My husband and I just watched a wonderful (and tremendously sad) movie about the story of Jackie Robinson, called "42". I cried during parts of the movie. My stomach lurched during parts where the racism was so palpable, it hurt. Mr. Robinson was so brave. His story was triumphant. He came before Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. He came before Barack Obama.
The sad, sickening part is that we still live with racism (and sexism and ageism) and I think that is crazy and awful. Why does hate exist? What makes a person think that another person was not created equal? What makes someone think that people should be treated as "less than" (less than them, less than human at worst)? There is nothing more blinding than hatred. We are all God's children; therefore, we are all equal. Our socioeconomic status does not matter. Our sex does not matter. The color of our skin does not matter. Our religion does not matter. I know that is easy to say. But, that is what I really believe. I know many, many other people believe it, too. More and more, I would like to believe.
Love thy neighbor. There are no qualifiers.
I have experienced discrimination at times. Because I am female. Because of sexist comments. I have even experienced discrimination because of my Mexican married name, Ruvalcaba. But, what I have experienced in my 38 years is NOTHING compared to the HATE that many people have endured for generations. I just can't imagine.
I am not an expert in what is happening in our government; but, it looks pretty messy to me. Sometimes it makes me cry. Sometimes it makes my stomach lurch. The racism in Washington is palpable.
It is crazy to me to discover that what is being billed as "Obamacare" was started by Republicans. And, now, for some reason, they are doing everything they can to try to stop it. What? This makes no sense.
Remember when we were NOT required to have auto insurance? (for those of you who are younger, there was a time.) Has anyone ever been burned when they were in an accident with someone who did not have insurance? Then, we balked a little when every driver was required to have insurance; but, those of us that already had insurance did not see a big difference (except there were no tax credits for it). In fact, I feel like my rates have been about the same for 20 years! If memory serves, I am paying less today than I was 10 years ago.
And so it goes with health insurance. We are paying for the uninsured. We may not notice it in the overly complicated medical billing process (to make up for the discrepancies, our bills to our insurance companies are supremely "marked up"); but, WE (the insured) are paying at least 1000% over the ACTUAL cost (sometimes more!). And, you thought retail mark-ups were high! So, because our insurance companies pay these inflated costs, they of course, want to make money, so they increase our rates. Don't you see? This has to stop. Everyone needs to be insured.
The best way to do that is to make it AFFORDABLE (Obamacare). We still have choices. We just have to be insured. From what I have read, a LOT of thought has gone into this. There are tax credits to offset the cost of insurance. The choices are better. The private companies are going to HAVE to be more competitive because the public is making more INFORMED choices. We (the public) have had to educate ourselves over the last few years as we analyzed all of our health care costs because it is one of our biggest expenses (in my house, at least).
In my home, we start with prevention. We choose to go to the doctor less. We eat pretty "clean" (very little processed food, almost all organic). We exercise. We go to the chiropractor regularly (this has helped us greatly with our immune system and allergies). We pay more for food to be healthier. It is the best investment for my family. It is the most important thing to us.
Back to Jackie Robinson. And, OUR President Barack Obama. Thank you, both, for helping to change the world (and so many others). Thank you for helping us to see the whole world in color. There should be no "black" and "white". Ever. Two men, doing/did the best they can/could, to make the world a little better.
"Obamacare" makes perfect sense. So does a world full of color!
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