Communism

Well, that didn't take long. 6 months into office and the proverbial shit has really hit the fan. Is it just me or are all the people at these town hall protests strikingly similar to one another? Is the issue really health care? For some reason I think the level of ferver and frenzy may just be tapping into a bit of a deeper seated anger/hostility/resentment. Dare I say, racism?

For the most part I am doing what I can to tune it all out. I am probably more politically inclined/interested than most, but the insanity and irrationality of it all just wears me down and does nothing to improve my mood or my day.

I have great insurance, yet, yes I am 100% for health care reform. There is a lot of money at stake, and really do you think the insurance companies have your best interest at heart? Um, no. Death panel! What the hell does that have to do with the larger issue of the massive number of people either wholly uninsured or marginally insured in this country? I have Blue Cross Blue Shield. A PPO no less. When my husband recently went to the doctor about a hurt foot his doctors eyes literally popped out of her face like a cartoon character when she found out what our insurance was. And then .... she recommended surgery. Hello, do you think the fact that he has great insurance coverage had ANYTHING to do with that recommendation? Call me cynical but I do.

Back to the subject at hand, Communism. The thought that somehow Health Care reform (a public government option) will somehow eventually lead to rationing, lack of care, long waiting lists and subpar care and OHmyGOD eventually "we are just like COMMUNIST RUSSIA" kind of, just a little bit, unhinges me.

First, there is the its totally off the logic train part. People are spewing what they have been told to spew with no personal insight, thought or examination. Do they believe it? I am not sure. Does it matter to them? Nope. It bugs me to no end when I hear anyone (on either side) simply regurgitating what this blowhard or that blowhard tells them to say. It bugs me as much to hear recycled Rush Limbaugh as it does to hear recycled James Carville (though I do like to listen to the ragin' cajun Carville rant). THINK for yourselves people. Get your heads out of your asses.

Second, and even more disturbing, is the Communism/Nazism angle. I, personally, and this is just MY PERSONAL OPINION, think that what they really want to call him (the One, President Obama) is unacceptable in polite society and thus they come up with the 2nd best and somewhat socially acceptable option. Nazi. Communist. Marxist.

Perhaps, I am just particularly sensitive to the calling of someone SO OBVIOUSLY NOT any of the above, the above. Perhaps it was the conversation I had with my 70 year old immigrant mother-in-law Monday night. She's recently been diagnosed with lung cancer and with that comes a lot of thought about the end of her life, her estate, her legacy to her 5 sons and her 13 grandchildren. She has a sizable estate. She was talking about how much she wants all that she has accumulated to go to her sons and their families and how though her friends say she should spend it all or keep it for herself really all she cares about is leaving what she can to her kids. That, she says, is how her father raised her. How it is done in her family. Then, with tears in her eyes she starts to talk about her father, my husband's grandfather, and how in North Vietnam he had amassed a small fortune. He worked his fingers to the bone and scrimped and saved and everything he had he hoped would go to his children. Then communism came in and took everything. Every single house, every single piece of jewelry, every single penny. They fled from North to South Vietnam. They started over. He never recovered. Soon thereafter he began vomiting blood, broken by actual Communism. A man who had worked his entire life to amass something for his children and grandchildren to only have it swept away in a minute.

My mother in law and father in law started over in South Vietnam. They amassed a significant fortune. Had 5 sons. 5 nannies. A driver. Beautiful homes. Maids. Until again, communism, the REAL COMMUNISM, stepped in and took it all away. They fled, with only what they could carry on April 30, 1975, the day Saigon fell to the Communists (the real ones). Fortunately, my father in law had connections and got them out on one of the last boats, another miracle they all survived and all made it, eventually to the US. With nothing. Absolutely nothing but the clothes on their backs and a few pieces of jewelry that my mother in law had managed to smuggle out.

The started over, once again, from scratch. They built businesses and worked hard every day for years and years. My husband had two childhoods, maybe even three. One in Vietnam of great luxury that he doesn't even remember. He was after all just shy of 3 when they fled. One in the US scraping by with hand me downs and leftovers. And another in the US that started when he was about 15, when his parents, after many many years of hard work reestablished their financial security and began to reap the benefits of living in this great country.

So yeah, call Obama whatever you want, but please ... drop the Communist label. Have the balls to say what it is that really is bothering you about him.