Dear Senator Reid,

In describing those genuinely opposed to the 2000+ page health care "reform" bill currently under debate in the Senate, you chose to compare them to those who fought to preserve slavery and deny equal rights and the franchise to women and minorities.  Your unfortunate statements not only showed a lack of dignity and comportment on which the Senate supposedly prides itself, but fails in every standard of intellectual honesty and basic analogy.

Leaving aside the obvious — that slavery and civil rights were championed by Republicans and fought by Democrats (including one of your predecessors as Democratic Senate Leader — Robert Byrd — who still serves in the Senate) — your analogy to the bill under consideration and the ending of slavery and discrimination fails on concept.

In the case of abolishing slavery, the rights of the individual were affirmed — the idea that one man could be the property of another rather than possessive of his own life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness was overturned, once and for all.  Granting of suffrage to women, and then equal rights to minorities, continued this movement towards equality before the law of each individual, and the worth of freedom for all — regardless of sex or skin color.  Each of these left men and women freer to follow their own pursuits, without interference from other men, or from the government.

Not so with the bill currently under debate in the Senate.  Rather than freeing individuals to choose for themselves what is best for their families, your bill seeks to have government decide instead what people must choose.  Whether individuals and families want or need a particular service or product is irrelevant to whether or not you and your colleagues decide they must purchase it — or face fines.  It establishes an unprecedented idea:  that the federal government can force a private citizen to purchase a product or service.  In addition, the bill raises taxes and creates new bureaucracies.

New government mandates, prohibitions, bureaucracies, and taxes do not make men and women more free.  Abolition of slavery and discrimination do.  Your comparison is not only invalid, but quite frankly is an intellectually-dishonest insult to those expressing genuine dissent.  The American people should expect  — and receive — more from the Senate Majority Leader.

Sincerely,
Dave Smith
Houston, TX