NCR Today

Honduras: The coup continues and repression escalates

The Quixote Center delegation in Honduras reports that Aug. 11 -- a day on which the popular movements had called for large urban rallies -- did indeed produce very large protests against the coup government in both Tegucigalpa and in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras. But it also produced increased repression.

Here is part of their firsthand report:

My 82-year old father-in-law is a retired dentist who stays active by helping the poor get access to doctors. Last Saturday, he told me he was worried: a volunteer health group was offering free care over four days at the Forum, a sports arena once used (and filled) by the Los Angeles Lakers. His concern: not enough people would show up.

Turns out this was not a problem.

As reported Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times, people camped out overnight to get a good spot in line and a shot at some decent health care. On day one of this four-day event, 1,500 people made their way into the Forum, where dozens of volunteer doctors, dentists, nurses and other medical professionals stood ready to help.

People were turned away, went outside and began camping out all over again for a better spot on the next day's line. These were not just what some might call the hard-core indigent: an unemployed grocery clerk was there, waiting for a desperately-needed root canal surgery; a former auto mechanic wanted someone to examine his chronic back pain.

The Catholic Knights and Catholic Family Life Insurance, two longtime Milwaukee-area fraternal organizations that offer life insurance, annuities and other financial products and benefits to members, said today they intend to merge.

The merger would result in a combined membership of 120,000, assets of more than $1.1 billion and about $4.8 billion of insurance in force. The merged organization, which will have a yet-to-be-determined new name, is to be headquartered in the 19-story Catholic Knights tower on Wells St. in Milwaukee.

Catholic Family, founded in 1868, was the first Catholic fraternal benefit organization established in the United States. Catholic Knights is 124 years old.

Amid the white-hot anger by many conservatives, including the gun-toting ones, concerning "health care reform," few seem to get into any specifics. Rather, they stay up in the clouds of pejorative words like "socialism," "big government," "death panels," and the like. I have asked some of these folks for specific proposals with which they are in disagreement. The ones with whom I chatted at length could give no specifics.

Joe Klein of Time magazine writes in the August 10, 2009, issue about how special interests "trump the common good," when it comes to health care reform.

Importantly, Klein highlights Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden (D), who offers the "best constructed health care bill. It addresses the major health-care issues, and importantly, has 14 bipartisan co-sponsors."

"It covers everyone and offers more choices, it reforms the health-insurance business, it alleviates the responsibility of employers, it has a robust cost-control mechanism, and it has been scored as revenue-neutral over 10 years by the Congressional Budget Office."

Here is the list of Republican co-sponsors of this Democratic health care reform proposal: