Well, I was talking with one of my neighbors yesterday. I call him "Dipstick" and he thinks of that as a compliment. And, 0l' Dipstick, who is livid (my word not his- you wouldn't believe what he thinks the word livid means) about the new health reform law. He was ranting and raving about the "gov-ment" takeover of his health care. I asked him what health care he had previous to the "takeover"! He said "Medicare"! I told him that Medicare "is" a government health program! Hot damn, he said! I just told you that! No, I said, I mean it has always been a government health program"! Say, what, he said? How could it have always been a gov-ment health program, when they just passed the takeover day before yesterday? Huh? Tell me that! Knowing I was spitting into a fan, sort to speak, I asked ol' Dipstick when he signed up for Medicare. He said in 06'! I said, at that time it was already a government health care program. It has been a government program since its inception, I added! God, you Democrats are so stupid, he said! See if you can follow me, he said. I signed up for Medicare in 06'. It became a government health program day before yesterday when they passed the takeover! What don't you understand bout' that?
I said, Dipstick, do you know what was just passed by the Congress the day before yesterday, dealing with health care reform? He said, yep, government takeover of my health care, that's what!
So, I said, you believe that the new law took over your health care program and that includes medicare? You probably also believe that there are "death Panels" associated the new law that are going to kill Grandma? Well, hell, you finally got it! You got any evidence that they won't, he said? I asked him where he had learned all this and he said, Glenn Beck and all the folks on Fox News! Damn, don't you know anything, he said?
Hell, he continued, I just don't want the gov-ment in my business, that's all! Besides, he said, I can't keep jawin' with someone who don't know nothin'! I got to go cash my social security check! Check, I said? Check? You got to be kidding?! Why do you still get a check when you can have direct deposit? Aren't you worried that someone could steal your check?. Hell no, he said, I rely on the post office- I trust them! Why don't you trust direct deposit, I said? He said because he didn't want the government to have control of his check or the ability to get into his bank account. I said, but you do rely on the government to send you your check? In fact you rely on them to honor your social security commitment don't you, I said? In fact, you rely on the government mail to bring you your check,right, I said. He just stared at me and walked away.
As he walked away, I wondered how he managed to learn how.
Dipstick is a real person and the conversation is an accurate paraphrasing of an actual conversation. Dipstick is a college graduate. Isn't the American education system wonderful?
