'Slavery' talk at health care session?
By Vicki Taylor
Special to the Observer
Posted: Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009
" TROUTMAN What does slavery have to do with health care reform? The connection was made for me last week at U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry's town hall meeting in Mooresville. An audience of mostly senior citizens spoke of death panels, Nazi Germany and fear. Mostly fear.
One woman said she was afraid of President Obama's “sticky fingers” raiding her Medicare. She didn't want any part of a government-funded health program – apparently oblivious that Medicare is precisely that.
Another wanted to make sure she could decide for herself what measures should be taken if she becomes incapacitated or close to death. She had no idea that the proposed health care bill she was attacking would pay her costs to do just that – sit down with her doctor and decide for herself.
Another asked how much penalty she would have to pay under the health care reform bill if she lost her job and couldn't pay for mandatory health care. The bill she is afraid of is designed to give her coverage if she loses her job – that's one of the main points. But McHenry, a Gaston County Republican, just said he didn't know and moved on.
One man stood and said he had fought in two wars and that he would never stand for America becoming a socialist country. McHenry said, “Amen.”
I listened to about three hours of this before I got a chance to ask a question. I mentioned that it was not true that America has the best health care in the world – we rank at the bottom of industrialized nations. I mentioned that I had lived in Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom and enjoyed excellent health care in all three. All three provide universal health care, with Britain and Australia offering government-run health care systems as well as private health insurance options.
I suggested that we learn from other countries – find out what works, what doesn't work, and use American ingenuity to come up with something that really is the best in the world. I asked the congressman why he didn't correct the untruths and misinformation being broadcast for the past three hours. I requested that he promote civil discourse. He said he would but that it had been a long day, the meeting had lasted three hours and sometimes he makes mistakes and, “would I forgive him?”
As I left the meeting I was confronted by an angry woman who demanded to know whether, if she broke her leg on the way out, I should pay for it. I said, not all of it, but my payment into the health care system would contribute part of what it would take. Whether I pay it in taxes or health insurance premiums, I said, I will be helping pay for her treatment.
She called me a liar, and when I rolled my eyes she narrowed hers and spit out how I was making fun of her because I was educated and she was not.
A man approached and launched into a speech about how Obama is secretly working to build a socialist state, like the Nazis – “They want to take over our country.”
And then another woman asked me where slavery was started. Without waiting for a response she said “Africa! They started it themselves.”
Slavery? “They”?
The small crowd around me nodded.
I was stunned and dismayed. Who are these people? They look like my neighbors. They are people I see at the store.
What has happened to them?
Somehow, to some people, health care reform looks like reparations.
Somehow it has become a symbol of the passing of the old order. Somehow it has tapped into deep fears about the uncertainty of the future, and fears lingering from a history that remains unresolved. And then I realized why I cannot forgive McHenry and his colleagues in the right wing of the Republican Party. Not only are they distorting what is proposed for health care reform, and in some cases promulgating outright lies, they are deliberately igniting racist fears and stoking racist anger – the Southern strategy, repackaged.
This is un-American.
This is unforgivable."
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/viewpoint/story/908218.html