Comments on: Just Posts: August 2009

By: magpie

magpie — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:56:10 +0000

As ever, thanks for rounding these up.

By: kitty

kitty — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:40:00 +0000

Thanks so much for linking me, Holly.

I worked at the free clinic tonight, a place where -believe it or not- most volunteers there do not want the government involved with health care. I have to keep silent about my liberal leanings lest they not call me anymore to work there.

So I was taking a break and one of the board members/founders of the clinic came around and asked me what I thought about Obama’s speech. I was about to play stupid when a Nurse Practitioner came around and gave her two cents. She used to run a free AIDS clinic and said government health care works and works well. Within five minutes that conversation got so heated, I left the room when she got in his face and said, “You run a clinic for the INDIGENT, for Crissakes, you should know, you should KNOW!”

After twenty years of supporting health care reform (I wish we had a single payer system), I realize it is extremely difficult to change people’s minds on the issue. I guess that is why I started volunteering at the clinic, reform seems hopeless and I have to do something or I will lose my mind.

It helps, but it seems like I’m in another dimension working with people who volunteer so much time to help the uninsured yet they do not support a government intervention.

By: Painted Maypole

Painted Maypole — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:39:45 +0000

i get angry, too.

thanks for hostessing.

By: Pistolette

Pistolette — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:47:26 +0000

As usual I feel both sides. I agree with you that the office of the president should be respected regardless of who is occupying it, and that person should not be overly criticized for simply wanting to talk to the nation’s schoolchildren. However, the same people who tell me this now, are the ones *I* was saying it to back when they were trying to burn president Bush at the stake. So I find hypocrisy can reach all across the political spectrum. As for the ignorance being spread about health care, I think it can be partially attributed to the hysterics on right-wing talk radio, however, the Democrats are being deliberately vague about a lot of this plan so they’re asking for trouble. I think what bothers me the most though, is that there are many people like myself that have kept up with this issue, educated ourselves a great deal, and have come to a different conclusion on health care, yet many liberals insist we must all be uneducated, irrational idiots because we have not arrived at the same conclusion they have. Of course I think everyone is entitled to inexpensive, basic health care, worthy of the wealthiest nation on earth, and there are many non-government ways to achieve that. Sadly, most liberals refuses to hear any of us out, automatically assuming that if we disagree with them we must want to kill all the poor black people, and save all the rich white people. Talk about hysteria! And the debate continues

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:50:13 +0000

Thanks for the shout-out. I appreciate it so much.

I’m also disgusted that some extremists are creating an artificial furor over Obama’s speech. I wouldn’t be too concerned about finding a middle ground with “people” who object to the speech because, in reality, they’re not regular folk. A lot of those rabid voices are for-hires who are paid to sow dissent. The far right pumps millions of dollars into paying its constituents to protest and raise a fuss over issues like healthcare, school choice, etc. Big oil has done so for the last 15 years paying hacks to challenge the science of climate change. These “people” do it for money, not because they necessarily believe what they’re spouting. Some ignorant Americans are tricked by their rhetoric and echo their messages (unpaid!) but you’d be suprised how many party-liners are on the payroll to repeat lies on message boards, in letters to the editor, etc.

The Left should take a lesson and allocate funds to keep its message up front and center. Not to sound cynical here, but it’s all about money.

By: Mad

Mad — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:16:41 +0000

Ya, I get mad and shut down too. I wish I knew another way. I wish I could keep my heart and mind open no matter how many times it gets batted down.

Thanks for the list of posts. This is good work, Holly.

By: The August Just Posts « collecting tokens

The August Just Posts « collecting tokens — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:35:16 +0000

[...] Please drop by Holly’s to see what she has to say this month. [...]