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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Military Pregnancy Ban: Have Your Say

Now that you've read the opinions of our panel regarding this topic, have your say by leaving a comment.

4 comments:

  1. Art HastingsDecember 23, 2009

    So far, we commentators on American Currents haven't often diverged much over the topics we've been handed. But Austin Lee's post today is so wrong-headed, in so many ways, that I had to speak up.

    The variables he mentioned would all be suitable points to bring up in a court-martial in defense of the accused (although difficult to prove!). He makes his first big error in equating hiring methods in the private sector - or even other branches of the government - with military service. Superiors in the Army have every right to demand things of underlings that would be unthinkable in almost any other workplace, and they do. (How many other professions routinely send employees out to kill other human beings and risk getting killed?) And they have every right to. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been illegal in all workplaces BUT the military for many years; IN the military, rightly or wrongly, it has been grounds for instant dismissal.

    Finally, Lee goes completely off track with a tangential and irrelevant example that is also based on a false premise. What planet do you live on, Austin - what have you been smoking - that you actually believe a majority of Americans are against health reform? I can tell where you get your information simply by your use of the bogus buzz phrase "government health care," which means something if you're talking about veterans hospitals, but is utterly meaningless if you're speaking of general health care reform, which I suspect you were.

    And if your garbled language cloaks the notion that a majority of Americans are opposed to health care reform, then I'd like to see your evidence. There's no doubt a majority of Americans don't understand any of the proposals raised in the House or Senate or by the Obama administration. There's no doubt they've been repeatedly confused and misled by propaganda circulated by everyone from corporate advertising to Ms. Sarah "Death Panels of 2009" Palin. But there also should be absolutely no doubt that a majority of Americans want health care reform, and significant reform.

    In mid-August, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted by Bill McInturff and Peter Hart found that 60 percent of Americans say the U.S. health care system needs either a complete overhaul or major reform. Shortly thereafter, a CBS News poll found 82 percent of Americans calling for the system to be completely rebuilt or fundamentally changed.

    It's true, more recent polls have turned up split opinions as to whether the bills making their way through Congress are acceptable, but that's probably because many of those opposed feel too much has been given up -- that the legislation doesn't go far enough anymore. A mid-December poll conducted by Research 2000 for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America found that only 33 percent of those polled would support health care reform that does not include a public option and does not expand Medicare. In other words, people are opposed to what's going on in Washington because it's not good enough.

    My copy of the Oregonian daily newspaper this morning says the average couple over 65 will have to deal with $250,000 in health costs under the present system. Todd Trierweiler, a Portland bankruptcy lawyer says only 2 percent of his clients were 65 and older back in the 1980s, and now it's 7-10 percent, because "A lot of times they've lost their pensions because of the economy and they've lost their homes ... But I would say a huge segment of the people I'm seeing is because of medical" debt.

    I sincerely hope you don't have to wait until you or someone you love is faced with a medical crisis with massive bills that you cannot afford, Austin, to find out how wrong you are.

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  2. GranOf4December 23, 2009

    Bravo Austin Lee! Obama puts his hands in the military and women lose their right to give birth (such a shocker considering his love of abortion)!

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  3. Art HastingsDecember 24, 2009

    And GranOf4 contributes another uninformed comment. I'd be willing to bet, especially given the protests to the announcement from various parties stateside, that Obama had absolutely nothing to do with General Cucolo's announcement, and no foreknowledge of it. And, GranOf4, are do you also disapprove of the fact that, in keeping with military policy, the general's office also issued a letter of reprimand to a male soldier who got another serviceperson pregnant . . . in an act of adultery? :

    http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=23983

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  4. austinkleeDecember 25, 2009

    I probably should have clarified that the majority of Americans are against the current legislation passing through Congress. Good catch Art.

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