It didn’t sink in at the time.  At 16 years old I didn’t have the presence of mind to understand just how much things would change.  Was it mind numbing?  Absolutely.  At 9:05 AM two of the largest structures in the world were burning right next to one another.  You knew you had never seen anything like it and you hoped to God you never would again.

They weren’t supposed to fall.

The world we live in was forever changed by that event.  Our politics are dirtier now.  The stakes seem to be higher, and the grass isn’t quite as green this side of 2001.  People have done ugly things to America and America has done ugly things to people.  In the aftermath of these events, I feel that our response wasn’t calculated.  America was not a seasoned soldier marching forward with stability, purpose and clarity.  It was a frightened child in the dark, flailing her arms about hoping that one swift motion might catch the enemy upside the head and render them stunned long enough to exact her revenge.

That enemy was never caught.  He still roams free, his mere presence proof that we aren’t as all-powerful as we might have thought.

I often wonder what we have learned from all of it.  Have we learned anything?  Have we grown from it and become more aware of the world and people around us, or has it hardened us to the point where we’ve closed ourselves off?  Have we remembered to hold our wrath for Al Quaeda and other terrorist organizations, or has that wrath grown to include an entire culture?  What should we take from all of this?

My Uncle Kenny put it best.

As the sun comes up on that morning I urge everyone to reconcile differences they may have with others and spread kindness to those whose beliefs you do not share for the rest of the day.

One thing we can all agree on: Health care in America is a joke.  Our system is a bloated, economically untenable mess of inflated doctor salaries, inflated insurance rates and inflated malpractice settlements.  It is a system that is well out of the reach of many Americans that are at the lower echelon of the tax bracket, and unfortunately many well-to-do citizens of this country stopped giving a damn about that echelon a few paychecks ago.

Something drastic needs to happen.  We need to reorganize the way our citizens obtain health care.  Our population is getting older, fatter, more sedentary and, most importantly, more are becoming unemployed.

Doesn’t it seem like an odd time in American history to be fighting against providing everyone with good health care?

I worked with a girl who was 20 years old.  She didn’t go to college and worked three jobs.  I wondered why, but it didn’t take her long to tell me anyway.  She felt she deserved the pity, and in my mind she absolutely did.  She owed $20,000 in medical bills for a car accident that she was in when she didn’t have insurance.  Beautiful girl… young, smart, funny, and for all intents and purposes done.  Done.  I know how long it takes someone that age to pay a bill like that.  I’m not so far removed from that point in my life that I have forgotten completely just yet.

There was a time in my life where I didn’t have insurance.  It very easily could have been me.

Situations like that shouldn’t even be possible.  There should be safeguards built into the system to protect people and especially young people without the means to obtain health insurance.  She didn’t work a full time job.  She was a typical young jobber.  A handful of part time gigs.  She barely made enough money to enjoy anything resembling a youth, and yet she was supposed to buy health insurance at these ridiculous rates?

Seriously?  Another budding youngster swallowed alive by the status quo.  Hey, as long as we didn’t have to pay for it, right?  That is, of course, the American way.

The backlash has been staggering.  I get that people are displeased, but it is the hatred that is remarkable.  Most of us support a public option.  That is old news.  My question is why did the remaining 25% of us decide to come to town halls meant to inform the public and just berate people?  Why are the few so much louder than the many?  What are they so afraid of?

It isn’t socialized medicine.  Its the guy in the oval office.  He isn’t one of us, you know.

Well, I say thank goodness.  He certainly would have more dignity than to show up to a town hall and spew mindless blather.  Tyranny?  Please. Hard to argue tyranny from behind a polo shirt, or so I’d think.

I’m all for a public option, and yes, I’m all for it if it costs me money.  I trust that a public option would be priced differently than the current a la carte solutions provided by the giants.  Set this into motion so we can begin the long road to health care being a socially accepted, inevitable necessity and not a luxury for those who can afford it.