This is a true story -- one I had to share.

Ms. Brokenrightwing is one of my neighbors, and occasionally we have coffee on a Saturday morning and chat. I should say, she chats and I listen. Like all members of her family group, the Brokenrightwings, she believes that speaking loudly and quickly, without pause and waiting impatiently should you open your mouth but rarely patiently enough for you to finish your sentence let alone your thought, constitutes discussion. After all, Brokenrightwings are always right, even when they’re wrong. And it’s their God given mission in life to correct your erroneous views.

Here is a true chronicle of our latest discussion. My words appear in normal print, and as most of my side of the conversation is silent thought, I’ll print that in italics. Ms. Brokenrightwing’s words will stand in bold black and white, as befits her status of certainty.

“What have you been up to lately?” A rare question, displaying even rarer interest in me as a person.

“I’m researching health care and health insurance in this country for a series of articles on the issue. I find it truly puzzling that such a large segment of society is without –“

“Well that Obama isn’t going to ram health care down the throats of Americans. We don’t want it. We’re not a socialist country and it’s not the government’s place to interfere in commerce or the privacy of the individual. That is not how this country was founded; it’s contrary to the spirit of the nation -- the Constitution clearly states so.”

Actually the preamble of the Constitution states: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” I personally would think that health care follows under the heading of general welfare, but this was not the time to say so. Why? Because while I was thinking all this, she was still talking about “that Obama” and his efforts to sublimate the foundations of American society.

“The nation will rue the day they elected him (President Obama) because he’s not the right kind of man to lead this country (??) and he’s leading us down the path to socialism, and that is un-American. We don’t want his death panels, his publicly paid abortions, his system that will tell you what doctors you can go to and what they can do for you. ..“

Isn’t that what’s happening now? Isn’t the big complaint with HMOs that they restrict access to certain doctors? Aren’t the insurance companies already deciding who can have what kind of treatment by refusing to pay for anything other than what they dictate? And when they refuse to cover you, or to pay for treatment your doctor has decided is right for you, is this not a death panel?

“ We’re a free nation of free individuals and no one can take that away from us. And furthermore, Obama doesn’t have the background or experience to lead this country. He’s an illegal President, a foreigner for one thing, and a secret Muslim and this is a nation of Christians. He has no right to be President…”

Whoa there girl. I think President Obama was born in Hawaii, and on the subject the Constitution says: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.” So I’m pretty sure he fits the requirements. And there are a lot of non-Christians in this country. What happened to separation of Church and State? But now is not the time to bring this up, because she’s still talking.

“And he doesn’t have the right background for this job. He doesn’t come from a family who served the nation; he hasn’t served the nation, and he doesn’t have the experience or the right family background for the job.”

“You mean a political family – like the Kennedy family?” Wow, I managed to say something.

“Kennedy was a Democrat, so –“

“Another example then -- the Bush family?” I surprised myself by actually succeeding in cutting her off.

“I’m a Republican, so yes, the Bush family is a good example. They had the right family background for the job. He had the kind of experience this job needs and the right attitude. He was a great man. He was a Christian …”

Yes, the right kind of experience in all those failing oil companies, and the right kind of family – his daddy was President before him, his brother served, too as the most despised Governor ever of Florida (according to everyone I’ve asked around here,) but he was Republican and Christian and may I suggest another qualification – white? Although unspoken, I believe this lady would consider that important – just a gut feeling. But I grew weary of the subject of President Obama’s obvious unsuitability to be president and although she was still talking, I waited for my opportunity to change the subject. Finally, she lit a cigarette and her mouth was busy with something else.

“Do you mind me asking, as part of my research, do you and your children have health insurance coverage as a benefit from your job?”

“I quit my job, didn’t I tell you that? But yes, we have health coverage. I figure my kids (ages 8, 10 and 12) need me around more since their father died “(four years ago, and he died of cancer – at home because his insurance dropped him. And she worked from the time they were little babies up to now, now that they spend all day in school, they need her at home.)

“So what are you doing, now?”

“Well Obama (I note it is never President Obama, just Obama) wants single mothers to go back to school, and he put the program out there, so I grabbed it. I got student loans and got on the program of assistance for those mothers that go to college and part of that is full health care for me and my kids. And that brings me to another point. You know the reports on unemployment are all a lie. Anyone who wants to can get a job. But too many have learned to play the system. That’s why socialism never works – lets the lazy feed off the system instead of working for a living.“

Yes, for sure. All those without work are just lazy and get fat off the system – the socialist system I might add – and the same one that is allowing this woman (age 46,) this Republican woman who abhors anything that reeks of socialism, to quit her $50K a year job, and go to Manatee College for three hours a day, live in a house on the state sponsored (and in her case subsidized) rent-to-own-a -foreclosed-house program, get health care benefits paid by the state, subsidized living allowance paid by a federal program, and interest free student loans to go back to college (although she already has a college education) and all that plus her survivor benefits from Social Security. What a Republican! What a scion of self-sufficiency! But she is still talking.

“Yes, when I add it all up, I’m pulling in $37,000 a year. So you see how the system can be used, and that’s the problem with the country and these socialist programs, too many people who want something for nothing. And the Democrats want to expand that?”

My head was swimming in a sea of contradictions, but I decided not to bring it up. Instead, I asked an innocuous question. “And what are you studying over there at Manatee College?”

“Pre-law.” Oh good! Florida desperately needs more lawyers. “I’ve always wanted to be an attorney, and I think with my argument skills (???) I’d be a good one. What I foresee is having an office where I am in charge, being fully versed in many kinds of law, but having others who are specialized working under me. I don’t know what kind of law I want to practice yet – I thought about the Public Defender’s Office (Oh God protect them!) but don’t think I’d be able to deal with that kind of scum…”

Once again, I feel a driving need to change the subject. The thought of this 46 year old woman, who voluntarily left a good job, studying for seven to nine years to become an attorney – on the public purse -- in a state where many children can’t get health care, curdles my blood. At the first available opportunity (about five minutes later) I asked another question. A poorly chosen one, unfortunately.

“So I take it you don’t believe that everyone should have access to health care, as a human right?”

“Of course not, our God-given rights are set out in the constitution.”

Actually, they are not, rights are not mentioned in the Constitution at all. They are set out in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence and the exact wordage is: … all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. And I note that God is not mentioned. Instead the word ‘Creator’ is used, and that is a term open to many interpretations depending on your own beliefs, which I’m sure was the intention of those who drafted the document. Secondly, the list is not complete and the words ‘among these’ certainly leaves no doubt that the list was never meant to be all-inclusive or exclusive of other rights. But this legal wannabe turned a deaf ear to my interpretation of the distinctions, which certainly leaves me in question as to the future of any of her clients. And the quality of her pre-law professors.

“You are not an American, and if you’d spent more time here you might understand what it means to us, and it is a well accepted fact in our society that these are our rights – period.”

Okay Ms. One-day-to-be-lawyer, let’s examine what you just said. First, I’ve been in and out of this country for thirty-five years, and I’m married to an American (a well educated one at that) so I think I have a grasp of how the country works. Secondly, this is what the document actually says, and I submit as a point of law that the words in a document mean what is written, despite widespread accepted misinterpretation and the dissemination of those popular misconception.

“And if you’d actually read and studied our history, you might understand the principles this country is based on.”

And I’m able to quote these documents word for word because I never read them?

“But you’re not from here, so how can you understand. And I think it’s pretty ignorant of you to come here from another country and lecture us on our own laws. America is for Americans.”

Then you shouldn’t have let me buy a house here, and pay property taxes, buy things here and pay sales tax, bring my foreign earned money into your economy, or even cross the border for that matter.

“But I accept that your ignorance of what it means to be an American isn’t your fault.”

“Thank you,” I said, but she didn’t catch on to my sarcasm. “I appreciate you’re making allowances for my ignorance entirely due to my foreign birth and education. And I stand corrected.” The founding documents don’t mean what they say; they mean what you say. Got it. And free speech and the right to an opinion only apply to native born Americans. Speaking of which, how many generations did you say your family lived in Oklahoma – that land once promised to the First Nations and then taken from them again? Oh, that’s right; I wouldn’t understand the history, not being American and all. So again, I changed the subject.

“Do you think America will pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan?”

“No, we can’t. We have to hunt down these Muslim terrorists and get them. I know Obama wants to get out of the place, but we can’t. We should throw everything we have at them (who?)and defeat them for once and for all, no matter what the cost. Our future depends on it.”

“Why?”

“They have to pay for what they did to us. And that’s our role in the world. We have to make the world a safe place.” Good luck! “And there we are – all alone, trying to do good in the world, and all our so-called friends desert us, and without us the world would just fall apart.”

That’s the same argument Britain used to keep control of India – it will fall apart without us – and Ireland, too. And much of the rest of the world, once upon a time. It didn’t.

“You do know that Canada has troops in Afghanistan, don’t you? And they are dying – far too many of them, but you never hear anything about that here.”

“This is the United States, of course you wouldn’t! Why would you?”

Silly me – naturally there would never be mention of the other troops dying in these endless conflicts – that would seriously dent the wide held notion that the U.S. is all alone in the big, bad world, without friends – doing good. Funny that Canada, along with honor paid to our own dead and injured, always reports on the U.S. casualties as well – and pays them homage.

And allow me to repeat, all the time you are reading my thoughts, she is still speaking, and speaking, and speaking. I’m just picking out the highlights.

“Why do you believe this is America’s role in the world – to solve conflicts that have nothing to do with America or Americans? Don’t you think the money spent on 780 foreign bases, the military, the arms, two wars, would be better spent here at home to build the country up again?”

“As I said, that’s our role in the world. We have to protect Israel.” What! “If you had read the Bible then you’d know that in the end of days the Muslim nations will rise up to destroy Israel and that signals the end of the world.”

I sat stunned. A strange sense of fear rose up in me, and confusion. Have you ever had that feeling, when you’ve been having some kind of debate on differing views, and you’ve believed yourself dealing with a rational individual, and suddenly have a flash of a thought that you’re dealing with a lunatic? That’s how I felt. I couldn’t string two thoughts together. I stared at that flapping mouth, still spouting how America’s role was to forestall the end of the world, to defeat Satan in the guise of Islam.

And then I thought of how poison an idea this was. A Christian jihad? She was a member of the Taliban of Christianity, if you will, believing that America’s role was to destroy entire populations, if that’s what it took, to forestall the end of the world as described in Revelations. Yes, I have read the Bible, though there’s not much point in telling her that as she is now saying for the twentieth time, “If you had read the Bible, you might understand …”

I have read the Bible, but the parts that stick to me the strongest are “Thou shalt not kill” and Jesus’ last instructions “Love each other as I have loved you.”

And then she really blew my mind away.

“If we don’t have the wars and the military industries, all those people will be unemployed.”

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Author's note: Another talented hubber has been inspired by this article to write a wonderful poem. Here is a link to papajack's " Dedicated to the Ugly American -- Mrs. A Brokenrightwing "

http://hubpages.com/_1z82ueimymwla/hub/Dedicated-to-the-Ugly-American-Mrs-A-Brokenrightwing?e-emailhub