I used to know a guy who posted here, snafubar. He's me. I've been banned. I'm not a sock puppet, this is not a troll effort nor an effort to subvert the system. I just wanted to tie up one loose end.
Snafubar used to talk about his neighbor, he wrote a diary called "What are you afraid of" that can still be found here.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
That neighbor died two weeks ago Thursday. I attended his funeral a week ago today.
It was a day that will be hard for me to forget.
My dad died of throat cancer. Got cancer in 1996; they cut out half his tongue. kept smoking and four years later they got the rest of his tongue, which he lived without for his last four years. Died after drinking a half gallon of gin through a feeding tube.
The neighbor across the street and down the road knew my dad; he ran a vending machine business. We talked politics. It was fun at first, but it became too much for me - my anger got the better of me then, too. But he was imperturbable. He was Catholic; but he believed in End Times eschatology - that's why he said he couldn't vote for Obama. (longer story where I asked him if Obama was the antichrist, then why wouldn't my neighbor want him in power to fulfill prophecy...that got weird). He was a birther...
By the time the ACA had become law, I'd already been banned from this place. You see, I always met up with this neighbor on his front porch because that's' where my mailbox was, down the street. This night, the only time I remember, he came to my back porch.
He was pale with fear.
The "Death Panel" nonsense had gotten into his head, and he was sure - (by then he'd already lost his bladder, already lost his colon and much of his large intestine) - he was sure Obamacare would be his end.
Imagine as I offered condolences to his wife and brother at the funeral, the voices in my head that wanted to ask how he had evaded the death panels.
But I was sad. I cried. I cried because this man lived in fear of the president who passed the one law that probably did keep him alive; because before the ACA, his insurance company could have cancelled his policy and he would have had little recourse. As it was, he survived almost seven years of "The Usurper".
I may post a photo in an update to this diary, or in a comment. His work mule, a 1989 Mercury station wagon has a bumper sticker on the left side of the tailgate:
"Where's the birth certificate?"
http://i246.photobucket.com/...
His newest car was a 1995 Mercury. He was a mechanic for vending machines, but he did cars. But he couldn't do electronics; so he could only work on cars from about '95 back. Claimed once that the EPA was a fraud because his pride and joy, a 1967 Mercury Montego SS with a 427 Cubic Inch V8 got 30 MPG on the highway.....
You see now what my problem was. "Such are promises, all lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest" - Simon and Garfunkel, 1970 - The Boxer.
I just needed to tie up this loose end.
I just become morose at the fear that is imbued in some people based on things they either just don't understand because they can't, or won't understand because that's the only way they can hang on to what they want to believe.
This man leaves behind a wife, a business that is sure to be sold off, and a daughter who was one of the most quiet and happy people I knew. They were all happy; I guess that's the upside to religion. This family really did roll with the "God's plan" mentality, and through all that they had been through, didn't really seem that uptight. Certainly never anywhere near the level of rage and anger I embody.
I can't say I envy them, though. Their happiness and contentment was demonstrably a product of denial and indifference. My anger was and is always a product of trying to make the difference so denial is no longer necessary; anger at the indifference that allows the stupid and gullible to be pulled into the meat grinder all hoping they're going to get to eat hamburgers at the cookout.
Nope, Obamacare death panels did not kill my neighbor.
But if you asked him, despite the statistical fact that the most common cancer among smokers is bladder cancer, it wasn't the cigarettes, either. Something in the water....
(My grandmother lived her for 75 years to be 94, drank from a well. My next door neighbor lived to be 95 drinking from the well next to it.....neither one a smoker though....I'm sure there's another explanation)
My anger and outrage is no better than it was before, so I'll be going now.
I think Obama saved us - twice - and I am not sure Hillary is our answer. I've been on board with Bernie since he first indicated he might be amenable to running. I hope he wakes up the indifferent and the passive and keeps the momentum going; maybe even pushes for more.
And if you're smoking - all I have are stories of dead people who never made it to 70, many of whom lived their last decade in agony with a lot of health care co-payments and long term outpatient care.
I really don't think it's the water.