A microcosm of society

I was fortunate enough to spend an hour of my day in the customer waiting area of the my local Chevrolet dealership's service department. My was it entertaining!

First there was this guy who had very strong opinions and knew absolutely everything about the health care bill that just passed. Lucky me to be in the presence of such an educated guy. And the fact that he was so willing to share all his knowledge and opinions with us (the captive audience) was just so generous of him. Only problem was, about half the waiting room was full of WWII veterans who had trouble hearing anything at all - much less the "health care bill expert's" loud and seemingly never ending monologues. Which made for some interesting conversations for me, the casual observer. It went something like this . . .

HEALTH CARE BILL EXPERT (HCBE): This country is going to hell in a handbasket. If you think this won't affect you personally, you're wrong. We're all gonna pay!

WWII Vet #1: It won't affect me or my insurance.

HCBE: Of course it will! If you think it won't then you just don't understand the bill. I mean, I doubt if Obama ever even read the bill - it was like 8,000 pages - and I bet he never even read it!

(me thinking to myself . . .and you did?)

WWII Vet#1: I'm a retired veteran on TriCare. The military takes care of my health care. It won't affect me.

HCBE: Oh sure, not you, but what about all the active military? They're screwed!

WWII Vet#2: I earned my health care as part of my pension, 35 years working for the teamsters, and as a veteran.

HCBE: You're both veterans? Obama thinks we should have to apologize to the Japanese for dropping the bomb. This country is going down the tubes!

WWII Vet#2: YOU THINK WE SHOULD APOLOGIZE FOR DROPPING THE BOMB ON HIROSHIMA?!?!? WELL, I'LL TELL YOU SOMETHING . . .

WWII Vet#2 Wife: Honey, he said Obama apologized, not that he thought we should apologize.

About this point, I had the urge to stand up and announce to all these guys in the waiting room that I was a military veteran myself, and I also happened to be a lesbian with breast cancer and no insurance! So bring on the health care bill and get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell!!!!

But I didn't.