Category Archives: all politics is local

>Elected officials, Health Care, and Bad Craziness

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>It was on our local news today and in the morning paper; members of Congress being threatened after voting to pass the health insurance reform bill Sunday night.

My congressional representative, a doctor, was victimized by a threat and one of the clinics that still carries his trademark had the word “kill” painted over his name. Another Wisconsin representative received death threats at his office in Washington.

Worst of all, the president was threatened through a Twitter exchange.

People, when will this end? Whatever happened to respecting the office, if not the officeholder? Whatever happened to respecting the dignity of the House?

Freedom of speech has its limits. Vandalism, threats of bodily harm or death, discussing assassination of the elected leader of the free world — all are WRONG. Clearly and simply wrong. Spreading hatred, encouraging violence, pumping up the anger levels of an already-conflicted world: not only wrong, but also dangerous.

Someone, somewhere, somehow will take this too far. And then? Irony of ironies, that person will end up in prison – losing their right to vote, and gaining free health care sponsored by the taxpayers of the good old U.S.A.

Wait. Something’s wrong with this picture.

But isn’t that where we started?

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>Advocacy in the Blogging World

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It’s a great world, the Blogosphere. People of all walks of life, conservative or liberal, rich or poor, can blog their concerns.

And the Powers That Be? They’d better listen.

Illinois legislators, listen up — if you can. Deaf Mom tells you why hearing aids should be covered and why they’re more important than (are you ready for this?) Viagra. I’ll second her motion; without my hearing aids, I wouldn’t be teaching. Thanks to my hearing aids, I’m earning a living, paying taxes, stimulating the economy, and staying politically active.

New York Times, you have officially alienated women who blog. Punditmom has one of the best responses to the article “Honey, don’t bother Mommy; I’m too busy building my brand.” I might have thought the article neutral had the author left out the condescending remarks. Describing a blog network presenter as having the “good-natured sass of a sorority social chairwoman” and suggesting that “… you, too, might get 28,549 views of your tutu-making tutorial!” Get real, NYT. I don’t post tutu-making tutorials. Rain barrels, maybe. So – what’s your point?

MOMocrats (Raising the next generation of blue) always have something valuable and current posted: Here’s a post discussing the status of women and the way that status affects a country’s peace, security, and prosperity.

Meanwhile, my inbox includes communication from Organizing for America (OFA) reminding me that it’s time to make phone calls and send emails to remind our representatives to get rolling on health insurance reform. My OFA neighbor asks:

“Could you also let your readers know that they need to pick up the phone and call their member of congress to vote “yes” for reform? There are members of Congress whose votes are movable if they hear from enough of us. If callers leave a message, they need to leave their name and address, so the member of Congress can verify that the caller is a constituent. There could be a vote in the House of Representatives before the week is out.”

Stick together, women and men of the blogging world. The mainstream media may disrespect us, but they’ll come around. They’ll have to.

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>Put insurance reform on your to-do list; it’s on mine.

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To-do list for the weekend:

Visit La Petite, pick up bunnies for break while she travels: her March Madness.
Take Amigo to high school basketball game; his March Madness.
Prepare for parent-teacher conferences: my March Madness.
Support my local chapter of OFA (Organizing for America) in the fight for health care and insurance reform.
Scale the mountain we call Family Laundry.
Handle the weekly load of student papers and gradebook updates.

That’s a long list. Why the inserts? Well, someone needs to take care of the bunnies while La Petite is gone. They need daily feeding. Amigo doesn’t drive, so he needs to ride the fan bus or get a ride to the play-off game.

Oh. You meant the OFA insert. Well, dear blog readers, there is strength in numbers. I can accomplish more and make a bigger difference by joining with a group of people with like philosophies. Together, we can have an impact on our elected officials, and in turn make an impact on the laws that govern our land.

On that note, here are a few notes that the Tea Partiers tend to ignore.

-> 8 — that’s the number of people every minute who are denied coverage, charged a higher rate or otherwise discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition.
-> 8 is also the number of lobbyists hired by special interests to influence health reform for every member of Congress in 2009.
-> The status quo isn’t working, and special interests are doing everything in their power to maintain that status quo.

For more information, go to Health Care by the Numbers, where they’ll feature a new number and fact set each day.

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