These people, many of whom already exist all over the world -- including right here in the good old United States of America -- think most people are not capable of making the right decision for themselves. They believe the American Experiment has failed.
So what is this American Experiment anyway? Well, allow me to define it:
American Experiment: Can man rule himself?
The American Dream: Everyone has a chance to succeed no matter color, creed or station in life. We are all smart enough to make our own decisions. We are all smart enough to weigh the rewards against the risks. We all have an equal opportunity to improve our lot in life.
Then there are two different types of people in this country:
1. Equal justice: These are those who believe in the American Dream, and believe the answer to the American experiment is YES. They believe you are smart enough to rule yourself. That you, asthmatics, are smart enough to make the right choices no matter how tough. You are equally smart. You are intelligent.
2. Social Justice: These are those who believe in the American Dream, yet believe the answer to the American Experiment is NO. They believe you are not smart enough to rule yourself, and therefore not smart enough to make the right choices. Their experts, therefore, must nudge you in the right direction. One of the ways to do this is to limit your choices. You are stupid.
They both call their system of government a democracy (they say this even though we are a republic, not a democracy). The main difference is in equal justice you are allowed to weigh all your asthma medicines and decide what ones work best for you, and in social justice your choices are limited so you don't make the wrong one.
For the first 160 years of this Nation we were a democracy (republic actually) run under equal justice, yet ever since about 1895 there have been people by insidious means who have been working hard to change this. They believe that the Industrial Revolution brought about change in society that would require change in the way society was run.
Today, those who believe in social justice have gained much power not just in America but around the rest of the world. Hitler ruled by the extreme measures of social justice, and so did Stalin and Mussolini. Yet what few people know is that the term was coined right her in America during the term of President Woodrow Wilson.
It has been a slow process. After early failures they decided it was best to take baby steps. They slowly worked to change the minds of Americans and those of the rest of the world. After Wilson, FDR was their next great leader. While Wilson planted the seeds, FDR created the regulations that allowed those seeds to grow into full, flourishing trees.
They are trying to create a healthcare system that limits your choices, yet they will tell you otherwise. They will trick you into believing that you have many choices, yet they know the choices are limited. You will have fewer doctors to choose from, and fewer health insurance companies. And you might even have fewer options of how you die and when you die. Yet you won't know it until it's too late. They'll just kind of slip by unnoticed.
They have already limited our asthma medicinal choices. Remember when I wrote this: Seven Classic Asthma Medicines To Be Discontinued. The medicines you no longer get to choose from are: Tilade, Intal, Alupent, Azmacort, Aerobid, Combivent, and Maxair. You did not decide, they did for you.
These are all your CFC inhalers. CFC destroys the ozone they say. The ozone is more important than human life. You aren't smart enough make and purchase medicines that don't destroy the ozone, so they had to "nudge" you in that direction. The market did not make this choice. You did not make this choice.
I know you didn't because I read your cries that HFA inhalers don't work as well, or that you want to continue taking Intal and Combivent, medicines that have worked so well to control your asthma, or your COPD, or your cystic fibrosis for years. You want control. You want to decide what medicines you take. Or you want your doctor to decide.
Yet in the new America, the new world, the one where social justice supersedes equal justice, and where you are "nudged" to make the "right" decision, you no longer get to decide. It doesn't matter what works best for your disease, because the planet is more important than you.
It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with theories that say man is causing global warming and destroying the ozone. I'm in no way saying I don't respect these theories. What I'm saying here is the government shouldn't be deciding what's best for you, YOU should be deciding what's best for you. You are SMART. Yet they think you are not smart enough to make the right decision.
A few years ago they tried to take away Serevent. They even tried to take away -- or thought about it -- Advair and Symbicort. They were scared about these drugs based on the belief that Serevent and Foracort were believed to make asthma worse, or kill asthmatics.
Yet even the FDA says Advair and Symbicort are safe for use, and that the benefits outweigh the risks. Basically what this means is that your risk of dying of an asthma attack are far greater if you do nothing than if you take Advair and Singulair. Yet YOU decide.
While I think Primitine Mist is a bad asthma choice, it has been available over the counter for years. Many ashtmatics live by it. It's their choice. Yet recently the FDA banned all CFC over the counter asthma medicines, and any chance these will ever be available OTC again.
I say they will never be OTC again because Primitine Mist has been on the market so long it was grandfathered in as an OTC medicine. Yet any new HFA Primitine Mist will have to be prescribed, something no doctor will do. Therefore it's not worth the investment to make an HFA Primitine Mist.
The market didn't decide this -- they decided it for us. They had to because they believe we aren't smart enough to make the right decision. They nudged you so now you have to see your doctor to get the best care. You SHOULD in my opinion see your doctor and have a Ventolin in my opinion and the opinion of most asthma experts -- yet in a world of equal justice I wouldn't get to decide what's right for you.
More recently some wanted the FDA to ban Singulair (also check these links). It didn't matter what you thought. They decided if you took it you were at an increased risk of suicide. It didnt' matter there were no scientific studies to show this.
The FDA did an extensive study on the Sinulair suicide risk, and decided there was no evidence. They even reported this: FDA concludes there is no Singulair suicide risk. Yet those who believe in social justice didn't care about the evidence, and there is a big black box warning on Singulair to scare people away from it, and perhaps from getting their asthma under control.
That's what black box warning do, you know, they scare people away from getting their asthma under control.
Another example is more recent. As of March 2, 2011 the FDA is ordering companies to stop making and shipping over 500 allergy and cold medicines. Obviously since these are on the market they were being purchased by people like you, and I never heard one drop of a cry that these medicines were linked to any problems. So why all of a sudden limit our choices? Fishy, hey? At least I think so.
In fact, according to Web MD, Doctor Harold Nelson of National Jewish Health had this to say about this recent effort by the FDA:
"These are well-recognized drugs that have been used for decades and there is no reason to suspect that there is a risk involved. If there were risks such as hypertension or stroke with oral decongestants, it would be more appropriately addressed by eliminating the ingredient from all products whether those that are grandfathered in, available OTC, or FDA-approved. These drugs haven’t cleared certain safety hurdles yet, but that doesn’t mean they are unsafe."New medicines are studied intensely. The FDA has such a rigorous screening process for approving new medicines that the chance of an unsafe medicine being approved is near zero. I'm not implying mistakes can't be made. That doesn't matter to those who believe in social justice: YOU MUST BE NUDGED.
I'm not implying we shouldn't be careful when taking new medicines -- or old medicines for that matter. Yet what I am implying is we need to make smart decisions, do our own research, and weigh the advantages with the disadvantages on our own, and not be pushed, bullied or forced into making a "choice" that is not truly democratic.
Yet that seems to be the direction we are going in. It's scary to me. I see it. I hope other asthmatics do too, asthmatics with good, strong voices and pens that are willing to stand up and fight.
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