The Language of Integrity

The 2012 Presidential election is two months away, and I've had a few sleep-depriving concerns on my mind for some time now. I've read one article after another from both sides of the aisle about the current issues--jobs, economy, debt, health care, women's reproductive rights, to name a few.  In terms of literacy--truly conscious, illuminating lambent literacy--words that express the facts have taken on a life of their own as they are manipulated by the candidates who use only a paper thin disguise in their reconfiguration of the truth.  So the questions are many: Who's really telling the truth?  Do the candidates have a moral obligation to use language that comes as close to honesty as possible?

Does omitting strategic words, phrases, and sentences really fool anyone? 

Apparently it does, but if it doesn't and we can see through the disguise,  then why is this race so close if we know the truth?

Is it because when the greater American public struggles to make ends meet or get a job or pay for education, all they can think about is a candidate who promises to get America out of debt, not really understanding the difference between personal debt and national debt? 

Probably. 

The problem with that response is this:  At what cost to the well being of American families would a plan that derails critical social needs have if implemented?

Do we really want to experience it to discover the answer?

How interesting it is that candidates seem to use just the right words to spear the hearts and souls of Americans.

And is it Americans in particular who succumb to such rhetoric, and if so, why?

Simple, sort of.  It's our heritage.  The American free enterprise system and the American dream are instilled in us at an early age so that we grow up thinking bigger car, bigger house, bigger toys, and big expensive colleges that leave students with bigger debt.  We just can't seem to get enough of a  big thing.  Have a perfectly good cell phone?  Leave it in the taxi or drop it in your drink so you can get a more technologically savvy one, and that's only a fairly harmless example. It's all about keeping up with the Joneses, right?  Why, in Texas, people think bigger is always better.

Words--and images--are partly to blame.  We read or watch the ads, which are eloquently convincing in their word choice, and we believe in their meaning, almost without question.

But some facts have been obvious for some time, from sources that we have come to rely upon.

The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth with respect to its resources--by far. No other nation on the planet comes even close to having the wealth of resources we have.  This is the only nation that could be entirely self-sufficient.

Why is it then that other nations in the developed world have completely outstripped us in providing health care for practically all of their citizens, at a cost less than half of ours per capita?

When it comes to life expectancy, the U.S. ranks 50th, according to the CIA World Factbook ( https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html).  So when the U.S. should be first in the ranking for longevity and the lowest in cost per capita--after all, we have the most efficient capitalistic system, right?--the rankings are the other way around. Frankly, it's shameful and downright embarrassing.

Now we are being told by politicians to expect savage cuts in our spending on health care.  Why would we risk falling even farther behind?

What we are not being told, and we do have a right to expect an explanation, is why our health care availability is going to decrease when every other nations' markers of efficiency go up as their costs come down.

If we look at where we are in relation to other English speaking countries, the fact is we don't compare.  Where's the logic in that?

The next elected President needs to tell us--with words of integrity--why this is so and what his administration is going to do about it.  Why will the new measures make the U.S. even more deficient in the actual delivery of affordable health care, and why are seniors going to have to dig deeper in their pockets at a time when their lives need security more than ever?

I keep hoping to prove Plato wrong when he says the just and the unjust will go down the same path if they believe they can get away with "it," whatever that infraction might be. In the case of the current political campaign, the vehicle taking us down the path is words, words that fall dangerously short of creating the ethos we need to build a strong foundation of trust in government.

Yet so often we are subjected to the sophistry that taboos words like "socialized medicine," words whose primary purpose is to shut down rational discussion of an issue that could change the state of this nation as much as eliminating the debt.  The rationale is unclear, but when people refuse to discuss an issue, the cause is usually fear.

The reality is, if we were allowed to look further, we would find a system of medicine that works hand in hand with free enterprise.  Those who need basic medical care could obtain it, while those who wish to buy private health insurance at more cost-effective rates could supplement the basic medical care available to them under the so-called "socialized" medicine.

Meeting the basic needs of Americans, paid for by taxes, is actually not a new concept to us.  We've willingly supported this system for years--the armed services, education, fire and police departments, city planning, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security--and they have not only worked successfully to one degree or another for many years, but people have also come to depend on them for quality of life. 

In every family emergencies occur and must be dealt with immediately in order for them to return to a normal existence. Individuals cannot pay for these necessities privately, and suddenly depriving people of such significant services would in a short time change their lives in the most harmful way.  The cost must be spread out across the whole system in order for it to work with any level of efficiency. When a country's basic needs are provided for systematically without complication, the standard of living for the whole nation improves . If we foolishly reject this idea, it will be because we can't get past the prejudice behind the illusions of language.

As comfortable as it might be in the short term, sitting in a cave mistaking illusions for reality keeps us in chains.  It is only when we exit the cave and look at the sun and name things for what they truly are that we become free to grow as a healthy society.