Pallor and Pain; Sorrow and Stain

Over this past weekend, I watched more coverage on the BP Gulf oil
spill and felt this growing sense of deep sadness and rage. The spill
threatens so much more than we can yet fathom as we see this most
recent fouling of our planet unfolding slowly, steadily and insistently
with each passing hour.

Are you ready for Social Security cuts?

Across
the globe, we are settling in for wars that may last many more years as
we hear assurances that it would be a fool's folly not to war as the
terrorist threats against us make any other course of action akin to
inviting terror attacks everywhere. I'm not even sure most Americans
know exactly why and all the places where we are warring. For many
years now, the threats that demand our warring behavior have been
intentionally painted more vaguely. And those vague and ever shifting
reasons for war keep people fearful and looking around every corner for
potential danger.

Are you ready for Social Security cuts?

The
struggle for single-payer healthcare (a progressively financed single
standard of high quality care for all) continues as the oil spews into
the Gulf waters and as war continues. Seems odd to think of how we'll
move an agenda in support of more healthcare reform when so many of our
people seem impotent or disinterested or unaffected by the tremendous
suffering being wrought in the name of profit in the quest for more oil
or the quest for more power around the world.

Are you ready for Social Security cuts?

How
can we engage one another on issues of social and moral uplift outside
of the band of activists and advocates who have had the interest and
the energy and have made the time to fight the good fight? There are
so many difficult and pressing human issues, why keep fighting for
single-payer? Why keep fighting now? Does this still matter when we
see the lack of urgency with which the powerful respond when the less
powerful suffer unimaginable loss in the gushing oil spill area or in
war-torn communities half a world away?

Are you ready for Social Security cuts?

The
reality is that the gushing spill of human life and the suffering
within the US healthcare system continues unabated as we watch other
tragedies unfold. Patients still cannot access care, patients are
denied care, patients are sued into bankruptcy when medical debts rise,
patients lose homes when medical bills consume family savings and
beyond, and patients wander from doctor to doctor being tested and
prodded and poked and probed to the limits of their health benefits
coverage and their bank balances and sometimes with little regard for
any resulting improvement in health. Patients are fodder for profit -
we all know that. But sometimes we forget the images of suffering.

Are you ready for Social Security cuts?

If
we were to see the pictures of the healthcare crisis on the evening
news, we'd scarcely be able to endure the images. Patients sick and
unable to get better. Dead people who might have been saved if only
the system allowed it. Not dead of their physical diseases but dead
from the greed of a few and the disinterest of millions of their fellow
citizens. More than 120 American die preventable deaths every day
because they lack access to healthcare. Selling them insurance doesn't
necessarily fix that. For some, it may help while for others having
faulty insurance does little but satisfy the legal mandate to purchase
a policy.

Are you ready for Social Security cuts?

But
we heard all of this during the healthcare debate this year, and what
we got in the end was not necessarily a fix for the trauma of the
healthcare system but a way for more patients to bring a source of
payment with them when they attempt to get care. Mandated purchase of
health insurance doesn't automatically bring better health to patients
- it brings a monthly premium due or a penalty if not paid. Health is
another matter altogether. So, we fight on for single-payer.

Are you ready for Social Security cuts?

With
all the pain and trauma playing out in the headlines today, it will be
difficult for many to see one of the most terrifying things unfolding
behind the scenes. President Obama's new National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform is about to cut Social Security benefits for
millions and millions of Americans who have worked for decades and
contributed to Social Security resting in the knowledge that when they
grow older or when they become too disabled to work, Social Security
will be there.

Let me repeat, President Obama supports cutting
Social Security benefits, and the commission he hand-picked is poised
to do just that. It is not in any way because Social Security is going
broke. It is not. Social Security has provided a stable and sure
protection against poverty and suffering for many millions of people
even as private pension funds slashed promised payments to retirees and
as other retirement plans took a beating in recessionary times. Social
Security is not the problem.

President Obama and his Commission
want to show the world on the backs of the American retirees of the
future - like you and me - that they are prepared to make politically
tough choices in favor of more fiscal conservatism. But really, Mr.
President and Commissioners one and all, the world needed no further
proof that America will turn a blind eye to its citizens - and perhaps
even harm its own citizens to make a political point. Come on, our
leaders have no soft spot for our pain. And they can act up a storm
during election years to try to sell it differently, of course.

Oil
spilling in the Gulf. BP and other oil giants still celebrate huge
profits - and rest assured they come out OK even as the Gulf continues
to struggle. Oh, we don't mind pain. War in Afghanistan, war in Iraq,
war wherever war feels profitable. Oh, we don't mind some human
suffering to keep the cash flow flowing. We love our money and we will
sacrifice nearly anything to protect it.

Want to speak up and
speak out before it's too late? Tell Mr. Obama and his Commission that
Social Security benefit cutting is off the table. Medicare benefit
cutting is off the table. Tell your Congressional members, Social
Security and Medicare benefits off the table for your political
point-making. It's time to stop the nonsense before it's too late.

Are you ready for Social Security cuts?