THE VIEW FROM HERE-For a mere UCSB graduate, I hope I don’t sound too juvenile and sophomoric and thereby offend the renowned Harvard-Princeton man who just last week stood so boldly on the Senate floor. But I shall press on, nevertheless.
I think Ted Cruz and his compatriots performed a genuine service for the Senate and the public through his marathon faux filibuster (he had made a deal with Harry Reid that he would vote for Senate consideration of the funding issue if Cruz could first speak for hours on, basically, anything).
One thing he did accomplish while wasting so much precious time on the floor was to read (to a virtually empty chamber) the entirety of that little book, Green Eggs and Ham—the same book he reads to his own children as, I would bet, most of us have done or will do with ours. Of all the books, why he chose that one—I’ll be forever confounded. This is a tome that sends the very distinct message not to disdain something before you try it because it just may turn out to be a Godsend.
“Do you like green eggs and ham? … I do not like them” (even though I have never had them).
“You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may (Affordable Healthcare and the exchanges)” …
“Sam [Q Public], If you will let me be, I will try them. You will see.” [I am not going to like anything you offer me because, as you know, I don’t like you (President Obama) or anything that is linked to your policies.]
Amazingly! Unexpectedly! After I signed up (I mean tasted) …
“Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do!” [I will never, ever, ever really say that because they’re your ham and eggs and I am afraid (though I would never say it out loud) that if I like them and the country is given a chance to like them, then I am going to look “wicked stupid” (as Lawrence O’Donnell might exclaim)].
Despite itself, even Fox Cable proudly boasted: Republicans love the Affordable Care Act over Obamacare! Do Fox and its viewers know it is the same thing?! The far right tea party Ted Cruzians would never say, “Thank you, thank you, Uncle Sam. I do so like the healthcare benefits to which I have never before been entitled.”
That little book teaches a very big lesson. The far right speaks of doing the “Christian” thing by not creating dependence on such systems as comprehensive healthcare. What the Bible reveals, in reality, is a universal doctrinal theology that is reflected in every religion the world over-- altruism … do onto others … save the corners of the fields for the needy … what you do for the least of us, you do to me.
These are the lessons implied in the book. Try something new (we all need to eat—we all need wellness) and, Mikey, you just might like it. However, if you truly do not, then down the line, the law (upheld by the U. S. Supreme Court) can be changed, revised, improved, or even replaced.
President Obama spoke of when his own mother, who was suffering in the hospital with a terminal disease, had to worry about paying her medical bills and keeping her husbandless family afloat while attempting to recover from another bout of endless pain. His own daughter, Sasha, while still an infant, contracted what could have been deadly meningitis, but she was lucky and survived to become the beautiful, intelligent young woman she is. President Obama emotionally shared with us how grateful he was that they had insurance but, at the same time, agonized over the fact that too many parents of so many other children did not have coverage and might not get the care they needed.
I have multiple sclerosis (as many of my readers know) and my daily shots (with all the pain and swelling and scarring that go with them) would cost me $4,750 a month if I had no insurance. I know that I would never saddle my family with that kind of burden (even if it meant an eventual deterioration of my condition). Both my mother and my father had cancer but they also had good insurance to pay the very steep bills. My grandfather was mentally ill and had to be intermittently institutionalized. Can you imagine the cost if there were no insurance?
Each of us has stories like that—many of them immeasurably worse. Family and friends have suffered and, sometimes, they died from a lack of timely and appropriate but costly treatment.
What are we afraid of? On October 1, 2013, you can start getting all the information you need about healthcare in order to make well-informed and intelligent decisions among the available options. There are 12 health insurers in California from which to choose and 8 from Los Angeles alone. (See my previous article for more details.)
Let us not be like Ted Cruz. Make an informed selection but, in the meantime, make Cruz and all our congressional representatives know that we do not want our healthcare system held hostage to the budget and debt ceiling issues.
Bottom line, we must pay the bills we have already incurred. If we do not, try to envision the effect on the world economy (let alone ours). It would be unconscionable not to pass a budget on time, but we must pass one that does not reduce SNAP, the supplemental nutrition program that is keeping millions of Americans alive.
We must not cut back on programs that seniors, the disabled, the returning veterans count on. Nor on women who become pregnant or on men that need prostate exams. We must not let the far right tea party-ers decide what we want and need. We cannot allow corporate America to dictate to our lawmakers--to demand from them votes advantageous to the top tier but to the detriment of the rest of us. We don’t have to settle for being the 47% or the 99% when the 1% is reaping largely from the labor and efforts that the rest of us have sown.
Do I like green eggs and ham? You bet your sweet bippy, I do. Try it! Try it! You will like it! And then you will insist that it never be taken away!
(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Coalition. She also writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 79
Pub: Oct 1, 2013
