It looks like we Americans are about to get another bending over. With Al Frankin moving into that "democrats have the unstoppable majority spot", it appears that we may actually get a national health care plan after all.

So why is that a "bending over"? Unlike Canada and every other country on planet earth that provides health care for their countrymen, the United States is going to set up a guideline of rules that will require insurance companies to take you whether you have had a pre-existing condition or not…for the same rate as for those that never had a pre-existing condition…at an equitable rate.

Hey that does not sound like a bending over. That sounds pretty good!

Oh I forgot to tell you…the new law will demand you have medical insurance or the government is going to fine you for not having such. And the fine could be as little as $1,000…and moves up from there.

Yup, welcome to your new American Health Care Coverage System. If you choose the "Freedom" to not participate…because you are broke let’s say and have been out of work for a year and it is all you can do to make enough money to keep a roof over your head"…then your government is going to fine you when you get sick and need to hit the old emergency room if you are not paying for health care insurance. (Right now the federal law states that you have the right to be treated in the emergency room and cared for to a satisfactory result whether you have insurance or not)

I can remember when the government decided that everybody needed to have car insurance. They said it would actually cause insurance rates to go down since it would reduce the amount of accidents where there was no monetary coverage.

The rates have soared upwards year after year. The automotive insurance system has become its own monster to have to deal with since it is a mandatory part of "freedom" living in America today.

The same thing is going to happen when you and I are required to have medical insurance. Think of it. The two greediest industries in our country…insurance and health care….being told that they now have a guaranteed income…by law…that every American must have and pay for health care insurance.

If these industries had a mouth…it would be drooling right now!

Once again, America thinks it has to re-invent the wheel. "Well, we certainly cannot try and replicate the Canadian health care system. The waiting period to see a doctor is very long". This is a summary quote from many in congress.

Okay, I don’t know about you, but when I get an appointment…let’s say 10am…I am thinking to myself…"Okay, it will be about 11am when the nurse comes to the waiting room and calls my name. I will then stand on the scales and be reminded of just how out of shape I am and the shuffled off to a room with two year old magazines to read…that are covered in germs from every other patient before me…and I will wait until nearly noon before the doctor will open the door…my personal file in hand…and ask me why I am there to see him".

He will then spend ten minutes with me…divine some supernatural remedy to my ailments and write out a prescription in a language that only his (or her) nurse can read. The nurse will call it in to Walmart (hey $4 prescriptions).

I will then head off to my Walmart to get my medicine and wait another hour or two. Then, make the journey back home. It is now 2pm and I have been "doing the medical/doctor thing" since 9:30 this morning.

I told this story to a Canadian friend of mine and he said, "Sounds pretty much like out system here".

Hmmm….sounds pretty much like their system in Canada….that their government pays for? What the heck then!

I am pretty sure that requiring me (and you) to have and pay for health care insurance isn’t going to speed things up at the doctor’s office. In fact…since all of us will have insurance…I am thinking that it is going to slow things down.

"Yes sir the doctor can see you. Our first opening is 27 days from now.

If you think the emergency rooms are crowded now…wait until "everybody" has health insurance. At least sitting for ten to twelve hours in the emergency room feels like you are doing something. Besides…if you start to die or something in the emergency room…your wife only has to run down the hall and tell ‘em to come you NOW…that you are dying in their freaking hospital. (That always works in terms of getting you ahead of the line)

How most countries pay for their health coverage? Through taxes…plain and simple. But our politicians get into office promising no new taxes….and then every single one of them increase our tax base. Well…George didn’t did he. He actually gave back money to "the people". Of course he didn’t bother to tell "the people" that the money he was handing out to us was actually loan money that he had gotten from CHINA…and that we owed them that money plus interest…since they were also financing our war in Iraq…since we were freaking BROKE!

Sorry…got off track there.

Speaking of getting off track. How is it that I can walk into a pharmacy in Mexico get the same medicine I would get here for about 10% of the cost that it costs me here. (Made by the same manufacturer)

I drank some jungle water a few years back (ate some lettuce at a café’ in the middle of the jungle) and got sicker than I had ever been in my life! When I finally got enough strength to go into town and see the "24/7 doctor" I was informed that he was not there…he was on vacation. So I headed to a local pharmacy and the 18 year old kid behind the counter "prescribed to me something that cost me $5". Within 12 hours I began to feel like a human again.

Unfortunately I only bought one box of this medicine. When I returned to the United States…the illness decided to come with me. But, here in the good old USA that same medicine cost me…$50 dollars. Of course I had to go to the doctor and told him (showed him actually the medicine box) what it was I was taking. So you can add his $50 visit to that equation as well.

Hmm…Mexico…five dollars and I start to get well. USA, one-hundred dollars to get the same results!

Why is that I cannot buy certain medicines without a doctor’s prescription. But call it "fishmox" or something like that…and I can buy it at any feed store that sells vet supplies for the livestock industry.

Now…we are about to be told. "Folks do we have a plan for you. We told you that we were going to provide health care for every American when you voted us into power. We are about to make that dream come true. We are going to make it a law that every American has health insurance…just like it is a law that every American that drives has to have liability insurance. Only this time, if you don’t have health insurance…we are going to fine you for such".

Of course, my mind works this way.

"So…if I don’t have health insurance and you fine me…and I don’t pay the fine…are you going to put me in jail? The reason I ask this question is obvious…those folks in jail get free medical when they are sick don’t they".

Hey…just asking!

After all, you just spent over a trillion dollars of my tax money and my friends’ tax money and my neighbors’ tax money to bail out a bunch of money hungry crooks.

Let me remind you here…OUR MONEY…not yours.

And, you have spent more than a trillion of my tax dollars and my friend’s tax dollars and my neighbors’ tax dollars fighting a war in Iraq against an enemy that really doesn’t not exist in that country.

OUR money…not yours.

And now you have decided that after giving away all of my darned money to banks and car manufacturers and to fighting an enemy that doesn’t even have an army…now you have decided to bless me and my friends and my neighbors and countrymen with Nation Wide Health Care…by telling me that I either have to purchase health insurance or you are going to "fine me".

Picture this…a young lady…hand above her head…head moving side to side…finger tight against each other…saying.."Un uh…I don’t think so" SNAP!

If this is the best plan for national health coverage our government can come up with. Then I am thinking that I now understand why they just threw a bunch (a big bunch) of our money at the banking and automotive industries and essentially said "fix it".

It is because we are being governed by some of the historically stupid and ignorant and this is the best "plan" that they can come up with. (Guess it never dawned on them to sit down with folks from Canada and figure out how to replicate their health care system. After all…our medical manufacturers provide them with the same medicines that they provide us with at about 50% less cost to their public)

Oops...I forgot to tell you. The government is thinking that this would be a good pricing model for the new National Health Care Insurance...$4,500 a year for individuals...$12,500 a year for families.

We elect the Republicans into office and they run the country into the ground.

We elect the Democrats into office and they run you and me into the ground.

What on earth has happened to our general society?

What a bunch of "whining, uneducated, when is somebody going to do something for me, bunch of unmotivated people" the majority of Americans have become. What hurricane Katrina showed us was not really that our government didn’t have a very good rescue plan (FEMA) when it came to getting a quarter of a million folks out of harms way (local governments were just as much to blame for that aftermath mess). Nor did it show us that our government hated blacks and other minorities, as some would have you believe.

It showed us that people are too lazy to "go back home and take on the responsibility of rebuilding their city, their community and their homes themselves". Instead…a majority of those folks displaced by Katrina were still complaining about "when is the government going to build me a new home and clean up our city", more than two years after the hurricane hit the gulf coast.

I grew up in south Texas. South Texas…where storms and hurricanes can destroy your home and family history in a mere matter of disastrous moments. Growing up in South Texas in the 50s and 60s…I don’t recall people whining about "when is the government going to come in and build us a new city...build me a new home" after a natural disaster .

No sir, after each…communities would come together…breath a big sigh…look at each other and understand that they had a huge, almost overwhelming task of rebuilding in front of them and then…guess what…they started to rebuild. Nobody from the government showed up (with the exception of the Red Cross) other than the obvious fly over by the President and governor to say what a horrible mess things were and that the prayers of America are "with you".

My grandfather was an old wagon train cook. He and my grandmother (as were their entire generation) were pretty tough, "get it done" folks. Frankly…they would not have wanted the government to come in and do everything for them. We used to call that pride and self respect when I was growing up. It was drilled into my character and soul on a nearly, daily basis. Something that seems to have fallen by the wayside…which is typical of societies that begin to lose their ability to support themselves with their own skills and begin to completely rely on others. And eventually, the vast majority of such societies learn that they cannot rely on themselves anymore.

Ask somebody "how to make gravy from scratch" and chances are they will stare at you with blankness in their eyes. Go ahead and tell me that you actually know how to make bread from scratch. Here are some questions to think about.

Can you make a pie or cake from scratch? If you had too, could you sew your own clothes. Do you know how to build two walls where they come together and form a perfect 90-degree union and thus begin the cornerstone of a new house? If all of the electricity were to "go away"…would you know how to survive? Would know how to make fresh water? In fact…do you know how to make water from "the air"? Would you know how to start a fire without a match or lighter (and without rubbing sticks together)?

These questions could fill a small book and yet…sadly…the majority of folks would answer these questions with a resounding "no". If you are fifty or older, then you know that your grandparents would have answered yes to virtually all of those questions, and might have looked at you (for asking such questions) as if you had lost your mind.

And the follow up statement would be, "but why should I have to know how to do any of that…other people can do it for me". And…that is exactly my point.

Self-pride and self-respect, the kind our fathers, mothers and grandparents had…would not have allowed others to do it for them.

Maybe the best thing that has happened to America is our current part/role in the international recession.

People had to stop the never ending excess of spending and dependence on others in order to survive. People are having to face the fact that they are part of a society that has allowed itself to NOT know how to produce much of anything anymore and has become little more than a society of shoppers and buyers dependent on others’ ability to produce products and goods and grow food and produce energy, etc.

But…there is a glimmer of hope beginning to shine through some very dark, social clouds.

Many people are now having to answer questions, thanks to the recession, like those asked above. Learning how to cook rather than eating out every meal has helped turn recipe sites on the Internet into some of the more popular sites now being searched. There has been a surge in sewing machine sales. Automobile sales came to a halt because people figured out that they really didn’t need a new car every 36 months.

I cannot tell you how many people I know that have a garden. Gardens that range from several acres to those that are just large enough to grow a few tomatoes and onions and such.

Keep you fingers crossed. Maybe, just maybe…this was our society's "wake up and take a look at yourself" warning call from a higher source. We don’t get to many of such "calls" in our lives. And societies get even less opportunities thrown their way.

With any luck…we will not throw our hands upward…toss our heads backwards and exclaim, "But you are going to have to do this for us…". 

In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with games, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States.

During the American Revolution, the legal separation of the American colonies from Great Britain occurred on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia.

After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a committee but with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

      Adams' prediction was off by two days.

From the outset, Americans celebrated independence on July 4, the date shown on the much-publicized Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2, the date the resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of Congress.

One of the most enduring myths about Independence Day is that Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The myth had become so firmly established that, decades after the event and nearing the end of their lives, even the elderly Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had come to believe that they and the other delegates had signed the Declaration on the fourth. Most delegates actually signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776. In a remarkable series of coincidences, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two founding fathers of the United States and the only two men who signed the Declaration of Independence to become president, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the United States' 50th anniversary. President James Monroe died exactly five years later, on July 4, 1831, but he was not a signatory to the Declaration of Independence.