Labor Day

Labor Day.

A day we, as a nation, take off in order to celebrate working men and women.  A day to look back at the hard fought, often bloody history of the labor movement as well as look ahead at the challenges that we face as we move firmly into this new century.  Challenges that have severe reverberations throughout the entire workforce - environmental issues, energy issues and the ever increasing thrust of technology into our lives being at the forefront of those challenges.  

Also central to labor's challenges and concerns is health care reform.  

It's interesting to me to celebrate Labor Day at the end of a summer which will likely be remembered for its tumultuous, emotional and occasionally violent expressions of fear and doubt regarding health care reform.  It's interesting to me that the people who would be most helped by a single payer system (an option not even presented) or at the very least a public option (something the White House seems almost eager to do away with) are the people who appear to be the most opposed to the reform.

I don't get it.

First of all, I don't get why understanding that we're all in this together makes me a "bleeding heart liberal."  I don't get why it's a negative not to think that it's each man for himself.  At some point caring became weakness.  I also don't get how the country turned so quickly away from the slogan that got our president elected:  "Yes We Can."  At no point did I hear, "Yes I Can and You're on Your Own."

But I also don't see how each man for himself, on a purely financial level, is helpful to anyone.  People without insurance who become ill often wind up going broke.  It's not uncommon to wind up losing one's home and savings.  People wind up with nothing.  They often wind up incapacitated to some degree, making work difficult if not impossible.  So what do we do with them?  Do we leave them to die?  Or do we take care of them?  Hopefully, we take care of them.  Which costs money.

To me the question isn't: do we want health care reform?  The question is: do we want to take care of each other now or later?  Before we get sick or after?  Do we want a country where all people have access to health care, so that we can take care of ourselves and continue to work and contribute to society?  Or do we want a country where we let those without access to health care get very sick and possibly become unable to take care of themselves physically or financially?  Or do we just hope that they die so that we aren't burdened with them anymore?

This debate has left me perplexed all summer long, because it seems (although I have to wonder about how things "seem" when viewed through the lens of the media, which is more interested in making money than reporting on the news) to me that the people who stand to gain the most, the working class, are the most vocal opponents of health care reform.  It is their wages which have stagnated.  It is their premiums which have skyrocketed.  It is their bank accounts which have evaporated in the wake of a sick child or spouse.

Again, I don't get it.

We need a public option.  We need to have an adult discussion about it.  A discussion free from highly emotional, media friendly, manipulative and misleading phrases like "death panels."  The health care industry has been incredibly adept in its campaign to ensure that a civil, rational discussion - a discussion whose tone matches the gravity of the issue - has been impossible.

The president seemed shell shocked by the speed, accuracy and efficacy of that campaign.

Perhaps he didn't consult Hillary Clinton before venturing into these waters.

Here's hoping that he pulls himself together and comes out swinging this week with his speech to Congress.

I hope that he gets a public option passed.

The labor force in this country deserves it.