Hey Conservatives, You DID NOT Build That ALL BY YOURSELF!

When conservatives say “Yeah, I built that…” in a sour reference to Obama basically saying that you didn’t build it all by yourself – what they (conservatives) seem to forget is that they built whatever they built with the help of many. In other words, they were not the sole human on a deserted island where they had no resources except resources provided by Mother Nature. They had the help from other humans who have put things in place so they COULD build. The Brits came over here and stole the land from natives so that you can have your freaking pizza place or Hallmark store or the Fortune 500 company.

There were people who paved the roads that help to get where you need to go. They built the infrastructure to provide you with power. People who came before you built sewer systems and water delivery systems so you could have indoor plumbing. There are people who created and are still creating the technology that helps you promote and/or design what you built. And if you are an inventor, someone else was there before you to provide you with the tools you need to create your awesome invention.

Your tax dollars pay for those roads and for the teachers who educate the majority of the population. Taxes pay for police and fire departments. So when you piss and moan about how you don’t want to pay taxes – and vote for candidates who will cut the taxes that pay for these programs and services – why should the fire department show up if your house catches fire? Why would you rather give the Fats Cats on Wall Street your hard earned cash and bitch about how horrible it is to pay for things like roads and schools and bridges and police? Why are some GOPers screaming about how social services are communist? Roads are communism? Firefighters are a communist plot? Your second grader’s teacher at a public school is part of a communist plot? Umm. No.

It takes a community. And whether it is a community or a town, a nation or a species, we are all here together, whether we like it or not. I will never understand why some are stubbornly persisting with the erroneous argument they did everything without any help from anyone, or that we are all are really islands of lone people who shouldn’t care about the welfare of those less fortunate. The “I got mine and screw you” attitude is so selfish and so ugly.

There is a PRICE for freedom and a price to enjoy a clean, safe community with hospitals and schools and drinkable water. A healthy mix of capitalism and social programs can be a wonderful thing.

No one expects that we should all earn the exact same amount of money and that is not what pay equity is about. But it is nice when we know there is a well regulated safety net for the honest, hard-working people who find themselves in a pinch. I say well regulated because, yes, there will be some who try to take advantage and they should not be permitted to do so.

I am not religious but wasn’t Jesus all about helping the poor, the sick and the less fortunate? Why are some Christians hiding behind the Bible to justify being stingy, judgmental and nasty toward those less fortunate? Is that how Jesus would behave? I believe we all know the answer. My question is why are so-called “Christians” ignoring it?

As I end this rant, I would like to include a clip from the documentary Sicko. Michael Moore interviewed a wealthy UK doctor who doesn’t have to charge his patients because they enjoy universal health care. This doctor gets financial incentives for having healthy patients – unlike American doctors who are monetarily rewarded for cramming unnecessary and unhealthy pills down our collective throats – pills that make us sicker and make drug companies richer. The single-payer system works very well, and it is not the dank nightmare scenario of the big city, county hospitals in the US that are poorly run and staffed. In fact, people who reside in more evolved societies that actually care about the health and well-being of their citizens think Americans are idiots who pay inordinate amounts of money to be screwed over by insurance companies and hospitals that charge $30 for one Advil. If asked how much they had to pay to have their fingers sewn back on, or to have a baby, they’ll tell you it was free. Yes, they pay for their healthcare in their taxes, but you see, they actually have really great QUALITY healthcare for ALL of their citizens. You can deny it all you want but that doesn’t make it any less true.

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