A Poem for Mother's Day

A Mother’s Love

By Paul Schlieben

She loves simply and quietly.

She keeps love in check,  

lest it burn her heart to ash. 

Where stress is the third rail of my existence,

Love is hers.

Her love is trapped in a cage of fear. 

Mostly, it sits quietly.

Sometimes it crashes against the bars,

demanding to be heard,

or it watches mutely, fearfully,

informed by the wisdom of years,

suffering in our foolishness,

afraid giving voice to her fears

Will drive us away,

Hoping for an improbably outcome

As we crash into obstacles

only she was able to see. 

Softly she cries out, anguished,

fearing her cries be misinterpreted as anger,

but is that so unusual?

A mother’s love is often foolishly misread,

except by her.

Paul Ryan's Medicare Plan

While there are signs that the Republican Party is backing away from its plan to eliminate Medicare by substituting vouchers, starting with people who are now  54 and under, I couldn't resist posting this cartoon.  The idea that you would try to assuage the concerns of seniors -- in effect, buy their support -- by exempting them from the effects of their proposed changes, smacks too much of how Washington works: playing one side off against the other, rather than persuading everyone to come together to solve national problems.  In short, I find such "divide and conquer" strategies offensive.

Does something need to be done?  Sure.  But it has to start with addressing the costs of medical care, not by handing over even more of our financial resources to for-profit insurance companies.  The Affordable Care Act is just getting off the ground.  Yes, there's room for improvement.  We need to move away from fee for service towards a more rational and affordable system of best practices and prevention.  To repeal the Affordable Care Act now and then turn around and dump seniors into an unregulated system, one that would allows insurance companies to deny coverage and call all the shots, just like the good ol' days, is madness.