TORRANCE TRIBUNE December 4, 2014 Page 7 One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion O’Slinkycare Time To Face This Evil Head On By Gerry Chong Two good ol’ country boys, Caleb and Jesse, sat around jawin’ and reminiscing ‘bout the old days. “Jesse, ‘member before all the young ‘uns had those cell phones and fast thumbs, all we played with were simple things like Slinkys? Simple coil of metal that a kid could push off the top of a staircase and watch it tumble from step to step? Us kids would all laugh and clap as it ended in a heap down at the bottom.” “Yup, kind of reminds me of O’Slinkycare. We started out in April, at the top stair, laughing and clapping over 8 million claimed signups. But then we Slinky’ed down to 7.7 million because 300,000 didn’t pay their premiums. Then we Slinky’ed down again to 7.2 million because a whole bunch more didn’t qualify for subsidies. Then we found out that 400,000-500,000 more didn’t have heath care at all, but just had dental care, so we landed with a thud at the bottom of the stairs at 6.7 million. Down, down, down went the slinky. “Now remember, 5 million signed up for the government program only because Obama cancelled their private insurance programs, claiming they didn’t meet his standards, so maybe only 1.7 million voluntarily signed up. Maybe, young ‘uns otta frown instead of clap and laugh at O’Slinkycare’s first year.” “Yeah, Jesse, but they’ve put a second Slinky on the stop stair, starting another series of tumbles. The original projection for year two was 13 million signups. But just as we thought, Slinky tumbled to 9.9 million, and then tumbled again to 9.1 million, and the By Cristian Vasquez A lot of noise and speculation has been made with regards to the recent circus that the NFL has created due to its horrendous handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence incident. During the Thanksgiving Weekend Rice’s suspension was lifted and the man is once again employable within the NFL. I’m not here to rally behind Rice to be signed by any team, nor to ask for his livelihood to be forever taken away from him. I seek something more meaningful and which would help everyone who has ever been caught in the cycles of domestic violence. While I hope to be accurate in my assumption that not a person reading this would be okay with domestic violence; what I am not sure about is how willing we as a society are still to do more than talk about the evils of domestic violence and actually act to prevent such behavior. The NFL’s immediate response was a suspension and a series of PSAs with current and former players and commentators denouncing such acts of aggression. However, what we do when the spotlight is on us and when nobody is looking greatly affects our reaction to any scenario. I was blessed to be raised in a household where violence was not an issue. We were raised to help anyone in need, without expecting anything in return. Yet, even with those values, I do recall domestic violence situations with neighbors in which we called the cops and asked to remain anonymous. While such phones calls might have prevented future harm or simply delayed the cowardly acts of one individual seeking to be emboldened by their dominance over another, I now wish we hadn’t remained anonymous. In order to control and effectively eradicate an evil such as domestic violence, we must stare it in its face. Only then will the millions of victims that live in fear will be able to understand and accept that there are those of us who will help without fear of retaliation. Is it a lot to ask a victim of violence to step forward and face their aggressor alone. So for anyone that has to urge to use the “she/ he choses to stay with them,” your mentality is part of the problem. Victims of domestic violence need more than an anonymous phone call to the local police department. They need support; they need a network of people who will help make sure that they never fall victims to another person’s aggression. It doesn’t matter what Ray Rice and his wife do from this moment forward, nor how many PSAs the NFL airs. The only way we can prevent, and maybe one day end, domestic violence is if we all stand up to this demon together. It is heartbreaking to see people abused by the ones they love and are supposed to trust. It hurts even more to realize that in some cases good people stayed quiet and did little or nothing to help. Let’s show a little more courages stop hiding from domestic violence. • year has just begun. “How we’ll get from 6.7 million at the end of year one, to 9.1 million in year two is a total mystery to me, so we’ll see if the government bean counters can make Slinkys climb up stairs and defy gravity.” “Ahhh, Caleb, the government’s work is never done. Now they’ve put a third Slinky at the top of the stairs, but they’ve put off until 2016 pushing it off the cliff. Remember O’Slinkycare called for major companies to either provide full time employees with health insurance or pay a fine. “So the corporations responded rationally, reducing the hours of full time employees and hiring more part-timers to fill the gap. The O’Slinky people call these new hires “job growth.” When slinky-three gets pushed off, millions of previously employer-insured full-timers will become part-timers; requiring a choice between inferior Medicaid coverage or the most expensive alternative, individual coverage. Down, down, down goes slinkythree. “Bungled O’Slinkycare had cost tens of billions of dollars to create; its father called Americans “stupid” for approving it; and New York’s Democratic Senator says his party shouldn’t have done it in 2010, since only 5% of people didn’t have health insurance, and 85% were happy with their private insurance. Now O’Slinkycare is this President’s proudest achievement.” “Jesse, maybe us country folk ain’t as smart as city folk, but watching O’Slinkycare’s follies is more fun than playing computer games.” • “In order to control and effectively eradicate an evil such as domestic violence, we must stare it in its face.” We’re Moving! During the month of December, Herald Publications is moving to a new location. Our new address is 500 Center St., El Segundo, CA 90245. Please note: There may be times during the month of December when our phones will not be working. You can still contact us via email. See our staff box for email addresses to suit your needs. 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