Orwell's Animal Farm in the United States

I read Animal Farm in grade school and remember the book and the cover posted here. I don't remember having actually read the book and yet I must have since we discussed the themes in class and I wrote a book report that earned me an A. None of the book seemed familiar to me as I read the book again yesterday and that is even after having seen two movie versions of the book recently. It's the same story with George Orwell's other futuristic book, 1984, which I also failed to remember when I re-read it again recently, and yet I know I read 1984 as well.

That is the problem with teaching seminal books like Animal Farm and 1984 to middle grade students, they have no frame of reference and no experience to make sure the themes stick with them, the children.

As I read Animal Farm, I was first struck by the utter lack of familiarity with the story, even though I could repeat the tale verbatim. Then I realized as I read that though Communism was the basis of the book, the book might as well have been about Socialism or Democracy -- or even a Democratic Republic like the United States. You think I jest?

Napoleon's tactics are evident in U. S. politics and, like Napoleon's increasingly bolder stances, more obvious every day. I see it in the sheep bleating, "Four legs good, two legs bad," whenever anyone questions the status quo. "Four legs good, two legs bad" bleats have become the catcalls of conspiracy theorist, tin-foil hat wearer, liar, mental deficient, and ignorant idiot who will believe anything but the truth, the bleating sheep drowning out Snowball's voice of reason, except the bleating sheep are now televised news reporters who are paid to discredit and drown out the questions and demands for proof instead of conjecture and empty rhetoric. At least Napoleon with his barking dogs had the sense to say as little as possible while the pigeons spread lies and the sheep bleated loud enough to drown out any voice but Napoleon's until the barking dogs were set upon the nay-sayers and chased Snowball from the farm.

Like Napoleon, Obama and Hillary have set the Democrats bleating loudly while the dogs, Pelosi, Reid, Lynch, Holder, and the rest of the DNC pack, snarl and snap at everyone who offers a different view. Bernie Sanders found that out to his as the dogs and sheep cowed Bernie into submission and suffered for faltering in the traces like Boxer as he limped along until his hoof healed, repeating his mantras of "I will work harder" and "Napoleon is always right" with less confidence and belief.

I thought only Communism could be so duplicitous. I was wrong. Even a Democratic Republic like the United States will become corrupt as Napoleon's offspring spread out in an ever-widening tide of power fueled by mendacity and greed.

That greed can become a goal to strive toward and a virtue would seem impossible. That too is wrong as I have learned during a discussion with a man who believes we have greed to thank for the heights mankind has reached. He points to Michael Douglas's speech in the movie, Wall Street, when Gordon Gecko counts all the ways that greed has drive humanity and society toward ever greater heights. Though not Roman Catholic, I do know that greed is one of the seven deadly sins and marches alongside gluttony, pride, sloth, wrath, lust, and envy. In the Roman Catholic canon, one of those sins will end in an eternal roasting in Hell. But greed is good.

Napoleon would agree that greed is what made him more equal than most, as Squealer demonstrated when he changed the original 7 laws of Animal Farm to reflect Napoleon's new views from his new home in Farmer Jones's house while sleeping on Farmer Jones's bed (without sheets) and eating at Farmer Jones's table from the best of what the rest of the animals worked so hard to produce. Like the Tsars of Russia, the new ruling elite took from the working classes more than their share and bettered the Tsars by getting the working classes to love them as they continued to sacrifice in the name of progress.

Greed is not good. Greed did not propel humanity to reach farther, climb higher, or build greater. Greed is the parasite that demands more, more, more until it hurts as long as it doesn't hurt -- or even touch -- the powerful elite reaching for more, more, more until there is no more. Napoleon had Squealer add a new first law to the 7 laws on which the revolution was founded: All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. Napoleon had exceeded Farmer Jones in greed to the point where he and his followers chose two legs over the four they had been born with, donning Farmer Jones's Sunday best and parading their conversion from animal to man for the rest of the animals to marvel.

It is said Obama left his first meeting with the U. S. version of Napoleon and his vicious dogs to find a quiet place where he buried his head in his hands and wept before he became Napoleon's Squealer changing the original laws set down with his Executive Pen where he could and brushing off Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States when the Executive Pen failed him, parading his picture perfect family for Americans to marvel at his Saville Row and Armani Sunday best as he slipped the ever changing rules past the less equal workers. Napoleon at least was wise enough to know not to stop feeding his attack dogs the best available lest the dogs turn and rend his Sunday best, a lesson that Obama never learned or heeded as he tears down Farmer Jones's house before he leaves for good. Of course, Napoleon did not have to face Snowball again while the dogs he had raised from pups turned on him.

Reading Animal Farm again with the experience earned over the intervening nearly 50 years was a cold slap in the face as I witnessed Communism turn into the Democratic Republic of the United States with its slow slide into corruption and lies from Nixon all the way down to Obama. I do not know what Trump's inauguration will bring, and have little hope for a miracle to right the U.S. Ship of State, but I will keep Animal Farm handy lest Trump change the name back to The Manor Farm and dispossess those who worked for and believed in him enough to cast their precious votes for him. At least that illusion, the illusion that a democratic election sealed by Electoral College votes, has not yet crumbled to ashes.

That is all. Disperse.

Pulling Out The Roots

"For the love of money is the root of all evil."

It is not money itself but the love of money that is the root of all evil. I've been saying that wrong for decades.

It is said that without money and the need to earn money the world would descend into chaos and sloth. I guess no one has looked around lately because we are in the midst of chaos and sloth already and we have money to chase.

The human is created in such a way that without a job or challenge or something to get up for every day we are not happy or fulfilled. We need employment and I don't mean just a job, but employment that offers challenge and fulfillment. A reason to get up every day.

Have you ever seen someone who has retired from work? They don't just stop. They don't lie around and do nothing, unless there is a serious illness and immobility involved. Retirees keep working -- in the garden, in the garage, in the house, and even in the work place. Retirees travel and invent and take on jobs at Walmart as greeters, pushing carts and answering questions and guiding shoppers to the right aisle (at least at Walmart men ask for directions -- and give them). Retirees check out all kinds of things they had no time for when they were working and chasing the almighty dollar -- and contributing to social security.

A recent movie, The Intern, starring Robert DeNiro is about a retiree who goes to work for a garment company in the factory where he was once middle management as an intern (that means without pay) and changes the life and the way the business worked. He had traveled and taken Tai Chi and done all the usual retiree things, but he wanted to get back to work and realized that being an intern (if he could get chosen) was his only option. No one would pay for his experience and expertise, but they would use him as an intern for free if he could be chosen.

The point is not that he found a way to become an intern or the changes he helped make, but that a man who had worked his whole life for a paycheck was willing to work for free to keep working. To be useful. To fulfill his life. People -- humans -- need employment to be fulfilled and to satisfy the needs of their personalities and souls -- and hearts. Even without money or the lure of money, people would continue to work and they would work at what makes them happiest and the most fulfilled, the calling of their hearts and souls.

Once the yoke of money is released there would be partying and excess because the slaves have been set free. Yes, money does make slaves of us all. That is the point of money, to enslave us, to chain us to someone else's agenda, to chain us to the grist mill of the economic wheel. I think of an old Star Trek episode where Bones, Spock, and Kirk are under cover on a planet where Llandrew rules.

The trio land just before the annual festival, the Day of Llandrew, where once a year the rules are gone and the people (usually the young people) are allowed to indulge all manner of excess. For one day they rape, cavort, get drunk, riot, murder, assault, and get into every kind of mischief. The Day of Llandrew is a kind of safety valve for their society, a time to let off steam when there are no rules and all perversions and devilry are allowed. A friend told me last night that it's like a new movie called The Purge and it certainly reminds me of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and stories and movies in the same vein where there are no rules but the rule of the mob.

Once there is no more money and no need for money and the traces are kicked over, there will be a time of no rules, except the rule of the mob, and the safety valve will be in full use. And just like the day after the Day of Llandrew, people will wake up and see what carnage and destruction they have wrought. There will be tears and regrets and everyone will go about their lives picking up the pieces and the real work will begin.

People need challenges. People need goals to work towards. People need work and adventure and employment and people will get to work.

Without money and the lash of money to keep them running after the carrot on the stick, people will dig in and do what makes them happy, what fulfills them. Those who have been forced into servitude for money will find ways to fit into the new society in other ways. Those who once dreamed of painting and sculpting and baking and sewing and gardening will dig in. They will fumble at first until they find their dusty skills and clean them off. They will be awkward and even throw a tantrum or two when they find they cannot perform with their old skills, but they will keep moving forward and practice, practice, practice until they begin to see the old glimmers of skill and artistry come to life and wink at them out of the darkness.

Not everyone wanted to be an artist or a seamstress or a baker. Some wanted to be furniture makers and architects and organizers. Some wanted to be farmers and drive trucks and work on railroads. Some liked digging ditches and repairing things. Some wanted to teach and sing and clean. Everyone is different. Dreams are as individual as the people and everyone would find their level, find their occupation. Things would shift about, but soon everyone would have a new direction and a new job. Yes, there are even those who enjoy picking up trash and cleaning up after others because they like to see order.

New communities would spring up and people would be drawn together to create new towns and new communities. People would step up to take over child care and teaching the young -- and the old. People would step up to help organize everyone and everything into the community. There are jobs for everyone and everyone would have a job. People would get down to the business of living, of creating communities, of moving into a very different and brighter future. There would be enough for all and little would be wasted after things settle down.

Yes, I believe in Utopia and I believe people are ready for it. It will take time for the culture shock to wear off, but the new world would be full of promise and opportunities and plenty for all to do.

Job satisfaction would go up because people would be doing what they want to do, what makes them happy and fulfills their heart's yearnings. There would be less ennui, less unhappiness, and fewer needs to go postal. Production would soar because it wouldn't be tied to quotas and piece rate but to satisfaction with the job to be done. Quality would increase because people would be making and doing what they are proud to do and the product of their work would be a source of pride, a gift of their talents and abilities and skills.

There would likely be less need for psychotherapy and psychiatrists and even medications to dull the pain of living because living would be a pleasure once a person finds his/her niche. Doctors and therapists who wanted to contribute would find other ways to contribute, other ways to heal the body and the mind. The mentally ill would be taken care of and there would be less need to medicate to treat because there would be fewer ills to treat. And there would be those who would fulfill their own dreams of working with and healing the mentally ill. There would be enough: enough people to do the jobs that needed to be done and enough food and shelter and people to tend to them. A job for everyone and everyone in a job they chose and looked forward to doing.

There would be runs on banks as it will take time for people to realize that the need for money is gone. There will be those unwilling to believe that money is no longer necessary and they would riot and want to break into banks, except the banks' doors would be open and people could come in and take out all the money they want. There would be scuffles over who gets more until people let it sink in that money no longer has a place in the world and is useful only as material for starting and maintaining fires and the coins could become jewelry or ornaments because they have no value outside of the metal that could be fashioned into more useful tools and objets d'art. Soon the rioting and hoarding would give way to other uses for the paper and metal leashes that chained us all to the grist mill of economic enslavement.

People might look at the way things had been done in the past and seek a new direction. Younger people are more suited physically to bear children. Young women are stronger and more full of life and promise when they are young and fresh, but young women might not be as ready to be mothers and raise children. Women find as they get older that the ability to be a good parent grows with time as does the desire to nurture children. Young women would give birth to children and the children would be placed in creches, nurseries to the uninitiated, and there would be men and women to care for the children. More mature women ready to be parents would go to the creche to choose children to raise and would take them home. All would be babies so there would be no need to warehouse the children, although the nurseries would be set up to nurture children until they are ready to be on their own, and they would be taken care of until they grew up enough to want to and were able to do things for themselves. At that point, they would be trained and their abilities and talents would be nurtured as well as they moved to the calling of their hearts and souls.

Growing children would be able to try out whatever interests them until they find what makes them happy. No pressure. No expectations except for the expectation that they would find their own personal niche. No vocation would be off limits and each individual would be given the opportunity to learn about and experience what each job would entail. No one would be forced to do anything that did not suit or fit with the individual's personality and talents. Soon they too would find their place and begin a life of their own with all the tools and support needed to help them on their way.

A woman who prefers to have children later in life would do so, but children born to younger women in the fullness of their fertility would be biologically preferable to the dangers to mother and fetus later in life. All possibilities would be explored for older and younger women who are still fertile. There would be no need to wait until they could afford children because there is no money involved and no need to make money. Builders would build houses and people would move into the houses that suited them best. Houses wouldn't be a status symbol or a function of caste or class, just a place to live, and all tastes and all designs would be accommodated.

It will take at least a generation or two to find and settle into the new world, and there would be growing pains, but eventually humanity will find a way. Humanity is adaptable and resilient and a world full of possibilities and hope will make the transition easier. We will find our way and the world will be better for it.

I look forward to the new world where there is enough for all and everyone has a place that is safe and comfortable where people are happier and more fulfilled.

That is all. Disperse.

I Believe

As we grow up and reach puberty the world opens up and everything becomes possible. With youth comes the belief that a world where everyone has enough and money is not an issue. It's a simple formula. Everything that needs to exist or can exist needs only vision and workers. No one needs to be a slave because we are all together. We are all humanity together.

It isn't until we come face to face with bureaucracy and costs and the brick wall of the haves and have nots that the terrible truth sinks in that the cost is higher than imagined. Politicians learn this lesson quickly and they compromise faster than a drugged out whore needing money for a fix. Down to their knees they go. Let the bargaining begin.

Some politicians decide to try another path. They will compromise but only long enough to get enough power and money and backing to force the system to its knees where they are in charge and all others must obey. Take that!

Instead of fixing the system or finding a way to eradicate the system so the utopian dream becomes reality, other paths call to us and like a fat wo/man every method - new or old or simply reworked - promises the end result of the perfect body and no more problems with weight loss. The dream of building and living in Utopia is the siren call that ends with dead dreams, anger, frustration, and the descent into madness and compromise.

Some find solace and a safe place in writing and reading books set on fantastic worlds and universes where Utopia becomes possible again. It's all an escape. If we can't have it in our own reality we will find a reality where it exists and to hell with the world where roses have thorns and carry poison in its glorious aroma.

And then there are drugs, the ultimate escapism. Sex falls into that realm.

The point is that Utopia is real and it is obtainable, but first we must throw off the masters enslaving us with bureaucracy, broken promises, and the ultimate carrot on a stick -- wealth.

Driving around the country I have seen vast fields where a house sits abandoned, windows broken, and the detritus of years of abandonment piled up in the corners and empty rooms where drifts, hoboes, and transients squatted for an hour or a day or a few weeks. A way station on the road to nowhere from nowhere in particular. I often thought that the empty house was a waste left to rot and return to the earth from whence it came. Why not let whoever want to maintain the house live there? Who would it hurt? So what if they planted a garden or harvested a few bushels of food from the land (although one might consider not doing that since Monsanto and various poisons meant to help plants grow and kill weeds and vermin were likely used and every bushel comes with a death sentence) and live happily in peace. Water and electricity could be provided, the water by a well and the electricity to run the pump to move the water could be provided by tapping into the utility poles and taking what one needs. Solar panels could provide electricity too. The house wouldn't rot and return to the earth and the rooms would be filled with people living their lives instead of providing a place to shoot up and tune out.

Is it really all that difficult to create a society where no one has to steal from anyone else to live? The wealthy would not have to give up their wealth because there would be no banks and no coins and no money exchanged anywhere. Buildings would still be planned and go up. Services like phones, power, water, food, clothing, and everything else needed would still be available. People would still work and do what they did before the need for money was tied to the stick as the carrot to motivate people to keep moving forward. No one would enslave anyone else and doctors and medicine and professionals of every stripe and class would continue to do what they chose to do. The only thing we wouldn't have is a master -- anywhere.

It wouldn't be like an all-you-can-eat buffet where people eat too much to take advantage of the deal because it doesn't last. In a world where everyone has enough it wouldn't be necessary to take more than you need because you might not ever have the chance again.

I had watched a movie where people could go into huge warehouses and take what they needed without checking out or paying anything. Walk in. Get what you want and need. Walk out. The inventory would be replenished and more would be available for the next person(s). The goods would still be manufactured and distributed and taken and the engine of the world would continue to work. People would still sweep the floors, stock the shelves, and remove the products from the shipping containers, disposing of the packaging. Food would not be wasted. People would continue to work. People would continue to pick up what they needed and garbage men would dispose of the trash. No one would need to advertise their product over anyone else's product. Quality would be maintained and no bureaucracy would need to exist to make sure no one tampered with things. Less waste would need to be disposed of because no more advertising or fancy packaging would exist. The world would be simple. People would still go into every kind of business from building and sewer and garbage to preparing and producing food. Once there was no need to compete for money and the only goal is making the product or service the best it can be, there would be no need for bureaucracies or people deciding what does and does not need to be done. The only competition would be within ourselves.

Builders would build houses. Resources would be provided to build the houses. Workers with the special skills needed to build the houses would still show up to work. People would show up to move into the house and movers would help them move. Those who wished to keep house, scrub floors, take care of children, babysit, plan parties, and everything else would be available to do the work because there are those who choose that form of work, not for a paycheck but because it is how they want to participate. There is a job for everyone and everyone gets a job. There is room for people to try different jobs until they find the job that fits.

Philosophers and artists and artisans and protectors would still exist because people would still need guidance and help with figuring things out. Nothing would change except greed and shaming and bullying. None of that would be needed. Admittedly, it would take time to get to the point where the nastier facets of personality would fade and disappear, but it's worth working through to get to a better place.

It seems naive, but it's really a simple way of life. Some people would take advantage at first as they learned that their struggles and fight to have everything would diminish with time. It isn't necessary to gather up everything when so much less is needed. So what if you don't have the latest model car or boat or plane or clothes when what you get is the best that can be made and manufactured? When there is no need to hedge the bets and cut corners to lower costs since there is no cost, the need to get the best deal fades with time because every deal is the best. Made by the best. Offered to everyone without restriction and made to last.

There would be no need for socialism or governments stealing from the rich to give to the poor because there would be no poor. Everything is available to everyone without restriction. Without cost. It would be Star Trek without replicator technology. Everything possible is made possible by someone with a dream and someone willing to make it happen.

That is the world we all want to live in an its the world we dreamed of when we were younger before we sold out or were forced to realize that even a piece of a dream will cost our souls and our integrity because compromise and money are the name of the game. I don't know about you, but I would prefer the world wake up and realize it is within our reach as soon as we decide that money is not the obstacle. What stands in our way is learning to cooperate. Not compromise, but cooperate so each person can have their dream and help someone else have theirs. When no one loses, there is no longer any need to step on anyone else to get ahead.

That is all. Disperse.

There is Always Blood

It's happened to you and it's happened to me. The car goes in because there's a noise in the engine and the minute you pull into the repair bay the mechanic starts adding up random numbers in his head. He needs to get braces for his youngest girl's teeth and his son needs new shoes and football equipment, and there's college coming up like a speeding car in the rear window. Suddenly, the little noise in the engine becomes a major repair job.

It's expected in a way because the auto repair business is a for profit concern. The mechanic has to make money, as do the bank holding the mortgage on his shop, the utility company, the phone company, and everyone else that keeps his business in business. You are a cog in that wheel.

It's the same with medical expenses. The doctor needs to pay off the student loans that got him or her through medical school, internship, and residency, and the cost of all the equipment to set up shop or dues to the American Medical Association (AMA), and hiring people to answer phones, type reports, file, fix coffee, sit with patients while the doctor examines them, utilities, phones, computers, etc., etc., etc. The doctor expects to make a profit, too.

And then there are hospitals, which seem increasingly more interested in the bottom line than actual health care. Full beds mean revenue which means the stockholders get a big return on their investment and the hospital gets to keep running. And then there are the pharmaceutical companies testing out their drugs in human trials, lots of space age technology to look inside the body and see what's going on, etc., etc., etc. The thing about technology is that one test is never enough. Where there is one, there will also be 3 or 4 or 10 more. And that's just the standard tests, like EGDs, colonoscopies, mammograms, and CT scans. There are thousands of tests and doctors like to use as many of them as possible because more complex tests means more money which is good for their children's future and getting those snazzy new golf clubs and that sports car.

Not all doctors are more interested in the bottom line than in taking care of their patients, but I often wonder which side of the fence they would land on. Diversified stock portfolios, rental properties, vacation homes, maids, drivers, etc., etc., etc. Hospitals are as bad and often worse. That whole full bed means revenue is only good for as long as the hospital makes money on them, and turning over patients is often like turning over pancakes to see if they are done, and the cook is a nervous Nelly that wants the pancakes to cook faster and faster.

Into this mix comes the Big Guilt Trip -- why doesn't America have universal health care yet? Why haven't they joined the rest of the world and jumped on the bandwagon of socialized medicine? Probably because it wouldn't make much money for the doctors paying off student loans and the hospitals paying huge dividends to the stockholders. Or maybe it's because of the socialized in socialized medicine.

Americans must want the poor and indigent to die without a doctor's care because otherwise we would have had socialized medicine by now. After all, the rest of the world (not all of it, just the socialized parts) has jumped on the socialized medicine bandwagon and we should, too. That sounds an awful lot like the arguments I used on my parents when I was a teenager. "Everyone else is going to the parties after the prom. Why can't I?"

I imagine because America isn't a follower and because universal health care has been packaged badly. There's also the question of Medicaid and Medicare, both of which have been in place since the 1960s as part of the whole food stamp, aid to dependent children, and medical care package that we bought when Johnson was president. That was supposed to cover things. Don't forget Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance that covered everything, and then came the HMOs to muddy the waters, and now it's providing health care for illegal aliens because it's the right thing to do.

HMOs seemed like such a good idea at the time. I had one; it was United Health Care, and I loved it. Low co-pays and $5 prescriptions that almost reminded me of health care when I was growing up as an army brat, except without the co-pay and paying for prescriptions. There was no cost and I got the best health care in the world, a lot of times from doctors serving a term or two in the military to pay for their medical education.

Then came the greed and insurance companies started denying medical claims because of pre-existing conditions (the ones that had been identified and treated by another insurance company or before there was an insurance company). Then came people hopping from one insurance company and HMO to the next to get the best deal. The services dwindled. The co-pays increased and prescriptions cost $50 to $150 or more a piece instead of that $5 or $10 for quality medication.

Insurance companies paid out less and demanded more, demanded higher deductibles while providing less protection and even less service. Medicaid still worked and so did Medicare, but Medicare recipients had to have another insurance company, and often 2 or 3 insurance companies to cover what Medicare didn't cover, and Medicare covered less and less and cost more and more of that slender social security check the 3rd of each month. People started taking less medication which, considering the side effects and questionable efficacy of the main medication, wasn't such a bad idea.

Into this wrangling over pre-existing conditions and dwindling service for a greater cost comes the Big Guilt Trip. We have to have universal socialized health care so that no person is left behind. Sounds a lot like the "No Child Left Behind" program that graduates stupid children who know only the answers to a test and no longer learn anything useful or become infected with a thirst for knowledge that takes them beyond the books and the classes.

We must get in lockstep with the rest of the world and provide health care for everyone, even the illegal aliens who creep across our borders to have their children in America so they can get Welfare, Aid to Dependent Children, and Medicaid. Do you wonder why Americans balk at the terms "Universal Health Care" and why they fight so hard not to fall into step with the other socialized countries of the world? We've been down this primrose path before and it has not turned out well. We've been bilked, cheated, and raped -- and no one suggested or offered lubricant either.

What looks like heartless Americans denying basic health services to the neediest among us, who by the way have good health care through Welfare and Medicaid (I've done the paperwork when I worked in insurance and doctors' offices and I know what is paid out), is a big case of "NO MORE" from people who are tired of the runaround and bills that go through Congress with so much pork and legalese it is difficult to even find the part about what is and is not covered in this universal health care plan, and the method of our continuing rape sans lubricant. We are understandably wary.

So, here's my proposal. A simple health care plan with low co-pays, say $20, and affordable prescriptions, say $10 no matter what the medication is, and everyone is covered. No fancy legalese, no pork, no hassle, and no legislative sleight of hand or BS. Everyone is covered and there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There is no clause that says mental health care is limited to 6 sessions per year or that birth control and other well care measures are strictly forbidden. Everything is covered, including dental, and the government takes 2% of everyone's income to cover the cost. There are no oversight committees and no forms to fill out for insurance. Everyone gets paid and everyone gets the health care they need.

It's a simple plan and there will be no riders, no hidden clauses, and no microscopic writing. Everyone gets on board and we do not get some retooled socialized medical plan from some other country disguised as the next best thing, and that is something else Americans are wary of -- imported, retooled, and refitted socialized medical plans from other countries.

We weren't given our independence. We fought a bloody war for it. And we were the first country to fight Britain for our independence, although not the first country to fight for its independence from a colonial nation. We were born in blood and we will likely die in blood, and it takes us a while to get what we want. It's in our nature not to trust anything that is offered with us (or offered with a guilt trip) like a man handing out candy to children from a van or SUV. We know better than to take the candy and to give the man a wide berth.

We'll get there to the everyone has socialized medicine party but we will get there in our own way and our own time and . . .

there will be blood.