"I'm Done. My Child's Life Can't Wait on Another Speech or Vain Hopes for Bipartisanship"

[kpete]

I'm Done. My Child's Life Can't Wait on Another Speech or Vain Hopes for Bipartisanship
by Onomastic

Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 02:12:25 AM PDT

Thirty three years ago this coming December, I was sitting in a hospital bed, holding my first born child. I was in awe, mezmorized by this amazing gift. The intelligence in his eyes, the sweet smell of his skin, the seashell curves of his tiny ears. He was all things wonderous. Then the curtains at the foot of the bed suddenly parted and there was my baby's Pediatrician. He just stood for a moment looking at us. Then he began to speak and said there was a problem. Not to worry. He knew the best specialist in the country. He was right about the specialist. Terribly and completely wrong about the worry. My boy even gave the world renown surgeon a run for the money and a few more grey hairs. We pushed the frontiers of medicine to save him and consequently helped others. It was a long, painful process. Mutiple surgeries, multiple tests and procedures, all of which took place in a society unable or unwilling to understand. And still does not.

...................

It's taken well over thirty years for me to arrive here. Years of barely dared hopes and far too many disappointments. Last November after months of excitement, faith and effort, I voted with real hope, only to see it slowly whittled away once again. Tonight, there'll be another speech on health care delivered by a President to Congress. But it will take more than one speech, no matter how elegantly put, to change my dismay and heartbreak. It will take far, far, more than calls for bi-partisanship to make me trust again.

I won't sacrifice my child up to maybe or someday or if we only had more "real" democrats. I won't risk his life on trigger's or insurance company profits. I won't agree to mandated slavery to insurance companies for anyone. I can never find common ground with someone who would seek agreement with those who would discard my son's life. And that means I'm having difficulty agreeing with the man I voted for and his insistence on bi-partisanship.

My son's working and going to school. He's been on the Dean's List since he went back to school as a non-traditional student. He'll be 33 this December. In January he'll be appling to nursing schools. He wants to be a Pediatric Nurse, because he knows what it's like to be a small child in the hospital, scared and in pain. He knows what it's like to be a teeenager and struggle to fit in. He's going to be a great nurse. He'll make a huge difference in the children's and their families' lives. But he might not be doing it here. My god-son and his good friend lives over seas. My son has an open invitation to come over. We're all ready talking about him moving to a country that has a place for people like him. That knows there's much to value in a human life beyond health care costs. A country that perhaps knows courage and worth when it sees it. Unfortunately, we can't wait another sixteen years for America to be that country. We can't wait two years. We can't wait one. His life is on the line, like its always been. We've hoped and waited long enough.

more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/9/779061/-Im-Done.-My-Childs-Life-Cant-Wait-on-Another-Speech-or-Vain-Hopes-for-Bipartisanship-Update