So I made an angry post yesterday, and it did not say what I wanted it to say.
So, replacing that post with this. 100% fewer bold allcaps!
I'm not *at all* meaning to speak against actual political opposition to Obama (well, from the left anyway), whether I agree with its specifics or not.
I believe that any health care system that penalizes people for being poor is fucked (and that ANY for-profit-only health care system is fucked), and at best the ACA is a first step towards getting at least a single-payer option in the US, and maybe actual health-care reform. This is relevant to me because I'll probably have to move back to the US in not that long, and much more urgently because I have friends who are in active pain and danger now from not being able to afford necessary health care.
I am angry with people who think this issue doesn't matter, especially people who think that because THEY are healthy and/or well-off. LA Banks' family and the skiffy community had to fundraise for her health care when she was dying of adrenal cancer; anyone to whom this does not matter is not someone I can deal politely with. I have forgotten the name of the person (I heard of, in our community) who died of an entirely-preventable heart attack; but I remember that it happened. And they're not the only ones; right now I have multiple friends who are having to beg online donations to get the most urgent of their health issues dealt with.
However, I'm not angry at people who disagree with me about the right solution; "This is not good enough/radical change is necessary" is NOT the same as "I don't care about this." My anger is for the people who have the privilege to not care, who can pretend that the political IS NOT personal, and that health care laws (and reproductive rights laws) do not affect real people in our community, cause, they do.
And I really did not mean to step on poor people who hate the ACA, and am really sorry I did so; I AM aware of the really good reasons why you would, and I should have been more careful not to make blanket statements that hit you too.
I'm not *at all* meaning to speak against actual political opposition to Obama (well, from the left anyway), whether I agree with its specifics or not.
I believe that any health care system that penalizes people for being poor is fucked (and that ANY for-profit-only health care system is fucked), and at best the ACA is a first step towards getting at least a single-payer option in the US, and maybe actual health-care reform. This is relevant to me because I'll probably have to move back to the US in not that long, and much more urgently because I have friends who are in active pain and danger now from not being able to afford necessary health care.
I am angry with people who think this issue doesn't matter, especially people who think that because THEY are healthy and/or well-off. LA Banks' family and the skiffy community had to fundraise for her health care when she was dying of adrenal cancer; anyone to whom this does not matter is not someone I can deal politely with. I have forgotten the name of the person (I heard of, in our community) who died of an entirely-preventable heart attack; but I remember that it happened. And they're not the only ones; right now I have multiple friends who are having to beg online donations to get the most urgent of their health issues dealt with.
However, I'm not angry at people who disagree with me about the right solution; "This is not good enough/radical change is necessary" is NOT the same as "I don't care about this." My anger is for the people who have the privilege to not care, who can pretend that the political IS NOT personal, and that health care laws (and reproductive rights laws) do not affect real people in our community, cause, they do.
And I really did not mean to step on poor people who hate the ACA, and am really sorry I did so; I AM aware of the really good reasons why you would, and I should have been more careful not to make blanket statements that hit you too.