THE LILLIPUTIANS BACK IN CHARGE

Here are some numbers to choke on...!

There are 3300 registered lobbyists working the halls of Congress right now. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, they're button-holing members to vote in one of 3300 different ways on health care reform. This breaks down to six passionate lobbyists for every whip-lashed member in Congress. In the meantime back home, populations are graying at dazzling rates. Here and abroad. According to the US Census Bureau, in the next decade the world will for the first time in history house more people 65-and-older than people five-and-under. This makes the issue of health care like a giant meteor aiming for an entire continent.

In the flurry of town hall and cablecast debates, these cosmic numbers don't get a lot of play. We're too busy with the local, personal stuff; meanwhile the global demographic stuff means our challenge is not only complex but possibly catastrophic. And there's a clock ticking.

It's hard to see local lobbyists and politicians capable of meeting this larger reality. Garrison Kellior once said, "Sometimes you have to look reality right in the eye and deny it!" So far the Lilliputians are doing exactly that as they wrangle over their pet clauses and paragraphs.

Here's an issue that calls for a grasp of the wide-sweeping consequences of an aging population, not simply the clutch of politically-personalized feelings. It troubles me to remember how with enough tiny Lilliputians they were able to tie down the giant Gulliver. When you look at Washington these days, you have to wonder if we're not living out the same tale?