2008 is the final election for me, if we can't bring real change to this country by then, we may never. This experiment called democracy is still new to our country. People have given up, they don't believe that those in power will actually do what they are supposed to. That they will actually fight for those in the bottom.
People in power, in America take care of themselves.
We are afraid, we don't speak up. We are afraid to protest, to dissent. Not as a online community certainly not, but as a country by all means yes. What kind of democracy are we? What kind of a people are we?
I don't know anymore.
We are one of the most diverse places in the world, we have done great things. We have freed people, we have ended fascism, we have landed on the moon, but we can't get this right?
It's not just up to me though, it's up to you. It's up to all of us to collectively band together for our future, for our children's future. Is this the America you want you kids growing up in? Is this the America you want you grand kids growing up in? The kind of America that is more concerned about making an extra buck than to feed the homeless?
This is not the America that I want my 6 month old son growing up in. So, I sat in the theatre after watching SiCKO letting everyone else leave thinking do I stay and fight or do I leave and find a better place?
I don't know.
I do know, that something must change. We are going in a very dangerous direction as a country, as a "democracy". We have let the corporations and the free market that I believe in take over our government. We can have enterprise, but we need restraint.
Is letting people die because they can't afford health care worth your Iphone? Is it worth your fascination with Paris Hilton? We are better than this, we are better.
To the point of the title of this post today, If Gore doesn't run and I have to choose a candidate it will be John Edwards. I love Barack Obama, I think he was right to oppose the war from the start. I don't have anything to say bad about him. I think he will be President someday. But I want true universal health care.
It's a moral issue.
People shouldn't have to choose between life and death because they can't afford health care. We are a wealthy nation, but our wealth today is consumed by greed. We must have universal health care, we must make poverty history. We can't even begin to solve the problems overseas if we can't solve our problems here at home.
This is the moment in our history where we see who we are as a nation, who we are as a society. Will we let millions of Americans, Men, Women, Children, fall through the cracks of our health care system? How many people have to die because of poverty and lack of health coverage in this country?
I recommend everyone to watch this movie, today I am watching it again and taking as many people as I can find to go with me. Do the same, demand change and protest. Enough is enough already, we need real change.
People shouldn't be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.
I am half expecting a worldwide economic collapse of some sort. Like the Great Depression. Maybe people will care less about Paris Hilton and iPhones when they are out of work and starving...
As for Sicko, I agree, having seen it twice myself: take everyone you can to see it. I laughed a lot, too, during the movie, and so did the rest of the audience, when they weren't crying or jeering or applauding. I may have had some questions about the authenticity of just how they all got to Cuba and ended up not at Guantanamo but in the Cuban health care system.
But even with those questions, it is a very, very sobering and infuriating look at America's for-profit emphasis on bottom line profit) health care delivery system. It stinks.
There will be a TON of disinformation put out by the GOP and its allies in the corporate health care industry. They will stick doctors on TV telling us that if we implement Edwards plan they will go out of business and then no one will have access.
We must all get more educated on this issue. Not only do we need to know the details of health care policy, but we must relate these problems to people in a way that hits them in their own wheelhouse. SiCKO does this from what I understand. I haven't seen it yet but I intend to soon.
The candidates should talk about why people have bad teeth or their parents have to live in decrepit nursing homes that smell like piss and with doctors that barely speak english.
You guys should read some of the shit that company doctors have pulled in the coalfields. Stuff like getting the workers all doped up and addicted to oxycontin because they needed the miners back at work. The manufacturers of the drug just got tagged with a big fine because of the illegal marketing of the drug a month or so ago. Those drug companies should have their patents revoked.
The patent process is also fucked up. No patent should last more than 4 or 5 years. It is insane that some elderly people have 600 dollar a month or more bills because the drugs that sustain them are still under patent and the generic is not available. These bulk of them money for research in these grants comes from the government as it is. So let the developers make a good pile of money and then cut that damn gravy train off. People have to live.
Ok, well this issue pisses me off too much and I am in danger of a rambling rant, screaming about those greedy sons of bitches. So I'll just say, Great post Montoya.