never on first date
...or in a blog. avoid political conversations that is... rules I try to live by. though something I fail at because my liberalism pervades my life.
I was very sad and then somewhat irrationally angry this morning. Usually I just try to let the anger roll off and not perpetrate the negative but I'm feeling in that mood.
I was sad because Ted Kennedy died. I know he wasn't a perfect man. I know that I didn't even know him. However, I'm a sentimental sap and he was a public figure my entire life and always a part of my political landscape. Brain cancer is devastating and I'm sorry that he suffered through it and is gone so soon. I turned on the tv at 830 this morning to watch dvr'd fluff (Merlin most likely) and Susan had left it on msnbc this morning (not unusual though I didn't actually hear the tv turned on!) They were talking about Ted Kennedy which isn't unusual this week since they are airing a Chris Matthews special about the brothers. It took me about 5 minutes to wake up enough to realize he had died. I turned to local news to see what they were covering (more interviews and people standing outside the compound in Hyannisport). Then I started just flipping through the cable news channels, lots of old interviews with him and commentary about his life and accomplishments. I learned some interesting things.
.Now, here's my, admittedly irrational, angry part: I turned to Fox news and they didn't even have a ticker about his death. I know that they don't have to cover it. He was just one senator and probably an alcoholic with all kinds of other issues, but should they at least have a ticker? an elected official for over 50 years dies and you don't even mark his death? You can argue that he was just a man and that he shouldn't expect any respect or acknowledgement of his death more than anyone else. But no... every channel out there, including fox news, spent weeks covering michael jackson's death and what did he ever do to help individuals? yeah yeah spirit of music uplifiting people whatever... how many songs did he (ok so maybe he was a part of 'we are the world' but that's just 1!) specifically write that were designed to affect change in the country?
i've also come to the somewhat silly realization that I'm addicted to my Daily Show/Colbert... they're on vacation and I keep thinking that I want to know what they would say now, how they would present this. Why is it that we need faces in the media to trust? I know my opinion and I believe in the strength of my own emotions and ideals.... but I feel better when I have seen it reflected, or even slightly different angles on it, by the television.
I've been trying to think about how his death will be used in politics because it inevitably will be. Health care reform was a huge issue for him. Will he be a martyr for it? Will people rally to support the change that is needed? Or will the liberals be accused of using him in that way? I know I'm so sick of people's selfishnes, anger, and fear preventing us from helping millions of people. People are sick and miserable and dieing and you care about your taxes going up? How petty are you people? And don't yell at me for being insensitive about this issue because I have a right. I have watched my parents battle three types of cancer without health insurance. They are intelligent, caring, responsible people who nevertheless made choices that left them uninsured and sick. I've seen them struggle to prove that they need support. I've watched them file paper work. Do you have any idea what it's like to be struggling with the depression that results from cancer treatment and to then receive a bill for thousands of dollars that you can't pay?? Because I can't imagine that... but it put my mother inches from suicide and in a psych ward for weeks. I've watched my father almost die because a V.A. hospital wasn't good enough to get rid of his infection and he didn't have the insurance to go to the one in Nashua. He finally ended up there and they saved his life... but then dealth with the fall out of a bill he couldn't pay. And yet, he'd be dead without the existence of the V.A. too. They saved his life when no one else would treat his cancer. Without the V.A., a government run program, my father would have died my senior year in college from advanced stage prostate cancer.
I know this new bill might not be perfect but we haven't had substantial change to the health care system in over 50 years. Just change the damn thing now and fix it later!!!!! Programs are meant to evolve and change, to be edited over time. If there had been systematic continuous reform to this country's political programs (education, health care, etc) then we wouldn't be having so many issues now and we wouldn't need to make such dramatic scarey changes..
I was very sad and then somewhat irrationally angry this morning. Usually I just try to let the anger roll off and not perpetrate the negative but I'm feeling in that mood.
I was sad because Ted Kennedy died. I know he wasn't a perfect man. I know that I didn't even know him. However, I'm a sentimental sap and he was a public figure my entire life and always a part of my political landscape. Brain cancer is devastating and I'm sorry that he suffered through it and is gone so soon. I turned on the tv at 830 this morning to watch dvr'd fluff (Merlin most likely) and Susan had left it on msnbc this morning (not unusual though I didn't actually hear the tv turned on!) They were talking about Ted Kennedy which isn't unusual this week since they are airing a Chris Matthews special about the brothers. It took me about 5 minutes to wake up enough to realize he had died. I turned to local news to see what they were covering (more interviews and people standing outside the compound in Hyannisport). Then I started just flipping through the cable news channels, lots of old interviews with him and commentary about his life and accomplishments. I learned some interesting things.
.Now, here's my, admittedly irrational, angry part: I turned to Fox news and they didn't even have a ticker about his death. I know that they don't have to cover it. He was just one senator and probably an alcoholic with all kinds of other issues, but should they at least have a ticker? an elected official for over 50 years dies and you don't even mark his death? You can argue that he was just a man and that he shouldn't expect any respect or acknowledgement of his death more than anyone else. But no... every channel out there, including fox news, spent weeks covering michael jackson's death and what did he ever do to help individuals? yeah yeah spirit of music uplifiting people whatever... how many songs did he (ok so maybe he was a part of 'we are the world' but that's just 1!) specifically write that were designed to affect change in the country?
i've also come to the somewhat silly realization that I'm addicted to my Daily Show/Colbert... they're on vacation and I keep thinking that I want to know what they would say now, how they would present this. Why is it that we need faces in the media to trust? I know my opinion and I believe in the strength of my own emotions and ideals.... but I feel better when I have seen it reflected, or even slightly different angles on it, by the television.
I've been trying to think about how his death will be used in politics because it inevitably will be. Health care reform was a huge issue for him. Will he be a martyr for it? Will people rally to support the change that is needed? Or will the liberals be accused of using him in that way? I know I'm so sick of people's selfishnes, anger, and fear preventing us from helping millions of people. People are sick and miserable and dieing and you care about your taxes going up? How petty are you people? And don't yell at me for being insensitive about this issue because I have a right. I have watched my parents battle three types of cancer without health insurance. They are intelligent, caring, responsible people who nevertheless made choices that left them uninsured and sick. I've seen them struggle to prove that they need support. I've watched them file paper work. Do you have any idea what it's like to be struggling with the depression that results from cancer treatment and to then receive a bill for thousands of dollars that you can't pay?? Because I can't imagine that... but it put my mother inches from suicide and in a psych ward for weeks. I've watched my father almost die because a V.A. hospital wasn't good enough to get rid of his infection and he didn't have the insurance to go to the one in Nashua. He finally ended up there and they saved his life... but then dealth with the fall out of a bill he couldn't pay. And yet, he'd be dead without the existence of the V.A. too. They saved his life when no one else would treat his cancer. Without the V.A., a government run program, my father would have died my senior year in college from advanced stage prostate cancer.
I know this new bill might not be perfect but we haven't had substantial change to the health care system in over 50 years. Just change the damn thing now and fix it later!!!!! Programs are meant to evolve and change, to be edited over time. If there had been systematic continuous reform to this country's political programs (education, health care, etc) then we wouldn't be having so many issues now and we wouldn't need to make such dramatic scarey changes..