Welcome to Under the Maples. The old adage, “you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl,” applies to me. I live in a concrete jungle today, but I grew up “under the maples.” While I enjoy many of the more cosmopolitan aspects of city living, I’m still most at home where there are more trees and grass than concrete and steel. In these pages I’ll be talking about anything that strikes my fancy, but expect to find an emphasis on history and genealogy.
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22 February 2010
The Lost Art of Debate
Something became painfully clear to me as I was watching the Senate debate on the proposed health care reform bill the weekend before Christmas. There was no debate. The only thing I can tell you about the proposed legislation from the two hours of senate debate that I watched is that it provides for the federal government to absorb any increased costs to the state of Nebraska for Medicaid. The major parties spent the majority of their debate time slinging mud at one other, complaining, and in some cases campaigning, while the lesser parties appeared to have been excluded completely. It was a very disheartening sight. I tuned in not expecting to have anything resolved, but to hear both sides of the issues with the participants speaking intelligently and understandably. Perhaps I've simply been reading too much Allen Drury.
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