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E-News
editor's notes. The
first piece, to the best of my knowledge, is not written by a high schooler.
But the message is consistent with what has been said in issues of Montebello
E-News. Because so much information comes our way, we need a new
way to separate truth from fiction, so that we make better decisions for our
families, friends, and ourselves. What new way? One possibility
is the "Starbucks Sunday". The second piece points to
an equally distressing problem coming from the opposite direction,
namely, the purveyors of information holding back on what we the public
should know.
Information War
by Margaret Manning
"The world
isn’t run by weapons anymore, or energy, or money. It’s run by
little ones and zeros, little bits of data. It’s all just
electrons.... There’s a war out there... and it’s not about who’s got
the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information.
What we see and hear, how we work, what we think, it’s all about
information.”
The world is run by information. When I first heard this quote, I
immediately thought it was an overstatement. Daily news of weapons
of mass destruction, continuing disputes over land and territory, and
struggles over energy resources remind us of “wars and rumors of wars”
all around. Surely, we are in the midst of multiple wars.
But the way in which
these news stories are told underlies the insidious perpetuation of
conflict. The instant access to information and news as a result of
the Internet makes every blogger a knowledge guru and every website a
“purveyor” of the truth. Those “in the know” craft the news
and spin their stories. Indeed, the more I see the way the world
interacts with the wealth of information available through the power of the
Internet, the more I become convinced of the truth of this statement:
The world is run by information, and the world is embroiled in an
information war.
A few examples might illuminate this point. After the horrible events
of 9/11, media in this country began to report coverage of these events from
the perspective of the Arabic-language broadcasting network. How
different the events looked to those whose only access to information was
this one source. To some, a “holy war” was underway, turning
terrorists into heroes and the innocent into evildoers needing to be
punished. This was not simply a war of guns or bombs, but a war of
information, and the power of information to shape hearts
and minds.
The same could be said about the current crisis involving Russia
and Georgia. The Russian media reports that they invaded a sovereign
nation to come to the aid of the Ossetians, and that President
Bush provoked the invasion in order to install his candidate in the
White House. This is not the information we are getting here in the
United States, so who is telling
the truth, and who is winning this war? ...
Margaret Manning is
associate writer at Ravi
Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta,
Georgia.
Why Are We Not Being
Told?
Listening to the national dialogue on health financing
reform, you would think that we have only two options: 1) Don't start
from scratch with a better program, but build on the current system
(Obama), or 2) Reform the tax code to shift incentives for purchasing
insurance from employers to individuals (McCain). Replacing our
dysfunctional financing system with a single payer national health
program, if even mentioned, is immediately dismissed from the
dialogue. Don McCanne, "Quote of the Day", September 17, 2008
Why should "single payer" not be dismissed immediately?
Kaiser Family Foundation
September 17, 2008
Covering the Uninsured: Options for Reform
Options for Covering the Uninsured
1. Build on the current system:
Strengthen the employer-based system
Expand public coverage by building on Medicaid and SCHIP
Create new group insurance options for individuals and businesses
2. Revise the sponsorship and financing of health coverage through the
tax system
3. Adopt a single-payer plan [E-News
editor's highlight]
http://www.kff.org/uninsured/h08_7813.cfm
September, 2008
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