Just when you thought America was going to get it right...free speech is dead

I would love to write something sophisticated and poignant about the health care debate in the US. As a matter of fact, I would like to be telling you that the US is finally about to take a step forward and join the rest of the developed world by offering a decent basic health-care plan for all of its citizens. But sadly, I am here to tell you about a most disturbing development in the history of American public policy and its debate.

Remember in college when we tackled the free speech debate: ''Is falsely yelling FIRE! in a crowded theater legal?'' was the example usually used. Well I would like to recommend teachers update the reference to the following:

''Is it legal, in order to destroy a health care bill in congress, to falsely tell a xenophobic senior-citizen their new black president is going to euthanize them?''

But why change the FIRE! test? It's so much easier to remember...

You see, it had appeared that mobs of stupid people had gained control of the public debate on whether or not the US government should once and for all administer a public health insurance option for its citizens. When I say stupid, I don't mean stupid as in 'dude, you're stupid' stupid - I mean stupid as in the Webster dictionary says: lacking intelligence or reason stupid. (really folks, YouTube these folks...their stupidity is startling! I couldn't make this stuff up.)

The following examples of stupidity read like the plot of the next South Park: The Movie installment, but I fear even Trey Parker and Matt Stone might not have seen these coming... Here is a sampling of their key talking points:

• Health care reform means "socialism" or a "government takeover" of all health care, closing down the insurance companies and forcing everyone onto a 'Canadian-style' system that rations care
• Government will pay for 'abortion on demand, 'in-vitro for lesbians' and 'sex change operations' with tax-payer money
• (and my favorite) Government will create 'death panels' to decide the fate of senior citizens - yes, they are talking about euthanasia, and they are doing it seriously. (people have been seen in tears at protests over this supposed clause...)

Any half-intelligent, truly concerned American citizen looking for real information on the health care reform debate shouldn't look far. The actual bill is a public document by law, and the ins and outs of every clause can be examined and read. I'm Canadian and I was able to debunk these points in 15 minutes on the web. Now I realize I may be more skilled than most using the web and its search capabilities, but isn't the future of health care in your country worth some of your time?

But back to free speech...

I did say 'it appeared' that stupid people gained control of the public debate. Sadly I must report that the truth is even worse...the medical industry and conservative (=crazy) lobbyists have successfully hijacked the debate. They are the money and organization behind these so-called 'grass-roots' groups of angry people sent to and drown out public debates on the vitally important topic of American health care reform. (They have in fact done so successfully and without even hiding it very well...)

While this storyline could be made funny were it woven into the plot of the South Park movie follow-up, the actual health care debate in the US lies helplessly in tatters, as do the 1st and 14th amendments of the US Constitution.

The stupid will always be there, as will those who will manipulate them. But those who lend the manipulators credibility are the true offenders.

Every day American society allows the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck et. al. to spew their hate-speech-camouflaged-as-free-speech. These pawns of corporate interests are allowed to go on the air and present their opinions as fact and distribute lies to sway the opinion of their less-than-intelligent watchers and listeners. And it seems to me there might finally be a way to shut these ''liars-for-hire'' down once and for all.

But excuse me, oh wise one, how are they infringing on the right to free speech? Aren't the stupid and the ugly protected too? Well in the case of the health care debate the Schenk v. US test may apply in that false statements are presenting a clear and present danger to the United States and its citizens.

''The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent." - Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Schenck v. United States, 1919

If we assume that the destruction of the health care reform bill would mean:

• 47 million uninsured Americans will stay uninsured and therefore die younger than those with insurance.
• Americans will continue to fall uninsured when they lose or change a job, then facing the horror of trying to qualify for benefits at their next job as a new applicant
• Insured Americans will continue to fall victim to the new (and very profitable) practice of recision, or in layman's terms, kicking people off their insurance once they get sick
• The eventual bankruptcy of the American economy as the current system is unsustainable at current cost levels

Then doesn't the US Congress have the right to prevent the above-mentioned evils??? Only a daring US lawyer ready to take on the corporate healthcare establishment would be able to put this to the test...I suggest somebody find one immediately.

As a Canadian with universal health care, I truly wish the same for America. But sadly I am convinced that they will be denied again and the hijackers will win...and in the process destroy what little is left of the US Constitution.

That's my opinion and it should be yours too.