Health Care, Republicans, and the Future

Now that the big bad ogre of health care reform will soon be on the books, what lies in the future for the opposition? Will US citizens accept it? How will Republicans and their vile, racist, military arm, the teabaggers, oppose it? It is interesting to ponder these questions.

Some Republicans are suggesting that their opposition to health care reform may be their final downfall. Millions of our citizenry have no health care for various reason. They may be jobless. They may have a pre-existing condition. They may simply be unable to afford it, yet they do not qualify for Medicare. What are they thinking about the backward Republicans and their minions? What about the millions who voted for the President because of his stand on health care reform? These people may very well be the "silent majority."

We are hearing, mostly, from the vile and vocal teabaggers, but their primary goal isn't to kill health care, although, killing appears to be in their vision. They are lead by an extreme and racist element, which is in the minority in most sections of the country, except the south. The Republican leadership is playing to them, but are their numbers really high enough to make a real difference? I seriously doubt it. The teabaggers talk big about sending incumbents home, but their primary goal is to send Democratic incumbents home. They are not going to touch John Boener and his crowd. Here in GA the Republican Senators and Congressmen are safe. All Republican elected officials are safe unless they profess to be anywhere to the left of Hitler or Stalin. Actually, I suppose I should have used Cromwell as an example, since he was a Puritan, and Puritans are heroes of the right wing Christian elements.. Hitler and Stalin were leftist, atheistic, Socialists.

I think the teabaggers will make it through the fall elections...maybe. They will for the most part be history by 2012. I will be surprised if Obama does not win in 2012. I think the passage of the health care bill and subsequent legislation that will be passed by the Democrats will change the minds of independents and any Democrats that may have been wavering. The man is doing what he was elected to do. I think it has taken him awhile to figure out that he must forget about the obstructionist Republicans and move his agenda forward. He does not seem to be worried about whether he will lose votes or not. He is interested in doing what he promised to do. That, in my mind, is what elected officials should be doing. It is what some of the teabaggers truly want, but they are too blinded by their hatred to see it.

Recess Coaches? Say What?

The new trend at school is a paid Recess Coach. According to this article in the NYT, schools are paying a special coach to ensure that kids play at recess. What in the world has happened? How have we allowed our kids to lose their imagination, their ability to play games and create games on their own? Why can't teachers supervise recess? As a kid at school we made good use of recess to play various home-made games, swing on the big swing sets, propel ourselves on the merry-go-round, "see-saw" (teeter-totter), or play an organized game of softball. The teachers supervised us and ensure that we didn't do something stupid or punished us when we did.

We did not need a full team to play softball. As long as we had four batters and enough people to play the field we had a game. We called it shove-up. When there was an out, the hitter went to right field and the catcher was "shoved up" to batter, pitcher to catcher, third base to pitcher, etc. If a fielder caught a fly for the out, he and the batter exchanged positions. We did not have an umpire and we enforced the rules ourselves. It was a great time.

We had some rousing games of marbles and horseshoes. We experienced the latest fads such as yo-yo's and hula hoops. We divided into teams and played "backup" with a football. The object was to keep the other team backed up by throwing the ball as far as we could. The other team then had to throw from the position where the ball was caught or stopped. We played "base." Each team had a base, usually a basketball pole. If you were in contact with the base, you were "safe." If you were off base and an opposing team member could catch you and hold on for a count of ten, you had to go to the "pot," where you protected by the opposing team. To be rescued, one of your team members had to tag you.

Fights were rare and then consisted mostly of a few words and shoves and/or a fist full of shirt. Wrestling was the preferred combat, rather than fists. Fists hurt and caused blood. I do not recall a single bloody nose from a fight or any broken bones in all my years in elementary school. There were plenty of scrapes and bruises from play, but we lived in fear of our parents and teachers. Those of us who lived in town, lived within a mile of the majority of the teachers and principals. We could not escape. Our parents would know of our "indiscretions" before we got home. Then there would be more trouble, usually much worse than what we might have experienced at school. The bottom line is that we really posed no threat to each other. We would not have dared hurt someone seriously. Pocket knives were forbidden, although a few probably got away with carrying one. We would never have thought to have used it on another person.

So...a Recess Coach. Schools are paying a person to supervise play, and, I suppose, to teach the kids how to play. It is a sad commentary on a world where parents are afraid to allow their kids the freedom to experience their local world. They can't play follow the leader all around town or the neighborhood. They can't blindfold a kid and take him or her on a long hike around the neighborhood, then make them guess where that had been. Bike riding and wagon building are too tame. Kids are a threat to each other and the world around them poses too big a threat to them. Video games and TV are the norm. Obesity and diabetes loom around the corner for modern generations. As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Ben Rothlisberger and Milledgeville, GA

Milledgeville, GA, once the state capital of Georgia, has been known for decades as the location of the State's mental hospital. It's name became synonymous with mental illness. If you were acting foolishly, someone would say that you were about to be sent to Milledgeville. If someone said that an individual had been taken to Milledgeville, you knew they had a problem.

Today the mental hospital is being closed and the town is becoming more well known as the location of Middle Georgia College and State University. Once a women's school, it is now co-ed and growing rapidly. Milledgeville is a relatively quiet town with a long history. Oliver Hardy resided there for a time, having been born in Harlem, GA, near Augusta.

Last week 28 year old Pittsburgh Steeler's quarterback, Ben Rothlisberger and some of his friends, went trolling for girls and I do mean that literally, in Milledgeville, bringing the town and university to national prominance in a very negative way. Rothlisberger has a vacation home in nearby Reynold's Plantation, a playground for the rich and famous, particularly from the sports world it seems. He and some of his football player friends decided, I suppose, that college girls would be a nice distraction and an easy mark for professional football players, so they went to town and began a tour of the bars downtown.

At some point, something happened between Rothlisberger and a female student from the college. She approached police very distraught and said that she had been assaulted. Rothlisberger's lawyer said nothing happened. Rothlisberger now says that there was a "sexual encounter." He has been accused of this sort of thing before. It is interesting that he hired a high powered lawyer, who has represented other sports figures accused of serious conduct, including murder.

It has been a week and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is still saying that they will be "interviewing" Rothlisberger soon. This is always interesting to me. If it were me, they would have "interrogated" me that night. I would have been hunted down, handcuffed, and ridden to the police station in the back seat of a patrol unit. For celebrities, it is different. They are usually "invited" to come in for an "interview" at their convenience. This is always after they have had time to talk to their expensive lawyer and their witness friends and concoct a story of what "really happened."

Just what will happen here is yet to be revealed. My guess is that Rothlisberger will be cleared and we won't hear much from his private life until he has another problematic relationship with a female. Maybe next time he will look for a woman closer to his age to have a "sexual encounter" with in a bar. Atlanta isn't far away. He might find someone more his style in a larger city.