Obama’s Speech, The Health Care Wars and The Fluorescent Light of the Here-and-Now

As the health care debate alternately evolves and devolves, I savor every image meeting right-wing myth-making with a jolt of reality.

The photo above by Getty’s Joe Raedle (partnered with this image by Getty’s John Moore who has been doing absolutely shining work in Colorado since the recession began) features the Chief Medical Officer of the University of Miami Health System checking an elderly heart surgery patient as she’s watching Obama’s address to Congress.

For all the hysteria out there, it’s a photo like this that fixes the issue in the stark fluorescent light of the here-and-now; in the context of an aging population; in the high cost of care; and in the opportunity — after ten years of right-wing futility and ineptitude — to make a historic difference.

(image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images. September 9, 2009 in Miami, Florida)