I am a racist.
I never thought of myself as a racist. I grew up in a relatively mixed, middle class neighborhood and went to a school that was a smattering of Ashkenazi Jews, Italians, Irish, Blacks (Haitian, Jamaican, African American), Greek Orthodox, Hispanic (mostly Central American), some WASPs and some Asians. At different times in my life I have had friends from each of these ethnic and religious groups just as I do today.
For the better part of the 1970’s, my mother was a teacher in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and spent years dedicating herself to working with inner city kids there. It was the kind of neighborhood where there was little hope of making something of yourself if you happened to make it out of there in one piece. My mother taught English, Math and remedial reading and put her life at risk in the process. She must have done something right because, for years after she quit, following the protestations of my family over her safety, students from the schools she taught at in Bed Stuy would come to our house, in person, to thank her and update her on how their lives had turned out. Some of them had gone on to become teachers themselves, some city officials, some nurses and doctors. They came to thank her and would stay for dinner or an afternoon bar-b-q. With the exception of a few Hispanics, these former students were predominately Black.
I was always very proud of my mother, having witnessed this. She touched people and it meant enough that they were able to see their own potential in life.
How these experiences turned me into a racist, I do not know. But the message I am getting repeatedly is that, because I oppose the Health Care Bill, I am a racist. Pundits, authors and commentators such as Alan Colmes, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Chris Matthews, Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann (just to name a few) are either insinuating or flat out insisting that opposition to ObamaCare is due to the color of Mr. Obama’s skin. Those that oppose the bill do so because Mr. Obama is (half) black and for no other reason. There have been numerous invented claims of Tea Party members hurling racial slurs and spitting on members of the Congressional Black Caucus as they made their way across the Promenade in Washington DC on the day of the House vote. No proof, naturally, but the word is out and you and I both know how powerful that is.
Before I head off to racial sensitivity training in order to more fully understand the roots of my hatred, I want to sit down here and tell you, my reader, why I think I’m a racist.
I am a racist because I oppose the fact that my new government health care policy must cover ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health/substance abuse disorder services, behavioral health treatment, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services and devices, lab services, preventative and wellness services, chronic disease management, pediatric services and dental and vision services.
If I’m single? Too bad.
If I can’t have or don’t want children? Too bad.
If I’m young and healthy and want a cheaper, smaller policy? No can do.
If I’m clean and sober? Well, good for me.
If I don’t want to cover my own unused, or someone else’s, marriage, family or substance abuse counseling? Sorry.
My policy will pay for it all. And while it is a gross violation of my personal freedoms for the government to decide what services I want, it is apparently my blind prejudice alone that is preventing me from laying down and accepting it.
I am now an extremist because I think it is foolish that insurance companies will no longer be able to underwrite on the basis of a person’s current health status. If you are in perfectly good health and want a policy that reflects that, it doesn't matter. You will be paying the same premiums as smokers, alcoholics, people with diabetes, people with high blood pressure and heart attack survivors.
I am also a racist for questioning the completely unrealistic economics of a massive piece of legislation that was forced through on reconciliation while a majority of my country (65% in the most recent Gallup poll) was against its passage.
Apparently I am a gun-toting, bible thumping racist for opposing Medicare cuts to hospitals that treat low-income seniors beginning in 2012. I am an extremist for opposing the precipitous growth of government bureaucracy and the inclusion of blatant favor exchanges in this legislation such as the carve-outs for the unions, the airport grants and the Cornhusker Kickbacks. And I am a racist for thinking that, given a little more time and a little more bipartisan input, Congress could have made this bill the homerun it should have been rather than the bloated, grossly miscalculated, federal tax grab that it is.
So, how did this all happen to me? Did I read too much? Was it that nagging common sense thing that led me to my racist sentiments? Or was it my fear of a half black President as so many of my peers insist?
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The overarching disposition I have encountered in discussing the Health Care Bill with others is that of confusion followed, in most cases, by frustration. Even those who support ObamaCare really don’t know or understand what is in the bill or what the bill means in terms of the future of our country. Rather, there is a sense on the part of proponents that “we have to start somewhere” or that “healthcare is a right, not a privilege”. While I basically agree with these peoples’ intentions, I am nowhere close in terms of the methods they blindly support.
Massive changes to our way of life and to our economy should not be sweeping. They should not be overnight. These changes should be well thought out, cautiously analyzed and intelligently reviewed in order to ensure that our decisions lead us to our ends with careful consideration of the consequences.
Our Democrat-led Congress and the Obama Administration have done just the opposite. They have implemented "change” for the sake of change while exempting themselves from the rules set forth in the bill. For believing this, I have been branded a racist, not only by the pundits, but now by former friends and colleagues who no longer speak to me. For expecting my elected representatives to read and generally understand the largest piece of legislation in the history of my country, I have been labeled a fringe, right wing conservative nutjob.
It is widely understood that Obama's fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 Trillion more than the administration even projected, while raising the federal debt to 90 percent of the nation's economic output by 2020. This is fiscal responsibility? A 90% debt to GDP ratio? This is "using a scalpel"?
The real objective of the ObamaCare bill is to permanently expand the American entitlement state with a vast array of taxes, subsidies and regulations, while disregarding the will of the American people and the empty promises of bipartisan contribution.
By virtue of the fact that I know and repeat this information and make the assertion that our new Health Care Bill is a clear-cut case of the Federal Government overstepping its boundaries, I am officially a racist.
It may be funny right now but if that nonsense is repeated over and over again, enough people will start believing it. And, if you agree with me, you had better be prepared for shout downs in place of civil argument for years to come.
That’s where this is headed.
