I reecommend to moderates, and especially my liberal friends that we focus on key health care objectives, and not labels. What most of us want to see in legislation is what President Obama is trying to achieve...

*access to quality health care for all

*Affordable health care

*Choice of doctors and plans; viable competition

*Coverage for preexisting conditions

*Elimination of lifetime caps

*Coverage for preventive care

*Coverage regardless of the severity of the condition

*Portability

*Greater efficiency, and cost savings

*Enhanced coordination of services

These are the basics, as I understand them. If we get hung up on labels--single payer, public option, or non-profit coops, and take our eye off the ball, that is, our prime objectives as health care consumers, then we will open the door to schism within our (moderate-liberal) ranks.

Our real adversary is not the president. It is the extreme right wing, reactionary media and political figures who engage in demonization of Obama, and others who do not share their philosophy. The hate-mongers and fear-mongers on the right seem to lack a conscience; they, seemingly, will do anything at all to achieve their ultimate objective: preservation of the status quo, regardless of the effect preservation has on virtually anyone in this country except the rich and powerful.

Many have already threatened and engaged in violence. Death threats are directed at Obama, I understand, at the pace of about thirty per day. They have made a mockery of some town halls, shouting down and intimidating opponents. They have played fast and loose with the truth, seeking to engender fear in the public of the (currently abandoned) provision for end of life counseling in legislation, referring to such counseling as "death panels." Sarah Palin has referred to Obama's plans for health care reform as "nothing short of evil." Senator Demint has suggested that defeat of health care initiatives by the president will "break Obama," and he clearly relishes that outcome. 

We must stand up to those in the media and political sphere who seem devoted to stoking up fear and rage. I believe that the president, himself, is in harm's way as a result of demagoguery. 

So I say again, let's keep our eye on the ball. Yes, we should peacefully protest if the prime objectives of health care reform are in danger of being thrown to the wayside. But the prime objectives do not reside in the labels. Do not trash Obama; but make sure he knows that we will not compromise on the goals (he himself shares) of achieving access to quality, affordance health care for all, as well as strict regulation of the private insurers. Travesties of justice like denial of patients with preexisting conditions, failure to pay for regular physicals and diagnostic tests of a preventive nature, dropping patients who are in danger of becoming critically ill, these and other outrages must come to an end.

Let's keep our eye on the ball, work hard for significant health care reform, and avoid trashing our friends, including the man in the White House.

Let's engage in our quest not by clinging to a label, but rather by pursuing justice, and developing a compassionate, effective system for providing health care to all Americans.

Bio: I am a poet-essayist-songwriter, with a teaching and counseling background, currently engaged in grassroots political work and advocacy for the poor, while writing a book that relates the creative process to personal growth. I am also writing movie reviews which explore the theme of trauma-grief-recovery-healing. I am married and live in rural South Carolina. I did mostly volunteer work in the Obama campaign in 2008. I did civil right work in the South during the 1960s. I think my politics fall somewhere between left and center.