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My most painful lesson from the health care fight

By: earlgrey (Diary)  |  January 5th, 2011 at 11:22 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I got engaged in the fight to save America’s health care system early on.  After attending the tax day protests, I was inspired to join tea party groups and we mobilized early.  One such event was a counter-protest at Senator Corker’s office as we had heard word that some Move-On astroturf would be flooding Senate offices that day.  A large group of us (outnumbering the pro O-care groups) descended onto Corker’s local office.  What I learned in that visit has haunted me ever since.

The protests were not violent in any way. There were arguments between pro and anti health takeover forces, but no shouting.  One of the tea party leaders was actually a formerly homeless man that had lived under a bridge at one point in his life.  He knew hardship that most of us will never understand.  The Move-On group was led by a local black pastor, but aside from him the group was (sorry MSNBC) entirely white.  Many of them were older.  Much was said and nothing was resolved, but we did each sign a petition stating our position on the subject.  Ok, so what did I find disturbing?

It was a little frightening to hear the democrat talking points recited back at me like a little child reading a Bible verse without understanding the meaning.  The eyes of the protestors were vacant. Their demands were great. Their arguments were flimsy.  I sat there and asked myself, when did it become a virtue to demand something for free, and a vice to do as you choose with what you have earned?  I chatted with one woman who suggested that I might prefer a government job to my private sector job.  Her fondness of government bordered on creepy.  I didn’t really believe that there were many true socialists out there or that there would be so many people who could so easily be deceived and controlled.  It took me months to figure this out, but what bothered me most about this event was my reaction.

I felt uncomfortable standing up for my principles.  It seemed mean to tell people they should find a way to take care of themselves, that empowering individuals to take care of their needs is better for society as a whole.  I felt guilty for having what I have (which really isn’t a lot).  On an intellectual level, I knew these people were wrong, but I felt selfish and mean-spirited for standing up for my right to have what I have.   I couldn’t articulate the principle of why they were wrong.  My voice was stifled by guilt. 

President Obama and Vice-President Biden campaigned on saying well-off Americans (by their definition) should want to make sacrifices.  How are they or any of these health care protestors to know what sacrifices I have already made?  Sacrifice is not just measured in dollars. 

People who look upon me and my husband with jealousy and spite will not know about the extra years I spent in school making no money to be able to get a higher salary.  They will not know that my husband and I are in debt because of his step-father committing credit card fraud when he was just 18 and didn’t know he could protest the charges. They will not know that we kept putting off having kids because my husband went through some rounds of layoffs.  They will not care about the fact that between student loans and my husband’s debt we will be in debt most of our working lives.  These people will not consider that my husband and I both relocated away from our families to find higher paying jobs.  Some of this is by choice obviously and some not, but when playing the “fairness card” most people look through a prism of their own design. 

Highly successful people make sacrifices for their jobs and careers that others would not be willing to make.  It may be very long work hours, high risk ventures, longer education or jobs requiring heavy travel loads.  Most of us would not be willing to take on these jobs, but we need these people.  They open up other opportunities for all of us, and they deserve to be rewarded for their sacrifices. 

This country was made great by protecting the rights of the individual to keep the fruits of his/her labor.  We are facing a force that seeks to confiscate wealth and trample our rights.  It is “no time to go wobbly”, as Margaret Thatcher once said.  We cannot allow those that want to enslave us to silence because we fear what people might think of us.   We expect our politicians to stand up for our principles against the liberal media and we need to do the same in our lives.  If we are to take back our country, we must first take back our voice.

COMMENTS

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  • Jim Tomasik

    There was another black lady there who told the bridge guy that the constitution meant nothing to her because it said she was only three fifths a human being.

    Thanks for joining the local tea parties and helping. Mid South TEA Party, for one, continues to do a lot of good things.

    Of course, I have no idea who you are… but I have an idea. I hope you are well.

    • earlgrey

      I am glad you made the correction, because we should make every effort to be accurate. Our ideas will stand on their own merit.

      I do try to stay on top of what the tea parties are doing. We have both the MId-South and Memphis Tea party. I also am involved with the Republican party here locally as well. What can I say, Cold Warrior got to me. I am in the fight wherever I can participate.

      Good to know there are other locals on this site. I hope you are well also.

      • Jim Tomasik

        plan to one of our committees…

        • earlgrey

          it work in Shelby County. I have been told I am a precinct committeeman, but the staffer in the county office has told me that the committeman does not have as much power out there as “some of the stuff that he reads on the internet.” I was told my name would be forwarded to Lang to serve on his steering committee, because my efforts for the party had essentially earned me that right. We’ll see if something happens.

          So I haven’t made a lot of progress, but I am staying engaged. They are asking precinct leaders to work on a voter id project to help identify voters that might vote republican in future elections that have not voted in past primaries. That should get started soon. As you may be aware we were pretty successful in local elections in August. The party made 25,000 calls to prospective voters.

          I did talk to Jon Ryder who is the committeeman who will be representing this part of TN to vote for the RNC chair. He is supporting Ann Ryder. I need to better understand how he was elected, but at least it seems like we have a pretty good guy representing our part of the county. It was very easy for me to reach him, and it was pretty cool to speak with him directly.

          I am sorry I don’t have a lot of progress to report, but I am trrying hard to get on the inside and see how we can right the ship. I also think we need to improve Republican GOTV efforts in the 9th CD. We may never win that seat, but those voters also vote for other offices that affect us too.

    • edintexas

      I wonder if that woman’s misunderstanding of the three fifths clause was the result of a lack of education, or being fed propaganda in lieu of education?

      It might well be the former, because we have become a nation with no great desire to understand our history, and an “education system” which is all to happy to oblige (this is a chicken or the egg issue). Many years ago I was taking my wife’s younger sister to the high school and noticed she was carrying her US History book. I asked her why she was taking the book to school and she said they spent about 15 to 20 minutes each class reading assigned passages in the book. So I said “You have a Coach for a History teacher.”, and she said “How did you know?”. Simple answer to her question is that if the teacher can’t spend the entire class period actually teaching US History, that teacher certainly wasn’t a History major and the most likely answer was a PE major with a History minor (hopefully a History minor).

      • earlgrey

        I am in the process of reading “A Patriots Guide to US History” It is over 800 pages, and I have made it to the mid 1960′s. It is painful for more to read this book because so much of what I have been told is untrue, and important facts have been completely left out of my education. I was a good student too, and earned A’s in my history courses.

        I am reading this very long history book so that I can teach my kids when they go through school. Public schools are supposed to be nonpartisan so by that nature teaching history becomes about facts and dates and not reasoning, strategy or even a discussion about the impacts of these laws.

        I am glad we have this dialogue about the 3/5th compromise etc. These are catchy ways for liberals to distract us. For that reason we need to be educated enough and have the dialogue here and other places so that we can respond appropriately. The key is the principles of America’s founding and keeping that alive. They want to distract us by distorting history, and insulting us. We have let them have their way too long.