Let me just get this off my chest: YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SO ANGRY!
Now I can continue with a bit more restraint.
Dear Congress,
I am furious with you right now. My fellow Americans are suffering and dying because you won't pass a bill giving more of your constituents health-care. The people you represent, those under you care and watch, are going bankrupt and losing loved-ones because you don't agree about some sub-section of this bill. The overall theme, as I understand - so correct me if I'm wrong, is that those who can't afford health-care will now be able to, whether it's through a private company or the government. My family, friends, and co-citizens of this great country will now have access to services which will prevent illness, promote health, and should the need arise, provide medicine and treatment.
We are already in trillions of dollars of debt - spent on hmm, let me see... wars which cause more wars, and..well, that's a good enough example. So we're agreed that we can spend money to kill foreigners (and our own) but to spend less (LESS) to save lives of the very citizens (and non-citizen workers of this country) who make up this country and fill the ranks of those who end up being sent off to war TO DIE is something that we have to spend over 60 years hashing out the details.
Can we agree this doesn't make much sense? I would very much like to be there when you spill out the differences in opinion over this health-care bill to the woman dying of cancer because her insurance won't cover it, to the young father unable to afford the medicine and dr.s visit for his children - let alone any treatment that will (as it surely will) come from being unable to afford preventative measures, and to my friends who don't qualify for insurance because the only job they could find was part-time and their employer doesn't offer insurance for part-time workers.
People are precious, we agree that life is precious, we agree that America is one of the greatest nations of our time. How can we look at ourselves and call us a progressed country when many of the youth of our nation, the part-time workers, the elderly, and the homeless all will go without insurance at sometime? What do we tell the women who cannot afford the doctors visits which would pick-up the unusual lump or the cervical cancer. What do we say to our men who are at a high risk for prostate cancer and cannot afford the chemotherapy, the workers in the factories where exposure to certain materials will certainly lead to lung disease - who don't work enough hours to qualify for health-insurance, what do we say to their children when they lose that mother or father, sister or brother? What do we tell them? Oh, sorry, the deficit is too large now, the bill contains that little section on federal funding, hmmm, the language in that section on illegal immigrants isn't what we want it to be.
A radical idea is termed radical for a reason. "Reform" is "reform" for a reason. This isn't the time to shy away and continue down this path, at some point we have to step away and down and road not yet broken. We are America! This is the essence of our existance! The road was not yet made in 1492, 1776, or 1963. We are the land of the brave! If we want true reform we have to take that first step. Elect new politicans if they're not doing want we as a democracy need. If you think they're stupid, fine, vote for a differant one next time. Speak out, speak up, and move on!
We each have but one life. ONE LIFE. We each exist but once. How much more precious are our lives and the lives of the ones around us? The US has survived over 200 years with courage and bravery, we have survived over 200 years not by sheltering ourselves, not by shying away from the new, not by hiding from agressors. Passing this health-care bill, passing the bill to give our citizens the pursuit of life, is the least we can do to continue the American legacy as we have for the last two hundred years. We have to trust our financial advisors, we have to trust those whom we elect, we have to trust that should this go awry, we are smart enough, brave enough, and wise enough to know that not should we just fix it, but how. We have to trust that America is what we claim her to be.
Can we deny the constitutional right of the pursuit of life to our brothers and sisters? Why can't we pass a bill that to me seems for the most part to genuinely care about my fellow citizens? To me, a generic US citizen, this bill will provide those who live in this country with me basic health-care. How can we deny our people this?
Dear Congress - I should like not to view you as a bunch of old white men sitting around smoking stogies, swigging whiskey, and patting each other on the back. That's how I see you though. I don't think you actually care about your people, my people, I don't think you want anything more than to make a name for yourself, good or bad, in the history books. I sent you to Congress to look out for me and my people, why do I feel you are looking out for none but yourself?
Sincerly,
Sarah Wakefield Kinninger
