Over on Facebook I linked to an article in Ohio that I thought would amuse people only to find it outraged a conservative/libertarian, I don’t know what he was. Here was the original article. It was all about a state senator proposing a bill that would force men to bring a signed affidavit from their partner that they were impotent before they could get Viagra, and placing other obstacles in the way of obtaining this medication. It was meant to be satirical, a way to indicate that what is being done to women’s health is outrageous.
Then came the long argument that basically boiled down to f**k ’em if they can’t pay for their own medicine. Insurance, employers, whoever shouldn’t have to pay for care.
What struck me was how incredibly short sighted this attitude can be. We don’t live in isolated enclaves where we never interact with other people. We are part of a society that is healthier, safer and more productive if people have a basic level of health care.
Take for example the classroom. Do these people really want their kid sitting next to a kid that hasn’t been vaccinated for measles or mumps or whopping cough because the parents can’t afford to get them vaccinated. (Or because they are left wing nuts who think vaccinations cause autism).
Do they really want the waiter or busboy or cook to have undiagnosed and untreated hepatitis?
How about flu shots, especially if a particularly virulent strain races through the country. The more people who got a flu shot the better.
Bottom line, there should be some sense of the common good. After all the original motto of the United States was E Pluribus Unum — out of many one. Personally, I like it a lot better than In God We Trust because I haven’t seen any divine intervention and miracles helping society. I have seen what people of good, working together can accomplish.
Oh, Ms. Snodgrass. Are you really expecting intelligence & long term thinking from people who hate government but want us to start wars every 15 minutes, don’t bat an eyelash when each GOP administration leaves enormous deficits & threaten to kill any official who want to cut their Medicare/Social Security, etc?
I love your optimism.
But we really know what this is about. It’s simply a way to oppress women & obfuscate any fairness/equivalency where male reproductive medicine is concerned. They really don’t want to cut out any cost sharing. They want to get away with oppressing women & satisfy the evangelical voter. Just like their voter ID legislation has nothing to do with voter fraud. It has everything to do with attempting to stop the people most likely to vote Democrat– the young, the poor & the minority. If it truly had anything to do with voter fraud, why haven’t there been any widespread investigations (except the 1 James O’Keefe conducted in MN, which actually increased voter fraud there by 1200%!)/ID enforcements during the GOP primaries?
Exactly.
I hear what you are saying, Rand, but we’ve got to keep trying. If we don’t they win, and it will be disastrous for women and minorities in this country. Actually for everybody who isn’t a multimillionaire.
The good news a judge struck down the voter suppression law in WI, and the Justice Dept. has stopped the laws in Texas and South Carolina.
I have to believe in the ultimate good sense of the American people or I’d just slit my wrists. But then I see a poll out of Mississippi and Alabama about evolution and I begin to despair. I’m going to provide the link in my next blog post. It’s so scary.
I hear you, Rand, and there are moments when I begin to despair, but a judge in WI struck down the voter id law in that state, and the Justice Department has blocked such efforts in Texas and South Carolina. I just hope poor, young and minority voters notice that they could lose this precious right.
The other thing that gives me hope is that young women are beginning to realize that the rights we won for them are precarious and could be lost so maybe they will realize how much is at stake in this upcoming election. The best we can do is make sure we vote, and try to get at least five other people out on election day who might otherwise not have voted.
They do. I have 3 nieces who fit all 4 criteria (young, poor, female, minority) & while they laughed @ me in ’08 when I told them President Obama’s election might mean a doubling down of the good ‘ol boys if they believe they’re threatened; now they’re joining the campus women’s organizations & political action networks @ their universities (Cal State Dominguez Hills, San Francisco State & Georgia Tech) & actively protesting when their rights are @ stake. W/ Sandra Fluke I think this new generation sees how fleeting progress can be.
I am heartened by the blow back on voter rights. But I’m convinced it goes beyond voting. For the 1st time in my life I’m regularly contacting my representatives & letting them know loud & clear what I want them to vote for & against. I’m making sizable donations to the politicians and activist groups that mirror my point of view. Although I’ve always been a staunch individualist & believe (aka Kirk in “Mirror, Mirror”– yep– I’m a dork) “1 man can make a difference”, sometimes that single voice must join others in order to be heard over the cacophony of evil.
Thank you for being such sound, sane beacon for those voices.
Good for them, and what wonderful young ladies. You must be very proud of them. Yeah, I call regularly. I make a monthly donation to the President’s reelection campaign, and to the DNC, and to Martin Heinrich here in N.M. We just can’t let Heather Wilson get that soon to be open Senate seat.
And if you’re a dork, so am I. I made a profound change in my life because of a line in Empire Strikes Back helped me crystalize my thinking. I was a miserable lawyer moaning about how I wanted to try and stop being a lawyer, and when Yoda said “do or do not, there is no try” I went, yeah, that’s true, and if you keep trying before long the years of have flown by and you haven’t changed anything.