Yup, we're past compromise on heath care. We've given it the old college try, but so far we've miserably failed that particular test of how well we've done in "learning to be kind," as per the old phrase that describes what progress toward civilization means. Last night I heard an interview with Bill Gates Senior, the great lawyer, business maven, and philanthropist, waxing poetic on how we have basically "fixed" racial discrimination here in the U.S. because of an inherent good nature we sport that eventually wins out over our less admirable traits. I found my self wincing at the notion that the problem has been fixed, but it sure is true that after the 60's, we were on a whole new level that clearly could not be viewed as anything but a sea change in the way things had been before. In these times, we can hardly conceive of living with racial discrimination of the type that existed before then. And guess what: We didn't do it with friendly debate. We did it with federal troops and brave men and women like Martin Luther King and many, many civil rights workers in the south who put their lives on the line, eventually to make that ultimate sacrifice. We may be looking now at a somewhat similar situation with health care, although the battle lines will be drawn in far more subtle tones than black and white. It will come down to dethroning privilege, equalizing access, and avoiding fiscal suicide, and as far as I'm concerned, if federal troops are what it takes to get the job done, so be it. These issues may be more sophisticated than those that confronted us from the color-coded road map of the 60's, but the fix, which certainly is not the tangled ball of confusion being proffered now, must be every bit as decisive as the blow we struck for civilization way back then. It can only be some genuine version of single payer, as the rest of the civilized world knows. The Democrats haven't delivered much of anything real since the 60's, and it really is time. So far we are failing miserably, even with such a wonderful victory as the election of President Obama.

Sir;...If anyone were to have dinner for eight around here they would eat off of paper plates, and would be struck by how well the plastic silverware matched...And they would get a good meal...My advice to all, especially those vexed by snooty waiters and waitresses is to marry a good cook...I thought I could cook, at least as badly as most restaraunts...I figured out the American spices of life: Fat, Sugar, and Salt...But now I would rather drink hemlock than eat any other cooking but my wife's...Even my own mother's cooking does not so well suit me...My mother is still way ahead on pies, but only because my wife does not do pies....And yet, this is not my point... I don't care what I eat on as long as there is something good to eat, and the problem for too long in this land is getting worse as we wait, that too many are wanting for food, and that many are hungry, or malnutritioned... How do you think it feels for the poor to see that so many who do have food, and every other necessity care nothing for the wants and suffering of the poor??? How does it feel for the rich to deny the notion of commonwealth, and general welfare??? If the fractures dividing this people break fully open to never more be mended no one can blame the powerless poor... What control have they ever had in their lives??? They are fish who begin the journey up stream only to end in the fateful jaws of a bear...But are we no better in this age of science than the former victims of fate, laying their lambs on the altar, and bowing low before the holocaust??? We cannot bribe God to look our way, and want to blame the sinners for the disregard of God... We need look no further than ourselves...Each person is God or Demon to his fellow man... We can howl after the teratoma of vengeance...We can deny to our fellows the necessity of life, as medical care is, or sell him into slavery as did the brothers of Joseph... This is not the path to nation.... The unity for which our constitution was written eludes us... We are a nest of thieves without rest, suffering our envy and avarice, and coveting all the more our neighbor's goods... You know the facts that face us as well as I...We cannot get the good we desire so long as we deny good to others... We cannot get half good any more than we can get half moral... We cannot demand perfection of others as the price of their inclusion at the table of life when so few of us are even fair, or good...We will never build a nation, a commonwealth, or even a working republic with every person watching his own back... We have only one Alma Mater in this land, which like the church always keeps a light on for the wayward...Only liberty and justice for all provide us some common gravity, holding all good people to a common course...Thanks....Sweeney

Re: Masako;...Sir, the power of the Othman Turks began its decline with the Sultanate of the Harem, when the most powerful son was denied the ability to kill his younger brother and have complete authority... It may seem a barbaric custom, but when the brothers of the Sultan were killed, the people breathed easier knowing they were spared the curse of civil war... Party politics is the equivalent of cold civil war... What is done, and what can be done must be accepted by both parites, or what the day shift does the night shift will undo.... It does not matter, really... Parties have captured our government.... We must fear for social security as we must fear for voting rights and even the most basic services of government... It is because of the fact, that while we have the acts of government they are worth no more than the willingness of the government to fund them, and we cannot have both the rich in flocks and justice for all deprived of their wealth...Give us health care reform, but if government cannot control the many who profit from pain and illness, or who profit by denying treatment as a right, then health care is dead... There are two ways to kill the beast, and one is straight forward, and the others is more devious... We could all have great coverage, and prompt professional service... Or the thing could be made into a bureaucratic nightmare that in the end does not deliver services in an effective manor...This last option is the only option the rich will accept, the status quo ante.... No more will mothers and fathers sit for hours in uncomfortable chairs in stuffy waiting rooms in the middle of the night with screaming babies suffering ear infections while the broke hospital figures out who will pay... Now, people will not suffer more, but will not suffer less, which has been the history of this country: that all the blessings of plenty, and of increased technology have not improved the condition of most Americans a lick...Thanks...Sweeney