UNITED STATES OF BIGOTRY
Hundreds of years ago, Jews began to migrate into Europe. They found prejudice and bigotry everywhere. To survive, they found a kink in the armor of all these "proper" Christian Europeans. Their Christian puritanical streak would not allow them to loan money at a profit or interest. Christian principles had nothing to do with it, it was a way for the rich to remain with their riches and for the poor to stay poor. The Jews, who had no such double-standards and hypocrisy in the matter, found that they could make a living by giving out loans at a rate of interest. Thus evolved the Jewish businessman. The hypocritical Christians never fully forgave them for "taking advantage" of the hypocrisy, and bigotry fluorished through pogroms and other atrocities aimed at Jews. The Holocaust was the culmination of "Christian" retribution against the Jews for being less hypocritical and making a profit from it.
This European hypocrisy naturally found its way to the new United States of America. American founders wrote lofty ideals into the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. However these neat sounding ideals did not translate to blacks, Chinese, Hispanics, or women. From Day One, the United States of America has lived a lie. Minorities, including gays, have had to fight hard for their rights. Yet the Constitution was supposed to protect the rights of minorities. Tell that to the "Real Americans" who think otherwise, and pass judgment on minorities of various stripes, including our current President. To read American history is to read the history of a nation whose struggles have been dominated by bigotry, hatred, attempts at exclusion, violence against minorities, racism, sexism, ageism, ad infinitum. Pick up an American history textbook and see it boldly dominating.
Make no mistake about it, the current health care reform "debate" has a great deal of the negative foundation in the ingrained bigotry and class warfare of the past in the U.S. The modus operendi of the opponents of health care reform think nothing of broadcasting outrageous lies and distortions. And many do it in the name of their Christianity. Ask yourself, what would Jesus do? Do you think that the Jesus of Nazareth portrayed in the New Testament would approve of 50 million uninsured Americans, another 50 million underinsured, of insurance companies refusing to cover many illnesses, of the atrocious profits being made on the backs of the sick, of the lies being announced, about the absolute insensitivity to people in need? Is this the Jesus of the Book?
As a patriotic American, I am pleased to give you a quote from one of our Founding Fathers, and I ask you to reflect on it as you evaluate the needs of ALL people residing in the United States:
"The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian religion." -John Adams. That quote gives me some hope.
