Don't Blame the Doctors and Nurses

I woke up this morning. No dirt nap. That in itself is a good thing. But the world is facing an uncertain (some including myself would argue the future is certain: there certainly will be a future!) future. I read an essay by Thomas L. Friedman (1) about the impact 7 Republican senators could have on the energy bill now before Congress. Passage would put us on the right track and going in the right direction, while failure would almost certainly result in an acceleration of the degradation of the environment and a speeding up of climate change globally. He pointed to the projected population of 9.2 billion by 2050 and the impact that alone will have as the third world tries to get to the standard of living we enjoy now, but, in my opinion, we will surely lose in the next 30 years.
The answer is not “blowing in the wind” but is quite clearly in front of you. The answer is greed. The Republicans want the status quo ante regarding energy policy to stand, and are willing to sacrifice the economic future of the country and the entire globe to keep oil flowing into the country and coal flowing to be burned in old and inefficient plants.
I keep hearing the charge that the Democrats have led us into economic disaster by the Obama programs being passed by congress. Let me offer an analogy: if someone beats you almost to death, breaks your bones and then leaves you by the roadside, are you going to blame the orthopedic surgeon that spends a million dollars putting you back together for wasting money? Are you going to blame the Doctors and Nurses for the rehab pain you suffer every day? If you do, you are just plain stupid. The point? Eight plus years of Republican domination of government beat us up pretty badly. The debt soared under Bush, the middle class lost real wages, the economy imploded (yes, BEFORE the Democrats took over. (2) Why do you think they won all those seats in Congress and the White House? Not because the Republicans did such a great job running things I can tell you.) And the world learned to hate America. That was the beating.
Now the rehab is starting and it is painful. But don’t blame the Doctors and Nurses. Look to the culprits that caused the problems, and are now lying through their teeth and the rest of their orifices trying to get back in power. Wait and see if the therapy actually works before you go back to the bully and ask for another beating.
The next time you probably won’t survive. You may not anyway, but, what the hell, you might as well have a fighting chance, No?
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/opinion/21friedman.html?src=mv
2. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/16/politics/main2939036.shtml
Image: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/16/politics/main2939036.shtml