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stem cells
Chris Dodd just said (in the CNN/YouTube debate) that in a Chris Dodd administration we'd be doing stem cell research, and the crowd cheered enthusiastically, and I just thought, how DUMB. How dumb, what a sick place we've come to, that we know about stem cell research, that we care about it, that it is a subject for political debate, somehow a partisan issue.
In a sane country, this would just be something that medical scientists are working on, like they're working on a host of other approaches to cure disease that almost nobody knows much about, we just figure they're working on it, and sometimes when they've got something promising we hear the good news. Instead we live in a place where the radical right is always looking for ways to divide us from each other, ways to distract us from doing the work that really needs to be done--you know, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, living with peace and justice on this planet we've been given.
And so they decided to make a fuss about stem cell research, and now we all know about it and it's another one of the ways in which, instead of spending our energy trying to make our country better, we're just struggling to prevent it from getting stupidly worse.
In a sane country, this would just be something that medical scientists are working on, like they're working on a host of other approaches to cure disease that almost nobody knows much about, we just figure they're working on it, and sometimes when they've got something promising we hear the good news. Instead we live in a place where the radical right is always looking for ways to divide us from each other, ways to distract us from doing the work that really needs to be done--you know, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, living with peace and justice on this planet we've been given.
And so they decided to make a fuss about stem cell research, and now we all know about it and it's another one of the ways in which, instead of spending our energy trying to make our country better, we're just struggling to prevent it from getting stupidly worse.
no subject
Sigh.
Agree.
(Anonymous) 2007-07-24 01:18 am (UTC)(link)having a hard time...
Every bill that discusses billions of dollars for arms or other invasive moves in another country, instead of handling our own broken medical and social infrastructure, not to mention corporate and environmental fuckups --well, see above paragraph. It's lunacy.
Re: having a hard time...
I'm not moving out yet, but I did think that if I ever have kids (?!), I don't want to raise them in a country without universal health care. It just seems irresponsible to keep something that fragile in a society that isn't committed to care for it.
Re: having a hard time...
I thought them turning me down for rental insurance in CA because I was robbed in New Jersey was evil, but the health care situation and lack of government oversight of that business makes me paralytic with anger.
MA has a mandatory health-insurance situation now, which the state is supporting. They asked all providers to offer reasonably priced plans and they don't "check if they want to take you on" as far as I can tell. I mean, they can't, if it's mandatory. It will save me $150/month from my current COBRA payments, too. They're not tremendously well-organized, but it's all a step in the right direction out here.
Re: having a hard time...
Health care was one of the reasons I started paying attention to John Edwards--his campaign was the first out with a detailed proposal on universal coverage, and it's pretty good. Not least because it provides a path to single-payer, if the for-profit agencies can't provide better service than the government.