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Monday, August 31, 2009

The White House is Requesting YOUR VIDEOS About HealthCare Reform

I am subscribed to the White House email list. I did so after the inauguration because I like to keep up on the latest news coming out and I like to get it directly from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Getting news from news sources is great, but too often they spin or leave out stuff. I'll take my facts straight up, thanks!

Here is a copy of the latest emailing from the White House. What are YOUR thoughts?
"The White House, Washington

Dear Friend,

Our latest Reality Check video features Vice President Joe Biden addressing the biggest whopper of all: that our health insurance system works just fine and Americans don’t care about reform. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So we’re trying something new. You can help the Vice President debunk this myth by uploading your own video on why reform matters to you. This is an opportunity for Americans of all backgrounds and situations to make the case for reform in your own words.

Watch the Vice President’s video and then respond with your own:

A Reality Check from the Vice President

Need some help? We also have a new online quiz to help set the record straight about health insurance reform. Find out what’s in reform for somebody like you by answering a few questions.

What does reform mean if you already have insurance? What if you don’t? What does it mean if you’re young? If you’re a senior? If you have children?

Take the quiz and then share it — simple tools like this are a great way to cut through the noise and get the facts about reform: www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck/quiz

Thank you,

Nancy-Ann DeParle
Director, White House Office of Health Reform

P.S. No matter your age, where you work, whether you have insurance or not, you’ll be surprised at how much you’ll get out of health insurance reform. But don’t just take my word for it — take the quiz: www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck/quiz"

Personally, I have not heard anyone say our current system is just fine. What I have heard loud and clear is that we do need change, just not the change that is being rammed down our throats. The current bill will NOT help us - it WILL make things worse. I wonder if they would post/allow such videos?

What are your thoughts? What are the problems YOU personally experience with our current healthcare system and what things do you think will work . . .and fail . . .and why? Please comment - and if you send in a video to the White House, please let me know. I'd happily post it here, too! I'd love to hear various points of view, so please feel free to comment or submit a video even if you think you and I may disagree. As long as it isn't personal attacks and spewing venom, I'll post it. The more facts (with sources); the stronger your case (just FYI).

UPDATE: Here is a link to the pdf file of the health care bill, so you can read it for yourself. It is over 1000 pages long. Please don't feel too 'intimidated' to read it. It takes some 'digesting' so you can 'get' exactly what it means in application to you and me, but it can be done. Just take one bite-sized piece at a time. Start with sections that are of most interest to you and go from there.

Here are the sections I am reviewing first (due to a head's up about certain issues):
Pg 30 Sec 123 Gov't committee determines benefits/treatments
Pg 42 HC Commissioner chooses your benefits for you
Pg 50 Sec 152 Illegals get free care
Pg 170 lines 1-3 Illegals don't pay taxes, citizens do
Pg 241 Lines 6-8 All doctors, regardless of specialty, get paid same pre-set rates
Pg 354 Sec 1177 Gov't restriction on enrollment of special needs people/children (stop assistance to special needs kids?)
Pg 425 lines 17-19 Gov't controls living wills - people can't determine own living wills
Pg 425 Lines 4-12 This is the end of life counseling stuff

Page 50-51 also contained language that stated no one will be discriminated against based on age, health, etc unless they can be (as stated elsewhere in the bill - that they can be!).

PLEASE read this and voice your thoughts and concerns, whatever they may be. Pick one issue or address the whole bill - but please get involved. This will affect YOU and YOUR FAMILY! Don't think you can undo it later if it passes - once the government gets the power they NEVER give it up - think "Social Security" (supposed to be a temporary fix).

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Tossing Out Desensitization

by Daniella Nicole

Over the course of my life, I have often heard talk of people becoming ‘desensitized’ to the evils in the world. It is in this process of becoming desensitized that the horrors increase. This is due to no one ‘batting an eyelash’ at them any longer, assuming they are commonplace, because, well, the media says so. It is in this process that those who would push the boundaries of common decency continually cross the accepted lines, telling us its ok because its their right to do so and we can just not look or buy.

Perhaps it is the right of those who prefer the evils of the world to those things of value to pursue their own downward path, but it is not their right to inflict it upon others. There are those who cry foul when any effort is made to stem the tide of indecency into society, apparently believing they, and only they, have any rights to speech, belief or action.

Somewhere along the way, it became acceptable in society to launch personal attacks against those with whom we disagree – even justifying it as ‘truth’ and ‘free speech’. It is hard to support any move toward societal decency or change when such efforts are also laden with those things that are in direct conflict with the goal. It is so rampant that people are becoming desensitized to it, accepting it and even jumping onto the dogpile of attacks.

We have the right to our own thoughts, feelings, perspectives and beliefs. We do not have the right to verbally or physically assault others. We have the right to speak freely and passionately about issues – whether based in fact or opinion. We do not have the right to defame others.

You lose all ground in any debate of any issue when you season it with hate, name-calling and judgments. The wise stick to facts and use critical thinking to make their point.

Morally speaking, none of us is without sin and none of us is wholly good. We all have faults, sins and flaws that lessen the greatness of who we are. To label someone as ‘evil’, ‘a sinner’, or some other name associated with wickedness is the epitome of hypocrisy. Who are we to shout about the mote in another’s eye when we have a beam in our own?

Let us focus on acts, not people. Let us focus on facts, not opinion. Let us return to a time of civil discourse when people took the high road and refused to be sucked into less than civil behavior. Let us toss out desensitization and stand up for those things that are decent and good . . .and kind. One person can make a difference and one courageous person can inspire a multitude.
Copyright © 2008 - 2011 Daniella Nicole. All rights reserved.