Shuck and Jive


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Response to Huckabee Report

This is from a friend, Christina, in response to Monday's Huckabee Report:
Dear Mr. Huckabee,

After hearing your radio show this morning on the amount of money doctors should make, I thought you might be interested in hearing about my job.

I care for people. I comfort them when they are sick, scared or hurt. I hug them when they are crying and laugh with them if they are happy. I feed them or help them feed themselves if they are unable to do so. I clean them, wash them and style their hair just the way they like it. I dress them and keep them warm. I do their makeup, their nails, shave them and apply cologne or perfume. I take them to the bathroom if they cannot do it themselves, and I do the required cleaning afterwards. I empty their garbage, make their beds, fluff their pillows, give them a drink of water or soda or coffee or whatever they want. Am I a mom? No…

I monitor their skin for injuries. I take their blood pressure, temperature and pulse and report any abnormalities. I hold their hand as they are dying.

And, after they have passed; with the tenderness of a mother washing a newborn infant, I clean up a saddened families loved one and prepare them for their next journey. And I cry because they are gone, because they were family to me too.

I am not a Registered Nurse, not a Licensed Nurse. Practitioner. I am a C.N.A. a Certified Nursing Assistant. I make $7.50 an hour. Less than the average McDonalds employee, but I promise you my job is more important to the sick, elderly, infirm, and dying than flipping a burger.

Have you, Mr. Huckabee ever had your Mother or Father in a nursing home? Or thought about being in one yourself someday? If you have I hope someday you will be in mine. Because even though I make wages that put me under the poverty level, even though I cannot afford my OWN quality health care, I will care for YOU Mr. Huckabee like I would my own family. (Even though I don’t agree with your politics in any way.)

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing about this sometime soon on the Huckabee Report.

Christina.
Americans believe it is a value and a right and good for society to provide at government expense K-12 education.

Americans believe it is a value and a right and good for society to provide at government expense roads, sewage, water mains, stop signs, police, and fire protection.

Americans (politicians and corporations notwithstanding) believe it is a value and a right and good for society to provide at government expense health care.

Education, roads, police, fire, and health care are not just for the rich.

Health care is not a luxury. It is a vital part of our social infrastructure.

It is time for our political leaders to put what we value into action.

Join us tomorrow.

17 comments:

  1. Aw geez. You're gonna make Christina cry again.

    Thanks, John!

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  2. Well, the government has absolutely messed up anything else its gotten its hands on...might as well pitch in health care so that we can be on the same miserable level as the rest of the socialists in this world. A joke: a liberal is someone who can gaze at a housing slum in communist Cuba and say, with stars in their eyes, "Wow! This is just what we need in America!" lol.

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  3. A yes, Joel. You mean as miserable as the 36 countries that rank above the US in health care?

    Here's the skinny, from WHO:
    1 France
    2 Italy
    3 San Marino
    4 Andorra
    5 Malta
    6 Singapore
    7 Spain
    8 Oman
    9 Austria
    10 Japan
    11 Norway
    12 Portugal
    13 Monaco
    14 Greece
    15 Iceland
    16 Luxembourg
    17 Netherlands
    18 United Kingdom
    19 Ireland
    20 Switzerland
    21 Belgium
    22 Colombia
    23 Sweden
    24 Cyprus
    25 Germany
    26 Saudi Arabia
    27 United Arab Emirates
    28 Israel
    29 Morocco
    30 Canada
    31 Finland
    32 Australia
    33 Chile
    34 Denmark
    35 Dominica
    36 Costa Rica
    37 United States of America
    38 Slovenia

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  4. Yes. Those miserable countries.

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  5. I've travelled enough to know that many of these countries are beautiful with wonderful people and exciting cultures....but I don't want their health care system here!

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  6. Perhaps you don't, Joel. But I want the 40 million+ uninsured/underinsured in this country to have health care. And I'll bet they do, too.

    And incidentally, if you were (un)fortunate enough to have had a medical emergency in one of those countries, you would probably be grateful for their miserable health care.

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  8. Oh, well, since Joel witnessed one bad experience, I suppose that makes all the sense in the world to scrap health care reform and let 40 million people just wing it.

    That just about says it all!

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  9. The issue is not quality of healthcare but access to healthcare.

    Obama was on NPR today. He quoted a woman who told him:

    "I don't want socialized medicine. And don't take away my Medicare!"

    Git R dun.

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  10. "Well, the government has absolutely messed up anything else its gotten its hands on."

    Has it? Has it really messed up *everything*?

    Like the US Military?

    Why do you hate America, Joel?

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  11. "I don't want their health care system here!"

    Because we'd hate to see our infant mortality go *down*.

    Why do you hate babies, Joel?

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  12. Well, Alan, he obviously hates the countries that aren't America, too.

    And he apparently hates the poor.

    Well, hell! It seems Joel hates everyone!

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  13. One thing I have greatly enjoyed about this health care debate is all the learned opinion that I've heard. I particularly appreciate how objective those opinions are. And I know they're objective because each and every one of those opinions that I have seen, heard, or read, on the news, radio, blogs, etc., was given by someone with healthcare insurance.

    Want to know about healthcare for the uninsured? Ask the talking heads on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox Noise, who have excellent company sponsored healthcare. Ask Senators and Congressmen who have publicly sponsored healthcare.

    Who could possibly be more objective and more qualified to pontificate about the uninsured than someone who doesn't know anyone who is uninsured?

    Feh. It's like asking a priest for marriage counseling. ;)

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  15. Alan, you are right in that people who have something that works are reluctant to see it changed, and often get this sense that they somehow deserve it more than people who don't have it.

    One of the people we met today in Bristol drove with his son from Nashville for the soul purpose of protesting any and every action Obama makes. This guy lost his job (he blames the EPA) and has lost his insurance because he can't afford the COBRA payments (you hear that, Glenn Beck?), yet he still would have the heath care reform bill utterly defeated. He also felt that poor people don't deserve coverage if they can't pay for it, and that other Americans shouldn't have to pay for their coverage through taxes.

    Another fellow we encountered said that he is certain he will die if the health care reform bill is passed. He has been turned down for insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions, yet thinks our current health care system is just ducky, thank you. When I mentioned that the US was ranked 37th for health care quality by the WHO, he said "I believe the WHO about as much as I can see them".

    I was without health care for many years. When I finally got coverage, I went to the dentist and had 12 cavities filled and 3 root canals done. That was, as you might imagine, quite the ordeal. If I had had coverage throughout those "lost years", things would have been a lot better, and a lot cheaper for everyone. I have been very lucky to have health care coverage most of my life. We were extremely lucky that, when my husband was laid off, we were able to pay $800 a month for 18 months of COBRA (you hear that, Glenn Beck?) until he could find a job that provided health care. If we had lost coverage, I might not be able to get it back, since my blood pressure is 5 points outside normal range, which would qualify me as having a pre-existing condition.

    We walk on egg shells with this current health care system. All it takes is for someone at the end of an actuary table coming out of a shareholders' meeting to toss anyone out of their coverage because they have the audacity to get sick.

    Health care in this country has had an overhaul since it was established in 1947. And the critics say we are rushing it. I don't think so.

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  16. Exactly. The "I got mine, suckers" attitude. Not surprising, unfortunately, it's only a natural human response. It's sad though that people can't see past the end of their own noses and think about someone else once in a while.

    So much for "family values" from the right.

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