Dear Mr. Steele, you couldn't be more wrong

Dear Sir:

I appreciate that as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee you feel compelled to challenge the President but Health Care isn’t simply a political football, it’s a life and death matter and I don’t think you really want to come down on the wrong side of this one.

Certainly, it is easy to quote poll numbers that indicate that a large swath of the American public likes their health coverage, but taking that to mean that the health care system is just fine fails to recognize or acknowledge the working poor who have no coverage at all, or the unemployed who have lost theirs. Moreover, taking such a position allows your party to avoid the very real potential that each of us has to lose that satisfactory coverage through job loss or job change. I assure you that any ‘satisfaction’ people feel is entirely illusory. I should know. I once had great health coverage but that job ended. I now not only don’t have much by way of coverage, I’ve also been deemed to be medically uninsurable by two private insurers. Have you no concern for me and others like me?

I understand that your focus is primarily on the cost of any solution to the Health Care mess, but what of the focus on the value of providing quality health care? Rather than stand on the side of “No”, I would urge you to try to change the level of the discourse entirely. Continuing the health care debate from the diametrically opposing viewpoints of "most people are satisfied" vs. "millions using ERs for primary care" does not strike me as a useful route to finding a mutually satisfactory solution.....unless of course, the Republican idea of a solution is to do nothing?

I would remind you that I and others like me are people too. We too have dreams and aspirations….and votes. To stake out a position behind those who are satisfied and ignore those who are not is beneath any party that seeks to lead this or any nation. You cannot please all the people all the time, but you should at least be seen to be trying to take all the people into account as you deliberate.

Get down off it

At some point in your life, you have to decide to get off the fence. For me, that day is today.

I have grown weary of waiting for someone else to see what I’m capable of doing. This is a society that rewards risk-taking. Perhaps if I had understood that eight years ago, I might not have ventured out of my homeland, but that is water under the bridge. In accounting terminology, you’d have to refer to that as a sunk cost. The time and effort that brought me out here (and there was a lot of each) is already invested into this venture so now, I simply have to make it work.

I kept hoping that someone would look up and see me, but that’s taking the path of least resistance. I wouldn’t actually have to do anything for that to happen. This however, is a society that rewards risk taking and taking risk means taking action. Well, it’s time to take some risks. The first risk is to get off the fence. So here I am. I’m clambering down. The throng on the ground below is thick and I worry that I may not make my way through it, but there’s one thing I know for sure….sitting up here on the fence, I definitely won’t get far.

Cross your fingers or say a prayer, whichever works for you. I’m off the fence.

Yes, No, Maybe

I've just had an unfortunate experience that leads me to say unequivocally that the Bible is right about many things, but when the Bible says, "Let your 'No' be 'No' and your 'Yes' be 'Yes'", they knew what they were talking about!

Human circumstances may have changed drastically in the last 2000 years, but human nature not so much. The trouble that the bible author sought to have us avoid remains as prevalent today as it was then.

So I say aloud, "Let your "No" be "No" and your "Yes" be "Yes"". It really will help you avoid much unnecessary drama in your life.