Universal Health Care blog #2

Universal Health Care Blog #2:

Prompt: Argue for your opposing side of universal health care.

            Universal health care is a system that provides all persons in a region with health care benefits. No matter what occupation one has, you receive the same health care as everyone else. With universal health care, even if you have the profession of a doctor, you still receive the same health benefits as someone who does not work at all. So this brings us to the question, is ones health care a right or a privilege? Should health care be given to all persons no matter what level of occupational status an individual is on? As a person with a strong moral belief that we are all equals in this selfish world we have found ourselves in today, I must side with the statement that health care is a human right. Every person deserves the right to their health and well being. As Helen Redmond says in the Universal Health Care book, the core to the idea of health care being a human right is freedom. Having a non-universal health care system influences every decision that one makes all the way down to very simple and basic decisions, costing an individual their freedom. The Declaration of Independence says that we have the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Doesn’t the right to life correspond with the right to health? Good health gives us life, and it is a right for every human being to receive this good health.

            Not having universal health care splits us as human beings into different groups depending on our social status. It creates a line between the strong and the weak, leaving the weak and less fortunate without health care. In our Universal Health Care book Leonard Peikoff, who is against universal health care, quotes, “our rights are rights to action, not rewards from other people. The American rights impose no obligations on other people.” I find it hard to believe that people can live in a world without respect for other people and their well being. Our whole lives are based around the care for others. Take the Declarations rights for example, the rights that Peikoff says have no obligations on other people: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life: given to us by Jesus Christ our savior, and the parents that have raised us. Liberty: given to us by the men that fight for our country. Pursuit of Happiness: No one can truly be happy on their own; we must count on others in order to survive. The American rights impose a HUGE obligation on other people.

            Yes, some might disagree that it is unfair to give individuals that don’t have a job or no occupation the same heath care as a brain surgeon, but what about those that don’t choose the cards they have been given? What about those with cancer bills, born with a disability that makes them unable to work, gets in an accident that was never planned, or even the homeless on the streets that have lost everything due to medical bills? Do they deserve this? No. Anyone with any type of moral sympathy has to agree with this statement… we must make health care universal for those that that have received the unchosen, unfair life. Major cities are full of homeless people, and being here in Rome proves this statement to the fullest. Most of them probably qualify for Medicaid, but do not have the ability to apply because they do not have all the evidence to prove that they are homeless, because why? They are homeless. Gathering this information for the less fortunate is almost impossible. Helmond Redmond quotes, “The consequence is hundreds of thousands of mentally ill are eligible for coverage but can’t get it. Instead, they wander the streets talking to themselves, hearing voices, dirty, hungry, and begging for money. The mentally ill are not free, such as our Declaration says we all have been given the right to be. Those who are in need deserve the right to be treated, because no one chooses this life, we were given it without choice. Yes, one should work for what they want in life, but the baseline should be health care; if you want more than that, go work for it.

            With my morals towards my religion, I believe that universal health care is a right that is deserved by everyone due to this life we have been given by Him. Every person deserves to have the opportunity to live this life to the fullest, and this begins with universal health care. Saint Peter traveled all over Rome spreading the message of equality and the love that we must have for other people. In the First Letter of Peter he says “be holy in all that you do, since it is the Holy One that has called you, and the scripture says: Be holy for I am holy.” We have been given the chance by Him to be holy in all that we do. Not only in some of what we do, but ALL of what we do. Everyone deserves the right to health care, and a chance to live a prospering life. “The trouble is everyone talks about reforming others and no one talks about reforming himself.” –Anonymous  

GL 350 Blog #2

Global Learning 350

Prompt #2: The history of Rome, according to the British journalist H.V. Morton, is both “exhilarating and oppressive for the traveler.” In what ways have you found Rome to be exhilarating and oppressive?

            Nothing is perfect and so much is complicated. You can travel anywhere in this world and you will never be able to find someone or something that has no faults or no imperfections. Rome is the same way, and I have learned that in only two weeks. I have had instances here where I have felt the most exhilarating and peaceful moments of my life. On the contrary, I have had moments of complete irritation/oppression. Today in class professor Dinilo said, “Italy is like a rose, and yes it does have thorns.” One of my favorite parts of Barzini so far has been the forward, where he speaks about how it is hard for him to write about a place that he knows so well. He quotes, “It is notoriously easier to write about things and people one does not know very well. One has fewer doubts.” I feel as though we must leave the place that we have come from in order to truly appreciate it. We must see other places, and peoples, exhilaration and oppressions to truly understand our own.

            “One has to be born again, so to speak, and then one will learn to look back upon one’s ideas as upon the shores of childhood” (Barzini). When we arrived to our campus in Rome, one of the first things I did was go out onto the balcony and look over the city. If I looked hard enough I could see the ocean in the distance, cars passing through the city, and other people standing on roof tops most likely for the thousandth time in their lives looking over Rome. This was the first exhilarating moment I had in Italy. It was hard for me to take it all in honestly; I had never seen a view so beautiful in my life. Another exhilarating moment that came quickly, as it also did for my classmates, was stepping one foot out of the metro and seeing the magnificent Coliseum. Hundreds of people were gathering around to take pictures of one of the most popular pieces of history in the world. I couldn’t help but question if this was really my first day in Rome. It didn’t even seem real! Walking into the building holding the Holy Steps was also a moment to remember on this trip that made me feel a sense of exhilaration. I was actually there at steps that had been believed to be where Jesus once walked on from Pontius Pilots palace. There is just something about Rome’s natural beauty that at first, feels as though you may have a lifelong intimacy with it.

            We received a tour of the Coliseum on the second day in Rome, where I learned more about how many thousands of Christians and slaves were killed there. On the third day we were in Rome I bought a book on the Holy Steps and learned that these were the steps Jesus walked on the day he was crucified on the cross. How could these places be exhilarating to me? I have already seen more homeless people here than I ever have in my life, and the noise and traffic can only be shut out by the headphones I now feel are a necessity to take with me everywhere I go here. In the short story Such is Rome, from Smiles, Ginzburg quotes, “In the Rome of today I don’t see the slightest trace of the reasons for which I came to love it. It’s not even possible to exchange an affectionate word or glance with the city anymore. Cars overrun its sidewalks. Nothing, nowadays, feels as distant and remote as the countryside.  It’s as if it no longer knows what to be.” The lack of home can be exhilarating at first, but picking out faults of the new life soon becomes easy. Rome is not like the place we all come from, and now we are all beginning to see the imperfections here as well.

            I don’t mind the moments of oppression. They remind me that everything is a rose, and every rose has a thorn. I know that I must take this trip as it comes to me, and if moments of oppression are a part of that, I will accept them. As Barzini says in our readings from this week, it is what the traveler takes with him or her that will provoke adventure. “Is la dolce vita really more dolce in Italy than anywhere else?” It cannot always be found by where I travel, but how I travel. One can never truly appreciate what has been given to them until they leave it and then return. As I take in future moments of exhilaration and oppression on this trip, I will remember what Barzini says about la dolce vita: it is what the traveler makes out of it that counts.

Selfie with the Spanish Steps!!

Started the second week of classes with a tour of the Spanish steps by two of my classmates! Just another day in Rome that has reminded me how blessed I am to be here with these amazing students and professors.

Universal Health Care blog #1

Comparative Health 490:

Prompt #1: Is universal health care a right or a privilege? 

            Universal health care is a system that provides all persons in a region with health care benefits. No matter what occupation one has, you receive the same health care as everyone else. With universal health care, even if you have studied and spent thousands of dollars on education, you still acquire the same benefits as someone that does not work at all. So this brings us to the question, is ones health care a right or a privilege? Should health care be given to all persons no matter what level of occupational status an individual is on? Over the last few years, with Obama Care rising, this has been a large dispute in America. Many persons disagree with the idea of Obama Care, a universal health care system that equalizes all people when it comes to the health care system. As a twenty year old college student with a prolonged belief that I must work for what I receive, I must side with health care being a privilege.

            Last week in Abbi Ohman’s blog for 350 she mentioned a quote by Erma Bombeck that has been one of my favorites to live by: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.” I think this is a good way to live one’s own life, and it is just another way to remind me that I must use the life and talent I have been given in order to receive what I want and need to survive and prosper. In a perfect world, everyone would be equal in every sense of the word. This is not a perfect world, and it has never been. Health care is not a right to any person that is born with the ability to work for what they want and desire. Leonard Peikoff, who won over my side when I read his opinion in our Health Care book, speaks about the Declaration of Independence and what rights when have been given. We have the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Leonard quotes, “they are rights to action, not rewards from other people. You have a right to act, and to keep the results of your actions.” In the movie The Pursuit of Happiness starring Will Smith, he is a father that has little money and a son that he is committed to. He must care for himself and his family, so he fights the odds and works for what his family needs. He works his way all the way from the bottom to a successful stockbroker. It wasn’t easy and there were many bumps in the road, but in the end he worked for what him and his family needed and deserved. At the end of the movie he wonders how Thomas Jefferson knew to put ‘pursuit’ in front of happiness in the Declaration. As a personal opinion, I believe that we have the god given right to pursue and commit to the actions that God has given us. So again, health care is a privilege to those who are born with the ability to work for what they need and want.

            While thinking about this question for the last week, the only key point that was leaning me towards the side of health care being a right was the thought of those people that are born without the ability to work for a higher occupational level, such as the mentally ill. In my eyes, health care is a right to these individuals. I believe heath care should be given to these people due to the lack of ability that they were born with. This separation between the people I believe should work for their heath care and those who it should be given to leaves a large gap of people that have trouble pushing themselves to work for needs, or even people that have became addicted to drugs or alcohol and need treatment. All in all I’ve always wanted to help people, and I would give up a lot of what I have to help others. I think that this gap of people should be helped as best as they can by charities. No, they do not have the right to deserve free heath care due to their choices, but they do deserve the right for others to help them at people’s choice to give.

            Before I really started learning about universal health care and taking the time to think about what opinion I would reside to, I would have taken one look at all this information and said that those who believe health care is a privilege are selfish and inconsiderate. Who wouldn’t want those in need to receive proper heath care? After doing research, listening to my classmates give their opinions, and really finding in myself what I believe in morally, I resided with the opinion that human beings must work for what we receive. Pablo Picasso said it best, “Action is the foundational key to all success.”

First week in Rome!

The first week in Rome has been everything I could ask for! I am more than blessed to be here with these amazing friends and professors. 

This first picture shows the view out of my dorm room window, and yes, it will never get old waking up to this. 

 On our first day in the city we were given a very interesting task... Go find the Colosseum.. On the first day! As you can see, we managed! And the next day we received an amazing tour of the inside. :)

 The Roman Forum!

Enjoy the pictures! Little piece of Rome to share with la familia back home!