Ercille I. Christmas

Kudos To King Kongress!
January 21, 2010

There is a little movie about a blonde beauty and a beast. They met by chance. The beast fell in love. The beast lost the blonde. The beast lost his life. The movie is King Kong.

The story of that movie is about to be retold and recast, in a reality version, courtesy of yours truly. "We the people,” citizens of the United States of America, represent the blond beauty, and Congress, hereafter known as Kongress, is King Kong. Immediately, one big difference between King Kong and Kongress, springs to mind. King Kong, although a beast, was more caring. He protected his blond from all sorts of other creatures. Judging by what has transpired in the US political scene in the last year or so, the blonde/we the people would have fared better left to the tender mercies of the creature King Kong, rather than left rather vulnerable to the merciless machinations of Kongress. Some are refusing to drink the version of Kool-Aid known as Kongress-Aid, and see this "beast” for what it is.

So why is our esteemed Kongress being compared to King Kong? Glad you asked. The comparison appears to be only on the surface. Although King Kong physically threw his weight around, he still was a noble creature. He was throwing around his weight because he could, and that is what a beast of his size did. I think that I may have dismissed the comparison too soon. This "throwing weight around because he could,” is very apropos to our current band of leaders! "Because I have the power to,” has become the unspoken rationale for much of the actions being taken. This smugness and cavalier behavior goes beyond the usual domain of leadership.

We the blond beauties are facing some tough issues. Terrorists are being emboldened by overtures of "can’t we all get along,” and increasing their attacks. An alleged terrorist struck at the heart of the US Military on one of its own base in Texas. That "in your face,” act is too unimaginable, and would have been very unthinkable, even one year ago. Iran is building its nuclear facilities and struck a defiant pose of "stop me if you can.” Domestically, husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers are out of work, not for lack of capability or ability, but because their jobs are now expatriates, or their companies went out of business. Companies are declaring bankruptcies almost every day. Banks, almost 150, have been taken over by the FDIC. What used to be called a 401-k, is probably now a 10-k.

So Kongress has been working on these issues, right? Kongress has not been merely working on these problems, but is assuming the role of a King Kong and throwing its weight around tackling these pressing issues, right? Wrong! So, what substantive issue is monopolizing the attention of Kongress, if not these issues?

Ah, here it is – HealthKare! "HealthKare” became the crisis du jour, of Halloween, of Thanksgiving, of Christmas, and now of the New Year. As King Kong rampaged through a village in the movie, killing villagers who got in his way, this Kongress is giving a very creditable impression of rampaging through the will of the people, and the Constitution that is supposed to govern us all, including members of Kongress.

"Supposed to” but in reality, not governed by the same laws as "we the people”…. that is the status of Kongress. When did this exemption of Kongress begin? Was it during the time of the fledging USA, when real men dusted off their Military fatigues, after fighting in the frontlines for freedom, and became legislators? Even if I did not know the history of this country, I would not have thought that this Animal Farm credo of "some animals are more equal than others,” would have been tolerated back then in a nation, operating under the vision of the Founding Fathers.

Somehow, over the last hundred years or less, Kongress has increasingly exempted itself from equal pay laws, insurance control laws, right-to-know-laws, among others. I was going to list the laws to which Kongress is subject, but I think that number is zero. And the Founding Fathers fought to free themselves from tyranny? They may want to be reintroduced to tyranny in the twenty first century. They were all hung up on this "all men are created equal”? They should see "equality” now. King George III thought that he and his supporters were above the laws created for the serfs? Sir, you could learn a thing from the real masters of exemption!

Kongress should certainly have privileges befitting the position of the members. These members have to make very important decisions, sometimes life and death decisions. Quite frankly, the weight of office can get burdensome. But, so many privileges? Next time I speak to high school students, I am going to tell them to grow up to be members of Kongress. Forget spending a fortune learning medicine with noble intentions of saving the lives of others. They can save more lives in Kongress. I think I may have gotten confused between the words "lives” and "livelihood.” They will certainly save and preserve their livelihoods if they enter the halls of Kongress rather than the corridors of medicine.

On the subject of medicine, on that topic of healthKare "reform,” Kongress is of course exempted from the bill which is physically almost the size of King Kong! We the subjects, will be subject to:

▪ Mandatory purchase of health insurance, or be fined or go to prison. I am getting ready, my portable toothbrush, with the cute tube of toothpaste and some pajamas. "People get ready,” for the jail’s acoming!

▪ Mandatory government committee, presumably headed by the "Health Choices Commissioner,” to determine who lives and who dies. (/It doesn’t quite say it like that, but that is my interpretation). What do I care, I will be behind bars for not purchasing health insurance.

▪ Mandatory issuance of a National ID Health card

▪ Mandatory government "direct access” to the bank accounts of citizens for "elective” funds transfers. Try accessing my account from cell #whatever!

▪ Mandatory "exchange” where benefit packages will be "housed,” (my interpretation of the government control of the benefit packages for those in private healthkare plans).

▪ Mandatory specification of benefit levels for plans…..does that mean that some folks cannot have a Ford plan, some a GM plan or some a Chrysler plan? Cars, healthcare, what is the difference? They will all be government controlled.

▪ Mandatory "linguistic appropriate services.” Does that include translation for: "I do not want to be forced to pay for your government-run healthkare”? If that can be translated, I may get a "get out of jail free card,” instead of a National ID Health card!

▪ Mandatory "advance-Care Planning Consult.” Translation: Move it along. We are not spending any more money on you. You have outlived your usefulness. You are old.

It is so ironic that we the serfs have an almost endless bunch of "mandatories” just in this healthKare reform bill, while the only mandatory for Kongress is not to be saddled with this type of reform. America, what a country…it has become!

Well, it appears that the people of Massachusetts harkened back to Revolutionary Times and sent a message to Kongress that the "I do what I want to – no matter what you say,” approach to leadership, could be in danger. There are no reports of tea being thrown into Boston Harbor, but one party was figuratively thrown overboard. The Senate seat of their venerable Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy went – not to the anointed candidate, who began with a 30 point lead – but to a guy driving a truck, a GM truck no less! Senator Scott Brown is loading up the truck, and like Mr. Smith, is going to Washington.

Well Kongress, in case you forgot the characters in this recasting of King Kong the movie, here is a reminder: You Kongress = King Kong. "We the people” = blond beauty. At the end of the real King Kong movie, Carl Denham the independent filmmaker, is told by a cop, "Well Denham, the airplanes got him,” meaning King Kong, who had been finally killed as he stood atop the Empire State Building, attempting to fight off bullets. Denham replied: "It wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.”