Health Care Reform: The Future of America's Liberty or It's Destruction?, Part One

Grace Notes Monthly- column
Introduction



As far back as our nation’s founding, Americans have prided themselves on speaking their minds when they disagree with someone else. Sometimes, they do this loudly, as in the case of a few town hall meetings held recently to discuss the benefits and the negatives of the president’s plan for health care reform or sometimes they do so quietly, as in the case of parishioners at a local church asking for prayer for a loved one battling cancer who had no health insurance to rely on. When both cases became public knowledge, the participants were ridiculed and belittled for their openness to talk over their concerns. The many freedoms that we currently enjoy are threatened today from those in government who condemn anyone for speaking out against the president’s proposed policy changes. This paper will examine the future of American liberty and civil disobedience, as seen through the potential socialistic implications and impact of the president’s proposed plan for health care reform.


The Historical Precedence for American Liberty and Civil Disobedience


Since the Mayflower Compact was signed in 1620, the foundation of our country has been built on “certain unalienable rights” (America’s Freedom Documents, Thomas Publications, 1989). This nation is endowed and is charged by God to defend the rights and liberties of those who are oppressed by providing sanctuary within the confines of our borders. America has strived to live free from the rule of a sovereign state by honoring the tenets of our forefathers as laid out in the documents known as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights (America’s Freedom Documents, Thomas Publications, 1989). All of these freedoms are currently under attack from those in government who condemn the American public for speaking out against the president’s proposed plan for health care reform.


The reasoning behind the president’s rhetoric seems sound at first until one focuses on his track record. At which point the corruption of ethics becomes clearly evident. The actions of the president and those in government speak loudly of decay and rot at the core of their morality.


Examples of this decay and the basic freedoms endangered include the cases of Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Sch. Dist. 393 U.S. 503,506 (1969) and Santa Fe Indep.Sch. Dist. v. Doe 530 U.S. 290,302 (2000) where students have the right to initiate prayer at school events as long as the faculty is not involved, and where a high school senior cannot reference a thank you to God for His help to graduate in her valedictorian speech (The Rutherford Institute, www.opposingviews.com, “Should prayer be allowed in schools?” web).


This same decay and corruption is clearly seen when one looks at some examples of civil disobedience. Civil Disobedience is defined by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary Online as, “refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online, 26 September 2009, web). As in the case of former Justice Roy S. Moore, he was removed from the Alabama Supreme Court following a unanimous decision by his peers on November 13, 2003. This decision came midway through the former Justice Moore’s term. The reason? Justice Moore refused to remove a display of the Ten Commandments from its prominent place on the Alabama state judicial grounds because he believed they were the basis of the judicial laws of this country. It was very wrong he said to, “exclude [an individual] from office based on religious beliefs and [a willingness] to acknowledge God” (Miles O’Brien Interview on CNN, November 13, 2003).


Another example of civil disobedience and attack on American liberties is the case of Joe Wilson, Republican from South Carolina. Wilson has been ridiculed, called racist and worse because he voiced his opinion, albeit inappropriately, of the president’s proposed plan for health care reform. To add insult to injury Wilson, after a vote of 240 to179 in favor, was reprimanded by his peers after his outburst during the president’s speech before the Joint Session of Congress on September 16, 2009. Fellow Republican from California, John Campbell had this to say about the reprimand, “Wilson apologized to the president for the incident…I don’t feel a formal rebuke is necessary” (http://campbell.house.gov, web). At what point does it become too much when an acknowledgement of God, of the moral grounds this nation was founded upon, becomes fodder for rebuke, dismissal and slander? Is it when a person “looks for Truth from facts” instead of the Bible, which our nation was founded upon? (Wang Weiguang, “From a Reform and Opening Up are a Powerful Motive Force for developing Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,” Social Sciences in China, March 2009, Print).


This decay and corruption is also evident when one examines the actions and words of President Obama. An individual does not need to be a genius to discern the half-truths, outright lies, and willingness to avoid directly answering questions of concern posed by interviewers and the general population.


For instance, in President Obama’s media blitz of interviews through five major networks on September 20, 2009, he did not directly answer questions posed to him. When pressed to do so, he accused one interviewer of “making up the language” to say what the interviewer wanted (This Week with George Stephanopoulos, 9/20/09). In another incident of similar dismissal, Fox News Channel was again deliberately left out of the loop of interviews that the president gave. Perhaps it is because some of their programming questions the integrity, ethics and agenda of those in government? If that were the case, this would prove to be another clear indication of the corruption and decay at the core of the government’s morality. Why else exclude them unless those in government were trying to hide something from the American public? Maybe the president’s proposed plan for health care reform, as well as other recent policy changes does not stand up to the scrutiny of his critics or the standards laid out by Moses and Jesus Christ, in the Holy Bible (NKJV, Exodus 20.1-17 & Matthew 5.1-Matthew 7:29).


Under careful analysis, the wording in the government’s proposed plan for health care reform reveals the same corruption and decay evident at the center of its authors’ reasoning. For all the rhetoric and the eloquence in public policy and speaking, what the president and Congress hope to offer the American people is nothing more than an imaginative utopian dream that increases the national debt future generations will have to pay back.