Thank you, Senator.
August 27, 2009 by Julia King · 1 Comment
It’s easy to forget that some people are made of flesh and blood. Certain performers and athletes (and statesmen), those larger-than-life folks who do things the rest of us only dream about. The people who face down tanks or take a stage in front of a hundred thousand onlookers.
This is not to suggest that the rest of us are slouches, because we’re not. Just last week I stood in a hallway with fellow citizens and listened to friends and acquaintances make public speeches in an effort to update our city human rights ordinance to include sexual orientation and gender identity. That night I heard some bigotry; but I also heard a lot of common sense and eloquence. I heard democracy and the making of justice.
Not long before that, I watched a friend work for health care in a BIG way, as she lobbied people at a street festival, appeared in the newspaper, on television, and started a health care blog on the web — all in a matter of days.
Most of us step in and out of the public eye — and the pressure of the political arena. We take some causes on and leave some for others to fight. We forgive ourselves our limitations (as we should). But Ted Kennedy stayed in there for almost 5 decades.
Thank you, Senator.
Give These People Some Low-Cost, High-Quality Chill Pills
August 8, 2009 by Julia King · 11 Comments
I know two people in this video: My cousin appears briefly, standing on a table (wearing a white pair of pants and a reddish shirt, sunglasses propped on top of her head like a good Floridian). Her husband is the man with the ripped shirt near the door. And here he is again in The New York Times.
It’s been years since I’ve seen them, my cousin and her husband. I’ve always liked them though, considered them cool since the time I was about eleven and my sisters and I went sledding at their (then) rural Indiana home. They are therefore stashed permanently in my memory as good, lighthearted people… despite what appears to be their current-day hatred of health care.
Why? Why do they hate health care?? Who are these people anyway? Not just my cousin and her husband, but this entire angry mob? “Hear our voice!!” they shout over and over again. But what do they want us to hear? What? SAY it already, People.
I happen to want health care for all because… well, because it seems so clearly moral to consider health care a human right rather than a profit-driven luxury. I’m not asking for government-sponsored strappy sandals. I’m not asking to squeeze the profit out of manicures and spa treatments. Go ahead, price me out of a balloon ride. Or a weekend at the Cape. Profit is okay. A little elitism and exclusion is okay. But not where health care is concerned. Stupid, lazy, fat, drug addicts, immigrants, the sick, the really sick… I want to cover them ALL. That’s how I roll.
What do these other people want?
MORE LATER….
Okay, here’s the MORE: The family gossip is that my cousin and her husband (Randy) didn’t go to the town hall meeting with the intention of disrupting it. They went to watch and listen. They even claim to be open to some form of health care reform (although they are NOT fans of Obama).
Apparently they were in the hallway when the chanting started and when Randy saw the door being closed (and empty chairs still available in the meeting room), he tried to push his way through — and ended up getting more than he bargained for from two aggressive union guys. That’s the story anyway. It is worth noting, however, that Randy (and my cousin) are regular right-wing radio listeners, meaning that at this point they are poised and ready to pounce on anything that looks like “socialism.” (NOTE: health care for ALL looks a little bit like socialism.)
I’m sorry Randy got roughed up. It’s a sad day when a person goes to a town hall meeting and comes home with a ripped shirt and a bloodied chest. It’s also a sad day when the prospect of giving tens of millions of human beings access to health care is seen as a license to start a revolution; so I’ve spent the day trying to figure out whether Randy was a victim or an accessory. I’m still not sure.
What I do know is that democracy can’t work if people shout down (and shut down) their ideological opponents. It just can’t. So being part of the democratic process (showing up at public meetings, for instance) has to mean that a person is committed to sorting out all of the available information — and to listening to all of the viewpoints.
Randy showed up (and good for him, because a large part of anything is showing up!), but he acted not when the chanting started (which was the real closing of the meeting), but when the physical door was being closed… in order to drown out the disruptive noise. He tried to shove his body in, but it was too late.
(Randy, if you’re reading: I welcome your input here. I’m sure I need to be set straight!) 
