I write this article with great trepidation because I know that I can’t influence the willfully stupid, the profoundly ignorant, the white trash that mistrust a president merely because he is black, and Republicans who detest any proposal put forth by a Democrat. I am compelled to write this article because our nation is at a crossroads: we can regain our superior status in the world or become a third-rate power within the next 20 years.
You know that we as a nation are in trouble when the President of the United States wishes to tells students that they should stay in school, support the President, and become educated and is met with fear, scorn and hatred.
I must ask the question: Why are white Americans so afraid of a highly intelligent, educated, accomplished, and black First Family? After all, Michelle and Barrack Obama epitomize how hard work and a good education can make a difference in the lives of average Americans.
We as Americans are lied to on a daily basis by folks who have their interests foremost instead of ours. The current healthcare debate is a poignant example of this.
All of us know somebody who has been denied care because of a precondition, lapse of insurance, an insurance company that refuses to pay, etc. Folks in the medical community have known for many years that the healthcare system is near collapse. But, the rest of us are incredibly unaware of this eventual calamity. So, why is there so much fear and resistance against an essential overall reform of the healthcare system?
Just money for the few. Powerful folks stand to lose lots of money if healthcare is reformed and costs are reduced. This is why there are currently 3,000 lobbyists on Capitol Hill pressuring your legislators to keep things as they are.
Conservatives oppose illegal aliens receiving healthcare at the expense of the rest of us. This is one of their reasons against healthcare reform. Do the math (if you can add, multiply, and do percentages), the costs of illegal aliens is about 2 percent of total healthcare, if they are included.
So that is not the deciding factor; profits by drug companies, healthcare providers are the reasons why healthcare reform is so hotly contested.
Conservatives also oppose a government-run health plan, but don’t complain about Medicare, Medicaid, VA medical centers, Social Security, etc.
So what are the reasons for their objections? Well, not too many rational ones. Governmental programs work well when set up properly; so why don’t conservatives help with the work?
Well, it is not their plan, so they must oppose it. Notice they haven’t offered a viable alternative to the current healthcare reform, except to keep things as they are. That is no solution, for the healthcare system is near collapse.
As a scientist, I am acutely aware of our decline as a nation in science and technology. President George Bush Senior abandoned the Super Collider Project in Houston, Texas, (after we spent $2 billion) and made our nation a second-rate player in high energy physics. All major research in that area is now performed in Europe at CERN, an international consortium of nations. All young particle physicists in America are now forced to move to CERN to do their graduate research.
When the NASA shuttle fleet is disbanded in a couple of years, America will need to rely on the Russians for launch vehicles to space. How embarrassing is that?
In biology, because of President George W. Bush’s silliness with stem cell research, the United States lags behind every other advanced nation in research on cures for major diseases. How unfortunate that personal bias and ignorance would deprive Americans of advances in medicine.
Note that Obama, a well-educated person, is acutely aware of the need for scientific and technological advancement to keep America secure. Unlike his predecessor, Obama relies on independent panels of experts to specify science goals and ethical restraints instead of personal foibles.
P.S. In numerous articles a while back, I claimed that Creationism is a mere mythology with no scientific basis, and that evolution is a well-established science that correctly describes the biological world. Recently, the Vatican published on its website that evolution is correct and that the account of creation in Genesis is to be taken as religion, not science!
Peter Duran
Fayetteville, Ga.
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