From: jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh II)
Newsgroups: tx.politics,alt.politics.clinton
Subject: Re: Clinton's Health Ideas.
Date: 14 Sep 92 02:39:52 GMT
Reply-To: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II)
Distribution: usa
Organization: River Parishes Programming, Austin, Republic of Texas

In article <1992Sep13.051152.6613@nntp.uoregon.edu> eisimps@cie.uoregon.edu (Eileen Simpson) writes:
>You are one very strange dude.

No, I am one very normal dude.  There are millions of us out here that
have been planning for the worst, saving for rainy days, living on what
we make, and not expecting others to bail us out.

>I don't think I have ever met someone who could compare a child needing
>health care with people not being able to uniformily acquire sports cars.
>I suppose you feel that when the peasant class has children with permanent
>heart damage because they can't get medical care, it really can't concern
>you--or interupt your work on your sports car.

Actually, it does concern me.  It concerns me that the parent of that
child didn't prepare for life's little unexpected twists.  At present, my
wife and I are both insured.  Our child, who is due in a few months, is
also insured.  I carry life and disability insurance in the unfortunate
event that I should die or become disabled.  I do all of this because I
don't want my unborn child to be born with some horrible birth defect (and
there is a possibility that something awful could happen, at a minimum
because she's Rh- and I'm Rh+) that =I= didn't plan ahead for.

>As for your statement that you work "VERY HARD", I want to point out 2
>things:  (1) you probably have never worked very hard (let alone VERY HARD)
>in your life.  You have never been starving, or beaten, or physically
>exhausted from doing back-breaking labor on an inadequate diet.  You are
>full of it if you think you have worked hard because you stay up every
>night to do your homework.  (2) I will bet that you are, in fact, the child
>of privilege who confuses normal exertion with hard work.  You are probably
>weak, and would not last a day with the working poor.

I usually don't respond to these.  But I will anyway.

In 1980, I moved out of my father's house, and supported myself, which was
cool because I was 18.  By June of that year, I was supporting my brother
and his girlfriend.  I worked 9 hours a day as a welder in a shipyard in
New Orleans (Halter Marine).  When the money ran out, I borrowed $300 from
a loan shark that my brother's girlfriend knew.  Eventually that money also
ran out ...

Yesterday I spent most of the day roofing a house.  That involved hauling
bundles of shingles onto a roof, while climbing a ladder, using only one
hand to hold on.  The man who owns the house is named Modesto and before
two weeks ago I'd never met him.  During the day, I taught another man how
to lay shingles.  Having shingled several houses, I am pretty good at
explaining how to keep the rows even, how to fix screwups, and how to do
those neat little hips.  This isn't the only homeless housing work I've
done - I've built linen closets and fixed casement windows.  All for people
I've never met.

But see, these people all have one thing in common - they don't sit around
with their hand out and whine about needing something they aren't willing
to work for.  The woman who owned the house with the broken casement
windows cooked us lunch, helped with the painting, etc.  The woman with
the new linen closet got her three children to help with the cleanup and
painting, and Modesto's wife prepared food, got drinks, etc. while Modesto
helped with carpentry and clearing construction debris.  None of these
people whined about housing being some God-given right.  And if they had,
I would have packed my saw, my hammer, and gotten my skinny white ass out
of there.

>Many people work *VERY VERY HARD* and do not get the nicer things in life.
>They barely acquire the basics.  You do not have nicer things because you
>work harder or are more deserving.  You have been gifted:  by the accident
>of the family or nation you were born into, or by your ability to acquire
>knowledge.  Being gifted is not the same thing as being deserving.

Gifted, my ass.  If all I had were a hammer, I'd be the best hammer person
I could be.  And then I buy a saw, and a drill, and so on.  God helps
those who help themselves, not those who bitch, moan and whine.

>Some day, as you get older, people like you encounter life's random
>heartaches and pain.  As you do, please remember your view that people get
>what they "deserve" and have worked for.  You find that the meritocracy you
>live by is a fallacy, and that you will be left to explain your child's
>death or disease, or whatever other heartache awaits you (and it does) with
>the same dead soul you have offered others.  When you have to face your own
>powerlessness or damn yourself for inadequate efforts, what will you
>choose?  

I was first raped at age 12 by a family member.  I was beaten by my ex-wife.
That same ex-wife killed two of my children in abortion clinics.  You can't
have much more of lifes little heartaches than I've had.

Powerless?  Yes.  Hopeless?  No.  I left an abusive marriage and I have
overcome the pain of being an incest victim.  Those things happened to me,
but they didn't stop me from moving on in life.

>I bet you don't stick to the attitudes you have stated above.  You will
>expect a compassion that you do not offer others.  Remember that.

No, I will expect =understanding=.  The "compassion" you think I will
expect is meaningless.  You cannot "make it better".  The scars of being
physically abused by a loved-one don't go away because someone is
"compassionate".  A hole in your life from a dead child doesn't vanish
because of "compassion."  Life sucks, get over it.

>Finally, if you want to call me a liberal, I want you to know this:
>I am a Republican activist.  I am only a liberal when I stand next to you.

No, you are a liberal and you soil the Republican party with your presence.
Those of us who understand that achievement is born of constant struggle to
advance ourselves know that the kind of "compassion" you are preaching is
enslavement.  Alexander Graham Bell didn't demand that someone in the
government provide him with a hearing aide, he invented one for himself.

Your solutions come from forcing me to pay for your folly.  My solutions
come from forcing you to prove that you are interested in working for your
own benefit.  I preach independence and self-reliance; you preach dependence
and enslavement by the government.
-- 
John F. Haugh II                   | "The US Government has the Midas Muffler
Ma Bell: (512) 251-2151            |  touch: everything they touch turns to
UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh |  shit."
Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org      |                  -- Jay Maynard