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In the past few weeks, I heard three stories that are heartbreaking,
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A friend spend 2 months trying to find a job locally and was finally forced to accept a job out-of-state (1300 miles away) in order to pay the bills. Hoping that the job situation back home would improve, and the slumping R.E market would eventually turn around, they decided that the wife and kids should stay behind for now, so that the kids could stay in school and they wouldn’t have to sell their house at a loss. They lost their health insurance and choose to insure their kids thru a school program but choose to forego coverage for themselves it was simply too expensive. Today I heard that they found lump in the wife’s breast.
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She was a new teacher at my daughter’s school this year. She was a single mother and had just come into the system at the beginning of the school year. Her cancer had re-occurred and had spread to her brain. The principal had offered for her to take a leave of absence but due to her finances, she choose to take her chemotherapy in the morning before school. (I think she had some sort of minimal insurance coverage) Before Christmas break she was coughing terribly in the teachers lounge. Some teachers suggested she should go to the doctor, but she said, finances are really tight and that she couldn’t really afford it right now. She died over Christmas break.
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Driving to work a few days ago, I heard a story on NPR radio by a reporter who filed a report regarding the Primary and what our soldiers in Iraq thought about all the Primary excitement.
The reporter followed around a unit in the, (I believe it was) the Anwar province but there simply was no time to talk to the soldiers about the primary. There were IED’s and people getting hurt, and even at the end of the day the soldiers were simply to exhausted to even think about primaries. The reporter managed to just talk briefly the end of the day to an Alabama Soldier before he collapsed on a cot in an empty house to catch a little sleep. That Alabama soldier told the reporter that he really hadn’t thought about primaries but that he just worried about his wife in Alabama who can’t find job and doesn’t have health insurance.
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Do you think these people and/or their families give a damn about Hillary’s corporate connections, or whether Obama’s “Message of Hope” is enough to be elected? Do you think they give a damn whether either of our candidates “voted for” or “against” the Iraq resolution? Do you think that the people in New Orleans that are homeless and live underneath bridges give a rat’s ass about any of these things? Do you think that all the homeless vets and Iraq soldiers who are maimed with inadequate benefits really care?
I'm sorry that your favorite candidate may not be the nominee. Yes, the Majority of the country wants out of Iraq and, Yes, the majority wants to improve the economy, and Yes, the odds are probably in our favor. But the fact of the matter is, the Publican Party will demonize our nominee no matter who it is. Currently neither of our two final candidates are beating McCain in a landslide. I believe the Dem nominee will need all the votes they can get, and I hope they'll come through, because I’m not ready for 4-8 more years of GOP crap and neither are the people and families I mention at my intro.
I'm sure that there will be some that won't vote Hillary and some won’t vote for Obama, and some claim they won’t vote for either one. Improving people’s lives, the economy, Iraq, and healthcare are still major issues for Dems. So, IF Obama doesn't make it, I'm sure he will support Hillary in the end AND vice versa, because they are still both democrats who's ultimate goal is to put an end to the 8 years of the Republican nightmare.
So, I’m damn sorry that some of you would consider sacrificing a Dem WH and to forego the chance to push for progressive ideas with a Dem majority in office. I’m sure Kucinich is not going to sit on his hands. He will go to work everyday to advance his beliefs. I’m sure Edwards will support the nominee and continue to make a difference and work to advance his life’s agenda. It’s the same for the Hillary, Obama, the Kennedy’s and all the other Dem politicians you might identify with. They won’t choose 8 more yrs of GOP crap by not voting.
So when you vow to “sit on your hands” this November, because your candidate didn’t win, or your candidate isn’t progressive enough, or whatever else reason I haven’t mentioned here, please take all this, and the unfortunate people in this country who are without healthcare, without options and are less fortunate than you are. In my opinion there isn’t much difference with the RW haters and Rush crowd, who won't vote for McCain, so maybe you'll cancel each other out.
But, sometimes we need to look at the bigger picture outside of the DU-political world
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