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thedrifter
08-29-09, 07:59 AM
This Country Needs More Than Privatized Healthcare
posted August 28, 2009

Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler is a true American hero. Every Marine that passes through Basic Training knows that Gen. Butler is one of only two Marines to ever have the distinction of being awarded two Congressional Medals of Honor. When he retired from the Marines in 1931, he was the highest decorated Marine serving in the Corps. Gen. Butler served in the Marines from 1898 to 1931. He participated in numerous landings/incursions in South America and China. He was instrumental in bringing organization to the way the US Army approached field hospitals in World War I, saving many lives. He created the Marine Corps Institute that furthers the education of all Marines. In 1924-1925, he took a leave from the Marines and was the Director of Public Safety for the City of Philadelphia.

It has been claimed that Gen. Butler brought prohibition to a quicker death due to his approach of going into the affluent neighborhoods and arresting those in possession of illegal liquor. Think of that. Apply that approach to the war on drugs today and think of the consequences.

Gen. Butler claimed that war was a racket. He should know. No other Marine can claim the credentials he possessed. He claimed that a racket was nothing more than something "operated for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many." In his book, War is a Racket, he describes in detail the use of our military by industrialist who seek to gain power through using our military personnel as cannon fodder while propping up unethical/undemocratic US corporate interests in underdeveloped countries. He adequately detailed how this is accomplished through manipulating information given to the public. He also adequately detailed how this type of foreign policy undercuts American workers and makes them subservient to corporate interests. For anyone with a desire for the truth this book is highly recommended.

Read really close. Most private insurance companies have limitations. Many of them try to deny claims for coverage, and many have actually been responsible for people dying due to their refusal to pay for treatment. When this happens the person sick and without care has few friends. They are one person against a legal monster. Meanwhile, a few insurance executives are given millions of dollars. A high ranking Republican congressman recently claimed on national TV that these type of people should be taken care of by the community. That was his answer to this issue. This. is a fact. It sounds to me like he does not feel that person valuable enough to even had a basic right to health care. He claimed that government wasn't the answer. Well, that isn't what the Preamble to the US Constitution claims when it says, "to form a more perfect union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare..." This statement by a leading Republican is not only selfish; it is unConstitutional and deeply un-American.

We have a crisis in health care in this country. Our elected leaders should be forced to look out for the needs of the people, and not he greed of a few. We need to look back in history and see the present threat to our Constitutional Republic by political ideologies/dogma that run contrary to democratic ideas. We need to learn from those heroes of our Republic, who in the past, exposed anti-democratic ideas where ever they met them. Smedley Darlington Butler was one of those heroes. Semper Fidelis, Gen. Butler. You are gone but never forgotten.

Stephen Durham freethinker1963@yahoo.com

Ellie