Almost An Open Letter to My Elected Officials

I went to bed earlier tonight, letting my thoughts drift more than usual. I closed my eyelids and felt my eyes go into flutter mode which meant my eyes were searching, searching, searching for data to process. Therefore, I opened my eyelids and stared at the random patterns of the popcorn ceiling. As usual, regular patterns emerged. I connected the dots between two and two and had to sit down and type out my thoughts.

First thought: why am I bothered by the national health care initiative debate in my country?

Second thought: is the U.S. preparing for a larger permanent sector of the working population making less than livable wages in order to be more competitive in the world of produced goods?

Third thought: how does the U.S. government's ~$1T health care cost over ten years impact my goal to make our species a permanent member of the class of multiplanetary residents?

Fourth thought: my ankles hurt from dancing on a floor of gravel in the limestone quarry last night but oh the gyrating and hip grinding to the music with my wife was worth the reminder of my middle-aged joints.

Final thought: If we decide to subsidize U.S. industries in that they use low-wage workers (educated up to the secondary school level) whose insurance comes from the government, what is the up side for my species in the long-term? And if there is no up side, then what? Subsidized higher education? Government housing for factory workers?

You see, I know the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, widening the gap in every country, no matter whether it's Venezuela with its populist leader or the UK with its unpopular leader. However, I support an open system where any one person can find a place in the world that offers economic opportunities for movement up the wealth ladder. The wealthiest members of our species have the means to live their dreams and reach unimaginable goals. To them I turn to get our species on permanent locations off this planet.

I still don't have a clear picture of the benefits of national health care coverage in the U.S. All I hear are the denials - "no death panels," "no costs exceeding $1T," "no middle class tax increases," etc. What I don't hear are the positives - "free health care for Wal-Mart / Taco Bell / Red Cross / non-union workers," "guaranteed low-cost coverage for all health conditions," "increases for your investment portfolio because of new private sector medical inventions," "more money to send our species into space." In other words, I'm still neutral about this domestic plan but I'm leaning toward saying no because that's all I've heard our government leaders say about this plan. If I all can see is that the Wal-Mart greeter gets to have a shiny new set of dentures, quite possibly made overseas with the hope that the next set will be made more cheaply here one day, well...

I'm just a regular guy, born and raised on Friday night dirt track racing and Saturday afternoon football. I don't have an oracle to replace the can of snuff in my back pocket. All I have is this pickled brain to sort out the national economy and my place in it. So far, I'm not convinced by what I've heard about the national health care plan. It still smells like I'm being snookered by some industry or other. If you can't spell it out in simple positive language, I can't hear you.

I haven't called my member of Congress or any of the blue dogs to voice my concern on this matter but I reckon it's time. I'll do what I always do and stew on this a few days, rocking in a chair on the back porch, whittling, chewing and taking a sip of hooch, eyeing them quail up the woods a little bit and wonderin' if my wife'd cook us up a fancy plate of risotto-stuffed bird meat, asparagus, and radicchio salad with Roquefort cheese, spiced walnuts, and Mandarin oranges, along with a fine selection from our wine cellar. And for dessert, a hot slice of pecan pie with homemade ice cream. Then we can sit in the sunroom, drinking our afterdinner port, scotch or cognac, depending on our mood, and toast our good health.

I'm all for looking after the public good but an increase in longevity means nothing while all our eggs are in one basket. We can cheaply mine the substances we need now to get us on the Moon and/or Mars. The longer we wait, the longer we make ourselves fat, dumb and happy, the more complacent we get...you know the progression here, being a student of history like I am. I still say we shelve the health care plan until we firmly have unemployment under control (no matter how we decide to handle people with no regular jobs and no purchasing power, whether through re-education or massive employment projects) - there's just enough of an undercurrent of unrest in the world that should one large nation's population show concrete signs of real organized revolt, it can lead to instant disaster, twitter-style, pitting multiple groups against each other.

I don't want to sound alarmist but my concerns are bigger than one nation's internal squabbles. While the atmosphere heats up during the minimum solar cycle in what should be a long, really long, cooling period, we may have to use our precious resources to slow down the planet's temperature change long enough for us to make everyday changes in our lives rather than panic moves that upset the species even more. The more resources we use to preserve our population's standards of living, the fewer and more costly resources we have to settle families on other planetary bodies (unless innovation creates a cheap mode of space travel that gets us off this planet).

Our species will live for thousands of years on this planet, barring major catastrophes. Of course, what we'll do in the future is beyond my comprehension. We'll continue to innovate, adapting to whatever we discover and invent next. I think positively and join others who think and act positively. I make fun of us along the way, so we don't get trapped into taking ourselves so seriously that we come to blows over trivial matters. Let's make a decision about the U.S. health care plan and move on or we'll keep beating a dead horse and get nowhere fast.