While noodling around on Facebook, a friend of mine mentioned how much she has to pay for health care and then wryly informed the Republican party at large that no, she doesn’t want healthcare reform. I can certainly understand her frustration. Given how much she pays for probably substandard insurance, I can relate to her pain, as I do the same. But it got me to put my grey matter to work a bit.

As someone who leans gently to the right fiscally — note: I say gently, not falling into it — I oppose government run, mandated, offered, suggested, or brainstormed health care. I want our federal government as far away as possible from our health care system. Aren’t these the same people who brought us the IRS? Who can’t make up their minds about who said we were going into the Middle East and why? The same folks who can steal sensitive documents out of the National Archives in their underwear, yet still manage to avoid a jail sentence?

I mean, seriously, are these the people you want to decide whether or not you get an organ donation and how many doctor’s visits you get per year? I don’t. And yet…

I agree with healthcare reform, the idea. Not the political debate, the vote-for-me-because-I’ll-change-healthcare crap we see on television and hear on the radio. But I do agree that we as citizens need to start being more active in our fight against healthcare’s rising costs.

But we do need to keep a few things in mind while we’re galavanting off to save our children’s health care costs.

1. We pay as much and often more for a car that we are willing to pay for healthcare. Why is it we’ll plunk down a load of cash on a car, often a leased car which we’ll never even own, yet we whine because we have to pay for healthcare? Have you noticed how the price of cars has gone up in the last 20 years? Yet we happily trade in our next-to-new car to get the newer version. But we have to have health insurance, you say. Well, many of us have to have cars. And we all get choices. We can buy older cars and pay less money, with the understanding that it may cost us money as it gets older and older. Or we can buy a new car and spend more money, and feel somewhat secure that it won’t cost us near as much. Same way with health insurance. Pay now or pay later, folks. There aren’t too many options otherwise. And isn’t that the way life works?

2. We have to acknowledge the increase in our medical options and the cost of those. Technology costs big-time. The more medical advances we have, the more expensive they get. We can sit back and say we are paying too much, but then we constantly complain that we should have cured the common cold (that is my whine as well). All the miracle cures we have discovered and the amazing surgeries they can now perform that we read about in the newspaper all require big bucks. We have to accept that the price of medical care is a lot more than what our parents paid.

3. You can’t ignore what the doctors have to charge to survive. They went to school for a LOT longer than most of us, and they deserve to make a good living from their hard work. They have to pay exorbitant costs for their business insurance, and crazy claims and morons out there who are sue-happy DO make it bad for all of us. People aren’t just saying that: it’s true. Go talk to your general practitioner. I guarantee he/she will have tales to tell about the crazy law suits they and their colleagues have to face every year. And they have to pay their employees; the increased requirements of paperwork take more manpower to complete.

4. We are all going to pay for it, if we are working. If you don’t like what you pay for healthcare now, you think it’s going to get cheaper because the government is paying for it? Please. Where does the government get the money? US. We’ll pay for it in the form of higher taxes. And it won’t just be on the rich, though remember, if we take away their incentive to be rich here, they’ll move. Why stay? Reality is, if the government can squeeze any of us for another dime, they will. They are power-hungry monsters down there, enjoying our cash like a bunch of shopaholics watching QVC. They will tax us all higher and higher, and then we don’t get choices about how much we pay and to whom. It will be the law, gang. And the only people getting free healthcare will be those living off the system…and how many of us want to make that a life goal? Hm?

I’m all for changing our healthcare system. There are corruptions that are unfair, and there are prices that are too high. But we have to be willing to look at it all under the umbrella of finding the RIGHT change. Not just change itself. And chances are, we do all want similar things. We just have to be willing to find a way to compromise to bring about a better system.

Sitting aside that fact that Phoebe Prince made her own decision that day. Albeit, I think it was the wrong one, she still had a choice. Now, that being said, the egregious behaviors of her classmates certainly influenced her and should NOT be ignored.

However, where were the parents, is my question. Why weren’t her parents involved, and talking her through this difficult situation? Why weren’t the bullying students’ parents involved, and stopping their own children from behaving poorly? Why is it all on the school? Schools have their hands full, dealing with shootings, aggressive students, and illegal substances and sex…not to mention, EDUCATING OUR KIDS. Now we want them to be police and judge and jury as well? What the hell, people? As if she’s the only student who ever got bullied and the administration and faculty just ignored it because they condoned it? Please. Rather the staff in our schools are overworked and asked to perform might feats, in a world where people are shooting each other over a bad day.

We need to stop passing the blame, and sit it square where it belongs: in our own laps. Phoebe Prince had a choice the day she chose to hang herself…and so did the kids who bullied her every day for three months…and so did the parents who chose not to be involved in their kids lives: on their facebook pages, checking in on them when they are with their friends and keeping in contact with the school about their children’s behaviors. We’re raising monsters, and trying to force others to tame them. That’s ain’t how it works.

I’m not a stick in the mud. I believe in equal rights (truly equal, not golf-handicapped rights) and applaud women who are able to move up in a world that in some ways, is still dominated by men. I happen to be one of those women struggling to get there, so believe me when I say, I’m all for it. But when did equal rights mean glorifying bad behavior? Society has no problem pointing fingers and judging the men who are caught cheating…so why are we glorifying the women?

I guess you could argue that they aren’t being glorified so much as the information is being reported. Let’s face it: it’s juicy and fascinating. But posting their photos, paying them for interviews…these women will end up with tell-all books and talk shows at the rate they are going. They are going to make a living because they had no moral values and even sadder, no value for themselves.

It’s grotesque yet amusing when we are shocked at how our teenage girls behave: flaunting their nearly naked bodies in front of boys and being willing to give every part of themselves for the scantest bit of attention. Look at what we teach them. In a world where parents are too busy carping at each other during their divorce to really focus on what’s best for their children, we leave children bereft of attention and approval. They are left with the media and the ever-ready television screen and internet. A buffet of behaviors and lifestyles are glorified and lavished with amusement and attention…what do you think they learn from this? (Not to mention, does anyone see the irony of arguments over gay marriage and adoption?)

We complain about the train we are on, the food, the speed, the decor, the route…but we forget that we are the driver. We chose this path. Somehow I doubt we’re going to like our destination.

1. I don’t understand how people with so much in common can find so much to disagree on. Seriously — I bet there is someone in your office, family, neighborhood or religious congregation that represents a completely different political opinion than you. Guess what: you probably have a lot in common with that person. No really — I bet you eat at some of the same restaurants, want similar things for your children and society at large, and probably even watch some of the same television shows. But the only thing we focus on is our differences and we make that bone of contention unbreakable. Why? What do we accomplish beyond driving a wedge?

2. Religious folks. In general, I just don’t get them. I hear a lot of talk about living like Christ…yet I see more damage done is his name, than healing. I’ve found more acceptance and friendship among those who are heretics and agnostics, than I ever have in the church. I seem to recall Christ coming to shake up the Jewish faith, to restore to the people their Messiah, and befriending the masses regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or social standing. Where is that in the modern church?

3. Greed. Oh, I think I get it. Some days, I want things I can’t have. So much so I fantasize about how much I would enjoy it until the credit card showed up. Then I know I wouldn’t like it near as much, and I put that dream away. Yet we are a society that lives on greed and “Iwanits.” Sure, I’ve made my share of poor financial decisions, but rarely have my motives fallen into the greed category — more of the “need” category. Still, I watch people who have money, who have accumulated wealth quickly, and all I see is misery and a sick need for more.

4. Job Interviews that involve lists of questions. What is the point? It’s like a first date. All proper conversation and elegant claims to future destinies. Have a conversation, for Pete’s sake. See what makes the person tick. Finding a good employee is less about background and credit checks, and more about chemistry and understanding their underlying moral composite.

I’m sure I’ll have more before this post is done. For now…that’s what’s been on my mind.

Which means, guess what? Kids suffer. No! The ACLU will not have this. This is unfair. These needy kids need teachers, so they’re going to file a suit to stop the layoffs. I’m sorry, ACLU, exactly where do you expect the school district, AKA the state, to get the money to pay for the salaries? With fairy dust? No one wants to fire these teachers. No one wants to hurt these kids. The ACLU is acting as though everyone just wants to ruin these kids’ educations. No, it has to do with having a checkbook that is so severely overdrawn, California may never see black numbers again. THAT’s why the teachers were laid off. What lawsuit is going to change that?!

No one was worried about their kids’ future when California was spending like an Orange County housewife w/ a brand new platinum Amex. No, they were focused on what they wanted, what kind of habitats baby turtles needed, and how to tax their citizens until they bled green. Now they’re in such a bind, the tax rate has sky-rocketed, and in some areas, the unemployment rate is over 40%. Good God Almighty. And the ACLU is shocked and appalled that the state can’t afford to pay these teachers? Wake up and smell the overspending, you morons.

Beyond that issue, look at the last line: “And Reed [student] realizes that she is working with a disadvantage: ‘I don’t have the right teachers’.” Okay, let’s think about this poor kid’s statement. Raise your hand if you had a sucky teacher while in high school. Okay, now raise your hand if MOST of your teachers stunk, because you want to crappy schools. Or perhaps, your teachers stunk because you weren’t a cool kid, and they played favorites at your school. Whatever the situation may be, we’ve all survived sucky teachers. Some of us even went onto additional education. Most of us have managed to get jobs or learn a trade, and make a living.

This kid thinks that having the right teachers is going to make a difference?! How about teaching yourself? How about sitting down with your text books, and learning what you’ve been assigned, regardless of the teaching method? Instead, these kids have been taught to rely on papa California and mama federal government for all their needs. And this is what we are left with: kids that throw their hands up in defeat because they don’t have the perfect environment for learning. Imagine our forefathers, when they literally walked to school in bare feet through snow and uphill. When education was secondary to survival. When an 8th grade education might be as good as it gets. Yet this country flourished into the most blessed nation on earth, with freedom unknown to any other country.

Somehow, I’m not thinking it had anything to do with one missing teacher.