Fellow Laderians, 2010 is going to be a good year for the economy, the nation, and for most Laderians. For one thing, despite the evil mean-spirited, thinly-veiled bigotry and hatred by many of the hard-core, right-wing pundits, and the self-defeating its-all-or-nothing flaming left-wing liberals, the country is in good hands under the leadership of President Barack Obama. In that context, here are some easy-to-keep resolutions to consider: Stop believing most of what the great talking heads from the far right or the far left have to say. They have an agenda to convert people to their extreme points of view and they either lie or overlook important details to argue their cases. Plus, they are making millions and millions dividing the country with their inflammatory rhetoric to attract viewers and listeners. Don’t buy into the argument that people are one dimensional – either a liberal or a conservative. The truth is, people are far too complex to be labeled one way or another. Even though I am registered as a Democrat, I am fiscally conservative while socially liberal. I laugh to myself when I hear people argue that they don’t want any government in their lives, while taking advantage of many social benefits that the government provides, such as subsidized college education, government-backed medical research, and so on. No longer allow the powerful, wealthy, greedy special interests in this country to divide and conquer us by pandering to our conservative or liberal beliefs so they can become more powerful, more wealthy, and more greedy. Take sound bites as grains of salt; they’re only designed to hit our hot buttons. Don’t allow the special interests to demonize various segments of our society. We’re all in this together . . . and together we can build a better, stronger
If you want to know the truth, you must educate yourself on the issues and make your own decisions. Even though our Constitution guarantees the right of free speech, backed up by our fighting men and women, these people have been abusing their bully pulpits to influence the outcome of our elections for far too long. We can no longer afford the luxury of allowing them to make our decisions for us.
Give President Obama a chance. While he’s only been in office 11 months, he’s being blamed by liberals and conservatives alike for the mess he inherited from the Bush Administration and the trillions he has spent trying to clean it up. None of it was his doing and, if you believe the nation’s top economists, he is having great success. But he’s being blamed for not solving all of the country’s problems in less than a year and for running up a huge deficit bringing the nation back from the brink of disaster.
Do check our President Obama’s record. His administration has accomplished a lot in just 11 months, including:
- Passing the "largest" economic stimulus bill in American history, keeping the country from falling off the cliff in utter disaster.
- Rescued the banks and other powerful financial interests such as the insurance industry from complete collapse.
- Rescued the
- Created incentives for mortgage lenders to provide desparate homeowners with mortgage modifications.
- Creating a bipartisan administration filled with highly qualified Republicans, Democrats, hold overs from the prior administration, and women and men of all ethnic and social backgrounds.
- Surrounded himself with many of the nation's top advisors, such as Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, to name a few.
- Ordering the closing of
- Setting a fixed timetable for withdrawing
- Ordering 21,000 additional troops to
- Returning science to its rightful place by lifting the Bush restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
- Signing laws to expand children's health insurance (financed by a 61-cent per pack increase in the federal cigarette tax).
- Signing a law meant to improve the ability of women who allege pay discrimination to sue their employer.
- Diminishing the role of lobbyists in the White House
- Forging a meaningful statement from the United Nations" criticizing
- Lifting travel and remittance restrictions for Cuban Americans who seek to travel more frequently to the island and send more
- Appointing the first
- Engaging world leaders in Europe,
Don't reject candidates for public office on one hot issue, say abortion or same-sex marriage. Take some time to look past the sound bites to see if a candidate agrees with you more than the one who is willing to pander to you for your vote.
Do look closely at the records of officeholders who say one thing to get your vote but do another when in office. While the Republicans use the abortion issue to raise campaign funds and pander to voters, one has to wonder why the Republicans didn't overturn Roe vs Wade when they had complete control of the U.S. House and Senate, plus a conservative Supreme Court during the first six years of the Bush Administration. They really don’t want to change it, they just want to use it as a wedge-issue to divide the country.
Do expect our elected officials to do what they think is right for the country, not what'll get them re-elected time after time. For example, is it reasonable to assume that not one of the Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate agrees with any of President Obama's major initiatives? Or are they simply being obstructionists because they lost their power after abusing their leadership for many, many years. It's clearly obstructionism which is not only bad for the country, but may prove to be as bad for members of the Republican Party who are putting their own self interests above those of the country.
Do wait until the final Health Care bill is drafted, passed, and signed into law before judging it. For one thing, it's not "socialized medicine" as the opponents claim. That's simply a deliberate lie, as are the claims that end-of-life counseling -- a measure the Republicans supported when they were in power -- are "death panels." Shame on the people who spread these lies for their own power and profit.
The Health Care bill is really a Health Care Insurance bill that addresses many of the inequities all of us -- Republicans, Democrats, liberals, and conservatives alike -- have had to endure as the health insurance industry squeezes us for more and more profits by disqualifying patients from coverage often for frivolous and petty reasons that would be laughable if they weren't so destructive to human life. Imagine turning down treatment for breast cancer because the patient forgot to report that she had the measles when she was nine. Who are these people who would profit at other people's misery! And why are the Republicans in the House and Senate so willing to defend them.
The Health Care bill really should have the Government Option so that no family or individual has to be destroyed by medical care costs because they can't get affordable health insurance. But I am one of those who believes that "perfect" should not be the enemy of "good" and I believe most Americans will think the Health Care bill will be a good first effort to making sure that 40 million uninsured citizens get the health care they need and not at the expense of the insured.
Think about it. The exorbitant medical bills that the uninsured run up are already being passed on to the insured in the form of higher insurance premiums. And the costs are much higher because the uninsured have to go through the emergency room for medical help, which is by far the least cost-effective way to be treated.
There are many more issues that need to be considered and evaluated over the New Year. Please feel free to submit your own ideas and thoughts for publication. Send them to us at LaderaTimes@cox.net, or mail them to Ladera Times,
In the meantime, please let me speak for all of us at the Ladera Times in wishing you and yours a Happy New Year filled with love, health, and fulfillment.
Jim Schmitt, Editor and Publisher