Most people do not remember or even believe this...but the practice of Eugenics, in some form or another, was still legal in this country as late as 1978. 31 years ago. Not long before I was born....
Eugenics, at its heart, is meant to be the practice of selective breeding in people to weed out the "bad genes", but that is not what it really was. It really was the forced sterilization of people that other people decided should not breed. Examples of this were hardcore criminals such as rapists as well as mentally disabled people. Now, there were cases of "purity" groups (i.e. white supremacists) that attempted to perform this practice on people they decided were beneath them.
I felt kind of dumb that I have never heard of this until a few years back, just the practice, and it was not until recently that I learned about how recently this was still enforced. I cannot even get that word out of my head, Eugenics.
The reason I bring this up is because of a conversation that I overheard the other day about the health care debate. A woman was talking about her anger toward our government and especially the President. She was bitching and ranting saying that "We are not Canada so don't try to make our health care like Canada's". Let me go on a tangent for a second here...
The health care bill that they are trying to pass is NOTHING AT ALL like the Canadian health care system nor does it try or claim to be.
Okay, back to my discussion. She went on to say that this is just a way for lazy people to bleed her dry and that they all need to either get a job or be castrated. I wondered at that moment who she wanted to pay for this castration because if she wants it, it will her money paying the bill and that is just another way to "bleed her dry" I suppose.
Well, the reason this is so enthralling to me was that she was advocating eugenics. For some reason, whether is be her religious, social, or economic beliefs, or may just the way she was raised, she decided that she was perfect and that anyone unlike here was not perfect and therefore deserved to die. Let's not beat around the bush here. To practice eugenics is to advocate death. Don't sugar coat it.
If everyone was like her...I probably would want to die anyway. Hell, I would pull the trigger in that case.
Then is reminded me of the fact that she is a person that constantly bitches about wanting her freedoms and that only her choice of people should deserve those freedoms. What I wanted to say to her at that instant was to call her a Nazi Cow, but that would not have been productive.
Anyway, all of this revolves around Health Care and the ongoing debate in our country. I hear the right say that we have the best health care system in the world. They say this and I wonder how this opinion is being formed. What, to them, is the definition of good health care because I see two glaring facts that counter act that statement:
(Both of these facts come from the CIA World Factbook)
1. We are rated #46 in the world for infant mortality rate, with 6.26/1000.
2. We are rated #35 in life expectancy with an average age of 78.11.
I am not complaining about these numbers. They are actually quite good overall, but to claim that we have the best system in the world while we are no where near the top in really the two major categories that help define health care is just ridiculous. Canada, UK, France, and other European nations with systems far different than ours that they like to just label as socialist or evil, are all above us in these categories.
I am not saying that we need a single-payer system like Canada or that we want a more government run system like in the UK, but something needs to be done. If you don't like this bill, do not worry, it will change once it is passed and we will fix the issues. Do not fret. In the end, even if it is nothing more than a health insurance reform bill and helps regulate this horrible market that is insurance, then at least that is a step in the right direction.
As long as it does not contain money for eugenics, then I think I am happy. =)
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Data released today by the Census Bureau show that the number of uninsured Americans stood at a record 46.6 million in 2005, with 15.9 percent of Americans lacking health coverage. “The number of uninsured Americans reached an all-time high in 2005,” said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “It is sobering that 5.4 million more people lacked health insurance in 2005 than in the recession year of 2001, primarily because of the erosion of employer-based insurance.”(http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=628)
ReplyDeleteThis to me is the #1 retort to the statement that we have the best health insurance in the world. We have the best health coverage if you can pay for it, or if you're insured, which a staggering 5.4 million people are not.
Has none of these anti-health reform people out there had a medical bill they simply could not pay? I know I have.
Have you not, dear reader, considered not going to the doctor when you knew you were sick because you know how much it would cost you later?
I think there is no reason for the world's most powerful nation to treat the health of it's people so carelessly.
How you spend your money reveals what you truly value.
"The President’s Budget:
• Provides $439.3 billion for the Department of Defense’s base budget—a 7-percent
increase over 2006 and a 48-percent increase over 2001—to maintain a high level of
military readiness, develop and procure new weapon systems to ensure U.S. battlefield
superiority, and support our servicemembers and their families;" (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy07/pdf/budget/defense.pdf)
48% increase in defense budget in 2007. Health care didn't fare so well.
The debate against taking care of the general well-being of our fellow country men doesn't make sense to me. Getting the medical attention you need should not be a debate.
Very good comment. Another thing that I like to say is that the right is so willing to spend millions of dollars blowing up little brown people but if you spend a dime on your own people you are an evil socialist.
ReplyDeleteWe have this blood lust as a nation and love destroying, never wanting to actually create though.
The $439.3 billion a year military budget is mind blowing. We spend more money on weapons and soldeirs than all the other nations in the world combined! Most of that money goes to military contracts. It seems the war economy is "very" profitable for "very" few of us. While so many innocent people die in these wars, and while the 46.6 million people go uninsured, so few of our fellow citizens make the connection that those in charge pretty much consider all of "us" expendable.
ReplyDelete