Let us follow this to its logical conclusion.  Health insurance is part of the wages employees have contracted to have as a condition of employment.  If my employer can dictate that I cannot spend part of that compensation on something to which he or she disagrees religiously, then can that same employer insist that I cannot purchase a bottle of wine for my Thanksgiving dinner?  Can he or she insist that I cannot purchase a cheeseburger because he or she is keeping kosher, and that is not just for observing Jews?  What about any other way in which I want to spend the money I have earned?

One reason the economy is in the dumps is because we are not going out shopping, consuming enough.  We consumers.

But we are citizens first.  When we allow ourselves to be portrayed solely as consumers, consumers of goods and services, consumers of government, then we are allowing ourselves to be placed outside of things, passive.

The Constitution of the United States begins “We, the People;” the Declaration of Independence using phrases like “when one people dissolve.”  People, citizens, not consumers.

I remember when the department in a business or college that dealt with employees was the Personnel Department.  Think about what the term Human Resources means.  A resource is something one uses and discards when no longer useful.  Employees who are just resources do not need lunch breaks, pensions, sick leave, parental leave.  They are things to be used and discarded.  Employees who are personnel, on the other hand, do need these considerations.  They are joint creators of what the plant, school, factory, farm, produces.

I pledge to never again refer to a Human Resources Department.  It is the personnel department.  Anyone join me?

Dreier is a Republican member of the House of Representatives.  To give him the benefit of the doubt, I don’t think he really would allow a fellow human to just die from the massive tumor if he could help, but his philosophy here seems to say that we as a society should just assign the person with a tumor and inadequate health insurance to the whims of fate.  (sorry about the cliche)  What structure, Representative Dreier?  Who pays for what care? If you and your fellows in governments do not fund high risk pools adequately, then people who need help will be left to cope.

I am so tired of seeing scams on facebook, click share so this baby can have a heart transplant. So tired of jars in stores to contribute to the surgery fund for some poor person.  So tired of fundraisers to help someone get needed medical care.

We are the richest country in the world.  We have wonderful health care IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT.

When did we lose the idea that we only advance when we help the least able to help themselves