Today is Friday the 13th, how fitting. The year is 2009, and a black man is President of the United States who won his right to the Oval Office by being inclusive and never showing anger. Very wise, but I'm not trying to win anything by consensus today.

The comment that follows this introduction is the response I wrote after my head exploded when I read what I feel are tired, old objections to healthcare reform on a post at another site. I removed it because a so-called progressive came along to say I was an embarrassment to that site and to progressives everywhere because I didn't want to be open on the subject, the whole dance on their graves thing (figurative language), and oh my! I said the "f" word. I say "so-called progressive" b/c the person is more or less anonymous and who knows if anonymous people are ever what they claim to be.

"Waah. You're a progressive and you don't want anyone to disagree with you, and you used a four-letter word." Puhleeze!

I'm still angry, but because I respect the website founders and actually agree with the site's code of conduct and philosophy that we should practice civility, I removed my comment of my own volition and also because the site is nonpartisan but some people assume otherwise. And because, you know, if they let me, one of the black girls, get away with ripping folks a new one, somebody may accuse them of being racist or practicing "reverse discrimination" or something. I'm not being snarky. This really is America, the land of the free and the home of I'm offended.

Again, it's my opinion not theirs. It's not a racial issue. It's the way I feel about appearances in the USA sometimes and political correctness.

I'm ranting here where no one will read what I think and how much my use of colorful language on this issue is part of what I think because their goal of giving women a place to shout in white gloves so they are examples of polite discourse is a worthy one. If people say whatever the hell they want however they want to say it, feelings of others dismissed, soon enough we'll all be yelling the "N" word and screaming "You crazy fat bitch!" Or "You skinny heifer." I won't bulldoze the dream of peace on the planet.

And yet, I'm still steaming about the healthcare reform objections and the low-ball complaint, so much so that I don't give a flying eff if the cloaked progressive thinks she or he has won a damned thing by my removing the original comment. (see how you lessen the "f" word's power to show outrage when you disemvowel it)

This re-post here is for anyone who understands the difference between passionate objection and Imus's glib use of nappy-headed hos, for anyone who thinks we all have the right sometimes to stick our fingers in our ears and rant "la-la-la-la-not-listening-to-your-bullshit" especially if most of the time we walk on eggshells and wear the hell out of a pair of ladies white gloves.

A Deaf Ear on This One

I'll admit that I didn't even bother to contemplate your conservative objections, and anyone who comes along and wants to wag a finger at me for my stubbornness and lack of openness on this one, wag your finger until you die. I'll dance at your funeral.

I've just gotten to the point on the healthcare issue that I tune out objections to overhauling the system in anyway that favors healthcare insurance companies or the status quo. They are a scam, plain and simple. You realize it as soon as you have to pay for health insurance out of your own pocket or get a job with a company that claims to have health care insurance but has a sham of healthcare.

Like life insurance companies, heathcare insurance companies are making a bet. They're betting you that you'll stay healthy and you're betting that you won't. When you actually get seriously ill, suddenly you're in Vegas where the house always wins.

I don't buy anything that says "Oooh big bad government will control who gets care and who doesn't. " Who gets care and who doesn't is already out of most people's control. The only people who can be sure they will get care are the wealthy because when push comes to shove they don't need the insurance company. They can pay for the $10,000 test themselves if they have to.

Furthermore, I doubt the government is going to force wealthy people or anyone else who has access to good healthcare to accept care only from a government source or take away their right to choose care. Anyone who's not sweating over healthcare now will not be sweating over it under a revamped system. There are always choices for people who have resources.

The only thing I think that can make you see where I'm coming from is for you to get older, have a health issue that causes a medical insurance company to reject paying your bills, have them label you high risk in some area that causes you to not be able to find another company to carry you or if they do to carry you at a high rate you can't afford and then refuse to pay for most services, even tests to find out what's wrong because they've figured out how to classify everything, even the common cold, as a pre-existing condition. Then, on top of that, you need to lose all visible means of support. Maybe then you'll get why I'm deaf on this subject.

I know for a fact my last insurance company didn't even bother to contact my previous physician when it refused to pay for tests and yet they sent out notices saying it was a pre-existing condition and that was not true. So, they've fucked up my records to boot.

I don't have the money, time, or energy to fight them about that. And thanks to policies that protect companies more than people, it would be a waste of time if I did. The only thing I have to be grateful for is that I dealt with jackasses when I had the money to pay the bill myself.

You guys still don't get it. Ultimately, people don't give a damn about all your whining about government interference when they look around and see people they love and sometimes themselves dying.

It's why state rights didn't hold up in the effort to stop Civil Rights. It's too abstract a concept for people facing concrete horror. Who cares about state rights when folks are getting murdered? Who cares about the threat of more bureaucracy when the current bureaucracy already has them by the balls? You can try to convince us that we'll lose something, but real life is saying otherwise. You can't lose what you don't have and for many people who earn too much for Medicaid and haven't been working long enough for Medicare, that's access to healthcare of any type.

You talk about women and choices and their bodies. Let me ask you this. For those of you going on and on about rights of the unborn and declaring women shouldn't have a say so about their own wombs, why is it you don't give a damn about the born, people walking around breathing who've been given a death sentence by the current healthcare system? You weep over babies you can't see while damning the people you do see. Very similar to saying you love God who you can' t see while hating the brother or sister you do.

This topic is no longer an issue of fear of government controlling healthcare. It's life and death, simple as that.

Nordette's personal blog is WSATA. Also @ Twitter and The Urban Mother's Book of Prayers.