Health Care Reform

Dear Mr. President and members of Congress and the Senate,

Yahoo Finance is perhaps the last place I would have thought to find an insightful article about what is wrong with the health care system, but I did.

I'm super excited about the prospect of health care reform (I'm a huge fan, really), and I tend to fall into the liberal camp in the discussion about it (i.e. I would very much like it if everyone in the country had health insurance even if it means me having to pay a little bit more in taxes). However, I foresee a problem with everyone being insured. Many on the other side (conservatives) have expressed a fear that if we move to a more socialized system we will end up with long waits for medical care that we can now get relatively quickly. While I still would find that preferable to the concept that only people who can afford insurance get the care they need, it is legitimate concern. More over, it's already becoming a problem even under the current system.

The only way to solve that problem is more doctors. So, my proposal to fix the health care system is first to make medical school free and make undergrad free for those who pledge to go on to medical school. For it to work quickly you'd have to also forgive all the existing student loans for doctors as well. While I like to believe that the people who are interested in medicine as a profession are more interested in helping people than making money, I know that isn't true of everyone, so you would probably have to make decreasing the cost of health care (i.e. taking a pay cut) a condition of forgiving the loans. Once the cost of health care is cheaper then the cost to taxpayers to insure the currently uninsured would also be cheaper and it would be a lot easier for both sides of the isle to come to terms.

It would probably also be a good idea to pass legislation requiring all health insurance companies to be non-profit, or at least putting a cap on how much they can profit. You could count on the competition (from the public option which will, as noted be much easier to pass given how much cheaper it will be) to regulate that for you. I mean if it were a choice between a super expensive private insurance plan and a much cheaper (or free) public option, all other things being equal, a lot of people would pick the cheaper option. Still, I think it would be safer to legislate.

First step though, make it free to become a doctor. I know there are those who think it would open some sort of flood gate and we'd end up with a bunch of sub par doctors, but I really don't think that would be a problem. I mean the competition to get into medical school would increase exponentially which can only mean we'd probably end up with even better doctors, and more of them. It's win, win (win, win, win), really.

I'm not just saying this because I want to go to medical school for free, although I do....I mean, of course, I do. I want to go to medical school and my bachelors was in English so I have two additional years of undergrad to take before I can go to medical school and it will actually take me four years because I have to work full time while I'm taking them just so I can end up only $150,000 in debt instead of over $200,000 in debt. Not to mention which I'm stuck with private loans because, as a home owner I no longer qualify for fedearlly susidized student loans. So, yeah, it's sort of personal for me, but I really think it will also help with the current crisis in the health care system.

I really am a big fan of the work you guys are doing. These are just a few (hopefully) helpful suggestions.

Love,
The Fan

Directors

I'm going to step outside the format for a second to talk about directors. Since I feel like I often talk about things as though I'm an expert I feel the need to put a disclaimer out there first. I do not make films. I write screenplays that I hope someday might get made into films if I'm very lucky, but I have no real experience or expertise. [note: this applies to most subjects I write about, I'm not really an expert on anything. Really, all I am is observant]

As someone who has attempted writing and acting (at various points in my history), I notice those things most when I watch movies but I have at times developed an attachment to directors. I think it's an extension of my love of writers and actors. When there's a director that seems to be able to take the words on the page and the actors saying them and present them in the best way imaginable that's meaningful to me.

From ages sixteen to nineteen I fancied myself an actress. During those years Clerks, Mall Rats, and Chasing Amy came out and I became a devout Kevin Smith fan. Chasing Amy in particular is one of my all time favorite movies. There was a period of time my freshman and sophomore years in college where I watched Chasing Amy every other week. Kevin Smith is definitely a gift from God for any actors lucky enough to work with him. First of all, his scripts are all about dialogue and emotion, and second his directorial style is way less visual than some (it's very actor focused). So, yeah, I'm a huge fan of Kevin Smith. I love everything he does. I may be more a fan of his writing but I am definitely a fan of his directing style as well.

JJ Abrams is, as they say, the whole package. His directorial style is the opposite of Smith's, his stuff is very visual (and auditory for that matter), but he is also an actor's director. I used to be of the opinion that actors are 100% responsible for their performances. I then came around on the point that a really good director can sometimes get a good performance out of a not so good actor, but I still felt that really, in the end, actors are either good or bad and there isn't a lot that a director can do to change that. Directors though are responsible for how the performances of the actors come across on screen.

Acting is an interesting combination of emotional and physical work and the director is responsible for capturing it in the right way. Abrams cast a lot of really great actors in his reboot of Star Trek, including who I think is the best actor working today (Zachary Quinto), and he filmed their spectacular performances in exactly the right way. I'll talk about Spock because he's my favorite character, and Quinto my favorite actor, in the film. Zachary's Quinto's performance in Star Trek is fantastic on both the emotional and physical levels. The character often has a lot of emotion bubbling, sort of barely contained, under the surface and you can see all of that in Quinto's eyes in many scenes. He also embodies the character in a very physical way, his posture, his gait, his mannerisms are all perfect. And JJ Abrams captures it all in just the right way.

Going back, briefly, to Kevin Smith, there was a segment on one of his SModcasts where he talks about F*** You money. There was a PA on one of his projects that owned a hotel and she just worked as a PA for fun. So, F*** You money is the amount of money that it takes for you to be able to pretty much do anything you want. You can do a job purely for the love and enjoyment of it and if someone asks you to do something you don't like you can just walk away because you don't need the job. If I had F*** You money...well, if I had F*** You money, I'd probably go to med school (without having to worry about student loans), but it would be a very close call between that and getting a job as an intern or PA or gopher or anything on a JJ Abrams project because I imagine, if you could watch him you could learn everything you could ever want or need to know about the film making process.

Nathan Fillion

Dear Nathan Fillion,

Part of me wants to believe that your just as much ham and cheese as the characters you play make you seem. That's the part that likes to believe that someday I might meet my heroes (like you) and have beer and hang out with them. If you're really that cheesy I bet you would be enormous fun to have a beer with.

However, there's another layer to your work. In Castle, and in Firefly, you mix real emotion in with the cheesiness. Not only that but you do it so subtly that it deftly belies the cheesiness revealing something much more complex. Of course, I suppose, that is equally appealing.

You see, another part of me loves those moments that only truly great actors can achieve. You know the ones I mean. Sometimes, a moment comes together on film (or on stage, but they are easier to pick out on film unless you're one of the actors on the stage) when everything comes together just right and the actors capture a moment of real, honest emotion. The reason I say it's easier to pick out on film is that on film you can actually see it in the eyes of the actors, and I've see it in yours right along side the cheese pretty much every Monday night.

It's an interesting mix and I am a fan of both sides, but I do especially love the cheesiness. The cheese never fails to make me smile. Keep up the good work.

Love,
The Fan

The Mountain Goats

Dear John Darnielle,

You are the best lyricist in the history of lyrics. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it's true. My inner lit nerd wants to say the Pogues are better, and my inner theater nerd wants to say the Who are better, and my inner activist wants to say that U2 are better, but as much as they want to they can't because deep down they know that the Mountain Goats are the best...that you are the best.

I was at your show in Seattle a few months ago and you seemed so excited to have so many musician's backing you (particularly the one on the violin), but I have to say that you really don't need any backing. You and a guitar are perfect without anything or anyone else. In fact you may be even better by yourself, but I don't want to denigrate your cohorts, they were great too...it's just that I really can't say enough about how amazing you are.

Love,
The Fan