Every once in a while you hear or watch something that brings tears to your eyes. Dan showed such kindness with his gift to Mira that you cannot help but to feel a sense of happiness and elation that people like Dan exist in the world. It was truly a selfless act of humanity for a person who was almost a stranger. It is hard to imagine the type of person who would submit himself to major surgery in order to improve the life of an acquaintance who he probably never spoke to outside of the market. Not only did Dan do a wonderful thing but he involved his family in the generous act and by doing so enriched the lives of his children as well as Mira and himself.

In a perfect world this would be an easy question to answer. Of course, everyone should have healthcare! How can we possibly deny any human being the right to medical services? If a person is in our country, whether a citizen or not, whether illegal or not—they are still people and should receive the very basic elements of humanity. But, we do not live in a perfect world. The altruism reflected in these sentiments is noteworthy but are we really prepared to face the consequences of our selfless decisions. The reality is that it has taken decades to pass the recent health care law that mandates health care coverage for uninsured Americans. I believe that the issue was first discussed by Franklin Roosevelt when he was President. The American people still remain divided on the very simple proposition that all Americans should have coverage. Raising the issue that all immigrants should have coverage significantly raises the ante on this topic, both in social terms and economic cost.
I think that it is important to distinguish between ideal world and the practical world. Much of the debate over insuring the 30 million uninsured American citizens has been over whether offering coverage will overwhelm our health insurance system and who will pay the cost. President Obama’s response has been that our healthcare system can pay for the additional coverage itself. The system can be streamlined, fraud can be eliminated, and the savings from eliminating uninsureds’ visits to hospital emergency rooms, for minor problems, will all result in substantial savings. If the President’s projection is correct we may be back to the perfect world. My guess is that the world is not that perfect and it will take a substantial infusion of money to fund the coverage implemented by the new law. So now we are in the practical world. I do not know how much it would cost to insure everyone on American soil but I know the cost would be significant. Who would pay the cost? Should only legal immigrants obtain coverage or should everyone be covered just because they are here?
Being practical certainly has its drawbacks. I feel terrible, but I think I would vote against healthcare coverage for immigrants who are not legally in the United States. Even if only legal immigrants (or visitors) were granted healthcare coverage the cost could be immense, not only in terms of dollars but also the system’s ability to provide medical services to so many people. Maybe we should start by just complying with our current law and offering medical services to good, old fashioned, legal Americans, and see how it goes. Perhaps it will work out to be cheaper and better than many seem to think. If this is the case I am all for altruism and healthcare for all—as long as it does not cost me too much!

I think that most immigrants come to this country to better their lives and the lives of their families. The United States has always been the place where someone can rise from humble origins to become successful, productive or maybe just satisfied, with a good life. Although some immigrants may think it is easy to earn a living, most would likely realize that it takes hard work, perseverance and maybe some good fortune to be a “success.” I think that hard working people who are trying to improve their lives should not be criminalized by a system that forces them to utilize a process that is difficult and expensive. When a person proves that she will be a productive member of society this should pave the way for her to achieve her dreams.

I think the fact that human beings are able to deal with the knowledge that we will all die and that our deaths may follow that of our loved ones is an amazing feat. How does one get up every morning just knowing that parents, children, spouses and friends are all dying? We just do not know the timing. When we do suffer the inevitable loss we take time off school or work to deal with the emotional turmoil. Eventually, we get back to our normal lives. It is incredible that people have the ability to revitalize their emotions, when at the time we face our personal losses we feel we will never recover. When we hear of natural disasters and the loss of many lives I think we all suffer but are able to segregate those feelings from the more intense feelings that concern those who are more personal to us. This is probably a good thing. Otherwise we would be mourning every day and we would never actually have the opportunity to live.

I do not for a moment doubt that there are countless inmates in our prisons who feel deep regret for their crimes and their victims. For those who cannot engender the lament for their crimes I would presume they at least have remorse for being caught and incarcerated. But then, I digress. The posting by this inmate does not surprise me at all. Just because a person has committed a crime and is serving a sentence does not mean that the individual is devoid of human feeling or compassion. In fact, I would assume that, for many inmates, the difficulties of prison life, accompanied by the concern for those family members left to fend for themselves, has made them more considerate and kind hearted than they were before encountering prison life.

There are different personalities in prison as there are in the outside, free world. I am sure that many prisoners are repeat offenders, have committed heinous crimes and are absent any form of remorse or consideration for others. Others, however, may be first time offenders who got overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment, did something wrong and now are serving their time. I have heard that most of the murderers serving time in prison are first time offenders and knew their victims. If this is true, it is likely that their emotions got them into trouble initially and it would not be a stretch to assume that those emotions still exist, notwithstanding incarceration.

I think that human beings need to associate with others. I assume that satisfying this need is very difficult in prison and that having a “true” relationship is rare. This does not mean that the need disappears. The example of the two enemies in the posting indicates that the men continued to harbor social needs to associate and friend others. The horrible loss suffered by the one convict was enough to open the heart of the other and allow them to share the loss of the man’s son as well as their other concerns. Leading a solitary and lonely life without family or friends cannot be easy.

I think the blog is interesting because it reminds us that some or maybe most of these inmates are not animals. Even the worst of the inmates is likely to show compassion given the necessary stimuli. Criminals are sentenced to prison for several reasons. They include punishment for their crime, the protection of society from their harmful ways and supposedly, to rehabilitate them and eventually make them productive members of society. While the rehabilitation of “lifers” may not help society particularly, I would like to think that prison life includes more than just society’s retribution for a person’s crimes. It would be nice to think that prison actually improves its population, makes it find compassion and ultimately turns its members into productive members of society.

The human will to survive is powerful. The Haitian people are living through a horrific experience and their ability to create a business and social structure in the midst of their devastating losses is incredible. The statement that there is more business competition now than there was before the earthquake is truly remarkable. It is interesting that society finds a way to develop, even in the worst of times. People are resourceful. I would not think that people without clothing, food or other necessities of life would line up for a pedicure or a hair treatment, but maybe it is these luxury items that make their hardships more endurable. I am impressed with the salon owners that were smart enough to envision the need and competent enough to deliver it.

How could we not create terrorists? Although accidentally, we kill women and children. We destroy homes and families. Local inhabitants of any invaded land are naturally hostile to their intruders. The antagonism increases substantially when innocent individuals are poorly treated and many times, maimed or killed. In any armed conflict the opposing forces create enmity towards each other. These bad feelings only increase when one side, as is the recent position of the United States, depicts certain countries as “outliers” and treats them differently from other nations. Threatening a country with nuclear attack may scare the country’s government into doing what we want but more likely it will force them into a corner and give them no option but to come out fighting.

I absolutely understand. It is not really a question of what is right or wrong. It is not an issue of whether Iraq had or has nuclear ambitions. From an Iraqi citizen’s perspective his country is being invaded. Not only are the invaders destroying much of the country including the cities, the infrastructure of the roads and the mosques, but they are killing countless Iraqis—both soldiers and civilians. As an additional insult, the invaders are mostly Christian and fail to understand even the rudimentary conventions of Islam. This is not the first time that the Muslim peoples have felt they were fighting for their very existence. Hundreds of years ago, Muslims fought in the Holy Crusades against the Christians. The ongoing conflict in Palestine and the perceived American support for Israel must appear to be a continuation of the same tale. It must appear that the non Muslim world is always ready to do battle with Islam. While I do not think that this accusation is true, I do understand that the average Muslim resident of Iraq or Afghanistan would likely feel discriminated against or prejudiced by the American government and its largely Christian constituency. They feel that this country insults Iraq, Afghanistan and other predominately Muslim countries. When I left the lecture I could not help but to think what my friends and I would do if soldiers from a different country and a clearly different ethnic background or religion invaded our home or our school. We would certainly fight back and most likely would not even know all the reasons that an aggressor country felt the need to attack us. Even if we did know or understand the reason for the invasion, why would we believe that the reasons given were good enough for another country to disrupt our lives, kill our families and change our society. An insurgency is simply a way to fight back, as best as one can, many times against an overwhelming force. Just as American revolutionists fought back against the British in the American war of independence, it is not surprising that our invasion of these oil rich lands has fomented what could be described as a religious war against America. I am sure that many people in the attacked countries were displeased with their lives prior to the American invasions. Now that we have replaced Hussein’s government and destroyed much of the crops in Afghanistan, it is possible that those who were previously discontented with their lives are now happy. Certainly, there are others whose lives have now turned for the worse. Whether lives have improved or declined, it is unlikely that anyone would welcome an invasion and fail to fight back. When the attack appears to be an ongoing assault on the Muslim way of life, there is no other option. It is not a question of right or wrong—just a fight to reject the evildoers and protect one’s home and religion.

I absolutely understand. It is not really a question of what is right or wrong. It is not an issue of whether Iraq had or has nuclear ambitions. From an Iraqi citizen’s perspective his country is being invaded. Not only are the invaders destroying much of the country including the cities, the infrastructure of the roads and the mosques, but they are killing countless Iraqis—both soldiers and civilians. As an additional insult, the invaders are mostly Christian and fail to understand even the rudimentary conventions of Islam. This is not the first time that the Muslim peoples have felt they were fighting for their very existence. Hundreds of years ago, Muslims fought in the Holy Crusades against the Christians. The ongoing conflict in Palestine and the perceived American support for Israel must appear to be a continuation of the same tale. It must appear that the non Muslim world is always ready to do battle with Islam. While I do not think that this accusation is true, I do understand that the average Muslim resident of Iraq or Afghanistan would likely feel discriminated against or prejudiced by the American government and its largely Christian constituency. They feel that this country insults Iraq, Afghanistan and other predominately Muslim countries. When I left the lecture I could not help but to think what my friends and I would do if soldiers from a different country and a clearly different ethnic background or religion invaded our home or our school. We would certainly fight back and most likely would not even know all the reasons that an aggressor country felt the need to attack us. Even if we did know or understand the reason for the invasion, why would we believe that the reasons given were good enough for another country to disrupt our lives, kill our families and change our society. An insurgency is simply a way to fight back, as best as one can, many times against an overwhelming force. Just as American revolutionists fought back against the British in the American war of independence, it is not surprising that our invasion of these oil rich lands has fomented what could be described as a religious war against America. I am sure that many people in the attacked countries were displeased with their lives prior to the American invasions. Now that we have replaced Hussein’s government and destroyed much of the crops in Afghanistan, it is possible that those who were previously discontented with their lives are now happy. Certainly, there are others whose lives have now turned for the worse. Whether lives have improved or declined, it is unlikely that anyone would welcome an invasion and fail to fight back. When the attack appears to be an ongoing assault on the Muslim way of life, there is no other option. It is not a question of right or wrong—just a fight to reject the evildoers and protect one’s home and religion.

As with all people regardless of gender, ethnicity and culture, women come in different sizes, shapes and packages. The Hollywood portrayal of women is that they are mostly glamorous, skinny and wealthy. No wonder most of us have body image issues and are overly conscious of our appearance. In spite of the different body images that women portray, I agree that women all have a common bond. Whether it is because we all come from Venus (whereas males come from Mars) or because we may all eventually go through the rigors of childbirth, there is a certain link among us. There is a certain understanding that we have with other women that makes us understand that beyond shape and appearance there is an inner being that really defines who we are.