It couldn't be done

Paul Krugman got it right in his column today about the passage of Health Care Reform. The column was accurately titled "Fear Strikes Out."

As I followed the progress of the three votes through the House of Representatives, the old Edgar Guest poem about never quitting kept popping into my mind. I'm sure you must of learned this as a child as well.

It Couldn’t Be Done
Edgar Guest


Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn’t," but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "couldn’t be done," and you’ll do it.

No, it's not exactly Shakespeare, but it seems to fit on this occasion.

I remembered this little poem and I thought about all the people who kept going with the Health Care Reform fight when the pundits kept writing them off and saying how weak and inept they were. I thought about those "who kept their head when all about them were losing theirs" and kept pushing, pushing until success was achieved. And I thought about the real hero in this long fight, the one who always kept HER eye on the ball. Yes, my hero, Nancy Pelosi. As far as I'm concerned, this day belongs to her.

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