My father is a true Texas Republican -- so much so that he would cringe at me sharing his political beliefs so publicly as it is his God-given right to vote privately. He's not one of those "Tea Party" Republicans or "birthers" or any other kind of recently fabricated and over-publicized zealot. He's just a hardworking, intelligent man who happens to be conservative. As a tree-hugging, latte-sipping liberal myself, he's the reason Obama's "Red America, Blue America" speech resonated so loudly with me in 2004.
We disagree on, well, just about everything politically and we've actually had a pretty spirited debate on the merits of Ted Kennedy as a Senator. Here's where we can agree -- health care reform is not a red state issue or a blue state issue. But my God it is an American issue.
I'll save you the details of my family's health care story. It's similar to one that you've heard any number of times before if you've chosen to pay attention. The "Cliff's Notes Version" is that my father had a heart attack. He was insured, but unfortunately for him he had the heart attack too young to fit nicely onto those actuary charts that the insurance company keeps handy -- presumably next to the red stamp that says "Declined" for just about anything they can get away with not covering. I remember walking into the kitchen and finding my mother with her head in her hand, yelling into the receiver of the phone that a triple bypass is not an elective procedure.
It devastated my family in so many ways. Financially, the bills were almost laughable. The thought that our family had seven figures worth of anything...much less that we could pay it. My parents' credit score and retirement plans were ruined. His job was no longer just a job; it became the warden that held his health insurance. You see, he was now someone with a "pre-existing" condition, so his career belonged to them. You wouldn't want to have someone as versatile and skilled as my father make a decision on a job based on what's best for his family, his income or his happiness. Clearly Cigna knows best.
And he's one of the lucky ones. He received excellent treatment and survived.
Ask my father about Ted Kennedy and you most likely will not get the warmest of responses, but ask him about health care reform and you'll be there all day as he explains carefully why it has to change and why the "sons of bitches" that do not want it to change are "not worth spitting on". He and Senator Kennedy agreed on that one.
Senator Kennedy was a tireless champion of American health care. His views were "liberal", his state was Massachusetts and his name was Kennedy, and he wanted each and every American to have health care. Period. The fire and resolve in his voice when he discussed this issue matched my father's. They both knew that the existing system, which leaves so many American families literally devastated in the wake of any health-related incident, is one of the most un-American systems we still possess.
Now we have a choice. Does health care reform pass away as legend and a political footnote?
I am sad for my fellow Democrats today as they lose an icon and a leader. But I have been mourning them from the sidelines for weeks as I see so many of them apparently lose their spines. This is war for a better life for most Americans -- poor, lower income and middle class -- and apparently they have decided that they don't quite have the stomach for it.
I don't care how many people get paid to protest at the rallies, I want to see equal passion and determination from the speaker at the podium. You know, the one that is supposed to be in support of this reform?
I don't care what public or private or opt-out or choice clauses people try to disengage and frighten us with. I want the truth of the core issue repeated again and again. Not doing anything is killing us. I'll repeat it for those blue dogs that may have missed it. Not doing anything is KILLING us.
And I don't care what spin, fake statistic or new label the 24-hour news shows put on the fringe zealot minority -- I want to see Democrats and Republicans alike stand up and say that those are not Republicans. Those people are not the proud, conservative, valued people of the red states and it is both an insult to half of our population and a danger to our American political system that they are propped up as representing one of the parties that is helping to build this country.
My God. Is it that easy for the health insurance companies to make fools of both sides of the aisle?
As a small business owner in the south that never met Kennedy and has no formal tie to his family, I'll be wearing black this week. And if I can figure out what kind of ribbon I'm supposed to wear to show my support for this particular disease (there are just so many colors now you see) then I'll do that as well. I'll be showing my quiet respect for him, but more importantly for his issue of health care reform. I want to be asked about it. I want to discuss it. And at the end of that discussion I want for one more person to demand it.
Shawna Vercher is an executive, a social media strategist and a philanthropist. But for today she is focused on the job of being a mother and calls on that role as her qualified authority to speak on the issue of health care reform.
Find Shawna on Twitter on www.twitter.com/shawnavercher.