TheBanyanTree: screaming at the market (slight. POLITICAL)

[Julie Anna Teague]

Normal beautiful day at the farmer's market this morning--very cool for 
late August, with gray skies, but the abundant produce glowed and 
overflowed with color.  All of those colors and flavors are so exciting 
to me, and when the vegetables are all lined up on our kitchen island, 
I love creating dinner.  What a fortunate life we lead, with money and 
time and opportunity to buy such delicious food.  We are among the 
blessed and I feel that as strongly here at the farmer's market as 
anywhere else on earth.  We wandered through, and at the back of the 
market was a table for health care issues, anti-Obama, with a middle 
aged woman working the table.  Husband and I had said many times, while 
watching the news, that if we were the person facing down an anti Obama 
health plan screamer, the first question we would want to ask them is, 
"Do YOU have health care?  Do YOU benefit from medicare?"  Just 
curious.  It's a lot easier to hate something new when you are the Have 
and not the Have Not.  I mentioned this to the husband, "We should ask 
her if she has health care."  He say, "Ok, let's go ask her."  Maybe a 
bad choice for my own health, in hindsight.

But we did.  Husband asked.  She said yes, she had health care.  I 
said, "But what about those who don't have health care."  She said, "I 
have health care because I work for it.  If others want health care, 
they can work for it too."  By this time an older dude and an older 
couple, also working the table, joined in.  Husband asked the older 
couple, "But you have medicare, isn't that socialized medicine?"  They 
said, "WE worked our whole lives and payed for it ourselves (a running 
theme with these folks)." Husband reminded them that WE are now paying 
in for THEIR care because the dollars they paid in are long used up.  
The system is nearly bankrupt.  They didn't pay in anywhere near the 
amount that they are now getting out.  I said, "What about those who 
can't work and get healthcare? Doesn't everyone deserve health care?"  
The first woman chimes in, "No, not everyone deserves health care.  If 
you don't work, or you smoke those cigarettes, or you eat bad food, 
then no, you don't deserve health care!"  Ok, now these people are 
freaking me out.  "What about children?" I ask, "Did you know that most 
of the uninsured are children?"  Older dude cannot come up with an 
answer for this and so he screams at me at this point, "YOU ARE A 
COMMUNIST SOCIALIST LIBERAL DO NOTHING!  IF YOU WANT HEALTH CARE THEN 
YOU SHOULD GET A JOB AND WORK FOR IT!"  "Well huh," I tell him, "Matter 
of fact I DO have a job.  I have had a job since I was 15 years old. 
And guess what?  I STILL care about OTHER people.  I care that OTHERS 
including many many CHILDREN do not have health care."  He screams at 
me, "THEN WHY DON'T YOU USE YOUR OWN MONEY TO HELP THOSE PEOPLE YOU 
THINK DESERVE HELP."  "Matter of fact, I do, by giving to charities as 
much as I can, as often as I can," I tell him.  He then screams a me 
"THEN YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION AMONG LIBERALS WHO DON'T GIVE A PENNY TO 
CHARITIES!"  Um, huh?  Wow.  This man is indeed crazy.  I picture him 
with a the little Hitler mustache that they've been putting on Obama.  
Then yet another 65 year old dude starts screaming at me about what a 
socialist- communist-such-n-such I am.  Husband steps in and repeats 
his question at some point, "Doesn't everyone deserve basic health 
care?"  "NO," the dude screams at us.  "Not everyone deserves health 
care!"  Husband is still engaging older couple in debate, but at this 
point I said, "I'm walking on, I have nothing to say to that except 
that apparently I care more than that about my fellow humans."  He 
screamed at me, "WALK ON SOCIALIST LIBERAL <something I couldn't make 
out> AND KEEP WALKING!"

I went over and sat down on a wall a little way away.  A little boy, 
mentally and physically handicapped, plopped down next to me, smiled up 
at me and said, "HI! I'm Wyatt!"  I said, "Hi Wyatt, I'm Julie."  His 
mom asked if he was enjoying the fiddle music behind us, and yes, he 
was.  I asked him if he'd heard the drum group on the other side and he 
nodded enthusiastically and started drumming on his knees.  Wyatt 
started to wander off and his mom had to corral him, and did so with 
all the patience in the world although you could tell it was a more 
than full time job.  I was still shaking.  I was thinking about kids 
like Wyatt.  Is he supposed to work for health care when he's an adult? 
  Women like Wyatt's mom, is she supposed to work a full time job for 
heath care?   Where does Wyatt go when she works?  What about people 
who are heavily discriminated against in the work force?  What about 
the handicapped?  What about people with chronic illness or disease?  
Everyone, basically, who didn't win the genetic lottery that the white 
guy who was screaming at me apparently won (in some respects)...what 
are they supposed to do for health care?  I don't sleep at night 
thinking about suffering people, suffering children.  I don't sleep at 
night thinking about the sanctimonious asses who screamed at me.  I 
don't sleep over a lot of things.  I'm feeling a lot of people's pain 
right now.


Julie