July 1, 2009
What undesirable trait does America share with Iran? The fact that the country's leaders are willfully ignoring the "will of the people." Especially those in Congress who are supposed to "represent" us. They, apparently, find it more lucrative to support the providers of the status quo.
In Iran, the powers of the status quo maintain that their recent election was absolutely correct, with absolutely no possibility of manipulation, and the theocratic "judiciary" has stated that the election results are absolutely legitimate. Kind of reminds me of the U.S. Supreme Court "declaring" that W won the 2000 election ... except, of course, he didn't.
And - now - the U.S. Congress has unilaterally (absolutely) declared that the single-payer health-care option will not even be allowed to be considered as part of health-care "reform." How's that for "freedom of choice" all you ultra-right-wing so-called conservatives? Actually, true conservatives support single-payer health care, since poll after poll shows that somewhere between 70 percent and 80 percent of the American populace supports single-payer. That includes quite a number of true conservatives.
I'm absolutely tired of the status quo propaganda machine drumming it into us that "socialist" medicine is absolutely bad for us because it might ... gasp. ... result in Americans freely choosing it over private schemes (and that's a word I use advisedly).
While we are - rightly - criticizing Iran, let's not forget to apply the absolute same standards to our own "democracy." What's good for the goose is good for the gander, so to speak.
J.K. Peterson,
Fort Collins