Opuscula It’s not 1984: Big Brother Has Arrived

THE GOVERNMENT IS TRYING to protect us.

The question is: Who is protecting us from the government?

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is deciding to protect us from ourselves. Ronald Reagan

 

IT STARTED WITH FDR.

Before Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, people generally took care of each other.

Granted, the country found itself in a depression brought on by greed and lack of concern for our neighbors. The whole world suffered.

So FDR initiated a number of social programs, including Social Security, the TVA, WPA, and a host of more “alphabet soup” organizations, many of which linger on even today.

(At the same time FDR was creating “make work” programs for Americans, he kept Jewish refugees from Germany at bay by closing the borders to them.)

Another three-initial president, Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJ, gave us Medicare, a social service into which citizens pay and pay and then, when retired, CONTINUE to pay — more every year.

Unfortunately, we — Americans — brought some of this on ourselves.

We allowed technology — that “miracle” that was supposed to save us time and money — to take over our lives . . . and our wallets.

Doctors DON’T know best

I am about to travel overseas for six months.

My Spouse and I have a Medicare Advantage plan that is SUPPOSED cover our prescription medicines, BUT when my Spouse tried to get a Vacation Override so she could get two 90-day supplies — enough to last six months (180 days by my count) she was denied.

The insurer also claims we will have emergency coverage while out of the insurer’s coverage area. But only for five (5) months. I’ll bet the insurer collects from CMS for the sixth month!

After going around and around with the insurance company, she discovered that the most she could get would be a 5 month supply of medications. The insurer told my Spouse that it would terminate her coverage if she was outside of the company’s service area for six months.

Understand, that she could be back on day 179 and needed her pills until she could get a refill from the pharmacy.

ONE DAY and the insurer refused to give the override.

None of her medications are narcotics.

To be fair, there was a person at the insurance company and another at the pharmacy that did their best to help my Spouse. The insurance clerk was about the 15th clerk with whom my wife spoke. Getting to the helpful clerk was a several-day process.

MEANWHILE, SEEING THE PROBLEMS MY Spouse encountered, and knowing that I have far less patience that she, I contacted my Primary Care Physician (PCP) and asked that he write a script for double the number of pills — from one-a-day to two-a-day. That way, my normal 90-day supply would last 180 days.

The pharmacy refused to honor my doctor’s order.

The insurer told the pharmacy that what my doctor did was “unethical.”

Again, no narcotics. Nothing to sell and I’m certainly not about to OD on a diabetes pill.

Still, it failed to meet some esoteric law in place to protect me.

The insurer knows better than my doctor how many pills I need? My insurer has never examined me and I doubt it ever has seem my laboratory results.

I’m 78 years old and I don’t think I need protection from myself; but I’m not so sure I don’t need protection from The Powers That Be.

Something new? Hardly

There was a time when a committee of prudes determined what made-in-America movies could include. Married couples had to sleep in twin beds or, Hollywood forbid, if they managed to share a double bed, each bed partner had to have one foot on the floor. (How did movies ever have babies in them?)

Liberals run amok Let’s rename Washington D.C.

ANOTHER STATUE HAS BEEN brought down, this time Silent Sam¹ whose only “crime” was wearing a Grey uniform.

Most of those who enlisted in the Confederate army never owned a slave. Those who owned farms were “red necks” because their necks got burned red from working the fields.

ON THE OTHER HAND

The city of Hollywood FL recently purged its streets of Lee, Hood, and Forrest because two were Confederate generals (Lee and Hood) and one, Forrest, was a general and later founder of the KKK.

Never mind that Lee and Hood fought for a principle other than slavery.

Slavery did play a role in prompting the war, but there were other issues, including states rights that the Federal government was usurping. Had slavery really been the issue, Lincoln would have issued his “Emancipation Proclamation” before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter.

IF TRUTH BE TOLD

If truth be told, the leftists pulling down statues of Confederates – generals and privates alike – are NOT protesting slavery. It has been outlawed since the passing of the 13^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution on December 6, 1865.

If the liberals were honest, they would admit their real raison d'être is to wipe out a part of U.S. history.

If they are successful, American blacks will lose, since their contributions to the nation will be subsumed as well.

If we can agree that the real goal of the leftists and history deniers if to remove slave owners from U.S. history, then it would seem appropriate that their first goal would be to rename the nation’s capital.

Washington owned slaves.

According to Wikipedia², Hollywood needs to rename at last 12 more streets to be “slave-owner-free.”

Both leading generals in the war owned slaves, but no one seems to criticize U.S. Grant.

As an aside, Arlington National Cemetery, in which NO Confederate soldier is buried, is the former estate of Gen. Robert E. Lee; his former home can be seen on a hill overlooking the cemetery.

Given that 12 U.S. presidents were slave owners, perhaps the liberals who want to rewrite history should set their sights on renaming all the cities, towns, and streets currently bearing the slave owners’ names.

Rename Washington D.C. as just “D.C.” Washington State will have to be renamed; perhaps using its nickname, “The Evergreen State.”.

How about renaming Georgetown (MA and KY); several forts named for the first president must be renamed. There are at least eight other cities and towns that honor slave owner Geo. Washington. And all the streets. The sign makers and cartographers will rejoice.

What about the Washington Monument. (And Jefferson’s as well?) Tear them down?

Pull down the statutes and take down the paintings, especially the one’s of General George standing in a row boat – bad form and dangerous, too.

And all those statutes and images in schools and government buildings.

Missouri will have to rename its capital. Jefferson may have more cities, towns, and streets named for him than even Washington³. Likewise, his portrait hangs in many public buildings. Pull them down.

So far, only two presidents have been addressed. There are 10 more to go.

Then we have all the Confederates, officers and enlisted – both white and black. (Yes, Virginia, there WERE black troops wearing Grey uniforms.)

In addition to the slave-owing presidents, there are many towns and streets honoring Confederates. In Charleston WV there are three statutes on the State House lawn: Stonewall Jackson, Lincoln, and a Blue coat soldier⁴. Further along Kanawah (pronounced Ka-naw) Blvd. is a small area dedicated to the men who chose to wear Grey. The monument includes the name of a black man.

The monument is so unobtrusive that unless anyone walks along the boulevard, most people don’t know it’s there.

The people pulling down statutes of people they know little or nothing about, who lived in different times, are most kindly described as “ignorant.” They simply don’t know, nor do that want to know, the history of the country.

To them, it seems that all they know about slavery is Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

No one will argue that some slaves were mistreated, but consider: a slave was a major investment. A smart slave owner would never mistreat an investment anymore than a modern farmer would allow a tractor to rust or the engine to freeze up due to lack of maintenance.

The reality, despite what some hate mongers would lead us to believe, is not Uncle Tom’s Cabin any more typical than Uncle Remus (Song of the South) represents the life of all slaves on a plantation is typical.

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/ycchozk4

2. http://tinyurl.com/ycoumxe5, http://tinyurl.com/y7ut8uv4 , http://tinyurl.com/y9k5bgpl

3. http://tinyurl.com/ybxs54xr

4. http://tinyurl.com/y9t3catf

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