Obama’s Speech, Healthcare, and Glee
Tonight was the season premiere of Glee I have been looking forward to ever since the show premiered last May after Idol. I thought the show was at 7, so I was going to skip President Obama’s speech to watch Glee. Well, since Glee actually started at 8, I decided to watch Obama’s speech to Congress. In the end I am very pleased that I did. Obama seems to be a very good speaker. He uses timing and rhythm very effectively to make his points. He is also able to make jokes and laugh about the current and past situations. He is able to admit that he is infallible and he can give credit when credit is due such as when he would point out which Republicans had helped shape the bill.
I also like how Obama directly attacks his detractors and clears up issues. Perhaps there is just as much dishonesty in government with him in charge, I don’t know. I tend not to think so, but in any event, I love how open he is about what he is feeling and what he wants to happen. I also enjoyed how he threatened anyone else who messes with his bill, “We will call you out!” Very forceful and you can tell he isn’t going to take any more crap.
So independent of Mr. Obama’s very good speaking skills, I am not sure what exactly the answer for health care is. I do know this, I have always had health insurance. I went straight from the insurance of my parents as a child to a job where I had good insurance. I have always been able to go to the doctor when I needed to without the worry of spending too much money, I have had a child and not lost my house, I have been taking prescription ADD drugs for 5 years and have not lost my pants paying for them.
I have often sat around and wondered how people in this world can get by without health insurance and am just grateful that I don’t have to find out. So, I have to say that I feel that is a moral duty of this country to make sure that all of its citizens have health insurance. How we go about that, I am not a smart enough man to know. This exchange/public option idea seems to be a good one. It has worked other places so it could work here. I get that by increasing competition, prices could go down.
I definately don’t like the idea of the healthcare being left in our hands. I don’t always think about the fact that healthcare makes up 1/6th of our economy and we can’t just ignore it. It pervades every other thing we do and has a massive effect on government spending. When Obama talks about all of the money (ie government spending) we can save with a new plan, that makes me encouraged that maybe some of the money could get spent on schools and education.
Anyway, I was very happy that I delayed my Glee watching 30 minutes to watch the Obama speech to Congress. It is hard to believe there have only been 15 times when the President has addressed Congress like this. I guess 2 or 3 of them have been in the past decade, so it seems more common. I think he has a good vision of where health care needs to go and I feel like he will actually get it done without too much compromise. I get a sense when he speaks I didn’t get from Bill Clinton (granted I’m older) that the country is at a tipping point and on the verge of serious change. People are ready for the status quo to change (to a new, better status quo.)
That brings us to Glee. This show is right up my alley. As I was just texting with a former student, when I was in high school there was very little drama in my life and I must have felt left out, because I have entrenched myself in high school drama as an adult. I think to some extent I like to live my life as I am watching a TV show where the students are making the same mistakes you see in TV and movies all the time. The only difference is that occasionally they let me in to their world and they let me help them out and it is nice.
I think you have to be a certain kind of person to like Glee. The show takes all of the high school stereotypes and really blows them up. Then you have a lot of ensemble characters who fit these stereotypes and then these 12 main cast members who are complex and deviate for the standard cliques. Like the Quarteback who also likes to sing and the dedicated Glee leader who seems to have the perfect life but has a crazy wife I want to kick in the face. The dichotomy of worlds, in the same world, is what I love about the show and about a lot of the teen movies I love that are just like this.
Having said Glee. The 3 month anticipation for the new episode of Glee was well worth it and I hope this show has a long and happy future on my TV. We got to find out tonight that Lea Michele who plays Rachel Berry (The girl who wants the quarterback but can’t have him) is a tremendous singer!
So, there you have it, three unrelated topics all tied together.
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Tags: congress, exchange public, glee, health insurance, Obama, president
