I was two years old when my father passed away from complications resulting from a bone marrow transplant. The transplant was meant to treat my father's Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. At the time, the procedure was both very new and very risky and, unfortunately, it claimed his life. It is nearly impossible to describe how severe of a blow this was to my mother, as well as to the rest of my family. After my father's death, my mother and I moved into my grandmother's house, where we both lived for the next ten years of my life.
I can say without doubt, hesitation or equivocation that, with the exception of my mother, my grandmother has had more of an influence on me than anyone else in this world. My childhood is speckled with memories of her involvement in every aspect of my life. Grandma came to every concert, sports event, and awards ceremony, and along the way she taught me so much through her stories and example.
At this point, I understand that it is almost pointless to question the logic of most members of the anti-reform movement. But as I have been watching these town halls and listening to the opposition to health care reform, one question keeps running through my mind: do these people really think that I want to kill my grandmother?
While I know that many will dismiss this complaint as trivial, as just another part of the willful ignorance and reckless hate that have dominated our political discourse in the past two weeks, I think that this question deserves our consideration. Because in order to believe that millions and millions of people are ardently struggling for a measure that would actually kill our loved ones, you really have to convince yourself of one of two things:
- You convince yourself that we are stupid, mindless tools of far more powerful and evil forces, or
- You convince yourself that the progressive movement, that communities like this one, are actually a form of the vilest evil.
It is of course pointless to point out that we are the party of reason, fact and science. It is of course pointless to note that only six percent of scientists are registered Republicans, or that their leaders have abandoned all reason when it comes to solving our greatest challenges.
It is of course pointless to point out that it is our movement that is giving of our time and resources to make sure that everyone who is sick in this country has access to adequate medical attention. It is of course pointless to note that we care even that our opposition has health insurance, though sometimes they make it easy to forget that belief.
It is of course pointless to point out that Barack Obama also had a grandmother, who he traveled to exotic places to visit in the last days of her life.
And it is of course pointless to point out that there are no death panels, that their fears are nothing more than lies fed to them by idiots,lunatics, and people who arguably should know better.
And so I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do in a world where reason fails, where arguments are worthless, and where our opponents view us as enemies. I don't know what to do against such reckless hate.
So I will keep reading, writing and fighting for universal health care, because I don't know how to do anything else. And I will keep hoping that civility can once again exist in our political discourse, that we spend time only discussing legitimate concerns and differences, and that our opponents begin to understand that we are people, just like them. And that we have grandparents too.