SICKO

I went to see Sicko on the 4th of July...good way to beat the heat.

The audience applauded at the end of the movie.

If you haven't seen it, I encourage you to go. There wasn't anything in that movie that I didn't know already...having participated in our health care system as a reciever, a giver, and a concerned family member. It'll all be familiar to you, too. I guarantee it. Nothing new. But when you put it all together like that, in one coherent thought...well. ... How can we NOT change things???

I especially liked the line where Moore says, "In France, the government is afraid of the people; in America, the people are afraid of the government." I think that's true. I think we could have universal health care...and all the other things the French have...or the British have.....or the Canadians have....if we weren't too afraid to insist.

My daughter called me today and said she'd had an unfortunate encounter with a horse in which she might have broken her thumb. She wasn't sure. She is also not insured. To find out if the thumb is broken would cost hundreds of dollars....that she doesn't have....so she can't find out. She's hoping it's just sprained and will heal up....if not, well she's not too far from Cuba.

My other daughter tore her ACL a couple of weeks ago. She stepped backwards off a flower planter in some weird, wrong way and boom! rip! oooops! torn ACL. She's just finished 4 years of a five year degree in Architecture....and we cannot afford a torn ACL. Thank the good lord, she was at work when this happened. Workmen's Compensation will buy the surgery and the PT and she gets to finish the degree.

Several governments, in the last 10 years, have been overthrown following mass demonstrations by their citizens. The populace just simply went out and stood in the street until the current government fell. No shots fired. Sometimes took a while. But the point is, all they did was stand there...all of them.....until the goverment gave up. Commerce, transportation, banking, everything ground to a halt while the people stood in the streets and demanded change...this has happened in at least 4 or 5 countries lately. After a while, if you're the government, what are you going to do?....how are you going to proceed when all your citizens are just standing there...not participating....not working, not buying, not paying taxes.....just all standing there. It makes governments fall....and get replaced.

We surely could demand universal health care...and get it. We surely could determine to vote only for candidates who support it. This is election season, people!! If we were to make universal health care the deciding factor in how we choose our candidates, our representatives, our government, we could have it...(Imagine: my daughter could have her thumb checked out!...my other daughter wouldn't have to risk her education and career daily!!) And if those we voted for failed to produce after the election...well I say, let's just all go out and stand there in the streets 'til they fix it. Period. Why not? Scared?


Go see the movie.