Today my sister informed me that the tumor removed from my mother's breast was indeed malignant, but it looks like the malignancy was contained. Anyone who has survived cancer knows small miracles make all the difference in survival.
Like Elizabeth Edwards, she is one of the lucky ones. She has health insurance; she received proper care and treatment; she may still survive for many years, albeit in fear. We are not--yet--thousands of dollars in the hole and unable to pay up. Millions of other Americans are not so lucky. And this is no small part of why the approval ratings for the President and Congress have hit fresh lows. Yet there is hope...
As Stephanie Horne already mentioned, Elizabeth Edwards has been an inspiration. And as Elizabeth Edwards went through her terrible battle, it changed the Edwards family, and in turn it changed millions of Americans who empathized with their struggle, including myself. Yet instead of giving up, John spoke his message louder to the point of being self-sacrificing. The Edwards family has taught me that it isn't about me; it isn't about my mother; it is about the people who don't have a voice, who are too poor to even afford healthcare, so how are they ever going to fight for themselves in the halls of Congress?
This goes far beyond cancer; this goes to the heart of the joke we call healthcare in our nation. Over the past several decades, the American people have formed organizations to research cures, to fight in the battles, but the war is healthcare. If we cannot give basic care to our veterans, our elderly, our children, our parents, then we are no better than animals.
I know this diary, even if recommended, is going to fade into the virtual dust eventually, but I hope that, more than anything, you take away from it a sense of urgency in solving this problem, in putting pressure on your civil servants, or--if you are a civil servant--in doing everything you can to provide the basic human care our tax dollars provide you to the people who need it most.
If your friend, your sibling, your parent, your neighbor gets cancer and they do not have healthcare... or not enough healthcare... or healthcare that won't approve their claim for a new lung to replace the cancerous one that no longer functions, then we have all failed them.
This isn't about Republican or Democrat any more, and regardless of who the Democratic candidate is in 2008, this problem needs to be rearing its ugly head in the national dialog far past November 2008. There is hope, but only if we do something.