Politics.

I am enjoying lunch in the park today whilst listening to a lively debate on the primary topic of discussion on the radio these days in the United States, that topic being Health Care Reform.

I feel the subject warrants capital letters.

One of the things that boggles my mind is that there is a school of thought that says that you should have to work for basic health care, meaning if you don’t work at all you’re not entitled to getting any sort of health care whatsoever. Yes, I believe that the successful individual is the person that contributes to society and I do not believe that those of us that do our best to contribute to the experience should tow the line of those that don’t. I also FIRMLY believe that you will be a healthier person if you work at something, no matter what you are doing. When you _live_, you’re _alive_, when you sit like a bump on a log, you merely exist and your body shuts down. However, if you are living then you surely deserve to keep on living and if that involves some sort of health care to move things along, then you should be entitled to it.

There is a part of me that wants everyone to be healthy and free and happy and just one step short of a circle singing “Kumbaya”, but that is not reality. The reality is is that there are some people that won’t or can’t work for whatever reason. Honestly, I don’t believe that my taxes should go up and I firmly believe that my quality of health care should not go down because of the choices others have made with their life. Do I have an answer for all of this? No, I don’t. If I did I could probably be the first openly gay bear President in the United States.

Our health care system is broken. I know that and it is very apparent for many that I know. Earl was recently in the emergency room. He has good health insurance. Early in his visit when it was determined that there was nothing critically wrong with him, he asked about being discharged from the emergency room. They said they couldn’t do that because if he dropped dead his family would sue the hospital and try to make a lot of money. (We probably wouldn’t do that as I don’t believe in the ways of the litigious society we have become, and I heartily thank my parents for that attitude). Therefore, they kept Earl for a few more hours. His health insurance didn’t really cover much because yesterday we got a bill in the mail for nearly $2,000. We are fortunate in that we’ll be able to pay that bill sooner or later. I know a lot of people who would find that bill devastating. I don’t believe that the health insurance companies have the right to determine what gets paid and what doesn’t nor do I believe they have the right to second guess the medical professionals. I believe THAT is where Health Care Reform is most needed. I have seen people have both knees replaced and then have their insurance company deny them the prescribed physical therapy after the fact, forcing the recipient of the new knees to figure out how the damn things work on their own. I myself have removed my own catheter a week after surgery down there in those parts because my health insurance company thought they knew better than my urologist. I find the health insurance companies to be evil and I know that I’m not alone and I know that I have extremely limited experience on the subject.

Do I believe in socialised medicine; a “one size fits all” approach to Health Care Reform in the U.S.? I don’t. I believe the government should provide a basic plan that isn’t going to bankrupt an individual if they do anything further than ponder a parking spot in the emergency room car park. Some argue that you can walk into any emergency room and they’ll take care of you no matter what. Good luck with that. First of all, the emergency room isn’t designed to treat the common cold and when used as such it screws it up for everyone else and secondly, the hospital will nag you so bad for payment afterwards that you’ll seriously consider death to be the more peaceful option of recovery.

I hope this debate comes to an end soon and I hope that the right folks realise that everyone needs the basics of health care, regardless of their gender, nationality and socio-economic status.

Right now I just have my fingers crossed.

So I read today that beginning in April 2010 all New Yorkers will be required to purchase new license plates for their cars. Again. We last went through the rigmarole back in 2001 when we transitioned from the 14-year old “Liberty” plate design to the current blue, white and elaborate graphics plates. The cost for the new plates will be $25 on top of your registration fee (which will be increased by 25%) and if you want to keep your current plate number that’ll be an additional $20.00.

The state claims that the reflectivity on the 2001 plates is wearing off and that it is a safety concern. I don’t believe a word of it.

The new plates will bring in $130 million in additional revenue in 2010 alone.

More money for the wainkers in Albany to waste.

I have lived in New York State for 38 of my 41 years on this planet. I have always considered myself to be “Empire State Proud”. I’ll even admit that I got excited when we went from the yellow-on-blue plates to the Liberty plates back in ‘86 and I kind of liked the transition to the current plates back in ‘01 but now is not the time to burden New York State drivers with additional taxes disguised as a fee to address a “safety concern.”

I call bullshit.

This legislation was passed through Albany in the waning hours before the current recess, you know, the one they took after not working for a month, when they did everything but actually work.

Here’s the thing. The downstaters (the five boroughs, surrounding counties and Long Island) always scream that they’re supporting the upstaters and the upstaters are always saying the opposite. This is clearly a case where the upstaters are hit harder with fees because there are many people in the City of New York THAT DON’T HAVE CARS. If there was some sort of guarantee that ALL the money generated from ALL upstate fees collected on the new plates were going to remain for upstate purposes than I think I would be somewhat slightly less incensed than I currently am about this whole thing. But that’s not going to happen. We know it won’t happen, instead it’ll be wasted on some study or salary or other ridiculous attempt to nanny the citizens of New York to death.

I have been told that it is impossible to even consider spinning New York (City) and Long Island into it’s own district a la Washington, D.C. If we did that upstate would crumble into oblivion and everything short of a big wide chasm engulfing the whole place would happen. Clue phone: Upstate New York is already crumbling and it’s because industry, services and people are fleeing from the high taxes and ridiculous number of “fees”.

Governor Paterson seems to forget that he was never elected to the post that he currently has (we can thank Eliot Spitzer for that). And I am all but 100% certain that he will not be re-elected in 2010.

I think the whole lot of them need to be voted out, REGARDLESS OF PARTY AFFILIATION, and we need to start from scratch.

This morning I was watching a segment from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on the grass-roots protests going on at the recent Town Hall meetings that discuss Nationalised Health Care. A simple bing or google search will probably turn up the video; since I’m on the road at the moment I am unable to put a link in this entry for you. How very un-bloglike of me.

When did the Republicans become such lunatics? Now I’m not saying that all Republicans are lunatics, quite the contrary, I know a lot of Republicans that are well-adjusted, proactive members of society that happen to fall slightly to the conserative side of that great divide that seems to get wider and wider through our society. When I was younger I always knew the Republicans to be about fiscal responsiblity and a smaller, less intrusive government whilst perhaps holding onto a more conservative spin to their values. I guess the Republicans I have always known were more the libertarian type. They said "let me do my thing and don’t take too much of my money in the name of taxes."

This is not entirely a bad thing.

Today the Republicans are represented in the media by these crazy Bible-beating people that are obsessed with gay marriage, the fact that we have a black President and a complete disregard and preferred obliteration of those that don’t fall into their very narrow stereotype of what an American should be. To me, this is a very sad thing.

As I said before I know a lot of Republicans. In fact I know quite a few gay Republicans. I don’t see them as Bible beating or bat-shit crazy or terrified of the big Rapture that the extremists have been babbling about for a couple of decades or anything like that. The Republicans I know are the more conservative (as opposed to crazy conservatives) with a live and let live attitude (or possibly, "I don’t get it but it’s none of my business" attitude) that don’t want to turn over 50% of their paycheck to the government and quite frankly would just rather be left alone and not nagged to death by governmental programs that have no hope of succeeding. Am I one of them? No, but I certainly see and accept their point. I don’t expect everyone to jump up and down with glee because I’m an out and proud gay man but I will not tolerate someone that wants to change me or condemn me because of who I am. I get it if they don’t get it but just let it be. I work in that environment everyday. Am I discriminated against because of it? I like to think not but that’s because I refuse to be a victim and be discriminated against. My thought is if you don’t like me for who I am then I’m not going to better your life by contributing to it so I’ll just take my toys and go home.

I think the type of Republicans that I know should be making big strides to take their party back from the crazy people that are gracing the airwaves these days. These huge chasms between the extreme left and extreme right are not the identity of either respective party and quite frankly I believe the U.S. would be a much better place if people would come back to the middle and start "getting it" again.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, I do not identify myself as a Democrat or a Republican. I am a Libertarian through and through and believe in the "live and let live" attitude and demand financial responsibility from our government. I love the United States of America very much and want to see her continue to thrive and be all she was designed to be back in 1776.

We just need to get the loonies under control.

When I went to The White House Website shortly after the Inauguration of President Obama, I wept with tears of joy…

… and then I stood and sang our National Anthem (with the folks on the television) for the first time in about five years.

In case you haven’t heard, today there’s a little ceremony going on in Washington, D.C. We call it an inauguration. Our new president is being sworn in. His name is Barack Obama.

For me, today ends eight years of a constant stream of “WTFs” when it comes to the leadership of the United States. In eight years I have been turned from a person that didn’t really pay much attention to politics to one that couldn’t help but notice what was going on and was subsequently infuriated repeatedly by “the Man”. It was during the last eight years that I stopped singing the National Anthem as a protest to where our country was headed. It was during these past eight years that I first considered becoming a citizen of another country.

I have hope that change begins today.

Do I think that our new President is the Messiah? I think he has a lot of great ideas, brings a positive light to a very negative place and will steer our country back where she used to be before (and I’ll say this part for the last time) “Bush Lite and his cast of idiots” got a hold of the reigns. Do I think we’ll do a 360 in a week? Of course not. President Obama has a huge task before him.

And I believe he’s up to the challenge.

I think one of the most beautiful things about today is that there really is a sense of hope among Americans. With some that hope is just a glimmer, with others it burns like a supernova. For me, well, I’d put my intensity somewhere around a bright light like they use to keep the fries warm at McDonalds. No matter how bright the light shines, the darkness of dread has been chased away by the light of hope.

And that can only be a good thing.