Alright, all you folks out there screaming “NO! NO! NO!” to the Obama administration’s healthcare plan, you’re entitled to your opinion. You don’t like his plan? Fine. Let’s hear yours.

Seriously. I’m listening.

Leave it as it is? That’s working for you, is it? How nice for you! Evidently, you’re just super-lucky and have never been very sick. Congratulations. Or maybe you and your family have amazing health insurance from some little company I’ve never heard of because I’ve worked for or had insurance with the four largest health insurance companies in the country, and let me tell ya, they didn’t work for me. I get to pay a lot of money for health insurance, and then when we get sick, they pay a little bit of the bill.

So those people who are very sick, those people who don’t have health insurance or those people who have crummy health insurance just have to suffer? Very nice. How Christian. How family-values. How Republican.

I’ll be very honest with you - Obama’s plan is not my ideal. It worries me, as does all change. Change is scary, but in this case, SOMETHING has to change. The status quo is not working, and when I hear people say, “Leave it alone. It’s fine,” I think, “Don’t be such a chicken. Let’s make a change. If it doesn’t work, we’ll change it again, but you’re a fool if you think America can’t improve.”

People say, “It’s going to cost too much.” Do you know how much the uninsured already cost us? Homeless people who walk into ER’s every other day? Uninsured people or underinsured people who never make payments?  Or consider the case of a friend of mine. As a hemophiliac, he contracted HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion when that great Republican hero, Ronald Reagan, refused to act to protect the blood supply from the “gay disease.” (In his wisdom, Reagan chose the stick-my-fingers-in-my-ears-and-hum-loudly approach instead.) My friend was a teenager. His mother, like most mothers I know, could not bear to watch her son die, but his meds were astronomically expensive. Even if she’d been wealthy, she would’ve run out of money on them. So to keep her son alive, she took minimum-wage jobs and lived in poverty on purpose so she could qualify for Medicare. All you folks who think her son should’ve just been allowed to die, would you have done any differently? (Say “yes” and you’ll either be lying or admitting to being the worst parent ever, but feel free.) So we taxpayers paid for most of my friend’s medical bills, and you know what? As a Christian, not to mention his friend, that is okay with me.

Anyway, do you know how many BILLIONS of dollars the health insurance companies make every year? Why do we have to give these paper-pushing middlemen that money? Why couldn’t we just eliminate them and give the money directly to doctors, nurses, lab technicians, researchers and other people who actually DO something? The CEO of United Health Group made $1.6 billion dollars in 2006. That’s one CEO at one insurance company, and that’s disgusting.

The other big point the opposition brings up is somehow the Canadians’ fault. Evidently, Canadians have to wait in long lines for doctors and beg for treatment from their legislators. Of course, I have friends from Canada who have told me that is not true, but what do they know? So all the Republicans point to Canada and say, “Look how awful they have it up there!” Guess what? Canada’s not the only country in the world with universal healthcare. There are other models, better models. Sweden has government-funded health care, and it appears to be working very well. (Have you ever seen a Swedish person? They’re beautiful AND healthy!) Their system is universal, but very decentralized compared to Canada’s. Surely, if the Swedes can put together a universal healthcare system that works, we bright and industrious Americans can too!

The current American system is essentially Social Darwinism. I find it ironic that so many conservatives support it. They hate Darwin’s evolutionary theory; they hate it in school, but in healthcare, they’re all about “survival of the fittest.” If you don’t have the money, die. If you don’t have insurance, watch your kids die. Republicans will, however, fight to let you buy a semi-automatic to off yourself with if you don’t want to suffer a prolonged death. If you don’t have insurance and get pregnant, though, they still want you to have the baby. Good luck with that.

So we’re back where we started. Our healthcare system doesn’t work. It may have worked fifty years ago when people worked for one company all their lives, insurance was simpler, and medicine was more primitive. Nowadays, people change jobs all the time, insurance companies have come up with ingenious ways to make billions of dollars without really covering anything, and we have miraculous cures most patients can’t afford. President Obama wants to do SOMETHING.

You don’t like his plan? Fine. What’s YOUR idea?

Please. We’re all listening.

Governor Sarah Palin announced yesterday that she will resign as governor of Alaska at the end of this month.

Okay. Weird.

Her reasons are a little muddled, but here is what she said in her press conference:
1. “I am not wired to operate under the same old ‘politics as usual.’”
2. “I am taking my fight for what’s right – for Alaska – in a new direction.” (Anchorage Daily News, 7/3/09)

She spent a lot of time enumerating her many accomplishments as governor. She spent some time answering those who criticized her during her vice presidential nominations. She spent a little time talking about her family. So I’m confused.

She has accomplished so much as governor that she needs to quit now? If you’re trying to justify a decision to step down and convince your constituents that it is “what’s best for Alaska,” shouldn’t you play down what a good job you’ve done?

I’m inclined to think this is a stunt designed to gain more attention and maintain the “maverick” label she and McCain worked so hard to attain: however, this seems like a pretty risky gamble. She and McCain also tried to garner reputations as defenders of the Constitution and representatives of “real America” (Palin, 10/16/08). Well, the constitution of Alaska sets up the governor’s job as a four-year gig. The people of Alaska hired her for a four-year job. Does that mean she would be a “lame duck” for the next year and a half? Yes. Since she decided not to run for re-election in 2010, she would have the “lame duck” label. That is the way the Alaskan constitution is set up. Palin said she rejects the “fun some governors have as lame ducks… travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade” ((Anchorage Daily News, 7/3/09). Fine. Keep working to effect the change you wanted to achieve, Gov. Palin. Don’t travel. Don’t have “fun.” But don’t chuck your constitutional role out the window along with the faith of your constituents.

If I were an Alaskan who had voted for Sarah Palin, I’d be pretty ticked off now. Evidently, many Alaskan Republicans do feel this way. As I read through the many reactions to Palin’s announcement on the Anchorage Daily News site, I saw many people who felt betrayed by the woman of whom they had once been so proud. Not only did she take 3 months out of her job to run for vice president, now she can’t even be bothered to complete the term she was elected to? Taking office in December of 2006 and stepping down at the end of this month, she will have completed 32 months of her 48-month term. If you subtract the three months she spent campaigning with McCain, that’s 29 months working as governor of Alaska. In private enterprise, she could be sued for breach of contract. Is that what “mavericks” do?  Let down the people who elect them to serve?

Finally, I noticed a rather odd omission from her speech. I guess I expected her to say something about wanting to spend more time with her family. Not because she’s a woman, but because most politicians talk about their families when they announce a decision like this. Also because she was supposedly such a family-values candidate; however, she said nothing about leaving office to spend more time with her family or her children. Every time she mentioned her husband or her kids it was to use them as a supporting detail: “I choose, for my State and my family, more ‘freedom’ to progress,” “this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life - my children.” Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by this. Sarah Palin prides herself on being different. Perhaps that means spending more time with family is not high on her priority list.

This announcement is just another move in a long line of unusual decisions by Sarah Palin. I understand her desire to do something other than “politics as usual,” (Anchorage Daily News, 7/3/09) but often politicians do the same thing as all their predecessors because it is the right thing to do. Like serving out the term for which you were elected as defined by the constitution of your state.

I haven’t posted on my blog for a good long while. Two reasons: one, I’m generally happy with Obama’s administration; and two, I’ve been BUSY!

This post won’t be very long, but there is something that’s been irking me for a while. One of President Obama’s first orders of business was to close Gitmo. Great. Problem was that he didn’t have a clear plan for disposing of the prisoners who were there. That’s a pretty big problem, especially since a whole bunch of legislators were quick to pop up and say, “You’re not sending Gitmo detainees to MY state!”

What I find ironic is that these legislators are primarily Republicans. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Kit Bond of Missouri, Pat Roberts of Kansas, John Shadegg of Arizona and Lamar Smith of Texas are running around like Chicken Little, screaming “The terrorists are coming! The terrorists are coming!” What happened to the Paul Revere attitude? Yep, the terrorists are coming. Let’s kick their a$$@$!

Isn’t this the same Republican party that loves its guns? “You can have my gun when you pull it out of cold, dead hand” and all that? The party of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” and “Terror unanswered can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments. And you know what? We’re not going to allow it” (George W. Bush, 9/20/09).

That’s some pretty tough talk. So what happened to the conservatives who love 24, Chuck Norris and the NRA? Why have they suddenly turned chicken in the face of “about 100 suspects” in Guantanamo Bay? (USA Today, 5/18/09) Why the sudden wimpiness, conservatives? Can’t our nation put its money where its mouth is?

You know what? I think we can. These terror suspects aren’t any smarter or scarier or more dangerous than Charles Manson (whom my grandfather taught at Gibault!) or the Unabomber or any of the other many evil Americans we currently incarcerate. Bring ‘em on. We can handle ‘em. And we can even do it legally, so their supporting regimes cannot claim victory over American ideals. Take that, ya terrorist jerks!

And by the way, Republicans, please quit quaking in your boots and whining about the possibility of a few terror suspects ending up in a prison in your state. You’re making us look like a bunch of weenies.

March has been rough for my family and circle of friends. Aside from the general malaise caused by the recession, we’ve been dealing with a lot of health problems. My diabetic godmother has been in the hospital for weeks, battling an infection in her foot. She had to have her big toe amputated, and they’re fighting to save the rest of her foot. My kids have been taking turns getting sick; my 3-year-old was actually hospitalized for dehydration after a couple days of nonstop vomiting. Lovely. One of my sister’s lifelong friends has a 3-month-old who had to have emergency open heart surgery. The baby’s doing alright now, but last week, her mother lost her job. Argh.

Needless to say, we’ll all be happy to see April arrive. In the meantime, though, I’ve been trying hard to look on the bright side, remembering things I love, and looking for new things to enjoy. Here is some of the stuff that has been keeping me sane through these bleak gray weeks. Maybe some of it will help you too!

1. NCAA basketball - Thank God for March madness. Otherwise, we’d all go mad in March. We’ve gone from 70-degree weather to snow today. At least we can snuggle up and watch some great college ball!
2. Chuck - I love this TV show! It has taken an intriguing turn in the last couple weeks, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s episode.
3. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - Stewart’s feud with that frenetic, financial freak Jim Cramer made for a nice distraction for a while.
4. Japanese Hibachi Grill - I have been craving sushi and hibachi for a while. Last night, my hubby and I had our first night out in weeks, and he treated me to Japanese at a new place in Plainfield. It was expensive, but a very tasty treat.
5. Guacamole - I gave up alcohol for Lent, so I haven’t been able to “taste the summer” with tropical drinks like margaritas and mojitos. Avocados are in season, though, so I’ve been able to get them cheap and make guacamole. Reminds me of sun, sand and surf in Puerto Vallarta!
6. New flip-flops - cheap and colorful. I bought a whole bag of them from my Avon-lady aunt. The joy of new shoes and the promise of warm weather without the guilt-inducing expense.
7. Hair color - I went red. It’s still too early to go blonde. Maybe in June.
8. Old comedies - A lot of classic comedies have been popping up on various cable channels. I’ve enjoyed “Blazing Saddles,” “Trading Places,” “Paint Your Wagon,” “Some Like It Hot,” and “It Happened One Night.” Great flicks.
9. Spring dresses - I’ve been collecting gift cards from Dress Barn since Christmas, and I ended up with over $200 after my birthday. They were having a nice sale last week, and I ended up with two. I still have $60 in gift cards!
10. Alternative music - Between NBC’s Chuck soundtrack and my Facebook friends, I’ve discovered several great new songs from bands I’d never heard before: The Fratellis, The Eels, Asteroids Galaxy Tour, and Switches.
11. Seedlings - In the rare moments when both kids were healthy, we started some tomato, pepper, and basil plants in little plastic cups in the kitchen window. They’re sprouting now. Something about the process is very wholesome and uplifting.

Here’s to April! I hope it’s better for all of us!

I haven’t written anything for a while. Mostly, I’ve been reading and waiting. I read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.I really should have picked it years ago. I love Austen, and Northanger Abbey is a biting satire of Gothic literature which is my academic specialty. Every time I read Austen, though, I close the book in despair, knowing I will never be able to do what she does. She is amazing.  She creates characters you care about, and she does it with this nearly inexplicable combination of subtlety and obviousness. Her genius is enough to make any other writer hopeless.

The Austen book’s pretty short, and I finished it over last weekend, then switched gears completely. I picked up James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia at the Writing Center book exchange. It’s historical fiction which is a favorite genre of mine, and it’s set in post-WW II Hollywood. It’s horribly violent and bleak and crass, though. Kind of like Trainspotting set 40 years earlier. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but it was compelling.

Speaking of compelling discussions,  I watched Meghan McCain on Rachel Maddow last night. She seems like a lovely young lady who is smart enough to keep her mouth shut when she’s not educated on a subject. A rare and admirable quality in a Republican. Evidently, she’s writing for The Daily Beast now, and she’s gotten some rather nasty criticism from neocons who don’t like what she’s saying. She’s been condemning Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, so she obviously has good taste. Listening to her gives me hope that the next generation of Republicans will reject the politics of hate, paranoia and intolerance that has dominated their party in the last 15 years.

I’ve also recently discovered a new hero of sorts - a man named Frank Schaeffer.  He is the son of Francis Schaeffer, one of the architects of the Christian Right movement and one of the founders of Focus on the Family. But Frank’s faith led him down a very similar path to the one I’ve been following. He has now rejected most of the Republican platform. He writes for The Huffington Post, and is both pro-choice and pro-life. (No, they are not opposites!!! Yes, it is possible to be both!!!) I first heard him on NPR a few months ago, and I was really impressed and relieved to hear I am not alone. There are other liberal Christians out there who are finally feeling free to make themselves heard.

Speaking of faith and Christianity and all that, it’s Lent. Like an idiot, I gave up alcohol. I started regretting it less than 24 hours after Mardi Gras. Only 31 days left now. Argh.

And the days are interminably long now that stupid, stinking Daylight Savings Time is upon us again. This whole week has been awful, and DST is mostly to blame. It has my whole family’s sleep schedule off completely. It makes me anxious to see the sun still up at 8pm in MARCH! Heavens! By June 21st, the sun won’t go down until midnight. Do you know how hard it is to get kids to bed at a decent hour when it’s still light outside?!? I guess that doesn’t matter to the politicians and corporate bigwigs who pushed it through the State Legislature so they could get more golf time.

Speaking of kids, I’m worried about my son. He seems to be getting lost in the shuffle at school. He’s very bright, and he’s getting terrific grades. He never gets in trouble. But he complains about school all the time. He hates it. I don’t know what to do about it. My daughter loves school. I loved school. My husband, however, dropped out at age 16. Is it a boy thing? And if it is, what’s the problem? Are boys just bad at school? Or is school bad at boys? I have a feeling it might be the latter…

I’m also worried about my godmother. She’s in the hospital with an ulcerated foot, and she could lose it completely. She’s a morbidly obese diabetic who doesn’t take care of herself at all. I seem to see a lot of people lately who put themselves into painful, difficult situations because they consistently make terrible decisions. I try to be sympathetic, but I get so angry with them for being irresponsible and blind to the consequences of their own actions.

I am looking forward to our annual St. Pat’s party, though. It’s always great to see friends. I’ll be sober this year, so I can enjoy watching everyone else get un-sober!

And I’m looking forward to March Madness, even though my poor IU Hoosiers will not be playing in the post-season. I’ve still got my Butler Bulldogs! And I can always enjoy rooting against Duke and North Carolina. College basketball really is the best sport in the world.

So we’re waiting. Waiting for news about my son and my godmother. Waiting for St. Pat’s and the end of Lent. Waiting for the NCAA tourney to start. Waiting for summer and the end of Daylight Savings Time. I hate waiting when it’s stopping me from getting things done. If I had information, I could make plans. As it is, I feel like I’m in the waiting room of life’s doctor’s office. Very annoying.