Reflections on Katrina's anniverary and Healthcare (by Sister Octavia Phillips)

by Octavia Phillips

I mean what is really going on out here? Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Ted Kennedy was not an important figure in the Senate, and scarily, he may have been one of the best men on Cap. Hill, but the anniversary of Katrina is upon us and everything is about Teddy? If you all REALLY want to honor "Ready Teddy" how about you get the healthcare reform package out of the hands of Max Baucus and the repubs who want to damn us all to the firing squads in hell??!?! Let me get this straight, the last committee that the bill goes through is the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Baucus (who should've just switched seats with Arlen Spector) and his crew of yellow bellied conservatives including 3 repubs (Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Mike Enzi of Wyoming) and 3 dems (Baucas from Montana, Kent Conrad from N. Dakota, and Jeff Bingaman from New Mexico)...do any of the 6 states I just named know the FIRST DAMN THING about impoverished living conditions or the situation of the working class people of color in this country? On top of that, to add insult to our injured asses, between Baucas, Grassley, Snowe and Enzi, about $6 millon in campaign contributions has come from the healthcare industry....and this is the last committee responsible for getting out a firm healthcare bill to take care of the lives of the 50 million uninsured adults and children? No wonder Teddy said let me get outta here!!! I mean as if the single-payer idea wasn't already extinct, these bastards are going to make sure it gets removed from the history books! I don't understand how this shit came to be...this makes me want to go back to calling Barack by his white Harvard name..."Barry"....My grandfather is suffering from congestive heart failure, and it seems he is in the hospital more than he is at home....after serving in WWII and working for 30+ years, he is now facing the last years of his life and the hospital staff had the audacity to tell my mother and aunt today that because he seems to return to the hospital more and more now with little progress, they may want to consider hospice care, and that way he wouldn't have to keep coming back to the hospital everytime....are yall serious? Is the hospital short of heart medicine or something? Are sick people being rerouted to another location now? If he is sick why the hell would you recommend that he stay at home? And what the fuck were your parents doing while my grandfather was fighting the Germans in WWII? I can guess they had their fat white asses sagging over a bart stool in a pub somewhere....now you want to tell my family when its time for my grandfather to stop coming to the hospital? I wish I had been there...I woulda set that floor on fire...how dare these corporate militias try to ban together and take from us and the 50 million uninsured our basic right to life and well being! Who are you Max Baucas that you should have the power to determine if a poor janitor in North Philly can get the care they deserve or if they are forced to settle for inadequate care strictly because they are a poor janitor from North Philly....MEANWHILE, people who actually care about community progression like Mumia sit on death row....and you mean to tell me BARRY, you are sitting down to beer and light conversation at the WH with crackers and colored elitists....you know what JT, this shit makes me want to pack a bag and say HOLD UP TEDDY!!! HOLD THAT CASKET I'M COMING TOO!!!!