Tracy Nelson: "Can you read my hat?" (Defense of Obamacare)

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

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This is a couple of years old, but I stumbled on to it today on a blog and thought it was worth sharing.

It's a great, personal account of why we need to defend the Affordable Care Act, and still relevant today as Canuck Cruz and his allies try to repeal the ACA:

"My name is Tracy Nelson, I'm a TV actress and a writer, from a famous family ("The Nelsons&quot who have become synonymous with 'Good Ole American Values.' This means that fans of my dad's and grandparents 'friend' me on Facebook, and then are shocked and offended when I turn out to be a liberal Christian, and a (gasp) Democrat to boot. I'm a political activist and patient advocate; 'Obamacare' is personal to me; I had cancer 3x and was 'uninsurable', and lost everything to pay for the care that saved my life.
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Many, especially conservatives, are asking: WHY OH WHY is there Democratic resistance to "God"? Beyond the obvious, the separation of church and state, (even Jesus recommended it: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and give to God what is God's", MT 22:21,) there is something else.

I can tell you why liberal Christians like myself are not surprised or offended by our party's shying away: The right has hijacked God the same way they did the American Flag after 9-11…when you had to wear a flag pin like some kind of fascist salute or you "weren't a patriot"...a flag pin!

For those of us who try every day to walk the talk, it’s downright embarrassing to call yourself a Christian. The assumption is immediately made that we are narrow minded bigots determined to inject Jesus, whether you like it or not. "God" has become a dirty word, thanks to the Right, who use Him for political instead of spiritual purposes, to justify things like homophobia, misogyny and racism...to justify a particular oppression of the soul. If the Right is upset that there's no God in the Democratic Platform, it's nobody’s fault but their own.

Jesus was a radical, folks, teaching the revolutionary concept of turning the other cheek at a time when only power and force were respected. He (and Paul) spoke tirelessly of helping the poor, the sick, the elderly, even at the expense of one’s own solvency, even if it meant leveling the playing field by having the rich pay more. Jesus was the one to exhort the rich man to give away all of his things, Jesus is the one who talked about how hard it was for the rich man to get into heaven. This concept of giving away your money to help those less fortunate was radical then, and it is radical now.

Make tons of money, we all want to, that's American, but don’t call yourself a Christian or say we are a "Christian Nation" if you cannot abide by this basic tenet: YOU ARE CALLED TO HELP THE SICK AND THE POOR AND THE ELDERLY. To argue or justify how you can be a Christian and not do so is being what Jesus hated most of all: "a hypocrite."/blockquote]

http://christianstiredofbeingmisrepresented.blogspot.com/2012/09/hello-thanks-and-short-essay.html

[AAO]

1. Great video.

[passiveporcupine]

2. Wow, she had three different kinds of cancer

and is 50 now and has survived them all. And yet insurance would have written her off.

This was a great video.

[genwah]

3. "Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free healthcare.

You're thinking of Jesus." - John Fugelsang

[freshwest]

4. Glad you found this and posted it. Never heard of this. Thanks!

[Cha]

6. Pretty cool, huh fresh. I remember when I first read about Tracy Nelson

getting cancer.. and now she's a "cancer survivor".

snip//

Tracy went to The Buckley School and graduated in 1981 from the Westlake School for Girls (now Harvard-Westlake School) in Los Angeles. She attended Bard College in upstate New York, studying Dance and European History.

Nelson has survived three kinds of cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma a month after her 1987 marriage to actor William R. Moses, and one year after her father was killed in a plane crash on New Year's Eve in DeKalb, Texas. Nelson went into remission after surgery, chemotherapy (ABVD) and radiation at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, California. She and Moses divorced in 1997 and share a daughter, Remington Elizabeth Moses, born in 1992. Nelson had a son, Elijah Nelson Clark, with Chris Clark in 2001. Having suffered trauma from radiation, Nelson was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2005 and breast cancer in 2010. She is currently fully recovered from a bilateral mastectomy and complete reconstruction.

Tracy Nelson is active in cancer research advocacy and was the spokesperson for The Lymphoma Research Foundation of America. She received the "Lifesaver Award" from that organization and the "Jill Ireland Award" from the Amie Karen Cancer Fund for Children."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Nelson_(actress)

[Cha]

5. The money quote right here.. Tracy Nelson says it so well!

"For those of us who try every day to walk the talk, it’s downright embarrassing to call yourself a Christian. The assumption is immediately made that we are narrow minded bigots determined to inject Jesus, whether you like it or not. "God" has become a dirty word, thanks to the Right, who use Him for political instead of spiritual purposes, to justify things like homophobia, misogyny and racism...to justify a particular oppression of the soul."

"Make tons of money, we all want to, that's American, but don’t call yourself a Christian or say we are a "Christian Nation" if you cannot abide by this basic tenet: YOU ARE CALLED TO HELP THE SICK AND THE POOR AND THE ELDERLY. To argue or justify how you can be a Christian and not do so is being what Jesus hated most of all: "a hypocrite."

Thank you, Adenoid~

[Skittles]

7. thank you Ms. Nelson

she speaks the truth from experience

[Boomerproud]

8. K&R

I hope, and yes, pray, that she is not just preaching to the choir. Her message and story are too important. I wish her and all the others who have gone through hell and back all the success in the world.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

9. wish this had made the rounds more when she filmed it

But it's not to late to share, so that's why I posted it.

It's the kind of personal story that explains how important the ACA is, and one of the most effective explanations I've heard yet.