Maybe I have an unfair advantage, blogging from home without anyone yelling over me or a crowd of geriatric antagonists getting out of their chairs to wag fingers in my face… but these townhall meetings on health care reform are making Americans look frighteningly ignorant.
I am an American, born and raised in the great state of Illinois. My first job was washing dishes in a family-run restaurant here in town, and I started with I was 15. Since then I’ve moved from one job to the other trying to make a living (and get an education) in a constantly changing economy and with constantly changing needs. I’ve been a single mother on medicaid, a student worker, and am now currently married and trying to manage a household of 4 without making nearly enough money.
I am an American with no health insurance or coverage whatsoever
All these upper-middle-class Americans (some of whom are most likely unaware how close they hover to the poverty line) are standing up and shaking their fists at the idea of government attempting to improve life for people like me, and it really breaks my heart. This is so hard to watch, for me, assuming that these people are literate and have probably got at least a high school education. Conservatives and republicans must work hard to keep all these “ideals” in place to blind them from the flat out truth. Our country can be a great place to live and it was founded on principles that made sense. It was also founded on the principle that if a government is to survive, it must be adaptable to the changing lives and needs of it’s people. That single idea is the reason our government still exists today, and why amendments to the constitution have kept us thriving thus far.
Ever since right-wing extremists went to war against booze and natural remedies (including apothecaries and midwives) we’ve been paying astronomical prices just to stay healthy. Why? Because the conservatives pushed our government to criminalize citizens who sought medicinal remedies outside the commercial sector. Granted, that got rid of all the snake oil salesmen (or most of them), but now we have a new monster to fight and those of us who are struggling to make the utility payments are pretty much screwed.
I’m watching the news this morning and even the middle aged citizens are crying out that our founding fathers are rolling over in their graves and shouting about how they want the country that those men created back. REALLY? …so you want slavery back? Oh and forget about voting sister -OR getting an education or a job that doesn’t involve babies or blackboards. While we’re at it, let’s legislate what sexual positions are reflective of positive Christian values and eliminate rights for everyone but white male landowners. Okay, that was a rant -but why can’t people see the past objectively and realize that our country has made and corrected mistakes every single step of the way?
Some guy in a polo shirt stood up and said that HE believes the polls show most Americans are happy with the health insurance they do have, and our government should leave us alone because we’re just fine on our own. Well I guess *I* believe that Unicorns kick ass. I wonder if he’s ever had to pay full price for a medical procedure in his life. Having done so myself, I can say it’s a new kind of stress that I wouldn’t wish on my own worst enemy. Sitting in the hospital 8 months pregnant with a kidney stone and no idea how to pay for the five digit medical bills sucks pretty hard. I’m sure people have had it worse than me, with terminal illnesses or degenerative diseases that don’t fall under the category that’s dire enough for a hospital to have to treat you.
People all over this country are slowly dying and the worst part is that they KNOW they are and nobody’s going to pay for the medicine or the procedure to save them. These people face a “death panel” every day in our current system because they don’t make $100,000 a year like Joe the Plumber. SO thanks Ms. Palin and all your friends, for “making stuff up” that really does exist. Right now.
For those of us who can’t afford the $110 it costs to go to a walk-in clinic when we’ve got an upper respiratory infection -let alone spend tens of thousands of dollars on clothes and haircuts. Oh, and thanks all you Americans out there who’ve never considered that there may be more people struggling to be healthy in this country than just illegal immigrants and “lazy people” on welfare. Some people work their fingers to the bone all their life, get paid shit for it, and then have to sit in a welfare line waiting for help just to survive. But you wouldn’t know about that, would you?
