Letters to the Editor
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What We Have Here is a Failure of the Imagination
George Bush has vetoed government funding of health insurance for sick American children. He says he opposes the bill on “philosophical grounds.”
How do you come up with a philosophy that denies care to children and peace of mind to their parents? Do you start out by sending time with those families and developing an understanding of their concerns? I don’t think so.
Our society today encourages the abstraction of others and obsession with self. Thus, while we have a very visceral understanding of what it would feel like to have the government “take” our money away (tax us); we have little to no empathy for others whom a program like this might benefit.
What would happen if we stepped away from our media-generated view of the world and got out and actually talked with people outside our particular demographic? (Talk to a WalMart employee about their health care concerns, for example.) Now, try and IMAGINE the trap they find themselves in and what could be done to help them. Now IMAGINE you are one of the three hundred million inhabitants of the richest country of the world. IMAGINE what is possible.