PACIFICA COMMENTARY FOR NOVEMBER 26, 2003

Hello, this is Blase Bonpane with a comment.

We have much to be thankful for.

I am thankful that hard working people in their quest for a living wage are instructing the

market owners that greed is a form of institutional violence.

I am thankful for union solidarity in support of the strikers.

I am thankful that the workers are making it clear that a single payer national

medical system would benefit the market owners as well as employees in a win win

situation.

Now that legislation has passed to destroy Medicare we should look at the facts. Health

Maintenance Organization use up to 33% of their funds for administration and profit. On

the contrary, Social Security spends only 3% on administration. Medicare also spends

about 3% for administration. And the medical program in that far away country called

Canada spends less than 1% of its fund to administer health care to all Canadians.

I am thankful that a substantial number of our citizens can observe that the public

sector of our society is being abolished by a rigid ideology of privatization combined

with perpetual war making.

Indeed, our militarism is creating international guerrilla warfare. Our founders became

guerrillas in the face of imperial oppression. And today I think our own people

would become suicide bombers if some ignorant alien power came in to our

midst...shredded our children with fragmentation bombs, destroyed our infrastructure and

put in a pseudo government established to steal our national resources as it

confined our people with apartheid walls and summary execution.

We are currently spending about a trillion and a half dollars a year for health care.

And remember that the system favored by our Congress is based on the violence of

excluding people with pre-existing conditions. Check it out. If you need help we are

not here for you. We don't cover that and we don't cover that and we don't cover that.

HMO's simply do not exist to cure the sick. They exist to collect your money.

You guessed it; a single payer national system would be cheaper and would not be based

on rejecting those who need help the most.

I am thankful that our people are beginning to connect the dots as they understand that

the framers of perpetual war are treasonous to the common good of the sovereign

people of the United States.

Actually I'm not only thankful for the growing consciousness of our people, I am hopeful

as well that we can restore and expand the non-profit public sector, welcome distributive

justice into our economy and acknowledge our interdependence with all the people of this

small planet. HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

For a free copy of this commentary please call 323/852-9808 ... 323/852-9808.

This is Blase Bonpane