Handing over the microphone

If you come here much, you know my friend, Sue G. She's the one who leaves the dry-witted, beautifully written, totally hilarious guestbook comments all the time (you know, the ones that don't ALWAYS play on how old I am...unlike, ahem, some OTHER people). And I did a Titus2 Tuesday post on Sue here which introduces you to her and her story. Sue is gifted beyond MY comprehension in the craft of writing; whether she's signing a guestbook or penning a post for her Caringbridge site, it's grammatically perfect and has amazing depth, wisdom, and insight. But her most current post is electrifying; so much so that I requested her permission to reprint it here on my blog, to send it out via email, to Facebook it, and to even contact my representatives, Fox news, and anyone else that I think will listen. So read, and please feel free to comment. Both Sue and I WANT to know what you think. Link to this post if you'd like; send people here. Contact Sue if you'd like to forward her letter. She and I would both like to see this spread across the country; this isn't the ranting of a "rabid right-winger", it's the honest commentary of someone who voted for change, and now feels that what's being delivered ISN'T what was promised. Enough of my rambling.. handing the mike over to Sue now:


The Idiot's Guide to Healthcare Reform


I'm a Democrat.


So, sue me.


And I voted for Obama.


So, kill me.


Oh, wait. He's working on a plan to do just that.


I really don't mean to be glib about healthcare reform because, literally, the proposed plan will reform my life in ways too drastic to dwell on. But I can't help but dwell on them. Because it IS my life.


And maybe I'm the idiot because I voted for the man, believing that change was necessary and hope is mandatory. That was the platform he ran on, right? Hope and change.


Well, we need changes to the healthcare system. I know that. I support that. I think there needs to be the equality of opportunity, the chance for people who can't afford the astronomical growth of healthcare insurance to actually obtain it.


I live in a state (Arizona) where so many people are without healthcare insurance that they are forced to use hospital emergency rooms as primary care facilities. I suspect this abuse of the term "emergency care" contributes to the rising cost of healthcare and healthcare insurance. But, the sad truth is that when people don't have the money to cover the out of pocket cost of primary care or the money for insurance premiums, they have no choice but to use emergency rooms to receive needed attention and prescriptions.


I understand that. I don't like it, but I understand it.


So, yes, we need reform to help people who need help and to reform an industry to ensure that the uninsured get some help.


I actually find that thought hopeful. But I always find hope in helping people, guiding people, offering them an opportunity for more. Because without opportunity there is no hope.


Unfortunately, that's not what Obama's healthcare reform plan is offering. In fact, it is limiting the opportunity of the American people because it is taking away their CHOICE to obtain the kind of healthcare they want or to keep the healthcare they have if they like it.


Instead of more opportunity and the freedom of choice, he is proposing healthcare rationing and distribution of care determined by government panels and not by our personal needs or preferences.



To add insult to injury, WE will be paying for this reform. Most of us, especially the younger taxpayers, will be paying financially. And others of us, meaning the critically or chronically ill and the older taxpayers, will be paying with our lives.


Is it just me--an older person with an expensive illness-- or do you, too, find it ironic that our own children will be footing the bill for the very plan that helps implement our deaths?

Where is the choice in that?


Where is the hope in that?


For almost six years straight, my life has been driven by hope. I have put my trust and faith in my God that He will accompany me on my journey through five primary cancers... that He will lift me up when I am too weak to stand and will stand with me when I find my strength through Him...that He will work through my physicians and medical personnel, people whom I have personally chosen through prayer, meditation, and impressive medical resumes.


I have lived with the HOPE of God's promises of healing and love.


I have lived with the CHOICE of selecting my caregivers based on divine inspiration (through prayer) and informed decisions (through research).


I have LIVED not only with but because of HOPE and CHOICE.


And now those things are being proposed to be taken away from me.


Why?


Because of changes implemented by a man I helped elect, a man who has lived with the freedom to make choices in his life that led him to become elected President of the United States, a man I believed in when he said he stood for change and hope.


Well, Mr. President, your proposed healthcare plan tells me that you do not stand for the change I want.


It tells me you don't stand for the hope I need.


It tells me you don't believe what I believe: That God is the only one who decides when someone should live and when someone should die.


The Bible tells me that the length of my days are already written. Now I read your proposed plan for rationing healthcare and I wonder. Who is determining the length of my days?

I suspect the length of my days are being rewritten. And it isn't being authored by the same One who wrote the original!


In six years of constant challenges with days and circumstances that present new hurdles and new opportunities for growth, for faith, for life, I have NEVER allowed my fears or the medical statistics to steal my hope. Hope is the very thing that has sustained me.


And now, you propose to rob me of that very thing.


Well, Mr. Obama, you can work on behalf of your healthcare proposals, you can coerce bipartisan votes, you can push for reform that not only doesn't represent good changes for the American people, but, doesn't even represent what the American people want!


But, the one thing you can't take away from us, from me, is our trust in God to represent our true needs, our true desires, our true hope.


Because speaking just for myself, my hope is in Him...unwavering and undiminished by any plans or any changes that may come in healthcare or in any other aspect of my life. I stand by His Word and His promises.


Patiently.


Until the next election.


When HOPEfully, I will be voting for a CHANGE.


Otherwise, I really would be an idiot, wouldn't I?