The 4th of July is usually a really great time to feel warmly about America.
But after watching my dog driven insane by a barrage of exploding devices, my patriotism has ebbed.
Call me a freedom hater, but I now favor global legislation forbidding fireworks. Failing that reasonable initiative, I plan to keep a certified med aide on retainer next year. She’ll be ready to dispense doggie sedatives and antipsychotics from her medicine cart at the first whiff of sulfur.
I’m not optimistic about my anti-fireworks crusade, especially after watching the tussle over the Affordable Care Act. In the continuing crusade against the law, I’m not here to advocate either way. But in the case of Pointless Ideological Windbaggery, Et Al v. An Urgent Quest for Reality-Based Solutions, Et Al, I’m with those who engage in that most despised of political acts — compromise.
Because here’s the thing about reality — it’s real, and it’s coming to get us. That’s not just a theory, or a straw man devised to punctuate a cynical talking point.
Reality is composed of actual facts, certainties, inevitabilities — for everyone — and there’s no opt-out, no matter what your fervently held position may be.
Reality demands recognition and response. That means acting on the indisputable fact that sickness, aging and mortality is chasing America like a rampaging bear through the field of broken glass that is our healthcare system.
We’ve known he’s been hibernating and dangerous for decades. So now as we finally feel his hot breath on our necks, this doesn’t seem like the right time to stop running and debate a protective footwear mandate.
Personally, I don’t care how we survive, or what the government does to get all Americans insured. Because if they aren’t, to continue the metaphor, those of us with shoes will be tripping over the barefoot as they fall in the glass.
We’ll be forced to carry them on our backs, thus reducing our own chance of survival and contributing to collective fiscal doom.
Which brings us back to Obamneycare. Maybe you don’t like it. Maybe I don’t either. And we all know it’s not perfect.
But it’s a start after decades of inaction, and don’t look now, but that rampaging bear has his paw on your shoulder.
Reality. What a concept.
From the August 01, 2012 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
