Nothing But A Darker Shade of Doom

Harlingen, Texas, November 25, 2009:  There is a daily blare of trumpet alerts from our ruling elite.  We hear the sounds everywhere calling out to us about loss, danger, gloom, catastrophe, suffering, pain, and fear.  There is not a ray of sunshine in anything coming out of Washington.  Yet, we keep electing the same old mental misfits, fakes, frauds and fools to positions of trust and leadership.

Obama campaigned on a theme of “Hope and Change”.  He didn’t tell us we would all start to hope this negative commentary out of Washington would end, or that the change we were to experience would be massive misery.

Without a doubt, the American people rank high on the list of the world’s politically ignorant people.  The left has had decades to make sure of this by waging an unending war against the quality education of our people.  They know that they can only rule by fear and misdirection.  It seems to be impossible for them to join in the community of meaningful debate. 

The liberal left has knowing spent decades making sure that the United States citizenry was “dumbed down” into an easily controlled population.  Today we have a body of young people who can tell you the lyrics of any pop culture song, but can’t recite the Preamble to the Constitution.  They know every Hollywood celebrity, but can’t name more than one or two members of the Supreme Court.  They vote religiously on American Idol, but have never cast a ballot in a local or national election.

With this unknowledgeable electorate making up half of the population, is it any wonder that they readily embrace the politics of fear and defeat?  Look at how many rushed to climb aboard the global warming fear train. 

Even when Al Gore was proven to have produced a climate change film loaded with wrong-headed assumptions and misinformation, he was applauded, given prizes for his work and increased his wealth by millions of dollars, all at the expense of a duped public.

Even after eleven months, when Barack Obama blames all of his political miss-steps and failed policy on the Bush Administration, the public praises his efforts and refuses to understand he is attempting to gain even further control of the country by practicing the politics of fear.

More than one political writer has warned us about accepting the overkill on cries about such things as the Swine flu, bad vaccine, melting ice burgs, floundering economy, global conflict, dangerous Christmas toys and bad foreign governments.  Politicians know these are hot button issues that cause great anxiety among various segments of the population.  With that anxiety comes an opportunity for them to make devastatingly bad policy.  With more 2,000-page laws on the books, they can control more and more of the population.

People will also note that many of the federal laws are just plain stupid.  To make matters worse, at the federal level they are increasingly making laws that should be left to the individual states. These same elected miscreants know they do not have the authority to impose such laws, so they always add a provision, which punishes states for not enforcing those new directives by using a threat of withholding federal funds.

We sadly remember that not too far into our past we used to hear words of praise, hope and encouragement from Washington D. C.

Perhaps you remember hearing “There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.”

Maybe you recall, “America has begun a spiritual reawakening. Faith and hope are being restored. Americans are turning back to God. Church attendance is up. Audiences for religious books and broadcasts are growing. And I do believe that he has begun to heal our blessed land.”

Those of us with enough years on our frames to remember, still hold fast to pronouncements such as “I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.”

These were all words of encouragement, of positive belief, that were passed on to an American public who embraced and advanced those meaningful themes.  In case you have forgotten, President Ronald Reagan spoke them.  Is there an enlightened voice such as his, anywhere in our future or will we continue to hear nothing but a darker shade of doom?

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Where Have All The Doctors Gone?

Harlingen, Texas, November 21, 2009:  I had to visit my doctor the other day.  I only had a forty-minute wait before being checked into an examining room, followed by another thirty-minute wait before my doctor walked through the door.  It wasn’t too bad this time and I did take my latest W.E.B. Griffin adventure book along to keep me company.  My wife also had a visit to her doctor this week.  She too had about two hours of waiting time.  All of this delay happened even with appointments scheduled weeks in advance.

The problem seems to be far reaching.  Long delays before doctors can examine patients are the rule, rather than the exception.  The problem is brought about by two very important factors.  First, doctors must schedule more and more people very tightly to obtain the volume of business they need to meet expenses and gain a profit.  The second problem is, we have a huge shortage of primary care physicians all across the country.

It is estimated that we now have about 700,000 doctors serving patients in the United States.  Of that number, more than 600,000 have elected to enter specialized fields of medicine, ranging from surgery to dermatology. They are rarely the first responders in the case of family emergencies.

This leaves only about 100,000 doctors who are actively pursuing careers in primary care or family medicine.  These are the doctors patients most often wish to see.  Unfortunately, these are also the very healthcare providers that are in short supply. 

All too often, a person needing primary care never gets to see a doctor at all.  In cities and towns across the country nurse practitioners have taken over the role of providing care for most of the common complaints seen during office visits.

On top of the physician shortage problem is the aging of medical providers.  Just to fill the vacancies brought about by retirement, medical schools need to graduate 7,000 to 10,000 doctors a year.  Those numbers replace losses, but do nothing to add numbers to a profession that is already experiencing shortages.

Now we have a new element inserted into the existing serious problem mix. The Obama Administration and the Democrat Congress plan to add somewhere around 40 million new patients to already overloaded medical practices.  The current bill, more than 2,000 pages long, has a lot of pork and special interest money attached to it, but does not include a single dollar to provide for more physicians to handle the increased patient load.

We already have small towns and cities with no hospitals and few doctors.  We have blighted urban areas where no doctors will establish practices.  We have large population centers where people spend entire days waiting for a few minutes with a medical practitioner.  What will the scene look like when we add another 40 million people seeking immediate care?  From this vantage point it looks as if rationed medical care is fast becoming a reality.

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Proposed Healthcare Reform Keeps Hospital Doors Closed

Harlingen, Texas, November 18, 2009:  If we are to believe the nightly news reports, half of our population is eagerly awaiting the Obama Administration’s healthcare reform bill to bring about lower prices, faster service and medical care to everyone.  That mantra may be a soothing promise to some of those who are currently uninsured, but to the citizens of San Benito, Texas it means they still do not even have a hospital to provide current of future treatment.

Three years ago the former for-profit Dolly Vinsant Hospital closed its doors, unable to generate the revenue it needed to keep providing treatment to local residents.  San Benito, a city of 30,000 people, no longer had the hospital services that had existed there since the end of World War II.

In 2008 a number of primary care doctors and surgeons formed the San Benito Hospital Partners, spent $1.1 million to buy the foreclosed hospital property and promised the city its largest economic development project in recent years.  They were prepared to invest in a multi-million dollar renovation and reconstruction project and open the doors by this fall with plans for it to provide general hospital care and specialized surgeries.

Excitement was everywhere in San Benito.  Local leaders saw a future increase in property tax revenue.  People who had lost their jobs when the former hospital went out of business were eagerly hoping they would be among the first healthcare providers hired by the new facility.  A huge sign was placed in front of the building…”Opening In The Fall of 2009”. 

The sign is still in front of the building today, but nothing else has happened.

What went wrong?  Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in November 2008.  He had campaigned on the promise of healthcare reform and among the many things he promised to change, if elected, was that no doctor would have ownership in a hospital.  Since this huge economic development project was completely funded by doctors, there were serious concerns among investors about the future of the project.  The San Benito Hospital Partners had already invested $1.1 million of their own money in the hospital with no certainty they could even recoup that investment, let alone the multi-millions of dollars that would be required to open the doors of the facility.  Everything came to a halt.  A year has now passed without a single nail being pounded at the hospital site. There are no plans to move forward with the project until there is a clear picture of healthcare’s future in the United States.

The only certainty is, if Obama’s plan to deny hospital ownership to medical practitioners remains active someplace within those 2,000 plus pages of healthcare reform legislation, the only hospital San Benito, Texas will have is one with boarded up windows and padlocked doors.

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Political Correctness Has Poisoned America

Harlingen, Texas, November 12, 2009:  It started out as a mild virus initiated by the left of center intellectuals of academia.  But, like every virus from computer carried to influenza, it spread rapidly through schools, hospitals, civil service, the media, companies, governance and the armed forces.  Political correctness has poisoned all of America.

The famed author of children’s books, Anthony Browne has also written a telling examination of political correctness in The Retreat of Reason.  Says Browne, “Political correctness is the ‘heresy of liberalism’ under which reliance on reason has been replaced on the emotional appeal of an argument.  Adopting certain positions makes the politically correct feel virtuous, even more so when they are preventing the expression of an opinion that conflicts with their own.  Political correctness is the dictatorship of virtue.”

Europe has seen political correctness applied everywhere.  They have seen the rise of anti-Semitic attacks in England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.  The politically correct “truth” of these attacks being presented to the public has been White Neo-Nazi skinheads waged the attacks.  The reality is, young Muslim men perpetrated most of the attacks.

From the United Nations we keep hearing that Africa is getting poorer with every passing day.  According to Browne, it is charged that the West not giving Africa enough economic aid causes this poverty.  Again, the truth is quite a different story.  Africa is getting poorer because its various governments range from corrupt to politically ignorant.

Back home in the United States we find ourselves infected with political correctness starting at the White House and reaching into our smallest communities.  Political correctness is used to justify the excessive immigration, extravagant guest-worker programs, the overseas outsourcing of job, foolish trade policies, and even more foolish energy policies.  A left of center lap dog media has condoned excessive national debt, unemployment, oppression of taxpayers, and a collapse of the middle class by pointing its long finger at the previous administration.  Again, the truth is quite different.  If allowed to continue, the policies that created this sick economy and confused electorate will destroy our culture along with our economy.

There can be no greater example of political correctness than the Obama Administration and the Democrat controlled Congress.  We are no longer fighting a global war against terror.  The word ‘terror’ has been removed from current political language.  We must
understand why the Muslim world is upset with us.  We must dialog.  We must talk unconditionally and on and on.

The truth is we are hated by the Muslim world.  It is not only political correctness, but also political madness to hear the words of hatred aimed at the West and not accept them as reality.  Even the threats of Osama bin Laden were taken from the eighth and ninth chapters of the Koran.

“When you meet the unbelievers strike them in the neck….  If you do not go out and fight, God will punish you severely…Whenever you find the polytheists, kill them, seize them, besiege them, ambush them…You who believe do not take Jews and Christians as friends…The Hour of Judgement will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them”.

Those are the words of the Koran, yet being politically correct we keep saying Islam is a great culture and a religion of peace and tolerance.

Ayan Hirsi Ali is a former Muslim who has been amazed at western denial of radical Muslim terrorism.  She says, “This is Islam.  This is based on belief.”

She is quoted in her book Infidel as saying of the 9-11 attacks, “It was not the lunatic fringe who felt this way about America and the West.  I knew that the vast mass of Muslims would see the attacks as justified retaliation against the infidel enemies of Islam.” Our own political correctness would not allow us to take the same view.

We are now faced the new terror attack, striking our nation in Fort Hood, Texas.
American soldiers were killed or wounded at the hand of another American soldier
who had told everyone he was a Muslim first and an American second.  He killed crying out the words Allah Akbar, but we were told not to rush to judgment.  Even the FBI said we should not consider this a terrorist attack.

Next we learned that Nidal Hasan has a history of suspicious behavior, including multiple emails to a known radial Islamic cleric.  These were passed off as not even being worthy of detailed examination. 

There is no doubt that political correctness has brought about a corruption of public debate. The poison of political correctness has spread itself throughout our country.  The jury is still out as to it ultimately being the downfall of our society and the country.

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Every Day Is Really Veterans Day

Harlingen, Texas, November 8, 2009:  We have all read the various tributes to veterans, such as the one that starts out “It is the Veteran, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.  That short paragraph goes on to say our freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom to have a fair trial and our freedom to vote as we choose were all preserved for us through the suffering and dedication of our military veterans.

It can be strongly argued that American military veterans, through their selfless service are owed an unplayable debt from a nation that would not even exist, had these courageous men and women not stood on the ramparts against almost uncountable enemies.

Today, a nation of more than 310 million people enjoys the blessings of freedom paid for by 25 million veterans now alive, and the one million 200 thousand who died in combat from the Revolutionary War until today.  Not to be forgotten in the tabulation is our debt to the millions of veterans who returned home to live productive lives and then go to their final reward.

There is the 18-year-old farm boy from Iowa, who left part of his right leg in the sands of Iraq believing his sacrifice will keep children in school instead of preparing for war.

There is the helicopter pilot in Afghanistan who flew wounded soldiers to medical units, saving their lives.  She became a warrior so little girls in that country could attend school, just as she had in California.

There is the father of three boys from Montana, who left his family at home while he trudged the hill country of Vietnam, hoping by his duty, those sons would never fight a foreign war.

All of America should seriously reflect upon what its veterans have done for their country and for freedom loving people across the globe.  We should all understand that only one in every twelve of us steps forward in defense of our country and countrymen.  Only one in every twelve of us is willing to place on hold time with family, advancement up the corporate ladder, that place on the college football team, the opportunity to stay safe and young and alive.

All too often we forget that the veteran is not just the soldier with a rifle, the Marine landing on a beach, the sailor on mid-watch about a ship, the Airman sending his fighter plane off on another mission.  It is also the cook, the clerk, the supply sergeant, the doctor, the gate guard, the truck driver…all those thousands upon thousands of men and women who labored around the clock across endless days providing the support those front line warriors needed to accomplish the mission.

If this band of brothers and sisters had not taken it upon themselves to place their own future on hold while they stood guard over the future of their country, the land of the free would be only a distant memory for some of our older citizens and non-existent for everyone else. Every person who calls this country home owes the American military veteran an unpayable debt.  Sadly, that is a debt we often forget to honor…and have failed to adequately honor since the time the first shot was fired in the Revolutionary War.

What is a veteran?  It is a difficult question to answer.  A single standard legal definition of military veteran has never been written.  But, there is an anonymous statement that gives the term more meaning than most writers can place in print.

A veteran is someone, who at some point has written a check to Uncle Sam that reads:  “PAYABLE IN FULL UP TO THE AMOUNT OF MY LIFE, IF NECESSARY, TO DEFEND OUR WAY OF LIFE” .  Just how many of us were willing to write such a check?  Very few indeed.

Veterans Day is now here and again Americans will honor those who served in uniform.  But, should it really be restricted to remembering them on November 11 each year.  Shouldn’t every day of our lives really be Veterans Day?

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