How Stupid Do They Think We Are? ~ by Ruth Ann Satchfield

Today is a very special day for me. It is a day when most people, especially those who have been needing insurance for years can get it. I have been one of the lucky ones. Except for a few years, I had insurance most of my life, either through my employer, my husband’s employer or my father’s.

About the year 2000 I lost a very special friend. She had a job and had worked most of her life. She also managed to raise two sons on her own. She was diagnosed with cancer. Since she did not have insurance, she had to apply to a hospital that would provide free care. By the time she got it, it was really too late. They tried to help her, and I was with her when they told her there was nothing more they could do. During that time, she had a granddaughter, and of course wanted to spend as much time as she could with her. Since she needed help, I would go over every day, and help her with the baby. I don’t need to tell you it was bitter sweet. She should have been able to spend many years loving that child, and teaching her so many new things. Instead she lost her life. Had she had insurance, she might have lived. That is what I have been thinking all the time we were pushing for President Obama to win, so we could have health care for most, if not all. I wish we could get it for everyone, so there would be fewer children growing up without their grandmothers, grandfathers, parents, brothers or sisters.

It is very difficult for me to understand the cruelty of political party, the Republicans to not want everyone to have health care. How can you vote for anyone who has no empathy for the people of this country?  Now that same political party has shut the government down, throwing many out of work, and denying services to others. For the Republicans to be partying and celebrating when they were shutting the government down, shows just how selfish and self-centered they are. Now it will be even longer for the injured veterans to wait before they can get proper medical care, because those registration services were closed. I hear they are blaming the Democrats, and President Obama for the government shut down, after they have been bragging to their supporters for months, that they were going to do just that.

How stupid do they think we are? If someone just wants to block government, they are not supporters of this country. If some one does not wish to solve problems and make things better for the citizens of this country, they do not belong in Washington, or any state capital. If you are voting for these destructive representatives, you are not being a good citizen. Before we go to the polls in the future, we need to ask ourselves what we want our country to be for our children. If all you want is for the 1% to get more wealth, whether the insurance industry, the banks or the energy companies with no regard for the destruction of the earth, vote Republican. If you want our country to be at peace in a world we protect, spending our tax dollars to achieve the greatness it once had, with education, health care and opportunities for all of our citizens, vote Democratic.

No political party is perfect, and I know we will never get everything we need, because in politics you must compromise. Just remember the selfish and childish behavior of our representatives on the right, and send them home. When I think of my friend, who would probably still be alive, if she had insurance, it can’t be fast enough for me!