March 29, 2012 05:55 PM UTC

Ignorance and Lies

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• by: Konola

Lately it feels as though the air waves are full of ignorance and lies, which makes me both sad and frightened for our democracy. Democracy only thrives when people are using the same facts to find legislative solutions to problems identified by society. Our democracy has reached the point where facts are ignored and lies are promoted by both charlatans and respectable news sources.

One example is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The problems it was designed to solve include:

• People with pre-existing conditions being unable to get health insurance.

• People with chronic illness being dropped and/or exceeding life-time caps on insurance payments.

• Women paying more for health care than men, because pregnancy is expensive. (Everyone knows men have nothing to do with a woman getting pregnant, so men should not pay for this female-only condition.)

• Huge executive salaries and advertising expenditures by health care companies, while denying actual health care to people paying for insurance.

On Tuesday I attended a demonstration in favor of Obama Care. The demonstration was in response to a protest against Obama Care, which was organized by Kelly Sloan of Americans for Prosperity. The name of the organization is itself a lie. The only prosperity AFP is concerned about is the prosperity of the top 1% of wage earners, including the Koch brothers, who pay the AFP bills.

Colorado Peak Politics, a right wing blog, reported on the demonstration/protest. If the only report on the event was in Colorado Peak Politics, one would believe that all of the people on my side of the issue were nothing but a bunch of unwashed Occupy Grand Junction anarchists.  To be fair, some of us have attended Occupy Grand Junction protests, because we recognize that we are part of the 99%. But we live most of our lives outside of the Occupy movement.

I already said I was there. I am a retired banker. I write a column for the Free Press, which appears every other week alongside a column by Kelly Sloan. I ran for office against Steve King. I am involved in managing a campaign for Dan Robinson. I am the Treasurer of the local Democratic Party. I am the Treasurer of Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County(WCC-Mesa), a group that is concerned with both a healthy planet and healthy humans. I sit on the board of Western Colorado Congress (WCC), an umbrella organization that includes five community organizations across the western slope. I sit on the board of WORC, an organization in Montana that follows agricultural and environmental legislation at the federal level.

Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County (WCC-Mesa) was well represented at this demonstration/protest. Benita Phillips, a Registered Nurse who once managed whole floors of other nurses at VA hospitals both in Denver and in Grand Junction, is the President of WCC-Mesa. Joel Dyar, a graduate student with lots of community work under his belt, is the Vice-President of WCC-Mesa. Robyn Parker, an accomplished stay-at-home mom, who is busy organizing women to go to Denver on April 28 to demonstrate against the GOP war on woman, is the Secretary of WCC-Mesa.

Establishment of the Democratic Party was there. Rick Baer, who is Vice Chairman of the Mesa County Democratic Party and a retired union organizer, was one of the people quoted by the press. Tedi Gillespie, acting station manager of KAFM radio, and secretary of the Mesa County Democratic Party helped to hold up the banner. Troy Douglas, drummer for Desert Moon, Vietnam era veteran and Vice Chairman of the Mesa County Democratic Party, held up the banner. Dave Edwards, Democratic candidate for County Commissioner was quoted by the press in support of Obama Care.

Mike Burr, pastor of Koinonia Church in Grand Junction, and co-chair of the group that fought the evil three ballot issues, and won, in 2010 was quoted by the press in support of Obama Care, and helped hold up the banner.

Gil Fuller and his wife Susan were there. You may remember that name. Gil, a retired dentist, ran for the seat in Senate District 7 at the same time that I did. He ran as a Libertarian. Gil and Susan favor Obama Care and helped hold up the banner.

There were quite a few more very accomplished people holding up the banner in favor of Obama Care. The banner, handmade by Benita Phillips (a registered Republican and recent delegate to their County Assembly) was 50 feet long, and had one message to those protesting-read the actual bill so that you know what is in it and a link to both the Colorado website for information and another source. Those of us demonstrating in favor of the bill have all read the actual bill, and know what it says. Those demonstrating against the bill delight in mentioning how long it is, and how nobody has read it; their information is based on lies and willful ignorance.