Evolution of Consciousness

It has been an interesting summer of politics on healthcare reform. We’ve seen and heard plenty of nonsense, with greed and corruption providing the framework, and ignorance and fear filling the air. These human shortcomings are not new, but history also reveals that they can be overcome.

Single-payer national health insurance will eventually prevail in this country, simply because it is the only affordable and sustainable system in the long run. 

Meanwhile, it appears that Obama and this 111th Congress may take some baby steps toward reform, but all indications are it won’t be enough to really stop the bleeding. We’ll all be back to the drawing board soon. The fact is our current for-profit health insurance system is unsustainable, it costs too much and does not work. Until we remove this $400,000,000,000 middleman from the equation, this country will remain sick and in pain.

The good news is that the national conversation on healthcare has begun. More and more Americans are learning some real facts about our common plight. In spite of the massive propaganda campaign directed against us, the truth of the matter is leaking out, little by little, bit by bit. A majority of Americans, a critical mass, will eventually get it. Single payer will eventually win, it is only a matter of time.

So the trick is, in the meantime, remain calm, centered, and patient. Whatever you do, don’t get sick! This is not a good time to require healthcare in America — unless, of course, you’ve reached the magical age of 65, when our national health insurance (Medicare) actually kicks in. Only then can you begin to enjoy the benefits of the single payer system. Before that (0-65) you are merely profit fodder for the health insurance industry.

It’s time for revolution. Big money stole America, and it’s time to take the country back. But first, it’s important to understand who and what we’re up against.

One of the usurpers, Grover Norquist, expressed the goal in graphic terms: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” He is part of the gang who subverted the “conservative” movement, the Republican Party, and the corporate media in this country. Their first puppet was Ronald Reagan, who helped popularize the simple-minded demonization of “big government.” Joe the Plumber is their latest tool.

But the real problem is not big government, it is bad government, which is what we have now. Washington has been thoroughly corrupted by big money. It serves the interests of corporations and extreme wealth at the expense of everyone else. This is not the American dream, it’s an American nightmare, and it is time to wake up.

Think about it: if you are rich and greedy, you don’t want to pay taxes for the public good. You send your kids to private schools, so you don’t care about public education. You can afford healthcare, no matter the cost, so you don’t care about universal coverage. Yes, it is stupid and selfish and short sighted, but that’s exactly who we are dealing with here. It’s time to stop the madness. America belongs to all of us, not just the rich. We’re all in this together.

The place to start is healthcare. Universal single-payer healthcare. Everyone in, everyone covered. Almost every other industrialized nation has it, but we don’t, because the rich don’t need it. They don’t care about you and me. So we have to stand up and fight for it.

There is a bill in Congress proposing healthcare for all. It’s called HR 676. It is the single best solution to the healthcare crisis in this country. It is, of course, opposed by the insurance and drug corporations, so they’ve been pouring money into Washington, to try and keep single-payer “off the table.” Thus far, their strategy is working. You hear the paid-off politicians speaking their lines.

How to fight back? Start with your congressional representative. Ask him or her to co-sponsor HR 676. If you live in California’s First District (the north coast region) your representative is Mike Thompson, who has not co-sponsored HR 676. Tell him to get on it (if you’re in Mendocino County, his number is 962-0933). We need to act in large enough numbers to counter the money he’s receiving from the industry. If he doesn’t respond, then let’s throw him out! That’s democracy at its finest.

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

That was Martin Luther King in 1967. 42 years later, I would say the approaching part is over. America is not only at spiritual death’s door, we’ve let ourselves in, gotten comfortable on the couch, helped ourselves to beer and pretzels, and have that glazed-over look we get when the Superbowl goes on too long.

At the time, King was addressing not only the Vietnam War but also the underlying reasons for America’s misguided foreign policy. He recognized that unless we grappled with these deeper motivations, there would be many more Vietnams to come. And he wondered whether America was mature enough to do it.

Well, the good news is that America is finally mature enough to elect itself a black president. This is certainly cause for celebration, but racism was only part of the problem King spoke of. He also identified materialism and militarism, and noted how America’s violence-prone foreign policy was often guided by naked concerns of wealth and investment. 

Naomi Klein’s recent book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism does an excellent job of looking at America’s international meddlings and illuminating their base economic interests. Assimilating the truths of her work will be America’s first step away from the spiritual death that King warned us of so many years ago.