I cried on the phone with Senator Reid's office today....

[debbierlus]

PDA has a action alert today (in case you missed it and want to participate), you can go here:

http://pdamerica.capwiz.com/pdamerica/callalert/index.tt?alertid=14518236

I called both the Speaker of the House Pelosi, and the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid.

And, after eight months of following this issue on a daily basis, of reading and writing about it and calling and calling and calling...and blogging and blogging and blogging...I just broke down. The office aide whom I spoke with told me that he was aware of the PDA action favoring the Erisa amendment and no mandates to buy corporate insurance, so I said that I supported them, but I told him I wanted to tell him something more. Here is what I said:

I told him that I have been blogging on progressive websites and following politics daily for the past eight years. And, in all the time I have followed politics, I have never seen the sense of betrayal and outrage against our democratic leaders and party as I have with the health insurance reform issue. We are all stunned. It is clear that the Senator and the President and politicians falling in line behind the corporate health industry agenda has made the calculation that they can buy their way back into power with their corporate donations. I told him that they couldn't be more wrong....that people feel as if this Congress and this President are spitting in our faces. And, now that the disbelief is settling the outrage is beginning and that we are talking third party and running primary candidates against the incumbents who have turned on us. I told him that this health care reform legislation is going to break the democratic party in two. People feel as though they are being enslaved to a corporate system that has already broken them.

And, I asked him why are they doing this us?

And, then I was lost because it all came to the surface. The stories I have read and the stories I have been told and the stories of my family and friends. I asked him why they are doing this? Why won't they represent us? The majority of the country wanted Medicare for All and the majority of the country wanted a real public option and they just refused to hear us.
I asked how could they betray people to death and suffering who can't afford their medication, how could they not allow the drug reimportation bill from Canada to pass? Again and again and again, at every turn, they have stood against us. And, I didn't realize until the end that I was crying. I was pleading....Because people will continue to die under this legislation and people will continue to go bankrupt under this legislation and all the people I love who have suffered under this dehumanizing for profit health care industry for the profit of a few...everything I have been trying to speak out for and against came to the surface.

The staffer told me that he would forward my comments and my blog to the Senator' staff. In the slim chance that someone actually will read it, I invite you to post your own responses to the Senators office below. Share your story. Better yet, call yourself and tell them what this corporate enslavement is doing to you and your own family.

I got through on the very first ring with the PDA call. I know people are discouraged and they haven't listened to us. But, I still believe if they really hear from us. REALLY hear from us with the weight of our frustration and sadness and lost hope, it may give them pause. It is apparent from this legislation that governing for the people is second to their own power, perhaps if we let them know that their betrayal is infusing us with retaliation in the voting booth, in their campaign donations, in their campaign volunteering, it might make them reconsider imposing this enslavement onto the people.

Call and do the PDA action alert. And, let them hear the reality of the people.