Injecting civility into the health care reform debate

(Good news. My prednisone dosage has been cut by 10 mg.

I am taking 30 mg daily, down from a high of 60. We will see if the new dosage combined with a once-a-week dose of 10 mgs of methotrexate keeps the sarcoidosis demon in check. I am just happy to be taking less prednisone. As good as it works, it also can cause many side effects and it is a race against the clock to get off the drug before some of the nastier problems pop up. I feel fortunate to be in this position. There are tens of thousands of people out there on high dosages of the drug and struggling with it. I am rooting for all of you. Read on...)

I have yet to make up my mind about Barack Obama's health insurance reform proposal. I am reading the 1,000-page document knowing it will likely change before - if - it becomes law.

I do not know what to think of the opposition’s claims (although I do dismiss Sarah Palin entirely because her communication style boarders on hysterical. "Death panel," Sarah? Please...Until she stops the hyperbole I just cannot listen).

I'm glad the debate is on. That's part of the process. No bill, especially one of this magnitude, should clear hurdles without the input of the people. However, I have been watching video of the “town meetings” on health care reform and I know this: The nation could use a chill pill. The yelling, finger pointing and name-calling makes for good TV, but it does nothing to get across the facts. It does nothing for compromise or consensus.

A debate does not have to include yelling. Heck, one can argue without yelling. Look up the definition.

Don't get me wrong, I write this for myself as much as anyone kind enough to read it. I can be a hothead supreme - I'm a newspaper editor; you can bet your ass I can shout down pretty much anyone. I would love to go around battering folks with my words and thoughts, getting them to bend to my will.

Then I wake up and realize that dream is a nightmare. I want to be right all the time, but know I am not. It behooves me to listen. Really helps with the learning thing. And who can trust yes-men, anyway?

Also, all that yelling causes unhealthy stress and tension. People seize up when they see you. You are slowly dying inside every time you wind up throwing a verbal fastball.

If the nation continues down the road it is on someone is going to get hurt or killed? Yelling begets finger-pointing, begets pushing and shoving, begets...spraying a swastika on a U.S. representative's office door because he supports the president's plan? Where do folks want to go from there?

So, for the health of the parties listening to you, for your own health, for the nation’s health, chill out, breathe deep and let us get back to this health care reform debate.

Let us inject a little civility into the process, if we Americans still understand the meaning of that word.