Lonesome EJ,

You presented some great points about the origins of the USA and its constitution. The 13 colonies did indeed intiate a profoundly important and much-needed change in human awareness on this planet by challenging the right of monarchs to dominate populations, by casting off the heavy hand of the British Empire, and by forming a democratic system based on the will of the people. This foreshadowed the development of all republican forms of democratic government which followed in the rest of the world...first in France, then elsewhere. The USA can be justly proud of this...history has exonerated them.

At the same time it must be pointed out that the conduct of the US government toward Native Americans was utterly shameful in almost every case, unlike the British administration in Canada which treated the Indians in a far more just and even-handed manner. The result: hundreds of Indian wars were fought in the USA during the period from 1776 to 1885, and 1 Indian war was fought in Canada (the Northwest Rebellion of Metis and Indians led by Louis Riel) during the same period of time. Just one!

Although the British were still under a monarchy, they curiuosly enough ran a far less corrupt administration in terms of dealing with the frontier areas and the Native peoples. One has to wonder why?

The American constitution was the most socially progressive document of its era, and yet it utterly failed to protect the rights of blacks and Native Americans for a very long time. Something was rotten in "Denmark". Did the search for individual freedom somehow obscure the sense of collective moral responsibility that should be a corollary to individual freedom of choice? I believe so.

The dollar rules in America, and winning is the only thing that counts at the end of the day...rule of law and real justice be damned. Consider the O.J. Simpson trial as a recent example of this...hypocrisy of a very transparent and blatant sort...that fooled almost no one who was not blinded by race prejudice.

Now, to the fact that the public has to pay taxes to have a free medical plan. Well, of course!!! We also pay taxes to have a police force, an army/navy/air force, a transportation network, a school system, a government, a justice system (courts, etc.), a prison system, a telecommunications network, certain power and energy managing structures, a fiscal and monetary system, a national currency, and on and on.

All of the above are "socialist" endeavours, by definition, because they are paid for by public funds and administrated by public employees on behalf of the whole nation. That's socialism, and it's all utterly necessary in order to have a modern, decent, functioning society. This fact seems to have escaped the conservatives, to whom "socialism" is a dirty word. It's like calling "trees" a dirty word and wanting to cut them all down...it's that stupid.

I am entirely willing to pay taxes to have these vital services, even though their record may not be flawless. Whose record IS flawless? I would be willing to pay MORE taxes than I presently do in order not to have homeless people dying on the sidewalks of Toronto.

It is largely certain neo-conservative trends in the Ontario government in the last few years which have resulted in a record number of homeless (15,000 at the last estimate) on Toronto's streets.

Many of them are mental patients who have been turfed out of hospitals that have been closed due to TAX CUTS. Said tax cuts have mostly gone to the richest sectors in this society. It's a national disgrace. It has happened because of sheer greed on the part of people who already have considerably more money than they (or anybody) actually need, and they have no intention of sharing one penny of it with anyone else unless they are forced to by law. These are the same people who run the banks and big business (and all the mainstream political parties!!!) in Canada and the USA. They are rich beyond the common man's imagination, but they still want MORE. In a system like that, one's right to cast a vote becomes virtually meaningless, because WHO do the political parties really serve? Think about it.

The American constitution was a brilliant document, highly valuable and progressive. So too is the Cuban constitution. Both those constitutions have to some extent been subverted by people's blindness and self-serving nature. Both constitutions have been partially betrayed by the very people who swore to uphold them.

If you had been born a Canadian you would take for granted that medical treatment is publicly funded, and you would not mind paying taxes to pay the medical staff (unless maybe you were filthy rich...and damned selfish).

I'm not criticizing you personally in the above comments. I'm just explaining how it works in Canada...and Cuba...and Sweden...and many other countries. It's a basic democratic right to have free medical care, and its entirely worth the tax burden which that entails. To not do so is shortsighted and little short of criminal, maybe not in intention, but certainly in effect.

If you're homeless in Canada, by the way, you can't GET a health card, and you can't get treatment, except maybe in the emergency ward if you're dying. Nor are you in a position to effectively communicate with anyone by phone, or to travel, or to buy decent clothing, so you almost certainly can't get a job either...except as a prostitute, pimp, thief or drug dealer. Thus are the desperate relegated to the dung heap, even in Canada, where democracy is only a partial success, and is being eroded away year by year...in the name of tax cuts. And so, the homeless die on the street. The Cubans were astonished to hear this. They thought we were all rich. But it's even worse than that in the USA, where there is no universal health plan at all.