•Hospitals-mostly private or state run entities (there really isn’t a federal hospital complex beyond the VA).
•Texas-a financially self-sufficient state.
•Rural America-experiencing population decline across the board.
I’m scratching my head as to why anyone would pay for that billboard. Why would anyone blame the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for this particular problem? Especially a problem that’s been decades in the making. Rural decline isn’t
anything new. States and private entities running (and at times mismanaging) hospitals has been the norm. What exactly do the billboard creators expect this President or any President to do?
Before you roll your eyes and blow past this read, understand I’m not here to defend the current top seat occupier. Those who’ve taken the time to get to know me know I lean decidedly conservative but I’m not a blind lemming of any President (or any elected official, actor, preacher or rock star). This President is his own best advocate and simultaneously his own worst enemy.
Like him or hate him, he’s the one sitting at the Resolute desk.
Not you.
Not me.
And obviously not Hillary.
Instead, the hospital billboard brought back up a recurring thought. I’ve been mulling a lot lately on this fresh and epic and toxic liberal/conservative divide in the nation, the kind of divide that has some group of folks create a billboard blaming the wrong person and imputing the solution on an institution to which it has never belonged. I’ve also been mulling on the role of government both as envisioned by the Founding Fathers as well as the way we’ve progressively turned in recent years. On a related note and tone, I’ve been mystified by the calls for tolerance aimed at someone like me by the very people intolerant of me and my viewpoint. Add in the calls for the federal government to solve everything while one-sided-only-personal-liberty is demanded: “I have the right to do x-y-and-z with my body, children, money, etc and you have no right to speak about my choices” and you hopefully can see my curiosity.
This swirling partisan dilemma is engulfing many good Americans. It’s not even a discussion at this point; it’s just rancorous, nasty and derogatory. It centers on “personal feelings and perspectives” but not on the Constitution nor the purposeful structure of our government. And if we’re all not careful, it could suck both sides into a hopelessness vortex from which there is no return. On the left there’s the notion that if Trump isn’t removed (by impeachment if not by the next election) then all of humanity is doomed. Friends on the right are digging in, literally digging in, and burying guns, gold and spam just in case “those crazy lefty libs” get more influence.
Stop, friends.
Just STOP.
Breathe.
We, the People of these United States of America, have encountered and endured much.
And we’re still here.
It would be wise to look to history as a guide more than “personal feelings and perspectives”. Your particular 18, 28 or 68 years of life, feelings and perspectives are just a blip in the life cycle of this great nation. We’ve had wars that truly threatened the very survival of humanity. We’ve had Presidents who couldn’t get out of their own way. We’ve been frontally assaulted by ideological enemies looking to obliterate our way of free living by flying planes into our people and landmarks. We’ve had strong Congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle; we’ve had laughably inept Representatives and Senators. In some current specifics, we still have much of that.
And we’re still here.
It would be wise to look to history as a guide more than “personal feelings and perspectives”. Your particular 18, 28 or 68 years of life, feelings and perspectives are just a blip in the life cycle of this great nation. We’ve had wars that truly threatened the very survival of humanity. We’ve had Presidents who couldn’t get out of their own way. We’ve been frontally assaulted by ideological enemies looking to obliterate our way of free living by flying planes into our people and landmarks. We’ve had strong Congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle; we’ve had laughably inept Representatives and Senators. In some current specifics, we still have much of that.
And we’re still here.
We're still America.
We’re still THE place people dream of running to; they build flotillas to get here, not to get away.
Blue passports with the US emblem emblazoned on it are coveted around the world.
We’re still here.
Here’s my point: the moment you think your point of view must be imposed on everyone, say by posting a misguided billboard in downtown Dallas or passing a sweeping law restricting liberties or muzzling those who disagree with you, you’ve missed it! Not everyone agrees with you, nor should they. The Constitution is clear: I am a free man. I can think, say and do what I want. There are obviously limits, as in not causing actual physical harm to others, but my Thoughts, Beliefs, Convictions, Values...the way I am, is none of your business. I am a free man. The way I vote is my choice alone. And the same goes for you. Thoughts, even words, are NOT the enemy to anyone. They’re proof of free thinking.
A prime example of this partisan outrage was clearly evidenced recently when talk show host Ellen DeGeneres was seated next to President George W Bush at Cowboys Stadium for a game (Jerry Jones—get your team together, man 🙄). https://youtu.be/lSZtjol7mJA
People around the world went nutzoid on social media, the left especially, condemning Ellen. Her response was gracious, comical and correct: we don’t all have to agree to 1) get along and 2) make this nation work.
Reasoned discussions by civil people will solve it all. That’s how we got here, folks. Reasoned men argued for weeks on end in Philadelphia in the late 1700’s after their fathers and grandfathers escaped tyranny in Europe. Reasonable people passionately looking to persuade others of different beliefs—THAT is America! What is un-American, for example, is the criminal behavior we've seen of physically attacking someone of a different persuasion because they show up at a political rally for their candidate.
And so we come into the election cycle of 2020 with all the same “if So-and-So wins, ALL IS LOST” tripe. It is certainly true that unqualified or skillfully deficient people can hurt us in the near term; but what’s more true is that We, the People, at home, say in rural Texas, can solve most of our own problems, including healthcare delivery systems, without relying on anyone in Washington, DC. THAT is American through and through!!
But it’s incumbent on us to handle it and not rely on the incumbent or challenger to fix it all. Here’s a thought: maybe we should stop spending money on billboards on I-30 and instead gather local friends to create a workable small scale healthcare safety net for our neighbors.
(Here’s a related opinion piece from the Dallas Morning News by Dan McCoy of BCBS of TX highlighting the rural hospital problem)
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