More reflections on SICKO

I imagine that unless you are a beneficiary of the current healthcare system, it's impossible to remain unmoved after watching Michael Moore's SICKO. The main thrust of the movie is that America as the world's most prosperous nation has failed to provide a healthy environment where everyone can continue to produce and benefit the society.

The movie shows that in America, life is OK when you are healthy and greater when you are wealthy and can afford to dole out the thousands of dollars to pay for surgeries and medical emergencies yourself. What SICKO is calling our attention to is that the way the current healthcare system is set up isn't working well for most Americans.

Since the healthcare industry is such a big part of the American economy, and because of its powerful interest groups, it's going to be a daunting task to get beneficiaries of the current system to let go of their stranglehold. "It can't happen in America," I've heard many people say after hearing about or watching SICKO.

I believe that it can happen here in America. Despite the enormous challenge and opposition we must anticipate let's not despair. Let's have hope.

We don't know how it will happen, but if America needs a miracle, let that miracle happen now that Michael Moore has set the ball rolling by generating enormous public awareness about a national malaise. This awareness needs nurturing with hope in our hearts sustained by wisdom of the ages that what we can conceive individually and nationally we can achieve.

Once Americans set their mind on something and decide to solve a problem nothing stands in their way. When this miracle is all done, the healthcare system in America will be one of the top seven in the world, which is America's natural position in international affairs. This is exciting.

Most Americans believe that there's a Higher Power that intervenes in human affairs. This is the time to call upon that Higher Power to bring the positive changes in the healthcare system for the benefit of all concerned under grace in perfect ways.

I don't know how this miracle will occur. What I know is that I’ve peace and the most wonderful feeling in my heart as I dream that every child, man and woman in this great country lives without fear of having to go to see a doctor, and that the healthcare available for every American is as secure as it is in Canada, Britain and France, and better than in poor Cuba.

How long, O God?

How Long, O God?
Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord! Lord, hear my voice.
-Psalm 130

Set yourself to rest in this darkness as long as you can, always crying out after him whom you love
-The Cloud of Unknowing

How long, O God,
Will this last?

This yearning
Of the bride for the bridegroom,
This merging of water droplet that I am
Into the boundless ocean that God is,
The fusion of this little
Candlelight of awareness
Into the limitless sunlight
Of the all-pervading consciousness?

How long, O God,
The tearing apart of this blinding
Inner darkness,
The peeling away of what is not?

When shall I see what is
Beyond my own blindfolds
Beyond blindfolds from others
Beyond the cloud of unknowing

To behold the Sun
That never sets
The Divine Light within?

How long, O God,
Will this darkness last?

How long, O God?

Winter 2006

Michael Moore's SICKO and Mother America's Tasteless Healthcare Meals

“If you haven’t tasted the meals other mothers have prepared, you think your mother is the best cook,” says an African proverb. Michael Moore’s movie SICKO shows us how tasteless Mother America’s healthcare meals have been.

Last night (Saturday June 23rd) we were among a packed audience at Seattle's AMC Pacific Place Theatre that watched a sneak preview of Michael Moore's comedy about 47 million unisured Americans with no healthcare in the richest country on Earth and the insured who are denied their benefits when they most need them.

From one horrifying healthcare story to the next, SICKO documents the miserable plight of countless Americans the US government has betrayed to the American Medical Association, health insurance agencies, HMOs and pharmaceutical companies.

Human life, for these powerful businesses and interest groups, appears worthless, and all that seems to matter is the multi-billion-dollar profit they make off the people's suffering, pain and blood. It’s like a hen sucking the yolk out of its own eggs.

SICKO unmasks the glaring hollowness of American economic prosperity, military superiority, and democratic ideals. What's a nation's wealth or worth if it fails to care for its sick children, if it fails to heal its wounded in the line of duty and if it fails to aid its helpless elders, widows and pregnant women?

Is this the America George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founding fathers had in mind? Is this the beacon of democracy, the land of milk and honey, of freedom and justice under God for all?

In SICKO Moore juxtaposes emotionally wrenching scenes with generous and entertaining humor that sow the seeds for an open and honest discussion of the shameful state of America’s healthcare system.

If free universal healthcare is good for Canadians, the French and even Cubans why is it not good for Americans?

With SICKO Moore establishes himself as a master social critic who informs the people and lets them decide.

Since imagination is everything, the next step for the US is to visualize Mother America as the best cook on the block. Visualize universal healthcare for all Americans. Imagine that all the good things about the French and British and Canadian healthcare systems are right here in America, because energy follows thought! Being able to imagine the health care system we desire is the next step toward making this dream a reality.

Visit SICKO web site