Insurance companies are the new beast,the United States Congress is the new Roman Coliseum, Greed is the new faith, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Dennis Kucinich and every voice raised in favor of Universal Healthcare are the new bestiarii a/k/a Gladiators

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In the Roman Coliseum of antiquity brute force met brute force when, for the purpose of entertaining the people of the times, and as prescribed and sanctioned by law, gladiators, known as bestiarii met powerful, man-eating,hungry-beasts ,who, as recorded here, battled such beasts.

Man vs. beast battles were replicated in 1950s era movies portraying the history of early Christians who were thrown as morsels to the beasts of the Roman Coliseum; these movies became, incredibly, a favorite pass-time of 1950s era movie goers who flocked to the theaters to see such make-believe carnage just like the real Romans of antiquity flocked to the Coliseum for the real live spectacle of beast eating man.

Insurance companies are now the new beast.

The United States Congress is the new Roman Coliseum wherein, in a battle of greed vs. truth, senators like Max Bauccus, who, prodded by Charles Grassley, had physicians (like Margaret Flowers, M.D.) protesting the fact that no voice for Universal Healthcare was included in the Bauccus committee hearing, removed from the Senate Hearing room, and arrested by DC Police.

The president is the new Emperor who goes along with the pretend impartiality of the pretend impartial senators, whose pretense allows them to throw the American people at the feet of the new beast: the insurance companies.

Greed is the new faith. Greed to fill the pockets of Insurance Companies, their administrators, and the pockets of greedy, honor lacking politicians.

There are no bestiarii in the American Congress (except for Dennis Kucinich) to battle the beasts and he alone is not sufficiently strong enough to battle the beasts.

Voices from outside the American Congress. True American voices protesting the greed and the abuse, voices like those of Margaret Flowers and the many others who have added their voices to hers, are silenced and arrested.

The voice heard in thehalls of congress is the voice from the belly of the beast, it belongs to the insurance companies, to their lobbyists, and to their enforcers: the politicians and to those who must follow orders from the politicians: the police who arrest the voices of freedom in action.

The American people and their healthcare are the new morsels being thrown at the new beast to feed upon us in this new Roman Coliseum where the new Emperor and his lawmaker senators subscribe to the new faith: greed.

Just like in the Rome of pagan times, reason, morality, ethics and honor fall by the wayside.

Regressing the metaphor to an even earlier time, the American people need a David to defeat this seemingly unbeatable Goliath.

Obama once told a student of his that he considers himself to be a pragmatist.

Why should he waste any of his energy speaking for or against anyone cause (how doggone reminiscent of Barbara Bush's “why should I waste my pretty little mind "”) when he can let others carry the voice, while he sits without breaking a sweat to pass into law what the incessant roaring of the beasts and the senators of the new Coliseum, licking clean their chomps in a hogwash of pretend honor, justice and fairness, have proclaimed as a victory " against the American people.

Obama's pragmatism has him listening to the voices of greed and the silver coffers of re-election money.

Out in the streets, away from the arena of the new Coliseum, Dr. Margaret Flowers and the many voices who have added theirs to hers " carry on, for the rest of us, the flaming torch of freedom and democracy.

Thank you Dr. Flowers, Dennis Kucinich, and each of the rest of you who speak out in favor of Universal Healthcare while risking the wrath of the new beast.

Authors Bio:
E.T.SIMON ... Keeping the Bio Real and Transparent ...
E. T. SIMON is more often like a transplanted palm tree from the land of Santiago de Cuba where she was born to a Cuban, Tulane University, lawyer educated father and, a Mississippi, mother, great-granddaughter of American Revolutionary War hero, Brigadier General Andrew Pickens who is credited with the victory against the British in the Battle of the Cowpens. Although at times, E.T. Simon is more like, the fruit of the pecan of her Mississippi grandparents pecan farm of long ago, or even like the Sycamore so firmly rooted in the Florida Peninsula. As such, the daughter of bi-cultural, bi-lingual parents, E.T. Simon navigated the bi-cultural ties, bi-lingual shores of her birth, while learning to appreciate Cuban and Southern cuisine and cultures, from a very early age.

At the age of 15, two years after her mother's death, she dreamt about running away from her home to join the , "Bohemians" of the 1950s in New York's Greenwich Village and become a writer. She did not. In 1961, at the age of 18 her father sent her across the pond to her mother's family in Mississippi in an effort to keep her from falling prey to Fidel Castro's repressive agents who were on her trail for her opposition to Fidel Castro.
Bumpy rides, or not, In 1976, E.T. Simon, after twelve years of part time studies, with in-between times-off for parenting, obtained her B.A. in English with a Major in Literature and a double minor in Psychology and Philosophy. In 1985 she obtained her Master's Degree in Counseling and in 1987 her License in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Her quest to pursue a MFA in Creative Writing was derailed when a stuffed shirt Chaucer Literature Professor graded her paper on The Prioress Tale short of the A she needed to establish her credentials in the MFA Creative Writing Program, even while receiving the support of the Academic Dean who told her with a certain urgency, "don't stop writing. You'll find a way."
Prior to pursuing her graduate studies in counseling, Ms. E.T. Simon joined a Creative Writing Group where she honed in on some of the art and craft of writing and had the pleasure of attending poetry readings by Tess Gallagher, Denise Levertov, Rutabaga Rose and others.
Following her 1985 graduation, Ms. E.T. Simon proceeded to work as a counselor/family therapist until 1998 when, following surgery, she became a near recluse and has remained a near recluse for the last twelve years or so.
It was during those years that she worked as a counselor/family therapist that Ms. E.T. Simon learned that grief is a powerful agent which often contributes to the derailing of families; that human hearts can bury grief for generations and generations with the grief popping up unexpectedly as a symptom anywhere, sometimes even in someone else further along in the generations.
Ms. E.T. Simon also learned that when careful unearthing of buried grief happens and a person is enabled to truly grieve the pain of a loss they have been holding on to for years, then rebalancing of the derailment takes place and true healing occurs.

Writing is a lifelong love of E.T. Simon's, and whether she kept her writings buried in dusty drawers, or shared them with university professors, writers' groups, editors, or published them, the writer's flame burns undying in her. The flame of truth also burns in her along with the need to stand up for the underdog, of which, today, she finds herself to be one. This blended well in her throughout her years of computer activism for peace and social justice.

E.T. Simon's articles have been published under the name of TERESA SIMON-NOBLE, the pen name of ELENA DUMAS; and at times, under the additional pen name of SKYAGUNSTA, or SKYAGUNSTA PICKENS, both of which are a direct reference to her great-great-grandfather Brigadier General Andrew Pickens who was named "Skyagunsta," by Native Americans who came to appreciate him as a man of conscience. Please also know that whether the articles have been signed with one name, or another; with a pen name, or another, the writings have always come straight from my heart, my perception, and my core values.
In other words, it has always been me, and only me, writing the articles.