The Voice - Student Newspaper

Grumpy Old Men: Obama's Waterloo?

Whether they are yelling at town hall meetings, stomping down Pennsylvania Ave. or shrieking in the halls of congress, Grumpy Old Men have their back-ups.

It is hard to write about the healthcare plan without addressing the whirlwind of emotion surrounding it.

Ultimately I think that fear of change is at the bottom of all this.

Much has changed in just this last year, much loss has occurred. Surely some people think this healthcare plan will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. However; Obama's election was all about change. Of change Obama says, "We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it."And the time for healthcare reform has come; unfortunately it is coming during a horrible economy. Then again, Social Security was born in the time of depression.

Whether in Recession or depression, what better time to think of people's stability and security than in a time of great societal upheaval? It should make the problem crystal clear, instead young and old grumpy men and women are letting their fears and loss of control over their lives cloud the issue. Obama's plan helps young and old alike.

And it takes the civilized stance that all of its American citizens should be covered, just as every major industrialized country in the world covers theirs.

We are 37th in the world for health systems according to the World Health Organization. Yet we spend more money on healthcare than any other country, something is very wrong with this picture. Money should not be the only concern. There is an ethical question here. How can the richest country in the world hand over its people's most basic need, the health of themselves and their families into the hands of a for-profit corporation where their main focus is the bottom line and not people's needs. It is uncivilized.

Obama read from Ted Kennedy's letter that say's it all, "What we face," he wrote, "is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fun¬damental principles of social justice and the character of our country."