POSTING # 38

Letter to Americans


This week’s posting is different.

Instead of recounting some of the stories from our family’s universe, it deals with a very current issue: attacks by some Americans on Canada’s health care program.

Back to our normal postings next week.


Letter to Americans

Dear Americans,

You may not have noticed that some of the mudslinging by those opposing health care reform has been directed at Canada’s health care program.

We’ve noticed.

We all recognize that our plan is not perfect but 85% of us like it--- like it a lot. There are problems and glitches but everyone is covered, infant mortality is low and longevity is high.

We feel hurt by the misrepresentations, exaggerations and damnable mendacity.

And hurt that you would think we are so dumb that we would put up with a system that is so 'flawed'.

Now, we understand that hired guns in your country see it as their duty to provide the best possible defense in the court of public opinion for the weak, vulnerable vested interests who may suffer if the US health care system is changed.

I am sure these mudslingers see themselves as providing a valuable public service---providing a voice for some maligned and misunderstood corporations.

What are ends for if not to justify the means.

If the truth gets trampled a bit---well, this is war.

And so what if there is some collateral damage up in Canada.

Some of my compatriots have become angry (is ‘an angry Canadian’ an oxymoron---at least off the ice?)

They have fired off letters to the editor, shouted on talk shows and complained to our politicians ‘to do something’.

The majority of us are still trying to figure out how to respond to these attacks, attacks that are coming from a country that we like and respect.

My own take is something like this. Some of you who voted for change last November and most of you who voted against change have discovered that change means leaving the comfort of the familiar.

And change is coming, inevitably, not just in health care but in finance, energy and climate change, race, immigration and international threats.

All at once.

My sense is that many of you are grieving. That some of you feel that your country, your constitution, your way of life is being taken away.

If this analysis is true, then those Americans will have to go through the well-known stages of grieving: denial, anger, depression, and, finally acceptance.

What can an outsider do?

Personally, I have never found it helpful to tell a person in denial to wake up, or to tell a person who is angry to calm down, or to tell a person who is depressed to snap out of it.

The answer, I think, is for Canadians to ignore the attacks on our health care.

Of course, we have had our differences. In the War of 1812, you burned down what is now Toronto, and we (helped by the British) burned down Washington.

In the 1840s, some of your firebrands wanted to annex all of western Canada except for some bits near the North Pole, with their demand of (latitudes) “Fifty-four forty or fight”.

In an 1911 election, one of our parties campaigned, successfully, on a slogan, “No truck nor trade with the Yankees”.

But, hell, what neighbours don’t have squabbles from time to time.

We love what you have given the world: the ideals spelled out in the Declaration of Independence and your Constitution, Huck Finn, the Model T, Hollywood, the Marshall Plan, the Internet, Google, and so much more.

We also love you Americans for what you are.

I think of a friend who came back to his car after a show on Broadway only to discover he had locked his keys in it. A figure emerged from an alley, pulled a tool from his jacket and opened the car. He then retreated into the alley saying, “Remember, you never saw me.”

Or of the dentist in Gloucester Massachusetts who gave up part of his Saturday to fix a broken tooth. When I talked about payment he insisted on telling me about the annual dory race between fishermen of Gloucester and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Or of the anonymous person in South Carolina who, finding the cell phone we hadn't realized we had lost, called our son in Toronto and said he would leave the phone at the front desk of a nearby hotel. Two hours---and an email---later we had the phone back.

I hated the movie Borat.

I cringed as it took advantage of the kindness and, yes, goodness of Americans to set them up in ways that made them look ridiculous.

When the arguing is done and your health care reform legislation is finally passed, we’d love to have you come up to see us. We can sit down and discuss what we can learn from each other about how to ensure high quality, affordable health care.

In the meantime, may I leave you with a saying of one of our sages, Red Green (Steve Smith). “Remember, I’m pulling for you. We are all in this together.”

Best wishes,

John


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See you next Sunday for Posting #39 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting, or email me at johnpathunter@cs.com.