Weeks have flown by without a blog post from me. But I have an excuse! I’ve been totally obsessed with the epic struggle that began in Washington, DC that has since spilled back into the country’s town hall meetings. Health insurance reform.
I read the blogs, Huffington Post, Politico, Salon, Crooks and Liars, Daily Beast, and I listen to Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz and Ron Reagan. I watch Ed, Hardball, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.
I sign petitions online. I write emails furiously to my congresswoman, my senators (all of whom, thankfully, support the public option), and the president, as well as Harry Reid (What happened to “Give ‘em Hell, Harry” Harry?? Grow a pair!) and Steny Hoyer. I write to those who oppose what I so dearly long for—universal health care for all Americans.
What I really want to do sometimes is just smack them!! For not being strong enough and for the other side for being so partisan and wingnutty.
Today while watching Teddy Kennedy’s funeral I fashioned a sign to carry at a rally in support of health insurance reform that would be held in Times Square. I met up with other marchers en route, delighted that so many of them were doctors.
The rally was awesome, exhilarating in the way that being among like-minded passionate people can only be. And when I got onto the R on my way uptown, I saw another protester with a familiar sign, so I whipped mine out and we shared an enormous smile.
I posted my commentary on the Huffington Post where so many other like-minded folks appreciated it. But there’s something I just don’t get. Why people would feel okay about posting vile things among the late person’s admirers on the day of the funeral.
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who believes more strongly in the guilt of Michael Jackson, for example. I make no bones about my belief that he was a serial boy-molester who got away with it with his fame and money. BUT on the day of his memorial I did not post snarky comments to his fans. It’s tacky.
And yet there are those who feel compelled to make vicious—and in many cases, untrue—comments on HuffPo. My opinion? That reflects on THEM, not him.
I’m old enough to have had the opportunity to vote for Senator Kennedy for President in a primary, and as much as I admired him in many ways, I could not for his very well-known lapse of courage and judgment which rendered him ineligible in my book. But since then, I believe, he has redeemed himself with his public stands and his private duties as surrogate father to so many fatherless children who needed him. And so I salute him!
My prayer is that his legacy galvanizes the forces for good to bring about that which should have happened long ago—universal, affordable health care for all Americans. It will be a fitting tribute to a very great but flawed human being.
Sail on, Senator!