Plop, plop! Fizz, fizz...!

Oh, what a relief it is! Alka-Seltzer has nothing on the pill that Congress (finally!) prescribed last night to reform the health care system in this country. I know, I know. Like many of my readers, I would have preferred something more... radical. But I believe that our Barack Obama has an instinctive, practical wisdom about the minimum and maximum achievable, and that he gauged this right, not for me personally, but for the country. And he got it done. Kudos to him, and to Nancy Pelosi and the House leaders, for this great achievement. A vast number of Americans will rest easier for this legislation, particularly the most vulnerable among us--those who do not have, or choose not to use, the megaphone of the Tea Party-ers and other right-wing conservatives. These are the people who have written anguished letters to their representatives and to the President, whose very lives are threatened by the callous, bottom-line priorities of the insurance companies, and who face the threat of bankruptcy and family disintegration.

Bravo, then, Democrats! Shame on Republicans for their cynical, lock-step rejectionism. Not one could summon the courage to cast a vote in favor of this much-needed change. Not one!