the end of the beginning

In the midst World War II, on the heels of an important victory for the Allies forces against the Axis, Winston Churchill took a moment to reflect.  It was later said that before the Second Battle of El Alamein the Allies had no victories and afterwards they had no defeats.  But at this critical juncture of history, among the shouts of glory and vitriol, Churchill cautiously reminded his people, "Now this is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

The health care overhaul approved by Congress last night hardly matches the magnitude of that great war though its effects may linger with my generation much as the World War II lingered with the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers.

No, our great war is not against an Axis of Evil or a piece of legislation or a political party or a philosophy.  Our struggle is against ignorance and apathy.  It is against the manipulation of politicians bent on controlling not only our deeds but our thoughts as well.  Our weapons in this battle are information to diffuse the malaise of too many arguments and technology to free us from the quagmire of rigid ideological dogma.

You need to know how this health care overhaul will affect you.

You need to educate yourself.  A good place to start is with this article in the New York Times and another in the Wall Street Journal.  But don't stop there.  Keep researching and asking questions and learning.  Don't just trust me or the talking heads on television or the blaring voices on talk radio.  But decide for yourself what you want for yourself, your family, your friends, and the rest of this country.  I know not everyone cares about politics and most of it feels like it doesn't affect your daily life.  I promise you that won't be the case here.

You need to know that health care didn't become free yesterday because Congress said so.  Congress is a powerful force in American life but they are not omnipotent.  Doctors and nurses still must be paid; prescription drugs still cost money; medical research still requires the financial resources that underwrite every great discovery.  That's the way the world works.

That means that insurance companies now forced to cover individuals they normally would not choose to cover without being paid to do so will be forced to raise premiums on those who already have insurance.  The vast majority of you reading this article probably have health insurance through your employer and may not even know month to month what you are paying for that coverage.  You will soon as you see more and more money drained from your paycheck to cover the cost of other people's medical care.  Insurance companies aren't going to make less money because Congress is mad at them.  That's not the way the world works.

See, Congress chose the worst possible way to keep costs down by asking government to control them.  Don't believe me?  Just do a little research on the development of Medicare and Medicaid since their inception.  You'll find that costs have skyrocketed out of control on a constant trajectory since the inception of those programs.  Working in state government, I have seen up close and personal how North Carolina like almost every other state across the country is nearly going bankrupt paying its medical bills because of Medicare and Medicaid.  Government is not an organization that find efficiencies and pinches pennies.  It spends money like a 12 year old boy at an arcade.  Until it's all gone.  When you print your own money, those numbers can really add up.

But people shouldn't have to be without health insurance.  It's not a privilege, it's a right.  Putting aside the odd paradox of newly discovered human rights for a moment, if it is a right to have health insurance then surely it must be a right to choose not to have it.  However, under this legislation come 2014 you won't have that right anymore.  If the time comes between you deciding between owning a car, or buying a home, or paying tuition and purchasing health insurance, the government has already made that choice for you.  I'm all for charity.  But charity hasn't traditionally been something that government has forced us to buy for ourselves.

As Ronald Reagan once said, "We have long since committed ourselves, as a people, to help those among us who cannot take care of themselves."  That is a promise we ought to keep, a dignity that ought to be held in high honor in this country.  But at what cost?  Will we really allow the federal government to take over every aspect of health care and its delivery to ensure that no goes without?  There are only two ways to make health care "cheaper" under government control.  Tax more to make up the difference between what people can afford to pay and what it truly costs or offer less care and poorer quality so that no one has to foot a bill we cannot afford to pay. 

That's no way to run a health care system.

As a country, as a people, we have abolished slavery, invented the automobile, survived two World Wars, put a man on the moon.  We made snowboarding an Olympic sport.  You're telling me that we cannot figure out a way to make health care affordable and accessible to all who want it?  I don't believe it for a second. 

We can do better than what we did with this bill.  And I hope you'll help us do it.

Now, to my Republican friends, a couple reminders are in order.  This is not the end.  It's not the end of liberty or freedom or capitalism or our constitutional republic.  It is not the end of American exceptionalism or the American dream.  If the history of this country has taught us anything, it is that the idea that is America may be tarnished but it is never broken.  Our flag may tatter but it is never.  Just as our government cannot declare something, it cannot long enslave those who would be free.  We as a people are stronger and smarter and better than our representives and every two years we get to remind them of that.

There are no final victories and no final defeats.  There is only here and now and the fight that has been and the fight that is to come.  America is an idea perpetually in the pains of birth crying out, demanding both liberty and unity.  There is only perserverance and courage and idealism and strength and hope to come.  We will not survive.  We will not endure.  But we will prosper.  Freedom always does.

This not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end.  But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Birthers, Grow Up

As much as I am loathe to address this nonsense at all, as the editors did at the Charlotte Observer today, I am also reluctantly entering the fray.

For months now, there has been a group of faux-conservatives claiming that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, that he is not an American citizen, and therefore he is ineligible under the Constitution to hold the office of President.

I was first exposed to this claim just after the North Carolina Democratic Primary last year. I started to receive emails and phone calls from people who either believed this to be true or had heard the claim somewhere and wanted to be sure. I immediately started doing my own research both of the law and the facts involved in the matter. I quickly came across Mr. Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate here.

The argument originally was based on the idea that Hawaii was not a state when Obama was born. This is nothing more than bad math. Hawaii became a state in 1959. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

Then an argument was advanced that because his father was not an American citizen and his mother had not resided in the United States long enough prior to his birth that he could not be an American citizen. That point is of course moot if he was born in the United States. That would automatically confer upon him citizenship status.

Now the conspiracy theory is that there is some great cover-up involving Hawaiian officials and doctors. It is less believable and more convoluted than the "We never landed on the moon" and "9/11 was an inside job" conspiracy theories. You can see the full background here. Now lawyers are filing frivolous lawsuits about it and even members of Congress are joining the fight.

Some Republicans fear that the negative publicity brought on by the "birthers" will hurt the GOP's chances in the next election. I don't think that is the main issue. The main issue is getting at the truth and having a discussion about the important issues that are facing our country.

We all know what is really behind the fear tactics and ominous claims of the "birthers." ("Barack Obama is not an American." "He's not qualified to be President." "Obama is a secret Muslim.") It's all the same. Barack Obama is a black man who spent time in a foreign culture and so therefore he cannot be a true American and cannot be President.

Let me say this. I could hardly disagree more with the vision that the President has for where he wants to take the country. From a philosophical standpoint, I am opposed to the President's agenda on just about every issue facing our country and commanding the news today.

But that doesn't mean that we can't both be Americans.

Though Obama may not have been my choice for President, there is no denying that the fact that a story like his is even possible is evidence of what a great country we really live in. That a boy born to a single mother without the advantages of wealth or status, without really ever knowing his father, could apply himself, end up at Harvard, win elected office, and eventually rise to the highest office in the land says something really profound about the enduring hope of opportunity we can find here.

It is past time to put racism and hatred aside, to reject the misinformation campaigns and fearmongering of faux-conservatives, and start focusing on the important discussions that we need to have to move this country in the right direction.

We can disagree on matters of great importance and not resort to name-calling and spewing race-fueled venom.

We can disagree on the subject of the fundamental underpinnings of what makes this country great and yet we can all still be Americans.

In fact, that's the very thing that makes this country great in the first place. Birthers, grow up. Stop trying to take that away.