A letter for you senator

Go to your senator's homepage. Hit "Contact us" or whatever, and type something akin to thi, please:

I am writing to push for you to support the health care reform bill, and to push other Senators in Congress to support the bill as well. I hope that you can utilize this letter as one example of many our your constituents who elected you to the Senate. We believed in your ability to support our causes, but also because we believed that you would stand up for these causes firmly, vocally, and without reprieve.

There are several reasons that I find this bill to be important. First, there needs to be reform for pre-existing conditions. I think we can agree there. But if insurance companies must cover individuals, individuals MUST have health insurance. If your religion (e.g. Christian Science) or your culture (e.g. Amish) prevent you from seeking medical care, fine-- that is a case in which the government has no right to interfere.

But, in cases like mine, a personal mandate is necessary. I'm 22 years old, I just graduated college, I'm working two part-time jobs, and I'm in good health. Without a personal mandate, and knowing that I cannot be denied for a pre-existing condition, I can wait to get health care. Until I am sick, until I am pregnant, etc. Until then, I will go about my life not worrying, because, should there be an emergency of some sort, I must be cared for, even if I don't have health insurance. And the insured will pay for me, a cost reflected in their premiums.

Lastly, I do not think that a public option would kill the private sector. I went to Wellesley College, a private college in Massachusetts, which "competes" with public universities-- the difference between the two is that they offer different things. I wanted smaller classes, high interactions with professors, and a reserved campus. I was also willing to pay for for these private college amenities. These I would not have found had I gone to Boston University, though I have many friends who did attend BU and loved it. The same can be said for school/town sports, the post office/ UPS, and others. The same it will be for the public vs. the private option in health care. What's the phrase? "Different strokes for different folks." The same can and should be offered in health insurance.

Thank you so much for reading this letter. I hope that you will understand my deepest concern for the future of health care, since I will be under its hand for a long time to come. I hope that you will become an advocate for the health care reform bill (I know the ins and outs, and what passing it would mean-- I'm okay with most of the extras tagged on, too, if it means passing the reform).

Sincerely,

Your name here

This is something I did really quickly, but you get the idea. We NEED to pass health care reform. So PLEASE do this. Don't make me email each of you personally. I'll do it. Stupid Lieberman is going to switch to the Republicans side for this? Making the debate filibuster-proof? NOT OKAY.

I'll be lightning

Alright, so now that I've been embarrassed by Peyton who, though inspired by me (among others) to create a blog, now updates about 20x as often as I do.

I don't even remember what my last post was about. So let me do a quick update about the things I have going on/am currently interested in:

I'm a research assistant working on analyzing immigrant youth trainings in FL and CO.  I'm also going to Boston soon to do some other RA work for my old Wellesley prof.  Dreamactivist.org = awesome.

I bought her book (now available in paperback, unfortunately not at B&N) which is about the process by which people become motivated and involved in the politics.  I may even be a super dork and ask her to sign it.

Supreme Court ruled that apparently selling videos of dog fights and animal brutality and such is completely protected under the freedom of speech (US v. Stevens, look it up).  Scalia says, what about the people who like dogfighting? A NYTimes op-ed says, it's true, we may hate racists but we can't stop Nazis from marching or the KKK from spewing racist remarks.  I say, true, but we don't allow them to sell video tapes of the Holocaust or lynching.  Because that means they committed a crime in order to make the video, am I right? Mkay.  And for money? Ugh.  Sick.

Apple, Inc. cancelled membership in the US Chamber of Commerce over their position in environmental policy.  Whether you love them or hate them, Apple took a positive stand for the environment, and that makes me happy.  Even if they do plan obsolescence.  Which is bad for the environment.  Their Forbes number was pretty low, too, on the list of "green" businesses.  Donahue says the US Chamber supports climate action, but not the Markey-Waxman version.  Which is really stupid, because cap-and-trade favors large, multinational businesses who can afford to buy more permits.  Duh, did they even read the bill?

In other news, I hate words like "green" and "organic" and "sustainable."  So dumb, and no one even really knows what they mean, anyway. 

Sen. Boxer (man, I wish I lived in a cool state where my senators DID something) is telling the EPA to do something about the water issue in public schools.  Good for her.

This health care stuff has got to go.  Two-thirds of Americans support a public option and yet it's been voted down every time in committee.  Who do these people in Congress think they work for?  Tough call, since we voted them in but the pharmaceuticals pay for it.

Also, what exactly is the problem with an individual mandate?? We tell insurance companies they have to cover us, but then don't mandate that people buy it?  What then, would stop me, a healthy 22-year old, from going about my life without health insurance-- using the emergency room if I need to-- and waiting until I get cancer to buy insurance?  That would make everyone's premiums go up.  How do people not get that?  Sometimes I think this country is doomed to fail because of bad logic.

Alright, that's all for now.  Yeah, I know, boring.  But hey, maybe you learned something.  And if you read the comments on other blog posts you can learn something about me.  Other than that I'm a political junkie.

Oh, and Amazon dropped the price of their Kindle.  Which makes me more financially able to swing such a purchase, and yet I still have mixed feelings about my role in the death of the printed word.  Hmm.

OH!  I saw Whip It and now I'm obsessed with being a roller derby girl (even though I'm missing it in the QC on Oct. 21st!).  What should my name be?  Help a girl out!!! (I used three exclamation points, so you know I'm serious.)

Related articles:

• Supreme Court To Hear Animal Sex Fetish Case; "Crush Videos," Dogfighting Footage May Be Treated Like Child Porn (huffingtonpost.com)
• Green Inc.: Chamber of Commerce Chief Is Defiant (greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com)

A rant, one month later

Okay, I have really been slacking on the updates. But really I am so happily confused with life right now that I don't feel like processing anything by writing about it.

To compromise, I'm posting a letter/rant I wrote to a friend a month or so ago (before I went to CA). I just thought about some of the things again recently, so I'm just going to plagiarize myself from July. I'm too lazy to correct the grammatical errors, by the way, so get over it. And it's long. But, you don't have to read it. No one's making you. :) Here goes:

"Well hello!!!

Remember that email I was supposed to finish and send a long time ago? Yeah, it's a little irrelevant now. But I just watched Schindler's List for the first time, and it reminded me of that movie you were telling us about in DC, something about pajamas and WWII?

Anyway, I was really taken aback by Schindler's List and I thought I would write a few words here. Because I feel like you'd understand. So first of all, who the HELL out there could possibly believe that the holocaust was a hoax?!? SERIOUSLY. And quite frankly, holocaust really doesn't do those actions justice, so I'm just going to call it genocide/massacre/murder from here on out. When I was watching a movie about the massacres during WWII, I started thinking about two things. The first being when they sing during the Sabbath. I started thinking about books I have read ("Night," for one) when they discuss how many Jews lost faith during the genocide. Not that I blame them. How could a God let something like that happen? Continuously, for such minute reasons? I'm not a religious person or anything, but I respect people skeptically have faith. And while I understand that life experiences affect whether or not someone believes in God (the kind of house they were raised in, religious people they came in contact with, etc.), I do believe that in the end, a person's relationship with God is between God and that person. So if God does exist-- and if s/he/they exist, what kind are they,really?-- it makes me really sad that human actions have turned the most faithful to the most resentful. It's not even that some don't believe in God, just that some refuse to pray to Him because they hate Him for what happened then. I find it completely understandable, don't get me wrong, but it makes me sad to think that the case. The human species sucks. Period. We can fuck anything up.

The second thing I was thinking revolves around the end of the movie. I started crying when (I'm assuming you've seen this movie?) Schindler cries at the end, saying he could have done more, he could have saved one more. One, it's sad that during the horrific depictions of treatment of the Jews, that I didn't cry, yet I did when Schindler did. I like to think that it's because I respond to emotions and not violence, but maybe part of it is that violence has become so "Hollywood" that emotions are the only thing I can connect to at this point. Shoot a man-- who cares? Cry about it-- okay, there's a chance-- but they'd better be a good actor. That is SAD. Anyway. When Schindler starts crying at the end, I have to wonder about how things haunt people. Particularly the feeling that we could have done more. Can we be doing more? Just because I'm not witnessing the atrocities firsthand, I KNOW they exist. What am I doing? Will this haunt me when I finally understand how MY inaction led to the demise of others? Or worse, will it never haunt me, when it should?

On a lighter (not really) but current note, I have to vent quickly about something I woke up to on the radio today. My parents are very conservative, and they blast conservative radio shows all over the house through our intercom (and oh yes, my mom LOVES the O'Reilly Factor). So. I woke up to some guy talking about slavery, saying "it's slavery" over and over. So I wondered to myself, "what is? Am I missing some knowledge of world events?" And do you know what he was talking about? The frickin' HEALTH CARE BILL that's in Congress right now. The healthcare bill that will add around a 1% tax to those making over $350,000. That's how they're going to pay for everyone to get healthcare. And this guy was calling it slavery, because that means that people are working for other people without receiving the money for it. "That's slavery, it's slavery," he said. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? Are you seriously comparing a ONE PERCENT TAX INCREASE ON RICH PEOPLE to SLAVERY?!? He even said something about "that's what they did in the 18th century-- they brought them over on boats and made them work for someone else." THAT'S SLAVERY? Right, right. I am also a slave because I volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Right? I mean, if that's ALL that slavery is (or, the most IMPORTANT part of slavery), I'm working for someone else and not getting paid. That makes me a slave. Wow. I had no idea my life was so hard. Or rather, what were those crazy slaves complainging about? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? It has nothing to do with suppression of rights, freedom, happiness, identity, respect. Nah, it's all about the MONEY. If we had paid them but still treated them like second-class citizens they wouldn't be slaves, and there would be no problem. Right? Because who cares about anything but money? UGH.

Okay. I think I'm done for now. I just thought of you, and decided I would subject you to my 3am ramblings. I hope you are doing well. Where are you? What are you up to? And what bothers you about the world/hollywood/humans/

yourself/republicans? You know I'm always available for a vent/sarcastic email. Hopefully I'll have something funny to write about soon. I'll let you know. As for me, I'm a graduate still working with replyforall (though barely, based on my hours) and can't find a job. Wahooo. And I'm being extremely lazy about it. But I'm having a summer filled with mountain biking, kayaking, whitewater rafting, and rock climbing. So that's definitely a highlight. :) Write back sooonnnn! (And, question from the first email I wrote you, what happened with the student at Colby? Did anything get resolved? Satisfactorily?)

Mish you. <3,>