Dear Dennis,
I just finished watching the Bill Moyers/Wendall Potter healthcare interview on PBS (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html). It’s obvious from this discussion that corruption in America is systemic. It is not evil, it is just short-sighted. As Pogo wisely noted, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
We need to understand how money is being used against our best interest and why it is being used that way if we want to preserve this country and world for the future of our children. Take the healthcare issue. To satisfy the profit demands of Wall Street and institutional investors, health insurance companies, and many other industries, are forced to screw their customers so the return to investors, sometimes people like you and me, meets expectations. I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of finance but many people do. Don’t you think we should examine the role money plays in our lives, how it can work for us and how it can work against us?
For example, how much of the overhead dollar in for-profit health insurance companies is spent on lobbyists and political campaigns to shape public policy in favor of health insurance companies? How much overhead (customer dollars) is spent to attack documentary film makers like Michael Moore for creating Sicko? How much overhead is spent analyzing patient histories so healthcare companies can deny coverage to individuals with potentially costly health conditions (cherry picking)? How much overhead is spent monitoring individuals and companies to look for excessive losses so premiums can be increased or future coverage denied. How much money is spent looking for preconditions and contract oversights/mistakes so companies can deny coverage for expensive medical procedures, not before they happen, which would mean a loss in premiums, but after they happen. If we continue to believe that life is a matter of “survival of the fittest, it’s eat or be eaten, kill or be killed”, we will continue to act like predators and create predatory business practices that favor the few at the expense of the many. George Bush would call these groups “coalition(s) of the willing”. Yeah, willing to do what?
It’s time to be honest with ourselves, to see things for what they are. It’s time to “Wake up, America!”, as you like to say. No matter who we are, no matter what we do in life, there is no excuse for not trying to do better today than we did yesterday. We are not only the products of creation, we are creation itself.
Happy Days, brother!
Pete – http://realtalkworld.com
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We create our own reality from what we choose to believe about ourselves, and the world around us.
If we do not CONSCIOUSLY choose our own beliefs, we UNCONSCIOUSLY absorb them from our surroundings.
If we are accountable (responsible) for our actions, how can we afford NOT to question our beliefs?
How you define yourself, and the world around you, forms your intent, which, in turn, forms your reality. – Seth
Only when we improve the way we think about ourselves will we improve the way we treat ourselves, and the world.
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