"Fear concentrates on what can go wrong ["] it interferes

with one's confidence in being able to do what is right."

Donald DeMarco

It is time to stop playing politics with our health and our health care. We are caught in a political chess game in which we are held out as mere pawns by our politicians.

Our health, and the care of it, is being used by politicians in both parties, by the insurance companies and by the President, to advance their own hold on power, their money wealth, and their political greed.

Immobilized by fear, whether of Republicans using their pulpit to rail against them, or by the fear of losing the silver coins put in their pockets by the moneyed insurance companies, or by the fear of losing their stranglehold on power, not one democrat politician, not even the President, have the grace, the courage, the fortitude to act under pressure and do the right thing. For, we are not serfs and we are not pawns.

We are human beings whose lives, we thought at one time, no one could place a value on.

That belief has fallen by the wayside today. We either have tons of money to pay for our healthcare, or we are castaways.

The new Castaways of the 21st Century, who are, (according to Obama in his press conference on July 22nd the latest malaise, the worst cancer draining our economy):

Those of us on Medicare whose health and medical insurance benefits are of no consequence to the moneyed politicians, who, without blinking an eye will chop-off benefits to us, the silver haired population, regardless of the live or die consequences those cuts will have, or are already having on our health.

The working have nots. Those of us lucky enough to hold a job in the shambles of this economy. A job which barely helps us meet the obligations of paying rent, or mortgage, putting food on the table, owning a car and putting gas in it, but who are unable to purchase health insurance due to the extreme high cost of it, or carry an employer provided insurance which benefits have been cut to the bare minimum, or work for employers who refuse to, or can't afford any longer, they say, to provide health insurance benefits for those of us working for them.

The people on welfare whose health care depends on the Medicaid system.

We are all the new Castaways of the 21st Century.

So, this whole health care reform thing is a sham to our politicians. It is a hoax, our politicians are self-absorbed shammers of major proportions who are playing a chess game with our lives.

They are like the fox and the cat in the Pinocchio tale. They are working hard to convince us (and convince themselves since they have the power to vote Yes or vote No) that we do not need, and they cannot give us, the healthcare that we really need: Single-Payer Universal Healthcare. A healthcare which would go a long ways into returning us to our status of human beings, away from the pawn and serfdom status that they now grant us.

These politicians, who, one and all, pride and honor themselves as highly moral, highly honorable, highly compassionate, cannot see that they are really tepid in their morality and their compassion, timid in really taking on the health care reform, highly sentimental when it comes to departing with the money deposited in their pockets, bank accounts or PAC accounts by the insurance companies.

They also suffer from a reckless fortitude which blinds them to the courage needed to stand up and do the right thing for we, the people ...

Author's Bio: elena dumas is a fictional name. the real person behind the fictional name is a computer activist. She is a former mental health clinician. A poet and a freelance writer. Her work has been published in several online publications.

www.opednews.com/articles/Stop-Playing-Politics-with-by-elena-dumas-090729-145.html