C'mon, people, can we be civil when talking about health care reform?
What happened to Change We Can Believe In? What happened to all the euphoria that erupted the night of Nov. 4, 2008, when our jaws were dropping (Obama won!) even as our hearts were rising in the incredible hope that the U.S was really turning a corner? Weren’t we serious about turning a major page in our conflicted and not always pretty history? Yes? Right? We thought.
Voters (YOU/ME/US) spoke loud and clear last November. We were saying we rejected years of influence peddling in Washington, inefficient government, politicians that want our votes but forget about us until the next election. We wanted change. And one of the biggest changes we wanted was in our health care system.
Now here we are with a president who is trying to reform the system. OK, it’s not pretty and the administration is caving on some areas where it should be taking a stronger stand (the public option), but something is happening. Congress has drafted some proposals and members are now back in their home districts to hear from us. I’d like to believe that most of them will truly listen to the people. But some of us are acting so uncivil and so ugly that two House leaders, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority leader Steny Hoyer, have called the effort to derail the debate “un-American.”
Let’s go back to Nov. 4 for just a moment and rekindle the hope we felt that day. When we were civil with each other and excited and committed to making change for the better. What’s the point in remaining stuck, in going backward even? I mean really, isn’t change what we wanted?
If you live in the Chicago area, I invite you to attend one of the Public Square’s Cafe Society discussions this week on health care reform. The discussion is titled “Health Care Reform: Can We Work It Out in the Heat of August?” Some of the questions we’ll discuss are: What do you think about the media coverage on health care reform? What can you say about your own congressional representative’s position on health care reform? Can health care truly be reformed? Why or why not? Who do you think most has your health care interests in mind, President Obama or your congressional representatives? Are you satisfied with the kind of health care you receive? Can you distinguish fact from fiction in the current debate on health care?
