In Public Opinion we talked about Health Care, a lot. About how it would be so great to have a health care system like Canada or France. And the more they talked the more this idea came to be fleshed out: People deserve this. They can't help themselves. They aren't responsible for their troubles and the Government should provide for them.

And the entire time I kept thinking about Faith of the Fallen, a Terry Goodkind book. The Imperial Order preached just this thing. Only about everything not just health care. Richard, the Seeker of Truth, and sworn enemy of the Order is taken to the heart of the Order, its city of birth, by a woman who is seeking something more from the life she has. This woman ardently believes that the Order is Good and Nobel and that its cause is right; that people are wretched and can't help themselves, that it is everyone's duty to go without or to give up what they can't keep anyways for the good of someone else, who, while they didn't do anything to earn it, deserves what someone else worked hard to get.

Richard is immersed in a land where excuses abound as to why they can't work, where people take no pride in what they do because the Government (the Order) tells them what they can work at, when, and that you can't work harder than someone else because in doing so you are evil and prideful in abilities you don't posses because you can't do anything for yourself. You are miserable wretched people. Scum of the earth, since your life doesn't mean anything, you should give what you can to make those less fortunate than you (ironically no one is less fortunate, because they are all equal. . . )because you can't do anything for yourself.

The people who lived in this town were miserable and stuck in perpetual poverty. Slaves to the Orders bidding. Alive and making it only by the grace of the Order.

With Richards coming things begin to change. Richard takes pride in his work and does everything with a sense of nobility and pride. It starts small , but soon all those around him are living life, enjoying living instead of merely surviving.

I can see this happening to the American people and it saddens me greatly. We expect the Government to take care of us. But we still want to keep our freedoms. We shouldn't have to work for what we want, it should be given to us.

We gripe against hose who have the inclination, drive, and talent to achieve great things. Instead of finding the drive and talent that we have that will allow us to do great things too. We flock to jobs that we think will make us rich, instead of doing what we have a passion for.

We pass the buck instead of saying, the buck stops here with me. I am going to take responsibility for my life, for my decisions. Things will not get better until people learn to understand this.

"Your life is yours alone. Rise up and live it"