The following post is from an email sent to me by one of my closest friends. It was one of those things that you get through numerous parties such that finding out the original author is nearly impossible. Still – even without an ability to give attribution to the writer – I felt that this article might engage conversation. So, without further ado:

What My Brother-in-Law Thinks About The Threat of Socialism

People who complain about the threat of socialism remind me of the man from Virginia who went to college on the GI Bill and bought his first house with a VA loan. When a hurricane struck he got federal disaster aid. When he got sick he was treated at a veteran’s hospital. When he was laid off he received unemployment insurance and then got a SBA loan to start his own business. His bank funds were protected under federal deposit insurance laws. When he retired he went on Social Security and Medicare. The other day he got into his car, drove the federal interstate to the railroad station, parked in the public lot, took Amtrak to Washington and went to Capitol Hill to ask his congressman to get the government off his back.

What are your thoughts on this? Let’s talk.

I have been on the email list for Brave New Films for some time, now. They send me correspondence concerning issues that are near and dear to me – health care reform being just one of them. In this film the industry – most notably, CIGNA – is again exposed. After viewing, let me know how you feel about this. And don’t forget to view my video response, directly below it.

The Health Insurance Racket

The fact is that I was so upset after viewing this that I just had to post this video response – direct from my webcam.

Re: The Health Insurance Racket

While I can certainly respect the President’s desire for bipartisanship, the tactics of the right make it clear that it isn’t possible in today’s political climate. I truly understand the desire to tout any legislation as inclusive, but politics is a dirty game.

President Obama still has the mindset of a commUNITY organizer. He still wants his “kumbaya” moment. Although this is honorable, it isn’t practical in politics. I would imagine that he decided to run for office after surmising that the powers that be had their own selfish agendas that didn’t include their constituencies — the ones they IDEALLY work for. I’m sure that he felt he could get more done from the inside. NOW he has to understand that this new circle he is in is STILL proliferated with the selfsame people who did little for the Chicago folks that he represented as a commUNITY organizer.

Even worse, his catering to the other side — most outrageously, his support of Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter — has alienated Congressmen on the left. This whole desire for compromise when it wasn’t necessary has led to a very tenuous ability to pass a bill that includes a much-needed public option. I fear that, as a result, the American people are going to end up with a mere face lift, a facade of a reform — reform in name only. President Obama needs to be more forceful — become, in the words of President-Select George W. Bush, “the decider“. He needs to tell Congress that he will sign absolutely NO BILL, outside of a budgetary one, until and unless he gets the public option health-care reform bill the American people deserve. Am I wrong to feel this way?

At times like these I am glad to be a member of MoveOn.org. As SOON as I received word of this video, I wanted to share it with my online family. I sincerely hope you will — as my church leadership puts it — “pass the peace”.