So, I'm sitting at this community forum about the movie "Sicko" the other night -- in the cramped and kind of hot backroom of a hippie coffee shop down the street -- and I'm listening to a bunch of people go on and on and on about the horrible problems with our health care system (yes, it's horrible!), and how medical bills account for half of all bankruptcies and are the #1 cause of homelessness (yes - outrageous!), and how the whole industry is set up solely to deny care and make tons of money (ditto, and ditto!).
And the whole time I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, "Yes, yes, and yes. But how can we make health care reform sexy?"
Because that, to me, is the real question.
Because real Americans vote when something gets them excited enough to turn off American Idol and get down to the polls. And real Americans like sex appeal.
Because we would totally have affordable, accessible health care by now if, say, Paris Hilton or Brad Pitt refused to take their clothes off on camera until congress passed it. The U.S., it seems, is tired of hearing the same ol' shtick -- it's like one big, collective, "Yes! We know already! Some people have to choose between buying food and buying medicine -- we get it!" (And the silent second half of that response: "And we don't really care!")
Because if we did care, god (or goddess) knows, we'd've taken notice of all the poor people and homeless people and skyrocketing medical bills crippling the middle class.
But we didn't.
Instead, Larry King dumped Michael Moore for Paris Hilton, because Larry knows that more people wanted to listen to her attempt to speak in complete sentences than be forced to listen to something depressing and boring like the problems with health insurance companies (even though the movie was riotously funny in parts, but maybe didn't Larry have time to watch).
But what Larry didn't know is that health care reform can totally be sexy. We can have national slogans like, "Nobody comes between me and my low-cost prescriptions," or, "Is that a national insurance card in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" or, "Single-payer health care is for lovers."
I think this could work.
Somebody call Paris. I have a proposition to make.
5 comments:
It's so sad that we have to make something so important to so many millions of Americans "sexy," isn't it? You're right, of course, and that's what's sad.
Democracy is extremely fragile. It takes the active participation of everyone to truly work. We don't even have a majority in this country, and look at the results.
The blanket of complacency that has settled over our country is crippling our country, leaving the decisions of our well-being in the hands of a select few. This scares me more than just about anything, and being in DC, seeing it up close every day, makes me feel even more powerless over it than I did living outside it.
So, I guess the change begins much smaller. Change will have to come in smaller steps -- one city, one county, one state at a time.
Oooh! Or how about, "Health care reform is too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt..."
I'm too sexy even for this blog entry about health-care reform.
Honestly, though, Michael Moore can't make anything sexy. He tried with Cheap Trick, but he used Rick Nielsen instead of Tom Peterssen.
I'm thinking it doesn't have to be sexy, though. It has to be the plague. It has to be a serious issue.
I'm not suggesting germ warfare, but my mother was a democrat until the day she was robbed and beaten up in front of her house.
hmmm... i'm thinking i need to work on portraying sarcasm, ya'll. :-)
yes, dogfaceboy, i agree with you -- i don't actually think health care reform has any sex appeal.
(but it would be kind of funny if somebody tried -- funny, but, as we're learning, perhaps not so much with the sarcastic.)
I got your sarcasm. I was being serious, though. You know me. I'm always serious. ;)
Post a Comment