Day: August 28, 2008

Kos ♥ Schweitzer

The Montana State House is a relic from a bygone era — it sports little security. Really, nothing more than two bored looking cops at a desk in the center of the main floor rotunda. They didn’t even look up as we walked in. We followed someone’s instructions to the governor’s office, where you could just walk in. [Governor] Schweitzer tells the story of the tourists he once caught in his office eating lunch at his conference table. They had a great conversation until the tourists asked Schweitzer what he did for a living.

kos has more Schweitzer stories.

Heck of a job, Goodie

As reported by the Dallas Morning News:

But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain’s health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

“So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,” Mr. Goodman said. “The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

“So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.”

Not only is the above immoral and duplicitous, it’s not even true. Can you get physical exams at the E.R.? Can you get blood pressure medication from the E.R.? Can you get insulin at the E.R.? Can you get continuing skin cancer prevention from the E.R.?

Good speeches you might have missed

While the nitworks and cable news channels keep yammering about what someone will say or what they meant when they said it, the speeches and other events proceed. Two speeches Wednesday evening that didn’t get much coverage but deserve your attention were Major Tammy Duckworth and Senator John Kerry.

No, really, that John Kerry.

The highlight of the evening for this 10-year vet of parochial schools was the benediction when Sister Catherine Pinkerton came out, started to begin, then without a word, just stared at the delegates and crowd until they became quiet. Then Sister began her fine prayer. I’ve been on the receiving end of that stare a million times.

Thursday, Olympic gold medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson will lead the Pledge of Allegiance and Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson will sing the National Anthem. You can see it all on C-SPAN, no ads, no commentary, no interruptions.

I have a dream

The conclusion of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech in Washington 45 years ago today (and worth reading every year).

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!” And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring — from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring — from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring — from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring — from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring — from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that.

Let freedom ring — from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring — from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring — from every hill and molehill of Mississippi,
from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

“Free at last, free at last.

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”