Greatness

Recently, our media and politicians have been proclaiming the need for equity. Everyone should have access to "basic" health care. Everyone should have access to "basic" education. Everyone should have access to "basic" home ownership.

In the 80's we didn't talk about "basic" anything. We talked about being the greatest nation on the face of the planet. We did that not through lowering our standards and making sure we were all equal at the lowest standard possible. We did that by striving for greatness and working our collective tails off.

When I get ill, I don't want basic health care, I want great health care.

When my children receive an education, I want them to have a great education, not a "basic" education.

When my children want to purchase a home, I want them to be able to buy a great home because they work for it and save their pennies. I don't want them to have to settle for a "basic" home because that is as high as the lowest member of our nation can reach.

We, as a nation, should not focus on providing the "basics" for all. We should focus on on providing the best for all who can afford it. This drive will reduce the cost of the same service for all of us in the long run.

We talk about the current cost of health care in this nation, yet forget to mention the advances we have made in this arena.

The average life expectancy of someone born in 1900 was 49.2. In 2008, that average life expectancy reached 78. We have increased our life spans by about 60% in the last century.

Do you think that happened because we aimed for providing "basic" health care in America? We achieved this by striving for greatness in health care.

Do you think that adding nearly 30 years onto everyone's life is free and inexpensive? Someone has to pay for all of that medication and all of that health care, all of the machines, all of the lawsuits, all of the hospital beds, all of the wheel chairs and "hover-rounds", all of the home nurses, all of it.

It is not free, in spite of what some might believe.

We expect to live 60% longer and do it for free. We spit in the face of reality.

We forget that we achieved these great things by striving for greatness, not by striving for mediocrity.

Aloha.