"A quiet life of family and church (and hunting and fishing)..." what a romantic picture. It's a post card-esque summary of the man's life that doesn't touch the complexities and complications that define the human existence. And after 40 years of supposed quiet family, church, hunting and fishing, Collier finally "Rose to take the microphone and firmly, but courteously urged..." Is this not the Rockwell painting?
And what makes Collier's humble existence any more legitimate than the millions of Americans who, like him, live humble quiet lives of family and fishing and can't afford their ever-rising premiums? That answer is best left to Kevin Sack and the New York Times.
To call it a "legitimate fear" that the country may end as we know it if we create a cheaper, higher quality health care system is fraud. The fears about the British and Canadian health care systems have been disproved over and over again. The fact that America already rations health care is clear.
For what we spend on health care, twice as much as countries like Germany, who cover ALL of their people and report high satisfaction with their health care system, we deserve far more.
However, I don't think the Times is free of bias on health care reform. I have published four or five articles in the last dozen weeks highlighting the Times unfounded narrative of "growing anxiety" about health care reform even though a poll in June found that 76 percent of Americans support a public plan option and a poll conducted last week found that 77 percent of Americans support a public plan option.
The Times is a struggling corporation, which just recently threatened to shut down the Boston Globe over union negotiations. The insurance industry is a bustling business with extra millions to spend on advertising in...say...newspapers?
Now, I'm not saying that the fix is in at the New York Times, but I'm saying it COULD be. In a short search of the Times archives over the last several weeks, I found 13 articles that advanced the "growing anxiety" and "growing fear" narrative.
Of course the Times can hide behind Krugman and editorials that sound liberal, but it is the "straight news" reporting with this drumbeat of gloom and doom and these Norman Rockwell narratives of opposition to health care reform that are so insidious that they just might work in turning opinion against reform.
And what makes Collier's humble existence any more legitimate than the millions of Americans who, like him, live humble quiet lives of family and fishing and can't afford their ever-rising premiums? That answer is best left to Kevin Sack and the New York Times.
To call it a "legitimate fear" that the country may end as we know it if we create a cheaper, higher quality health care system is fraud. The fears about the British and Canadian health care systems have been disproved over and over again. The fact that America already rations health care is clear.
For what we spend on health care, twice as much as countries like Germany, who cover ALL of their people and report high satisfaction with their health care system, we deserve far more.
The Times is a struggling corporation, which just recently threatened to shut down the Boston Globe over union negotiations. The insurance industry is a bustling business with extra millions to spend on advertising in...say...newspapers?
Now, I'm not saying that the fix is in at the New York Times, but I'm saying it COULD be. In a short search of the Times archives over the last several weeks, I found 13 articles that advanced the "growing anxiety" and "growing fear" narrative.
Of course the Times can hide behind Krugman and editorials that sound liberal, but it is the "straight news" reporting with this drumbeat of gloom and doom and these Norman Rockwell narratives of opposition to health care reform that are so insidious that they just might work in turning opinion against reform.
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