As I watch the impending train wreck of payoffs and bribes, double counting, and six years of services paid with 10 years of taxes, of tax increases during an economic downturn and with unemployment still high, of freedoms stripped from Americans, of the threat to healthcare as we in America know it (and we know it pretty well), I thought of two cultural references that captured the moment for me. The first, from Joni Mitchell and her Big Yellow Taxi:
"Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." The second, from Charlton Heston, featuring a lady friend from France:
I know, American medicine isn't "paradise." Right. Just like Churchill's formulation on democracy, it's actually the worst system in the world ... except for all the others. Although, with the way Congress has approached this issue maybe the American representative democracy ain't all it's cracked up to be.
I hope to have a lot more to say about all this soon, but business has been crazy lately, and with holidays upon us I've been over my head with responsibilities. But hey, Merry Christmas everyone.
