Friday, January 16, 2009

Turn your head, cough, and ponder the health care crisis in this country...

"Let's not let health care slide during this recession." Editorial, Asheville Citizen-Times, 6 January 2009.

My first-ever editorial for any publication! It's fun yet terrifying to write as the opinion of the paper's editorial staff-- on one hand, you have the excitement, power and anonymity of writing the opinion of a group that holds high standing in a community; on the other, you have a feeling best described as "oh gosh what if i screw up and make everyone think the paper endorses bestiality*???" So it can be very hard to balance these two emotions when writing an editorial.

All in all, though, this was fun to write. It was a challenging assignment in many (good) ways, and I know I didn't fully capture the difficulty of the health care situation. There are some people who just can't afford health care, no matter what, and I feel kind of bad for telling them it's their duty to go to the doctor.

Fun game for readers: how many health care-related puns can you find in this editorial? First one to respond with the correct answer wins a comprehensive single-payer national health care system!


*For the record, the Asheville Citizen-Times does not endorse bestiality. Just in case that wasn't clear in the editorial

1 comment:

Kate said...

Nothing has ever made me feel more strongly the need for universal comprehensive health care than this past week spent studying homelessness in Providence. And that comprehensive care absolutely must cover mental health and addiction treatments.