The Bill Is Bigger Than The Bill

I saw two men yesterday who couldn't help but force a reflection regarding yesterday's historic vote. The first was at Home Depot. He was a white guy maybe some younger than I. He was wearing a hoodie and I think cammos. He was wearing one shoe. The bare foot was all black and blue. He started murmuring about how he wished he could get a girl to find him attractive... The second was a gentleman whom I could not help but refer to as "Mister Magoo." He was crossing the street and was on a medical-issue stainless-steel cane. He was limping, but you just knew that his problems went far deeper than a bum leg. You could tell it required a lot of strategy for him to cross the street. Before the light turned green my way he had actually made it, and he walked over and started looking at a bus schedule. My thought on both of these fellas was jeez, somebody ought to help that guy. This, I think, will be the consequence of yesterday's historic vote in the House of Representatives—and I think the Republigoats understand this—that, while the bill itself is a paltry version of what it needs to be, its overall cultural impact will be quite effective at carrying its reforms further. What this country has become was illustrated quite vividly in this video, in which a man—apparently a victims of Parkinson's disease—sat down to counter-protest and was mocked severely by a bunch of ugly white boys:

But that is what this country has become, in regards to most issues, but especially on the issue of health care: The expectation is that care requires dollars, not that care will be forthcoming regardless of the depth of your pockets. Love or hate Olbermann's hour-long rant on this subject, recently replayed on MSNBC, but his allusion to Dickensian Britain was no stretch. Scrooge lives. And today, he sarcastically hurls dollar bills at a sick guy. Rep. John Larson, head of the Democratic Caucus, today lists ten immediate changes you'll see now that reform has passed. They are striking improvements to be sure. But I hope and believe that the passage of this bill, as imperfect and incomplete as it is, will accomplish a larger net effect than its provisions. I hope and believe that people will see the changes, will feel the changes, and that tides will turn; that Americans will cease thinking of health care as just another commodity.