johnhannibalsmith
11-15-2009, 04:32 PM
(PREAMBLE: This is not an essay designed to expose the flaws of a politician or a party or even health care reform, I suppose. It's my own growing concern about the lack of personal responsibility in this nation that is sinking us and dividing us. I'm not using my experience in life as a blueprint for what is right or wrong with the status quo, but rather using my own experiences to convey what scares me the most about the way we view ourselves and others. These are my opinions about my life and priorities and ultimately, the belief that those opinions shouldn't be preempted by others' opinion of my life and priorities. This shouldn't be construed as me endorsing my opinions of my life as suitable for the lives of others... in fact, it should be construed as precisely the opposite...)
I am one of the however many millions of legal citizens of this country without health insurance. In fact, I have no insurance: no dental insurance, no auto insurance, no home insurance, no death (life) insurance, and no bad day insurance.
Are you all scared of me yet?
Why do I lack any or all of these purported crucial aspects of "life"?
No, not because I have been oppressed, nor because the system has failed me.
In fact, the system has been fantastic to me - it has allowed me to pursue my dreams and live a life that encourages me to get out of bed each day.
When I was through with school, I went straight into a position that offered a nice salary, full medical and dental benefits, a retirement package that allowed me to take an early retirement before I was 50, and if I had rugrats, it even offered day care at a reduced rate.
That sounds like the American dream according to what I sense society seems to look for in an ideal life today - everything a person could want and need with a bow on top.
It was an easy job, too easy. No challenge, no gratification, no incentives, no self-worth.
I wanted to be happy - if I was going to be alive, I wanted a life.
I walked away from that job without anything else on the immediate horizon. I moved away from home to somewhere that I believed I could make a difference, somewhere that I had an opportunity to pursue what I felt would make me feel complete - my American dream.
Two years later, I was there. I was doing something that I never believed was an option, realizing that the only thing that had stood in my way was the belief that it wasn't an option.
I'm not going to bore you (more than necessary) with a complete autobiography, but I'm like that kid that grew up wanting to play for the Yankees, but had no Little League team to play on - and yet managed to end up playing for the Yanks.
Obviously, I wouldn't trade my life now for my former life under any circumstances. I'm doing what I love to do, doing it well, and hopefully making others, along with myself, happy and proud.
Do I deserve to be rewarded with health coverage? Is it my right to have the same luxuries that I would have had, that many others do have, if I, like they did, elected to sacrifice personal happiness for security and stability?
No.
My life, like nearly everyone's life, has been defined by crucial choices.
I chose to follow a dream, to do what I wanted to do, rather than to do that which would have provided me with those things that I lack. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in many cases like mine, they are at the time of the choice.
Is there anyone that really wants to deprive me of my right to make the choice that led to my wonderful life? I submit that by failing to recognize the choices that lead to an individual's position in life, particularly the poor ones, in effect that right to make a choice is being quelled.
You can't have it both ways. You can't have the right to choose how you live your life (within the parameters of acceptable societal behavior) and then walk away from the responsibility for having made those choices.
If one holds dear the right to choose, as most Americans claim to, then you must also hold dear the expectation that the consequences of those choices are an individual's and individual's alone.
You simply can't have true liberty or freedom when your interests are being looked out for you and your personal failures or shortcomings are portrayed as failures of the system.
I often wonder if, had my life's transition occured decades from now instead of ago, I would have been able to live my American dream. I wonder if I will be able to continue to live my American dream - doing what I dreamed of doing and free of the entanglements of dreams that others have for me as an American.
I spent $320 of my own dollars to have a dentist tell me that I needed 13 teeth pulled. I chose to spend $1200 more of my dollars to only have the three that hurt the most pulled. Do I believe that I overspent for the services, wishing that I had coverage that would have allowed me to get ten more yanked for a mere co-pay?
No. I paid exactly what a person that made my choices in life should expect to pay, substantially more than the person that may have opted to be "responsible" in life and invest in security and stability rather than personal gratification.
Do I look forward to the possibility of having those luxuries that other people decided were a prioriy for them simply handed to me because I can not afford those luxuries due to my choices? Does it seem pretty swell that I too may get health coverage after all, a reward in large part for making the choice to not have those luxuries, but rather something else in life?
No. What is handed to me is being taken from someone else. When one person's liberties are abridged, everyone's liberties are at risk.
Do I deserve to die an expedited death from a serious illness because of my choices in life?
Yeah, I suppose I do.
But at least I had the choice to live my life, my American dream, in the meantime.
I am one of the however many millions of legal citizens of this country without health insurance. In fact, I have no insurance: no dental insurance, no auto insurance, no home insurance, no death (life) insurance, and no bad day insurance.
Are you all scared of me yet?
Why do I lack any or all of these purported crucial aspects of "life"?
No, not because I have been oppressed, nor because the system has failed me.
In fact, the system has been fantastic to me - it has allowed me to pursue my dreams and live a life that encourages me to get out of bed each day.
When I was through with school, I went straight into a position that offered a nice salary, full medical and dental benefits, a retirement package that allowed me to take an early retirement before I was 50, and if I had rugrats, it even offered day care at a reduced rate.
That sounds like the American dream according to what I sense society seems to look for in an ideal life today - everything a person could want and need with a bow on top.
It was an easy job, too easy. No challenge, no gratification, no incentives, no self-worth.
I wanted to be happy - if I was going to be alive, I wanted a life.
I walked away from that job without anything else on the immediate horizon. I moved away from home to somewhere that I believed I could make a difference, somewhere that I had an opportunity to pursue what I felt would make me feel complete - my American dream.
Two years later, I was there. I was doing something that I never believed was an option, realizing that the only thing that had stood in my way was the belief that it wasn't an option.
I'm not going to bore you (more than necessary) with a complete autobiography, but I'm like that kid that grew up wanting to play for the Yankees, but had no Little League team to play on - and yet managed to end up playing for the Yanks.
Obviously, I wouldn't trade my life now for my former life under any circumstances. I'm doing what I love to do, doing it well, and hopefully making others, along with myself, happy and proud.
Do I deserve to be rewarded with health coverage? Is it my right to have the same luxuries that I would have had, that many others do have, if I, like they did, elected to sacrifice personal happiness for security and stability?
No.
My life, like nearly everyone's life, has been defined by crucial choices.
I chose to follow a dream, to do what I wanted to do, rather than to do that which would have provided me with those things that I lack. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in many cases like mine, they are at the time of the choice.
Is there anyone that really wants to deprive me of my right to make the choice that led to my wonderful life? I submit that by failing to recognize the choices that lead to an individual's position in life, particularly the poor ones, in effect that right to make a choice is being quelled.
You can't have it both ways. You can't have the right to choose how you live your life (within the parameters of acceptable societal behavior) and then walk away from the responsibility for having made those choices.
If one holds dear the right to choose, as most Americans claim to, then you must also hold dear the expectation that the consequences of those choices are an individual's and individual's alone.
You simply can't have true liberty or freedom when your interests are being looked out for you and your personal failures or shortcomings are portrayed as failures of the system.
I often wonder if, had my life's transition occured decades from now instead of ago, I would have been able to live my American dream. I wonder if I will be able to continue to live my American dream - doing what I dreamed of doing and free of the entanglements of dreams that others have for me as an American.
I spent $320 of my own dollars to have a dentist tell me that I needed 13 teeth pulled. I chose to spend $1200 more of my dollars to only have the three that hurt the most pulled. Do I believe that I overspent for the services, wishing that I had coverage that would have allowed me to get ten more yanked for a mere co-pay?
No. I paid exactly what a person that made my choices in life should expect to pay, substantially more than the person that may have opted to be "responsible" in life and invest in security and stability rather than personal gratification.
Do I look forward to the possibility of having those luxuries that other people decided were a prioriy for them simply handed to me because I can not afford those luxuries due to my choices? Does it seem pretty swell that I too may get health coverage after all, a reward in large part for making the choice to not have those luxuries, but rather something else in life?
No. What is handed to me is being taken from someone else. When one person's liberties are abridged, everyone's liberties are at risk.
Do I deserve to die an expedited death from a serious illness because of my choices in life?
Yeah, I suppose I do.
But at least I had the choice to live my life, my American dream, in the meantime.