Here is an excerpt from my novel, Universal Coverage. Think about it while Congress throws the Constitution out the window and your freedom in the trash.
The phone rang. He stared past it at the framed stock certificate on the wall. Something happened between the time his father received his dividends and this day. Smith never envisioned he would face disaster without a penny saved or a dollar in reserve. Nor had he expected to lack the gasoline to go wherever he wanted. The idea that whatever he needed might not be at hand was an absolute impossibility.
This was not the future he’d anticipated nor the one he’d been promised. He wasn’t supposed to be giving a little to get a little. He was supposed to have on demand care without ever seeing the bill. That’s what Universal Coverage meant. That’s what he voted for. That’s what twelve percent of his pay bought.
Without a doubt, it paid for financial security. He wasn’t flush with cash, but nor was he in danger of losing his house, his vehicles, or anything else. He hadn’t so much as seen a bill for any of Timmy’s checkups. But what it did not buy was the timely installation of his son’s pacemaker, something he wanted more than anything else.
He picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“It’s me, Ralph. My cell must have dropped our call. Did you come up with something good for my girl?”
“No,” Smith answered.
“No? Oh, okay. I got it. You need some time. No worries. I won’t say anything to her now. I’ll wait until I hear from you. That way I can sell it to her as a special surprise. How does that sound?”
It sounded pathetic to Smith, who conjured up a witty retort but let it fade inside his growing shame.
“Have a good weekend,” he said, hanging up.
The only person who deserved the money was the doctor who implanted Timmy’s pacemaker. Anyone else was nothing more than a parasite taking something for nothing. Smith was ready to part with any of his worldly possessions, and if he had to mortgage his soul to make Timmy well, he’d do that, too. Either way, he’d be damned if he peddled his wife’s baubles for better odds against the sharks who ran the Universal Coverage pool.
The Bent Page 
Enjoy!
Stalin is reported to have said something along the lines of, “If you know the rape is coming, you might as well enjoy it.”
To those members of congress and the current administration, who now gloat over their pyrrhic victory, let me advise another text, this one from the Book of Proverbs, 16:18. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Today and all this week, the compromised media will crow for the administration. Reporters will thump out pieces about the need to “move forward” to “heal wounds.” This is a natural reaction because too much of the media enjoys the rape room. They were born to lose and prefer the sweet misery of defeat and victimhood over the diligent but laborious nature of victory. What? Read that again and then follow this: Many media members actually prefer to be abused. Consider the evidence of their recent behavior. How many challenged the double accounting of the health care bill that just passed? How many confronted the reality that this bill is laden with deals? How many asked well structured questions about how many doctors will be leaving the profession? Precious few. Why? Why are they sitting idly by?
A major reason is that the modern reporter seeks the balmy light of the royals currently in power. The modern reporter basks in the famous-by-association nature of their positions close to the tyrants. “I was there when the health care bill passed,” they’ll tell their grandchildren. And when the grandchildren ask, “Why do you have to wait years for open heart surgery?” the retired reporter will admonish them with, “Don’t be selfish!”
The lure of fame and power is strong indeed. Certainly the current government knows how to do wield it. They admit to rock star management styles, to staging events like Hollywood spectacles, and to conjuring up a bit of suspense to keep everyone on their seat. The press and the public, humans one and all, have taken the bait. They’ll soon be experiencing the other side of this mysticism and that will indeed be uncomfortable. The rape will begin soon. It will start with taxes, move on to rationing, and then to what is known as and I double E in my novel, Universal Coverage. That’s an Imminent Expiration Event, when the administration of the health care system figures a person isn’t worth the effort and money it would take to keep them alive. It may be that much of the populace, like the reporters, will sit back and enjoy the beast. They’ll sigh and moan, “I sacrificed for the cause.”
However, with this attack will begin the collapse of the nation. Through the arrogant, prideful ways of a maladjusted administration, the United States will descend into the ranks of also-rans. That is unless a cadre of brave souls, like those CEO’s mentioned yesterday in this blog, rise to the challenge. If they discover another Biblical passage, Matthew 7:13. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
Yes, we freedom appreciating members of the citizenry need to form a Party of Restoration. We must find the narrow gate and enter a place of righteousness that denies the largesse of the common pot, that provides opportunity without political preference, that denies purchase to the savages who would make us their victims. We must seek the difficult not for the sake of pain but because the hotter the furnace and heavier the hammer the higher quality the mettle. The easy road is now clogged with the damned. Let them enjoy their folly at their peril. When they come to us, the producers, in search of protection and respite from their beloved doom, well, then they will find the narrow gate has been walled up by their own hand, just as they beg for it to be.
- Commentary
on March 22, 2010 at 10:29 am Leave a CommentTags: authors, comment, fiction, health care, news, Obama, opinion, Writing