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I have watched with bemused disinterest all of the fussing, arguing, and fighting that has occurred at the Health Care town hall meetings. Because it is under the guise of “health care” that GROWN ADULTS are acting like children and literally getting into fist fights. But the real reason has nothing to do with the medical profession. It has to do with the hate that has come to the service since President Barack Obama was elected.
I find it interesting that most if not all of the people who attend these are WHITE and MIDDLE AGED! The same people who probably already have health care. For them, this is an more about yelling and screaming about “Obama” and less about how to make sure that everyone has access to proper medical care. My brother was recently in the hospital for two weeks and it seemed like almost EVERY DAY he was telling my mother and I about the shoddy treatment he was receiving. Oh did I mention that he is a former PSYCH NURSE and that my mother is a former R.N.? So you can well imagine that with other 50 years worth of knowledge between then, they KNOW EXACTLY what proper care medical care is supposed to look like?
For those people who have more than one brain cell, they should remember that health care is reform is not a new phenomenon. During the Clinton Administration, President Clinton attempted to reform health care along with the aid of his wife, Hillary Clinton. But there was such a backlash against then first lady and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that eventually, it was shelved. Again, the subterfuge was not “health care” , it was to keep a “woman in her place.”
Continue reading “Is we sick?” »
06
Back in February of 2008, Michelle Obama, the new first lady of the United States of America, made a comment that she hadn’t been proud to be an American for some 26 years. She was vilified in the press for that comment and many people questioned whether America should elect someone whose wife is ashamed of the country he wants to lead. What many white people failed to realize it that the sentiment that Michelle stated spoke for millions of African Americans in this country. And for 25 years of my adult life, that included me!
Any African American of “Generation X” is old enough to know what happened in the 40′s, 50′s, and 60′s, and young enough to know that while some things have changed, many have just been hidden under the rug. When I heard the comment and the ensuing brouhaha, my first reaction was “yeah and.” The real problem is that many white people, even those who say they have “Black friends” have never sat down and had a REAL CONVERSATION, about each other’s true feelings about race in this country. A conversation that doesn’t point fingers, that doesn’t accuse, but just lays it/racism as we see it. If and when that conversation ever occurs, race relations will take another giant leap forward.
The thought that a Black man would be elected to be president in my lifetime was unfathomable. Yet on November 4, 2008, history was made. Barack Obama was elected president. And his message of inclusion obviously struck a cord that transcended race, age, occupation, sex, and sexual preference. While Obama’s “message of inclusion” created history, not only for America, but for the world, his message was certainly lost for 52 percent of californians.
Continue reading “Proud to me an American and ashamed to be a californian” »