'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

Health Care

Two of the columnists on this site saw a massive increase in their readership when debating America’s Health Care legislation. At the time, I saw it as a storm in a teacup figuring that whatever was enacted would eventually lead by trial and error to a form of Health Care that would be customised to suit the American Nation.

Americans are not stupid or inhumane. Everyone wants Health Care. The argument has to do with perceived practicalities, and how any system that goes beyond the present system would affect the American way of life, in other words; politics.

I was listening to President Obama’s Tokyo speech, which together with his speech in Cairo have struck me as two of the most significant and comprehensive speeches that I have ever heard, when it suddenly struck me that the impact of this domestic, US health issue may go far beyond its own confines.

A democracy relies on its ability to deal with the issues of the moment and then move on. If it does not, the nation falters and loses international respect. Now that Congress has passed the Health Care Bill, the Senate, in its deliberations should bear this in mind.

Totalitarian societies are more than happy to entertain America’s popular and glamorous President, but if key matters are not settled at home he will in fact get nowhere in establishing America’s influence abroad. Nuclear proliferation will continue, the Middle Eastern powder keg will erupt, oil prices will skyrocket, human rights in Asia will be non-existent, carbon emission treaties will burn in the wind and the world’s economy will again crash around our ears; all because of a stale-mate on the domestic issue of ‘Health Care’.

America, must show the world that as in all great democracies, its institutions while proud, can still compromise and that decisions that might not suit any specific group can be made for the common good, and in this case for the good of the entire planet.

Once in a blue moon, there is a leader who goes beyond the set, political boundaries, who has the potential to change the way the world works, and who in this case could also change the way that America has been regarded ever since Vietnam. There is a time to look up and a time to look down - to see the hole in the ground ahead of you. In this case the hole is a canyon and has ‘Heath Care’ written all over it.

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