Fair and balanced no more!

I amaze my friends when I tell them I listen to conservative talk radio and watch Fox News but I like to keep one ear on the other side of things. This country seems to be oddly and impossibly split right down the middle and has been for years so it should be of interest to all of us to try and keep abreast of the issues. However, lately, the great divide is no longer interesting. It has become predictable, boring and in some cases, unintelligible. Take for instance, the debate on health care. There are simply no solid figures to support the claim that European "socialized medicine" is inferior to the free market structure we currently employ. But all it takes is a unified voice - even if it's totally false - to convince a broad number of us to fear a fabricated conclusion. From what I can understand, the purpose of reform is to help insure those who are not currently insured. Logically, the more health care that reaches the masses, the less we spend on the disastrous results of an unhealthy populace. "But health care is not a right!" they will cry on talk radio....this is true but can you look a dying person in the eye who can't afford dialysis and tell him or her "it's not your right to have this treatment?" This is the thing that is beginning to turn my stomach with these conservative views: everything can be reduced to ideology and principle. But the fact is we are talking about people. I guessing that reality is just too harsh for idealogues to deal with so they stick to the "principle" in order to avoid the psychological or spiritual damage that would result if people got in the way of their good and just order.




No, I'm done with trying to stay "fair and balanced." Their voices are angry, shrill, and mean-spirited. I've begun dialing the radio over to classical music and letting Mozart or Debussey help me escape the assault on common goodness. We don't debate anymore in this country...we choose sides, dig trenches and then lob any kind of weapon we can in the direction of the enemy, formerly known as "fellow citizens." From what I can tell, and I hope I'm wrong, this society of ours is officially in decline and we need someone to lead us out of it with a voice of hope, confidence and mercy.