Reply #64: At a fundraiser for Kucinich here in Santa Fe, a woman sat next to me...

[puebloknot]

...who came in the door as a Dean supporter and left as a Kucinich supporter, after hearing Dennis speak. Dennis has a marvelous way of speaking directly to the hearts of the people he's addressing. He's genuine. He grew up in poverty, and knows what it is to have to worry about a roof over your head.

Given Dennis' ability to reach out to people and infuse his own heart-felt enthusiasm into a situation, I think we'd see an army of Kuciniches at the grassroots, and that legitimacy would then "trickle up."

We all have to think 50 years out if we care about our loved ones, but we need to think in more immediate terms, so as not to lose hope. Perhaps selfishly, I want the rest of my own life to be spent without the overriding worry about health and finances that I experience now. And Kucinich says we can make important changes quickly. The money now being spent on emergency room care (the only option for many people) could be used more efficiently in a one-payer system. He says we're spending the money already that we would spend on a single-payer system; we just need to rearrange how the money is being spent.

Of course, there's the fear on the part of a lot of people that we'd end up with sub-par healthcare, that taking care of the under class would mean the upper class wouldn't have the posh surroundings in a hospital they now enjoy. They worry that hordes of the unwashed would take away their standard of living. I think it's time for America to grow up and realize that we're going to sink or swim TOGETHER! I prefer *swim*!

As a young army brat, I got good medical care on army bases, in quonset huts. We won't even need to consider scaling down that much. We can still walk into a modern medical facility and get good care, under Kucinich's plan. What we're looking at now, with the insurance companies exercising the power of life and death over us, with an eye to their bottom line, is simply absurd. America is the laughing stock of the world in terms of our maturity as a people. So, we have the best cancer treatment in the world. So what, if we can't touch it because we can't afford it. Decent healthcare is a right, not a privilege. And if we invest in the health of our citizenry, we'll have a better population in every way. Good health leads to an ability to make life improvements, get an education or a job. Without good health, any of us is a burden on our families and on the society as a whole. We're just stupid not to invest in our own best asset -- a healthy population.

Dennis! He's the man. And I say that with respect to other candidates. I just don't think any of them have the moral courage he has to stand up against the insurance companies. I was so pissed off, back before the 2004 elections, when I heard Elizabeth Edwards talking about her husband's plan to insure America's *children*! That's admirable, but what do the children do when their parents are ill, have no insurance, and can't take care of them. And for the record, I adore Elizabeth Edwards these days. And I like her husband. He was doing what was politically expedient back then, and I get the feeling he's learned a thing or two since then.

We have a lot of talent in this country, and we need to put it to the best interests of We the People!

BTW...I agree with your premise that the executive can't do it alone! Took me a few words to get to that point! :)