For the first time in a long time, I found myself feeling particularly politically motivated yesterday.  A friend from High School posted on an article on Facebook that really lifted my eyebrows. 

The Oaks Apartments in Albany, Oregon have instituted a ban against flying flags of any sort in the complex.  That includes, you guessed it, the American flag.

WOW.

This morning I double checked to see if any changes were made to the story before I posted this, and I found quite a bit of new information on this story.  Here is the link to the article I am quoting:

http://www.democratherald.com/news/local/article_d7d3c902-b4ee-11de-b11b-001cc4c03286.html

The apartment manager had this to say about her course of actions:

"I'm trying to avoid any conflict," Holcomb said. "I have a problem when tenants' rights to free speech come into contact with other tenants' rights of peaceful enjoyment. This policy is not a violation of anyone's civil rights.

"We're a diverse community here, and we've had previous problems with this sort of thing," she said.

WOW Again.  I didn’t realize flags were able to ruin the “rights of peaceful enjoyment” of another tenant.  It is this kind of nonsense that I am getting quite tired of from a political standpoint.  Rather than worry about people getting offended or having to think for themselves or learn to respect another culture, all of the cultures in that apartment complex are getting smeared, and quite frankly, the most important culture just had a moronic apartment manager take a big dump on it.  The most important culture in America is of course the AMERICAN culture.  You know, it’s that culture that allows us to BE WHO WE ARE regardless of your race or gender.  It is the culture that allows for individuality and freedom.  This is not a country that says “You can’t fly YOUR flag here” this is a country that says “You CAN fly your flag here, you just can’t do it above ours.”

Doesn’t that tell you something?

The ACLU managed to make a quote about this little incident as well:

Jann Carson, the associate director of the ACLU of Oregon, agreed that Clausen and other tenants' civil rights are not being violated under the new policy.

"It is my understanding in Oregon that an owner of private property can apply those types of restrictions," she said. "But if there is any evidence of racial motivation for those kinds of decisions on private property that are public accommodations, they could run afoul of state statute and federal civil rights laws."

Ok Ms. Carson.  Who determines those factors?  Who looks at these types of situations and states “That was racially motivated!”  Does that include the nationality of American?  Was this policy in place when the tenants moved in to the structure, or is this a new policy?  Are the tenants being allowed to break their lease with no backlash from the complex if they decide this policy is not for them?

Quite frankly this is a very simple solution.  The American Flag should be flown from any apartment at any point in time by any tenant.  We live in America and it is the right of every American to show support of their country in a symbolic manner they choose.  Any other flags can be displayed in the individual apartments.  If anyone finds their “rights of peaceful enjoyment” disturbed beyond that, I say let them be disturbed.  No matter how “diverse” your community is if the people within it are enjoying the rights and privileges given to them by the American Flag, then I say they should respect it and learn to live with it or move.

Before you read this understand one thing:

I do not read the news on a regular basis.  These are my thoughts on Universal healthcare from the standpoint of someone who works in Insurance, but NOT in Life/Health insurance.  In other words, I'm rambling my personal opinion only and trying to walk through it in my head.

The definition of insurance is in its most basic definition a transfer of risk.  Two parties sit down and make a contractual agreement that one will pay a certain amount, and the other party will pay for covered losses etc. from that agreed amount.  Sounds simple right?  Not so much.  You see insurance companies cross their fingers hoping that an insured doesn't need to make a claim.  A claim cuts into the bottom line right?  Here is a true example:

A storm damaged the turbine on the top of my house and caused a water leak.  I pay $2,343 a year in homeowners insurance.  This year I had a $2,600 claim for damage to my roof and my interior ceiling.  Guess who lost money on me this year?  Luckily it was my first claim in 6 years, so my company is keeping me around.

Now, if you stop and think about this, you should wonder how an insurance company makes money especially if they are in Health Insurance!  Insurance companies try and spread out their risks as much as possible.  For example:

Let's say an insurance company, we'll call it Southernlass Insurance, only insures houses in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas.  Let's say a big fat F5 tornado skips along those states and destroys ALL of the houses covered by Southernlass Insurance.  Guess what?  Southernlass is going to be filing bankruptcy!  In order to avoid this, insurance companies insure properties that are spread out all over the country in the hopes that they will make enough money from the "non-claims" to cover the people who cause claims.  With me so far?

Now, if you look at Universal Health Insurance, you can somewhat compare it to property insurance.  There are certain groups that are defined as causing more claims, there are people with less claims, and there are people who have to hold out their hands once every 6 years or so for some oddball BIG claim.  The new insurance "company" of the U.S. Citizens would be paying for everyone to have insurance.  The hope is that there is more money coming in than going out through claims.  However, the whole "pool" of people are paying for the people with claims.

I think what a lot of Americans are thinking about when they discuss Universal Healthcare is something like Medicare/Medicaid.  In my opinion those are not truly healthcare systems, they are welfare systems.  They are welfare systems that are not designed to help people get healthy and move forward.  They are systems designed for people who have no financial means to pay for insurance in any other fashion.

Example:

My roommate had breast cancer.  It was labeled as terminal breast cancer.  However, two years later she is alive, cancer free, and still on medical welfare.  Could I look at my roommate and say she is 100% well and ready to go back into the work force?  No.  Could I say that not once have I seen or heard her talk about the welfare office calling her to see if she wants to set up a meeting for career rehab, or to see if there is something they can do to speed her recovery?  Yes, I can say not once has anyone from Medicaid/Medicare called her to see what THEY COULD DO TO HELP HER get back to a "normal" lifestyle.

That is not HEALTHCARE.

I think we as Americans are so used to seeing people suffer on Medicaid and Medicare that we forget these are welfare programs.  I think we tend to look down our noses at these welfare programs because they are "not as good" as our healthcare programs.  Well, of course not!  Welfare and Healthcare are NOT the same thing!  Welfare is having a basic need fulfilled while Healthcare is a program that agrees to help you manage a healthy life.  A healthcare program encourages preventative medicine.  It encourages you to eat healthy, live healthy, and to keep yourself in tip top shape.  A healthcare program does not react to your needs it is proactive to your needs.  It doesn't say "You have cancer let's fix it." a healthcare program says "you are of an age to get X type of cancer let's do a prescreen for it". 

While I haven't read too much on the Universal healthcare program the President is suggesting, I have noticed one thing that a lot of others are missing over.  Obama is not 100% saying the program will be solely government run.  There are still other options in the works, and I think we need to stop thumbing our noses at something that could potentially be a huge benefit to our society.  Let's open our eyes and realize that reformed "healthcare" is not the same thing as "welfare".