Relevant Quotes for Today

"This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory" -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933.

"It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.

"The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor -- these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship. The savings of the average family, the capital of the small-businessmen, the investments set aside for old age -- other people's money [OPM] -- these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in. Those who tilled the soil no longer reaped the rewards which were their right. The small measure of their gains was decreed by men in distant cities. Throughout the nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.

"For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor -- other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.

"Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of government. The collapse of 1929 showed up the despotism for what it was. The election of 1932 was the people's mandate to end it. Under that mandate it is being ended.

"These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for...

"The brave and clear platform adopted by this convention, to which I heartily subscribe, sets forth that government in a modern civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens, among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster.

"We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization...

"Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes--better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity [love] than the consistent omissions of government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny" -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1936.

You have been reading excerpts from The 2008 Presidential Election Handbook and Commentary: The Connection to Hope, available at www.healthylivingusa.com/theconnectiontohope, www.amazon.com or your local bookstore.

Healthcare - A Bittersweet Noun

PR Log (Press Release) – Apr 21, 2010 – Senator Teddy Kennedy carried the life of universal healthcare in his soul for decades. Just months after his passing, universal healthcare was born and is now a full-fledged noun that is carried in the soul of a nation.

On March 23, 2010, at 9:03 A.M., President Barack Obama signed the historic national healthcare bill, The Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act - Public Law 111-148, amid fanfare, jubilation and the Obama campaign slogan – “yes we can;” while stupefied opponents in other corners of Washington and beyond threatened immediate repeal – as though the concept operates in Washington. The “full-fledged bittersweet noun” is impacting some Americans in a curious way.

It took sixty-five years and five attempts to pass a national healthcare bill in the United States of America. President Truman was the first to ask Congress to pass national healthcare legislation in 1945. President Nixon was the second; followed by Presidents Carter, Clinton and Obama.

Because healthcare costs now represent seventeen percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), President Obama and the 111th Congress acknowledged the need of a comprehensive healthcare bill, in spite of unprecedented partisan opposition. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the non-partisan independent reporting agency within the legislative branch of the United States government that was created through the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, did an analysis of the bill and reports a savings of $143 billion in the first decade and $1.2 trillion in the second.

The first national healthcare proposal was vehemently opposed and described as “socialized medicine” when the mere mention of the word “socialism” conjured up hatred and disdain due to world conditions at the time. Truman eventually backed away and focused on healthcare for the elderly through the Social Security Act. The second and third healthcare bills were quashed with promises of self-regulation by insurance companies. The promises, however, went the way of the legislation. The fourth attempt alienated the small business sector and died a slow dead amid the replay of self-regulation. The fifth attempt faced fierce partisan opposition that was derailed by sheer courage on the part of its proponents.

Fundamental changes in the healthcare industry will be made incrementally through 2014 to create a safety net for all American citizens throughout the generations. The process of change, if done correctly, will fine-tune healthcare like a musical instrument before the symphony. Such sweeping legislation has not been passed in the U.S. since President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act of 1935 and President Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965.

The next step in the process, according to Linda E. Schexnayder, author of The 2008 Presidential Election Handbook and Commentary: The Connection to Hope (The Connection to Hope) published by Healthy Living USA Publishing Division Nevada, is to prompt the American people to embrace healthy living as a personal responsibility. She believes there is a linkage between chronic illness and polluted air, contaminated water, and chemical–laden food.

“A robust Healthy Living Public Service Campaign by radio, television, Internet, national mailings and conferences should be launched immediately to help American citizens equate healthy living with the cost of healthcare reform. Thus far, the conversation has leaned toward training more doctors, nurses, technicians and other medical professionals, but it must lean more to the prevention side of reform. All Americans must have access to clean air, pure water, whole food and physical education to avert sickness and disease—we can no longer consider it a niche market. Behavior modification in cooperation with national healthcare is expected. And as behavior changes, industries will grow and jobs will be created to the benefit of the economy. Who wins? Everybody does—the individual and their family, the employer, the insurance provider, the government and the economy,” Schexnayder said.

But who will undertake such a public service campaign that clearly must engage through the next decade? Who will approach Congress, FDA, and EPA to request or demand legislation and regulations to ensure America’s access to quality air, water and food? Who will advocate air purifiers, water filtration systems, organic food, and personal fitness?

“Land of the free; home of the brave” is a truism of America that’s been demonstrated so many times in the past by honorable men and women of all races and creeds that one could say it’s irrefutable. But today, Americans find themselves being measured again—in the arena of healthcare.

Will Smith's Wisdom