The Public Option: We're Fearing the Wrong Thing PLUS Fun with Forums

[For full context on my response, please see the Op-Ed "We're Fearing the Wrong Thing" by Waldo Proffitt, former editor of the Sarasota-Herald-Tribune, published September 09.]

My response to the Op-Ed:

Bullseye! Yes, there are valid fears where health care reform is concerned. Those valid, rational fears are inaction and failure to change. As significant as today's issues and obstacles are, Waldo brilliantly (and with great heart) points out that our moment is in fact proactive.

Please, everyone. Let's maintain rational, informed debate. Let's acknowledge legitimate fears, resolve contributing issues and remove obstacles to our shared interests in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Let's also remember that democracy is not possible without a healthy, educated populace. Our current condition undermines the current and future states of our democracy, and hands a significant competitive advantage to every entity that operates outside the US borders.

Most of all, let's not fear hearing both sides of any debate or walking in anothers' shoes. As long as we retain those abilities, we retain our humanity.

Moira

Reader Response to My Response:

Dear Mothra, As a relative newcomer to this [Sarasota Herald-Tribune] Readers Forum, it's my observation after two months and about 20 posts that your appeal to engage in a rational, informed debate may amount to whistling in the wind.

While [Sarasota Herald-Tribune] seems to recruit dozens of new members every day and attracts hundreds of routine readers, only a handful of self-proclaimed experts on everything dominate the "debate"...There seems to be little balance, less listening and virtually no dialogue...Until the hundreds of readers now content to watch from the sidelines begin to chime in, the few blowhards will continue to dominate--and this will remain a [Sarasota Herald-Tribune] forum in name only.

My Response to Reader Response:

Another bullseye. My expectations for healthy discussion in this forum are less than zero, and my expectations are consistently met. Still, once in a great while, I am compelled to chum the waters with intelligence, fact-based analysis, compassion and even optimism.

May I share? A friend commented via email on what appears to be my optimism. He included one a timeless Barnum quote, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public" He added, "The problem is that a majority of the American public...respond to cutesy slogans and outrageous statements rather than rational argument." I must agree that this has become the American Way and our brand abroad.

Am I optimistic? A victim of rose glasses? No. I am a realist who has managed to retain sanity by retaining a sense of humor. As I replied to my Barnum-quoting friend, "...the health care riot warm-ups we've seen here and around more than underscore the complete willingness of American publics, with few exceptions, to consume the carnival's sweetest, fluffiest, most colorful and cheapest cotton candy, no matter how bug-infested or bacteria-ridden, and in complete ignorance of consequences beyond immediate gratification. I have never more before wanted to take my other passport and FLEE. The only thing keeping me here is the desperate hope that I might get selected to sit on a Death Panel. THEN we'll see some solutions."

Thank you for reading, and your rational response ; )