Health Care Scare

Hopefully you’ve been following the saga of Health Care Reform lately and the cavalcade of LIES being distributed by the Right: rumors of “death panels” for the elderly (thanks Sarah fucking Palin), health care for illegal immigrants, federal money for abortions, reform = a government “take-over” of health care, Obama is a Nazi, etc, etc.

What is truly amazing to me is the amount of morons who live in this country.
Really.

Unbelievably, according to a recent poll, over 50% of voters believe in these untrue, FOX TV-type lies, being fed to them by sleazy politicians (ie, Republicans) who are basically shills under the employ of the insurance companies who want to keep their monopoly. These same insurance companies make 35 cents for every dollar spent on health care.

Not even a CASINO makes that much money (because it's ILLEGAL).

And the people I see being organized to protest this reform are, ironically, the same people who would benefit the most from it. In a way, I almost hope they get what they deserve. I’m talking about brain dead, gullible, racist IDIOTS carrying assault weapons to town hall meetings and screaming at the top of their lungs about “socialized medicine”, and not understanding that both Social Security and Medicare ARE those things. On woman in a Dartmouth town hall meeting recently proclaimed, with a straight face, that the Obama Health plan was a "Nazi" plan, causing Barney Frank to seriously ask her: "What planet do you send most of your time on?"

All this on the heels of the incredibly insulting and wildly false “birther” movement, which proclaimed that Obama wasn’t born in this country, and is therefore not really the President.

It’s absolutely amazing and disgusting to me.

It is actually hard for me to believe that there are people out there who actually BELIEVE that these fantastical lies are TRUE, that there is such a person as “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelberger or Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh or Michelle Malkin or Bill O’Reilly.

It actually makes my head spin.

What is really frustrating to me is not knowing what to do, and not knowing how to be heard, or how to lend support and how to fight back against these loud-mouthed bullies.

The New York Times recently reported that those in support of Reform and the public option are not as out there and letting their voices be heard as much as these howling, nut-case, gun-toting buffoons.

It is really REALLY important for those who believe in health care and the public option to speak up and let our elected officials know that we care and are listening and understand and are involved in the reform bill and that we SUPPORT the President’s plan.
I will try my best to find out how to do that and leave that info here, but one helpful thing I DO know how to do is to visit www.moveon.org and read up on how to fight back against these lies being spread about health care and our President.

Summer Daze

I think the people that I admire most in theatre are trying their best to make something beautiful and provocative and powerful (though not necessarily all at once). But I'm not a critic, in the sense that I'm biased, even if I don't think I am, or mean to be. I can't help it. Even critics are biased, btw, but the difference is they don't work in the theatre, they comment on what theatre people create. I can't really do that here, nor would I ever want to. It's so subjective anyway. All I would want to do is describe productions that Tommy and I went to, and let other people know about them too. So I guess I'm a Boston theatre booster, of sorts. I just like going to plays. They are, usually, WAY better than a movie (especially now a days: what a bunch of CRAP coming out of Hollywood right now!) And I think a great city needs great theatre, that it MAKES a city great. So I'm more interested in new plays, by Boston writers. By experimental productions that are created here. I'm not so much interested in warmed-over Off-Broadway hits from last year in NYC, though I understand why people would want to see those plays. I guess I want Boston to be Boston, and NYC to be NYC. I never liked the monopoly that NYC seems to have over theatre. If the only stories being told on the stage are from NYC, then where is our voice, where are OUR stories?

I also don't like the idea that only "real" actors live in NYC. It's an old idea. The NYC myth needs to be dismantled, I think. Audiences don't care if an actor comes from NYC anymore. Actually, I think they care more about whether the actor lives with them, in their neighborhood, and is telling a story that they share together. That there is a CONNECTION between this actor and the audience. It's called a COMPANY for a reason, and I am saddened more and more when I feel that this concept is being erased from our theatres. In this era of Twitter, and FaceBook and the internet and blogs (like this one), I think people really yearn and search for something stable and solid. I find it difficult to support a theatre that ignores the talent at its own doorstep, year after year, yet claims to be a part of our community.

I like to support theatres that recognize and hire and nurture local artists and actors and directors and designers. It's the only way Boston will make itself a theatre destination. Otherwise, we are just a repository for New York's sloppy seconds.