Seems like we have turned into a one joke country almost overnight – “Did you hear about how bad the healthcare website is? Why it is so bad that ….. “(insert simile here). Every person who makes such a joke thinks theirs is really clever, but it is only a slight variation on a theme that has been beat to death. By 6AM these joke become thorns sticking into my skin for the rest of the day.

And each incredibly clever jokester has to put a comment in about the Obama administration being incompetent. Let’s be honest. Outside of the coders and programmers among us most of the population of this country sees what goes on in a computer as some sort of black magic. That is the same way with management, who try to pretend they understand what is going on but are truly at the mercy of what the computer geeks tell them.

I spent a good portion of my working life involved in system start ups and maintenance. Certainly what I worked on was a much smaller scale than the health care initiative, but at the time it was large and complex. And every start up I was involved in had some major glitches which had to be fixed. Once the decision was made to go there was no turning back. Thus mistakes and glitches had to be handled on the fly. It wasn’t easy and it was very intense work. And we had our critics chirping away about things of which they had no concept. But chirp they did. I can legitimately tell stories of not sleeping for a couple of days etc.

In the end in all cases we persevered and the system was eventually installed and fixed. All projects ended in success with even the most critical of naysayers coming around in the end to admit that it was worth the pain. Sometimes glitches just don’t show up until a system is live.

The ACA is the law. The website is merely a current mechanical problem which needs to be fixed. We still have the law and it will be enforced. The website will be fixed but whether it does or not, the law is still the law.

What is our alternative to the ACA law not working? The Tea Party has no plan but to bray like donkeys at a moon they can’t understand. Should we go back to a system where 1/6th of our citizens have no health coverage and another 1/6th have pretty much useless coverage? Go back to system where premiums are way too high, there is no logic in pricing and insurance companies often refuse to pay because of reasons like “previous condition” and other such nonsense? No, that is a system that needs to be buried and done for.

Eventually the website will work. I can attest to a dozen start ups that looked like failures at the outset, but would eventually be successes. Retreat is not an option. The Affordable Care Act is something Americans are in desperate need of website or no website.

While our media focuses on one website that will eventually work, real problems still linger with almost nary a word being said by the media. Food stamps are near to being cut off for the poor in this country; huge companies pay unlivable wages while taxpayers subsidize their employees; the Tea Party obstructs all legislation and is once more threatening to shut down government; we are negotiating treaties that will once more kill American jobs; winter is coming and huge numbers of midwesterners can’t afford heat. Our media is pathetic when it comes to real news.

And for America’s comedians – put a little effort into it, okay. Enough with the cheap shots.