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Reform health care — now, America

I am proud to be an American: I fly my flag every day, I vote in each election, I go the speed limit, or close to it, I willingly pay my sales tax and I support our military personnel before, during and after their service for all they may need.

But there are things about my country of which I am not proud. I want my country to be the best that it can be, to live up to its ideals and its values and in order to do that it must make some changes. I want all the citizens of my country to have health care. I do not want people to live in fear of getting sick. I do not want people to die every day not because of their illness but because of our health care system. I do not want people to stifle their ingenuity and creativity because of fear of not having a job that provides health care.

Just for one moment think what our American world would be like if we could all take a sigh of relief knowing that we do not need to worry about ourselves or our families becoming sick and not being able to care for them or losing everything else in our world in order to provide for them. Really, think about it. It is nice, isn't it? A weight gets lifted from our shoulders. Maybe that weight is why Americans do not live as long as our counterparts in the developed world. What kind of values do we have? Where are our family values now? Is this the kind of nation we are, that lets people — young, middle class, poor, black, white, blue collar, white collar, etc. — get sick and die for lack of accessible health care? I want health care reform now and I want it to include a public option now.

Deirdre M. Hensen, VMD

Miller Place

December 17, 2009

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1858: Rudolf Diesel, German engineer who designed the compression-ignition engine.

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