Let’s take a look at health care in a different way.

When the government takes control of our health care, our reality, yours and mine, will change.

Each of us will be metaphorically hooked up to an IV, and the flow of life-giving drugs and services will be controlled by a government official. A government panel, not your doctor, will decide on your course of treatment. A bureaucrat will decide what drugs and services you will receive. This is not designed to be evil. It is being done to control costs, which everyone knows are out of control.

Now, here is a question: If a government official is controlling the flow of life-giving drugs and treatment to you and your children and grandchildren, would you do anything that might cause the flow to stop? Would you write a letter to the editor criticizing the government official? Would you speak out at a public meeting? Would you march in a protest and carry a sign if you knew that your picture might be taken, and take the risk that your application for your child’s asthma medicine might somehow get lost in the system? Do you think that I am overly cynical and untrusting?

Can you think of a more effective way to control and shut down free speech?

This sounds crazy, doesn’t it? It has happened before.

In the old Soviet Union, the health care system was used as a means of control. If a person joined a dissident group or spoke out in some way, they would be investigated, and if the government could find a “health connection,” it would be used against them. If the government’s investigation found the dissident had a child with special medical needs, their medication would be “out of stock” until their wayward parent repented and began to “tow the party line.”

But this was Russia, and it was a long time ago. They were the evil empire. It has nothing to do with us. It could never happen here.

I’m sure you have heard stories about people who got on the wrong side of a government worker or police official and all of a sudden their lives became very complicated. I have relatives who found themselves in a jam because they spoke up at a city council meeting and wounded the pride of a mayor. I’m sure you know people who have been punished in some way because they embarrassed an elected official, government worker, school official or police officer.

We all know someone who has been “taught a lesson.”

The reason this happens is because we, as humans, are all subject to the same weaknesses — the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth or laziness.

Our elected and appointed officials are no better than we are. This ought to be very apparent by now.

Think about this: If you have ever had the urge to “get even,” and it is a pretty safe bet that everyone has had the urge, and some people will do it, and some of them have enough power to make it very painful.

David Freeman lives in Richmond Hill.