As usual, Mark has it exactly right.

MARK IS THE MOST ASTUTE COMMENTATER IN THE NATION. WATCH PBS ON THE FRIDAY NIGHT NEWS HOUR.
ALWAYS WITTY AND ALWAYS RIGHT.

Sir;.. What are you going to do in life but stand by the man who will stand with you, because if you try to stand with the one who hates your guts, then you are stupid, or you're nuts....Thanks, as always...Sweeney

Sir;... I see well what you say about the cost of insurance for auto workers... It would at once be irresponsible, and helpful for them to abandon the whole idea of carrying insurance... Union jobs carrying insurance bear a large share of the whole community's health care cost... If a person shows up at the hospital with a serious issue, they are treated whether they can pay or not, and no matter who pays, whether the government, or private insurance, or out of pocket, their bills, which do get paid, cover the cost of those who can not pay... It is the same with credit cards, that those who pay, pay for all who default, in higher interest...The problem of insurance cost will not be solved until union workers drop the whole idea, and make private individuals unable to pick up the slack, and drop all the unpaid cost of health in the lap of the govenment... Every society needs public health... There is no private health issue that is not shared by all, so the right way to approach the problem is not like so many ants, but as intelligent united people willing to face the costs we have, of our support... If it is a necessity then it is a necessity, and unfair to blame the union man for his cost when it is the whole public that he is helping to support... The destruction of the unions in America is nearly complete... Let them go, and we will sooner have a national union, and demand that the government be our union, and represent us well against employers and other enemies abroad.... So long as unions both divide society, and suffer the insult of society we will not make progress as a nation... We already have the Union we need; and only need to make it work, and make it complete; and learn to exclude that element treating the whole of the population as enemies... We cannot take the patriotism of people for granted just because they have money, or because they wave the flag... We need to look at the behavior of the rich and ask if these people are acting in our best interest, and in the best long term interest of the Nation... Rather than unions which isolate people, and forces them to go hat in hand to their bosses asking for justice, which if they recieve while the whole of society endures injustice will only divide us in our common cause; we should have, instead, a union called the United States of America willing to deliver on the promises made in the preamble of our constitution... Or trash all, and start over... It is time to quit treating the symptoms of system wide failure, and begin to treat the causes of the failure... And we may have to finally recognize that national parties have brought us to this point, and are a huge part of the problem, and cannot be expected to offer creditable solutions for themselves....Thanks...Sweeney