The Talons of the Eagle

The Talons of the Eagle

Many years ago I directed a TV commercial for a local bank. The concept of the commercial called for us to film a real, live bald eagle. The opening shot was to be the eagle sitting on the arm of a birder shot all silhouetted against the backdrop of the sunrise. We were also to get shots of the eagle in flight.

The commercial was written to occur in winter. We traveled up to the mountains outside of a ski resort in the very early morning so that we could catch the sunrise for both the opening and closing “money” shots. The snow was deep and the air was so cold that the inside of our nostrils froze when we breathed.

We arrived in time to get our opening and closing money shots then we got some great close-ups of the eagle in mock flight. We were done except for the shots of the eagle in real flight. Our “Eagle Wrangler” informed us that even though the eagle was a “trained” that eagle’s brains were so small that the only thing he could get the eagle to do was to come back to his arm by offering it food. For that purpose he kept mice in his pocket. The producer, the cinematographer and I all looked at each other with a look that could best be described as confused curiosity.

With that the eagle was released to soar over our head, which he did for only a couple of minutes. After that he found the top of a distant pine tree and settled there. Since the snow was deep we watched as the handler made his was slowly across the high mountain valley. When he got to the tree he tried to coax the eagle to him with mice. He even pulled a live rabbit out of his bag and tried to capture the eagle’s interest with that. (I’m serious! We watched all this through the zoom lens on the camera.) Since the eagle wouldn’t budge the handler started to climb up the pine tree. In short order he was out of sight in the pine boughs.

The three of us stood by meantime and made small talk. After a few minutes we heard what could only be described as a masculine scream of pain – sort of like a warrior wounded in battle. We looked again through the lens. We saw nothing to indicate there was trouble over there.

“Should we go see what’s wrong?” the producer asked. The photographer and I both looked at each other with a look that said, “I ain’t goin’ over there. If the handler can’t handle him I wouldn’t have the first clue.” Instead we both said that maybe the producer should go, and we should stay back to move the gear if we needed. So Mr. Producer started the long slow trek, in the time span of about a minute he had covered some 20 yards.

About that time we heard a repeat of that same manly yell. The producer stopped and looked back at us. We shrugged our shoulders and began to fiddle with the camera like there was something that urgently needed done with it in response to the yelps of pain. The producer seemed as frozen as we were. I was looking through the zoom lens at the tree when I saw the eagle wrangler start to emerge from the pine boughs.

When he got back he told us what had happened. The eagle had gotten scared and refused to move from the tree, so the handler had to climb the tree and knock him out. When he knocked the eagle loose, because it was in the tight branches on the tree, it could not spread it wings and glide to earth so it had to grab on to something. What it grabbed hold of was the handler’s left thigh. The first scream we heard was the talons sinking into his leg. The second scream we heard was him wrenching them free. He said that when they sank into his flesh it hurt so badly that he considered simply falling out of the tree with the eagle still on his thigh. But he said the longer the eagle’s talons were in his leg the tighter he clawed and the more pain he was in. So he had wrenched the talons free.

The reason I tell this story is the parallels between that and what is going on with health care in the U.S. You see, the employer based health care system we have now is socialistic. The reasons I say that are vast and many and would take far more time to explain or read here for now, but let me just say this; health care has become an employee entitlement – and entitlements are socialist concepts. And trust me the government is far more involved in our present system than you can ever know. Once we get the talons of the government and socialism in our leg the pain becomes so intense that we can’t think clearly and believe that it may just be better to fall out of the tree and let the talons remain.

But that’s not the smart move.

The wisest move is to remove the talons – pry them painfully from our leg. Once the talons are removed the pain will more rapidly go away and the wound will heal. Leaving the talons in the leg and waiting for the eagle to free the talons itself, will probably not work.

There will be pain short term while we wrench the talons free. That pain will come in the form of confusion and screams from those who have the greatest stake in seeing universal health care become reality – mostly those in government and those in the public sector who see health care as a right and an entitlement. It will also be painful for those of us who will be paying the bill for health care – you and I. Because the new system will be confusing, (“You mean I have to pay for my own Dr. visit!?)” But under the Personalized Health Care Plan I propose, that pain and confusion will be short-lived once you realize that logically it makes more sense to save money on health care, make more money AND get better health care.

But the biggest pain will be getting used to taking personal responsibility for your health care. You see it’s been a long time since we had to do that but it is the only way to live. Would you let your employer or the government choose the mechanic you use to fix your car? How would it sit with you to have your boss or some flunky at DMV tell that mechanic how your car should be fixed? Wake up America! That’s what you have now in terms of taking care of your health! And it will only get worse once the talons sink deeper. But there is something we can all do now.

Please contact me at 912dennis@gmail.com to see what you can do.