I have never been one to sit on the sidelines and listen to hateful and dangerous nonsense from either side of any debate. I do try to pick my battles and know that while there are some battles not worth the fight there multitudes more worth fighting. If people believe in a dangerous ideology due to ignorance then I will be the first one to step up and do my best to educate and inform them, and encourage them to educate themselves as to the facts regarding the ideals they so ardently defend. I know that the only way to combat ignorance is through knowledge and education; however I am also a pragmatist. I understand that there are some people who are comfortable living in their little bubble of ignorance and have no desire to be enlightened because they don’t want to face the possibility the ideology they have spent their life believing could be devastatingly distorted. Though I know people are going to have their minds made up on the issue of Obamacare, I refuse to sit by quietly and allow this wonderful program be demonized when it has does so much good. This is a personal plight for me and my family and though it may be futile I will do my level best to educate those who so ignorantly believe it’s an evil “socialist” program. Several years ago I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. I was a young mother with four boys at home, counting on me, to help ensure that they had a happy, normal childhood. I went through the necessary surgeries and treatments and was extremely relieved to be declared in remission approximately one year later. While that was a moment for elation, it is far from the end of the story.
When I was 33 years of age, I learned my cancer was back with a vengeance. The day the doctor told me I had stage 4 colorectal cancer, I was devastated. I went through the normal range of emotions from disbelief, to denial, to rage, to resolution. I resolved that I was going to fight, not only for my life but for the lives of my children. Those same four little boys who watched me struggle with the first round of cancer without complaint and with a love and devotion reserved only for a mother. I was going to fight for my husband who held my hand when I was sleeping, who massaged muscle cramps from my arms, legs, back and neck due to the ravaging toll the chemotherapy was taking on my body.
While I was fighting for my life I received a letter from my insurance company regarding the lifetime coverage cap that was a part of my policy. Not only was I fighting for my life, now I had the added stress of how my family was going to survive if we were forced to pay all of my medical expenses out-of-pocket. My husband tried not to show the stress that possibility added to him, but as his wife I knew it was there eating at him. I knew it wasn’t my fault that I had cancer, but I found myself feeling enormously guilty for the burden it was creating for my family.
With each surgery and chemotherapy treatment the fear of reaching that lifetime cap loomed like a dark cloud over our entire family. I continued my treatments and had numerous surgeries and by the grace of God once again was declared in remission. That day was full of tears of joy and jubilation.
It was about this time we got this time Obamacare took effect and my family could finally breathe a sigh of relief. With a cancer that has a high reoccurrence rate, I did not have to worry about being denied coverage for a preexisting condition, or live in fear of reaching my lifetime coverage cap. My life may not be important to most people, and it most certainly is not important to the legislators who are so intent on repealing my family’s, and so many other families’ saving grace. Obamacare is a beautiful thing for families like mine and whether you support it or not, my children deserve to have their mommy around to watch them grow up, to watch them graduate high school and college, and to watch them get married and start families of their own.
It is for this reason I am sending a call to arms for all Americans, both Democrats and Republicans to do the right thing, the just thing, and fight FOR the American people, not against us. Fight for my children and your own. Fight for our parents and grandparents. Fight for the working poor and the proud Americans who are doing what is necessary to create a future for their children and grandchildren. Quite simply, fight for the country we once were and so desperately need to be again.
