Leveling the Playing Field

I watched with horror this past weekend as people who identify themselves as members of "The Tea Party" gathered in Washington to what they call protesting, which they apparently believe can be filled with hate, violence and based completely in their paranoid fiction.  While they say they are upset over Health Care it did not appear that any of them knew what was in the health care bill, just that it involved the government in some capacity. Now we find out, the majority of the Tea Partiers are either unemployed collecting money from the government, retired and receiving Social Security and Medicare (whoops another government sponsored health care program) or receiving Social Security Disability or Tricare (yet another government sponsored health care program).   So, what are they protesting. They don't appear to be protesting anything just advocating hate.  Hate, because as the country becomes more and more diverse they fear their white privilege will come to an end.

In times past, legislation passed to make it look like it was leveling the playing field but when you read the fine print it clearly made certain that white privilege would be the law of the land.  Simply look at the GI Bill after World War II.  A great government program (shoot there is that nasty government again trying to help people improve their lives) that provided educational benefits, housing loans, unemployment benefits, medical care and a variety of other benefits for those who fought in World War II.  A nobel effort on the part of Congress, until you dig a bit deeper.  Southern Senators and Congressmen made sure there was a clause that states decided who got the benefits.  So, if you are a Black man in Mississippi who faithfully served your country oversees and now have the opportunity to improve your lot in life through GI Benefits, you have to get the funds from your state officials. You are pretty much guaranteed they are not eager to give "handouts" to Black people. But let's say they do.  You apply for the educational benefits, you can have them, provided you find a college or university that will accept you.  There are not enough spots open in the historically Black colleges and universities to allow all the veterans to attend and the white colleges and university won't accept you, so you cannot take advantage of the benefit.  Or let's say you found a house and apply for the housing loan.  Unfortunately the house you want to purchase is in a neighborhood that won't sell to you because you are Black.  Well, there goes the housing benefit.  Was this really a bill to level the playing field?  No, it was a bill to make sure white men got advantages and benefits from the government to let them enter the middle class.  It exemplified the benefits of white privilege.

Now we have a health care bill that will make available affordable health insurance coverage to everyone regardless of income, age or health status.  They left out the "only white" part.  When the provisions fully go into effect in 2014, it means that everyone has the opportunity to get health care and not have to die from preventable diseases or conditions.  They won't have to choose between food and drugs.

It is not health care upsetting the Tea Party people. God knows they will be first in line to take advantage of the benefits. It is the idea that we are a nation founded on the principles of equality.  They cannot accept a nation that has grown into itself.

I would suggest to those who are so filled with hate they can't distinguish between fact and fiction, they can't listen to anyone except hate speakers such as Beck, Limbaugh, and Palin, they feel the only way they can compensate for their own short-comings is to put others down with racial and homsexual slurs, and they condone violence as a means of getting their way; that they look inside and see the enemy is them.  They do not represent America and  they do not represent the ideals this country was founded upon. It is time for them to get with the program, or as I was often told during the Bush years, then just leave.