I think all of us have heard the allegation leveled at President Obama. “You lie!” glared the Southern Gentleman with all the gusto of a man who thinks knows the world. Yet as I review the coverage, I'm wondering what planet these people marching on Washington about healthcare reform actually come from. They certainly can't live here with us. Healthcare is irreparably broken and has been for a long time. It's not even that our politicians haven't known. American healthcare is the old race horse that should have been retired last season for fresh blood, but is still being trotted out so its owners can squeeze every last dime from its carcass. Something has to be done, especially when our insurance companies and state boards have more clout than our doctors. A friend of mine needed a lung transplant back in 2005. Medicaid refused to cover the operation, saying they would “allow it only if the recipient could raise the money on his own.” All $250,000 of it. To add insult to injury, my friend died of a staph infection he contracted from the hospital after his friends and family raised only $125,000 of the money.

Now what's all this about “death boards” that the Republicans keep lamenting? Sounds like they already exist under a different name. I'll give you another example of the broken system: My aunt passed away not too long ago. She was in the hospital and under medical care for three weeks, given two emergency surgeries, and yet this team of doctors could not tell that the shadow on her x-ray was not an enlarged aorta threatening to burst. It was instead an E. coli colony that grew unchecked during all those weeks and finally overcame her system..

Think about that for a second. Three weeks of unnecessary surgeries and mismanaged treatment while on the other hand, a person who can't get the surgery the doctors says is vital to the continuation of life? So who's lying? Seriously? Has anybody actually went to an emergency room or stayed in the and pay your bills at the same time in this shamble of an economy? How many have been dropped by their health insurance company, then left to scramble for healthcare?

There's not a lot of people who can afford Cobra to bridge that gap. Often our people are left, as usual, holding empty bags. But despite all that, what really gets me is that people will march on the White House so a poor person can't get the same health care, but will completely ignore everything about the last eight years that still leaves a foul taste in the mouth. Where were these accusations when our people were dying in the streets of New Orleans and being swindled out of their real estate during the massive land-grab across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama? That's not even a conspiracy theory. That's fact. Further, where was this outrage and the compassion that every tragedy that has befallen this nation for eight years only benefited a few isolated folks? Not even folks we know. It's wealthy folks we don't. And what an embarrassment to the civilized world that our citizens are so dispassionate that they'd rather let healthcare go on limping along in a slow death than let an illegal immigrant get anything better than them on their dime. Or those people living in the tent cities since our economy tanked. Or my aunt. Or your father. Or you.

As far as I'm concerned, these Martians can beam back up to the Mothership. Either the new plan will work or it won't. But we can't afford to sit back and do nothing. With all this misery surrounding us, we at least have to try.