Reply #19: Where the Power Comes From

[TygrBright]

I only recommended once because that's all the software allows. But I WOULD recommend H2O Man's post many times if I could.

Exactly.

They WANT us to feel helpless, hopeless, discouraged, angry and futile. They know that until we feel the power within ourselves, and begin to ACT upon it, we will be weak and disorganized and impotent.

Just this week, I spent some time with a person who exemplifies "internal locus of control" and who taps the power within as naturally as breathing, and she is awe-inspiring. This is a woman who, when her son was the victim of a traumatic brain injury, traveled halfway across the world to Australia at a moment's notice to be at his side. She's not rich, she's not well-connected, and this happened during an era when visa stamps were required and took days or weeks to arrange. She simply sought out the Australian ambassador and told him what she needed.

He said he couldn't do it.

She said of course he could. Because she needed him to.

He did it.

And when she got there, she was told that her son was still in a coma and would never walk again, probably never talk, maybe never even respond to other people, possibly never breathe on his own. And she sat beside him every day and KNEW that if she poured strength into him and did not give up, and kept the doctors and nurses from giving up, that her son would open his eyes, respond to her, and eventually talk and walk again.

The medical establishment wanted to vegetize him-- cut his tendons and put him in a long-term care regimen that would keep him 'comfortable' until he died.

She didn't let them.

He woke up. He responded to her. She started therapy, although she wasn't a therapist. She just set her mind to figuring out how people learn to talk, and devised ways to help him re-learn speech. He learned to talk. He started to move, enough to feed himself, with help. He recovered sensation, although all his muscles had atrophied.

The hospital had to discharge him; they sent him to an underfunded, overworked rehab center where she was again told that he would never walk again. Cut his tendons, find a long-term care center.

She told them no. She made them discharge him to her care. They agreed.

She had no place to take him, so she went and found an apartment. She had no way to transport him, so she called a taxi. She got the taxi driver to help her get her son in the car.

At the other end, she walked up to strangers on the street, and asked them to help her bring her son into the apartment.

Eventually, she had over four hundred volunteers from the community helping her care for her son, begin his rehab, find the resources they needed to survive while they were in Australia-- volunteers scrounged stuff to sell at the neighborhood flea market weekly. Volunteers helped with her laundry. Volunteers helped her get the publicity she needed to make the bureaucrats fear kicking them out of the country when their visas expired.

She just kept figuring out what needed to happen, and MAKING IT HAPPEN. Without money. Without power. Without family connections.

People are always calling her "extraordinary" and she shakes her head and says no, she's ordinary, she hasn't done anything that other people can't do. Maybe the difference is that she's just DONE it, but we can all do these things. Just try! You'll find yourself doing amazing things.

And she's right. And H2O Man is right.

WE CAN DO THIS.

But not if we allow the media and the money and the powerful bureaucrats to convince us that it's hopeless and we're helpless.

The Bible tells the story of the unjust judge-- a man known for his corruption and taking bribes and rendering unfair judgments. And the poor widow who petitioned him for justice. She had no money for bribes. He turned her down. She asked again. He turned her down. She camped on his doorstep. He wouldn't see her. Whenever he went out, she followed him around, asking and asking and asking. And finally, he gave her justice, just to get quit of her.

Whether you are Christian or not, whether you believe in God or not, this is a wise little illumination of human nature that we all can learn from.

We have the power.

IF we want it enough. IF we use the power.

We must camp on their doorsteps, we must follow them around, asking and asking and asking. We must not be distracted by quarreling over details and nuances. We know what we want:

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. AFFORDABLE. ACCESSIBLE. PERIOD.

So we just keep asking until we get it. We keep using our power. We keep petitioning and we keep making noise and we DO NOT GIVE UP. We outlast the opposition. We dig in our heels. We grab everything they give us and keep asking for more until we have it all:

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. AFFORDABLE. ACCESSIBLE. PERIOD.

I do not care HOW this is delivered, because I know that the ONLY way to ensure health care for all, affordable, accessible, period, will ultimately require the government to take charge and either become the single payer or to regulate the payment system (including insurance companies) to the point where they have to deliver health care for all, affordable, accessible.

Whatever works. Dance around it, squirm, compromise, offer half loaves, try the bait and switch, attempt to convince me that half-assed is good enough, I don't care. Until we have HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. AFFORDABLE. ACCESSIBLE. PERIOD. I will keep asking. I will keep following you around, Jeff Bingaman. I will keep following you around, Tom Udall. I will keep following you around, Chuck Grassley. I will keep following you around, President Obama. Asking. Politely. But firmly.

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. AFFORDABLE. ACCESSIBLE. PERIOD.

This is only the beginning.

I will have my justice.

WE will have: HEALTH CARE FOR ALL. AFFORDABLE. ACCESSIBLE. PERIOD.

determinedly,
Bright