Our youngest daughter is hosting an exchange student from South Korea. Understandably, she is curious abut foods, cultural differences, and government and politics. She's eaten tofu all of her life, but she has seen soybeans for the first time outside Greensburg. Lately, I've been embarrassed about some of our discussions. Living in a place, we take some things as normal. An outside perspective may shake us up a bit.

 

"Why is there controversy over the president's speech to schools?"  I admitted that I did not recall any controversy for Reagan or Bush some years ago for similar addresses.The answer seems to be that we are granting legitimacy to elements of the political spectrum that we dismissed not long ago as out of main currents of thought and discussion. The Republican party center of gravity is in danger of tilting. I think of Sen. Lugar's civility. I am so impressed with the careful, reasoned issue reports his sends when one writes a letter on an issue.At times, he seems as a reasoned voice crying in a new wilderness of folks who scream rage and look for ways to enrage others, without much evidence.  Against that style, we are getting more people on the far margin, the death panels in health care folks. Maybe better put, media coverage is emphasizing the sizzle of anger and bombast over the steak of analysis. Instead of reasoned opposition, balance is called having someone on who shouts no and makes unsubstantiated charges. That's why we know a lot more about Jon and Kate's marital woes than we do about health care proposals.

 

How on earth have we reached the point where an address to school children on the virtues of studying hard, by the very embodiment of that maxim, becomes "controversial?" How could the school systems use potential disruption of schedule as an excuse to bow to pressure when disruption doesn't seem to be an issue for pep rallies or field trips? This gives less legitimacy to a civic ritual of welcoming students to a new school year. the very place that socializes us into political life, where the flag is saluted, now turns around and becomes an arena for  the office of the presidency to be disrespected. I fear then that the controversy" legitimates the inchoate anger of groups and denies the students an opportunity to engage in public life together. I am ashamed when brown-shirt types disrupt meeting with member so Congress, uninterested in discussing issues but only in venting rage.

 

"Why is medicine so expensive here? Back home I pay five dollars for medicine." Well, we are the only industrialized nation that doesn't have health care for all of its citizens.Your medicine is subsidized by the health programs in your country. We prize individual choice, even when costs are so high that they require social sharing, as with health insurance. We cover many of the poor, many children, and those over 65. One of five Americans can't afford health insurance and have no coverage for doctors, hospitals, or medicines. To protect our sense of individual responsibility, we are willing to have a system that provides excellent care, advanced technology, but we limit access to it. In the name of the market, we permit insurance companies to dictate the care we receive. When Jocelyn was born, her mother was only allowed to stay in the hospital one day. To try to provide good health care for everyone and to make it affordable is a difficult matter of public policy. Instead of looking at it carefully, we've been content to hurl slogans at each other, content with making small changes over the years. it's time for us to take a long, reflective look at the direction of our policies and how we  arrive at them.