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Even Republicans deserve quality health care
Published Saturday, October 10, 2009
OK, it was wrong of me to say last week that we should deny health care to Republicans except for aspirin and hand sanitizer, and thank you to the many readers who kindly took me to task. It was so wrong. And I withdraw the idea that death panels should circulate through red states searching for the obese and slow afoot, the wheezy and limpy, spray-painting orange stripes on their ankles, marking them for future harvest. That was very, very bad.
Republicans have the same right to quality health care as anyone else, and you can quote me on that. Even people who are crazed stark raving berserk by the thought of a president with three vowels in his last name deserve to be treated with kindness and dignity, and shot with tranquilizer darts by game wardens and wrapped in quilts and taken to refuge.
What has come along to change my mind? Fall, magnificent fall, in all its grandeur, when the maples are blazing with glory, like young romantic poets dying as they are writing their best stuff. John Keats died at 25, Shelley at 29. Stephen Crane was 28. Franz Schubert was 31, and Mozart was just a young married guy with a couple of little boys, neither of whom did much in their lives. One of them had musical talent but was crushed by the burden of his father’s fame. (Great men probably shouldn’t have children, so keep that in mind if you are young and wildly brilliant: Use a condom.)
The maple trees stand in the yards of we stolid Midwesterners and they cry out for unbridled passion and heartbreaking beauty and fabulous golden yellows and blazing reds, and they tell us to quit our jobs and fly away in pursuit of hopeless romance and a life of dance and poetry and spending your life creating masterpieces that the world will ignore, and of course we don’t listen to the bad advice of trees, we go right ahead fixing our children’s lunches and arranging little enriching experiences for them and asking them what they want to be for Halloween, and then the rain falls and the wind blows and romanticism is gone, a heap of rotting leaves on the ground. Sic transit gloria mundi, pal.
Garrison Keillor, The Old Scout
That is what fall means in St. Paul. It’s maple trees telling us about mortality and that life is short and can’t be put on Pause and each of us is as fragile and forgettable as a maple tree. We go racing past them fighting our petty battles for power and parking spaces, and then we die (arghh) and people glance at the obit and if you’re young, like Keats and Shelley, they feel a little twinge, and if you aren’t they don’t, and then they go back to telling their kids about the importance of correct spelling and grammar, which every good parent should do.
In the great contest of autumn — Art & Adventure vs. Parenthood, Hitting the Road In Search Of The True You vs. Attending Parent-Teacher Conferences & Hearing About How We Need To Work On Sharing — Republicans vote Neither. They’re mostly about maximizing profit in the short run. They are the folks who buy a healthy company and then sink it under an enormous debt load that goes to pay them a vast profit even though the company is sinking, and the creditors get shafted.
They are the ones who are dead-set against government regulation and do not mind manufacturing hamburger patties contaminated by E. coli, and if someone becomes terribly ill from eating one — a young woman in Minnesota almost died from a Cargill hamburger and will likely never walk again — nonetheless Republicans remain staunchly opposed to G-men snooping around the slaughterhouse, and so I should never eat another Big Mac or Whopper or any other ground meat other than that ground from whole sirloin by a butcher as I watch. Never.
We are back to the 19th century so far as meat is concerned. This has been accomplished by those incredibly rude men who occupy first class on the airplane and elbow themselves ahead of elderly women in line as they yammer into dangly cell phones. They have nothing to do with art and even less to do with bringing up children. They are a danger to society and an embarrassment to their children. Nonetheless, if one of them falls down with a heart attack, he should be cared for, same as anyone else.
Garrison Keillor is the author of “77 Love Sonnets,” published by Common Good Books.
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Comments
Posted by NoDFL (anonymous) on October 10, 2009 at 3:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why is this idiot still in the paper. He is the reason I quit taking the paper. Wish he would have not gotten such great care at Mayo. Why did he go to Mayo? They do not support the President's plan. He should have refused to go. Wait he can not stand by his beliefs can he.
Posted by Pierre (anonymous) on October 10, 2009 at 4:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why? Because its an OPINION page. Got that? OPINION. Knowledgeable people that read Keillor or any of the other OPINION columnists(left or right) know that its his OPINION. This isnt a front page news story. It's an OPINION.
Is the paper only supposed to run articles that happen to say favorable things about your own particular party or viewpoint?
Opinion columnists, on both sides, SOMETIMES make very viable points and shed light on why they feel about an issue. This, in turn, will help a person to better build a better argument for their own viewpoint...or...on rare occasions ...maybe even change their view on an issue.
In short...just Stick to the front page if you dont want someones OPINION.
Posted by BabyGotBack (anonymous) on October 10, 2009 at 6:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Can't you get some younger, hipper, columnists to balance this out? No offense to the AARP members out there but it would be nice to have some diversity. Speaking of that, maybe get someone of color to have a column?
Posted by canarybird (anonymous) on October 10, 2009 at 9:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you, Pierre. Last time I checked, we all still had the right of free speech in this country. And shame on you, No Dfl, by saying you wish he hadn't gotten such great care at Mayo, I can only infer that you were wishing he died. Because he has an opinion that differs with your own; you wish he had died. Next time, just skip his column.
Posted by ctnpsqrl (anonymous) on October 11, 2009 at 2:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank you, canarybird.
nodfl - don't you ever get tired of hearing yourself whine?
Posted by bornFree (anonymous) on October 11, 2009 at 11:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BGB, I agree, maybe Walter Williams, If you havn't read him I would like to encourage you to, BTW, he's Black, not that it makes any difference.
Posted by bornFree (anonymous) on October 11, 2009 at 11:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
canarybird you said that if we didn't like Keillors column to do the following "Next time, just skip his column." That's a GREAT idea, gee, I wish I would have thought of that.
Posted by bornFree (anonymous) on October 11, 2009 at 11:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This interesting, are the Liberals now just catching on?????
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/hea...
Posted by BabyGotBack (anonymous) on October 11, 2009 at 3:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thanks bornfree. I have actually heard of him. He has some interesting viewpoints, especially for a black man, but makes some interesting points. I don't agree with all of his views but he has points on education and makes you think about affirmative action. At any rate, would make things more interesting than this guy. No offense to GK fans, but when I think of GK, I think of older, white men thinking he is funny/amusing. Not my cup of tea.
Posted by mar (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 4:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
That's great Pierre. Careful with your words BabyGotBack....you request a person of color and then respond back...."especially for a black man". Maybe just worded it wrong? I stand by Pierre's statement. And Columnist should be of any color, race or sex....or age. I think that no matter who it is, their opinion will help develop others to think and form their own opinion, which keeps the world thinking and learning. yeh!
Posted by mar (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 4:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Sometimes my first opinion changes after I get responses from other people...this can be a good thing (sometimes a little embarrassing, but no one can see me blush on here) Don't want to be opinionated.
o·pin·ion·at·ed ( -p n y -n t d). adj. Holding stubbornly and often unreasonably to one's own opinions.
Posted by BabyGotBack (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 9:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
mar - "Person of Color" can be anyone who is not white. For example, someone like me who is bi-racial. I am a person of color (I am not white) but I am not fully black either. Unless I have the wrong person, Walter Williams is black. He is not white to my knowledge. If I have that wrong, my apologies.
I was just saying some diversity would be nice. Or even just someone younger and hipper no matter what color they are. GK just seems like he appeals to older white men. Sorry old white guys! :)
Posted by MITCHRAPPGUY (anonymous) on October 13, 2009 at 1 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hey, white is a color. No big deal, I just didn't want to be excluded from these clubs that are forming up. You know the ones, those that label me (or you, or that other person sitting over there) as something unique.
I think we look too hard into the corners to insure that we have a balance of feelings and equalities in the world. Maybe it makes some people feel better about themselves, but not everyone needs to earn a trophy in kids soccer. How about earning respect through deeds and achievment, and by overcoming obstacles along the way, regardless of stereotype? It seems the current encouraged way to earn status and position by more and more people is by leaning on the crutch of racism. Its not necessary.
By the way, back to the column, I am an older white guy who GK does not appeal to: he is so full of himself that he sued his neighbor for building an addition on their own house that interfered with "the sunshine into his lot", and then paid them off to cease construction. In this column, the hypocrite sites others pushing through first class, yet I have seen him in 1st class several times, in fact riding in one of those annoying beeping carts in order to get to the gate.
He plays this role of a curmudgeonly rural sentimentalist hero, (Lake Wobegon my butt), but those that have seen him in action know him for the snobbish boor that he really is.
Posted by BabyGotBack (anonymous) on October 13, 2009 at 6:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mitch - You are correct white is a color but "person of color" typically refers to someone that is not white. Just an expression, not meant to exclude. And I agree that people should earn respect through their actions. However, sadly, there are some people that are truly racist so no matter what you do, they will not like you if you aren't white. Personally I handle it by saying it is their issue, not mine.
Posted by MITCHRAPPGUY (anonymous) on October 14, 2009 at 8:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
BGB, I was being glib on the white color comment, as I find those that play that game annoying and pathetic. In reading your posts, you seem to "get it" and refuse to make this an issue in your life. Good for you.
Great example, Tiger Woods, refuses to be drawn into the political arena, and is being carefully coached by those around him not to get drawn into taking positions for others benefit. He simply wants to be known as Tiger Woods, the golfer, not Tiger Woods, the "black" golfer as many want to label him. He believes that the whole issue is nonsense (technically, he is mostly of Asian heritage) and this should not be anywhere near a key issue in his life.
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