Obama healthcare brings this blog back from the dead

OK, if Obama's healthcare plan can bring this blog back from the dead, maybe it can do something positive for this country...Well, that is a little far fetched.

My life has been so busy over the last year that I decided that this blog (which had barely started) was an unnecessary distraction that I needed to let go. Over the past few months, something has been growing and growing inside me though, and I now have to follow my gut. So, without further ado, I am re-entering the blogosphere and voicing my concerns and triumphs, my pain and sorrow, my happiness and joy (hopefully there will be lots of that, but I sincerely doubt it).

Healthcare...

Against my better judgement, I listened to the speech given tonight by President Obama on healthcare. An interesting thing happened to me as I listened...I grew more and more frustrated and realized that I cannot keep my mouth shut any longer. There was a particular line in there that really irked me and got me thinking...

"We are the only democracy, the only advanced democracy on Earth, the only wealthy nation that allows such hardship for millions of its people."

First of all, we are not a democracy, we are a republic. There is a big difference, but that is not what I want to focus on right now. When I heard this line, I immediately thought about the uniqueness of our country. We are different from everyone else...we allow people to fail. We allow people to make decisions and then pay the price or gain from those decisions. That is why the United States has made the incredible strides in quality of life and science and business and everything else. We allow people to succeed.

Well, maybe I should say that, in the past we have allowed anyone to succeed or fail as they chose. I don't believe we are that same country now that caused the cry of liberty to be heard around the world so many years ago. We have become great because of our freedom to become great. With that freedom to become great also comes the freedom to fail. That is a hard lesson for most of us. I have experienced both the failure and the success of my choices. I left a very good job with excellent benefits to join a startup company that I strongly believed in. Six months after joining them, we ran out of money. For the next year and a half I worked many long days trying to get a product out the door that I thought would change the world. For over a year and a half, I was either not paid or paid a tiny fraction of what my salary was supposed to be. By the time that product was ready for market, we had no money to let anyone know. Through management decisions and a market climate that was hostile to our idea, we eventually failed. My life savings was gone...my 401k was down to $152...we had nothing left except our house (which we were able to save). The only job I could find was as a temp working in a job I had done 7 years earlier. It was a job I hated with a passion. I had quit that job twice when I was doing it before. I took the job...I felt a responsibility to take care of myself and my family. From that job came another job...at about 30% less salary that I had been making the year earlier. I took it. I worked my way up in that job, I went to another one. It took me 6 years to get back to the salary I had left when I went to the startup...but I did it. It was not easy...but I did it. I did it with the support of my family and my wife, my church and my friends. I am successful not because of the skills I possess, but because of the work I do continually to gain those skills.

OK, that was a really big sidebar to what I really meant to talk about, but it shows you what I believe in the core of me, that the Constitution of the United States of America gives me the freedom to achieve whatever I want to achieve...if I work hard enough. But, I said earlier that I'm not so sure that this is the country I am currently living in...here is an article that supports that opinion...

Swiss topple U.S. as most competitive economy

Because of the policies of this nation for the last 12 years at least (yes, I include George W. Bush in this) and the what had been a slow march to socialism until recently, I believe the U.S. has lost much of it's competitive edge. I still believe very strongly that even though many of our freedoms have been taken away (both directly and indirectly through legislation and judicial decision and our general laziness) we still live in the greatest country on this earth. People from all over the world want to come to the United States for the opportunity it provides. I don't know how long that can last though. The reason we have been so successful over the years is because we have generally been free to pursue our goals and dreams. I am afraid this will soon be over.

Obama lamented that we are the only country in the world that could allow suffering like this to happen...I see that not as a mark of shame, but a badge of pride. With potential for greatness comes potential for failure. Those of us who are successful should absolutely help those who are having difficulties, but if you want to see more about my feelings on that, look at my earlier post on my belief on giving.

Wow, maybe my daughter is right...I could never be a teacher because my class would never get out on time. I never even made it to healthcare. I will pick up on that tomorrow. If I don't stop now, this post will have to be put into chapters...

goodnight.