A reader writes:
It is truly frustrating to read some of the emails regarding the Coakley/Brown race. I had to control my anger as I read the one entitled "Two Scenarios." For so many professional and amateur commentators, politics is about gaming out scenarios, but for ordinary citizens, it is about real lives.
For the past few months, I have listened to some progressive radio talkers and callers tear apart Obama - some even calling for revolution (whatever that is) - because he is not liberal enough for them. In particular, some of these people cite the lack of a public option as a reason to chuck HCR altogether and start again at some amorphous point in time. To them, I say stop pretending to help because you are actually hurting people. To the GOP, I would say nothing because they do not listen and do not care.
For my family, we desperately want pre-existing condition reformed so we can have some comfort that our type 1 diabetic daughter will never be denied coverage due to her disease. It was a disease that none of us saw coming. It was a bolt out of the blue.
Through no fault of her own, she was struck by this disease, and until there is a cure, she must have lifelong, life-sustaining medical care which costs thousands of dollars. In fact, we are less than a year into it and have spent thousands of dollars already. What so many of the talking heads seem to forget is that all of us are one diagnosis away from a total seismic shift in every aspect of our lives. For my family, our lives will never be the same.
I care for my daughter around the clock, and while it is an easier disease than some others to manage, it is exhausting and worrisome. The very least we deserve - my child deserves - is to know that she cannot be denied the coverage that she needs to live. In fact, I bet just about everyone of every political stripe would agree with that concept. Yet, in this paralytic political system we have devolved into, no one has addressed the issue. If it is not addressed now, then it simply will go on for another fifty years when another politician with either guts or naivete dares to touch it.
I am sick of tea baggers. I am sick of those liberals that have made the perfect the enemy of the good. I am sick of people who want to send a message to Washington. If you have a loved one who can benefit from healthcare reform, then stop the politics and support this President's call for reform.