Hello! My name is "kipzoo". I have been a longtime member of dailykos from the beginning. I used to be a very active member of this site when I worked for Gov. Howard Dean when he was running for President. (Shoutout to P.H. of dailykos! We were there in New Hampshire together!!) Since then, I pretty much just check in everyday. Dailykos has been my go-to place for current events and politics. A day does not pass without me checking in here. I appreciate the diversity, community, intellectual thought, points of view and dialogue that occurs here. I learn so much by visiting this site everyday. That being said, I guess I am sharing this with all of you - sharing my "creds" - so that people will hear what I am sharing now.
I'm an activist behind the scenes. I volunteer. I donate money. I engage my family and friends. I also make a lot of phone calls. Today, I made a phone call to my Representative Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma 2nd District. I called the Mcallister office and spoke with "V". (I do need to disclose that I was a longtime resident of San Francisco, but have lived in Oklahoma for the last couple of years.)
Long story short, "V" was kind and answered all of my questions. I called Rep. Mullins office to speak about the ACA. She was engaging and shared "facts" with me. Unfortunately, she told me that the reason why Oklahoma is 47th in the nation on healthcare was because of the Indians! I was so offended that "V" said that Oklahoma has bad healthcare because of the Indians I kept asking her - "Really, really, really? It's because of the Indians!" In the end, she said please don't take this out of context, but yes, they don't take care of themselves. I told her that I see plenty of other races that are just as unhealthy. I think that the problem is larger than "Indians'!
I looked up on-line and just read that the OK Native American population is only 8.6%. Having moved from San Francisco to Oklahoma, we definitely noticed that people are...well, not healthy. Call it fat, call it no teeth, call it tired, call it working hard with no rewards. I'm not sure, but we definitely noticed that there is a HUGE difference between California and Oklahoma. However, I never thought it had to do with Indians (Native Americans)! In fact, the people we see are white for the most part! And where we live, the "Indian" population has free health care clinics everywhere.
"V" and I spoke for 30 minutes about the ACA. My family finally has affordable health care and I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't be taken away. Rep. Mullin has voted against the ACA everytime he has had the opportunity and I wanted to know where he stood on the law if he hated it so much. No plan. Nothing...nothing...nothing. Oh wait, "V" did say that Rep. Mullin will not take any of the good parts away from the ACA law.
I'm telling you, something is going on that confounded "V". "V" was very nice and we had an exchange of ideas, but she was stumped by every single fact I shared about the ACA! Eventually, she said that she is going to retire in 2 years and that she'll be taken care of and so she hasn't paid much attention to it. I felt sorry for her in a way. It made me think that the Boomers really don't care about us "young'uns".
Anyways. It's not about the "Indians". It's about fear... She was afraid that her healthcare would be more expensive and taken away. She had no answers for my family or the rest of us.
I haven't written in a long time and this diary may be a little convoluted (please be gentle), but I came to an understanding today that really disturbed me. Anyways....
