Me and another friend on FaceBook - how would you reply

[The Straight Story]

Me: Ah, America - spend a trillion on wars to save lives here while we depend on kids to raise money to save lives that are truly in danger. Why is it we make people feel bad about pooling money for health care but cheer them when they pool money for weapons and propping up the defense industry? Which are you most likely to die from - an Iraqi invading the US, or lack of good health care?
(note: I posted some links about how kids and others were raising money to help pay for someone's health care)

FB friend: Uh... People can buy health insurance and get jobs (as long as the government doesn't tax and regulate our businesses into moving to other countries.). People can't raise armies to fight our enemies. Next question?

To which I replied back:

Define for us here - Enemy. Would that be Saddam (whom we armed and were friends with) or the Taliban (we did the same)? Or would it be the health issues that are really killing people here. Let me try to understand your logic here:

An enemy is another human, somewhere on earth, that could maybe, might, harm us. So we need to spend trillions to defeat them before they can hurt us. All the while there are real things here, killing the people YOU swore to defend, and you want them to suck it up and pay for the defense of their lives themselves (to some corporation in the health care industry)?

You don't think they are worth the money, but you are all for more weapons to kill folks who pose no real threat to people? Where do you want the money to go - wars and weapons, or medicine to help those most in need (Or would you prefer, as noted in my post, that kids raise the money to save people here dying? Maybe you just don't have the courage to fight against an enemy you cannot see - like cancer and such - so you leave it up to the kids to defend those most sick, because you feel somehow that those who are too sick to work can afford to work and pay for their treatments and research).

Get back with me when you truly care about those dying here and who most need to be DEFENDED against what is really killing them - not the Iraqis, not the people in Afghanistan, but the illnesses that each and every day claim the lives of people here and truly decimate the families of those trying to cope with their illnesses.


---Maybe I went a little overboard, I am just tired of hearing that people needing medical help are a burden.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. My reply: "Unfriend"

:)

[tekisui]

3. Perfect.

[Angry Dragon]

2. You did not go overboard

Sometimes it takes passion to get through the walls they have set up.
For they have trouble understanding facts.......

[annabanana]

4. I think you done good...

It's entirely possible that the person you were addressing had never really given a thought to what was coming out of their mouth. Did he respond or shut up?

[rurallib]

5. overboard only in that senteces of more than 8 words

are probably not read by that crowd.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Well done, my dear Straight Story!

Here's a :kick: and a rec from me!

:hi:

[wellstone dem]

6. WOW, excellent

though I'm not surprised. I was surprised when I saw who it was posting a "what would you say" post. Straight story is asking for help in figuring out what to say. It didn't make sense. But then I read the post and I was reassured, you have not lost the touch. Excellent as usual.

[southernyankeebelle]

7. Here you thought the republicans are suppose to be the party of religious people, huh? Boy

I always wonder what Jesus would really think of republicans? I don't think he would approve their selfishness and hate towards the fellow americans.

[SheilaT]

8. I would have stopped this "friend" at the

"Uh... People can buy health insurance and get jobs". We have nearly record high unemployment in this country. Many jobs don't offer health care benefits, or, benefits are denied by the insurance companies. Meanwhile, the Insurance big-wigs make millions of dollars while people die from being denied health care.

And the argument that "we have to fight them over there" is utter bullshit. We spend as much as the entire rest of the world combined on military and defense, which is completely obscene. Somewhere down the road, historians will be analyzing why the United States fell from being a major power, and one of the causes will be that it over spent on their military, fought needless wars, allowed a small portion of the population to earn huge sums of money while not providing adequate health care for all, unlike every other first world country in the world.

[girl gone mad]

9. Nice job.

I'm always impressed with people who take the time to write these personal responses. It takes a lot of patience.

[pacalo]

10. On his remark about "needing armies to fight our enemies", how can we tell who the

enemies are when Republicans are so chummy with them? Are we sending kids out to die for a lovers' quarrel?!

[MadMaddie]

11. Ask your friend with 8 years of Republican leadership

and deregulation, "Why did we lose 750,000 jobs per month for aprox a year". That was the Republicans in control and running the show.

Also ask why the Republicans did not put the wars actual cost on the books. Why did they hide it?

Finally, why are companies that are hiring only hiring people that currently have jobs not those that have been unemployed?

No you were justified!

[applegrove]

12. You done good.