Walk a mile.....

My brother, the millionaire Republican forwarded an email to me which loudly proclaimed disdain over the pending health care reform. "Any congressman who votes for the public option should be required to have the same health care they are forcing on us."

This seems like an inconsiderate diatribe to forward to me, his sister, since he is well aware of my situation. Or is he? Can anyone be aware of anothers plight without actually experiencing the same?

My response to my bro? "Better yet, any congressman who does not vote for the public option should be required to have the same health care I now enjoy. Oh, wait, I dont have any."

Yes, I said my brother, the millionaire because I want to be clear that I understand his position - well, as much as anyone could who is a recovered welfare mom, married to a disabled man. After all, it works both ways. I am sure I do not understand really because I have never been burdened with millions of dollars to protect from such as myself.

So yes, I understand, up to a point, why my brother and others in that situation feel as they do. But what eludes me is why do working class and poor folks fear and loathe health care reform? I guess because they are told they should by those they adulate - the wealthy. It seems like a puppy coming when summoned, tho he knows he is to be whipped. Hello! People! The statistics are clear!

Statistics, you ask? Yes, those. We spend far more per capita than other nations on health care and we have far more deaths which could have been prevented by proper care. What does that mean? It simply means that someone is gettin awfully dang rich while many are dying. And caring about that, my friends is patriotic.

All this hype about how unpatriotic it is to like our president, to support his efforts, to care about all of our people, to demand justice, yes, for all, what is that? That is an amazing ploy to scare people out of BEING patriotic - and supporting our president, his efforts, caring about all of our people and demanding justice - yes, for all. Amazing because it is so ballsy. And inconceivably successful. Look around at all the people afraid to be proud Americans. Who think being ashamed of where we are now - standing at the threshold of change - is proof of their loyalty.

Look at the congress members taking part in rallies against our government on the Capitol steps. And for what? To stop health care reform. To maintain the status quo.

And what is that, pray tell? The current status is a spiraling void into which more Americans fall every day. A void in which health insurance costs an ever higher percentage of our wages, less of us have wages, medical care is ever more costly and out of reach, medicines are 5 or 10 times the price in other countries, sometimes even more - up to forty times more.

And where is all this leading? Well, first of all, this is simply genocide. Keeping only the wealthy alive and well and virtually and literally killing off the poor. But ah, our wealthy barons have gone too far. They are now killing off the working class. Who then, I ask - who will be the drones in our culture? Do the rich think that they can continue to exploit third world countries and that they no longer need to care for the workers in our own nation? Even as this unfolds, we are becoming a third world nation measured by our health care standards..... while many of those same nations are increasingly surpassing us in this area.

As we struggle for health care reform, an effort to correct what is arguably the greatest travesty in our nation, the opposition screams ever louder. What are they afraid of? Do they not actually see the situation we are in now? The huge leap into an unsustainable void that we have made in the last decade?

I think not. For the Republicans have finally come up with a health care reform bill of their own. One with no measure to correct the current situation involving pre-existing conditions. Yes, those nasty little things. You know - the reason most of us need health care. So let me ask you, those of you who support the current state of affairs or the "Republican option", what are those of us with pre-existing conditions to do? This is cleary, simple genocide. Killing off the weak and injured.....first...... Am I wrong? Explain that to me.

The other night I dreamed an entire book or movie plot. I woke up and realized it and thought - wow, go start writing that down. But life as I have imagined it beckoned.
It was not like any plot I would consciously contrive. It was such a patent plot that it seemed quite sellable - not that I am an expert in that area.
I seem to be expert at creating a life so full of trumped up obligations that I can never suffer the agony of defeat since I can not ever begin to create. What is that? Ah, but what sort of declamation am I creating here and now?
So, perhaps I did not find that particular movie worthy of further attention. Perhaps it was merely an exercise in creating. A riff.
Wouldnt it be great if we had little secretaries to transcribe all the stuff running in our minds? Well, maybe not all of it. Heh. I guess if I just make a habit of writing some stuff down, it could grow....
I hear my daughter is on a new writing jag.
When I was young, my dad, my foster dad, that is, always urged me to write. He said I had a certain something far greater than his own, a gift, say, and that I darent not waste it. But ahh, thus far, I did. Now I see my daughter and her gift. Well, truly, all my children have such talent. But this particular daughter wields the pen mightily, fearlessly and deftly. I do not push. No, no. I have never pushed. I hope. And yet is not pushing just as bad as too much pushing? Ah, who will know these answers in time?
In time. That is when we will know them, eh?
Well, the point is, she is writing and that is wonderful.
I think living our own lives fully, honestly, bravely, sensitively, sensibly, with senseless abandon (a light spice of senseless abandon) is the best way we can help our children. And example is the greatest guide. And yet I dont quite mean guide for I do not wish to guide my children. I wish to set them free to explore, to live, to wonder, to love, to create, and most of all to glory in simply being.
I am truly rich. It is so easy to look at one's life and regret, to measure and compare, to wallow in what if's. And yet truly, my life is so rich, so full, for I have three wonderful children, all of whom are kind in their souls. All of whom are bright and clever and sharp, and also deep and thoughtful. I have a life partner who is kind and clever and brave and strong and talented and generous and loving. Who sparks the essence of me. Who many look up to and who for some reason appeared in my life one day, promised to stay and then did.
I have my own fine self. One who has endured life's usual trials and emerges now, still confident, still alive, still learning and sharing and growing wise.
Now my silver trophy wisps fly about arrogantly, daily proclaiming my arrival in cronehood. A glance in the mirror reminds me to live today. For it is all we have.
Life brings us strange gifts and all too often we look past them, wondering where the heck the good stuff is. Like the gift of my tenant Kelly. She wants to make a baby quilt with me. yes, I say, yes, lets do that. All the while hankering for that elusive time to myself. That time to myself I wander about in constantly, shunning all others. Like the gift of my friend Donna. She comes around, calls, emails, suffers my rebuffs, my selfishness. She wants to sew with me too. dont I profess to love sewing? And here is the dream of a lifetime, my own sewing clache. Clache? Buddies? Like the gift of that husband I mentioned, my dear friend Kevin. Who supports me in anything I desire, anything I strive for, long for, reach for, be that art, crafts, a home, solitude, slovenliness, activity, gluttony, abstinence. He says yes, yes, yes, Rita, I trust you to make good decisions for yourself.
Ahhhhhhhh.....