In what will go down as one of the greatest days in American History, President Barack Obama signed Health Care Reform into law today, Tuesday, March 23rd 2010. For anyone who gave up the idea that America cared enough to take care of its' own, this day that Health Care Reform was signed into law should restore their faith in the U.S.A. Here's the video from The Uptake:
President Obama walked into The East Room of The White House with Vice-President Joe Biden and listened as Biden gave one of his trademark speeches of fire, brimstone, and an F-bomb. Then, Obama stepped to the podium and gave a speech that will go down in history not as his best speech, but one of his most emotional speeches. Several times it seemed the President wanted to cry what would be tears of joy, but he did not. President Obama said...
"We are not a nation that scales back its aspirations. We don't fall prey to fear. We are not a nation that does what's easy. That is not who we are, that's not how we got here. We are a nation that faces its challenges and accepts its responsibilities."
Here's the video of Biden's speech:
President Obama explains what will happen this year under Health Care Reform:
In all, it was and is a great day.
But what's not so great are those who fail to read or understand the legislation, and make baseless claims and charges. For example, the idea that suddenly we have "government run" health care. Not true. But in this, we've always had government regulations that impact health care.
Or the idea of some Republican state's attorneys general that Health Care Reform legislation is unconstitutional, and are filing lawsuits on that basis. People do forget that Federal law overtakes state law. That's government 101.
Moreover, there's no provision in the law that states a person must have health care insurance. A person can elect to be uninsured, but they've got to help pay a small amount for those who want to be insured. That's only fair. But even then, if you have a religious objection to health care, you're in the clear.
It's not logical to want to be uninsured and pay nothing, complain about government, then go into the emergency room of a public hospital and ask for government help that others are paying for. There's a term for that kind of person: freeloader.
Stay tuned.
THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
ReplyDeleteNot one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s syndrome child.
Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example.
Each smallest act of kindness – even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile – reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.
Likewise, each small meanness, each thoughtless expression of hatred, each envious and bitter act, regardless of how petty, can inspire others, and is therefore the seed that ultimately produces evil fruit, poisoning people whom you have never met and never will.
All human lives are so profoundly and intricately entwined – those dead, those living, those generations yet to come – that the fate of all is the fate of each, and the hope of humanity rests in every heart and in every pair of hands.
Therefore, after every failure, we are obliged to strive again for success, and when faced with the end of one thing, we must build something new and better in the ashes, just as from pain and grief, we must weave hope, for each of us is a thread critical to the strength – the very survival – of the human tapestry.
Every hour in every life contains such often-unrecognized potential to affect the world that the great days for which we, in our dissatisfaction, so often yearn are already with us; all great days and thrilling possibilities are combined always in THIS MOMENTOUS DAY!
Excerpt from Dean Koontz’s book, “From the Corner of His Eye”.
It embodies the idea of how the smallest of acts can have such a profound effect on each of our lives.