Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Who Am I Voting For?

Song for this post: "Heart Like Mine" ~ Miranda Lambert

Put your political hat on guys, we're gonna get fancy.

This post is an extension of this post.

This morning a statement about universal healthcare was posted on Facebook by someone I've known my whole life. And while she and I were never close as children, I've grown to respect her and care about her as an adult. I've watched her go through some tough life changes and she's come out of it shining. We differ GREATLY in our political beliefs. It's both of our foundations in Christianity  that seems to be our common thread.

I couldn't have disagreed with her more this morning. And that's okay. Democracy allows for that. Coincidentally, so does my heart.

This election seems to have polarized our country, as many elections do. I feel like this one, in particular has created a bit more contronymity because our two presidential candidates, while both wanting our country to flourish, have absolute opposite road maps on how to get there. Similarly, some of the political topics of this generation hit close to home and are very, very emotional. Because of this polarization, many are quick to anger, quick to judge, and quick to discard valuable friendships.

Just like many of you, my initial, knee-jerk reaction this morning was anger. Anger at what I saw as selfishness. "I don't want to pay for other people's healthcare." To me that's basically saying, "I like my money more than your life." When you boil it down to the root, that's true and there's no arguing it. Given, there was a part of her position that had to do with being forced to pay for healthcare. But I'm sure she doesn't have a problem with us forcing people to pay for auto insurance, or wear seat belts. It's for the safety of their lives and for the safety of those around them. We are a selfish species, by nature. All of us. So selfish, in fact, that it takes a government mandate to make us help each other out. And it makes me feel guilty and sad and, well, angry.

As someone who has a foundation in Christianity I see very clearly that it's our moral responsibility (although, I like to use the word "privelege" or "pleasure" or "fuck ya I'd love to!") to "love our neighbor as we love ourselves." Let me be clear here, though. I don't think you have to be a Christian to understand morality. I just happened to have had it shoved down my throat every day so it's hard to forget. If I want to be able to go to the dentist to get a painful tooth fixed, I MUST help my neighbor do the same. My money is NOT more important than your quality of life and your health.

I do well. I have a nice house, a good car, I'm going on an international trip with friends later this year just for fun. She has a pretty cushy life too, my friend on Facebook this morning. I used to think many issues didn't apply to me because, quite simply, they didn't. I've worked hard to get where I'm at. I didn't care about universal healthcare because I have a great job and great benefits. It didn't apply to me. I didn't care about marriage equality, because I'm not same sex oriented. It didn't apply to me. I didn't care about a woman's right to choose, because I would never get an abortion. Plainly, I was out of touch. This should be a familiar phrase to you at this point of the current election. It's attached to a certain republican presidential candidate.

All that has changed. It's changed because I love someone very much who's husband bailed and now she has beautiful babies to take care of as a single mother. She needs universal healthcare. It's changed because I love someone who is deeply in love with someone of the same gender and it's not fair to tell them they can't get married when I can. It's changed because, when I think about a man telling me what I can and cannot do with my body, whether or not I choose to get an abortion (which is so NOT the issue) I'm enraged. I have a brain. I have a heart. I have a right to decide what I do with my body and the cells within it.

It was difficult to talk about universal healthcare with her this morning. But I love her and I respect that she has beliefs, even though they may differ from mine. She's not wrong. She's just wrong for me. But she's right for her. And here's my point in all this:

I'm not voting for me. I'm voting for you. I'm voting for my neighbors, who deserve to have the same quality of life that I have. Sometimes shit happens that makes that really tough. That person close to me didn't ask for her husband to leave. She didn't ask to be in a terrible car accident that makes it tough to work. She didn't ask to have one shit storm after another make her path so So SO difficult. There are no guarantees in life. It's not her fault. She DESERVES a chance. And sometimes that chance takes all of us pitching in and helping out. 

THAT'S what I'm voting for. Her chance.

Sometimes voting for you means my vote may differ from my own personal beliefs. Sometimes it SHOULD. It should because, as a loving people, we have to put ourselves aside to do what's best for others. It's not about me. It's about us.

So am I willing to pay more taxes so her family can have healthcare without worry and stress and more financial burden than they are already struggling with?

Fuck yes.

My money is NOT more important to me than their health.

Stop voting for you. Vote for someone else.




1 comment:

  1. I would like to remind people that we already pay for those who don't have health insurance, they just wait until it's bad and have to go to the hospital and then it is more expensive than if we had paid for some health care and they went to the doctor. It's the same thing with Planned Parenthood, if we pay $1 now and let a woman or man get family planning counseling and a birth control of some form, it saves us $4 down the road when a child is born. Also pinning this on the migrants who aren't legal citzens isn't fair. There are plenty of citizens that don't pay for health insurance for what ever reason. AND the men and women that come up and work the orchards (being we are from the yakima valley and grew up around them) aren't there to cause problems. They come to make as money as possible and then they bring it home to their families, or they try to provide a better life experience for their children like our ancestors did for us. And to be frank, if you kick them out who will pick the fruit.Trust me it isn't a fun job and it's a lot of hard work. I did it for my family and I don't know many else that would. I am voting for Obama because Romney is out of touch with the general population. His comment about the 49% are voting for Obama because they live off the government is a bunch of crap and I for one, work my ass off so I don't live off the government because there are others that need it more. People who thing someone is on unemployment is lazy or medicare because they don't work hard enough for their own health care (only a couple examples) make me sick not everyone takes advantage of the system. Take my dad, when he was diagnosed with cancer, kidney failure and congestive heart failure his company fired him which means no health insurance and no job. Thank god my mom had recently added him to her plan but bills are big and life is hard now. It takes one bad day to change your world and make you a part of the 49%.

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