America Just Grew Up A Little More (Mary Lyon -- From The Left)

[Tace]

Mary Lyon -- From The Left -- World News Trust

Mar. 22, 2010 -- My friend worried: "How will it affect my family when I'm working part time and just getting by? Am I on my own? I don't want to hear the usual empty blathering. What will in mean in plain English?" Who wouldn't wonder how the passage of the historic Health Care Bill translates from a bill being discussed on TV to the bills you hold in your hands? I tried to research a little, and posted a Reuters link I found. My friend soon posted a response indicating the link had been helpful, observing that the passage of the bill might actually be beneficial to all. As well it may. The Congressional Budget Office evidently thought so.

But I think it goes even deeper than that. It says more about us -- that is good -- as Americans, after many years of the opposite. Instead of being known (around the world, as I've observed since 2001) as aggressors, greedy "what's our oil doing under their sand" myopic pirates invading and occupying others' lands. The way the world saw us over the last decade or so was not a pretty sight.

What became deemphasized, and outshouted, damn near trampled, was the America in us that cares, that is authentically compassionate, that genuinely leaves no child behind -- no cheap sloganeering. It's the America you haven't heard much about in the news in the recent past -- the money-grubbing and corner-cutting and fast-talking and gaming the system that we became collectively famous for -- from the Keating Five and the S&L crisis to the hedge fund nightmare to the Enron scandal-scoundrels to the collapse of Wall Street, and the invading of sovereign nations with the unspoken objective of protecting an investment sort of drowned it all out for many onlookers the world over.

Many of us say we're a Christian nation. Do any of us as Americans really understand what that means? Anybody remember that historical stand-out Guy with the beard and the seamless garment who sat on the mountaintop one nice day and spoke the Sermon on the Mount? Remember that list in there -- it's called the Beatitudes. The "Blessed are the..." litany. NOWHERE does it say "Blessed are the rich," or "Blessed are the greedy," or "Blessed are the selfish," or "Blessed are the bullies," or "Blessed are the haves and have-mores," or "Blessed are the war-makers." Doesn't say a ONE of those things, or even imply them. It's quite the opposite. "Blessed are the poor..." "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Blessed are the meek." It was that same Healer/Teacher who talked about whatever you did to what He called "the least of My brethren" -- well, who do you think those are in our own times? The have-nots. Millions of them with no safety net. NOTHING -- if they become seriously ill, if they get into a catestrophic accident or calamity. We already HAVE "death panels." They're the stingey, mercenary cheapskates in the insurance industry who really have no interest in covering the decent health care you may someday need, because you cost them too much, and you eat into their profits. It's THEIR profits that matter more than YOUR health and recovery. How does it feel to live in a country with priorities like that?

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http://worldnewstrust.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&cid=134:commentary-wnt-reports&id=7592:america-just-grew-up-a-little-more-mary-lyon

[Tace]

1. kick

A kick for Mary.

[calimary]

2. Like it! Thanks Tace!

Hard to blog regularly anymore because of my kid's band - I'm managing it, and they're actually accomplishing a few things! But it's thrown my blogging life into disarray.