Lions and Eagles

A Facebook poster made this comment on a discussion about "health care as a human right": Rights are something that emerge over time, but only after a fight of one kind or another. Consider the right to vote, for example. We have expanded that right over time, at least in modern industrialized countries. With regard to healthcare, the argument is whether we as a society are ready to acknowledge (or grant if you prefer) that right for every person. We can certainly afford it. It is only a matter of priorities. I was inspired to give this reply: Judith: You and I have different concepts of what rights are and where they come from. I'm not saying this to pass judgement, just to point out that we are going to come to different conclusions from our different starting points. I underst and that you believe rights are something created or granted by society, or government. From my perspective, rights are something transcendent, something intrinsic to what it me...

I have submitted this as a Letter to the Editor at the Citizen . This is in reply to the Jan. 4th letter to the editor, " Thanks to 'our wonderful' Obama ". A reader thanked the President for an increased Medicare check she recently received. Here's the thing: The money didn't come from Obama. As my parents taught me, money doesn't grow on trees. All money in the government treasury comes from taxing, and borrowing against future taxes. Ms. Zeldin: Decades ago, before I was old enough to work, politicians told you a lie. They said that if you would just pay your Medicare taxes into the system, they'd pay you back when you got older. You were told that if you would just accept the additional taxation, you wouldn't have to pay for your own medical care in retirement. It was a scam, a Ponzi scheme. They took the money and ran. Now you're being paid back, not with your own tax money, but with mine. Now, that's bad enough. I understand,...