By Vicky Dickson
Columnist
I’m still basking in the afterglow of the N.C. Literary Festival. What an opportunity it was, to be in the same room with a celebrity like John Grisham, listen to literary lions Allan Gurganus and Elizabeth Spencer, learn about the blues from Bill Ferris and Cuba from Lars Schoultz, and be introduced to up-and-coming prodigies like Wells Tower. With apologies to Tar Heel fans, I’ll take a literary festival over a Final Four tournament every time.
I’m also still reflecting on Anna Deavere Smith’s tour de force, “Finding Grace and Kindness in a Winner-Take-All Society†and Elizabeth Edwards’ candid interview about her book Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of Facing Life’s Adversities.
Though varied in content, the two events were similar in that they were both intended to be more than entertainment. Smith employed her amazing acting skills to evoke the Rev. Peter Gomes, Ann Richards and a girl who lost her family to the 1993 Rwandan genocide, in an effort to inspire the cultivation of grace and kindness in her audience. Edwards wrote her book, and spoke about it, as a way of helping others develop the kind of resilience that has gotten her through her life’s many trials.
I’m further reflecting on the opportunity to follow Smith’s and Edwards’ inspiration in responding to another event that took place over the weekend, the Tea Party Protest march on Washington. Though it’s tempting to dismiss this kind of protest as right-wing craziness, if those of us who care passionately about health care reform don’t speak up, we run the risk of letting the nay-sayers dominate the news. If we don’t point out the inconsistencies in this group’s lack of concern over the deficits caused by the Bush tax cuts and war in Iraq, and their apparent wish to save only the Terry Shiavos and those unborn babies fortunate enough to have excellent health insurance, we let them frame the debate- and potentially sway the millions of Americans who haven’t made up their minds about health reform.
We need to share our stories of watching a close friend suffer the death of her uninsured 60-year-old sister two months after a lung cancer diagnosis. Or a long-term employee being quoted an individual rate of $3,200 a month from Blue Cross. Of waiting 12 hours for an elderly, demented parent to get treatment in an emergency room, and of making the decision to sign that parent out against medical advice when he faced the prospect of spending all night on a gurney in the corridor. When the commentators insist that emergency rooms ensure that no American is really without access to health care, we need to point out how much that sounds like “Let them eat cake.â€
I believe many Americans are undecided about health care reform because they don’t appreciate the extent of the unnecessary pain and suffering caused by our current system. I also believe they are compassionate enough to be revolted by the 18,000 American deaths that are estimated to be caused every year by a lack of health insurance.
Health reform will not be either or inexpensive. Achieving it will surely require grace, kindness and, most of all, resilience on the part of Americans who realize the crucial role it will play in our nation’s future. Elizabeth Edwards and Anna Deavere Smith came to the N.C. Literary Festival to inspire those qualities in us. It’s up to us to take up the torch.
Vicky Dickson’s writings on literature and local authors appear each month in MILL — The Carrboro Citizen’s monthly arts magazine.
Many of the 9/12 protesters do not support Bush or thought the Terri Shiavo situation was anything but a mess that her family and only her family needed to be taking care of. That is a mischaracterization at best. Every one of the dozen or so people I know who took off for DC protested against Bush and the war as much as they are protesting against Obama’s rising deficits.
As someone who has lived in the UK and experienced their system, it’s better than nothing, but there will be long waits and large costs involved. To take a cholesterol test, I was not allowed to make a doctor’s appointment but had to go to the emergency room and wait for 3-4 hours. There were some people there pretty sick who were waiting. The elderly man you mention will not necessarily be moved to the front of the line under a government-centered program. In addition, many protesters have ideas for other ways of providing insurance (tiered plans, crossing over state lines, portability so insurance isn’t tied to one’s job) that would solve the problem of pre-existing conditions or skyrocketing individual insurance plans, since the primary reason someone would find themselves without insurance is because they have to change plans because they changed jobs or moved to a different area or state. Keeping the same coverage would fix that. (One reason the cost of private insurance can be so high is that doctors and hospitals are underpaid for Medicaid and Medicare services and shift the cost to private insurance. If anything, that will only get worse under Obama’s proposed plan. Say what you will about private insurers, if you are not going to start from scratch with a single payer plan they are necessary, and Australia for one begs people to go on the private plan to save the government coffers, even paying 40% of people’s private premiums. Australia found that the private insurers would go out of business otherwise, costing the public plan billions more than had ever been anticipated or budgeted for.)
All that said, I also enjoyed the literary festival and actually chose not to go to DC so that I could see all these wonderful writers.