The State of Our Country

Today I made a comment on Facebook about the vote on health insurance reform. The initial Facebook writer was against the reform bill now being considered. I believe she said that today was “doomsday”, I assume in part because the bill is expected to pass the House of Representatives.
My comment was that people said the same things (doomsday) when the Voting Rights Act was voted on, when Social Security was voted on, the Civil Rights Act was voted on, etc. Her reply was to look at the state of our country today.
OK, let’s look at the state of the country. What would we be like if there was no Voting Rights Act, no Civil Rights Act, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Food Stamp program, and no Social Security?
Can you imagine a nation where whole peoples would en masse be denied the right to vote based on the color of their skin, their nationality, or their religion? Can you further imagine lynchings, beatings, colored only restaurants, drinking fountains and seating at certain events, with other venues being off limits entirely? Can you imagine whole populations being tortured and killed because of their religious beliefs? Can you imagine people still dying shortly after age 65 because there is no health insurance for them (and private companies won’t insure them)? Can you imagine people who need kidney dialysis dying instead living productive lives because there is no one who will pay for the procedure?
Children who desperately need health and dental procedures would suffer and die instead because there is no Medicaid, no SCHIP program, and no safety net. These same children, and others like them would starve or be severely malnourished because there is no school lunch and breakfast program and no food stamps. Most of all, seniors would live for awhile in poverty and squalor only to die even at an earlier age because there is no Social Security safety net floor for them. And those who are disabled at whatever age would not have disability income protection because there would be no Social Security system to support them. Nor would they have health and rehabilitation care because there is no money for them.
Yes, I can imagine all of this. I’ve seen parts of it because I vividly remember times before the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and Medicare and Medicaid. I remember times before the school lunch program, before SCHIP, and before Medicare covered kidney dialysis for those who couldn’t pay for it. We suffered much, died much too early, and horrendously treated those who were different than we.
The programs aren’t perfect. People take advantage of them when they aren’t qualified. They are many times politically driven. And there have been some bad decisions made by those who should have known better.
They also have extended life expectancy, created awareness that we’re all God’s children, saved lives and health, provided safety nets that no private or charitable organizations could have provided, and have helped to fulfill the constitutional obligation of government to “promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.”
It is easy, when we are a part of the white protestant Anglo culture, healthy and relatively happy, not in need or want of basic necessities, to look upon those who are not such as we and who need help in some way with an attitude that is less than accommodating and helpful. We feign an air of superiority and a thankfulness that we are not “like them”. We take pride in the fact that we’ve never been on food stamps or in the free school lunch program. And we say that we’ll never use Social Security because by the time we get to retirement, it won’t be there anyway.
I’ve been on the other side. I’ve been homeless. I’ve been without a job or health insurance. I’ve been on food stamps. I’m thrilled they were there for me and my family, and that I can help others now through not only government programs, but programs through our church and other organizations.
Because I am white Anglo, I have not been on the receiving end of a beating or lynching because of the color of my skin. Nor has any of my family. I can never say fully that I understand because I’ve not been there. I have read the book “Black Like Me” by John Howard Griffin. It is, I think, a must-read for anyone who didn’t live in that time or experience racial discrimination.
Yes, I can look at where we are as a nation and a people since the passage of many of these laws, which was fought tooth and nail by those who would maintain the status quo and continue in the illusion that all was right with the world (at least their Anglo world). Thank God there were some who were brave and bold enough to jolt the rest of us out of our holes and into the real world.
I don’t know if the health care reform bill is good for our nation or not. I do know that what we have just isn’t working for many people, and that alternatives to the current reform bill are nothing more than patches and more status quo. I guess we’ll just have to see what the state of our country is after the vote.