Thursday, March 31, 2011

[1631] ALL IN ALL IT’S JUST ANOTHER BRICK [OR HOLE?] IN THE WALL- Yesterday the president gave an outline of his future plans on energy- lots of the same stuff, trying to use clean sources of fuel- says he really is a big oil type guy- though his critics deny it. He even brought up a familiar refrain from the campaign trail- that the oil companies already have huge land leases that they ‘refuse’ to drill on. Is this really true? Yes and no. This argument became popular during the campaign as an ideological defense [not practical truth] against the conservative ‘drill baby drill’ mantra. The argument says the oil companies don’t really need ANWAR or more off shore drilling permits- that they have all the drilling spots they need- they just won’t use it! I have a died in the wool liberal friend who I engage with every so often- as a middle of the road independent I often see/take up different sides. One day this person was using this argument- saying the people who say Obama is not for oil drilling are all liars- because the companies secretly refuse to drill on all the land the govt. has already given to them. I asked the person why they think the companies- who in their opinion are all ‘b-stards’ wont drill. The person really had no answer- except that they felt they did it on purpose to get Obama. I said these companies- according to your view- care nothing at all about anything but profits [maybe so] if they really could care less about anything else but profits- then why are they cutting their own throats by not making money on land that you say has all this oil? The reality is the leases that Obama is speaking about are areas where most of the oil experts think really has no oil- if they thought the land was rich in oil- they would drill it. This argument shows you how even though it seems reasonable to come to the obvious conclusion- yet because you see the opposing side as all ‘b-stards’ you can’t even think clearly. This same person has told me that those who oppose the president’s health care reform are also racists- that the only logical conclusion to the opposition is racism- this theme is often promoted on MSNBC. I explained my story to the person. After I retired from the fire dept. I lost my insurance- it would have cost me around $6-700 a month to keep it- I couldn’t afford the darn thing to be honest. So as things go in life- right after my warranty was up- things started to break. I mean the month I dropped my insurance. I had various back injuries from doing my type of work but these would be covered under the workman’s comp. stuff- but I had a few other things that I needed to go to a doctor for- one trip costs around $150.00 and if you have to keep going back to renew prescription meds- then that’s a lot. So instead I opted for ‘Ojohna-care’- I went on-line- typed in the name of the med I’m supposed to be on and found some non- prescription stuff. It still costs money- but it’s all I can really do- honestly. Doing it like this is not recommended- you don’t see a doctor who monitors stuff- but you do what you got to do. Now- as someone who has actually paid for insurance my whole life- who now pays out of pocket for my own health care- the way Obama care has affected my family is I will now be paying an extra $700- 1000 dollars a year to cover other peoples insurance. My son in-law- who owns his own carpet laying business will also pay the fines [it’s too much to get full coverage- the fines are the only real option] one of my daughters [or actually 3- depending on the school situation] will also pay the fines. So all in all my family is out an extra 4 thousand or so a year- without getting coverage for ourselves. At the same time the person I was explaining this to- who accused us all of being racists because we didn’t support the plan- this person has never once paid for insurance- they have had free coverage and have also used Medicaid and Medicare. So in the real world- this person’s only experience is seen thru other people paying for their insurance- they never really saw the reality of a situation like mine- real people who because of real fines will have less real money to buy their own ins/medicine. Now- it would be nice if the person who was getting the free coverage at my expense- while I’m actually needing it worse than them- it would be nice for them to appreciate my family taking up the extra cost for them- but instead this person sees me as a racist- because to them that’s the only real reason why someone would be against Obama care. Yesterday I put up a shelf- I went thru the procedure of finding the stud in the wall to hammer the nail into. I figured I would do the free style thing first- you know try and simply guess. One here- one there- no results. Okay- I’ll do the 1 nail every inch- still nothing! Geez- does the wall have studs or what? So after putting quite a large amount of nail holes in the wall- I finally hit oil- I mean sure- it looked like I left the front door open and some local gang did a drive by shooting- but dang it- I found that darn stud! As our country goes thru real rough times- times where we demonize the other side because we can’t see things clearly- let’s try and be open to listening to both sides. We hear the argument that the oil people don’t want to drill because they simply want to bring the president down- they hate Black people. The fact is they don’t want to be drilling for nonexistent studs in the wall- doing stuff that they know won’t work. Many people oppose Obama care because it really affects them- in a very negative way. And when others who are getting insurance for free- at my expense- call me and my kids racists because we oppose it- well it’s makes me want to go cool off somewhere, a relaxing way to get my mind off the whole thing- I know what, let me go try and hang another shelf. www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

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