I want to say a little bit about President Obama’s speech tonight, but before I do I want to address your response to my last post. But, before I do that, I want to go back to your Chinese Proverb’s #6 I am statement: I am who I think you think I am.
It seems from your responses to me that you assume that I support socialized medicine, or at least the “public option” that has been proposed. But, I have never defended either of these ideas. I feel strongly that health care reform should happen, and I believe that everyone in this country should have access to affordable health care, but, as I have said before, I don’t know what the answer is. I know that a lot of people are adamantly saying that socialized medicine is the answer. While I have not strongly opposed that idea, I have not strongly supported it either. I’m still in the information-gathering stage.
My point with the boat analogy was to say that health care is not just a compassion issue but is also a justice issue, and I believe that all members of a community have some responsibility to make things right when injustice has been done, not just those who perpetrated the injustice. I believe that the profit-motive can and has contributed to injustice in our health care system. Please don’t interpret this to mean that I believe it is wrong to make a profit. I have not said that capitalism is evil, but as I’ve said before, it is an imperfect system that is implemented by sinful people. I don’t believe that the system itself will just work out those kinks. It seems like someone is going to have to step in, and that seems like a reasonable role of government. Yes, the government is also an imperfect system implemented by sinful people. I don’t know how to get around this. I am thankful that we live in a democratic society where we can vote for leaders who have term limits.
Finally, The President’s speech: This is the first time in these last few months that I have actually heard him speaking on the issue, since I’ve been relying mostly on NPR, WCRF and the people I follow in Twitter for my information lately. Based on all of that, I was kind of expecting to be less impressed with his speech than I was. I’ve been frustrated lately that the public option had become the main focus of the debate, and there seems to have been a lack of willingness to compromise or work with Republicans on solutions. (My friend Laura posted this op-ed by David Brooks that helped me put my finger on why I wasn’t jumping on the public option bandwagon.)
Anyway, I thought what President Obama proposed sounded pretty good. I wish he had sounded more committed to tort reform, and I wish he had more clearly addressed what David Brooks calls “perverse incentives”. I still wonder if what he is proposing will, as Brooks suggests, simply bring more people into in a system that doesn’t work. But it seems like a good start. I’m glad that the ball is rolling to change things.
Did you have a chance to watch or listen to the speech? Based on the image of Obama that has been created in the conservative media, I wonder if it would have been possible for you to agree with anything he said. I appreciate that you were able to reconsider your acceptance of Glenn Beck’s claim that Obama is building a private national security force and concede that perhaps Beck had taken some of Obama’s statements out of context. It seems that the conservative media has spent at least the last year and a half creating an effigy of Obama that many people have come to accept as truth. I get the impression that your opinions about Obama and health care reform, as well as the opinions of many conservative Christians, have been greatly influenced by unfair misrepresentations.
To sum up, here are two specific questions that I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on:
Do you see the health care issue as an issue of justice?
What are your thoughts on how the conservative media has portrayed Obama, and how has that affected the health care debate?
It was wonderful being with you yesterday for Isaac’s finalization. I’m looking forward to the next time we’re together.
Mindy
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