Doing this for my health

By Stephen Richter | 2:52 a.m.

I watched our commander in chief struggle upstream to the top of Capitol Hill, in the name of our good health. I couldn’t help but think of Staff Sergeant Strong and his opinion on our nation’s health care system.

“Listen up Devil Dogs. If you somehow manage to injure yourselves or get yourselves sick, your lives will no longer be in my capable hands. It will be in the clutches of some miserable fat-body, in a white coat, with nothing better to offer you than a finger up the keister. And that’s about all the good you’re gonna get out of sickbay or some hospital. So until ordered otherwise, you are going to have to stay alive and healthy, and take responsibility for your own nasty little bodies, you understand me?!”

"Yes sir!"

“That means drink water, wash your hands, eat healthy - you know what to do so don’t bullshit me or yourself. Keep your hair short, all you hair short, so you don’t attract critters. Take your vitamins, PT every day, and stay away from whores, whiskey, and Robitussin. You do that, and you’ll live as long as Chesty Puller, and he had bullet holes and bayonet wounds in his body. If you don’t, and I find out you went and died on me, you will be in a world of shit, Marines, understand me?!!”

"Yes sir!"

"Carry on!"

Maybe it’s the Pavlov, maybe it’s the passion, but staff sergeant’s words have always made sense to me. One can never rely on someone or something outside oneself to provide them with “health care.” Big Pharma doesn't care about our health. It starts within, by taking good care of ourselves and by taking responsibility for maintaining a lifestyle that supports good health. My mother was the only one out of ten brothers and sisters that didn’t end up with diabetes, cancer, hypertension, and the long list of maladies her siblings have dealt with over the years. There are only three of them alive now, and she can attest it to one thing:

An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure.

It’s a good place to start.

So regardless of the future of our nation’s healthcare system,

Take care of yourself, really take care of yourself.

Semper Fi,

Stephen Richter