This being just five days into the new year, I hate to start off with some negative complaints, especially because my unhappiness has to do with the incomplete reporting about Obamacare, the War on Poverty led by President Lyndon B. Johnson on whose lap I once sat, and the commentary on a racial matter by MSNBC's African American Sunday morning hostess, Melissa Harris Perry. None of these are connected but the issues, all appearing in print or on the air the last several days and chewed over ad nauseum, tend to make my blood boil.
Taking these issues one at a time:
1. Having to do with the alleged failure or short comings of Obamacare almost overshadows the story in the January 1 edition of the New York Times that is headlined in its inside pages, "Millions Gaining Health Coverage Under New Law." That means so many Americans who previously could not afford health insurance under Medicare will now be covered by the Affordable Care Act.
2. (unrelated) The New York Times, my most trusted newspaper, carried a front-page story last Sunday that was headlined "Fifty years later, the War on Poverty is a Mixed Bag." Now, I do not question the accuracy of the reporter, Annie Lowrey, but I'm willing to bet she's a lot less young than I was at the time President Lyndon B. Johnson took the courageous step to pioneer the ground-breaking legislation. She probably is not aware of the fact that factory employees, coal miners and other Americans were robbed of the power to negotiate or strike for higher wages and seek better health care insurance by the harshly anti-union legislation the Taft Hartley Act that was enacted and supported by Republicans and Southern Democrats from Texas through Dixie and the Atlantic coast.
3. In a holiday greeting sent out by the last Republican aspirant to the White House, Mitt Romney pointed out that among his family of adorable children was an adopted African American child. He therefore made it a public issue, prompting a rather tongue-in-cheek television commentary by MSNBC's Melissa Harris Perry, herself an attractive African American. She should have been smart enough to avoid the trap she laid for herself since she was a skilled university professor in New Orleans before she was discovered and promoted to prominence by MSNBC. But she goofed. And so what? Is that worth endless "analysis" by some of the cable television "experts"? I doubt it.