Our Conservative Children

My enthusiasm for seasonal decorating is waning. I still love the house to be decorated, I’m just tired of all the work involved. So, I find myself starting later, simplifying the process, cutting corners and generally trying to avoid baking altogether. But my kids will have none of that. Charis and Christa, especially, are my early warning alarm system, sounding off about the time that the first Lebkuchen appear in stores. Lest I forget my true purpose in life and think for even a moment I will escape recreating exactly the aura of Christmas’ past, they implore me to put up the advent stockings in time for the First of December, nag me to finally get around to doing the top of the piano and the bay windows, and with almost photographic memory, insist even on the specific placement of certain Ornaments. This year I was taken aback and began to ponder the deeper psychology of this behavior, after Christa grabbed one of the stockings and forcefully insisted, “We have to hang this one on this door, that is where it was last year. It has to go here!”

“Oooohkaaaay. Weird. What’s that all about?” Suddenly I saw us meticulously following a recipe, aligning all the pieces in just the right place, so that something would happen. A kind of time machine made out of one family’s collection of handmade ornaments, which, if set to exactly the same coordinates as previous Christmas’, would teleport the anticipatory joy, the warm glow, the comfort and good cheer of the past Noel into our experience of the present season. A kind of magic ritual to conjure up for our current pleasure that part of our past experience which pictures and videos were not able to capture. An almost desperate attempt to grab these fond holiday memories by the tail and pull them back up from the abyss of history to once more satisfy our nostalgic longings, conserving them like pickles in the mason jar of our annual holiday rituals. That is when the penny dropped: my children are CONSERVATIVES!!

Unholy Prophecy

Many are trying to block Healthcare reform by spreading bleak worst case scenarios of the mix of absolute political power and medical technology, extrapolating a dark future to which the legislation could ultimately lead. But I am wary of such prophetic projections, and, speaking from first hand experience myself, I am sure that huge jumps are being made in such calculations. Indeed, I believe it is a grievous misstep to incite fear against legislation being proposed today to HELP people who are CURRENTLY not being properly cared for medically, based solely on the premonition that it COULD lead to abuse of power and loss of needed care for others in some "Brave New World" of the future.

I personally find these tactics not only lacking integrity, but also unbiblical, disobedient to Jesus' teachings, and glorifying the darkness rather than the Father of Light, who has given us a Good News of God's victory in the world to be bearers of. I am mortified at how many Christians are spreading a message of doom and gloom, of the hopeless "inevitability" of man's depravity, using scare tactics and generally being caught up in a fear frenzy instead of being the torchbearers for the transforming power of the cross: A message of Faith, Hope and Love.

Jesus has warned us to not only not be overly confident about the future, but also not to "meddle" in it, not to "hang out there," not to overlook the present good we can do (each day has its own worries), by being too concerned with what evils might be headed our way in the future. My gut feeling tells me that these attempts at "foreseeing" are akin to witchcraft: trying to gain power over present circumstances by grasping beyond the veil, "divining" what only God can know for sure.

I personally can testify that such measures to insure all citizens of their basic medical needs does NOT lead to the kind of government, genetic Cherry picking, that they are suggesting. Wether it be our 90 year old, widowed landlady with no near relatives, who receives regular home visits from her doctor; the 3 year daughter of friends of ours, who has Down Syndrome and is getting the best treatment possible now for Leukemia, or my own expensive MRIs, OP and extensive hospital stays for a preexisting back condition, I can assure you that the Doctor-Patient relationship here in Germany is in good health. Any claims to the contrary are a misrepresentation of the facts, which are easily accessible and verifiable, and lacks the integrity necessary for an honest and serious debate. Here is good information for how healthcare is actually provided for now in the other industrialized countries (of which America is the only one without universal coverage) http://www.healthpaconline.net/rekindling/Articles/Glasser.htm

(another two good articles describing Germany's system can be linked to from here .

I was very happy to find this morning that the bill in the house passed, and happier still to find that a good band of Democrats (64), led by Rep. Stupak, used their leadership to block federal funding for abortions and still get a bill passed that would make a tremendous impact on the lives of 36 Million Americans. So, again, it is just not accurate to make claims that "Democrats" are supportive of abortion loopholes. A good bloc of 40 fought hard for the amendment, 64 voted for it, and it was the only Democratic amendment that Pelosi allowed on the floor (to the vexation of abortion advocate party members). Post article

In addition, as reported by the Wash. Post:

"The complex package would affect virtually every American and fundamentally alter vast swaths of the health insurance industry. Starting next year, private insurers could no longer deny anyone coverage based on preexisting conditions, place lifetime limits on coverage or abandon people when they become ill. Insurers would be required to disclose and justify proposed premium increases to regulators, and could not remove adult children younger than 27 from their parents' family policies.

For the elderly, the group that has been most skeptical of Obama's initiative, the House package would immediately offer discounts on prescription drugs and reduce a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage, closing it entirely by 2019. Uninsured people who cannot get coverage could join temporary high-risk insurance pools, and unemployed workers would be permitted to keep their COBRA benefits until the public plan and insurance exchanges started in 2013." Post article

These are good things, and they are long over due in a Nation that still claims to be leading the world in Democracy. I truly hope that we can bring the political will of the people to bear on the unjust practices of the Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries who have become the bullies on the block in our time zone, one of the "worries" of our "today," which we can legitimately be concerned about.

(Similar post)

Germany's Health Care System

I wanted to write something explaining Germany's Health Care system, and perhaps clear up some false assumptions and claims being made about "Socialized Medicine." Thankfully once I started to look for information to fill in my own blanks, I ran across these two great articles by a Professor at Princeton who gives not only a concise and informative (what we really need to know) summary of Germany's Universal Health Care Coverage, but also highlights the antipodal assumptions of our two countries' approaches to filling this fundamental human need. So, thank you Uwe Reinhardt for saving me a ton of work.

1. Health Reform Without a Public Plan: The German Model

2. Germany's Health Care Plan: It's Not The American Way