I thought about using sour grapes for my photo du jour, but couldn’t figure out how to make a photograph show the difference between sweet, easy to swallow grapes and the kind that leave a distinctly bad taste. My eyes fell on the bowl of shriveled peppers in the kitchen and decided they might make an interesting picture to go along with the thoughts that have bothered me since I watched the morning news on television. A glum-faced senator from Oklahoma with an obviously shriveled sense of history declared that the health care bill passed by Congress was the worst thing ever to happen to America. I wonder what he thinks about slavery condoned by Congress until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln and about the forced relocation of some of my distant Cherokee relatives (4,000 of the 15,000 died from exposure, disease, and starvation) from their homelands to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma).

President Barack Obama signed into law on Tuesday a bill passed by Congress that assures health care for even the poorest Americans. Until the law can take effect one in six Americans does not have health insurance. Fifteen percent (46 million) of the people in the world’s wealthiest nation are without health insurance, most don’t have insurance coverage because they simply cannot afford the premiums. Many others are denied coverage by insurance companies because they are in poor health. The health care bill, which passed despite the fact that every single Republican in the House of Representatives voted against, is a legislative step that finally addresses the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in America. The bill is not about redistributing wealth. It is not about putting America on the road to becoming a communist state. It is not about taking anything away from secure Americans. The President’s words as he prepared to sign the legislation on Tuesday said it perfectly: “...We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”