Will the National Equality March help us - or hurt us?

The march on Washington for gay rights - the National Equality March - is two months out. I have not heard any discussion of the community culture that we will present at that important event. A march on the capital to demand civil and human rights is a solemn undertaking. The media will cover it as such. And of course the harpies of the Right will exploit any hint that our community fails to appreciate the solemnity of the nation's capital, and the history of that place.

I've attended the San Francisco Pride Parade many times, and I've always enjoyed the energy of it. I appreciate that the exuberance symbolizes the freedoms that we have won. But if the National Equality March on October 10th looks anything like - and I mean anything like - the Pride Parade, I'm concerned that we would screw ourselves, and we would screw the entire progressive cause, very severely. Even little things that we think are charming and funny, such as this "Healthy Penis" which the San Francisco Health Department entered in the 2005 Pride Parade to promote safer sex, in the context of the National Mall would be disastrously inappropriate.



Am I alone in this fear? Am I out of line?

For what it's worth...
I'm a straight progressive activist of many years. I have put myself on the line for marriage equality, for the end of "Don't Ask Don't Tell, and for civil protection for the LGBT community from hate crimes. My daughter has two moms.

Patriotism and the Knee-Jerk Assumption of Superiority

Yet another fool writes to DeadElephant.ORG: "Single payer insurance will destroy the best health-care system in the world."

America's current health-care system is among the very worst of all industrialized nations by every objective measure, such as outcomes and life-expectancy. And that's how wonderful it is for those of us who have insurance. The other 46 million of our fellow countrymen are literally dying on our streets. Will your own family have to be driven into bankruptcy, like millions of other American families, before you to wake up?

A true patriot doesn't reflexively assume that everything our country is, and does, must by-definition be "the best in the world".

Here are the facts:

• In 2006, the U.S. census reported that 46 million Americans have no health insurance.

• “Over a third (36%) of families living below the poverty line are uninsured.

• More than 9 million children lack health insurance in America.

• Eighteen thousand people die each year because they are uninsured.

• Half of all bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. Three-quarters of those filings are people with health insurance.

• Administrative costs account for 31 percent of all health care expenditures in the United States. The average overhead for Canada’s national health insurance program is 1.3 percent.

• The infant mortality rate for the U.S. is now higher than for many other industrial countries. A baby born in El Salvador has a better chance of surviving than a baby in Detroit.

• Canadians live three years longer on average than we do.

• The Journal of the American Medical Association found that even the poorest Brits can expect to live longer than the richest Americans.

Notes on sources of this data.