Can Be Done
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
We sure have had a lot of fretting and fussing over health care these days. It seems like a no-brainer that the richest nation on the planet could figure out how to make sure every citizen has basic health care. It seems like it would be barbaric not to do so. One of the biggest objections is that people who make over $250,000 per year will have to chip in some more.
The struggle brings to my mind two people with seemingly little in common. The first is a prophet named Isaiah and the second is a comedian named Steve Martin.
A long time ago this prophet, Isaiah, had a message to the Jews from God. To summarize it he basically said that God was sick and tired of the Jews playing at religion. God didn't want to have anything more to do with them. Here's what He literally said: "Put away your misdeeds from my eyes; cease doing evil." Makes sense. What were the misdeeds? Here is what He said: "Make justice your aim: Redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow." It sounds like the Jews were ignoring or maybe even exploiting the weak and poor.
Then there is Steve Martin. A while back he made a movie called "The Jerk". In it Martin, a white man, is raised by a black family. He thinks he is black. Martin, a goofy simpleton, leaves home to find out he is not black and ill-equipped for the world.
Somehow he invents an absurd device which attaches to eyeglasses. It becomes a roaring sensation until consumers become cross-eyed and sue his company out of business.
But there is a time when Martin is filthy rich and begins to have a series of greedy and disreputable people show up at his mansion begging for money. One of them is the southern actor Hoyt Axton who shows up in his cowboy hat, boots, and Texas accent. He pleads with Martin for a hand-out. He desperately needs money. He begins to weep over his plight. Basically, here is what he tearfully says in his southern drawl: "The leather seats ... (tears), the seats are cracking in my airplane ... I'm ashamed to fly my friends around in it. I need me a new airplane ... (more tears) ... ." Martin is taken in and gives him the money.
Most of us around here don't have airplanes of course. We just have late model Escalades and Beamers. So the questions in my mind are, what would Isaiah say to us and what might we say to Steve Martin?
David C. Kolbe
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
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We sure have had a lot of fretting and fussing over health care these days. It seems like a no-brainer that the richest nation on the planet could figure out how to make sure every citizen has basic health care. It seems like it would be barbaric not to do so. One of the biggest objections is that people who make over $250,000 per year will have to chip in some more.
The struggle brings to my mind two people with seemingly little in common. The first is a prophet named Isaiah and the second is a comedian named Steve Martin.
A long time ago this prophet, Isaiah, had a message to the Jews from God. To summarize it he basically said that God was sick and tired of the Jews playing at religion. God didn't want to have anything more to do with them. Here's what He literally said: "Put away your misdeeds from my eyes; cease doing evil." Makes sense. What were the misdeeds? Here is what He said: "Make justice your aim: Redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow." It sounds like the Jews were ignoring or maybe even exploiting the weak and poor.
Then there is Steve Martin. A while back he made a movie called "The Jerk". In it Martin, a white man, is raised by a black family. He thinks he is black. Martin, a goofy simpleton, leaves home to find out he is not black and ill-equipped for the world.
Somehow he invents an absurd device which attaches to eyeglasses. It becomes a roaring sensation until consumers become cross-eyed and sue his company out of business.
But there is a time when Martin is filthy rich and begins to have a series of greedy and disreputable people show up at his mansion begging for money. One of them is the southern actor Hoyt Axton who shows up in his cowboy hat, boots, and Texas accent. He pleads with Martin for a hand-out. He desperately needs money. He begins to weep over his plight. Basically, here is what he tearfully says in his southern drawl: "The leather seats ... (tears), the seats are cracking in my airplane ... I'm ashamed to fly my friends around in it. I need me a new airplane ... (more tears) ... ." Martin is taken in and gives him the money.
Most of us around here don't have airplanes of course. We just have late model Escalades and Beamers. So the questions in my mind are, what would Isaiah say to us and what might we say to Steve Martin?
David C. Kolbe
Warsaw, via e-mail[[In-content Ad]]
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