Talking Trash and Health Care Reform

There is an uproar in Gwinnett County, Georgia. We, as county residents, were informed by letter that there would be changes in how our trash is picked up from our homes. Where previously we could choose our trash hauler, we are now being assigned a trash hauler—based on the zone in which we live. Furthermore, instead of paying the new garbage hauling company directly, the costs of our trash pickup will be added to our property tax statements. “Ouch!” I just received the Notice of Taxes from the Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner.

I, along with most county residents, received the notice of the impending change early last month. A few days later my new rolling trash can was delivered to my driveway. After sitting several weeks on the side of my shed awaiting the predetermined date when my new hauler would begin servicing our family and our neighbors, it has now been placed into service and has functioned in its purpose a couple of times.

The mandated change determining who would be hauling our trash has not been embraced by all county residents. Instead, some have responded with a fervor not seen around Atlanta since Michael Vick’s dog fighting activity was exposed. Why the tumult? Is it because so many of us don’t like the new plan? Or, is it more about the difficulty we often have with change? Answering these questions not only exposes the driving force behind much of the outrage in the county, but it also exposes the reasons why some Americans cannot fathom embracing any significant health care reform.

Supercapitalism Got Me Thinking

I must admit I strayed outside my typical reading boundaries when I picked up Robert B. Reich’s Supercapitalism. I am the richer for it.

Instead of casting blame for the economic maladies of the United States, Reich defines and clarifies the issues that have merged to create the gross inequality of wealth in America. He plainly displays the logical consequences that flow from our everyday decisions to increase profit, ROI, and save a dollar on T-shirts. His concern is that capitalism has triumphed as the expense of

Who is Defining What it Means to Be Pro-life?

What does it mean to be pro-life in the current health care debate? From my observation, most pro-lifers get the answer to this question wrong. We get it wrong because we are letting the wrong people tell us what it means to be pro-life.

For many, interjecting a pro-life stance into the American health care debate means refusing funding for abortions. Therefore, it is this one issue that propels many pro-lifers to reject any health care reform proposal. Yet, are these same pro-lifers taking the time to consider how health care reform intersects with fundamental tenets of what it means to be pro-life?

T. R. Reid, in his book, “The Healing of America,” shares a disturbing fact: “The American health care system ranks dead last [out of 23 countries in 2006 Commonwealth Fund study] when it comes to keeping newborns alive. Our rate of infant mortality is more than twice as high as