For my Daddy

And the health care debate begins again... I am beyond mad right now. People are just so...so...MEAN! I will warn you right now, don't "go there" with me if you don't want me to go there, because I will. So there.

Where did all of this nastiness in politics come from? Why do we have people booing an active duty soldier because he is gay? Are his sacrifices worth less because he is gay? Anyone who booed this soldier should be sent to Afghanistan. Then the cheering over someone dying due to lack of health care? Are you kidding me? That really upsets me, because it is really happening on a daily basis. Let me explain one thing, right now: no one expects free health care. Please get that through your head.

Now here is where I tell you WHY health care is so important to me. I had a great dad. He was far from perfect, but he was a great dad. He took me roller skating, to feed the ducks, to the beach, he always had time to DO things with me. We were far from rich, but he always worked. He had to quit school when his dad got cancer, so he was not the most educated man, but he always, always worked. When he was 21 he got a tooth infection that spread to his heart. He almost died, but ended up coming back. They even read his his last rites, but he had something else in mind. All was well until he was 43 or so. He was WORKING when  he had a sudden heart attack. He had no insurance, but he went to the ER anyway. Due to his prior heart problems, his body took the heart attack hard and he got sicker and sicker, and thinner and thinner. He kept working though. In early 1996 he was so sick that he had to stop to catch his breath to cross a room, and he kept passing out when he tried to walk. Obviously working was no longer an option. Because he worked, he couldn't get Medicaid. Because he couldn't get Medicaid, he went to the ER a lot. Finally when they put the pacemaker in, he knew he would not improve enough to return to work this time, so he applied for Social Security Disability. He was denied the first time within a couple of months, and the second time just ten days after he died. He died on January 2, 1997 at the age of 45.

Now, what I want is for one of you people who are screaming about the lazy people who don't want to work and take care of themselves, what could he have done differently? He didn't ask for this heart condition to pop back up in his 40's. He thought it was done with. He also didn't have the approximate million dollars that his treatment cost. I did what I could, but I was just 23 with a child.

I really am glad that some people have it all figured out. Good for you. Life is so planned that you will never have an issue with your health that you can't handle. You have plenty of money to cover any medical expenses that may come up. But I want you to remember, before you hit "post" on that hateful message about lazy people who want free healthcare, how hard my dad worked his entire life and how much it hurt me to let him go. He was cheated out of his full life, and I was cheated out of my dad.

These people who are dying are not just numbers. They are fathers, mothers, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and children. I have seen people called "retarded" (oh how I hate that word!), lazy, stupid, and so on. I can assure you that my dad was non of those. My dad would have turned 60 this year. He will never get the benefit of the Social Security that he paid into, nor did he see his daughter grown up, and he missed out on his grandson growing up. He is a great grandfather now. He was so looking forward to new years eve 1999. He was just sure something big was going to happen.

I just want each of you to remember that for each issue that is discussed there are actual people that are impacted by each issue. Don't be so quick to judge. But for the grace of God, it could be you next. I don't want you to learn by going through the same thing that I did. Just please discuss the issues and put away the grade school name-calling.