I finally understand why so many people are against health care reform. My realization has to do with a peg-legged man and a parrot.

This morning I was driving into work and there was a peg-legged bum standing by the intersection of the freeway offramp and the street I turn on to go to work. He was in his early forties, white, with a double fu-manchu goatee, shorts, a sleeveless black t-shirt with some rock band logo on it... and a parrot on his shoulder. He was bumming for cash or food, whatever people had. The guy had a smile on his face and was grooving in the sun. The parrot, a large pretty green bird, was riding his shoulder and watching him intently. I realized the parrot was waiting to be fed.

And I got mad. This man received health care. He has a fully paid-for artificial limb. And he's out there on our streets begging for money. What's more, he thinks he's cool because he has a parrot on his shoulder. That parrot cannot fly. It is completely dependent upon him for food, shelter, and protection. If anything were to happen to him, that parrot's done for. And I thought to myself "how dare you. How dare you subject that animal to your personal lifestyle choice. It's waiting to be fed, it's life is tied to yours, and you're out there in the sun thinking you're a cool guy because you don't buy into 'the rat race' and you have a parrot on your shoulder." He's a white man who can work, who has a disability, and who is so selfish that he's got a parrot and lives the street rat life, just because he can, and that parrot has to rely on him because he's all that parrot has.

I get it now. I understand that most of the protesters aren't racist, they aren't mean-hearted, and they do care. They do understand that the system needs to be fixed, and that we have to figure out how to get unfortunate people the care they need without being subjected to the pre-existing condition penalty. But there are 40 million un-insured Americans out there. How many of them, regardless of race, are like that bum out there on the street corner? Who take the health care and walk away whistling?

I am responsible. I have a wife and two cats. I would never abandon my cats, and I will move heaven and earth to be a responsible owner. I view them as my children. I want a dog, but I know I have to work hard to afford a house with a yard so I can provide room for a dog to run in. And yet Obama wants to put into place a system that covers everyone, including those who don't believe in personal responsibility, without fixing the problems that got us here in the first place: namely the pre-existing condition penalty, an inability on the part of ourselves to take good care of ourselves, and the tendency of many insurance companies to choose profit over serving people. I get that health care is expensive, and yes, I'd like a reasonable tool in place to keep costs down, or at least manageable.

But now I am against the reform as it is. There has to be a better way to do it. Call me stupid, silly, or a dreamer, but I'm going to think of that parrot now, and the selfish man who has it. He received care, and a good working orthotic joint, and he's standing out on that intersection, with a parrot who's wondering where its next meal is coming from, and whether or not it's going to get eaten tonight by a cat or a raccoon while it's owner is getting drunk or stoned. There has to be a better way.

Are you kidding me with your parrot story? Look, I get mad when people can't take care of their pets too, but that has very little to do with the American health care system.

I know a lot of working people who can't afford health insurance. Many of them are self-employed, responsible, and, um, good pet owners. They simply can't afford $800 a month for a basic family policy. Or maybe they have diabetes, or MS, or cancer and cannot be insured at all. I can assure you my empathy for these people outweighs my anger at those who take advantage of the system.

For all you know, the working poor of this country outnumber one-legged homeless guys with parrots 1000 to one, yet you fixate on the one as a reason to oppose health care reform. Bizarre.

In case you don't understand - my anger is solely against the idiots against healthcare reform because they think the only issue is government taking over thier lives when they don't even begin to understand that our economic system has close to 90% of us 1 job-loss away from NOT HAVING ANYMORE CONTROL, and then you will be standing there looking at strangers, otherwise known as your countrymen, and saying "Brother,can ya spare a..................."

Judging human/social needs/responsibilities by animal welfare standards suggests some kind of bizarre intellectual visual defect. Your outrage at the supposed animal abuser bleeds into your perception that he stands for some kind of great shirking class that is responsible for wrecking the American health care "system" (if not American society). See your shaman.

You sound like one of those crazy guys at townhall meetings who gets up and starts mumbling incoherently about how his cats are like children, and one-legged Pirate Bums are going destroy civilization.

OP,

I understand what you are saying, I really do. BUT, I don't mind if all the bums out there scrounge off the system, or rather, I do, but not that much. What DOES bother me is that private insurers take out 25-30% of money that could be spent on healthcare for profits, and the government so underpays MDs in medicaid that one often LOSES money treating someone!

Now, if someone can come up with a public or private plan that sounds reasonable and covers everyone, I'm all for it. OTOH, I don't want the country in debt another trillion trying out something that ends up not being any better or ends up even worse.

Wow, you judged a guy negatively, on sight, without ever talking to him, knowing anything at all about him, and you even claim to know what he thinks? Someone has a superiority complex!

The real problem with health care reform is that so many Americans tend to think everything is about them - i.e. me, me, me! So some guy lost a leg and whatever else and he decides to sit on a street corner and not contribute to the GDP. Big deal. Walk a mile in his shoes *first* and then tell me how you feel.

The starter post reads like satire.

To the original poster..... I'm going to use an expression now that if you don't know the meaning of, you should look it up:

"This guy can't see the forest for the trees."

Might wanna check up on "red herring argument" while you are at it.

i live in europe where we all have state health care.

i can only laugh about americans being against it. it works!

and don't forget that every member of Congress has a "socialized medicine" health plan, -yes, run by the govt. i don't see any of those anti-health plan congressmen dropping out of their excellent health plan to sign up for a private insurance program.

yet they deny such a govt.option to other citizens. hypocrites!

(ask your congressman about his health plan! and forget the guy with the parrot, please).

I definitely want healthcare reform now too, because we all are, as you stated, one job loss away from losing quite literally everything if that job loss occurs when a major illness hits. I work at a cancer clinic and see some real outrages that can occur in regard to our currently health insurance situation. I see simply absurd costs of healthcare and waste. I also see people whose health insurance is working wonderfully and providing them world-class care.

So I want reform, but just because someone doesn't agree with the need for reform, or my idea of reform, or this or that specific plan, doesn't make him an "idiot." Nor are they cold-hearted, thoughtless, rabid right-wingers or any other label.

This an enormous issue with gigantic implications for individuals, our economy, our relationship with government, with what it means to be an American citizen. We need to ensure that the healthcare reform medicine is not worse than the disease. Kind-hearted, enlightened liberals who care about their fellow man should be just as skeptical about any massive change in our system as anyone else.

Right off the bat, let me say I think you are an idiot. You got mad, because you saw some guy, on the corner bumming for spare change and he had a parrot. Did I mention he had an artificial limb? You did. He's milking the system, you say. Got a free "leg". While you have to use both of yours to get to work and feed the cats and be "responsible." Nowhere did you say you knew this man. This freeloader. This drag on the rest of us. Us working stiffs. And since, I would assume, you don't know him, would it make any difference if you did know him?

Would you have a different opinion of this guy if you knew that, perhaps, he lost his leg in Iraq, or Afghanistan? In service to his country. In service to you and your stupid cats. What if he suffered from PTSD and as a result of some shitty care from the VA, standing on a street corner, begging with his parrot is all he can do? What if he was bi-polar and because this country doesn't have a system to care for people like him all he can do is be homeless with a smile?

No. There can't possibly be a reason for this guy being where he is. He must be there because he LIKES IT! Chances are he was just waiting for his welfare queen g-friend to come by in her Caddy.

Go fuck youself.

Jeez Early sorry I'm so frustrated with the "idiocy". I don't have any hate-based objection to people objecting to specifics, or as this bill begins to unfold, it not being all-inclusive, or looking at several scenarios and having ability to adapt. My problem is ignorance. Healthcare was KILLED many times before and it is headed for it again because people fall for sucker emotional tripe like "the death panels" If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, BUT, mamma always said, stupid is as stupid does. The November election I believe was our civil moment to say we wanted healthcare reform by majority rule. People showing up at town hall meetings with guns, or holding signs that read "No government takeover, Keep your hands off my Medicare" is, for lack of a better term, idiotic.

Or the new one today - someone in Massachusetts drawing a Hitler mustache on President Obama's poster - if that is not idiotic, do you feel that is a worthwhile, or even, an intelligent form of protesting objections, specifically, specific objections to healthcare reform? If you do, I have a word for you too. And you wouldn't like it. To further explain, I would like an HSA through my employer. I would like NATIONAL competition in insurance pricing and end state-by-state regulations. Those all come from one lobby. I would also like tort reform. It's a whole different lobby, and the two are not agreeing for everyone's good, because both are lobbying to protect their special interests. Because people aren't smart enough to speak with one voice that says get a program done, instead of manipulating everyone's emotions, these lobbies use every resource possible to keep playing both ends against the middle. The end game is called the status quo, and I must be a real idiot because I somehow think that somehow, some BillyBob in Georgia is someday going to say I'm tired of insurance companies having all the power to screw me, instead of drinking corn liquor, raising a rebel flag, and saying the souths gonnna do it again.

Your post is one big left wing propaganda report all lies

1. yeah govt healthcare in Europe works. I read yesterday that an expectant woman was denied ambulance service and told to walk to the hospital. She ended up walking to the hospital but had the baby on a sidewalk on the way. Canadian healthcare is looking at adding aprivate option as their system is coming apart at the seams. One canadian province has just announed they will no longer offer certain critical operations because they don't have money. German healthcare has been going up twice a year and theyt have been reducing their services as well. Each country has extensive taxes that fund their healthcare. Germany has 20 VAT and many other taxes on gasolene and utilities reducing their disposable incomes substantially.

2. Congress doesnt have socialized medicine. The govt pays the healthcare bills but they have 23 different private plans to choose from. BCBS is one of the insurers to the Fed program. They are the hypocrites becasue the dems voted down an amendment to force Congress to go on the public option.