On Thursday, June 28, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote to uphold the majority of the Affordable Care Act.
What does that mean?
Right now, we're not sure, and that seems to be the general consensus. Of course, many people on bias news sources, blogs and Facebook statuses are saying this ruling is either the end of America and the free world, or a long-awaited victory for democracy.
To those people, we would like to say calm down. Calm down a lot.
It seems that everybody is now an expert in the way our country runs. You might know a few of these self-proclaimed professionals. If not, they are easy to spot.
Their Facebook accounts are covered with long, nonsensical rants about how good or bad healthcare reform is. They aren't willing to see the other side, and they know every one that disagrees with them is a victim of either conservative or liberal brainwashing. They quote people like Ghandi, Teddy Roosevelt and John Wayne.
In any other setting, these people would be laughed at, but we have become a society of political extremism.
We love to watch the other guys, whoever they may be, suffer in their presumed ignorance, and we love to call them out on this ignorance even more.
We say it's time to stop fighting.
Like our past few editorials, we are encouraging you to think for yourself. You have the tools to find the facts.
Healthcare.gov was setup in order to dispel much of the falsities that seem to be prevalent talking points these days. It's written in plain English, and it even has contact information for anyone that has any questions regarding the ACA. Even more importantly, it's not run by any particular party, and it allows anyone to read the bill.
There are some aspects of the bill that are unclear. For example, the penalty for businesses that choose not to purchase insurance for employees has not been decided yet. The rewards and penalties for care provider quality are also vague.
But please don't think that some comment you saw on some random site is representative of the truth.
Barack Obama is not some Nigerian prince who's stealing your money through a thinly-veiled Internet scam. All conservatives are not knuckle-dragging buffoons who feel the need for violent insurrection every time a democrat speaks, except maybe for the Tea Party.
We can make this work if we would just shut up for a moment and think.
At the root of this controversy are people who can't afford to see a doctor because insurance has become too expensive.
Whether you believe it or not, those people exist, and it has come down to us to help.
Is it wrong to help them? No.
Is it wrong to be concerned we don't have enough money to do so? No.
However, these are no reasons for political agendas and extremism to cause a stalemate. We are better than this. We are a country that can do wonderful things when we work together, but we can also wreak havoc when we disagree.
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