Immortalist Manifesto

Yesterday, quoting a letter from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “Passing health care is the great unfinished business of our country.” She added, “That is, until today.” (NPR.org).

Last summer President Obama kicked off a series of nationwide health care reform rallies with a visit to the Twin Cities. Granted, he was playing to the home team; the light rail could have been renamed the Obamamobile that sticky Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis.

I am not a nationalist. I damn near defected during the Bush administration. But I got choked up singing The Star-spangled Banner that afternoon in the Target Center, surrounded by doctors, nurses and concerned citizens who, like me, are worried for their generally healthy–paradoxically Republican–family members who are getting priced out of health coverage.

Standing at the podium in rolled-up shirtsleeves, Obama said: “I am not the first president to take on this issue. But I am determined to be the last.”

He said many other things, including clarifying statements disputing death panels and all the other ridiculous propaganda of big-business marionettes. But it was that single, electrifying statement that I retained. It was that statement that I repeated to my 24-year-old brother last week when he told me his wife had been denied coverage by yet another major insurer.

I’m sure this bill is flawed. I don’t expect perfection from my elected officials. What I do expect is a sincere step in the right direction. And so today, yet again, I’m glad for how I voted.