The Boy-Man Who Would Be King, or, The Bawdy Politic

Recent GOP attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare) have caused a lot of angst in the medical community. Nearly every major physician, patient, and healthcare advocacy group has come out in strong opposition to the current Senate bill, or Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). The American Medical Association (AMA), in a rare moment of courage, has taken the lead with their Patients Before Politics campaign.

God Bless America…and Everyone Else
by Crystal Young-Otterstrom

The following is a talk I gave last Sunday in my ward in Salt Lake City, Utah. I thought our readers on Mormon Press might enjoy giving it a read. What follows has a few edits that are different from what I read in church.

When [my bishopric member] asked my husband and I to speak a couple of weeks ago on the topic of patriotism/America is a choice land/4th of July, etc., I laughed and replied, “Are you sure you want us to talk about that subject? You might not like what we have to say on the topic.” But [my bishopric member] is a good person and he said that he would love to hear what we have to say on this topic. So here we go.

Typically among American Mormons, this talk goes something like this: “America is a choice land, the greatest land, a land that only certain special, righteous people are led to in order to create a land of freedom for its inhabitants. When they didn’t live righteously, they got destroyed. God led the Jaredites here, they got destroyed. God led the Nephites and their cousins the Lamanites here; the Lamanites were left standing and the Nephites got destroyed. God led Christopher Columbus who brought Europeans here, some of whom became the inspired founding fathers.* These inspired founding fathers led a rebellion against England, wrote the Constitution, made America the greatest and most blessed country in the world, a country based on religious freedom that allowed Joseph Smith to restore the Mormon faith, and if this country doesn’t get back to being righteous and moral, we’re going to get destroyed just like the Jaredites and Nephites.”

* Even though the majority of our founding fathers were deists which is basically enlightenment for agnostic or atheist, but hey, agnostic and atheist people have as much of a right to inspiration as do believers!

Well, this won’t be a surprise to anyone in this ward who knows me well, but my talk isn’t going to be that talk.

The LDS Dems Caucus in Utah sent questions to all the current candidates for Utah Democratic Party leadership positions. 

With Donald Trump as President, political discussions are heating up on Facebook, in living rooms, and in ward foyers around the country. As someone who has had a fair number of these discussions myself, and as someone who falls solidly on the left side of the political spectrum, one of the arguments I hear most often from my fellow Mormons suggests that I’m in favor of Satan’s plan.

“America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” 

― Walter Cronkite

I believe family is the fundamental unit of society. Everything revolves around families. Societies rise and fall with the health of the family. When the family is weak, so are we all.

Should we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?

In the 2016 legislative session, Utah Republicans sponsored a bill to repeal the death penalty. The stated purpose of the bill was to eliminate an extremely expensive and grossly ineffective government program. The bill passed the Senate, but due mainly to a late start, it did not get a vote in the House. The bill is scheduled to be heard again in the next legislative session which starts January 23, 2017. So, this question is one that we need to answer now.

I live in Salt Lake City where I work in retail. It is a family business although I am not a member of the family. Neither are two of our other employees, Miguel and Jesus. We have a bit of a bond over being the only employees here who don't share a bloodline, but last week, I found something new for us to bond over. 

Yesterday Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the March for Life demonstrations in Washington, DC. Mike Pence is a strong advocate for the pro-life cause supporting positions that include de-funding Planned Parenthood, opposing stem cell research, criminal proceedings for hurting the fetus, and prohibiting minors from crossing state lines for abortions. These positions are in accordance with the pro-life platform which professes to care about the rights of the unborn. In reality, conservatives play the pro-life card to drive polls, but once in political control campaign promises are consistently tossed by the wayside. Republicans also provide strong financial support Israel, who offer publicly-funded abortions and socialized healthcare.

I grew up in a Republican household. I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh and even taped his TV show so I could watch it when I got home from school. In college I had a friend who convinced me that Democrats weren’t evil, but just had different experiences that made them look at things differently. Eventually he convinced me to do more research and I realized I had been misled to about many things. I still wanted to do my civic duty so I started going to meetings of both Democrats and Republicans. I quickly found that I was more comfortable with the Democrats. This doesn’t mean I agree with every Democrat on everything, just that I agree with more Democrats more often than Republicans.