Jared Rader/The Daily

What a week. I’ve had two stories dealing with South America and one about an OU researcher working on using satellites to track the spread of infectious diseases at the OU Center for Spatial Analysis (Yeah, I didn’t know we even had such a place). The South American stories may be a bit of a departure from my assigned beat, but I’m very interested in international affairs and world politics.

Speaking of politics, how about President Obama’s address to Congress last night? I didn’t get to listen too attentively because I was writing my satellite story, but I know it consisted of standing ovations from half the room every few sentences, while the other half remained mostly seated. I was also quite surprised by all the jeers and yelling coming from the… er… discontented side.

I don’t know how political I can get here, but from what I hear, this kind of behavior hasn’t been witnessed during an address to Congress ever. Personally, I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I’m by no means an expert on this stuff, but what’s so bad about trying to give health insurance to every single American? I definitely know cost is a huge factor, but why not work together to improve the plan instead of yelling and screaming at each other, and calling the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES a “liar!” during his address to Congress?

I think the voices that haven’t been heard enough are those of the doctors and health officials themselves. Last week, I covered a story in which Gary Cox, the new director of the Oklahoma City-County Health Department spoke at the OU College of Public Health. While he spoke, he encouraged the audience to contact our congressmen to support the passage of the bill in the Oklahoma House and Senate. He said the bill includes provisions for preventive health care plans (to keep people from getting sick in the first place), along with the public option and plans to hold insurance companies accountable.

Living in Oklahoma, arguably the most traditionally conservative state in the nation, I’m sure many people have a negative take on health care reform. However, I think it says something if the DIRECTOR of the Oklahoma City-County Health Department is encouraging us to support the passage of these bills. Cox didn’t make any indication what his personal political opinions were; he just simply said supporting health care reform and working together to keep Americans healthy was moral and right.

Even the American Medical Association, the largest doctors’ group in the nation, has supported the new legislation. My dad, who works at Mercy Hospital, supports the health care reform, and he even tells me that he and most doctors don’t think it goes far enough.

Now as a reporter, I don’t think I’m allowed to spit out my political opinion, but I do think I can say this. Let’s listen. Let’s really listen. Let’s listen to both sides; let’s listen to the ones who are at the heart of the matter, people like Gary Cox and the doctors of our hospitals. Listening doesn’t involve screaming at or shouting over people when they’re trying to come up with a plan to give health coverage to all Americans. Let’s work TOGETHER, and create productive dialogue to one day accomplish this goal.

Like our president said, let’s not “waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it.”