I attended a workshop July 25^th 2009 to learn more about health care reform. I felt that in order to separate the myths from the distortions that dominate the news, I needed to be better informed.  After all, how could I engage my neighbors, community and legislators about life and death problem that affects over 47 millions Americans if I couldn’t communicate clearly and succinctly the urgency to legislate health care reform NOW?  Attendees were a diverse representation of gender, race and age.  It was clear that health care reform didn’t discriminate.  Everyone had stories of their lives, families and friends affected by the lack of basic medical care.  Some reasons I heard that got people out of bed on a Saturday morning were riveting.  I talked to people who had lost their health care because of downsizing and elimination of their jobs, those who had no access to coverage due to pre-existing conditions, premiums so exorbitant that individuals could no longer afford them, business people unable to provide health care for their employees because of the skyrocketing costs and other stories as varied as the people attending.  The people at that workshop represented the stories of people around this country who are living without health care, dying, suffering and languishing as congress, lobbyist and the media debate its merits and affordability. It is strange that the right to bear arms would supersede the right to quality of life or the right to health care but that is another topic we will discuss another day.  During a break between sessions, a young women came into the conference room to inquire what exactly this health care reform workshop was about. It was explained briefly by various attendees that it was about supporting legislation to provide affordable health care for all Americans. She said, “Oh, this is not for me. I don’t agree with that” to which I asked why not?  She replied, “Because if people are sick they can go to emergency.” I think everyone in earshot was amazed that she thought it was a solution. When someone suggested that scenario was more expensive then preventative care or having access to health care, she turned on her heels and left.  I couldn’t help but wonder if the words “Patriots” on the signage directing people to the workshop gave the impression we were tea baggers or, at the very least, of like mind. In that moment it hit me how many of my fellow citizens actually feel that all people in this country don’t deserve or merit health care.  Could they know that 1 out of 4 Texans don’t have health care?  Do they care that Texas is at the bottom of the totem pole in the entire nation for providing health care to children, seniors, soldiers, veterans, widows and workers? How could she and the proponents against health care reform see dollar signs and not people? I don’t get it but her inquiry strengthened my resolve to help President Obama get health care reform instituted in this country NOW!

It will take every concerned uninsured and insured citizen to fight this fight that will insure health care for every American. This debate has been raging since President Truman, Roosevelt, and Clinton tried to get it legislated. 70 years later we are arguing about whether our fellow citizens should have health care. It doesn’t’ make sense unless you factor in the 1.4 million dollars lobbyists from insurance companies and related health care interest are pumping into Washington everyday.

I am a Texas resident and so am calling on my entire fellow Texans to turn up the heat on our state representatives and senators. Collectively they oppose health care or any measure that would help Texans and other Americans receive basic medical care.  I purposely highlight Texas Senator John Cornyn. Senator Cornyn is a junior member of the Senate Finance Committee currently determining ways to pay for health care reform. His vote will help decide what kind of health care reform plan hits the entire senate.  Since Senator Cornyn was elected to the senate in 2002 and he has received campaign contributions of over $1,352,724 from the health industry,  $2,995,628 from finance/insurance/real estate, $1, 311,843 from other, and $858, 153 from Ideology/single issue interest. I have no clue what other and ideology-single issue represents, but it sounds rather dubious and ominous. Wait there is more! According to Opensecrets.org for the 2010 cycle of campaign contributions Senator Cornyn already has received a total of $219, 646 from Pharmaceuticals/health products, $348,169 Insurance and $746,463 from health professionals. Senator Cornyn doesn’t support health care reform but suggest an alternative that would include state-based initiatives and incentives to spur people to live healthier lives, which would lower health care cost. I don’t know about you but it looks like the big dollars supporting Senator Cornyn is the only Americans health he is concerned about. Call, write and e-mail him today and let him know his rhetoric, stance and protection of his donors and campaign contributors will not protect him from the electorate who put him in office. His Washington phone number is 202-224-5922 and for all of his contact information, access this link.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has indicated she might run for governor, but until that time she also must be reminded that health care reform should be at the top of her agenda. She has offices in Washington, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Abilene and Harlingen Texas. Just the rent on these offices could cover hundreds of Texans health care.  Her Washington D.C. phone number is 202-224-5922.  Lastly, Representative John Carter who represents district 31 of Bell County, Texas, has the following atrocious voting record on health care, NO March 2008 on giving mental health full equity with physical health, NO to allow State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP) to cover 6 million more children in January 2008, NO to adding 2-4 million children to SCHIP eligibility in October 2007, NO on requiring negotiated medical prices for Medicare part D in January 2007, YES on denying non-emergency treatment for lack of Medicare co-pay February 2006, YES on limiting medical malpractice lawsuits to $250,000 damages May 2004, YES on limited prescription drug benefits for Medicare recipients, November 2003, NO on allowing reimportation of prescription drugs July 2003,  YES to remove restrictions on menopause medication June 2008.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) on health issues rated Representative John Carter 0%. APHA is the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world. Take a moment as you study Representative Carter’s voting record over the pass seven years and ask yourself who does he represent? It is incumbent on Texans and people around the country to find out who your congress people are representing?” Then it is imperative that you call them out and demand they answer for the lack of concern they have for their constituency regarding health care and all issues that affect children, seniors, poor, disadvantaged and disenfranchised Americans.

In conclusion remember to separate Facts from the Myths:

Myth: President Obama and the proponents want government run health care to take over.  Fact: Competition with the private sector is the aim to bring cost down. What is Medicare, Veterans Hospitals and Medicaid if not governmentally run? Should we dispose of it?

Myth: If we have government-run health care then we will have long waiting periods and rationed health care. Fact: Health care is already rationed in this country it’s that it’s rationed to who can pay rather than who needs it most.

Myth: Government-run heath care won’t let you choose your doctor. Fact: Private insurance doesn’t let you choose your doctor either. If the doctor isn’t in your network, you pay out of pocket or don’t see the one of your choice.

Myth: Government-run health care dictates which medications physicians can prescribe. Fact: Private insurance already dictate which medications will be prescribed by limiting what they will pay for and how high your co-pay will be.

How empowering it is if you know the facts and you can see the myths for the lies they are.

We need Health Reform with a Public Option. There are four keys to the Public Health Insurance Option. R.E.A.L.

Right away – Everyday we delay, the costs are escalating.

Everyone must have access to quality health care in America.

Accountable- A public health options must be publicly accountable and transparent to the electorate and congress.

Large enough to lower cost by having a nationwide network of providers so that costs are competitive and we have the ability to bargain on equal terms with private insurance plans.

I know this has been one of my longer columns and I appreciate you hanging to the end. We as a nation can’t allow this opportunity to legislate health care reform pass us by for another seventy years. Party, race, gender or belief is irrelevant. Americans across this country need affordable health care.  Tomorrow is too expensive and too far away for our fellow citizens who need it today.  If you can’t justify it based on its merits and the longevity of America’s strong standing in the world,  consider that if we can fight two wars, bail out wall street,  and support gas and oil interest, can’t we at least support the Americans who make that all possible?

How much fast food can we eat, liquor should we drink, or drugs do we swallow to continue numbing ourselves to the dearth of “factual and truthful” news we get in this country?  Reality shows are competing with the reality of news networks that are reporting everything but news.  The lack of substantive news is not limited to television and includes radio and media print. The competition is for higher ratings, more sponsors and careers based on popularity versus responsible journalism.   Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, has a word that aptly describes the type of news reporting we are getting in two words “Weasel words”.  A weasel is a small slithery mammal but the word is sometimes used to describe certain homosapiens.  According to Webster’s dictionary, weasel also “means to escape from or evade a situation or obligation.” Webster’s dictionary definition for weasel word is “the weasel’s habit of sucking the contents of an egg while leaving the shell superficially intact; a word used in order to evade or retreat from a direct or forthright statement or position.”  Weasel words are words or phrases that seemingly support statements without verifying if the source is reliable.  They give the validity of authority to a statement without giving enough information to determine if it is true.  Weasel words and the human weasels that use them don’t have a neutral point of view.  They sit at their desk and spread hearsay and spout their personal opinions. Condescendingly they pass along unsubstantiated, vague and colored words and phrases to provoke, enflame and divide.  Some weasel words used liberally throughout the news reporting community or; “They say that… Some sources claim… Critics/experts say that… It is believed… Research has shown… It is rumored that… Many people say… presumably, allegedly, arguably, supposedly, actually… the mainstream scientific community…it is claimed… studies show… it is notable… etc. etc.   Summed up, television news and its affiliates pose as information when, in fact, its value and purpose is entertainment, nothing more.  The past two weeks I purposely sat down and observed mainstream and cable news stations from A-Z.  It couldn’t be a co-incidence that the only stations I viewed that reported specific sources and names were primarily supported financially by the public and its viewers, (PBS) Public Broadcasting Stations and Link TV which broadcasts Democracy Now.  The mainstream and cable news I viewed was pitiful, self-serving, biased and repetitive.  How could the entire world be in turmoil and the news cherry picked about what we will see and hear?  Brain washing, indoctrination and propaganda seem to be the goal of current news reporting and journalism.   We should take a hard long look at how we are being manhandled and manipulated in our own country by corporations and people that own our news organizations.  Reflect on the news coverage of this past two weeks. If I dropped in from another planet I would assume that Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin, and congressional in fighting was all Americans wanted to hear about. I was disgusted then infuriated as I watched and listened to commentators, journalist and seemingly intelligent news anchors drool over the death of a pop star, (Jackson) the resignation of a governor whose only interest seem to be her own (Palin) and the daily belittling, back biting an arguing between the two political parties that run this country (Congress). What has become of us to allow the people we pay to represent and inform us to treat us like imbeciles and zombies?  Where is our outrage as we watch people, families and situations reduced to name calling, labeling and outright hate-filled and venomous rhetoric?

I am tired of it. I am tired of being told that if I don’t like it – don’t watch it or read it. That comment should be reserved for television shows and publications whose purpose is to entertain, not to inform.  I remember as a child watching the news or reading the daily newspaper with my parents because it was a source of information they trusted and relied on to stay abreast of the issues of the day. Weasel words were the exception not the rule.  I deserve to know that when I tune in or read a newspaper that I will be given enough information to draw my own conclusions and opinions. You deserve the same.  How do we change what we see and hear?  I have the following suggestions. First, let the advertisers and sponsors that monopolize news programming know that you will no longer support them or their products until they stop controlling or manipulating what is said or written.  The people that own television, radio stations and newspapers listen with their wallets. Money is all they understand, so let’s make their pockets lighter so we will get their ears.  Money is the only power outside of our vote that gives us power.  Second, write, call and e-mail your favorite television, radio or newspaper and tell them unless they stop giving us crap and passing it off as news that you will stop watching, listening or reading and then do just that immediately. Everyday that we allow this charade that masquerades as news into our homes, we contribute to another generation becoming numb to the truth around them.  We teach them by our apathy that we are powerless to demand better and thereby become better. Changing the world we live in starts with changing our own lives on the smallest most basic levels. What we allow into our minds and hearts affect how we see the world, each other and ourselves.  I don’t like what I see and I want to change it but I can’t do it alone. I need you to get aboard.  In conclusion I call on you to become involved for the sake of us all.  If not, the hatred, prejudices, self righteous, one sided news will continue to erode any sense of morality and honor we have as a nation. The fall of Rome imploded from within as the citizens danced the night away.  Are you prepared to let weasels that spout weasel words bring the walls down around us?