I wrote a letter to the Lowell Sun. I hope they print it. I love seeing my name in print. I love to write.
I'm posting my letter to the Sun below:

The Senate has passed their version of the health-care reform bill, but before victory parties and outraged riots begin, what everyone needs to remember, is that even though the bill has passed in the Senate, the next step is attempting to merge the individual bills that have been passed in the House and now the Senate. The two health-care reform bills do have significant and important differences, and this most important last hurdle may very possibly cause health-care reform to flounder and fail. Right now with the bill having passed in the Senate and in this brief reprieve before the Senate and the House go head-to-head, the idea of failure seems outrageous and impossible.
In the Senate’s victory with passing the bill, the vote that counted was and is, belongs to Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). Senator Nelson voted yes to passing the bill after days where the Democratic leaders spent their time haggling and bartering with Sen. Nelson for tighter restrictions on insurance coverage for abortions, which had been the largest factor to Sen. Nelson’s previous refusal to pass the bill.
Now with the Senate and the House finally able to get together and try to work out their two bills into one, the vote that counts belongs to Pro-Life Senator Bart Stupak of Michigan, who brought a bloc of 40-plus fellow Democrats to the table with his anti-abortion amendment. The House’s version of the health-care reform bill has been much tighter and tougher on the topic of abortion funding and coverage than the Senate’s bill was when it was passed, and this will almost definitely be the most difficult part to tackle when the Senate and House get together to try and work out their differences. When the House bill passed last month, it was only by 220-215 votes, and now that the Senate’s bill has passed, Sen. Stupak has been firm in that Sen. Nelson’s acceptance of the proverbial olive branch offered by pro-life Senator. Bob Casey (D-Pen.) and the ensuing Nelson-Casey Senate amendment, is a non-starter when it meets with the House.
The Stupak amendment ensures that insurers in an exchange cannot “pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion.” The Senate version would allow each state to bar abortion coverage individually in health plans in the exchanges. But the worry among pro-lifers is that exchange plans would be subsidized by federal funds, and that taxpayer dollars would pay for abortions.
However, the fact is that the House is not likely to pass a bill that Sen. Stupak does not support. That means that the only change most likely to happen on the abortion coverage language, is that it becomes more restrictive instead of less, like the pro-choice Democrats in the Senate are hoping. Those changes might possibly mollify the protesting pro-lifers, and turn some into allies, while most likely enraging and alienating the pro-choice organizations.
The passage of a health-care reform bill seems to rest solely on the issue of abortion. In both parties, the power of it is strong enough to cause both Democrats and Republicans to be willing to crucify health-care reform just as it seems to finally be possible.
A person might be reminded of when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and he wrote to bar slavery and free all who were enslaved. In the end, he was unfortunately forced to remove the amendment, to allow the Declaration of Independence to pass successfully. The result of that decision made in Congress was felt for eighty-six more years until a new president issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, giving the gift of freedom to thousands of slaves. That president was Abraham Lincoln.
I am of the opinion that both the Senate and the House should look back and take notes on Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Thomas Jefferson was willing to compromise on his beliefs in order to save his country and Abraham Lincoln refused to compromise on his beliefs when the price was human lives.
Will the Senate and the House compromise on their beliefs as did Thomas Jefferson or will they stand firm and resolute like Abraham Lincoln? Their choice is yet to be made.