Believe

There’s a quote I’ve learned from my father-in-law that I find interesting. It goes, to paraphrase, something like this: “if a young man is not an idealist, he has no heart; if an old man is not conservative, he has no brain.”

When I was about 16 or 17 years of age and still living in Finland, I made an appointment to meet with the Director of Education of the city where I went to high school. I wanted to explore the possibility of establishing a non-profit organization that would assist academically promising Russian teenagers in coming to Finland to study in high schools and universities. I had been to Russia and seen first-hand the kind of lives that many young people my age were forced to lead. I thought that higher education was key in changing their futures for the better.

While the idea itself never went beyond that stage of exploration, it serves as an example of the kind of idealism that teenagers and young adults often possess. Practical issues and mundane obstacles do little to restrain the enthusiastic young mind. Any good idea, fueled by good intentions, is destined by default to succeed. All it takes is someone who believes in it. Such is the passion of the young, idealistic heart.

A decade and a half later, I find myself far more resistant to bending my mind and wrapping it around such great concepts. The ideas are still good; I just don’t really believe in them.

I liked Barack Obama’s campaign slogan, “change we can believe in.” I liked the message. Beyond Obama’s eloquence and grace, I was not really convinced that he would do any better as president as John McCain would. Sure, his values seemed to reflect mine much more closely than McCain’s did, but I have seen enough candidates and presidents to come and go to know that campaign promises are just that: campaign promises. What I did like, however, was the attitude.

Perhaps it was a “feel-good” campaign more than one of real issues and real solutions. Could be that a little bit of “feel-good” is precisely what the country needs after eight years of disasterous economics and sloppy politics.

It feels good to have something to believe in.

I don’t know if Obama’s health care reform is what the doctor ordered. “Difficult to see the future is,” as Yoda would say. But I like the attitude. I like the faith. I like the positivity and good-will of the intent. It runs distinctly counter to all the town hall trash talk about “death panels” and other such disinformation.

To be perfectly honest, I find it hard to believe that the health care reform is going to work as expected, and succeed. Not because it’s a bad idea – I don’t think that is the case – but because there are so many out there who refuse to even consider the possibility. Those that do not believe in it work directly against it. Instead of offering their own solutions, they simply attempt to sabotage the efforts of those whose ideas they do not support.

The reform was not sprung up on the nation overnight; it has been festering and fermenting for a long time. Retooling of the health care system was a big theme in last year’s campaign. Both the Democrats and the Republicans boasted its importance. Both parties’ candidates had their own plans that they often referred to.

The thing is, people didn’t expect it to really happen. Kind of like when they promise to lower taxes. Or fix the economy. It sounds good. That kind of message is easier to butter on than, say, “I pledge to spend a trillion of your dollars on an endless war in the Middle East.”

Maybe ten years from now when we’ve spent our children’s retirement money on this health care experiment, we will find that instead of offering affordable health care to everyone it simply became a big, sticky ball of red tape and a bottomless pit of federal spending. That’s possible. It’s not like we have not been there before.

But, on the other hand, Medicare and Medicaid have been of enormous help to millions of Americans over the decades. When Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, signed it into law, conservatives opposed the idea, claiming that the programs were a path to socialism. Sound familiar? George H. W. Bush referred to Medicare as “socialized medicine” – but did he get rid of it during his term as President? No.

Progress is rarely easy, but I like those who can give you good reasons as to why we can, as opposed to those who object, but are unable to present any evidence as to why we can’t. It is nice to know that even if I cannot envision a very bright future, the nation is being led by those who still believe in one.

Tagged as: health care, medicare, obama, politics