I just saw a commercial on TV… It showed an ambulance racing down roads, avenues, and highways, down side streets and alleyways and through parking lots… All the while, dark cars and vans with dark tinted windows were chasing it, and city busses were blocking its path.  It was like some horrible chase scene in a high-tech movie, where underworld forces are hampering and endangering the philanthropic efforts of the lone “good guy” who had to continually dodge and elude those who would keep the world in the dark; who would maintain the evil status quo.  (Think “Conspiracy Theory.”)  During the commercial, the announcer spoke of the need for reform in the field of health-care (ambulance), and the attempts by right-wing loons to thwart Obama’s campaign to socialize medicine (dark cars).  Of course, they never mentioned Obama by name.  Then, at the very end of the propaganda advertisement, large printed letters appeared, proudly claiming that the message was offered by AARP.

     I stared at the television for a moment, and then fired up my computer and looked up my AARP membership documents.  I found the phone number (888-687-2277) and called.  It took a while, listening to the standard recordings of alternate methods of joining and updating information and renewing memberships – all over the Internet, of course – before I found a human being.  (No company wants to DO anything.  Businesses want you to do it yourself on the web.  That way they can collect the maximum amount of revenue while lowering their costs by not actually hiring anyone.  But that’s beside the point.)  With a few “repeat after me” commands, I was put on hold and waited for a representative to take my call.  While I waited, a recording informed me that the call would be recorded.  What a concept…  When the pleasant-voiced lady finally answered, she asked how she might help me today.  I said, simply and to the point, “I just saw the AARP commercial on television regarding health-care reform, and I want to cancel my AARP membership.”

     Suddenly, pleasant became indignant and condescending. “You’re canceling your membership because of a commercial?”  She may as well have said, “You saw a clown so now you’re burning down the circus?  How childish of you!  You’re silly and ignorant and backwards!”

     Of all things, she told me that the commercial did NOT indicate that AARP was endorsing Obama’s Health-care Reform agenda – at least not “every single part” of it.  (Is it better to lend support to “some” parts but not others, if those parts aren’t spelled out?)  She then asked, “Don’t you think health-care needs to be reformed?”

     I was once asked, as a joke, “Have you stopped beating your children yet?”  It was a loaded question with no possible “correct” answer, just like the question posed by the AARP representative.  Do I think health-care needs to be reformed?  Yes, I do.  But telling seniors they need to consider assisted suicide in order to save tax money is NOT the “reform” I want.  I told her that I couldn’t support anything that Obama endorsed in regard to so-called health-care reform.  She was taken aback, as if I’d just referred to Obama as Satan.  She switched gears and quickly processed my membership cancellation, and the reasons behind the attitude switch were apparent: They didn’t want me in their clique if I wasn’t going to quietly fall in line behind the rest of the cattle in the chutes.

     I recall, from many years in the past, when AARP actually stood for “American Association of Retired Persons;” when the glory and expertise and history of senior citizens was a valuable asset worthy of being passed on to a new generation.  I recall commercials showing elder members of our society serving as integral parts of education, as muses, as tutors.  I remember advertisements demonstrating the need to treat “old folk” with respect, and the need to utilize them and the many treasures they still had to offer.

     Today, AARP is a business.  It’s just a business…  And the number one rule of business is as follows: Sell a “need,” then offer THE answer to that need – at a decent profit. Hamburger joint commercials never say, “Are you too lazy to cook, and do you want your kids die of obesity before they hit 20?”  No.  They tell you that if you love your kids and want to spend quality time with them instead of going off to the kitchen and ignoring them, then you’ll stop by Fried Fat and pick up some “fun in a bag!”  Sell the need, and then sell the answer.  That’s business.

     AARP is no different.  They no longer advertise the need to treat seniors with respect and use their many and varied talents.  They just tell them they’ll save a dollar on motel reservations and auto insurance if they pay a small fee to become AARP members.  The “small fee” is the key.  And if no one paid, would they still try to protect the rights and dignity of our seniors?  I doubt it.

     Now let’s put two and two together.  AARP endorses certain insurance companies.  Those insurance companies, in turn, pay AARP for the endorsements.  The insurance companies will continue to advertise through AARP – and pay them – as long as they continue to reap profits from people who pay for insurance, and pay more than they use.  There’s the rub.  Read that again: “…as long as they reap profits from people who pay more than they use.”  And how do the insurance companies help ensure that the person who paid $1,000 in insurance premiums doesn’t use $100,000 in payouts?  Encourage the sick to take $40 shots that will kill them.  AARP, who proposes to defend the rights and dignity of senior citizens, has every fiscal reason to encourage their members to be willing to die.  It’s profitable.

     No… The problems with the suggested reform aren’t all that simple.  This is only the worst-case scenario.  There are other means by which insurance companies may benefit from the president- and congress-endorsed plan, and “health-care reform” is going to address those issues, as well.  But this ONE instance – Doctor-assisted suicide – isn’t something confined to movies like Logan’s Run and Soylent Green.  It’s an “option” included in Obama’s medical makeover.

     Obama is a starry-eyed visionary who’s never lived in the real world.  And while he’s busy spending trillions upon trillions of dollars – that don’t belong to him – he’s collecting a half-million dollar per year salary while telling others they need to suck it up and make sacrifices for the greater good.  While Michelle Obama has a 25-member entourage catering to her every whim, I’m unemployed because the company for which I worked has gone under.  During his most recent town-hall chat, Obama mentioned the fact that his government-run health-care plan would be “not for profit.”  Excuse me?  Since when has any part of the government been “not for profit?”  I’m not going to go into a discussion of all the special interest groups, or the kickbacks, or the government pension funds, or the annual raises they vote for themselves, or the provided housing, or the automatic health-care allotted to congress and senate members and to the president.  I’m not going into the issue with providing all illegal aliens with this ‘free’ healthcare.  We’ve all read the numbers in popularly forwarded emails.  Whether the numbers are real or exaggerated, they’re too enormous to comprehend.  I just know that I’m forced to pay for the expensive benefits to all these government employees and law-breaking foreigners, whether or not they’re deserved, whether or not they’re earned, whether or not my representative actually represents me.  But now that my usefulness is coming to an end due to my unemployment, it would seem my duty is to go get a shot.  At the ripe old age of forty-nine…