A Reason for this Conversation

Dad,

I want to respond to your previous note in more detail, but since we’ve moved this discussion to a blog, I’d like to take the opportunity to reiterate one of my purposes in starting this conversation. There are really two issues that have spurred me to invite others to share their thoughts related to the health care debate—one of them is the actual health care reform issue, and what it means in light of our faith. The second issue is the way the debate about health care, as well as other political issues of the day, are being discussed.

My hope has been to get past the sensationalism and fear-mongering of the media in order to understand the true issues at stake. It is not helpful for me to hear people compare Obama to Mao, or to claim that the health care bill would mandate euthanasia. There have been many emails forwarded around that make all kinds of claims and accusations, but the emails aren’t always backed up with sources or facts, although it seems recipients of the emails often take them as fact. This kind of thing frustrates me, because I want to have enough information to form my own opinions. Anyone can take anything out of context and twist it to send whatever message they want. But if they provide you with the source of their information, at least you can go back and check to see if you would come to the same conclusion they did.

A perfect example of this came from the Glenn Beck series last week on Fox News. Mom and I discussed this briefly last week, and she was very concerned because Beck claims that Obama is developing a private military. I haven’t seen the entire Fox News video, but I did see that Beck showed a clip of a speech Obama gave during the campaign. Here is the transcript of the bit of the speech shown on Beck’s program:

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Transcripts of all Obama’s campaign speeches can be found on his website at www.barackobama.com/speeches , organized by date. Beck did not tell us which speech this soundbite was from, and he didn’t mention the context of the above statement. Here is that same paragraph in the context of the speech, which was given in Colorado Springs on July 2, 2008:

“Today, AmeriCorps -- our nation's network of local, state, and national service programs -- has 75,000 slots. And I know firsthand the quality of these programs. My wife, Michelle, once left her job at a law firm and at City Hall to be a founding director of an AmeriCorps program in Chicago that trains young people for careers in public service. And these programs invest Americans in their communities and their country. They tap America's greatest resource -- our citizens.

And that's why as president, I will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals like providing health care and education, saving our planet and restoring our standing in the world, so that citizens see their efforts connected to a common purpose. People of all ages, stations, and skills will be asked to serve. Because when it comes to the challenges we face, the American people are not the problem -- they are the answer.

So we are going to send -- we're going to send more college graduates to teach and mentor our young people. We'll call on Americans to join an Energy Corps to conduct renewable energy and environmental cleanup projects in their neighborhoods all across the country. We will enlist our veterans to find jobs and support for other vets, to be there for our military families. And we're going to grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered, and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy.

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

We need to use technology to connect people to service. We'll expand USA Freedom Corps to create online networks where Americans can browse opportunities to volunteer. You'll be able to search by category, time commitment, and skill sets; you'll be able to rate service opportunities, build service networks, and create your own service pages to track your hours and activities. This will empower more Americans to craft their own service agenda, and make their own change from the bottom up.”

Seeing that paragraph in the context of the rest of the speech leads me to a very different conclusion than Glenn Beck’s.

So, the reason I am glad we are having this conversation is that I want dig through the muck that the media often gives us in order to understand the real issues. I want to hear rational, well-reasoned and well-researched arguments—and not just from people I tend to agree with, but from people who are different from me. If there is truth to what people like Glenn Beck are saying, I do want to know it, but I need you, someone I know and love and trust (even if we don’t always agree) to convince me.

Thanks again for being willing to have this conversation, and for inviting others to join in by taking it to the blogosphere. I’m sure this will be very interesting…

Mindy