I was hoping that I wouldn't have to dignify the ridiculous "death panel" rumors with a response, but once Sarah Palin starts making things up great ignorant hordes take it for truth and regurgitate all over their even less-informed friends. SO... to do my little part in dispelling some of the silliness (and downright dishonesty) I am reposting a summary from The Daily Beast, a news site, at the end of my post. You can find the post the site discusses at Talking Points Memo.
When members of Congress receive death threats for merely wanting to have a conversation, a dialogue, about Health Care, that's when I begin to lose faith in my country. You don't like the plan in Congress right now? Super, then first, actually learn what it says (instead of immersing yourself in far-right-wing hysteria) and then second, have a DEBATE about it. This is not a point-scoring issue, this is a legitimate problem in our country--we need reform and there should be an actual conversation about it.
To conclude, I will let our President make my point better than I ever could. Please read his recent Op-Ed article for the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16obama.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=health%20care&st=cse
"In her first communication since officially resigning as Alaska's governor (and just days after telling the media to quit "makin' things up"), Sarah Palin stated Friday on her Facebook page that health-care reform, or what Palin calls Obama's "death panel," may kill her infant son, Trig. "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil," Palin writes. Palin's spokeswoman pointed to page 425 of the House Democrats' bill when asked what Palin was referring to, which contains a section that refers to "advance care planning consultation" for seniors, which includes voluntary discussions of living wills, power of attorney, or the decision to reject "extraordinary measures of life support." The proposal, which has nothing to do with euthanasia, has been widely circulated by conservative critics of the administration as part of a false rumor that health care reform would pressure senior citizens into killing themselves. As for Palin's description of mandatory Sparta-style murder of Down Syndrome babies, the paranoid vision doesn't match up with any component of any health care plan being discussed."
Read it at Talking Points Memo
Monday, August 17, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
I'm Back! Thoughts on Letter Writing...
Well it's been an unacceptably long time I'm afraid--and about a million things have happened since I last blogged including a Bachelor's degree, marriage, a cross-country move, and another trip to Europe (hooray!)--not to mention an utterly glorious election (!). I won't bore you with details of the fabulous past three years--those of you who need to know already do. Suffice it to say that grad school is expensive and time consuming though we hear that it's worth it. I'm looking forward to giving it a go myself when my husband has finished his turn in two years. Anyone who has ideas for my grad degree please post btw--I'm having the worst time deciding between something in Education, American Literature, or a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry.
Now--to business! For the past few months I have been corresponding with two former room mates currently serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It had been a while since I had written letters on such a regular basis and I've found that I very much missed this intimate yet removed form of communication. There is something very moving about holding a hand-written missive in your hand--you really feel like you have a part of that person with you and it isn't gone in an instant like a text or instant message or Facebook post--it is tangible and all yours. Growing up, my father was in the Air Force and we moved around a bit. I used to write letters consistently to my friends whose families were stationed elsewhere. I remember the day that I first sent an email to one of these friends on the family account--I was astounded by how fast it was, but looking back on it I remember mixed with the wonder was the inability to write quite the same way as I had formerly. Email just wasn't the same thing and it looked and felt sterile to me.
Now, just so I'm not misunderstood, I LOVE my email and work especially would be far more drudgerous without it (I think all form letters should be emails, for example--we kill trees for this?), but I miss the intimacy of handwriting and that physical representation of a loved one far away--that rush of feeling you get when you hear the voice of someone you love on the phone--that's what I feel when I see a familiar script. That rush of emotions is something that you just don't get from these evenly spaced lines.
So every now and again, send someone a nice handwritten letter. Heck, go crazy and use some cute stationary too. You just might make their day.
Happy Mother's Day everyone! Moms (especially mine), you are completely and utterly fabulous--thanks for putting up with all of us :).
Now--to business! For the past few months I have been corresponding with two former room mates currently serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It had been a while since I had written letters on such a regular basis and I've found that I very much missed this intimate yet removed form of communication. There is something very moving about holding a hand-written missive in your hand--you really feel like you have a part of that person with you and it isn't gone in an instant like a text or instant message or Facebook post--it is tangible and all yours. Growing up, my father was in the Air Force and we moved around a bit. I used to write letters consistently to my friends whose families were stationed elsewhere. I remember the day that I first sent an email to one of these friends on the family account--I was astounded by how fast it was, but looking back on it I remember mixed with the wonder was the inability to write quite the same way as I had formerly. Email just wasn't the same thing and it looked and felt sterile to me.
Now, just so I'm not misunderstood, I LOVE my email and work especially would be far more drudgerous without it (I think all form letters should be emails, for example--we kill trees for this?), but I miss the intimacy of handwriting and that physical representation of a loved one far away--that rush of feeling you get when you hear the voice of someone you love on the phone--that's what I feel when I see a familiar script. That rush of emotions is something that you just don't get from these evenly spaced lines.
So every now and again, send someone a nice handwritten letter. Heck, go crazy and use some cute stationary too. You just might make their day.
Happy Mother's Day everyone! Moms (especially mine), you are completely and utterly fabulous--thanks for putting up with all of us :).
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