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Healthcare or Prisons?
Mon, 11/16/2009 - 19:11
New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof addresses the issue of whether Americans would rather spend money on healthcare or prisons:
In this era of deficit federal spending, how would you suggest the government deal with the choice of healthcare or prisons?Astonishingly, many politicians seem to think that we should lead the world in prisons, not in health care or education. The United States is anomalous among industrialized countries in the high proportion of people we incarcerate; likewise, we stand out in the high proportion of people who have no medical care — and partly as a result, our health care outcomes such as life expectancy and infant mortality are unusually poor.
Hard Left
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HEALTHCARE OR PRISONS
There are 170,000 inmates in the state of California in a prison system (the largest in the U.S.) designed to service at the most 100,000. You might ask, well, how could we let this happen? I will never forget the night I sat comfortably in my living room and watched a popular news program that clearly exposed one of the most powerful unions in America's attempt to continue to hold hundreds of thousands of inmates across the country in institutions — not because they had done some extremely hideous, unforgiveable crime, but because it was big business. When any governor or top official tries to combat this injustice and craft new legislation to release non-violent offenders, this same powerful union exerts its powerful financial and political muscle by using well-known law enforcement figures like puppets to frighten the American public by informing them via newscasts, Internet, and infomercials that their children are going to be raped or molested if these criminals are released and that most certainly, their homes will be ransacked in the middle of the night by some illiterate Black or Latino man and that the Police Department will be overwhelmed by increased crime if these horrible people -- by the way, many of them your fathers, mothers, boyfriends, girlfriends, sons, daughters, nephews, nieces, cousins, uncles, and aunts -- are released. Millions, if not billions, are being misappropriated in order to care for incarcerated people yearly, causing severe cutbacks in educational funding, programs that benefit the growing elderly population, AIDS organizations servicing an increasingly number of our youth, social security, and many other much needed social programs. This misappropriation of funds now threatens to annihilate even welfare! And year after year, we allow their captors to entice us into believing that it would be better to lay off teachers, caregivers, city employees, and public servants than to release people who are incarcerated who shouldn't be there in the first place. Is it any wonder why the Bible urges us to "Awake oh thou that sleepest?!"
Yet, where are our pastors, the shepherds, and religious leaders we hold in high esteem and do everything to protect and cater to? In Washington, D.C. or in Sacramento, California, fighting to deny hard-working people the right to marry the person of their choice.
By Terry Angel Mason, Global Author
Excerpt from Mason’s New Book: Love Won’t Let Me Be Silent -- Pride Edition
Mason is an extraordinary poet and writer who is known for his breakthrough revolutionary book, Love Won't Let Me Be Silent, that is becoming a testament for many gays and lesbians struggling with their sexuality and the need to come out to their family and friends. What started out as a self-published nonfiction book has now become a literary phenomenon consistently earning him numerous literary nominations; while at the same time, gaining a place of reverence in the hearts and minds of millions of readers -- both men and women worldwide.
Author's Website: WWW.TERRYANGELMASON.COM
*Nominated for Several National Literary Awards*
National Health Care - Ballot Measure?
Why is the Media creating such hype over newly elected Senator Scott Brown? He's another politician, in a pool of several with personal agendas. I realize him gaining the senate seat gives the Republican Party political leverage they have been seeking, and their plans to stall the passage of a National Health Care Bill is within reach.
The parties are at obvious odds and while the power struggles ensue, it is the American people who continue to suffer without Health Care relief, therefore, who really won what?
Healthcare has been extended for Domestic Partnerships, however, it doesn't exist for parents of under-employed, young adult children and/or elderly parents with limited coverage. There seem to be more people who want/need Health Care Relief as opposed to those who don't, is it possible for the people to rally for it as a ballot measure? while the politicians do what they do best...fight one another like street gangs, regardless of who is caught in the cross-fire!