On tea bagging, corporate protesters, and faux outrage

Generally speaking, human beings are freaked out by change. Especially a lot of change, all at once. It's unsettling and scary, and people tend to resist it by either clinging to what is familiar or by fearing and deriding the strange new thing. This is true even when the change is needed, even when it may be essential for survival. We like routine, the familiar, the habitual. We don't like to change and grow unless we have to, because it's often painful. Obama's election signaled a shift in the social and cultural makeup of this country. We all know Obama talked ad infinitum about change during the campaign, but I don't think America totally grasped the degree of the change that was coming. (Yeah yeah, insert your 'see, told you, Obama's a secret Muslim/Nazi/Socialist/Communist' joke here.) I mean that having a black/bi-racial/non-white/non-traditional President of the U.S. is unnerving to many Americans because it strikes at the core of how they have always viewed themselves as a nation: white, Anglo-Saxon, Christian. That's the default setting in their mind. And culturally speaking, that's how it's been for a couple hundred years...but now it's shifting. The browning of America is more than underway: Caucasians will soon fail to be a majority in America and merely be a plurality (i.e. the largest of the minority groups, but under 50% population.) I think it's fair to say not everyone is cool with this happening. Doesn't mean if you're a white guy who made a sign and yelled at a rally recently that you're a racist - but if not, there's a good chance some of your fellow Tea Baggers are. Do the math.

But this isn't about being Racist! with a capital R, it's about people's fear of the unknown (change) rising up as the cultural norm that frames their world view is shifting below their feet. That it's happening at the same time as an economic meltdown turned into a vicious recession, which is coming on the heels of a difficult few years of overextending ourselves in two wars and diminished standing in the world following our misguided response to 9/11, is truly unfortunate, and I think is really the reason for such deep seated emotion being seen. America was a little shaky coming into this year, and now we're seeing the social cracks revealing themselves as more and more strain is being placed on society. I worry, if this level of vitriol and outrage is resulting over changing health care, what about changing immigration policy? Or changing our consumer and manufacturing habits regarding climate change, or our food production? We have so many major challenges facing us, all at once and all of them urgent.

I really worry about our ability as a nation to keep it together, especially since 1) neither side seems capable of listening to the other, 2) politicians and pundits seem more than willing to stoke populist fears and play on people's worst instincts, 3) most of them are funded by powerful interests who are perfectly happy raking in their profits and will fight (and spend) like hell to maintain the status quo, and 4) our media sources are increasingly parochial and insular - we keep feeding ourselves with only what we want to hear, and demonize and make caricatures of the other side, on nearly every issue. (Bush was a fascist? Obama's a Nazi, or a commie? Sotomayor's a racist? Come on. This sort of language doesn't help, it only makes things worse.) And the sad, frustrating thing is that it seems to be working - the corporate interest noise machine is not just obstructing progress by obfuscating the truth, it's poisoning the well...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-e-burns/an-open-memo-to-progressi_b_255918.html

I'm glad I'm not President because I don't have a solution, just the knowledge that nations have crumbled under lesser circumstances and there's no guarantee that the United States of America will continue to exist on this Earth forever. It's up to each generation to take action to keep it thriving and alive, and we've got to work together, as a country, as partners in a joint venture, to make it happen. I wish I saw more willingness to do that out there, both online and in the streets.

An open letter to opponents of health care reform...at least the stupid ones

I'm confused. How exactly will providing insurance coverage for the 48 million Americans who don't have it deny you your right to see your doctor when and if you wish? I still haven't heard someone rationally explain that or show me where this nefarious plot is spelled out in the proposed bill. This isn't a zero sum game where there are only so many doctor's office appointments to be had and if you don't push me aside you won't get yours. What part of 'if you like your existing insurance you can keep it' aren't you getting here?

And please stop using the Soylent Green, 'the gummint's gonna kill all the old people' argument - it's asinine and inaccurate and entirely unfounded. The power of attorney/living will section of the bill (page 425, I believe) reiterates existing legislation that provides Medicare recipients the funding to seek out counseling once every 5 years to discuss their end of life options, at their discretion. It's not mandatory, it won't force anyone to have to defend themselves in front of a death panel or any other such nonsense. It's an additional, optional benefit to Medicare recipients who may be faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to remain alive on respirators, tubes, etc. This counseling gives them the info to decide in advance which course of action they want, IF they want to take advantage of it. Sort of like deciding to be an organ donor on your driver's license. Nobody's making you do it, it's your choice. People seek out this advice all the time, but up to now many of them have had to pay an attorney out of pocket to get this advice. (Damn lawyers!) So now, it would be a government-funded benefit, see? This is a compassionate and benign measure, not a diabolical plot to kill off the sick and infirm. And to continue to use that as a tactic to scare the ignorant and fearful rather than coming up with a valid argument against reform is disingenuous at best, if not downright sinful. So stop it.