History Lesson Unlearned

Today I was moved to deliver the following history lesson, since it is a pretty significant day in the history of Europe as well as America.  We faught so long and hard to defeat fascist oppression in Europe and helped to liberate so many souls. I have concluded the lesson with what some might call a “rant” with my own opinions and concerns about the significance of tomorrow’s historical remembrance and just what lessons I think we can learn....or better said....SHOULD HAVE LEARNED...from it.

This past Monday, January 27, marked the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. Over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives there. Auschwitz was one of a network of concentration and death camps operated in Poland by the Nazis during World War II. The first of these was established in 1933 at Dachau shortly after Hitler’s appointment as Germany’s Chancellor. It originally housed political prisoners, those who had opposed the fascist Nazi movement. As time went on more camps were set up for the primary purpose of housing those who were deemed undesirables by the Nazi party, including Jews, homosexuals, foreigners, people of other than German ethnicity, and various types of political prisoners.

The main purpose, originally, for these camps were to incarcerate people whom the Nazi regime perceived to be a security threat. Eventually the camps came to be used to eliminate individuals and small, targeted groups of individuals by murder, away from the public and judicial review, and to exploit forced labor of the prisoner population.

Eventually the Auschwitz complex was built and became part of Hitler’s “Final Solution “. The term “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was a euphemism used by Nazi Germany’s leaders. It referred to the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. It brought an end to policies aimed at encouraging or forcing Jews to leave the German Reich and other parts of Europe. Those policies were replaced by systematic annihilation which resulted in the death of over one million human beings at that camp alone. It should be duly noted that Auschwitz only played a part in this “final solution”. The Holocaust museum puts the total number of murdered during the Holocaust at 17 million: 6 million Jews and 11 million others, including foreigners, political opponents or dissidents, homosexuals, and people with disabilities.

During the time that these concentration and death camps were being built and, then in full operation,  the vast majority of German citizens continued to go about their daily lives seemingly oblivious to the atrocities being carried out around them. A large majority of them were fully taken in by the lies being told to them about the danger to their way of life that the Jews and other “undesirables” presented.  Hitler’s support among the German citizenry was massive and as it grew no one who opposed it was safe to express their opposition. Hitler would hold rallies regularly to preach his evil agenda to the willing ears of his faithful followers who, because of the fears and resentments that he had stoked within them, began to worship him almost as if he was God. They came to view him as the Savior of the German people.

When I see how the Trump supporters in America today react to the lies that Trump tells them through his tweets and at his rallies, it is easy to be reminded of the lessons I’ve learned from studying the history of the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany. Trump stokes the same fears, resentments and hatred in the hearts and minds of his followers today as Hitler did to the German masses 80 some years ago. Trumps followers, including the most fervently, self proclaimed “Christian” people in the land have bought what he is selling 100%. Some believe he was sent by God to save America’s soul. The blasphemy is astounding to me. The one thing that we have working in our favor is that the percentage of the citizenry in America today who support their tyrannical, demagogic leader, seems to be around 40%, which pales to the 90% of Hitler’s cultish followers.

Still, whether it be 40% or 90%, isn’t it just as evil to support evil in either case? When those first individuals were packed off to Dachau in 1933 the German people seemed either unaware or uncaring, for the most part, and some, I’m sure were in full support. How is that any different than today’s America where we now have, on any given day, over 2,000 children, of all ages, infant on up, separated from their families and housed in concentration camps? Our government is careful to call them detention centers, but history tells us what they really are. Only 40% of our people claim to support Trump, but by my best estimate, based on the blatantly abhorrent lack of outrage and protest against it, over 90% of Americans just... don’t ....care...that this is happening in America, and far too many are in full support of it.

How is that different from Germany 80 plus years ago? The answer is, it is not, it is the same. Shame on us! Are we not better than this? Evidently not! Are we not America, the home of the free and the brave were liberty and justice prevails? The shining city on the hill, and a refuge for those yearning to be free?  Evidently not anymore! If this is what we have become today, what are we to become tomorrow.  I must tell you, it scares the hell out of me and it should you too.

~ Dane Knutson, Progressive, Christian, Patriot.

Keep Your Dobber Up!

One evening in late May of 1962 I had gone with my Dad to watch an amateur baseball  game at Island Park in Windom, Minnesota.  I had just finished my freshman year of High school and about one week earlier I had played my last game of the high school baseball season (Minnesota high schools sponsor a spring baseball season in April and May).  As a freshman I had played centerfield that season on the varsity baseball team, which sounds impressive until you realize that Heron Lake (my hometown) was, and is still, a relatively small community and the junior class that year was completely devoid of athletes.  I don’t remember how many seniors we had, but the majority of the team was made up of freshmen and sophomores.  We didn’t win a lot of games, but we did have fun.  At least, I know I did.  I loved baseball and I had come to love playing centerfield.  At that time in my life I still had dreams of making it to the big leagues someday, and in May of ‘62 I thought I was on my way.

Early that evening I noticed that Dad was talking to a man that I thought I had seen before back in Heron Lake, but I didn’t really know.  A little later my dad and the man walked over to where I was sitting and my dad introduced him to me.  His name was Don Steen. Dad said he was the coach of the Heron Lake American Legion Baseball Team.  Don shook my hand and told me that he had been watching me play that spring and that he was impressed with the way that I played centerfield. He asked if I had planned to play legion ball, as he would like to have me patrolling centerfield that coming summer.  Being a farm boy back in the ‘50s and ‘60s I hadn’t even been aware that Heron Lake had a Legion team.  I’m not even sure that I knew what American Legion baseball was, but I did know that I loved playing baseball and if this was a chance to play all summer long, I was all for it.

That was my introduction to Don Steen, a man who was to have a profound influence on my life.  I played Legion Ball for Don for the next four years.  From Don I learned many things.  Always pay attention, always give your best effort, always run all out to first base, even if it’s a pop fly on the infield because you never know if the ball will be caught, never give up on anything, always throw to the right base, keep your head in the game, and, if you make an error, strike out, or make a bone headed play, “keep your dobber up!”

That was Don’s favorite expression.  “Keep your dobber up”.  It meant shake it off, stay positive and keep your head in the game.  Just think about the life lessons that can be learned from those four little words.

When I turned 18 and graduated from High School my American Legion playing days ended too.  I was off to college that year with plans and dreams to become a teacher and a coach.  One early spring weekend during my freshman year of college I ran into Don and as we talked about my future coaching aspirations he asked me if I would like to consider taking the job as Heron Lake City Recreation Program Director in the coming summer.  It would involve leading the town’s kids in various activities each day, including coaching the “mites” and “midgets”, Heron Lake’s version of Little League Baseball.  He told me that he thought I would be a perfect fit for that job and he emphasized that it wasn’t just because  I wanted to be a coach, but it was also because he felt that I had the right maturity and sense of responsibility to handle the job.  I was pretty shy back then and I had never had anyone tell me such things.  In retrospect, I think Don had the ability to see something in me that, up until then, had been hidden from everyone else.  Don promised to give me as much help and advice along the way as he could, but the day to day job directing the program was mine. 

He also told me that he was going to make me a co-coach of the Legion team, which he did.  There were several times those two seasons when Don would say that he couldn’t make a game or practice due to other commitments and I would have to run the practice or manage the game myself.  That always made me a little nervous because a number of the kids that I was coaching in Legion Baseball had been teammates of mine just a year or two before.  Again, thinking back, I know that Don did that on purpose to just give me those experiences.  The confidence that he showed in me by doing that was priceless.  No one before that had ever put so much trust in me.

Eventually I graduated college and came back to Heron Lake in the summers and played on Heron Lake’s newly formed Amateur team, the Heron Lake Lakers.  I never had enough confidence in my ability to play college baseball, so I never tried, but when the Lakers were formed I felt like giving the game a try again after four full years of not playing organized baseball of any kind.  The first time I stepped into the batter’s box in a Laker’s game I recalled everything about what Don Steen had taught me about hitting.  Hold the bat at about chest level, not too high, only big strong big leaguers can hold the bat high, keep your weight evenly distributed, keep your eye on the ball, when you start to swing stride toward the ball with your lead foot, shift your weight to the back foot, level swing, try to hit it up the middle.  On the second pitch that I saw I hit a line drive past the pitchers ear and into centerfield.  That was my welcome to Amateur baseball.  I played two and a half seasons  with the lakers and hit over .300 each summer batting lead-off and playing mostly at 2nd base.  A younger, faster guy was now patrolling center.

Early in that third summer I decided to go to grad school and eventually met my wife, got married and never played baseball again, but I would see Don from time to time when I’d get back to the Heron lake area.  The last time I saw him he was in his 90’s and in failing health.  I was at the reception after my Nephew Logan’s high school graduation and Don and his wife, Laura (who had been my 7th grade English teacher) were there.  I spent some time talking with them and had a chance to tell him what he had meant to me.  I told him that he was the best coach I had ever had in any sport.  That, though he had been a stickler for details and had been intense and demanding, he had also been positive and encouraging.  I also told him, that at a time in my life when I needed it most, he had encouraged me, supported me and believed in me.  I let him know how grateful I was for that and I am equally grateful that I had that chance to tell him so.

Don passed away due to complications of heart failure Wednesday night, at the age of 93.  Since hearing that news it’s been hard for me to “keep my dobber up”, but I’m giving it an all out effort and I’m trying as hard as I can.

Wake Up and Care Americans!

American's need to wake up, and when they do they need to start caring about what has happened to this country. Our Democratic Republic stood for well over two hundred years, but in recent times the democratic principles upon which it was built have eroded faster than the polar ice caps. There is no democracy when our congressional, two party system functions only as the paid servants of the moneyed interests that control them, and there is no democracy when the voice of the people falls on the deaf ears of the people that were elected to represent them.

America has become an oligarchy, run by the NRA, the Pharmaceutical Industry, The Military-Industrial Complex, the Banks and Financial Institutions on Wall Street, and a few others. 

When our founding fathers established the United States of America back in 1776, they established America as a Democratic Republic. Central to the Constitution that they created was a system of representative government. A system in which people elect their lawmakers (representatives), who are then held accountable to them for their activity within government. Representative government has, from that time onward, been widely accepted as the only practicable form of democracy.  The key is that the elected officials in a Democratic Republic are to be held accountable to the people who elected them.  In other words, they are to represent the needs and the desires of those people.

Clearly that is not happening in America today, and I'll give you a few examples.  Let's take the whole issue of gun control.  As I stated earlier, the NRA is one of the moneyed interests that are currently running this country by buying off politicians.  Here's why I say that.  According to the NRA's own figures, the NRA has a current membership of approximately 5 million people.  The adult population (people over the age of 18) of the United States in 2016 was approximately 250 million.  So the NRA membership, if you do the math, represents around 2% of the adult voting population.  According to a 2017 Quinnipiac poll 68% of Americans favor a ban on assault rifles in America and 74% say that Congress needs to do more to prevent gun violence.  So why is there absolutely no Congressional action ever taken to curb gun violence by our Congress, even after mass shooting upon mass shooting?  Why aren't our elected representatives acting on the needs and desires of the majority of the very people who elected them? Could it be the millions of dollars that the NRA distributes to those representatives each year (98% of which goes to Republicans) to protect the interests of the NRA?  You bet it does....and that's not democracy.  When an organization that represents just 2% of the voting population dictates the laws of the land by buying off the people who were elected to represent the majority, we do not have a functioning Democratic Republic anymore.  Not at all what the founding fathers had intended.

The pharmaceutical industry is another one of the major moneyed interests that are really running this country these days.  In America we have the highest health care costs in the world and much of it is due to the extremely high cost that we pay for medications.  I can vouch for this myself as I currently take a medication for Crohn's disease that retails for approximately $1800 for a one month supply.  Being on Medicare I currently only have to pay just under $700 per month, out of pocket, for that medication.  Big bargain?  Not when you realize that in Canada, or Mexico, or anywhere in Europe, that very same drug retails for under $250 without health insurance.  With health insurance in those countries it is virtually cost fee to the consumer. 

It's easy to understand, then, why in America medical expenses account for approximately 62 percent of personal bankruptcies, according to a recent Harvard University study. We are the only modern, industrialized, technologically advanced country in the world without a universal health care system despite all of the studies that show that universal health care works great with much lower cost to individuals and to the respective governments of Canada, Australia and virtually all of Europe.  Additionally, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted on June of 2017, 57 Percent of Americans favor a Medicare for all type of health care system.  Why are health care costs so high here and why, if the majority of Americans favor a move toward universal health care, are we not moving in that direction in the United States Congress?  Could it be the huge amounts of lobbying money that big pharma puts into the pockets of our elected officials in exchange for allowing them to continue to profit off of our sick and elderly populations.  You bet it is!

We can begin the process of taking our country back by voting out the vermin in Congress this November. Do some research and then make informed voting choices on election day. Research the campaign contributions made to our elected "officials", and don't vote for anyone who has taken large sums of money from the NRA, Big Pharma or Wall Street Bankers, etc. Start writing letters to those "officials" and let them know what you plan to do in November. Urge them to support legislation to overturn "Citizen's United", the Supreme Court decision that has allowed this oligarchy to take root. (If you are not familiar with Citizen's United...Google it...now!) Make the voice of the people rise up again. Don't ignore what's happening anymore and don't let them ignore you anymore. 

All that it takes for evil to win is for good people to say and do nothing. That is more true today than ever before. That's why we're in the shape that we're in today. That's why America is no longer the "shining city on the hill", the beacon of liberty, the most respected Democracy on the planet. The rest of the world is watching. It's time to restore Democracy. Now! In 2018. You can't just "sit this one out". This is WAY too important.

Support Peaceful Protest - Support America

 "What makes America great is peaceful protests and exercising your constitutional rights."   -  Mathew Dowd


The current person who holds the highest office in the land wants to make saluting the flag and standing for the National Anthem mandatory.  Here are some countries, past and present, that enforce(d) such a rule: Nazi Germany;  The Empire of Japan (WWII vintage);   The U.S.S.R.;  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (That's North Korea if you are unaware of their official title); The People's Republic of China.  This is just a partial list.  

What else do they have in common besides compulsory obedience to their flag?  They are all totalitarian governments, some fascist, some communist.  Their people have no freedom and they pay a heavy price for non compliance.  Is this what we want for America?  I believe Trump does and he has given so many indications in the last nine months that this is the kind of America that he seeks.  His insistence that NFL players stand for the flag and anthem is just the latest and just as egregious, if not more-so, than the others.  

Our Constitution guarantees the right to free speech and peaceful protest.  And, never forget that our country was created out of protest and made greater along the way by brave patriots who were courageous enough to stand up to injustice. 

Instead of channeling our anger toward those who protest against injustice should we not be directing it toward those who would take their right to protest away?  Should we not, as  citizens of a, still free, nation be listening to their call for justice, seeking to understand their grievances and joining them in seeking ways to alleviate them?   If we truly believe in liberty and justice for all, as stated in the Pledge of Allegiance, can we, should we, just ignore the oppression of any individual citizen or group of citizens in this nation?

I keep hearing from those who tend to be a bit too caught up in nationalistic mentality, the kind that believes in the "my country right or wrong" mantra,  that the athletes who are protesting are playing a game and making millions of dollars doing it.  Why should they protest?  The people who question this just don't get it. The athletes protesting are not doing so for themselves, they are representing a race of people who have been oppressed in this country since before it was a country.  Recent events, many detailed in news accounts and on social media,  have shown that the progress that we once thought we had made in ending racial discrimination has regressed dramatically.  Perhaps we never did make any progress at all. As representatives of people of color in this country these athletes, because of their fame and notoriety,  have some influence that others might not have to call attention to these injustices, and they have stepped up to do so. 

We must respect the rights of those who would "take a knee".  To do otherwise is to disrespect the rights of any citizen to speak freely and protest any grievance peacefully.  We can either do this or we can follow Trump's lead and move closer and closer to becoming a totalitarian state.  We can go one direction or the other,  we cannot go both ways.

Stupidity Reigns Supreme

Look, I'm no Einstein, so this might sound a little like the pot calling the kettle black, but I've come to the conclusion that we have far, far too many really stupid people in America.  Here's an example.  According to one poll that I saw yesterday only 20% of Americans view the Republicans latest attempt at health care reform, the Graham-Cassidy bill, favorably.  That's just one out of every five Americans (hey, maybe I am Einstein).  No matter how many ways you look at those figures, you've got to come away with an understanding that the American people don't much like the Graham-Cassidy bill.

Now, you would think, that in a Democratic Republic like the United States, where representatives are elected by the people, for the people, to serve the people, that those folks in the Senate would have the brains to say, "Hmmm, the people don't much like this bill, maybe we should come up with something else."   But do they?  

Heck no, what they do is to continue to sing the praises of a bill that will take health care coverage away from millions, including, I'm thinking, most of the 20% who say they like the bill ( I refer you to my opening statement) and will give huge tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the country.  You would think that these senators who are pushing the bill forward in spite of its extremely low approval ratings would understand that forcing something so unpopular onto the people who don't want it would cost them in the long run.  Wouldn't you think, if you were them, that doing such a thing might result in lost votes?  Like, maybe after the next election they might be out on the street looking for a real job? 

So, who are the stupid ones here, the people or the Senators in question? The answer is, it's not the Senators.  They know exactly what they're doing and it's not necessarily because they're smart.  It's because they are devious, dishonest, hypocritical and corrupt. (I have a friend, named Steve, who likes to call them things like selfish, mean spirited, dick nosed asshats).  You see, they are smart enough, and greedy enough, to know that it's not the will of the people that they need to have on their side, it's the flow of big money that comes to them from those same billionaires and corporate entities that expect to profit so greatly by the passage of the evil legislation.

You see, we are not any longer truly a Democratic Republic.  We began to lose our grip on that noble form of government back in the 1980's during the Reagan administration and "Trickle Down" (voodoo) economics.  Since then we have become an Oligarchy, a nation ruled by money, or more accurately, by the people with the money.  Republican lawmakers know one simple truth and it works so well for them......"take care of the guys with the money and they will take care of you" .  Old man John Q. Public be damned. They know that he can't do them any good anymore; he's yesterday's news, no longer relevant.  Useless to them, and that is why they present for a vote, such a blatantly evil bill that, if it became law, would do serious, serious harm to the poor, the sick the disabled and the elderly.  Those are the people that the Bible refers to as "the least of these".

In my opening paragraph I said that too many Americans are stupid.  Here's why I said that.  Whether the Graham-Cassidy bill ever becomes law or not those twenty percent that support it, even if they lose their health care coverage because of it, will continue to vote republican. Another 20 to 30 percent of the eligible voters in this country (these are people who never liked the bill in the first place and will be hurt by it just as much as those people in the first 20 percent group) will vote to return these same law makers into office the next time they are up for reelection.   You see, at least half the people in the country are getting royally screwed by a corrupt system, one that they have the power to change with their collective votes, but they never will, and the beat goes on.

If you knew a guy who continually shot himself in the foot every time he cocked his rifle and never realized that it might be a good idea to point the barrel in another direction, you'd probably call him stupid, wouldn’t you?  I rest my case.

On Exercising Constitutional Rights

"To Sin By Silence When They Should Protest Makes Cowards of Men"  - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/ellawheele135434.html

To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/ellawheele135434.html

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” -  The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Colin Kaepernik, and now a host of others, have been exercising their right to peacefully protest, a right guaranteed to them by the first amendment.  Unfortunately the “wanna-be” dictator in the Oval Office has shown, once again, his lack of understanding of the Constitution and his utter disdain for the principles of fairness and justice that it stands for. 

This began as a protest against a rash of unarmed black men being killed by overzealous police officers, in other words a protest against racial injustice, something that has plagued this country for some 240 years. It has nothing to do with disrespecting the flag and it certainly has nothing to do with these NFL players hating America. My guess is, like me, they love this country but, because they do, they feel the need to speak out when they see injustice, just like any other citizen might. After all, it is a right that they have guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. 

Attempting to frame this as disrespecting the flag or the military is dishonest and ignorant and shows some degree of brainwashing by right wing propaganda. Stop being mislead. It's time that we all get serious about the real problems facing this country. Peaceful protest against injustice is not one of them.....the injustice itself is.

Personally, I'm not a fan of protesting during the National Anthem and I have respect for the flag and what it represents, but it is just a symbol. I am a veteran myself, although not a veteran of war.  I do, however, believe that our veterans fought, and many died, in order to preserve, not the flag, but what it stands for. Our country was founded on the self evident truth that all are created equal, and that all of us have certain rights.  Those rights are pledged and affirmed in the Constitution of the United States.  Among those rights, as stated in the first amendment, are the right to freedom of speech and the right to express grievances.   

Therefore I respect the right for people to protest peacefully in any way that they feel they can draw attention to their grievance.  I think that's what Colin Kaepernik was doing when he first took a knee. He publicly stated as much. It is his right and it doesn't offend me. In fact, it perhaps could be argued that it is his duty as a citizen of this free country to do so. I am much more offended by those who would take that right away from him.

As twentieth century writer Robert A. Heinlein, stated it "Patriotism is not 'my country right or wrong'; patriotism means loving the ideals for which America stands and having the courage to speak up when these ideals are distorted...".

Our bully in chief in the White House only served to escalate the protests (as we saw on Sunday) and further divide the nation by his outrageous, angry, crazed speech on Friday. He is dividing us like nothing ever before and he’s doing it on purpose just to fire up his base and bask in their cheers like the attention seeking narcissist that he is. Unfortunately many sheep are following. This does not bode well for our future.

The Unalienable Right To Good Health

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Hopefully you will recognize the words above from the Declaration of Independence. They are important words and the document that they were written on is, perhaps, the most important document in the history of this country.

If life, liberty, and happiness are indeed  important, then it stands to reason that health, which dictates the quality of our life and determines our ability to enjoy liberty and pursue happiness, is equally crucial to our welfare.

Therefore I contend that among the self evident truths implied in the Declaration of Independence is an unalienable right to good health.  In a civilized society we should all be looking out for one another, taking care of those who are sick or suffering, those who are hungry and destitute, those who are weak and elderly. Not only is this right implied in our nation's Declaration of Independence and Constitution, but it is also repeatedly mentioned in the Bible.  Consider these three examples:

"Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy."   -   Proverbs 31: 8-9

"Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute."  -  Psalm 82: 3

"He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right."  -  Job 36:6

More recently the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been quoted as saying,  "Health is not a consumer good, but rather a universal right, and therefore access to health care services cannot be a privilege."

If Jesus Himself did not believe that every man, woman and child had the right to good health then why did he heal the leper, the blind man, the paralytic, the man with the speech impediment, the man with the withered hand.  Why did Jesus heal virtually everyone who came to him with a sickness, disease or infirmity?  He must have felt that good health was the right of all people.  If He felt that way, then shouldn't we?

Why is it that the Republican party does not believe this?  A larger question, and one even more egregious in my estimation,  is why do so many conservative "Christians" support the Republican party when the Republican party's callous disdain for the rights of the poor, the sick and the elderly are so obvious and pervasive?  How can people who claim to follow Jesus marginalize the weakest and most vulnerable in our society and judge them as unworthy of the right to adequate health care?  These same people support a political party that would take billions of dollars away programs designed to lift up the poor and cure the sick in order to provide more wealth to the wealthy.  How can that be justified in any way, shape or form?  The Bible is also quite clear about the evils of supporting the wealthy at the expense of the poor.

Every man, woman and child in our country should be able to access the health care they need regardless of their income.  The time is long past for a single payer, universal health care system in the United States.  The time is long past for the United States of America to catch up with the rest of the modern, industrialized, civilized world.

Other nations, such as Canada, Australia, and virtually all of Europe, have long provided universal health care with good results so there is no reason to believe that it cannot work here. In fact, the only real hurdle to achieving health care for everyone, and better health care overall, is a stubborn, suppressive, and regressive Republican party and it's misguided pseudo "Christian" followers who will do anything that they can for the rich while doing virtually nothing for "least of these".