is willing to look beyond the idea of a free handout and question the future of our nation or the one who says pay for it now and we will figure it out later?

Who is being unrealistic? The one who expects our sworn leaders to work for us and stay within the confines of our Constitution or the one who just wants their immediate needs met no matter the cost?

Who is being naive? The one who doesn’t believe this country has enemies or the one who wonders which wolves will be at the door first when American has been weakened enough to fall?

Who is being unfair? The one who wants to give everyone, everything or the one that expects people to put forth some effort in obtaining things in life?

See I still believe in the fundamental truth that man should work for what he has. That if he wants a nice car, home, etc that God and hard work will provide, not the government. Hand outs are fine as they are acts of love and grace, everyone stumbles every now and then. The truly righteous will humbly accept the grace of those helping him back on his feet and will do everything in their power to return the favor tenfold. They never expect anyone to provide from them as they take pride in providing for themselves. See the problem with living off the grace of others is that before long the hands that holds you up becomes the hand that holds you down. THAT is why American’s are resisting ObamaCare with such fervor. It is NOT because they don’t love their neighbors, don’t care for immigrants, or are hateful. American’s are not a hateful people the history of the world and the fallen men and women who fought for the freedom of people who were not their countrymen prove that. If you cannot see or understand that then I sincerely hope one day you do and you two can understand that those who oppose ObamaCare do love America, we are just fearful of the repercussions this slippery slope has in store for generations to come.

This week’s blog inspiration gets attributed to Alice in Chains’ “No Excuses” (lyric link) as I was driving in this morning I formulated this argument with myself while listening to AIC’s Unplugged album. Easily one of the all time great acoustic albums bar none. Man I still miss Layne Staley and I am very much looking forward to the new AIC project to be released very soon.