Believe me, the discomfort we've been feeling around here is nothing compared to the stomach churning pain of an untreated tooth abscess. As we pop the champagne corks, and plow into 2010, many Americans will go to sleep tonight, like last night, and tomorrow night, enduring myriad untreated painful and deadly medical conditions. This remains the normal state of affairs in the nation we call home.
Have you ever looked into the face of a grown man (or woman), in such agony, that their eyes are moist with tears? I did. It's awful. And it's awful to think this is normal in America. I wanted to talk to some of these people as they waited for dental care at the Kansas City Free Health Clinic. All they could do was smile weakly, murmur a barely audible, "I'm in too much pain", and wave me away.
I've stayed away from here for the last several weeks because frankly, I found it disheartening to see so damn much critical energy expended on a letter political dustup which only a very few folks are aware of or care about.
If you care, I'll tell you what I think about this, a bit later. Here's what I do know though about our deeply wounded country and it's barely functioning political system.
I know that I thought I was an expert on our deplorable healthcare system. I wasn't. You can't be unless you spend time, as I did, standing amidst Americans on the cusp of 2010, who live in a country where pay or die is how the privileged access healthcare.
I thought I knew how low our country had sunk. I didn't. I thought I knew as much, or more than most about the barbaric, yes, barbaric suffering of our fellow citizens, but I didn't until I went to the Kansas City and Little Rock Free Health Clinics.
The Americans I met there, are our neighbors. They're what's left of the decimated middle class of America. They are working families. They are the working poor. Contrary to what those who spew for the status quo want you to believe, the people lining up for free healthcare are not a bunch of "illegals", bums or homeless people, many are facing severe economic hardship and the imminent loss of a home.
This is why it is so very necessary that as soon as the next free health clinic becomes a reality, we spend as much energy demanding that those we elect to do our business show up and bear witness to this great American catastrophe, as we have dissecting The Letter.
I have deliberately stayed away from Daily Kos since the imbroglioinvolving my dear friend, mentor and colleague Jane Hamsher turned life upside down. This has been analyzed into tiny shards of sharp glass, I certainly don't need to weigh in. I'm not even particularly interested. It seems that we are participants in some sort of classic Hegelian conflict which moves every political arena on the planet, from the United Nations to the major American political parties, all the way down to local school boards and community councils. So, when we come out the other end, we can hope that this will have been a productive chapter in our lives. Through conflict, a new truth will emerge.
What I'm much more interested in, is doing all in our power starting on Monday, to get the mandate removed from this healthcare bill. And if you're so inclined, we'll ask for your help. I suspect the big issue progressives will grapple with next week, will be to make the exchanges national in scope, not this ridiculous patchwork of state exchanges. Can you imagine what would happen in a state like Texas or Alabama? It gives me chills to even contemplate such a thing.
Now, so you don't have to ask. Would I have signed a letter with Grover or any of his ilk? Probably not, but I also would never close the door--particularly if taking an action (even something loaded with controversy), moves the political conversation to the next level. Be uncomfortable, be angry, be annoyed, then, get over it. Outside of Daily Kos and a few blogs, no. one. cares.
What y'all have been arguing about is an intensely complex situation, not easy for many of us to understand or rationalize. We're knee deep in the riptide of history, and to think we can sort it all out is ludicrous.
I am not a fan of Mr. Norquist and his chums though I understand, why during these rare historic moments, sometimes we find some unexpected common ground, which result in awkward, and uncomfortable alliances. We are undoubtedly in the midst of such a seminal moment in US political history. I wish I was more of an historian. I keep asking myself, what will historians write? And my thoughts continue to return to a piece of American history that helped shape my own political thinking.
The 1954 Brown Decision.The Supreme Court finally declared separate but equal public schools inherently unequal. It was a catalyst for launching the modern civil rights movement. Brown was a launching pad, a beginning. It took us until 2008, to elect an African American president and as we all know, our public schools are still woefully unequal. But Brown was a start. We'll be fighting for decades to make healthcare a right. The Republicans will redouble their efforts to emasculate this foundation built on sand (it ain't no starter house, Mr. Harkin, more like a sand castle), and any subsequent legislation. This will go on for a generation or more. We will be fighting ever more intense battles until the American people-- left, right, center, teabaggers, Glen Beck, Grover Norquist, Sarah Palin, and even Rush Limbaugh, who's receiving the healthcare he seeks to deny his fellow citizens--embrace and internalize one reality, that no American should ever have to attend a free health clinic. That like every other industrialized nation, healthcare is a right of citizenship. Recalibrating the national zeitgeist will not be easy to accomplish.
More than anything, we Americans will have to make an abrupt psychic U-turn. We will need to wake up from the delirium of decades of deprivation--where the specter of 44,000 Americans dying each year simply because healthcare in the United States is a privilege, became an entrenched and accepted piece of the American national psyche.
So as we stand at this historic turning point staring over the precipice, there will be plenty of uncertainty and unexplored emotions we'll all have to confront. Most of us feel mercilessly betrayed by a political system which seems totally unresponsive. It's not going to be easy to accept (nor should we) what we believe is very unsatisfactory healthcare reform.
But allow me to tell you two things that in all the sturm und drang, you may or may not be aware of. The world is still turning outside of Daily Kos. Truth be told, no one besides us cares who is speaking to whom.
Here are a couple of other facts about my own relationship with FDL and Jane, that you may or may not know. And after this, I'm moving on.
Some of you know that I attended Town Halls all summer, you want to know how all that came about? Jane pushed me. "We've got to get these scumbags people on tape!"
The Free Health Clinics? Jane made me go! She was adamant. " You've got to go! These stories need to be told and documented--only you can do this!" Jane pushed, as I carefully weighed the pros and cons of staying comfortably at home. Jane makes things happen.
Had I not attended the free healthcare clinics in Kansas City and Little Rock(which like I said, I only attended because Jane literally, made me do it), I would have no doubt that the Senate bill is unworthy of the American people. We deserve so much better, we really do. But people are dying, our corrupt and amoral politicians know this, so they have forced us to make a terrible decision. So, like millions of Americans, I am deeply conflicted. I know this bill is horribly depraved inadequate, but where would this country be, if the Brown decision hadn't forced the civil rights train to leave the station? More Hegelian conflict.
Some Americans who I met waiting patiently on line for long overdue medical care in Kansas City and Little Rock, will in time, receive some heathcare. Like Brown vs the Board of Education, this is just the first stop in the inexorable, confusing, debilitating and awful march of history.
Stay tuned and focus on what really matters.
Jane and many like her, and I'm speaking about all of us, are tugging from the left--she's doing her damn job, which is to tug from the left.
What we have going on here, may not always be pretty, but this is how history unfolds.
Now have at it. We need to leave a voluminous paper trail for historians. This is a defining moment in our history.
And happy New Year!